Well for the remote control, I already had the one I used. I started a wireless electronics company in 2013 (and eventually failed), so it’s a point of pride to use my own remote. But any RC remote would work.
For the ESC it’s more complicated. The VESC is off the shelf, but it has a feature most ESCs don’t. The VESC supports encoders. The use of an encoder is very important to get full motor torque on the brushless motors even at zero velocity. This allows Rover to slow down or stop even on a slope. The encoder is also used for precise velocity control, which keeps all the wheels spinning in concert. Additionally, the encoder data is sent up the CAN bus to the raspberry pi so my program knows wheel velocities.
You could certainly build a rover without encoders and with a regular ESC, but it may have trouble starting from a standstill and it may not always drive in a straight line if the wheel velocities are not all the same. Another thing to note is that if you spin the motors really fast you’d probably melt the gearboxes. I’m moving the motors pretty slowly compared to their maximum speed. But a regular ESC might work fine! I’ve not tried it.
That's very helpful, thank you. So you're basically turning the brushless motors into stepper motors with the VESC, that's very interesting. Again, great project, congratulations.
For the ESC it’s more complicated. The VESC is off the shelf, but it has a feature most ESCs don’t. The VESC supports encoders. The use of an encoder is very important to get full motor torque on the brushless motors even at zero velocity. This allows Rover to slow down or stop even on a slope. The encoder is also used for precise velocity control, which keeps all the wheels spinning in concert. Additionally, the encoder data is sent up the CAN bus to the raspberry pi so my program knows wheel velocities.
You could certainly build a rover without encoders and with a regular ESC, but it may have trouble starting from a standstill and it may not always drive in a straight line if the wheel velocities are not all the same. Another thing to note is that if you spin the motors really fast you’d probably melt the gearboxes. I’m moving the motors pretty slowly compared to their maximum speed. But a regular ESC might work fine! I’ve not tried it.