Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[SEBART PL]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

Well Today there was a causality. Tonight I was trying to figure out why the controller in my golf cart was acting up. Well as it turns out, A bolt that holdes the heat sink to the case came loose and caused the controller to rock back and forth. In doing so, it kept shorting out and stressing something. There is actually a chunk missing of the case from where it was shorting.

Here is a graph of controller operation before I found the short.



You can see that current is in the range of 133A with 0 throttle....Something wasn't right.

Well once I found the short, and corrected it, I took the car for a ride. It went great for about 5 minutes. The I heard the dreaded pop. I look back at the controller and there was some smoke. ...

...

Adam, please tell me is this above failure of your Coguar 2.0 was becouse of some kind short and rocking of the controller, have you published what really happened? I am diging this could I still think about my mosfets blowned up.

[duncan]

Hi guys
I down loaded RTD explorer, bought a USB to serial connector

connected up to a 12v power supply (controller) an old car battery and an old starter motor

At first - nothing - then it started spinning the motor
RTD showed 50 amps with
0 PW (PWM)
0 throttle

by twiddling the pot I could control "throttle" - but still got 50 amps and the motor kept spinning

switching the controller off (disconnecting the 12) - then reconnecting the battery - nothing

[duncan]

Spent a bit of time checking that the MOSFET driver connected to the correct components

The it started working as it should - control of the starter motor on the throttle pot

RTD explorer showed it working

Now I don't get anything on RTD explorer - or there may be something there but the scale is 0 - 1 not 0 - 800

If it is still working in the morning I may re-assemble it to the car

[Dwffy]

Hi Adam,
I would like to take a crack at making up a board with IGBT's. I saw Jacks video and was greatly impressed, there he talks about an IGBT power board controller which you have designed. What I want to know is, do you sell these boards and if so what price are they and is the board fully populated etc? I have had dealings with you before when I purchased some decals from you, however that was quite a while ago.
I have built one of Pauls 500 amp controllers and have been using it for about 3 years now on my old Ford Ranger p/u. Done approx 6000 km with it so far. It would be great if you could e-mail me your reply as I don't come to this thread very often.
Thanks in advance, -Doug

[duncan]

Car is back on the road using the OpenRevolt,

500amps does not feel as good as 600amps - but it is nice to have MY controller back and not a borrowed one

[SEBART PL]

Originally Posted by duncan

Car is back on the road using the OpenRevolt,

500amps does not feel as good as 600amps - but it is nice to have MY controller back and not a borrowed one

Duncan what Mosfets have you finaly instaled on your controler?

[duncan]

I chickened out and used the standard MOSFETs
IRFP4668PBF


I hope Paul or Adam
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-19570-14.html

Get their more powerful controllers sorted so I can buy a kit

[duncan]

Hi Guys

I have been driving my car,
I have "lost" throttle four times now - driving normally - then no power
This may be when I have backed the throttle off

The car slows - goes to the side of the road - then I have throttle again and drive of

Twice it was only for seconds, the car did not stop
once I stopped - then re-started
The last time I stopped the car - shut everything down and switched back on - then it went

It is presently cold and damp here (mid winter)

Suggestions???

[mora]

Overspeed fault drops your throttle. Bad connection between current sensor and control board creates Vref (voltage reference I suppose) fault that requires controller reboot. Same goes for bad throttle pot (Throttle fault). I've had them all happen, heheh.

I issued current sensor problem by soldering the wires directly to control board and current sensor rather than using removable connectors. No Vref-faults since. When I had a resistive pot in potbox it used to "jump" out of range. Pot was worn and I could see that even when using multimeter to check resistance. RTD explorer showed it more clearly. Controller would quickly cut the throttle and required restart to get throttle back.

I attached two images to show how bad pot shows up in RTD explorer. First one shows bad spiking on raw throttle signal (brown line) near the area it is used the most. Second picture shows what happens if I floor the pedal few times before actual use. Spikes were smaller but still there. That resulted in jumpy starts and sometimes "throttle fault". Maybe my 90 000 amps/second slew rate (c-rr 90) also played some role there, but now when using hall effect throttle it doesn't matter that much. I get smooth starts and no throttle errors.

To sum it up: if possible, drive a bit with laptop connected to a controller and see what error message flashes if controller decides to cut throttle.

[MPaulHolmes]

"Maybe my 90 000 amps/second slew rate (c-rr 90) also played some role there,"

ROFL.