Next-gen ESC validation and integration... VESC [Declined]

I don’t mind supporting other CAN variants, but I think if I’m going to work on CAN then I should put that effort into UAVCAN next.
If there are other developers who could put in some time with the VESC kits then I would certainly support the idea of us buying the kits for them. The key factor really is developer time.

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I’d like to post a couple of extensions / comments here:
1 - I’m not fixated on the “VESC”, to me any CAN capable ESC that can be made commonly available to devs will do.
2 - Tridge says - “The key factor really is developer time.” I’d actually say it’s really a trifecta of three things that need to come together at the same time before anything meaningful can be done: Developer has Time available ; Developer has Hardware available ; Developer has suitable knowledge/skills in the area (CAN). ; Developer has motivation… the observant will notice that’s 4 things, not three, whatever.

So really, What this proposal aims to try to do is resolve as many of those as we can:
Developer has Time available => we can never guarentee this, but if developer/s show an interest is recieving “free” hardware, even when it’s got implied strings attached, then they are more likely to find the time than if it’s just handed to them.

Developer has Hardware available => In theory, this is relatively easy to fix, just put the right hardware on the desks of the right developers - except that’s hard if we don’t know “right hardware”. In that case, the best thing we can do is at least give all the developer/s the same hardware, and get them all engaged together around a first common goal. This will also up-skill devs on a shared-common-knowledge platform, so later on we can get different variant/s and different hardware working once the knowledge in the CAN space has been spread around and grown.

Developer has suitable knowledge/skills in the area (CAN) => To start with, most dev/s won’t have the requisite knowledge, this is the issue. Making it more accessible to more devs by giving them all identical hardware, and a place to share their pain ( eg a skype group ), and work together, and get their question/s by the few who already have the knowledge is the best we can do at the start.

Developer has motivation => with a “group” publicly working to get the same hardware going at the same time, together, this is motivating. splitting devs based on their availability to get hands-on hardware, or on their initial skills, or even on their time committment/s is de-motivating. Having a strong leader, or the backing of a strong positive leader is motivating ;

so, as you can see its not as easy as you might think.
Buzz.

I would definately support buying this hw for any developer that has a track record of doing ArduPilot development and wants to get the hw.
Can you get a list of people who fit that?

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ATTENTION DEVS: Ping me if you are interested in CAN. We can create new skype/gitter channels, and maybe use this list of name/s when we go to send CAN hardware to ppl.

@tridge, there are 26 ppl currently in https://gitter.im/ArduPilot/CANBUS I suspect that’s a good list of devs to start with. maybe the number of devices to send out to start with is 25?

Thanks for the proposal. It appears the VESC site has not been updated for over 18 months, and there hasn’t been any strong demand.

The personal blog of the hardware designer has not had a lot of activity because of the huge demand elsewhere, and he is going through growth and multiple commercialisation eforts. A number of manufacturers have picked up his design as its state-of-the-art. The electric bike and electric skateboard forums /communities are a-buzz with the success of this design, its their go-to design for many reasons.

Olivier Brousse your statements about the VESC aer incorrect, and the statement “hasn’t been any strong demand” is not supported by fact. please re-open this Proposal.
VESC software is actively being evolved, with the last commit being the release of firmware 3.34 just three days ago:

VESC hardware can also be purchased from many places now:


even from HK:

it’s also now available from HobbyKing! as the "Turnigy 50A Skateboard ESC (designed by Benjamin Vedder)"
and is part of their “scateboard comversion kit” too:

"The VESC® BLDC is the latest and greatest Open Source ESC "

oh, and the
"personal blog" is rarely updated because it’s mostly all now at:
http://vesc-project.com/
and
http://vedder.se/forums/index.php

Where the VESC 6, the latest-greatest ( not fully open hardware yet ) had it’s first beta boards manufactured in April.
http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/vedders-vesc-6-0/3813
http://vedder.se/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=590&start=10
http://www.trampaboards.com/vesc-6-complete--vedder-electronic-speed-controller-trampa-exclusive-p-24166.html
http://vesc-project.com/forum

and here’s an update from Vedder himself, releasing the schematics of the vedder 6.4 just this week!
http://vesc-project.com/node/311

Thanks for your inputs @DavidBuzz.

However the funding committee decision of not sponsoring this proposal has been taken, after considering not only the mentioned topic by @OlivierB , but also the opinions presented above amongst others, and I fail to see any compelling new facts that would revert the decision.

Once again, thanks for your time for this proposal.

Hello,

That are what we mean by not a strong demand :

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+vesc

https://discuss.ardupilot.org/search?q=vesc

The Vesc is surely interesting but for now, an ardupilot support isn’t ask. I prefer to invest our limited funds on some other project with more demands, even if I want to see a real intelligent motor controller

So I understand this correctly… you’ve closed a proposal that is about next-generation open source ESCs, and the future , because no-one in the ArduPilot community is discussing them in the present…? Isn’t that like saying a person could never fly a plane because no-one around me has done it yet.?

Oh, and there are now 70 ppl currently in https://gitter.im/ArduPilot/CANBUS . The room has nearly TRIPLED in size since since I first proposed this, if that’s not a good measure of the HUGE growing interest in this area, I don’t know what is. :slight_smile:

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Revised budget for 10x units ( with CAN and sensor cables ) : $1,253.67 USD ( plus shipping etc )

Final post here. At the dev call, I was advised that this proposal was declined due to being too many $$, and being too vague in the area of who specifically will be “doing the work”. Obviously, my plan was always to drive the majority of this myself, and use the hardware availability to find other engaged developer/s after the proposal was approved, but aparently that’s not an acceptable method at the moment. I was advised also that raising a new proposal that fixes these issues would be acceptable, but after waiting more than a year for rejection, I’ve lost the desire to do this. This thread is now ended, and for the record, I will NOT be raising a new proposal ( too hard) and I will not be doing the work discussed in this proposal moving forward. I consider this an unnecessary loss to the developer team, but it is what it is.