Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[flores]

Okay.. turns out that my serial code was still a little buggy.. sending commands did not work and receiving sometimes went wrong.

Looks like I've got that fixed now.. things seem to work reliable.

I can now start and stop rtd data from my command line running on the raspberry.

Paul, I'm having a hard time finding out what the values mean.. can you tell me?
I mean the:
TR=throttle.. but what is the rest? CR= CF= PW= HS= FB=?

[MPaulHolmes]

Don't worry, my serial code is probably buggy too. haha. CR I think is current reference?? (throttle position on a scale of 0-512 I believe). CF is current feedback on a scale of 0-512 at the moment. So, if max motor amps is programmed to be 100 (per IGBT haha), the current feedback of 512 would mean that IGBT (I'm only making use of 1 of the sensors at the moment) was passing 100 amps.

PW = pulse width (pwm duty), on a scale of 0-512 probably.

HS = heat spreader temperature. Basically the base plate temp. A raw value. Just what the A/D value is, in the range of 0-1023.

FB = fault bits.

[flores]

Nice.. and RT? BA?

[MPaulHolmes]

raw throttle (just the A/D conversion result, usually in [413, 683]) and Battery amps.

[flores]

It is actually going to work.

Here you see, on the left the service running on the raspberry, and on the right the raspberry serving html with the config of the controller.



Still needs A LOT of work... but it's going to be utterly cool.

[flores]

Paul.. that uart ttl tap off on the controller board.. could you make that 3.3v at the transmitting side, with a resistor voltage divider? Than we can directly connect the raspberry.

[MPaulHolmes]

Heck yes I can! That is very very awesome...

[MPaulHolmes]

I got to see (I think) the VLA500-01R go into thermal cutback today. It's around 50degC in my shop, and it starts to cut back its maximum current at around 56 degC. Even with no power going out of it, just turning it on uses around 150mA and gets warm. So, I was sitting in the house minding my own business, out of the 115degF weather, and I started to hear the A/C sound like it was pulsating a little. Fast, slow... I go outside, and the darn thing is turning off and on the pwm about 1 time a second. This could have been a significant problem if it was in a motor controller. The pwm could have been ramped up to 100%, trying to see current feedback (since the VLA500-01 tells no one about its thermal cutback). Hmm... Just an FYI for all the people out there that live in 180degF weather that are driving around with a VLA500-01R.

[4x4EV]

[duncan]

Hi Paul,
New controller arrived!!

Its taken some minor damage from the post - not bad

I'm not allowed to do anything with it until I have finished doing some decorating!

I will send some pictures after I get the bedrooms papered