Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[harlequin2]

Been a while, but I finished my controller and it works pretty well. I used pcbs from Paul and bought the bits from Ian Bartie in Australia. He supplies a copper heat spreader bar! My case is folded from 3mm Al with a big lump of finned heatsink bolted to it - eight bolts in two rows of four. One row is the bolts through the heat spreader bar and the other row is four bolts from inside tapped into the heat sink base.
It powers two Advanced L91 motors connected in series and driven by 45 x Li cells also in series giving 144v. Pushes a 1988 BMW 318 (E30) along the road with direct drive ie no clutch or gearbox.
Top speed is just 100 kph and acceleration from 0 to 80 kph is about 12 seconds. I did have the motors connected in parallel at one stage and that gave a top speed of about 130 kph but the acceleration was very snail like. So, not enough torque (current) for good acceleration with parallel connection and not enough volts for good top speed with serial connection. Have to figure out a switch!
It draws 170A from the battery at full speed.
RTD Explorer tells me the heat spreader temp sits around 43 - 45 deg C during continuous operation at about 50 - 70 kph (depends on the speed zones). Outside temp was 22 deg C.
Done just on 1000 kms with it now and I get about 120 kms before the volts drop below 135.
I'd put a picture here if I knew how!

[mrbigh]

harlequin2

great news about the Cougar type controller you build; you are among many other satisfied DIY Kit builders and isn't great the RTD explorer? thanks to adam12
you can copy pictures from a folder of your computer while posting something, look for a button called " Manage Attachments " and it will be self explanatory.
Good luck and keep the pictures coming..

[harlequin2]

Thanks for the advice, mrbigh. So, if it worked, here's a picture of my controller!

[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by harlequin2

Thanks for the advice, mrbigh. So, if it worked, here's a picture of my controller!

Yeah, it made it to the world for everyone to see.....

[bennelson]

Looks solid! Nice job!

[Greg Fordyce]

Originally Posted by harlequin2

It powers two Advanced L91 motors connected in series and driven by 45 x Li cells also in series giving 144v. Pushes a 1988 BMW 318 (E30) along the road with direct drive ie no clutch or gearbox.
Top speed is just 100 kph and acceleration from 0 to 80 kph is about 12 seconds. I did have the motors connected in parallel at one stage and that gave a top speed of about 130 kph but the acceleration was very snail like. So, not enough torque (current) for good acceleration with parallel connection and not enough volts for good top speed with serial connection. Have to figure out a switch!

Series to parallel shifting can be done with contactors and is common in drag racing. The Killa cycle uses this for example. A bit of googleing should reveal the setup. Congratulations on getting on the road.

Greg

[adamj12b]

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks back there was talk about a group buy for the VLA-500-01 Drivers. I offered to do a group buy for these. Currently I have 1o called for. The goal is 25 to drop the price from $43.66 to $37.76. If anybody else is interested, Please let me know.

-Adam

[wakinyantanka]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks back there was talk about a group buy for the VLA-500-01 Drivers. I offered to do a group buy for these. Currently I have 1o called for. The goal is 25 to drop the price from $43.66 to $37.76. If anybody else is interested, Please let me know.

-Adam

Are these the same drivers we have been talking about? These are for the IGBT set-up, correct. If so, count me in for 1.

[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by adam12

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks back there was talk about a group buy for the VLA-500-01 Drivers. I offered to do a group buy for these. Currently I have 1o called for. The goal is 25 to drop the price from $43.66 to $37.76. If anybody else is interested, Please let me know.

-Adam

Adam
Can you please put an add in the classified section to promote sales count?
Thank you

[Grimm]

So, does this mean we'll see Paul's very own display system built into the next controller? Complete with spiffy graphics of lightning bolts and tires burning rubber on the controller control panel?

On the topic of displays, laptop displays have pretty weird and flimsy connectors and aren't exactly the best choice. At least the displays I've worked with. Benjamin J Heckendorn has used everything from PS1 travel screens to digital picture frames to dirt cheap off brand LCD monitors in his projects and just recently did a hack with a rotating laptop screen. If someone somewhere has found a way to use the cheap touchscreens from digital picture frames for other hacks that would be a great way to tinker with controller data and settings on the fly.