Jure M's Posts (2)

Sort by

Upgrading skywalker X8

A while ago I posted about ESC I was making with FOC motor control.

Now it was time to mount it on something. In the video propellers are 7 inch plastic, I decided that it is too dangerous to have three 15 inch CF props spinning in confined space where I have nowhere to run should something go wrong.

Video shows arming the system when propellers are aligned (so they don't scrape on the floor), rotors tilted to 0 deg and then to 90 deg vor vertical takeoff/hover, motors run for a few seconds and are then stopped, realigned, tilted to 0 deg and motors and servos are powered off.

Read more…

ESC with FOC and sensor - why not

So for a while I was thinking of creating a big ass tilt rotor tricopter with a X8 as a base frame. All good, but which ESC to use? After deciding that I don't really like anything on HobbyKing, I started working on my own. It had to have good quality components, rated for automotive applications (don't want my ESC to fail when flying...), FOC control, CAN/RS232/PWM interface and rotor position sensor input.

So after a couple of months, it is spinning. With a "bit" better micro than an 8 bit Atmel and a 12$ sensor chip we can get instant responses from motor to requests from the control - be it for faster/slower speed, startup from standstill or completely reversing rotational direction. And because it is field oriented control, when motor is decelerated it sends power back to the battery.

Read more…