Hi, I'm a senior in Aerospace Engineering and unfortunately I'm a bit lacking experience with electronics. I'm currently rapid prototyping submarines to optimize for range, and as far as the electronics go I've been a bit lost. The experimental setup is as follows; I fix my model submarine to a guide rail underwater and set the propeller to specific RPM. I measure the value of velocity and current drawn by the motor. What I've been stuck on is how I can set a Brushless Motor to a specific RPM, and how to read in the current to an Arduino. Is this something the VESC would give me the capability to do? If not does anyone know of a better way?
I should add that I'll be using a 1534Kv Brushless Motor for this project. I feel like the VESC is a bit overkill for me but I have been searching for days and haven't found any other good options for my experience level.
Hi Trent, the VESC can run in several modes. Most common is Current Control. There is Cruise Control option and that will try to maintain the speed (RPM) regardless of power demand (PID speed controller). Logging can be done straight to a smartphone with a wireless Bluetooth bridge. After your test you can import the generated CSV file into VESC-Tool and analyze up to 50 values.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dm12zB78Ic
Proper VESC with three phase shunts and accurate readings: http://www.trampaboards.com/vesc--c-1434.html
Frank