Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[MPaulHolmes]

Big Dang Motor! No Belt! Mill up to 1.25" steel plate. hehe.

Mill Picture with the top cut off.

Whole mill in the picture. I really like that mill. It's my friend.

See, we're not embezzling your money!

Still not embezzling...

Sort of blurry, so maybe embezzling a little here? haha! no!

LEM Current Sensor!

All of the electronics that came today... ya!

OOh, a closeup of the new fancy mosfets (only 6! anger! More coming soon! flames of anger!) and diodes.

Clamps for the mosfets and diodes to keep them pushed against the heat sink.

ATMega8's! 2 of them, just in case.

I just want to share that it was truly horrible getting that mill into the garage. The shipping weight was over 1000 pounds. The engine hoist worked really well! A student in the math class helped me. It was awesome!

[Daveedo]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

...A student in one of my weenie math 99 classes (x + 1 = 5. Find x.) ...

Found it! Its right there





PS Nice score on the mill paul! Did it come with a table so you can get it up off the floor?

[MPaulHolmes]

The dang table was $200. I'll maybe get one later. For now, I sort of like sitting on the ground. That's what I'll tell myself at least. hehe. I loved that find x. I'm giving a test tomorrow!

[Daveedo]

An option might be some really HD sawhorses. I built a set for my 3000lb camper out of 4x8 top pieces supported by 4x4s trussed with 2x4s underneath. It sat on the sawhorses since 2002 and still sits on them (the guy I sold it too uses them still).I'll keep an eye out for ya for a cheap HD table though.
l8r

When I was in B'ham I used a friends shop for all sorts of projects. His mill was amazing. I could drill a 1.5" hole through 2" of steel with very little effort. His mill could also be used as a giant drill press.

[MPaulHolmes]

The saw horses would have to be really small, because I have almost no room in that garage. boohoo.

Hey, check out Ian's latest project! Warning: It's copylefted material!

OK, so the remaining 6 mosfets came, so I have a total of 12 until the other 19 come at the end of March. I've been practicing the etching on the mill until the mill clamps get here. Man, why can't shipping be instantaneous!? Flames of anger!

I have cool pictures to upload, but my dang batteries are recharging. Etching is extremely easy and accurate to +/- 0.001" now. Actually, I bet I could get it to 0.0005" if I was careful. Just go half way between tick marks. They are pretty wide! Hmm... Ben's working too fast! Slow down, you spicy meatball! I guess it's good to have longer range at 72v.

By!

[bennelson]

Hey Paul,


Nice to see the photos of all the parts come in. Make sure to file away your invoice to make the Master Open Source Parts List and Supply Source.

My car is all wired up with 12 x 12V batteries (although they are in a 72V configuration, and not pretty, and I have no suspension...)

Should I get get some lettering on my car that says "Open Source EV"?

I did post the machining file for my adapter plate a while back. Er, actually that was just a jpeg of it. How do I post a DXF file here?

[EDIT]
I guess I did figure out how to post that file at some point. It is in THIS THREAD.

Once we get the open source charger, we can build an entire Ecomodder Open Source EV!

[MPaulHolmes]

Machining file for your adapter plate! That's right, I forgot! I'm going to have to have a looksee. I made sure I got a mill table size that was plenty for any adapter plate. It then just becomes an exercise in starting at 0,0, and moving to the various coordinates and drilling the holes of the appropriate size! Man, that would take like 5 seconds! You wouldn't even need a digital read out display. Just count the cranks. 1 revolution = 0.1 inches. Each revolution is broken into 1000 pieces.

Ya! Whole open source EV!!! yahoo! freeway capable for under $300! haha!

Hey, Ben, did you also post it as a picture? I don't have autocad. I just need coordinates. (x,y), (r,theta) it don't matter! I can find them if enough information is there.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Hey, Ben, did you also post it as a picture?

I do need to update that file though. The "armpit" cut-out needs to be a little bigger. Also the curve of the upper right-hand side can be cut straight to allow more room for batteries in the radiator area of the car.

OK - here is an updated image:


The round notch on the bottom left needs to be a little bigger for the passenger-side CV joint. Also, up isn't up. I marked in a red line showing the approximate direction of up. The red line on the right shows extra metal that could be trimmed off to make a little more room for long batteries in the radiator area.

[esoneson]

Careful now Paul. Go slow......don't rush it. Don't want to lose any of those itty bitty electro-parts......don't want to etch-a-sketch an unwanted cut or add. Take your time.

Deep breaths.........there.......now concentrate! :-)

Eric

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by esonson

Careful now Paul. Go slow......don't rush it. Don't want to lose any of those itty bitty electro-parts......don't want to etch-a-sketch an unwanted cut or add. Take your time.

Deep breaths.........there.......now concentrate! :-)

Eric

haha! I was thinking about that today. I tried to be super careful. I finished the mosfet/diode side of the power board. I was able to fit (perfectly!) 12 mosfets and 12 diodes. That's right, folks, a 600amp 144v controller, for the first draft! haha! Even with a mill, it was still pretty hard work. Lots of concentrating! Holy cow. Near the end I was so afraid I was going to make a mistake, that I was having trouble counting. I couldn't focus! phew!


The first etching! The diode side...


Another angle.


Diode side done!


Poof, mosfet side done too! That was fast!

Well, it was harder than it looked. I have never concentrated so hard in my life! Geeze!

Next, I must wait for the mill clamps to come, and then do the power section for the capacitor side. Oh, this is really exciting! Then I have to solder all the power stuff on, and then make the control board with the hardware current limiting. Oh man. There are a few details here and there. But it's coming! Version 2 is going to be super easy to make. The first one is the hardest I think.