Paul & Sabrina's cheap DIY 144v motor controller

[LouMan]

I wish Paul and the rest of the crew could restart this thread or start a new 32bit version that would be so awesome.
I have a lot of the files, some where Paul had his laptop stolen and lost everything with me telling him back up dude back up, sometimes I wish I hadn't deleted the several hundred post I made on this thread and others.
If there was a depository were we could all upload all the files we have to this project and Paul or someone was still around to sort thru everything and post all the relevant files I would hunt thru all my files and upload to it, me and Paul has had several private file exchanges that could contribute but if this is a dead and all the key players are gone I don't see how it could work.

It is such a moloncoly feeling to revisit this thread witch was a mainstay of ev conversions to be abandon like it has, even to visit my own conversion thread being abandon is heart breaking, so much has changed in the last few years, several years later my conversion is still sitting on the back burner waiting.

I know life goes on and people's priority's change and one of my deleted post in this thread I posted as a response the revenge of the electric car I posted "Big oil strikes back, that it would be the death of the home grown ev-conversions and ev parts suppliers" witch has come true almost all of my saved internet links to ev parts stores are dead now, I now wish the Ecmodders moderators could repost all my deleted comments but such as life but if Ecomodders can hang in there and keep this site up till the time comes when big oil decides to shoot gas prices back up to the $4gal mark this will be a happening site again but then you ask yourself do you really want high gas prices so you can chat online about your next big ev-conversion or do you hope gas prices stay low?? then you have no reason to visit a site like this again?? me my self I want low gas prices And still see this site and new ev-shops open up all over the place.

Only time will tell, thanks for letting me vent for wanting things to be like it used to be! where guys (and gals) can excitedly log on to show off there latest creations...

Happy Ev-Modding guy's...................

[arklanbk]

hello, im in the process of putting the controller together from the various bits and pieces iv been able to find.
iv nearly got the schematic drawn up in eagle and i've looked in to what it will take to make a new code.
id really appreciate it if someone could take a look at my schematic after i've finished it to make sure i havent missed anything

[jedsmd]

Hi All
I have one of Paul's IGBT DC controllers (stinky diaper?). Three times lately the controller has dropped out while I was driving. Each time it was during acceleration, the controller led remains on, the controller contactor remains closed and high voltage is available. It just stops sending power to the motor.

Power can be restored by turning the ignition switch off than back on. After the expected 8 second delay power restores and we drive on as if nothing happened.

Thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Jerald

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by jedsmd

Hi All
I have one of Paul's IGBT DC controllers (stinky diaper?). Three times lately the controller has dropped out while I was driving. Each time it was during acceleration, the controller led remains on, the controller contactor remains closed and high voltage is available. It just stops sending power to the motor.

Power can be restored by turning the ignition switch off than back on. After the expected 8 second delay power restores and we drive on as if nothing happened.

Thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Jerald

I'd keep a laptop in the car, one that has a USB to serial converter and a terminal emulator. The terminal emulator can capture serial data from the controller and store to a file. I think Hyperterminal called it 'Ascii download'. You can configure what data you want logged to the screen, and how often. I normally logged pretty much everything once per second.

I can look up my old log configuration and upload if you are interested in this method.

When the controller has a fault, it logs a code with as much information as Paul could gather .. before it stops sending power to the motor. The logged data helps with throttle position, amps per phase, speed, etc. This may be useful for troubleshooting and it may not. The laptop connected and seeing the fault code is the important part to start with.

That will get you to the correct area in the code (search for the fault number) or the description may help.

My first guess would be overtemp from one of the IGBTs. I had that fault a lot during my testing, mostly because I didn't have liquid cooling running. If your radiator is fouling, or your chill plate is not flowing well throughout the whole area ... things get hot. Are you liquid cooling?

I don't remember if the contactor drops out during an overtemp. I thought it did ... but having a laptop connected with a serial connection would be my first step for sure.

You might want to watch some of my old testing videos and check for contactor dropping out, and the various fault codes that showed up. Most of these I was testing the AC controller, but I was using a DC motor as a 'test load'. Sometimes a DC controller and the DC motor (I was trying to get over-current on the AC controller .. I did eventually get up that high )

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...b29WdCLN016Qzw

[jedsmd]

Hi Thingstodo
Thanks for replying.

I have a laptop I can set up in my EV.
Right now I am using Realterm to communicate.
Sending "Ascii download" does not seem to do anything. It would be great to get that logging function going. Is this something I need Hyperterminal to do? If you can send me the configuration you used for data logging that would be really helpful.

The controller is air-cooled, but I don't think it could be temperature related. The controller has not been unusually warm and the first time the fault occurred I was leaving my driveway and the controller was cold.

Thanks
Jerald

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by jedsmd

Hi Thingstodo
Thanks for replying.

I have a laptop I can set up in my EV.
Right now I am using Realterm to communicate.
Sending "Ascii download" does not seem to do anything. It would be great to get that logging function going. Is this something I need Hyperterminal to do? If you can send me the configuration you used for data logging that would be really helpful.

The controller is air-cooled, but I don't think it could be temperature related. The controller has not been unusually warm and the first time the fault occurred I was leaving my driveway and the controller was cold.

Thanks
Jerald

I don't use realterm. Maybe I should be? Hyperterm was in XP and there does not appear to be a terminal program included with in 7 - 10

From first looks, it appears that you can turn on logging on realterm, where it takes what is displayed on the screen and puts it into a file.

It'll be Thursday before I look up the logging commands - sorry, busy tonight.

The logging commands (that tell the controller to print out data) are the same no matter what package you use. I'll try to help with realterm, but you likely know more about it than I do.

[jedsmd]

Thingstodo
I googled data logging with realterm. There is tons of info on doing that, so I feel pretty good there.

There is no big rush, on the logging commands. I appreciate that you willing to find them.
Thanks

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by arklanbk

hello, im in the process of putting the controller together from the various bits and pieces iv been able to find.
iv nearly got the schematic drawn up in eagle and i've looked in to what it will take to make a new code.
id really appreciate it if someone could take a look at my schematic after i've finished it to make sure i havent missed anything

I missed this message somehow. Sorry

I can look through the schematic .. although I am NOT an expert ... and I don't play one on TV

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by thingstodo

The logging commands (that tell the controller to print out data) are the same no matter what package you use. I'll try to help with realterm, but you likely know more about it than I do.

It appears that I was confused. The DC Controller (Stinky Diaper et al) uses RTD Explorer for data logging. Paul and I had discussed using both the datastream for RTD Explorer (so it still worked) and the new logging he came up with for the AC IGBT controller ... just printing the data out in the different formats.

It appears that I don't have a version where that was implemented. I had thought it had gotten done ... but looking through my archive, through the logs, and through my testing videos ... I guess it didn't

The datastreamperiod appears to be defaulted to 1 second when the controller starts. Instead of using RTD explorer on your laptop, I'd save the text using realterm to a file. I'm not exactly sure of the process, but it sounds like you'll figure it out. That should allow for analyzing the data after you see a fault. I hope there is something that is easy to see in the data, or by saving the data you see the fault that is printed when the controller turns off the Voltage.

Hopefully you can make some progress!

[jedsmd]

Hi Thingstodo

Thanks for looking into this.

I hooked up RTD Explorer to the controller and I was receiving data, For some reason RTD Explorer was not plotting the data. But that is not too important, data was definitely coming from the controller.

Back to Realterm.
The piece I feel I am still missing is the command that I would send to the controller to get it to send that data stream to Realterm.

I assume RTD explorer must send some command to start the stream and I need to send that same command from Realterm.

If you can help it would be greatly appreciated.
Jerald