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Old 11-15-2010, 11:20 AM   #3976 (permalink)
Greg Fordyce
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Scottish Borders, Scotland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes View Post
For the wiki, we could say, LED blinks if throttle or current sensor is out of range. Use a fuse. It's designed to drive mosfets, but can be made to work for at least some IGBTs. What other warnings?
How about a section in the wiki for disasters. A page of problems that people have had, what caused it and how not to repeat it. The temptation some have with this project is to modify the design, but having followed this thread and built one of Paul's kits it may not be obvious why a particular component was used or the consequences of straying from the design. So a disasters page can help others from repeating costly mistakes and also give people an idea of what could possibly happen when straying from the provided design.

Of course the wiki is, by definition, open for anyone to contribute to, so maybe snakub could start the disasters page with his incident, changes he made to the design and what blew up. It's frustrating when you have a setback like this, I know from having unintentionally cremating one EV, but documenting the failure can help you and others understand what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future.

You could add a general disclaimer like the one on the bms project I have been involved with below. Adapt and use any of it you like.

Code:
'The BMS modules carry no warranty or guarantee of any kind! They are used at
'your own risk, and I make no claims as to their suitability for a particular
'function. Prospective users must evaluate the system before using it, and no
'liability will be entertained by myself in any shape or form whatsoever.
'The modules and software have been produced at low cost for the benefit of
'the EV & electronic community. The software is available free via the internet.
'Users may modify or adapt the system as they see fit. If you are not fully
'competent to work on potentially lethal battery systems and high voltages,
'then do not experiment with or use this system. Be aware that vehicle
'modifications can lead to invalidated insurance and warranty issues. You the
'end user remain fully liable for any modifications made to your vehicle.
Paul's design works out of the box, but only if you follow the design, the more changes that are made, the more risk of something going wrong and with EVs it can be rather catastrophic and costly when things do go wrong.

Greg
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The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Greg Fordyce For This Useful Post:
Electroddy (10-21-2012), MPaulHolmes (11-15-2010), mpgmike (01-18-2022), mrbigh (11-15-2010), thingstodo (11-15-2010)