Not too long ago I was contacted on the discussion board by Spintend to evaluation their new motor electric scooter ESC controller, the Ubox. Full disclosure, I largely agreed to overview it so I could get one and journey it till it broke. It normally doesn’t take long for me to interrupt the motor controllers individuals from already contained in the trade ship to me, so I wasn’t expecting much from some new firm dipping a toe in electric skateboarding. A number of the time when the product is crap I don’t even write about it because I don’t want this site full of hate rants on area of interest tech.
Spintend’s about page is a short read about a guy named John who has the revelation that the majority VESC primarily based controllers are largely about electric skateboards and not likely about electric bikes. This, coupled with an image of a man standing behind his ebike with his head just out of body, paints a picture in my mind of somebody eager to revolutionize the electric bike trade however by accident tripping over an esk8 solely to bonk his head and have a vision of solving issues in both worlds. Possibly yelling “great scott!” in the method.
And John could have performed just that. While there are some pretty minor annoyances with the product, total it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the same old fodder in the battle area of over hyped and over priced fundamental staples and over priced cheaply produced rubbish. And on high of that, it fills a gap that needs filling: it can permit you to maneuver beyond 12S voltages in your board.
Before I go much further, let me warn you: I’m not going to fill your faces with graphs and charts and engineering speak about log information. Instead I wish to talk about usability and capabilities, and the UBOX is stuffed with both.
The Remote
The package deal I acquired and put in in my board included a Uni1 remote as effectively as the UBOX ESC, but you can optionally purchase it with out the remote. You could save $30 not getting the remote with it, however you will not discover one for that sum of money that feels this good in your hand and likewise has telemetry on the handle.
The feel of the throttle, one among the most important aspects of any remote, is greater than satisfactory. Today it actually doesn’t take much to get this part right, but a lot of remotes I’ve tried up to now have failed at it. With the exception of the Hoyt Puck on uncommon occasion, I primarily use Flipsky VX1 remotes resulting from their feel, simplicity, presence of a battery level meter, and ease of setup. The Uni1’s shell feels quite a bit just like the FS VX1 in the hand. Has an identical feel to the throttle wheel.
The display screen on the handle shows a number of key items reminiscent of battery levels for both the remote and the board, speed, trip meter, and even current draw in real time, and it has three velocity modes to allow your beast to be tamed a bit for your mates to try it out. Options for setting things like battery cell depend, motor poles, gearing, and wheel peak can be found by means of a menu on the distant itself. It even has assist for battery cell level shows provided you may have a wise BMS that will work with the ESC over a UART connection.
Button placement on the handle may be an annoyance to some, as the idea of unintentionally holding a power button down whereas riding exhausting is terrifying. The buttons are proper where your finger suggestions might find yourself after wrapping your hand across the handle. Spintend addressed this potential challenge by requiring both buttons to be pressed and held with a purpose to power of the distant. This drastically reduces the risk of by chance killing your throttle and brake control, however isn’t exactly intuitive since solely one of many buttons has an precise energy symbol on it.
After all seeing the display and risking an unintentional button press would imply you’re holding the distant in your proper hand. Should you hold it in the left, the screen and buttons will fortunately bury themselves in your palm, making access to them unimaginable. This is definitely a proper handed distant, but the same might be stated in regards to the VX1 as well.
A 75 volt, 200 Amp ESC In Your Board
Ubox touts the capability to handle 16S voltages with a warning not to allow peak voltages beyond 80v. That maximum voltage is effectively above fully charged 16S, so even with regen spikes from braking it should have plenty of headroom. The 200 amp score means up to 100 amps per motor, and judging by the size of the unit and the sink on it, the Ubox may actually be capable to handle all of that. Some members of the esk8 motor group are already running these controllers above 12S with little or no reports of issues thus far. Because of limitations with my present take a look at rig I was only in a position to test the Ubox at 12S, but my expertise with it was downright nice.
