Some more excellent controller news: I got the Cursit to work!
More correctly, someone who is smarter than I am looked at the Club Car golf cart wiring diagram and suggested a way to connect the potentiometer successfully using all 3 wires (normally you just have to use 2 pot wires for motor control).
So! I spun the motor up (and down, and up, and down...
) with the Cursit. So smoooooooooooth. So golf cart-ish. It made me want to pile the batteries on the passenger seat and head for my tee off.
So now the question is: which one to use in the car (they each have their own advantages/disadvantages). Still, it's a good problem to have.
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Testing the EV-1 controller:
Above - laid out in the basement on a piece of cardboard is the entire forklift wiring harness and all its connections & switches, connected to the complete Baker control panel on the desk.
The output was fed into a 36v light for testing. The rod I'm pushing activates the pot, making this the largest and most complicated dimmer switch I've ever used.