Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[jackbauer]

Interested in that myself!

[MPaulHolmes]

Me too! I want that PFC! That's going to be version 2 for me.

[ElectricZX2]

I hope the 1000amp model is well sealed for when "Danger" does the testing! I guess water cooling would be relatively easy though . On that subject, what about using a common clamp for the mosfets that was made out of square aluminum tubing that you could run cooling water through? That might be a little easier than making a manifold out of the heat spreader since it already has mounting holes running through it. Can heat be drawn out of either side of the mosfets effectively? Actually a finned aluminum clamp might work well for air-cooling...

Luke

[MPaulHolmes]

I think the heat only can be drawn out of the back side (well) unfortunately. It has a metal back, but the front feels like plastic or something. I would love to do a water cooled thing! Man, I would like that. I don't know how. haha. The water would be electrically connected to M-, which means you would have to be careful not to connect the water to the chassis of the car. That's all I'm worried about.

[ElectricZX2]

Hm...a leak. Good point. Just make sure you use distilled water

[MPaulHolmes]

That's a good idea. Will the water stay distilled if it comes in contact with the Aluminum? Or will it get enough impurities so that it will become a conductor? I don't know very much about water. I think the usual method is water cooling with IGBTs which already have an isolated base. Totally not fair... Maybe if there was still the little isolation material between the mosfets and the aluminum, and then the aluminum was water cooled. That might work pretty good too?

[dave koller]

If the aluminum was anodized ? Or plastic (thin wall) tube ran through (back and forth) - would it conduct heat well enough?

Or would it just be better to fin the inside (lol, er, machine slits) and venturi air forcefully through the center?

[dave koller]

Opps
Paul what program are you using (or going to use) to program the dspic30f4011 chip?

[adamj12b]

I too am very interested in the PFC version of a charger.

Something to think about with water cooling is when people water cool computers, they usually use a water blocks made out of copper and water flows through fins in the block and back on to the cooling tower. The cooling towers are usually powered by 120VAC and I've never heard of anybody dying from working on their gaming computer. LOL

-Adam

[drbobwoolery]

re: PFC, check out this:Back
re: liquid cooling: Why not use oil? Shell dealers can sell you 5 gallons of Diala AX for not too much more than the $20 I paid some time ago. Little or no odor, nonconductive to high voltages, and you just immerse the whole assembly.

I'm making a Jacob's Ladder out of an old X-ray HV transformer, so "dunk it in an oil tank" comes easily to mind. The circuitry hangs from the top of the oil container and the connections come through that top.