Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[duncan]

Some excellent information and suggestions
Now I need to do some testing

I will run up to max speed and check voltage - and sag
I may check controller voltage as well

With that I and the information on the Warp11 I should be able to see if
I will overvolt the motor (or will my battery sag enough so I won't)
And that will let me decide on either three strings or two strings

Either way I will need to do something about my Cycle Analyst and I will have to make a new charger

Meanwhile I will just drive it - it's great fun!

[64jeep]

Duncan, do you have a transmission in the car? If so, are you using all the gears? I stopped using 1st gear because there's enough torque to start in 2nd or even 3rd. If that's the case, you could re-gear the final drive (differential) so that you have the same torque in 1st as you currently do in 2nd, which would give you an extra gear to use at the high speeds. If you just have a single speed (no transmission), you could still just re-gear it and trade some low speed acceleration for top speed. Of course, that low speed torque can be made back with higher motor current!

[duncan]

Hi Jeep
No gearbox - just a short propshaft from the motor to the diff

That meant that I could put the motor where the gearbox would be on a normal Lotus 7 type car and have the whole engine bay for batteries

[duncan]

Pictures from the Evelocity event

Pictures are from Orion who sponsored the event

[thingstodo]

It's been long enough that I can't remember who the other beta testers are ... and a search for 'beta testers' did not return any results for me .. for some reason ..

Were there results from anyone other than Duncan? I don't remember reading about any other results.

[jedsmd]

Originally Posted by thingstodo

It's been long enough that I can't remember who the other beta testers are ... and a search for 'beta testers' did not return any results for me .. for some reason ..

Were there results from anyone other than Duncan? I don't remember reading about any other results.

I have been using one in a converted pickup for a little over 1000 miles now. If you check for posts under my userID I have made a few driving reports.

So far the controller is completely reliable and a real pleasure to drive. Only real issue I have had is my Curtis PB-6 pot was too noisy for the controller, and I had to switch to a hall type potentiometer.
Jerald

Paul
Does this controller have a name?

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by jedsmd

I have been using one in a converted pickup for a little over 1000 miles now. If you check for posts under my userID I have made a few driving reports.

So far the controller is completely reliable and a real pleasure to drive

Sorry Jerald - I had read your posts, but my memory is not so good! Unfortunately, that poor memory extended to 'how to search within a thread'

1000 miles on the new controller is great!

The noisy potbox problem - what symptoms did you see?

Paul - can more controllers be made in whatever quantity is required, or do you have upgrades that you wanted to do first?

[jedsmd]

Originally Posted by thingstodo

...The noisy potbox problem - what symptoms did you see?...

Acceleration was smooth as I applied pressure to the pedal. But as I reduced pressure, even slightly, the controller would drop to zero power for an instant than bounce back. Made for a rough ride that made the wife frown.

As first I thought it was a problem with the way the program ramped power down, but someone suggested the hall effect pot and and gave a link for a direct replacement for the Curtis PB-6.

[MPaulHolmes]

I was thinking of calling it "The Stinky Diaper", because it's inappropriate and unprofessional, and I change a lot of diapers. If that sounds like a bad idea, I'm open to suggestions. haha. I'm horrible at coming up with names.

There is one capacitor that needs to be added to the board (grr), but it's easy enough to include it by soldering it to 2 caps that are already on the board. Boy that was annoying. Also, I would probably dump 2 of the 3 current sensors and just depend on the DESAT detection on those instead of the extra hardware overcurrent protection. I don't know though. Redundancy is good, but it also adds cost.

I still have like 5 or 6 boards which are just biodegrading in my shop. haha. It has a single surface mount part which is a SOIC16 wide. It's not too bad to solder. The ring capacitor is now only $150 directly from SBE in quantity 1. But the 3 IGBTs aren't cheap anymore. There are some Littelfuse igbts that are rated for 400amp and are fairly cheap from Mouser ($150 each). The 600amp powerex modules are $257 each. dang it.

[jedsmd]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I was thinking of calling it "The Stinky Diaper", because it's inappropriate and unprofessional, and I change a lot of diapers. If that sounds like a bad idea, I'm open to suggestions. haha. I'm horrible at coming up with names.

I'm long done with stinky diapers
How about "ReVolt 1800"

There is one capacitor that needs to be added to the board (grr), but it's easy enough to include it by soldering it to 2 caps that are already on the board.

Do I need to add a cap to mine? If so please send me a part number and a photo of where it needs to be.

... the 3 IGBTs aren't cheap anymore. There are some Littelfuse igbts that are rated for 400amp and are fairly cheap from Mouser ($150 each). The 600amp powerex modules are like $300 each. dang it.

400 amps x 3 = 1200 amps.
Right now my controller is set so motor amps peak at 1000amps. It makes a fun to drive conversion even with the heavy pickup frame. IMHO the 400 amps IGBT's would be a sound choice unless you are building a car to race.

Jerald