Ok, here’s my take. @tuckjohn the TLDR, is that you have unusually high iron losses. Your motor RPM doesn’t seem that high, but your ERPM is very high compared to most builds, because you’re running 10 pole pair motors instead of 7 pole pair.
This build is on 265kv, and at 12s that’s only around 10,500 loaded motor rpm. Not crazy high.
Although iron losses will be higher on 20 pole motors vs 14 pole, because higher ERPM. With 20 pole motors you have 42% more ERPM vs 14 pole, at any speed.
- 7 pole pairs * (265kv * 50.4v * 0.95) = 88,817 ERPM
- 10 pole pairs * (265kv * 50.4v * 0.95) = 126,882 ERPM
126,882 ERPM is technically possible for VESC, but it is higher than most of us run.
Switching losses and iron losses could both be significant factors on your rig’s inefficiency. Important to note that iron losses are not linear. At high speed they square, so they increase more than you would expect. Based on the fact that you said these motors are heating up like crazy, this tracks with my theory.
My theory also tracks with your observation above. You’re battling iron losses, not resistive losses, so lowering amps doesn’t do very much.
It will be easy to test this / fix this, but it will cost $$$:
If you acquire 4x 6395/6380 motors at 265kv, everything about your build would stay the same, but you’d immediately lower your ERPM by 42% (and thus iron losses would be much less, and you wouldn’t overheat anymore).
It sucks to spend the money, but that’s what I would do. I don’t think you’re going to be happy long term a with a race board that hits thermal throttle at 85c and let’s others pass you.
For shits and giggles, you could take a video screengrab of VESC tool with your motors spinning up to full speed under no load (wheels removed). It would be interesting to see how many watts you’re pushing just to keep the motors at top speed.
I hope that’s all helpful. If I’ve botched something I welcome corrections.