Hi all,
I'm brand new to the VESC arena, and have just purchased a group of VESCs pre-owned. I'm worried I may have been taken to the cleaners. My hope was that even if a few of them worked, I'd be OK investment-wise, but my initial testing is troubling in that they all might be dead. If they are, I'm hoping some might be revivable.
I have have had a hard time finding basic setup guides apart from the typical wiring schematics, and no troubleshooting steps, so if some of the details below seem dumb, it's because I just don't know any better. :)
I bought:
3 x TRAMPA VESC 75/300
3 x TRAMPA VESC 6 MKV
1 x MakerX HI200-C
First order of business is that I do not have a battery yet. If I don't actually have any functioning VESCs, I'm not planning on spending the extra cash on that for the moment. I am going to borrow a couple 4S packs from a co-worker tomorrow, though. I was hoping I could test them with my benchtop power supply, which is a basic 30V/5A model, so I alligator clipped that to one of the XT90 connectors, attached some Dupont wires to the power switch leads on one of the 75/300s to act as a dummy switch, and connected USB to my laptop. Nothing else was connected, so no motor, PPM, sensors, CAN, etc.
To power up, I started with 20V and then shorted the Dupont wires. In all TRAMPA cases, I did not get a blue light. I did check USB to VESC Tool for the first few but then gave up assuming that was a fool's errand if the VESC was apparently not booting. In retrospect, I would have started at 8-9V and slowly ramped to 12V, but it is what it is.
Electrically, here are some oddities I'm coming across:
- VCC and V+ shorted to GND on two 75/300s and all three V6 MKVs
- 5V shorted to GND and motor C phase on one 75/300
- 3.3V and HALL2-B-MISO shorted to GND on the MakerX
None of the above sounds good. Are there other common checks I should perform or is the above enough to diagnose the issues with all seven controllers?
With all that said, I do have the equipment, and hopefully enough skill, to replace chips and/or components if there is any hope of reviving the hardware, so any wisdom is very much appreciated. I can reflow, solder, or flash firmware as needed.
Thanks everyone!