Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[jackbauer]

If you want to drive igbts you will need an igbt driver board and a 12v to 15v dc to dc converter to power the driver. You also need a suitable power stage comprised of igbts , capacitors , busbars and heatsinking. Have a look at some of my videos on EVBMW

[adamj12b]

Im posting this to get a feeler if people would be interested in this.

Last year I did a few group buys for CM400DU-12F IGBT modules. A good amount of people bought them, But not many people have posted what they did with them. For all I know, they are still sitting in peoples closets

Well I have but together a design for a controller using 3 modules. It also uses an SBE ring cap and bus plate design. This design includes a driver board that uses a single VLA-500-01 driver module with some passive balancing circuitry to drive all 3 IGBT's in parallel. This design should be good for 900-1000A for as long as you can keep it cool. A water chilled plate is recommended. Also, as a side note, this is the same cap thats used in the Soliton 1.

I plan on having 1 of these made for a project, but if people are interested, I can get a quote for more sets of bus plates. More that are wanted, the cheeper they will become.

The plates will be water-jet cut and bent professionally. I will then sandwich the plates during assembly with a sheet of 3mil mylar that has been cad cut. This will provide isolation of around 5kV.

Estimated cost of a kit MINUS igbt's would be somewhere around 400+ the cost of the bus bars, bus plates and mylar. So safely $600 is probably where it would be.

I know this seems like alot, but just compare it to the cost of a production 1kA controller at wound $3k.

Well let me kno. Here are some pictures.

-Adam


3 IGBT Controller W bars by AdamBrunette, on Flickr



3 IGBT Controller Explode by AdamBrunette, on Flickr

[sawickm]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

I plan on having 1 of these made for a project, but if people are interested, I can get a quote for more sets of bus plates. More that are wanted, the cheeper they will become.

I know this seems like alot, but just compare it to the cost of a production 1kA controller at wound $3k.

Hi Adam,

I like it !!!

I think that flat bus plate and ring cap is a good idea, considering that the Soliton 1K Controller (EVnetics) uses the same design concept. Your kit at $400 - $500 is a good price for that knock off (minus IGBTs) !!!

What thickness are you using for the Bus Plate ?

I am interested on how you are going to package that in a housing with the ReVolt Controller and Driver PCB ???

Keep us informed.

Thanks,

Mark

[Weisheimer]

Hi Adam,

Mmmmmm...looks good. I'd buy a set!

Mark

[MPaulHolmes]

That's beautiful Adam! the stray inductance is going to be teeny tiny.

Hey Isaac_Alaska, you need a way to get the 5v power to the driver board too. I had done the board for mosfets, and tried to make it compatible for an igbt diver board too, but I forgot that part. I would definitely check out what Jack did, since I've never used it for igbts. I'm unfamiliar with all the quirks.

[evimarn]

I would like to thank all who contribute and share their knowlegde especially those who answer my questions (silly at times).

I would like to see listed the most reliable D.i.y. units using igbts and pwm gens and drivers with schematics as this helps me choose. ( I have most spec sheets for components ) after your experience and expert advice, since I cannot afford to do p.c.bs and trials ,for various reasons.
So I am after a complete d.i.y. set ,not that I will be using it for max power but might be over loaded at times.

I am intending to use a freelander starting at 144 - 168 volts and a Kostov motor, hence the realabilty I need is if I up the voltage for later on I would like to keep the same system, but mostly because whatever I get usually c*aps on me so I strongly believe a well designed / built system by you, and using igbts will have a lesser chance of screwing me up. hehe.

Please do not flame me I need a lot of input.
Cheers.

[isaac_alaska]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

That's beautiful Adam! the stray inductance is going to be teeny tiny.

Hey Isaac_Alaska, you need a way to get the 5v power to the driver board too. I had done the board for mosfets, and tried to make it compatible for an igbt diver board too, but I forgot that part. I would definitely check out what Jack did, since I've never used it for igbts. I'm unfamiliar with all the quirks.

cool, i'll see what i can do to get a 5 volt regulator in there. i'll probably just do it with a separate isolated dc-dc converter if i can find one; gotta look up the current requirements on it and then spec one out.
*edit* found a 7 watt 12V-5V dc converter. since the VLA power inputs share common ground i don't need an isolated one. is the output from the 1KA control board 15V? or is 12V enough to drive the VLA board?

I got super excited when i saw the ring cap that Adam had posted pictures of. I'm planning to use 4 igbt's for my power stage instead of 3 though, so i'll need to build up my own bus plates. Just had the water jet guys cut me some 1/8th inch aluminum plate prototype motor mounts for fitting purposes. they're my friends now! haha Adam, are you going to be selling just the capacitors? I found the 600 volt 1000uF rings caps, i'm guessing these are the ones you're using? i did a few calculations and it looks like they'll be able to source way more energy than my motor will ever be able to draw, so to me it looks ideal. The price i found is 198.22 usd. I'll buy from you if you are selling them cheaper, but that seems to be a pretty standard price.

also, can someone check my pics from a couple of posts previous, and see if my inductor is oriented correctly? i could't find any markings on the inductor itself.

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by sawickm

Hi Adam,

I like it !!!

I think that flat bus plate and ring cap is a good idea, considering that the Soliton 1K Controller (EVnetics) uses the same design concept. Your kit at $400 - $500 is a good price for that knock off (minus IGBTs) !!!

What thickness are you using for the Bus Plate ?

I am interested on how you are going to package that in a housing with the ReVolt Controller and Driver PCB ???

Keep us informed.

Thanks,

Mark

Hey Mark,

The plates are 20Awg. About 0.032 in. thick.

The controller is more Revolt based, instead of being a Revolt. The driver board is of my own design special to driving 3 IGBT's. The logic board is also my own design shared from my monster 6 IGBT controller for my Vette. Its quite a bit more advanced then the normal revolt board. It includes ethernet and voltage monitoring for 400VDC, as well as dual outputs for driving dual IGBT drivers.

-Adam

[sawickm]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

The controller is more Revolt based, instead of being a Revolt. The driver board is of my own design special to driving 3 IGBT's. The logic board is also my own design shared from my monster 6 IGBT controller for my Vette. Its quite a bit more advanced then the normal revolt board. It includes ethernet and voltage monitoring for 400VDC, as well as dual outputs for driving dual IGBT drivers.

Hi Adam,

Looking forward to hearing, and seeing more about your new Controller !!!

Keep up the good work.

-Mark

[isaac_alaska]

So, i'm not totally sure about how to go about programming the control board yet. I was thinking i could program it through the rs232 port, but none of the chips i have are pre programmed at all. From what i've read, the controller can be RE programmed with the serial connection, but the chips must be programmed initially. is this right? if so, i found this programmer on ebay:

ATMEL ATMEGA328 KIT ( STK500 AVR Studio 4 bootloader ) | eBay

would this work to program the board?

sorry for all the questions, i don't have a lot of experience with digital electronics yet. still working on it on the other hand, my prototype motor mounts are finished! i welded it together with my battery welder

here's a picture, in the bare chassis. going to mount a warP 7 in it.