Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[bennelson]

I took my car through the carwash the other day.

My Curtis controller was all epoxy-sealed, but the Cougar is "user-serviceable.

It was pretty wet under the hood. I am going to have to remember to re-weatherproof the controller.

I was mostly concerned about water getting in around where the little wires go through the end caps, but it looks like everything is fine.

Last winter, I had an underbelly cover on the car. (Anyone remember Kleefisch?) I will have to make a new one to keep salt splash out from under the car this winter.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

There's a lead time on Capacitors, since I bought 200 of them! hahahahaha!

If one were to get the P11641-ND capacitors you mentioned for 180v, 700 amp instead of the P11622-ND for the 144v, 500 amp, would you then have to use the diodes and mosfets rated for 180v, 700 amps? The 180v mosfets aren't in stock either, but I was just curious.....

[MPaulHolmes]

Ben, that is scary... I like how you said "user-serviceable" hehe. AKA tape holding the plastic ends on. Have you noticed any difference with Fran's new code in there? There's fancier updated software that won't let you overrev the motor. I can walk you through the installation process if you want to do it. it's not bad. If you have access to the serial plug, you can do it.

You would have to use the mosfets that would be safe at 180v also (250v rated mosfets). Yes. But it's just plug and play! And you would have to use something like RURG8060 diodes instead of the 200v ones I'm using right now.

Since we are on the subject, you could also get the 300v mosfets, and the same RURG8060 diodes (they are good to 600v), and then some of the 300v capacitors in the same family as the ones you mentioned, and then your controller would magically be a maybe 220v 700amp controller. That's over 200 HP, all 200 HP from 0 rpm!! ya!

[vpoppv]

Well actually, I was still planning on 72ish voltage and go from there What I was hoping for was that, if the 144v rated capacitors were unavailable because someone in Washington is trying to corner the market -kidding- and one were to get the 180v caps, could you still use the 144v Mosfets and diodes and have a 144v 500 amp controller, or would they be incompatible?

[MPaulHolmes]

Yes, either capacitor would be fine. The higher voltage caps would have a total capacitance that's a bit smaller, but it's over-built, so it wouldn't matter.

[Persanity]

Is there away to make this work with a brushless DC motor? If this has been answered I apologize. Thank you.

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by Persanity

Is there away to make this work with a brushless DC motor? If this has been answered I apologize. Thank you.

No, This will not work with a brushless motor of any kind.

Pauls new AC controller that he is working on should be able to run a brushless DC motor with a different algorithm.

-Adam

[jackbauer]

For anyone in europe (or indeed anywhere!) interested in igbts the guy on the German ebay where i purchased my devices has new stock:
eBay.co.uk Shop ? reloaded-secondlifeofelectronic: Search results for.

[jyanof]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Since we are on the subject, you could also get the 300v mosfets, and the same RURG8060 diodes (they are good to 600v), and then some of the 300v capacitors in the same family as the ones you mentioned, and then your controller would magically be a maybe 220v 700amp controller. That's over 200 HP, all 200 HP from 0 rpm!! ya!

Just a thought: switching losses go up quickly with voltage. Thus, your silicon temps get higher faster and your output current is limited. From my own experience, a 500v mosfet in a charger outputted 20A without issue when run from a 160VDC source (rectified 120VAC). When the same setup was run from a source twice the voltage (240VAC), the mosfet blew up at 8A.

Not to say that swapping out components won't have good results, but it may require better heatsinking and a bit of testing. I hope someone does it - I'm quite curious how it works out!

[jackbauer]

Just in terms of the 8khz pwm how is that activated? Do i have to change a value in the .c file or can it be changed by rtd?