Paul and Sabrina's Cheap 3 Phase Inverter (AC Controller) with Field Oriented Control

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I'll then send all the pcb and sch files, as well as a pdf showing pinouts of everything.

Me Too! And the source code? So I have all of this stuff in one email and I don't lose parts of it along the way?!?

I'm taking notes for later this month (I hope)

[motorulf]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

The default is a hall effect throttle, so the soldered resistors are set up for that. It won't work for a resistive throttle without an addition of a resistor, and changing another resistor. That's the problem you are having. You need to change:

R101 should be like 2k (instead of nothing).
R73 should be like 4.7k instead of 47k (I think it's 47k right now).

I have put a resistor on R101, it was a 4.7k so i changed to 2k and put the 4.7k at R73.

Hooked up the pot like this:

The red wire is connected via 2k resistor.
I also tried without the black wire.

The motor still spins without control. No differece.
Still draws around 60 Amps.
I get raw-throttle starting at around 10 going up to around 1000 at maximum.
Throttle-type 1 just inverts the signal, right?

output of config command:

AC controller firmware, ver. 1.0
High pedal lockout fault.  Ignore this for now.  It's not really a fault.  haha.
config
motor-type=1
kp=03333 ki=00050
current-sensor-amps-per-volt=0320
max-regen-position=0012
min-regen-position=0150
min-throttle-position=0151
max-throttle-position=0625
fault-throttle-position=0001
max-battery-amps=0015 amps
max-battery-amps-regen=0015 amps
max-motor-amps=025 amps
max-motor-amps-regen=025 amps
precharge-time=0050 tenths of a sec
rotor-time-constant=005 ms
pole-pairs=004
max-rpm=06000 rev/min
throttle-type=0
encoder-ticks=0256 ticks/rev
pi-ratio=062
raw-throttle=0009

[MPaulHolmes]

OK first disconnect the battery power to the motor/inverter. Let's get the throttle configured right first. Wait, have you had a capacitor connected with the IGBTs during all of this? It's really important not to switch the IGBTs without a capacitor hooked up to them.

OK, look on the board where it says HALL. You need to use the hole called POT (just to the left of HALL connection), as well as the rightmost pin of the HALL connection. Don't use the leftmost 2 pins of HALL if you are using a resistive pot. You will only have 2 wires. So like this:

POT -------------------------------- potentiometer wire #1
rightmost pin of HALL -------------------------- potentiometer wire #2

Then, with the battery disconnected from the high voltage section, stream raw throttle like this:
stream-raw-throttle 1
data-stream-period 1000

Now, again find the range of values for raw throttle. let's say they are:
minimum throttle = 300
maximum throttle = 600

Now, for running the PI tests and rotor time constant test, you need the throttle in the "zero" dead zone. So to create one, go like this (assuming the fake values I just made up):
fault-throttle-position 20 (anything smaller than 300 is fine, but not too close to zero)
max-regen-position 50
min-regen-position 60
min-throttle-position 800
max-throttle-position 820

You want the WHOLE valid throttle range to be in the dead zone (zero throttle).
Before continuing though, do you have the capacitor(s) connected to the IGBTs?

Also, is your induction motor 4 pole pairs? What is the RPM on the nameplate?

[motorulf]

Yes i have capacitors
I am connecting your controller to the HV side of my old controller, from the Think City -08.


And no, it´s a 2 pole pair, i just found out, i hadn´t thought about it at all, just thinking about throttle and stuff.


I have now connected the throttle EXACLY as you describe and shure enough i get a raw-throttle span of about 300 to 600.
I adjusted all the settings, and pole-pairs.

So, what is next step?
When i have run the tests, shall i adjust the throttle to a usable span and try it out, or is there other things to do first

Sorry, all this information is probably somewhere in this thread, and i have probably read it, but when i need the information i just cant seem to find it.
I very happy that you are such a helpful person.
I think i will try to collect all information given to me in some kind of how-to or quick start guide. I will not make it public before it´s approved by you though. (that's Paul, for all you others)
OR - is there anybody else doing this already?

[motorulf]

OK... i thought i would connect the battery again and see if i could run the pi-test.
When the contactor closed the motor started spinning right away. i didn´t even touch the throttle.

AC controller firmware, ver. 1.0
High pedal lockout fault.  Ignore this for now.  It's not really a fault.  haha.
config
motor-type=1
kp=03333 ki=00050
current-sensor-amps-per-volt=0320
max-regen-position=0050
min-regen-position=0060
min-throttle-position=0800
max-throttle-position=0820
fault-throttle-position=0020
max-battery-amps=0015 amps
max-battery-amps-regen=0015 amps
max-motor-amps=025 amps
max-motor-amps-regen=025 amps
precharge-time=0050 tenths of a sec
rotor-time-constant=005 ms
pole-pairs=002
max-rpm=06000 rev/min
throttle-type=0
encoder-ticks=0256 ticks/rev
pi-ratio=062
raw-throttle=0369

[MPaulHolmes]

EDIT: OK something weird is going on. Let me think for a bit.

Old Message:
OK, before setting throttle to a usable range, first let's run the pi test while the throttle is zero (well, somewhere in the "dead zone"). With maybe 48v hooked up, type:
run-pi-test

Alternatively, if you know the resistance from phase to phase, we could figure it out analytically.

If it finds good values for Kp and Ki, next run:
run-pi-test2

That will let us look at just how good the convergence is, to let us know if we need to use slightly different values.

After we have good kp and ki (still at 48v or so), type:
run-rotor-test

Hopefully, that will start out slow, gradually spin the motor faster, and gradually slow down. It might take like 5 minutes to run. Once it's done, you should have a good value for the rotor time constant. Do all of this stuff while the throttle is "zero" (GREATER THAN min-regen-position and LESS THAN min-throttle-position).

[MPaulHolmes]

The software is calling PWM1H the leftmost twisted pair of wires, then PWM1L, then PWM2H, then PWM2L, then PWM3H, then PWM3L. All left to right. Do you also have the current sensors going to the plugs left to right. current sensor 1 with pwm1H/L, current sensor 2 with pwm2H/L, and current sensor 3 with pwm3H/L?

could you get a picture of all 3 current sensors so I could see the orientation too?

[motorulf]

I had apparently mixed up the cables when i checked and fixed the pinout.
no 1 was going to 2 and vice versa.
Now things work better.
It does not run wild and i managed to complete a successful run-pi-test.
I saved
Then i tried run-pi-test2. now it is consuming 60Amps again. rotor vibrating and my thinner "fuse" cables melting. I aborted (cut the power to everything)

I tried to power everything up again, when the contactor closes the motor starts vibrating and humming again, drawing 60 amps.

All the current sensors have connectors pointing towards the IGBT end of the cable.

Going forward though

Yeah, i am only using 25 volts right now, is that too low?

[MPaulHolmes]

Oh dear... Hmm. Could you disconnect a current sensor cable and then turn it on again with 25v? 25v is a good test value. This should cause a hardware fault so that everything should be disabled. What is your 24v source for the control/driver board? It should be isolated from the "high voltage" battery pack (25v at the moment).

[motorulf]

Unplugged current sensor cable, gave a hardware fault.
24V source is an adjustable power supply 0-30V, 0-10A set at 24.0V.
25V source (HV) is a lipo battery 6 cells 8Ah
12V source (for contactors) is a 15A 5V/12V powersupply

So what is next?
There might not be much more i could possibly be doing wrong. haha
But i am shure there is anyway