Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[dlaing]

What a beautiful sight. I love that the car is totally silent when you stop.

And fortunately all of the fireworks were outside, not inside the car.

Paul, once you have the car moving, how fast does the current increase if you floor the accelerator? If it's fairly slow we could have the uC turn on the mosfets when the current goes below desired, and turn them off when it goes above. This would significantly reduce the switching losses in the mosfets. But would add a buzz unless the switching happens at below human hearing (~16Hz)

Just a thought for once we have an rpm sensor.

[MPaulHolmes]

Hey dlaing! hmmm... That is a really really good idea. We might even be able to do some sort of spectrum spreading thing so it just sounds like white noise (maybe with a lookup table? I still have 92% of the data section available for just such emergencies.)

What's it like to sit there and have all these awesome ideas just come to you? You make it look so easy! I really need to do motor current tests. I can only see an approximation to battery amps on my $1.99 volt meter (yes, that's right, amps on a volt meter hehe. It was super sneaky!). I can get lots of awesome data, if only I had some sort of hyper-terminal to send the info to from the controller. I really really really need to get a working laptop. I'm saving up for one right now. I'm all the way to $0 hehe.

Hey! Joe might have a laptop! I'm mailing him his controller on Monday or Tuesday. He can experiment with that if he wants! He is definitely going to want to try tricky stuff to keep things cool I bet. He lives in friggen arizona for crying out loud!

slurryguy: You read me like a book! It is a horrifying experience turning the car on for the first time, and stepping on the gas pedal. Man, I was scared!

[blowncurtice]

Sorry to be so dumb but could someone please tell me how to read the FAB files on the Wiki, My computer does not understand extensions like .APR, .DRL, .DRR, .GBL etc and I am trying very hard to if not catch up with you guys at least to understand what you are saying.

[jyanof]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Hey! Joe might have a laptop! I'm mailing him his controller on Monday or Tuesday. He can experiment with that if he wants! He is definitely going to want to try tricky stuff to keep things cool I bet. He lives in friggen arizona for crying out loud!

I do! I also have a shunt in the motor loop AND battery loop, but only have 1 meter in the car - there's a switch connected to a relay to switch between the two.

BTW paul - what connections are there for the throttle pot and 12V supply? the curtis has some large push-on connectors...

[roverT]

Originally Posted by blowncurtice

Sorry to be so dumb but could someone please tell me how to read the FAB files on the Wiki, My computer does not understand extensions like .APR, .DRL, .DRR, .GBL etc and I am trying very hard to if not catch up with you guys at least to understand what you are saying.

I like viewmate from PentaLogix for looking at Gerbers

File->Import->Gerbers

and select the file you want to look at.

the software is free.....

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by jyanof

BTW paul - what connections are there for the throttle pot and 12V supply? the curtis has some large push-on connectors...

I used some regular old connectors that I think are the same male connectors that Curtis uses. They are just at the end of their own wires instead of sticking right out of the controller box.

[MPaulHolmes]

If cooling is an issue, this new controller uses forced air cooling. I don't see why that would be very hard to add if it needed it:

[blowncurtice]

Thanks roverT
I have looked at all the gerber files so now can someone tell me how to get the .apr, .DRL, .DRR, .REP,

[roverT]

Originally Posted by blowncurtice

Thanks roverT
I have looked at all the gerber files so now can someone tell me how to get the .apr, .DRL, .DRR, .REP,

Nothing really to see that you haven't already seen in the gerber files. apr is aperature file which lists the gerber shapes(Dcodes and definitions), which is already shown in the gerbers, drl is probably some sort of drill file, drr looks like a list of tools required for drilling , REP is a list of the D codes which are the tags for the gerber shapes.

You can open these up in notepad

[vince]

I trust you to fill in where my brain is at with this next question(good luck)? Does this controller intigrate a dc/dc controller/charger for the acc battery or can it?