Hardware configuration overview

How VESC firmware selects and loads hardware configuration files, and which boards are supported by manufacturer.

Every VESC firmware build is tied to a specific hardware target. The hardware configuration system uses two preprocessor macros — HW_SOURCE and HW_HEADER — to inject the correct pin assignments, peripheral configuration, and electrical limits for a given board at compile time.

How hardware config files work

The build system passes HW_SOURCE and HW_HEADER as compiler -D defines. conf_general.h enforces that both are set before any other headers are included:

// conf_general.h
#if !defined(HW_SOURCE) && !defined(HW_SOURCE_ALT)
#error "No hardware source file set"
#endif

#ifndef HW_HEADER
#error "No hardware header file set"
#endif

hw.h then includes the board header through the macro:

// hwconf/hw.h
#include HW_HEADER

This means HW_HEADER must expand to a quoted string containing the path to a .h file, for example "hwconf/trampa/vesc6/hw_vesc6.h". The HW_SOURCE macro works the same way for the corresponding .c file.

After including the board header, hw.h conditionally pulls in the appropriate gate driver header based on which driver the board declares:

#ifdef HW_HAS_DRV8301
#include "drv8301.h"
#endif
#ifdef HW_HAS_DRV8305
#include "drv8305.h"
#endif
#ifdef HW_HAS_DRV8316
#include "drv8316.h"
#endif
#ifdef HW_HAS_DRV8320S
#include "drv8320s.h"
#endif
#ifdef HW_HAS_DRV8323S
#include "drv8323s.h"
#endif

The board header defines HW_NAME, which is required. If it is missing, the build fails immediately:

#ifndef HW_NAME
#error "No hardware name set"
#endif

hw.h also provides safe defaults for any optional macros a board does not define — for example gate control, phase filters, temperature sensors, and current measurement. A board only needs to override the macros that differ from the defaults.

Hardware types

Every board belongs to one of three hardware types defined in datatypes.h:

typedef enum {
    HW_TYPE_VESC = 0,
    HW_TYPE_VESC_BMS,
    HW_TYPE_CUSTOM_MODULE
} HW_TYPE;

Most motor controller boards use HW_TYPE_VESC. BMS boards that run VESC firmware use HW_TYPE_VESC_BMS. Custom peripheral modules use HW_TYPE_CUSTOM_MODULE.

Supported boards by manufacturer

All hardware configuration files live under hwconf/. Each manufacturer has its own subdirectory.

Trampa

The primary VESC hardware designer. Configurations are in hwconf/trampa/.

Target	Directory
VESC 6	trampa/vesc6/
VESC 6 GP	trampa/vesc_gp/
VESC EDU	trampa/vesc_edu/
60/75	trampa/60_75/
60 Alva	trampa/60_alva/
75/300	trampa/75_300/
75/300 MKIV	trampa/75_300_MKIV/
100/250	trampa/100_250/
100/250 MKIII	trampa/100_250_MKIII/
100/500	trampa/100_500/
140/300	trampa/140_300/
HD	trampa/hd/
RB	trampa/rb/
Sparkf	trampa/sparkf/
STR500	trampa/str500/

VESC

Official VESC boards. Configurations are in hwconf/vesc/.

Target	Directory
Basic	vesc/basic/
Classic	vesc/classic/
Classic P	vesc/classicp/
Duet	vesc/duet/
Duet XS	vesc/duet_xs/
Maxim	vesc/maxim/
Maxim P	vesc/maximp/
Minim	vesc/minim/
Pronto	vesc/pronto/
STR365	vesc/str365/

FlipSky

Configurations are in hwconf/flipsky/.

Target
hw_75_100
hw_75_100_V2
hw_fsesc_75_200_alu
hw_fsesc_75_300
No-limits variants for each board

FlipSky Official

Additional official FlipSky boards in hwconf/flipsky_official/.

MakerX

Configurations are in hwconf/makerx/.

Target
hw_go_foc_dv6_pro
hw_go_foc_g300
hw_go_foc_hi200
hw_go_foc_hv200
hw_go_foc_m100

Makerbase

Configurations are in hwconf/makerbase/.

Target	Directory
75/100	makerbase/75_100/
75/100 V2	makerbase/75_100_V2/
75/200 V2	makerbase/75_200_V2/
100/300 HP	makerbase/100_300_HP/
84/100 HP	makerbase/84_100_HP/
84/200 HP	makerbase/84_200_HP/

StormCore

Configurations are in hwconf/stormcore/.

Target	Directory
60D	stormcore/60D/
100D	stormcore/100D/
100S	stormcore/100S/

Ubox

Configurations are in hwconf/Ubox/.

Luna

E-bike motor controllers. Configurations are in hwconf/luna/.

Target	Directory
BBSHD	luna/bbshd/
M600	luna/m600/

ENNOID

Configurations are in hwconf/ENNOID/.

Target	Directory
MK8	ENNOID/MK8/

Other boards

Additional boards in hwconf/other/:

Target
hw_axiom
hw_gesc
hw_mbot
hw_r2
hw_raiden7
hw_spesc
hw_unity
hw_warrior6
VESC 4 (other/vesc4/)

Community boards from hwconf/fungineers/, hwconf/ipm/, hwconf/itr/, hwconf/JetFleet/, hwconf/repas/, hwconf/shaman/, hwconf/teamtriforceuk/, and hwconf/tronic/ are also included.

Selecting hardware at build time

The top-level Makefile automatically discovers all hw_*.h files under hwconf/ and generates a build target for each one. To see all available targets, run:

make

The output lists every board name under [Firmware].

To build for a specific board, use the fw_<board> pattern:

# Build for the VESC 100/250
make fw_100_250

# Build for the Trampa 75/300
make fw_75_300

# Build for MakerX GO-FOC HV200
make fw_go_foc_hv200

You can also pass PROJECT directly:

make PROJECT=100_250 fw

Under the hood, the Makefile resolves the board name to its header and source files and passes them to the compiler:

$(1)_BUILD_MACROS = \
  -DHW_SOURCE=\"$$($(1)_HW_SRC_FILE)\" \
  -DHW_HEADER=\"$$($(1)_HW_HEADER)\" \
  ...

Flash a built image directly to the target over SWD:

make fw_100_250_flash

Some boards have a _no_limits variant (for example hw_75_100_no_limits.h). These disable the hardware safety limits on configuration parameters. They are intended for advanced use cases such as testing. The DISABLE_HW_LIMITS define sets FW_NAME to "no_hw_limits" to make it visible in VESC Tool.