i would like to see a vesc compatible board with a single microcontroller (maybe requiring a faster processor or package with more IO) but able to drive 2,4,6,8 motor drivers for use in multirotor drones etc
it always seems a waste to me to have a dedicated micro for each motor and another to tell them all what to do... if i could have 1 main processor telling 1/2/4 drive mcu how to spin 8 motors it would be considerably more economical and then to have the vesc toolset to set them all up (maybe independently or just call each motors settings identical).. brilliant a tidy custom board
You are here
single micro multiple driver support
Thu, 2018-07-26 11:58
#1
single micro multiple driver support
Yeah, no.
Writing the code to handle 2/4/6/8 brushless motors AND flight control would require a monster microcontroller and a massive amount of firmware effort. It's infinitely more economical to have seperate microcontrollers handling their specific tasks, the code is so much easier and the end solution is far more flexible. In order to rotate the motor the microcontroller has to make many calculations extremely quickly, currently this lets you spin a standard eSkate motor to about 8570 RPM.
Obviously I encourage you to try to make your own, but there are reasons why no one else has multiple motors from a single microcontroller.
Well, I know someone doing that to strip some cost from a dual ESC. Very debatable... I'm not the expert but Benjamin said it's no good idea to run multiple ESC of the same processor.
Another thing to consider: If you have e.g. a dual esc and something goes wrong, this dual ESC would be a double trouble ESC.
Ultimately people fry ESCs and it would be a shame to loose 4 or 8 controllers in one hit. Not very wallet and eco friendly....
As for the economics, microcontrollers are pretty cheap these days, the cost is the gate drivers, FETs and capacitors.