Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - "easy" motor controller using audio amps?

MazdaMatt · 02-04-2009, 12:34 PM

I was thinking about 1, 2, 3-phase AC motor control and ways to generate plenty of amps to drive a motor in a totally diy fashionl.

I look over at Pauls AWESOME DC motor control thread and i see that one of the biggest hurdles is simply handling all that power! Bigass heatsink, huge bus bars, etc...

So in my searching i have found a number of "low power" AC motor control DIY papers. Microship has some application notes for their PIC controller and the RC car crowd is all over this stuff.

So i got to thinking... what if i were to use 3 car audio amps and fed them a controlled AC 3-phase output from one of these PIC controllers? I think I'd have all of my heat issues taken care of with the amp and I'd have some pretty decent power output for low dollars. It is not uncommon to see 1500W amps (that's about 125A @ 12V) for DIRT CHEAP made in china.

One major challange would be the low voltage... if the made in china cheapo method worked, i'm sure you could find some higher voltage input amps for the SPL competitions (not sure).

Could this be an option for a DIY bike controller? Could it be expanded to be more capable?

02-04-2009, 12:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
MazdaMatt Master EcoModder Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: London, Ontario Posts: 1,096 2k2Prot5 - '02 Mazda Protege5 90 day: 33.82 mpg (US) Thanks: 0 Thanked 17 Times in 14 Posts	"easy" motor controller using audio amps? I was thinking about 1, 2, 3-phase AC motor control and ways to generate plenty of amps to drive a motor in a totally diy fashionl. I look over at Pauls AWESOME DC motor control thread and i see that one of the biggest hurdles is simply handling all that power! Bigass heatsink, huge bus bars, etc... So in my searching i have found a number of "low power" AC motor control DIY papers. Microship has some application notes for their PIC controller and the RC car crowd is all over this stuff. So i got to thinking... what if i were to use 3 car audio amps and fed them a controlled AC 3-phase output from one of these PIC controllers? I think I'd have all of my heat issues taken care of with the amp and I'd have some pretty decent power output for low dollars. It is not uncommon to see 1500W amps (that's about 125A @ 12V) for DIRT CHEAP made in china. One major challange would be the low voltage... if the made in china cheapo method worked, i'm sure you could find some higher voltage input amps for the SPL competitions (not sure). Could this be an option for a DIY bike controller? Could it be expanded to be more capable?