When we got involved in university projects, supporting students in all kinds of fields, it became very clear that students need a different version of the popular VESC 6. A Unit being a lot more affordable while still giving access to all the features of the upcoming VESC 6 MKVI. This seemed very challenging, since a big portion of the cost is buried in the logic stage itself.
We made the miracle happen in early 2022. The Idea of a new range of VESC controllers was born & the ideas were prototyped very soon after. It listens to the name VESC 6 EDU & it’s a smaller, less powerful educational version of the bigger brother, the VESC 6.
It soon became clear that the VESC 6 EDU will become a very capable motor controller that can be used for a lot more than just educational purpose! However, we still call it the VESC 6 EDU though.
The VESC 6 EDU is so special, since it really features everything you need to drive motors as perfectly as a VESC 6 MKVI does.
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Silent HFI
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Sensorless position control
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Scripting and customized firmwares
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3 phase shunts
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Phase filters
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Individual gate drivers (no DRV or similar driver chipset)
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Hibernation
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2 x UART port
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Automatic sensor voltage switching via software
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Sensor port, comm port, PPM/PWM input, CAN, USB, SWD, 2x UART
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High precision SPI wired IMU on request available.
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NRF dongle prepared for seamless APP connectivity.
The only difference is the fact that a VESC 6 MKVI has much more power output capabilities, using 12S capable hardware. The VESC 6 EDU is limited to 6S Li-Ion voltage & around 50A peak output power, making it very suitable for robotics, drones, RC-Cars, & so many other applications using 6S/50A. This amount of output power is often more than enough & therefore the SIX EDU is the perfect match for that!
The VESC 6 EDU would even drive a smaller 6S E-Skate effortlessly, perfect for super lightweight lower power commuter board setups, pocket rockets or whatever you can envision around a cheap 6S Lipo setup.
Whilst in the background Benjamin Vedder made huge progress on the scripting & customized firmware features of VESC-Tool, we tried to push the VESC 6 EDU program forward as fast as humanly possible.
Now that it becomes clear that VESC-Tool will become the worlds first E-Drive operating system being available for the general public it is important to give the general public access to low cost hardware & more educational content.
Benjamin Vedder is very happy with the outcome of the VESC 6 EDU hardware & tried his very best to kill the first prototypes using ultra low inductance motors & other torture methods for the hardware. All EDU prototypes survived these tests, which we initially didn’t expect. The robustness of the design surprised us all.
The VESC 6 EDU has some nice additional features. It uses individual gate drivers & can therefore spin the motors at very high ERPM rates. We tested 120K ERPM but that was not the limit. It can probably go as high as 150K ERPM, depending on settings & the motor used.
It features a dual XT60 input for battery connections, so that you can bridge two VESC 6 EDU into a parallel array.
Size: Size always matters & therefore we tried to squeeze the design on the smallest possible footprint without compromising on connectivity using the same JST PH connectors found on all other VESC controller variants. The VESC 6 EDU is only 44 x 56mm in size with components only on one side. This design makes it easy to strap this tiny unit to any kind of heat sink or use the bare PCB in shrink tube if the power output is not too demanding. The bare PCB with connectors weighs as little as 35g and is therefore perfect for drone builds of all kinds.
The VESC 6 EDU was also designed to be as low cost as possible. Depending on your project, you might only need the base PCB or you might need the extra heat sink. You can add the heat sink feature during checkout or simply go with the cheaper PCB-Only variant.
We hope you will all enjoy this tiny but very capable new VESC family member!
(timestamp 4:20 and onwards) I never had a good experience with regular HFI, so this looks game-changing!