Take observe that the Ubox is just not small. So far as dual ESCs go, it is actually kind of giant. Dimensions are listed as 145mm x 83mm x 25mm, and that 25mm in peak goes to restrict installation to what we traditionally name double stack enclosures. Fortunately it would seem that eboosted is at all times engaged on some new enclosures, even some with larger ESC compartments, so possibly the scale problem will likely be moot quickly.
Setting it up is just like some other VESC based ESC. After connecting it to your motors and battery, you simply obtain VESC Tool, connect with it, run the detection wizards, change your motor and battery settings on every side, and it’s done. But with this bundle, there’s no receiver to put in. The receiver for the remote is built in. Already “just works” with it.
There can also be a in-built Bluetooth module for the Android VESC Tool users and a in-built 12v (max 3amps) output which is nice for operating LEDs and homebrew headlight and tail gentle options. There can be support for a horn, though I used to be unable to check that feature. This stage of integration makes for a very clean set up with minimal wiring.
With the ability to handle much increased currents and voltages than the standard 12S rated ESCs signals the ability to handle 12S with no weird points while running comparatively cool, and that was my finding. In the intervening time I completely build 12S methods, and run my boards anyplace between forty to 50 battery amps per side, with motor amps ranging anyplace from sixty five to one hundred depending on what I’m constructing and for who. These kinds of settings will barely make the Ubox heat up, so most builds won’t need a complete lot of respiration house or uncovered heat sinks.
And in contrast to numerous the ESCs out there, it doesn’t come with a latching change type button. While large and beefy and lit up with LEDs, it’s a momentary button. So be at liberty to place this in a urethane based build. Clatter over boardwalks all day with out worry of turning your board off while you’re on it.
But what is it like on the street? Perfect, mainly. The feel of the journey was extra like running two high end single ESCs than the feel of a Unity fashion twin ESC. This is likely as a result of it truly is two discrete controllers joined over CAN bus in one field. Not a single processor leaping between two motors continuously. Hard acceleration, onerous sufficient braking to make even correctly tensioned belts skip, and lengthy battery draining jaunts have been deliciously predictable and uneventful. No bizarre stuff at the top finish, no weird stuff when braking arduous down long stretches, simply smooth and dependable energy delivery and regeneration.
Some Minor Annoyances
The 25mm height of the ESC will limit your enclosure choice. If in case you have a slender single stack 18650 style enclosure, you’re not going to fit this in there. Should you loved this post and also you desire to get details with regards to electric scooter ESC (http://sc.devb.gov.hk) generously go to the page. Even a single layer enclosure designed for 21700 sized cells may have a tough time with this one. However, the Ubox is leading the charge into reasonably priced increased series count builds, so perhaps that’s not such a foul factor. You’re going to want a larger pack anyway, and there are a minimum of a number of reliable 12S options for smaller builds anyway. So maybe it’s time to construct that long vary high voltage cruiser you’ve been wanting.
Also, the remote should be turned on before the ESC, which is annoying, however sort of nitpicky to even point out. Most remotes lately don’t care if the remote or the board is turned on first. Due to this, there may be a little bit of habit breaking concerned in utilizing this motor controller in your every day rider.
One other annoyance, though not likely in regards to the ESC itself, is that a lot of the motors we use for esk8 are only rated for 14S voltages. While this may increasingly deter some individuals from running their boards at 16S, 14S is completely doable and 16S is also in all probability positive should you reduce the present. Motors will be delicate to energy handling maximums, and for the most half specified voltage ranges apply to that. But should you reduce the current while you enhance the voltage when setting it up, its possible to get pleasure from the benefits of higher voltage reminiscent of higher effectivity and quicker charging times, with out going out of the power handling comfort zone of your motors.
Conclusions
At $279 with the nice feeling telemetry enabled distant included it definitely carried out better than anything in it’s value vary. I’d even argue it performed pretty much as good or higher than some properly above it. If you have the house in the enclosure for it, it is a robust alternative to the Stormcore 100D at virtually half the worth. It delivered what I wished after i needed it, and did so easily and without problem.