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Old 05-12-2011, 10:26 AM   #25 (permalink)
bennelson
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Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
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My system worked fine after disconnecting.

As for arcing when disconnecting - I'm not sure about that. The reversing contactor was up under the hood where I couldn't see it.

Rigging up a light and under-hood video camera would be able to tell the answer to that one.

I'm also not sure exactly what happens, due to magnetism, when you break that large current with that contactor. Is there back emf or high voltage that really needs to be looked at? I'm not sure. I just took a basic electronics class and now know just enough to at least know what to think about.

Again, with any contactor system, you do need to make sure that the contactor is rated for the type of current you are dealing with, and that you have redundant systems to be able to shut down the vehicle in an emergency situation.

You might also need to figure something out so that the capacitors in the PWM controller stay charged while in "Tubo-Mode" so that there isn't a sudden in-rush of current to them when you switch back to the controller.
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