Hooking up the Castle Creations Controller - Q's!

swbluto

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May 30, 2008
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Hello everybody. I've received the Castle Creations HV 85 controller which will be adapted to an electric scooter - Now, onto what to do with it and hooking it up! First order of business(As in, the first order I need to make!)...

swbluto said:
Would you guys advocate replacing the existing 50v caps or upgrading them to "100V" or "63V"(or whatever the common number is - 60?)? I think you get more capacitance per unit volume with the lower voltage, but I think 50V is a little too close for comfort to the top-voltage of my modified 48volt ping battery so would replacing the caps be a problem? Or did you guys just add them in parallel to the pre-existing caps and any voltage spike over 50 or so volts will kill the pre-existing caps?

Also, how do you identify "Low ESR" caps? I checked out the NTE catalog and no mention of ESR or "Low ESR" was made with its electrolytics so either I'm just bad at recognizing these special electrolytics or they're not usually mentioned in the specs.

Also, what lifetimes would you recommend? Do you recommend "High temperature" caps? Also, finally, is it possible to get too high of a capacitance? I know with switching power supplies, too high capacitances or inductances would reduce the response time of the circuit but I don't know of a relevant analog with the battery's relation to the controller. If "more is always safer", I'll probably go over-board to err on the "ultra safe" side as if an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I'll probably invest $(cost of controller)/16 or ~$11 in caps. :lol:

I won't be using the controller until I buy the appropriate capacitors so I'd prefer to have those questions answered sooner than later.

Onto another issue, braking! What did you do to address braking? Would a simple cut-off interface between the battery and controller hooked up to the brake handle be good enough? I'm building my own special throttle interface circuit between the throttle to the controller, and I could hook up a brake line that just simply cuts out the throttle signal(makes it go to 0% throttle) but does the controller also need any signals to tell it that its braking? Or, are there any precautions in this regard to prevent blowing up the controller?

Also, what about installing an "emergency" cut-out switch? Would a simple switch between the controller and battery be advised or is there a better way? I've heard that just suddenly stopping the current would fry the controller(and, yeah, that makes sense since the inductance would cause a huge voltage spike at the moment of breaking the current) so I'm not entirely sure if that's best... I don't really like the idea of paying $70 and two weeks in time for every "emergency".
 
Ahhh, you see, I'm developing my own circuit which is actually a pretty trivial task IF... you have the right tools and knowledge which I possess. So, basically, just adjusting the throttle signal to 1ms(0% throttle) is good enough for conditions where I need to brake and cause the motor to slow down immensely as it's connected to the wheel by way of a drive-system without damage to the controller?

So, you're saying, if the battery connection is just suddenly disrupted (In the situation of an activated emergency kill switch), all that'll happen is that the controller will shut down? No risk of damaging the controller? Does anyone have experience with this? I'd really prefer to not kill my controller...

Anyways, more information on my circuit: it'll limit the current by means of a current detector and adjusting the throttle correspondingly. It'll also serve to adjust the throttle in the situation of braking(just a simple switch to the micro-controller's input) and it'll also adjust the current as needed, by means of modifying the throttle signal, when it senses a high-temp situation with either the controller or the motor by means of two temperature sensors. I haven't designed it in detail yet since my microcontroller needs an external oscillator and I'll get one tomorrow, but other than that, everything's looking fine. When I actually finish the prototype, I'll show it off on the forums with its own special thread. :mrgreen:
 
I finally have a solid design down BUT I just realized the phoenix controller's battery wires are too large for the standard 45 amp anderson powerpole connectors. Is there a connector out there that anyone would suggest? Does anyone think a butt splice from the castle creations 10 gauge to a 12 guage that's connected to an anderson would work well?
 
Personally I like Deans Ultra connectors. They are tiny, but have huge current handling. :)

Definately tripple the input capacitance. That is a good starting point.

You can disable the ESC brake in the advanced setup menu. I would recommend that unless you have a freewheel arrangement. The ESC will most likely not handle the braking of so much weight.

As for cutout, yes go with a 1ms pulse when braking. I have been told if you merely drop to 0 pulses, the ESC will either shut down, or possibly stick in a loop and retain the last throttle input. I astually had that happen on an MGM ComPro ESC a couple times when the pulse signal was interupted.

Matt
 
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