Motor Controller Enclosure

The motor controller I selected for my electric boat conversion is the VESC 75/300. It met the voltage and current requirements and I was impressed with the openness of the project. The main downsides for me are 1) it is not water protected and 2) the high current connections are made with multiple wire pigtails per terminal. Some people have potted the board for water protection but I did not like the idea of potting around the USB connector or the other control connectors. I chose to build my VESC into a secondary enclosure.

I started with a COTS project box and cable glands. This was suitable for initial bench testing but had some downsides. Most importantly, my first approach to a water cooling block for the VESC has insufficient cooling capacity and does not target the specific heat generating regions of the VESC. Also, the first enclosure still used pigtail cables which made integration a bit troublesome.

My second approach is a fully custom enclosure with a superior water cooling plate design and all panel mount connectors.

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Electric Boat Conversion