Lou,
You have some good ideas.
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Originally Posted by LouMan
Everybody get together and put idea's on the table for a new and exciting ver. E one that is newbie friendly, full of new features, maybe a new pic or arm controller with a grafixs output screen with controller data would be neat, the explorer program shows raw data about the controllers workings but how about a advance screen that shows human data form in degrees and graphs that is understandable without mental recalculations about what the raw data means?
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There is 3 things about this that concern me. First, changing the main processor would basically make a totally different controller. If it gets moved to a dsPIC chip, its atleast close and the code can be transposed pretty easily. Second, I would consider the contoller to handle graphics display to be a bad idea. It will put unecessary strain on the porcessor and could detract from what its main job is.... controlling the motor. The best idea here would be to build a serial interface display that reads the serial data and prints it on the graphics display of choice. Third, When you say "the explorer program" are you talking about RTD Explorer? If so, It already converts all temps to C and F in the lower right cornor. It is not graphed because a line of 25C on a scale of 0-510 would be so lost. lol If its a big request though, it could easily be added. We have a V.1.0 almost ready for release.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LouMan
Look at the Commercial controllers and see what exiting options they have that would be neat to incorperate in the new controller.
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Actually, The only option that the Revolt controllers dont have that the big guys do is direct battery amperage measurement, battery voltage and motor voltage. Really, all that needs to be added to make up those 3 is battery voltage measurement. The controller does a very good job of calculating battery amps. I tested this by setting battery current limit to 100A and put a load on it. The controller held the battery current to 100.1A measured with my Fluke 337 clamp meter. Other then that, the controller just needs some inputs and outputs for motor speed and tach drive. Also, contactor drives could be added for series/parallel switching, but I dont think it would be used much in the DIY area. Ive only heard of one application so far and thats Jack's bike..... But hes a little crazy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LouMan
But foremost build the board were it would be fun to work on, newbie friendly, well labeled, and for god sake no smd parts no need in taking the fun out of electronics.
The revolt projects are open source for anybody to build apon, change, improve apon, so make it were resordering a part due to revisions doesn't make you worrie about sorder bridges or trying to find a sordering iron small enough ( MAKE IT OPEN SOURCE ).
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No SMD?! LOL I actually find surface mount more fun then through hole. Designs are more elegant and usually easier to layout and smaller boards. But I guess thats why im going to school to be an EE.
I like the idea of grouping the parts into areas and surrounding them with silk screen box's with lables. A few test pads could be added to each group for checking. Known test values for these pads added to the wiki. It woud greatly increase the ease of testing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LouMan
One option I would like to see on a new board is the driver section, make it were you can choose to put parts on to drive mosfet's or igbt's with the powerex drivers chips, paul just came up with a copy of the powerex driver board but how about adding the traces to the new ver.E board and traces for the mosfet driver,
poeple came populate the area of the board for what there going to be driving mosfets or igbt's.
board makers charge for the size of the board not the amount of traces so I think it would be a great feature and exciting.
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As for the driver section, I would do it a little different. Board cost can sky rocket with board size, and unless huge qunatities are orders, boards a re expensive. I would design the board with either pin headers for plug on driver modules or connectors for cabeling to go to remote driver boards. This is pretty much the best idea fo IGBT's. You want to mount and connect the driver as close as possible to the modules. Thats the reason for the Powerex board. Its is designed to mount right on the gate drive pins of the module. This is the shortest gate trace possible.
I have a few projects up my sleeve that I think I should start talking about soon. These range from IGBT controllers Charger controllers, and alot of stuff in-between.
-Adam