k2nguru said:
Has anyone built one that could be touched and seen?
Of course it exists. Following exactly Lebwoski's example, I ordered 10 PCBs at http://www.quick-teck.co.uk and tons of parts at http://www.digikey,com. And most importantly: 10 brain-chips from Lebowski.
One board and controller went to marcexec in Ireland, he is building a controller combining it with a TO247 powerstage.
Two of our brainboards are ready, one for 48V with a special 12F617 chip from lebowski for lower voltage.
One brainboard for 20S/74V is combined with a 6-FET TO220 IRFP4110 'lebowski-style' powerstage.
Result of the first bench-tests combined with a hub-motor Goldenmotor SmartPie:
With the recommended terminal program (Termite) we were quite quickly capable to do the configuration. There are many options, but the autocomplete-options offered by the chip are really useful. Up to now I was not able to use the 'better' terminal program (Realterm) with the option to save and reload the parameter sets as a hex-file.
Test was with a 50V-Battery. Although we used lebowskis standard 12F617 chip for up to 150V, the voltages for brain and FET-Driver were kept exactly at 5V and 15V even at this low voltage.
After some playing-around with the parameters in the hall-sonsored mode we reached a very satisfying result: The motor runs very quiet and is well controllable with the genius throttle options for 'gas' and regen.
The controller-motor combination will now be included in a bike for heavy real-world testing. Lebowski even offered his on-site support for the next phase!
With what we will have learned from all this, we will nicely finish all our controllers to be used in fast bicycles up to motorbikes (with 4 parallel powerstages).
For the ones who want to follow out there in the Sphere: Many infos appear in the annexed excel (complete parts list, prices, software parameters etc.). Let's share our experiences!
Cheers, Marcel