Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Some commercial motor controllers also have a pin in for when you are in reverse. When the controller knows you are in reverse, the controller limits speed to half.

On my Electric Geo Metro (With an Open Revolt controller) I just use the mechanical reverse gear, and I have every bit as much speed/power in reverse as I do in forward - actually even more, as reverse gears tend to be even lower than 1st, and I NEVER use first gear in my car because of how much torque the motor has.

On my parents EV, the reverse lights are wired up to a relay that adds a resister in parallel to the pot box, so when you shift in to reverse it limits how fast you can go backwards, some people also add a switch on to the dash that does the same thing, this can be useful for when you want to deaden the throttle a bit, for driving on to a trailer, ramps for getting under the car or when you are letting someone else drive your car and want it to be throttled back a bit.

[Crossdan]

Hi,
I have a couple of what i think are basic questions about the Open Revolt. I purchased the kit from Paul & Sabrina a while back and finally (after spending a lot of time getting a big motor into a little Metro) got around to mating the control board with the power board. I'm doing some bench tests and it doesn't seem like the main contactor lead ever puts out the 12 volts. My tests so far have included powering the controller board with a 12v supply on J1 bottom 2 leads and attaching a 12v wheel chair motor/batteries. When I turn it on both LEDS are on, when I turn the pot the motor spins for a second and cuts out and one of the LEDS blinks. I think this is right since the controller probably isn't getting enough amperage feedback and turns off to save itself. However, at no time during all this does the top lead on J1 read 12v.
Is the top lead of J1 for the main contactor control?
Am I correct on why the motor cuts out after a second?

I do get data from a serial connection using Moserial, I can post data if that would help. Also, does anyone know where I can download RTD Explore? The links I've found all give me an Apple error message saying MobileMe has been discontinued.
Any and all advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

[mora]

Are you sure you are powering the board the right way? Middle pin of J1 is for contactor control. You might need to set precharge time before it outputs 12V. I haven't used any other terminal programs than RTD Explorer but I'd say you can set any parameter using moserial.

User adamj12b offered RTD Explorer at www.evvette.com, but indeed the site seems to be down. Maybe you could ask him for the software directly.

[Crossdan]

Mora,
I am using pin 3 for the contactor per your attachment. Power is correct also. I wasn't including the pot pins and had it upside down when I said "top lead". Thanks for the schematic.
I'm also thinking its could be the precharge timer but I'm having trouble sending commands to the controller with moserial. I'll keep trying and/or contact Adamj12b about RTD Explore.
Dan

[MPaulHolmes]

Ya, the contactor control is disabled by default. You have to set the precharge time to a nonzero value first before middle of J1 will go from 0v to 12. Also, you are right about the motor stopping. If current feedback is "zero" (less than an amp or 2) and pwm duty is 100%, it flags a fault, and forces you to lift throttle to zero before clearing fault.

You can also try realterm.

[Crossdan]

Thanks Paul, that explains issue with the contactor.
I've tried both moserial and realterm to communicate with the controller. Both readily recieve data once I set the baud rate, but I can't seem to send any commands to it. I found the command list on the wiki and assume I need to "idle" the controller before setting the precharge variable. Is this correct? However, when I send "idle" the data stream just continues.

[MPaulHolmes]

With realterm, I click on the window where the data shows up, and then just type something. Like this:

pc-time 87
save

That would set the precharge time to 8.7 seconds. The middle wire of J1 would go from 0v to 12v after 8.7 seconds.

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by Crossdan

Hi,
I have a couple of what i think are basic questions about the Open Revolt. I purchased the kit from Paul & Sabrina a while back and finally (after spending a lot of time getting a big motor into a little Metro) got around to mating the control board with the power board. I'm doing some bench tests and it doesn't seem like the main contactor lead ever puts out the 12 volts. My tests so far have included powering the controller board with a 12v supply on J1 bottom 2 leads and attaching a 12v wheel chair motor/batteries. When I turn it on both LEDS are on, when I turn the pot the motor spins for a second and cuts out and one of the LEDS blinks. I think this is right since the controller probably isn't getting enough amperage feedback and turns off to save itself. However, at no time during all this does the top lead on J1 read 12v.
Is the top lead of J1 for the main contactor control?
Am I correct on why the motor cuts out after a second?

I do get data from a serial connection using Moserial, I can post data if that would help. Also, does anyone know where I can download RTD Explore? The links I've found all give me an Apple error message saying MobileMe has been discontinued.
Any and all advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

Whoops,

I will get the site back up hopefully today.

I will let everybody know when its up.

-Adam

[Crossdan]

Got it now. The "Idle" command I was using apparantly is not a command. I tried using the pc-time and save commands as Paul suggested and it worked just fine with moserial. The middle of J1 now goes to 12volts after 8 seconds.

Is there a list anywhere of all the default settings?

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

Whoops,

I will get the site back up hopefully today.

I will let everybody know when its up.

-Adam

Alright, Were almost there!!

Here is a temporary link for those that are looking for RTD Explorer.

Welcome to EVVette.com

Soon, the servers will refresh and evvette.com should work again.

Enjoy!

-Adam