Voltage never lies, battery percentage is always a guess based on some algorithm…
If you’re coming from a commercial board and are wondering how to figure out how much battery you have left then this is the page for you!
Battery Voltage
As a battery depletes its voltage decreases…
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Voltage inaccuracies on PC/Mobile
The reported voltage is based on the measurement on the controller itself. Any VESC compatible controller can measures the input voltage. This measurement is not ultra precise compared to what you’d see on a voltmeter, it some cases it can be off by as much as 1-2 Volts! This has no impact on your board’s performance, but you should take it into account when setting your voltage cutoffs and tiltback thresholds.
In 3rd party apps you may be able to adjust it (e.g. FloatControl lets you specify a voltage correction value)
How is Battery Percentage calculated?
Different methods exist…
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Battery Percentage in VESC Tool
The VESC tool currently calculates battery percentage based on battery voltage, but if you have a VESC compliant CAN BMS…
I’m new to the VESC world and I just finished my first build. I have the a 18s torquepack and ZBMS from ZBATTERY, but my VESC controller is consistenly reading about 2V less than my meter, the digital voltage readout on my variable current charger from Chi, and my ZBMS balance lights while at full.
I’m worried because this impacts the values I set for high/low voltage tiltback and low voltage shutdown. Is the common and are there any solutions?
It is common, but 2V is more than typical. Still nothing to worry about. Just set your cutoffs and tiltbacks accordingly (aka ~2V lower). In FloatControl you can adjust the voltage so for display purposes and battery percentage it will use the corrected value. Not sure if Floaty has this feature yet. VESC Tool doesn’t have it unfortunately