Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - Paul and Sabrina's Cheap 3 Phase Inverter (AC Controller) with Field Oriented Control

thingstodo · 08-23-2014, 01:22 AM

Paul, how many control boards did you end up buying, and can you order more if you want to? Or would it make sense to add to the next order instead - assuming that there is enough interest?

More boring background stuff ..

I think I mentioned ... a long time ago ... that I have several decommissioned and 'were working when pulled' industrial AC controllers that are in need of brain transplants. The controllers were out of our support contracts (day job) when the motors they were powering were upsized ... and I rescued them from the dumpster (only one restriction - I am not allowed to sell anything I get as salvage).

Back to the controllers - the 3 phase AC input diodes are still OK, the bus capacitors may be drying out ... I'll have to check .. and the IGBTs (in one case, IGCTs) are in place and ready to go. Big darned air-cooled heat sinks, terminals that will handle cables the correct gauge for the IGBTs, etc. But I don't have 600 VAC three phase or 208V three phase to feed them.

They have a few things in common:
- they all expect 3 phase AC, rectify it, and filter it to a DC bus
- they all use a pre-charge circuit on the rectified DC-with-AC, before the capacitors, then pull in a relay that bypasses the precharge
- they all use isolated DC/DC converters to power up their electronics, but the DC/DC converters are fixed and need either 650 VDC or 210 VDC to power up the rest of the electronics
- they all have some form of open loop vector control algorithm that depends heavily on measurements (hall effect current sensors, voltage sensors) that I can get no info on (no part numbers/sanded off) so I'm not even sure what voltage to feed them .. so the built-in vector control algorithm is not that useful to me

I was hoping that eventually (I never dreamed that it could start quite this early!) these things would get new brains and be useful as battery chargers, or boost converters, or AC controllers, or recently the possibility of a DC controller, or even as an inverter to power up my house from a battery pack. It sounds like your *AWESOME* controller board could do *ALL* of those things with some creative programming and some time.

Of course, I'd then have to DO something instead of just typing about it ... but it COULD happen .. (!)

AND, unfortunately, this will take me YEARS .. but I would have LOTS OF FUN and the projects may be interesting enough to post about ...

08-23-2014, 01:22 AM	#976 (permalink)
thingstodo Master EcoModder Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Saskatoon, canada Posts: 1,488 Ford Prefect - '18 Ford F150 XLT XTR Tess - '22 Tesla Y LR Thanks: 749 Thanked 565 Times in 447 Posts	Paul, how many control boards did you end up buying, and can you order more if you want to? Or would it make sense to add to the next order instead - assuming that there is enough interest? More boring background stuff .. I think I mentioned ... a long time ago ... that I have several decommissioned and 'were working when pulled' industrial AC controllers that are in need of brain transplants. The controllers were out of our support contracts (day job) when the motors they were powering were upsized ... and I rescued them from the dumpster (only one restriction - I am not allowed to sell anything I get as salvage). Back to the controllers - the 3 phase AC input diodes are still OK, the bus capacitors may be drying out ... I'll have to check .. and the IGBTs (in one case, IGCTs) are in place and ready to go. Big darned air-cooled heat sinks, terminals that will handle cables the correct gauge for the IGBTs, etc. But I don't have 600 VAC three phase or 208V three phase to feed them. They have a few things in common: - they all expect 3 phase AC, rectify it, and filter it to a DC bus - they all use a pre-charge circuit on the rectified DC-with-AC, before the capacitors, then pull in a relay that bypasses the precharge - they all use isolated DC/DC converters to power up their electronics, but the DC/DC converters are fixed and need either 650 VDC or 210 VDC to power up the rest of the electronics - they all have some form of open loop vector control algorithm that depends heavily on measurements (hall effect current sensors, voltage sensors) that I can get no info on (no part numbers/sanded off) so I'm not even sure what voltage to feed them .. so the built-in vector control algorithm is not that useful to me I was hoping that eventually (I never dreamed that it could start quite this early!) these things would get new brains and be useful as battery chargers, or boost converters, or AC controllers, or recently the possibility of a DC controller, or even as an inverter to power up my house from a battery pack. It sounds like your AWESOME controller board could do ALL of those things with some creative programming and some time. Of course, I'd then have to DO something instead of just typing about it ... but it COULD happen .. (!) AND, unfortunately, this will take me YEARS .. but I would have LOTS OF FUN and the projects may be interesting enough to post about ...