Enertion VESC-X First Look
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 6:18 pm
Recently, I was able to get my hands on one of Enertion's VESC-X beta samples. Enertion basically hired an electrical engineer to redesign the VESC into the new unreleased VESC R6.0 layout. To be clear, this is not the VESC R6.0, only the VESC 4.12 that has been re-designed in the L shape. The board will also be sold with an Aluminum plate to dissipate heat along with a plastic cover. Here are some close up shots of the board:
Front:
Back:
Direct MOSFETs Closeup:
Improvement wise, this hits few things. The main improvement is heat dissipation. With the new direct MOSFETS all bottom mounted and contacting the aluminum plate, there is a lot of thermal mass to dissipate heat. This should allow for higher current abilities witout worrying about thermal throttling.
Another improvement is the form factor. The entire board is only about 3x3 inches and the capacitors are now integrated on the same PCB as everything else. This makes a lot more sense and will allow more compact builds in the future.
The final improvement is the separation of low power electronics from the high power electronics. This is just good form from a design point of view and should make it more reliable.
Other improvements I noticed include:
- Diode on input power for reverse polarity protection
- Better power lead pad locations (no more shorting power leads on sharp pins)
- Better mounting screw locations with space around them
It makes sense that Enertion is doing this design now before the VESC R6.0 designs are finalized and released so that they have mounts and parts ready to interface with it. It will be interesting to see if this unit yields any performance increases.
Front:
Back:
Direct MOSFETs Closeup:
Improvement wise, this hits few things. The main improvement is heat dissipation. With the new direct MOSFETS all bottom mounted and contacting the aluminum plate, there is a lot of thermal mass to dissipate heat. This should allow for higher current abilities witout worrying about thermal throttling.
Another improvement is the form factor. The entire board is only about 3x3 inches and the capacitors are now integrated on the same PCB as everything else. This makes a lot more sense and will allow more compact builds in the future.
The final improvement is the separation of low power electronics from the high power electronics. This is just good form from a design point of view and should make it more reliable.
Other improvements I noticed include:
- Diode on input power for reverse polarity protection
- Better power lead pad locations (no more shorting power leads on sharp pins)
- Better mounting screw locations with space around them
It makes sense that Enertion is doing this design now before the VESC R6.0 designs are finalized and released so that they have mounts and parts ready to interface with it. It will be interesting to see if this unit yields any performance increases.