Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[MPaulHolmes]

It took some time to cut out the Lexan (pretty thin) and drill holes and stuff like that. Then I heard that it might be illegal since it could cause major EMI issues, then Hondo made a fancy metal one that only required end caps. Then end! hahaha

[jackbauer]

Does the contactor control part work with the new software? Getting closer to putting it all together. If my current plan works out this will have a power section with a theoretical capacity of 1000amps at 400v Paul did you get a chance to mail the new lem? My "warp13" is ready for action!

[MPaulHolmes]

Hijack. How are you! I'm mailing it today. My nephew has been throwing up lots of blood (it looks like sandpaper scraped his stomach according to the doctor that looked in his stomach with the camera) and I had to watch his autistic brother while my parents and sister went up to Children's Hospital (and babysitting my foster brother since he was kicked out of school this week) so we have been busy!

[jackbauer]

My God thats awful! Forget the lem. You have enough to deal with.

[MPaulHolmes]

No Jack! It's OK! Gangster foster brother is back in school. No problem. I don't have time to test it before shipping it, but statistically speaking it should work. Also my nephew is out of the hospital today. I think it was ulcers, but they don't know.

[sawickm]

What is the latest revision being used for the controller

I noticed that “Mcudogs” posted a revision D Controller & Power PCB schematic on 09/10/09. It was not added into the Wiki ??? and I don’t think the Wiki software supports it ???

FYI: I don’t know if this was pointed out yet, but looking over the revision D schematic I noticed that the symbols for U13 & U14 (PC900V0NSZXF) pins 4 & 5 are backwards. Pin 5 should be GND, and Pin 4 should be V0 (see attachment). They are used for the new A/D input and Battery Voltage Monitor circuits.



-Mark

[mcudogs]

Mark,

I think you may be looking at an old version of the files. I've just received the version D boards and the tracks for those pins are going to the right places.

The files for version D have been uploaded to the WIKI but I haven't made the prototype yet. So I don't recommend that anybody uses them until I can prove them OK. Also I haven't done any software revision for the extra features yet. Too little time and too many things to do.

[MPaulHolmes]

phew! hahaha!

[jyanof]

I think it was Ben who was having problems with the radio?

So, I noticed it yesterday too. I live within a few miles of the radio towers, so I get great reception all the time. Yesterday though, I was listening to a station out on the west side of town that's notorious for getting a weak signal out there. Sure enough, there was some static whenever I stepped on the accelerator, enough to be annoying at least. Other stations that had a stronger signal came in fine. Either I hadn't listened to this weaker station before or just hadn't correlated the static to controller operation.

Interestingly, there was a recent thread on the EVDL about radio interference.

Nabble - EMI suppression in EVs, The easy way

and

Nabble - Reducing radio interference?

[bennelson]

Yeah,

I've been having problems with the radio.

As a disclaimer though, I DON'T HAVE A RADIO ANTENNAE!
When I bought the car, the antennae and both outside mirrors were snapped off - or aeromodded, as I like to think of it. I reinstalled the one mirror, but never did anything about the radio.

The one FM station I listen to has the transmitter closest to my house. I can get it great on my truck with the antennae removed.

Thanks for the RF links.