VESC 6 for AUV applications

Hi to all,

I will just post a few questions that I believe are relevant when using the VESC 6  in AUV thrusters applications:

1. Does the VESC 6 implement an RPM controller? (keeps the same RPM when the battery or the mechanical load changes).

2. How is the reverse/forward rotation implemented? The usual RPM mapping from -100% to 100% would be just fine. 

I quickly browsed throw the src code (so probably I missed something...), and it seems that at least for the RPM PID controller, the reverse/forward option, enters as a compile/boot time parameter (configured using the VESC-Tool, see below).
Do you confirm this? If so, can this be changed? For the typical AUV application, the solution is to send (via serial or CAN bus), a value in the interval [-RPM_MAX, RPM_MAX]. As an example, for a PPM interface, it would look like this:
1.0 ms Full Reverse
1.5 ms Neutral
2.0 ms Full Forward
The change of rotation direction must be dynamic! (I guess that for an RC-truck, should be similar... not so much for a sk8..)

3. Is the VESC 6, compatible with the following Hall sensor:
Allegro A1202 and A1203 Continuous-Time Bipolar Switch Family
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2353907.pdf?_ga=2.37538976.1868016791....

4. For AUVs with multiple thrusters (for example, 4), multiple VESC6 are required. To save serial ports in a host CPU, one solution could be to connect one of them via serial port, and "daisy-chain" the four with CAN bus. Is this possible? How would the serial port protocol change to accommodate that? 

Thanks in advance

Best regards

Bruno

firmware https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/blob/master/mc_interface.c
LOC 360
void mc_interface_set_pid_speed(float rpm) {
    if (mc_interface_try_input()) {
        return;
    }
    switch (m_conf.motor_type) {
    case MOTOR_TYPE_BLDC:
    case MOTOR_TYPE_DC:
        mcpwm_set_pid_speed(DIR_MULT * rpm);
        break;
    case MOTOR_TYPE_FOC:
        mcpwm_foc_set_pid_speed(DIR_MULT * rpm);
        break;
    default:
        break;
    }
}

LOC 36  https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/blob/master/mc_interface.c
// Macros
#define DIR_MULT        (m_conf.m_invert_direction ? -1.0 : 1.0)

LOC 200 https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/blob/master/main.c
    mc_configuration mcconf;
    conf_general_read_mc_configuration(&mcconf);
    mc_interface_init(&mcconf);

LOC 364  https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/blob/master/conf_general.c
/**
* Read mc_configuration from EEPROM. If this fails, default values will be used.
*
* @param conf
* A pointer to a mc_configuration struct to write the read configuration to.
*/
void conf_general_read_mc_configuration(mc_configuration *conf) {
    bool is_ok = true;
    uint8_t *conf_addr = (uint8_t*)conf;
    uint16_t var;
    for (unsigned int i = 0;i < (sizeof(mc_configuration) / 2);i++) {
        if (EE_ReadVariable(EEPROM_BASE_MCCONF + i, &var) == 0) {
            conf_addr[2 * i] = (var >> 8) & 0xFF;
            conf_addr[2 * i + 1] = var & 0xFF;
        } else {
            is_ok = false;
            break;
        }
    }
    if (!is_ok) {
        conf_general_get_default_mc_configuration(conf);
    }
}