Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[ElectricZX2]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

haha ya, but mine was just an implied 1000amp limit. I tested the throttle, like 20%, and then noted that I was getting 20% of around 1060 amps. I wonder if electric ZX2 was getting 600 motor amps because the motor started to spin which limited the motor current? I don't know.

I don't know if the 1000amp software survived. I know it didn't make it to carbonite. Maybe it got posted on the wiki.

Anyway to get the software off of a controller?

[voltmatic automaton]

So a while back I completed constructing the controller. Put it in tha car and...nothing.
So I mpacked everything up and quit for a while. Some things happened in life and I had to find the motivation to get the car running.

Went back to trying to troubleshoot, and a very simple question on this board showed one of the biggest blunders I have ever made...

A bad cable.

Hidden beneath the board that secures all my controller , contactor stuff is a high voltage line to the breaker.

At some point the bolt had vibrated loose and over time the arc had melted the lug to nothing...hence no power.

Call me what you want...theres probably nothing I haven't called myself.

One lug and reassembly later and a simple turn of the key has the car running with the Open Revolt Controller.

A million thanks to Paul for his hard work and to all on the board who have advised and mused on the various aspects of this very useful device.

NOW....a quandry...I have had to move to an apartment. No charging options.
So if anyone can suggest a way to get a 240 volt outlet to charge my car from someone somewhere in Arlington DFW area, I would appreciate it.

The only other option would be to sell the vehicle, which I may have to do

Let me know your thoughts, and again a great big thank you for all of your help!

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by ElectricZX2

Could be I'm only getting 600 amps because the Good Lord knows I would smoke my homemade coupler with 1000 amps . At any rate...instead of going up to 511 or whatever the reference is it goes up to like 270 or something like that. The math worked out that the reference was the same percentage of 1008 of what I'm getting...

It sounds like your controller is not mapped properly for the throttle range. T-max-rc should the same as the raw throttle reading when pushed all the way to the floor and t-min-rc should be the same as raw throttle when you foot is off the pedal.

Originally Posted by ElectricZX2

Anyway to get the software off of a controller?

It is only possible to get an image of the firmware off the controller. You wont be able to get the actual code back.

-Adam

[MPaulHolmes]

Congratulations, Voltmatic Automation!!!!! Hmm... Your charger is 220v? Oh man, apartments are horrible about having higher voltages available. If you get a first floor apartment, you might be able to run an extension cord to the car, but then you'd have to get a 110v input charger. dang it! I'll do it, I'll punch that apartment right now! Hold me back!

I think I might have sent the wrong power board to be uploaded to the wiki. My naming conventions aren't very good. Carbonite just finished downloading all the information (uploading? haha) to my computer and AAAAALLLLLL of my home made libraries FOR DESIGN SPARK are gone. That represents probably 200-300 hours of work down the toilet like a ... well, never mind what it's like. That's not important right now.

[electricstorm]

Hey Paul, sorry to hear about the computer problems.

Once you recover from all this, was wondering if the files are too large to back-up on a flash drive. I've had computer crashes before and know it's not fun to have to re-compile all your data. If the files are too large for a flash drive, maybe a DVD back-up. Or maybe just upload the files to the Wiki as a temporary file of some sort that only you (or a few others) have access to. Not sure how the Wiki works for something like that.

Just curious, which Linux version were you using? I have a dual boot system with Win 7 and Ununtu on it. Not a real Linux user, just wanted to try it out. But I do like it better that Windows.

Anyway, good luck with the new system and I hope all goes well for you on it.

[Greg Fordyce]

Paul, are you absolutely sure your old hard drive is completely dead? If you haven't already tried, scrounge an old pc from somewhere, install the faulty hard drive and boot the pc from a linux live cd (or you can even make a usb pen drive bootable with linux and use that, see google for instructions), Ubuntu will do. Since you are booting from the cd and not the hard disk, the pc will boot, regardless of the condition of the hdd. You can then see if linux can read any of the files on the broken hard disk. It may need a bit of fiddling around and a few restarts, but you only need to read it long enough to copy the files onto a usb stick, usb hdd, etc. I wouldn't try to burn a cd,it takes too long and the broken disk might not last long enough for that. There are even dedicated linux rescue CDs with tools for data recovery, again consult google. Finally I have heard of people buying identical hdd off ebay and swapping the guts, just to get the data off. HTH.

Greg

[dave koller]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Congratulations, Voltmatic Automation!!!!! Hmm... Your charger is 220v? Oh man, apartments are horrible about having higher voltages available. If you get a first floor apartment, you might be able to run an extension cord to the car, but then you'd have to get a 110v input charger. dang it! I'll do it, I'll punch that apartment right now! Hold me back!

I take NO responsibility for any danger or injury you might do to yourself or apartment! NONE NADA ... It is your choice alone to try this......


Ok here is the trick -but it is not easy to find out in apartments. SOME outlets are on one side of 220 (110) and some are on the other (the other half of 220).

Plug in two three wire extension cords (to different outlets) and use a voltmeter from the hot of one to the hot of cord two - when you get 220 make your own adapter and go from there. Most electric ranges and dryers have a 220 outlet ... try that but BE careful. This tape will self destruct in 1 minute.

[MPaulHolmes]

Hey! Voltmatic automation, ask to see the inside of the apartment, and then ask if you can be alone for a few minutes, to see if it's "for you". Next, try what Dave suggested. That's a really good idea.

Greg! That's a good idea, and I'm going to try it.

[Ryland]

I hate to see threads drift to other topics, but for charging from an apartment like that it is true and the easy way is to look at the breaker box, a single breaker is going to give you 110v and a double pole breaker is going to give you 220v because under the breakers the tabs that carry the live current alternate so that a dual pole breaker can tap in to both tabs, so you just need to read down the labels and find two breakers that are side by side that power outlets, or see if there is a empty spot and install your own 220v breaker with a cord coming right off of it, if you have any work done on your house where they need to power a 220v device that is what they do, then just run a heavy cord out the window.

So it's sounding like the 1000amp speed controller is going to take a bit longer?

[isaac_alaska]

Paul, you can also send your hard drive in to a company and they can send you a copy of everything that was on it. i've got several friends who've done it before when their hard drive crashed with lots of music/files on it. most of them are pretty reasonable, maybe a hundred dollars or so depending on how large the hard drive is and how badly it's damaged. since i'm guessing your hard drive didn't go through a bullet storm or a fire, there's a VERY good chance you can get everything back off of it. most companies will even send u the data on your choice of media (dvd, flash drive, new hard drive) but they'll charge you for whichever one you choose. dvd's are the most common i think.

in other news, i'm finally getting to start soldering components to my control board!

*edit*

or i was going to. but now i'm not positive which board i have and which BOM to follow. it's been about three months since i got the control board pcb, and it's not labeled which version it is.
This is the list of parts i ordered:
http://ecomodder.com/wiki/index.php/.../Control_board

and this is a picture of the board i have:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

i think this this is the board that goes with the BOM i ordered, but i wanted to double check before i start soldering. does anyone happen to have a picture of this board built up?