Hello all, I have a smallish electric ATV (Venom E-Grizzly) with a 48V 1500W, Hall sensored BLDC motor. This machine has IMO poor low speed control in that it starts abruptly and lunges forward to about 40% of the top speed i.e. there is no way to drive it slowly other than abrupt start/stopping. The vendor was of no help so it occurred to me that a replacement, better behaved, controller might be the answer. Amazon has a number of such units but it is almost impossible to get any detailed information on them (they typically seem to come with no wiring instructions and even with no lead labeling).
It then occurred to me that a good PicAxe project might be locate an appropriate ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) and drive it with a PicAxe PWM output. There is an old thread on this forum on the topic which mentions ESCs available from ST electronics (the STM 32G431) that looks interesting but it has to be programmed with firmware using an IDE from ST which I don't have and, it appears to not have a motor reverse capability so I dunno if it is suitable. The PDF also mentions only connecting it to a Li battery but I could find no input voltage specification. It does specify 40A max motor current so I guess at 48V that would equate to about 1900W(?). I also saw nothing that would indicate what speed range it would operate at, more specifically, will it drive a motor at v low speeds and ramp smoothly up to top speed??
The PDF is at:
https://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/user_manual/group1/86/3f/45/e0/12/18/47/85/DM00564746/files/DM00564746.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00564746.pdf
Anyhow, was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with this type of thing. I would appreciate any suggestions and info on any similar projects the PicAxe community may have undertaken.
It then occurred to me that a good PicAxe project might be locate an appropriate ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) and drive it with a PicAxe PWM output. There is an old thread on this forum on the topic which mentions ESCs available from ST electronics (the STM 32G431) that looks interesting but it has to be programmed with firmware using an IDE from ST which I don't have and, it appears to not have a motor reverse capability so I dunno if it is suitable. The PDF also mentions only connecting it to a Li battery but I could find no input voltage specification. It does specify 40A max motor current so I guess at 48V that would equate to about 1900W(?). I also saw nothing that would indicate what speed range it would operate at, more specifically, will it drive a motor at v low speeds and ramp smoothly up to top speed??
The PDF is at:
https://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/user_manual/group1/86/3f/45/e0/12/18/47/85/DM00564746/files/DM00564746.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00564746.pdf
Anyhow, was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with this type of thing. I would appreciate any suggestions and info on any similar projects the PicAxe community may have undertaken.