Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[MPaulHolmes]

Oops, I'm sorry. It was late and I wasn't thinking straight. It would allow anything up to ... 41.455 kOhms, and then it would be a fault for anything above that. It would go to zero throttle and would force you to turn off the controller. It's to protect against the throttle getting unplugged (which would be infinity ohms).

If you type...

t-fault-rc 339
save

You would change it so anything above 7.5Kohm would result in a fault and the throttle would go to zero. t-fault-rc means throttle fault raw counts.

Man, they don't have car inspections here. It's a good thing too, since my car was a worthless pile of crap.

[MPaulHolmes]

All the drilling is done!
Just a couple more practice soldering runs, and then the soldering!


Baseplate side that gets the bus bars clamped against it:

Baseplate side that's exposed to the outside world. Look at all those beautifully countersunk holes.

[amino]

After reading about jackbauer's experience with the controller problem at low temperature, I had been careful when switching on the last few days as it has been hovering around freezing here.

A couple of days ago when I switched the car on (in neutral) and stepped gently on the accelerator, the motor did not run. Opened the hood and checked the led's and the yellow one was flashing. After a couple of tries, the led's stayed on steady and everything was fine until this morning, with the ambient temperature at about 2 degrees C, when it did would not run until I warmed up the controller with a heat gun! However it stopped working when I applied the brakes at the end of the block! The contactor would engage after the precharge time, but the led would keep flashing.

With the hood open, it may have warmed up a little, as finally, after a few tries, the led stayed on when the contactor kicked in and it ran fine after that.

Could it be a bad solder connection that is causing this? I'll redo as many of the solder connections as I can and test it again soon.

[harlequin2]

A bad solder connection seems unlikely.
What is the error condition that a flashing led indicates?

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by harlequin2

A bad solder connection seems unlikely.
What is the error condition that a flashing led indicates?

There is only 5 error codes that will make the led flash.

Throttle fault
High pedal lockout
Vref fault
Motor overspeed
And precharge


Did you have to cycle the key to get the code to clear? If so, it makes me think Vref fault, or throttle fault.

If it just went away from heating, I would say high pedal lockout. For this you would have to check your throttle and throttle settings. Dd you ever calibrate the throttle? If not, you might be right on the edge of going into throttle fail.

If you have a laptop an can get some data from the controller it would be great to see what's going on on start up.

-Adam

[amino]

The led was flashing as it normally does when you switch on and is supposed to stay steady after the contactor closes, if all is well.

How do you tell what condition the led is flashing? The Kelly controller has error codes, but I don't think the Open Revolt with the rev. 2C control board does.

Amin

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by amino

The led was flashing as it normally does when you switch on and is supposed to stay steady after the contactor closes, if all is well.

How do you tell what condition the led is flashing? The Kelly controller has error codes, but I don't think the Open Revolt with the rev. 2C control board does.

Amin

The error codes are only reported through the serial port. The led only shows that there is an error present.

-Adam

[amino]

Thanks, Adam.
I will connect the computer and check.

Amin

[amino]

Below is what shows on RTD Explorer. What changes would you suggest? I have only changed a few settings from the defaults.

Amin

Welcome to RTD Explorer!
aoBrtd-period 100
rtd_period=00100
config
Kp=002 Ki=020
throttle_min_raw_counts=0413 throttle_max_raw_counts=0683
throttle_fault_raw_counts=0100
throttle_pos_gain=017 throttle_pwm_gain=000
current_ramp_rate=006
rtd_period=00100
pwm_filter=0
motor_os_threshold=0000 motor_os_ftime=1000
motor_os_dtime=10 pwm_deadzone=05
motor_speed_calc_amps=000
battery_amps_limit=000
precharge_time=070
config
Kp=002 Ki=020
throttle_min_raw_counts=0413 throttle_max_raw_counts=0683
throttle_fault_raw_counts=0100
throttle_pos_gain=017 throttle_pwm_gain=000
current_ramp_rate=006
rtd_period=00100
pwm_filter=0
motor_os_threshold=0000 motor_os_ftime=1000
motor_os_dtime=10 pwm_deadzone=05
motor_speed_calc_amps=000
battery_amps_limit=000
precharge_time=070

[MPaulHolmes]

Try:

rtd-period 500 (NOT IDLE! WHAT THE CRAP WAS i THINKING?! Thanks Adam!)

That will start to display things like the error code, throttle position, current, temperature, etc... at a 500ms rate. Choose whatever rate you want. Then,

TR = throttle
CR = current reference
CF = current feedback
PW = pulse width
HS = heat spreader temperature
RT = raw throttle
FB = fault bits (THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT!!!)
BA = battery amps
AH = amp hours used