# Makani motor controller and open source firmware



## misomosi (Nov 21, 2018)

A couple of friends and I just bought a large pile of Yasa axial flux motors and controllers at Makani's going-out-of-business auction.

Makani was a Google X company that spent a lot of money on wind power kites:




and yesterday open sourced all their code, including motor firmware:
https://github.com/google/makani/tree/master/avionics/motor

The motors are similar to and larger than the Yasa 750R:
YASA 750 | YASA Limited
which is an axial flux motor rated at 790Nm peak torque, 200kW peak power.
The Makani controllers have exotic 1700V SiC half bridges, I've posted a teardown here:
Yasa/Makani controller teardown - Endless Sphere

We are now working on getting the Makani controllers operational using the open sourced firmware, and also building our own control board using TI Instaspin to drive the Makani power stage. Here's a video of the first spin using a lab supply with a TI LAUNCHXL-F280049C and BOOSTXL-DRV8320RS:
http://rp.to/7t01q


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## hummbug (Apr 8, 2019)

I am very interested! I also got one of the Yasa motors but no controller. I also got a Protean motor.


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## misomosi (Nov 21, 2018)

It was straightforward to compile the Makani code from https://github.com/google/makani , download it to the Makani Ozone controllers, and have the motors spinning using the Makani motor_client utility. It's really nice code, well written and commented.


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## hummbug (Apr 8, 2019)

ok but what if I didn't have a Makani Ozone controller? Do you have any spares I could buy from you?


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## misomosi (Nov 21, 2018)

Sorry, I'm keeping all the Makani controllers I bought.
The components and engineering are the best I've seen, nothing else comes close.

I have read that controllers such as:
BAMOCAR-PG-D3-700-100/160
Sevcon Size 10 Gen 4
Rinehart PM150DX

should work with the Protean PD18 and the Yasa motors


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## misomosi (Nov 21, 2018)

We managed to get our Makani motors spinning by building a very simple metacontroller - i.e. controls the Makani controller -that broadcasts omega setpoint messages on the POF network used by the Makani Ozone controllers. (I'd tell a joke here about UDP, but not everyone would get it...)

Here's a video:


http://rp.to/z1ohz



In the little black box is a Pi 3 with an ADS1110 for A/D of the Prius throttle pedal, a Fiberfin POF to ethernet converter, and a couple of power supplies. The open source Makani code made this easy.


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## mitchhodge (Oct 1, 2021)

I've purchase a YASA/Makani motor for an ev conversion. It's absolutely beautiful but no one seems to know anything about it. YASA doesn't respond to inquiries. This is the only time I've seen one run. Are your services available to put together a controller and other electric aspects of the project. I have the mechanical portion laid. It fits perfectly in my Corvair Rampside.
Please let me know either way.
Thanks,
Mitch


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## GDiBart (12 mo ago)

misomosi said:


> We managed to get our Makani motors spinning by building a very simple metacontroller - i.e. controls the Makani controller -that broadcasts omega setpoint messages on the POF network used by the Makani Ozone controllers. (I'd tell a joke here about UDP, but not everyone would get it...)
> 
> Here's a video:
> 
> ...


Miso!
Impressive work! Your post was from a while back... any luck moving forward using your metacontroller? If so, I'd love to hear an update on your Yasa project. I was involved in the Hawaii based kite site construction and ended up with a couple motor setups as well. Hope to get them into action!


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## SDeleon21 (10 mo ago)

misomosi said:


> We managed to get our Makani motors spinning by building a very simple metacontroller - i.e. controls the Makani controller -that broadcasts omega setpoint messages on the POF network used by the Makani Ozone controllers. (I'd tell a joke here about UDP, but not everyone would get it...)
> 
> Here's a video:
> 
> ...


Hey Miso
new guy here im very impressed with the video you showed above i was wondering if you can show another video showing how you got the motor mounted?


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## Williamaerobat (1 mo ago)

Hi, will be willing to trade a Model 3 drive motor for two of these Makani motors


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