Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[64jeep]

Holy cow, what are the dimensions on that heat sink, it looks huge?!

By the way, the IGBT based controller I posted on a while back is in the car and tested up to 30 mph. So far I just have 80v in batteries and have the current limited to 300 amps. I'm just starting to test my battery charger, but once that's done I'll be ready to test at 230 volts.

[MPaulHolmes]

That's a beautiful heatsink!! I can't wait until you test it.

Duncan, I think some people may have gotten 600amp working, but I'm not sure about 700amp. There's sort of a limit to what you can do with a single mosfet driver like the mic4451. You might be able to use some gigamos mosfets with the same gate charge as the regular ones.

[mrbigh]

Auch!!!, that's a big chunk of AL.

[jackbauer]

First fit of the igbts on the heatsink with Adam's driver pcb. I can use one set of the pre-drilled holes for the middle igbt but will have to drill and tap for the outers. Sadly the azure design for the ac controller had the 3 igbts spread out all over the plate.

[mani9876]

Hey!

That looks awesome. But isn't the heat sink a little bit oversized for the three igbts?

Have you got some infos on the IGBT driver board? I couldn't find anything on the homepage.

Manuel

[z_power]

Manuel,

check for driver board here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-19570-11.html

MfG
Mike

[DanScott]

Another Open Revolt controller finished. I finished today and tested it with my motor at 12V. Runs good! Next to get my machinist to finish my adapter plate and coupling.

[snakub]

Does anyone know where I can find a guide on how to build the lcd display and interface it with the controller? Does the 6 pin connector have anything to do with it?

[MPaulHolmes]

The LCD display is somewhere in the fossil free fuel forum. I'd do a search for "chris" "LCD" "display".

I've got 3 dual driver (vla500-01) boards, and all the parts to populate them with ceramic composition 3.9Ohm gate resistors. I ordered extras so I could match them to +/- 0.5% or so. I've also got a few igbt modules, but might get some 600v 600amp ones too. Those 3 boards are going to serve multiple duties. First, I'm going to get the solar inverter working. That means ordering 3 100amp inductors. I've already got the capacitors for the LC filter. Next, I'll use the power section for the AC controller, just by disconnecting the 3 LC filters. Finally, there's been quite a bit of talk on the EV tech list about zero current and zero voltage switching to almost completely eliminate switching losses. Also, running 3 phases of DC switching, with 3 inductors inside the controller so the output to the motor sees almost pure DC. That makes the motor run more efficently and cooler. I was thinking that I could just use the solar inverter power section to get the 3 phase DC controller working. That should be interesting. And if I can eliminate the switching losses with the zvs switching, that would be very cool too.

There's been a delay in all of this because I forgot to update my address with TIAA Cref. haha. So, they are making me wait 2 weeks from last Friday before I can get my retirement money.

[MPaulHolmes]

I finished soldering the 3 driver boards Yesterday I think. Well, I need one more PS2501 optocoupler for telling the micro about a desaturation event. I ordered 6, and Mouser sent me 5! oh that makes me so mad.

Anyway, with using 3 phases on a DC controller, I can use a single smaller film cap for the input capacitor, since the cap will see much smaller ripple. For example, if I switch at 16KHz per phase, it's basically 48KHz of switching, but only one is switching at a time, so the IGBTs won't mind. It's funny that the exact same hardware can be a 3 phase AC controller, a solar inverter, and a DC controller (with extra clean near-DC output, just how the motor likes it). I think I'll call it, "The D-ASCII. 0x0D 0x0A"
D for direct.
- for a dash
A for Alternating.
S for solar
C for Controller
I for inverter
I for inverter, and so it spells ASCII
0x0D for carriage return
0x0A for line feed...