Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[MPaulHolmes]

What are the throttles of you 3? Well, of Flores and Duncan? So far I have 5k meaning zero throttle, and 0 meaning full throttle for jedsmd. Are the other 2 just 0-5k, where 0 means zero throttle, and 5k means max throttle? Also, do flores or Duncan have a contactor coil in line with the throttle? That's touchy business when dealing with current control. You really don't want the PWM to be ramped up to 100% while current feedback stays at zero, all because the contactor that is enabled through the throttle hasn't turned on yet.

[jedsmd]

And it has arrived!!!

There are lots of wires hanging out the low power end, so I'm trying to identify them:

Mediam gauge twisted pair red/black - - 12vdc
light gauge twisted pair red/black - - idiot light
light gauge twisted pair red/green no connectors -- ??????
light gauge twisted pair green/green no connectors -- ??????
5 conductor ribbon -- Pickit 3
serial port -- Flores' web device
light gauge twisted blue/white -- ??????
light gauge twisted blue/white -- ??????

The power stuff looks pretty straight forward.

[duncan]

Hi Paul

I have 0-5K with 5k being full throttle
No contactor -
But I do have a brake light switch that shorts the throttle pot when I brake

I would like a fast throttle response - 0.1 seconds (ish) to full

Really looking forwards to this - even if it is damn cold out there just now

[MPaulHolmes]

Originally Posted by jedsmd

And it has arrived!!!

There are lots of wires hanging out the low power end, so I'm trying to identify them:

Mediam gauge twisted pair red/black - - 12vdc
light gauge twisted pair red/black - - idiot light
light gauge twisted pair red/green no connectors -- ??????
light gauge twisted pair green/green no connectors -- ??????
5 conductor ribbon -- Pickit 3
serial port -- Flores' web device
light gauge twisted blue/white -- ??????
light gauge twisted blue/white -- ??????

The power stuff looks pretty straight forward.

This is only for jedsmd, as I ran out of some of those colored wires:
Wiring for 1000amp controller:

Rightmost blue & white twisted pair (J6):
J6 blue wire is main contactor ground wire. Don't connect the contactor ground wire to anything other than J6 blue wire.
J6 white wire is main contactor coil +24v. Yes, 24v. If you currently use a 12v coil, I'd just not bother with J5 and J6.

J5 (next twisted pair over to the left from J6. Blue and white again):
J5 is for turning on the precharge relay, which is NOT a part of the controller. J5 blue connects to the precharge relay ground.
J5 white connects to the precharge relay +24v.

Note: If you don't want to be bothered with J5 and J6, just don't connect them, but you should still take care of precharge and closing the contactor yourself.

The next twisted pair (black and blue) to the left, J4, is the +24v auxiliary supply input. It comes from the DC-DC that's inside the controller, mounted
to the top of the enclosure. Blue is 24v, and black is ground.

J3 is valet Mode. The pin on the left needs to be connected to ground (possibly through an on/off toggle switch).
The pin on the right need to be connected to the car's auxiliary +12v supply. You could put the on/off switch on either line.

The next connection over is Temperature. That's already connected to a thermistor inside the controller.

Throttle (connected on the bottom) is the next connection to the left after Temperature. 2 wire. No polarity.

The black and red twisted pair sticking out (18 gauge wire) is where you connect the 12v auxiliary supply.


The ribbon cable is for programming the microcontroller with the pickit 2 or 3. It plugs into the PICKIT as follows:

black - PIN 1, which is MCLR (indicated with an arrow on the pickit 3)
white - PIN 2, which is Vdd Target
gray - PIN 3, which is Vss (ground)
purple - PIN 4, which is PGD
blue - PIN 5, which is PGC
UNUSED - PIN 6.

[jedsmd]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Rightmost blue & white twisted pair (J6):
J6 blue wire is main contactor ground wire. Don't connect the contactor ground wire to anything other than J6 blue wire.
J6 white wire is main contactor coil +24v. Yes, 24v. If you currently use a 12v coil, I'd just not bother with J5 and J6.

I will connect the j6 wires to a 24volt relay to isolate them from the main contactor which is 12volt.

J5 (next twisted pair over to the left from J6. Blue and white again):
J5 is for turning on the precharge relay, which is NOT a part of the controller. J5 blue connects to the precharge relay ground.
J5 white connects to the precharge relay +24v.

I normally connect the precharge resistor directly from the battery pack to the controller so that the capacitor bank is always at pack voltage.

J3 is valet Mode. The pin on the left needs to be connected to ground (possibly through an on/off toggle switch).
The pin on the right need to be connected to the car's auxiliary +12v supply. You could put the on/off switch on either line.

Thank-you

[flores]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

What are the throttles of you 3? Well, of Flores and Duncan? So far I have 5k meaning zero throttle, and 0 meaning full throttle for jedsmd. Are the other 2 just 0-5k, where 0 means zero throttle, and 5k means max throttle? Also, do flores or Duncan have a contactor coil in line with the throttle? That's touchy business when dealing with current control. You really don't want the PWM to be ramped up to 100% while current feedback stays at zero, all because the contactor that is enabled through the throttle hasn't turned on yet.

If it's the same as the 500A and the 1000A, it will work for me.. no contactor

[jyanof]

We want pictures!

[MPaulHolmes]

OK, Duncan's is basically done. I need to hook it up to my golf cart to test it out though. Everything takes so dang long. I'll be sure to take pictures, and to also only go outside after 7pm. It's hot down here! OK, I just checked, and the golf cart has 3 flat tires. I'll see if pumping them up lets them hold the air for a while.

[MPaulHolmes]

Here's a picture of our first test drive. 12v with full throttle set to 100 motor amps. That bugger glided like a ninja. I had no idea that golf cart to be so darn ninjalike. The PI loop seemed to converge fast. I felt no oscillations.

[MPaulHolmes]

And now the side view!


And a video that hopefully works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-0k...ature=youtu.be