Help me with my universal controller

[patrickza]

I'm busy trying to wire up my new controller. I have this one: http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/36vocove1.html

I also bought this throttle: http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/rae2elscthth.html

Batteries are fine, I have 40v going to the controller in the thick black and red wires. The motor wires are connected to the thick blue and red wires as instructed,

For the throttle I've ignored the yellow wire, connected red to red, black to black and blue to green, the only problem is, when I turn the throttle nothing happens. I've checked the voltage on the red and black throttle wires and there's 5v there.

On the connectors marked power lock I have 40v, and if I try connect those I get big sparks. If they're already connected to each other and I connect the battery up then my turnigy watt meter goes dead so im pretty sure they shouldn't be connected.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Gregory]

In my experience Power lock is a key switch to power on the controller. I think it does need to me connected.

Not sure on the Watt meter dieing, maybe it's just resetting?

[amberwolf]

Dunno what the power lock wires are for, but with those symptoms, I would not connect them. Guessing it is for powering something external when the controller is "turned off" with it's keyswitch wires, if it has them. There is something similar on an EVAssemble controller i have, partly documented here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21830


When you say it does "nothing", do you mean that there is no additional current draw on the wattmeter, beyond what the controller was already drawing? Or does that current draw increase?

[EBJ]

Thumb throttle for electric scooters. This electric scooter throttle has four wires

This controller uses a 3 wire throttle, and it is compatible with most 36 Volt products equipped with 600-1000 Watt motors. However, it is Not compatible with 4 wire or Currie 5-pin or 6-pin half grip throttles.

perhaps the product description is correct.

[patrickza]

Hmm yeah i thought that might be the case, though the throttle says the fourth wire is optional. Any way of testing the controller without a throttle? Possibly by providing some voltage down the throttle wires?

[amberwolf]

use a 5Kohm or so potentiometer, center pin hooked to throttle's signal input and ends to 5v and ground.

[patrickza]

I made a mistake in my description earlier. The thin red and black wires giving the spark were the indicator utility wires. No idea why, but there's 40v running through them.

[patrickza]

Tried a three wire throttle I have from lyen, same thing, there is just no life on the motor wires. No voltage there at all regardless of throttle position. I have checked the throttle and have 5.3v on black and red, 4.7 on the signal wire, when I twist the throttles these drop to 0.8ishv so I'm sure thy're working, any other ideas?

[amberwolf]

Signal wire should start at a low voltage, and go to a higher one, basically opposite of what you get. Some controllers have "high pedal lockout" type of safety, so taht if powered on with throttle above it's "zero" input level, are disabled until power cycled after throttle is returned to zero.

I'm assuming the only wire that drops to 0.8V is the signal wire; if the power wire does, too, something else is wrong.

[Dreddydave]

If it's like the controller I have, leave the "power lock" wires disconnected while you connect the controller to the battery. If you can measure the battery voltage output at the same time, I've found it builds up from ~12v up to about 53v (48v battery). Once it has settled at the full voltage, connect the "power lock" wires and then try the throttle.

Mine takes about 30-40 seconds before it reaches that full voltage. Not sure if that's normal though.

[patrickza]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I added another 12v in series and guess what. Controller works just fine. I guess they sent me a 48v controller instead of a 36v... I've written to monsterscooterparts so let's see if they have decent customer service. If they don't, does anyone know how hard it would be to adjust LVC on a 48v controller down to 36v levels?

[Dreddydave]

Yeah there's plenty of ways to adjust the LVC, most are documented here on ES if you search for something like "Resistor LVC" or "Infineon LVC". From memory, it involves replacing the big power resistors in the controller with ones of a lower value?

[patrickza]

I've doen some searching, but nothing has come up yet. I've got some pics below. Does anyone recognise a way for me to set LVC? I actually wouldn't mind not having it at all. My BMS will cut me off if I go too low.

Thanks again.

[amberwolf]

Looks like a very simple LM339 comparator-type brushed motor controller. Most likely any LVC it has simply uses a voltage divider into one of the comparators to trigger cut-off of the PWM signal.

None of these is likely to closely match your controller, but they may give a basic idea:
http://www.eleccircuit.com/speed-contro ... -side-pwm/


http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/echeev ... trolG.html


A google search on schematics
http://www.google.com/search?q=lm339+pw ... y5q1n&sa=N

[patrickza]

Just thought I'd comment here on the response I got from monsterscooterparts.

I contacted them and let them know they sent me a 48v rather than a 36v controller. Also said I don't have space for 48v in my frame, only 36v. Their response:
I should have checked within 15 days and now it's my problem. Then they have the cheek to say if I want a 36v controller I can buy one from their store!!!

Not impressed with that customer service at all. Not even an apology from them.

I've ordered a 36v scooter controller from lyen now. At least with him you know you'll be getting top notch service.

[amberwolf]

Other people have had the same problem. Someone else on ES had their problem listed in their signature as a warning to others; I think it was Swbluto, but I'm not sure.