Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[MPaulHolmes]

12 business days, plus shipping, which is suprisingly quick. LIke 3 or 4 days.

[mora]

Are power boards coming from the same source as control boards? I'll take one anyway, hehe.

[MPaulHolmes]

yes, all 3 from pcbcart.com.

[harlequin2]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Oh ya. How about $45 for power board + $20 for driver board?

mpholmes@hotmail.com haha. not paypal.com. Man I'm an idiot!

I've been away for a few days and just now saw this. Can I buy one of each still, or am I too late? Plus postage to New Zealand, of course!
Didn't you know its essential to have a beta tester in the Southern Hemisphere? Due to the change in the magnetic field of course.

[MPaulHolmes]

I don't think it's too late. Those stinkers at PCBCart.com haven't gotten back to me yet, but they should shortly. Or I'm libel to whoop the tar out of them! And we definitely need a new zealander! It just wouldn't be right otherwise.

-Paul

[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I don't think it's too late. Those stinkers at PCBCart.com haven't gotten back to me yet, but they should shortly. Or I'm libel to whoop the tar out of them! And we definitely need a new zealander! It just wouldn't be right otherwise.

-Paul

well , I sent the money to the wrong email address, I just found out and corrected through Paypal, you should have the extra $25.00 by now...

[harlequin2]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I don't think it's too late. Those stinkers at PCBCart.com haven't gotten back to me yet, but they should shortly. Or I'm libel to whoop the tar out of them! And we definitely need a new zealander! It just wouldn't be right otherwise.

-Paul

OK, work out a number for the postage and as soon as you confirm it all I'll PayPal the money.

I have a 500A controller running my BMW at present and I'll be very interested to a "side-by-side" comparison as soon as I can get a new one built. And if it doesn't work, we are coming over there to eat your ancestors.

Just a note of interest, perhaps: The Prius is pretty useless when it gets old and its batteries die because it needs a blast of current to get it off the line so the petrol motor can start. A new battery pack is very expensive, more than the car is worth, so someone has made up a dc - dc inverter running off a couple of 12V PbA batteries in the boot and producing the 275V or so that the thing needs. A whopping big capacitor across the output gives it the surge it needs to get the car moving. Presto! Your junk Prius is restored to motion.

[MPaulHolmes]

I officially updated the numbers on the boards with pcbcart. Hurray.

Also, I wrote some gcode, and made 3 etched boards with a couple holes in each one so it will bolt right onto a bus bar. I also soldered a little high magnetic field current sensor to one of them. It's ready for testing with the 3/8" x 3/4" bus bar. But the stupid bus bar isn't here yet! They are being shipped all the way from Seattle! I sure hope UPS delivers on Saturdays, or bam! right in the eyeball.

I think I used the wrong kind of flux on the practice current sensor, so this one will probably not be used in any final controller.

[vwdevotee]

First off I'll be honest, I didn't read all 444 pages. A couple of questions though. Can someone point me to the page with the most recent schematic drawings? I'm curious to see how it finally ended up. Also, instead of 24 small(ish) ripple caps, would there be any advantage or disadvantages to using one or two large (10,000 uF or so) cap? Is it possible to have too much ripple capacitance? Has anyone played with using a large IGBT instead of a bunch of MOSFETs? Thanks in advance!

[harlequin2]

Originally Posted by vwdevotee

First off I'll be honest, I didn't read all 444 pages. A couple of questions though. Can someone point me to the page with the most recent schematic drawings? I'm curious to see how it finally ended up. Also, instead of 24 small(ish) ripple caps, would there be any advantage or disadvantages to using one or two large (10,000 uF or so) cap? Is it possible to have too much ripple capacitance? Has anyone played with using a large IGBT instead of a bunch of MOSFETs? Thanks in advance!

I can understand why you haven't read all the pages, its a bit of a marathon.
But the point of the caps is to achieve sufficient "surge" capability with the lowest ESR possible and the values chosen do that. Also at an affordable price.
The files are here:
Open ReVolt/PCB Schematics - EcoModder

And yes, people have played with IGBT versions.

Read the thread!