i. Configuring the VESC¶

Danger

Important Safety Tips

  • Put your car on an elevated stand so that its wheels tin turn without it going anywhere. If you don't have an RC car stand, y'all tin use the box that came with your Jetson.
  • Brand sure you concord on to the car while testing the motor to forestall information technology from flying off the stand.
  • Brand certain there are no objects (or people) in the vicinity of the wheels while testing.
  • Utilise a fully-charged LiPO battery instead of a ability supply to ensure the motor has enough current to spin up.
Equipment Required:
  • Fully built F1TENTH vehicle
  • Box or Car stand to put vehicle on
  • Laptop/calculator (does not need to running Linux)

Approximate Time Investment: one hour

Note

If using the VESC mkIV, see here.

2. Powering the VESC¶

First we need to power the VESC. Plug the battery in.

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Plug the battery in. Brand sure the polarity is right.

Annotation that you don't need to plough on the Powerboard for configuring the VESC.

Next, unplug the USB cable of the VESC from the Jetson NX and plug the USB into your laptop. You may desire to use a longer cable.

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Plug a longer micro USB cable from the VESC to your reckoner.

3. Connecting the VESC to Your Laptop¶

Launch the VESC Tool. On the Welcome page, printing the AutoConnect button on lesser left of the folio. After the VESC is continued, you should meet an updated status on the bottom right of the screen.

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Click Autoconnect in the VESC Tool.

4. Updating the Firmware on the VESC¶

The first thing you'll demand to do is to update the firmware onboard the VESC. On the left side of the screen, click on the Firmware tab. On bottom left of the page, check the Show non-default firmwares check box. On the right, you should run across extra firmware options show upwards. Select the VESC_servoout.bin option. Afterwards, on the bottom right of the page, press the button with the down pointer to update the firmware on the connected VESC. A status bar at the bottom of the folio will bear witness firmware update status. After it's finished, follow the prompt on screen.

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Update the firmware.

five. Uploading the Motor Configuration XML¶

After firmware update, Select Load Motor Configuration XML from the driblet downwards menu and select the provided XML file from hither . After the XML is uploaded, click on the Write Motor Configuration button (the button with a down arrow and the letter of the alphabet M) on the right side of the screen to apply the motor configuration. Note that in the future, y'all'll have to press this push whenever you brand a modify in motor configuration.

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Upload the XML file.

6. Detecting and Calculating Motor Parameters¶

To detect and summate the FOC motor parameters, navigate to the FOC tab under Motor Settings on the left. At the bottom of the screen, follow the direction of the arrows and clck on the four buttons one by ane, and follow the on screen prompt. Note that during the measuring process, the motor will make noise and spin, brand sure the wheels of your vehicle are clear.

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Detect the motor.

Later on the motor parameters are measured, the fields at the bottom of the screen should turn green. Click on the Utilize button, and click the Write Motor Configuration button.

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Apply the motor parameters.

7. Changing the Openloop Hysteresis and Openloop Time¶

Navigate to the Sensorless tab on top of the screen. Change the Openloop Hysteresis and Openloop Time to 0.01, and click the Write Motor Configuration button.

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Modify the openloop time.

viii. Tuning the PID controller¶

Now you can showtime tuning the speed PID controller. To meet the RPM response from the motor, navigate to the Realtime Data tab under Data Analysis on the left. Click Stream Realtime Data push button on the right (the button with letters RT), and navigate to the RPM tab on the top of the screen. You lot should see RPM information streaming now.

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RPM data streaming.

To create a stride response for the motor, you tin can set a target RPM at the bottom of the screen (values betwixt 2000 - 10000 RPM). Click the play button side by side to the text box to start the motor. Notation that the motor will spin, and then make sure the wheels of your vehicle are clear from objects. Click the Ballast or Cease push to end the motor.

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Footstep response from the motor.

You want to expect for a clean step response that has a quick rise time and zero to very little steady state error. Arrange the gains accordingly by navigating to the PID Controllers tab under Motor Settings on the left, and change the Speed Controller gains. General rules of tuning PID gains apply. If you're seeing a lot of oscillations, effort changing the Speed PID Kd Filter.

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Adjusting PID gains.

Danger

REMEMBER TO UNPLUG THE Bombardment WHEN Y'all ARE FINISHED OTHERWISE YOU Will OVERDRAIN THE LIPO Battery AND Will Take TO Purchase A NEW I ON TOP OF CAUSING A Fire.

Hopefully you've tuned it well enough that your machine will run better than this:

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