Nucular Controllers Delayed. Alternative 200A peak FOC w/ Regen & Cruise?

fatty

10 kW
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
672
Location
USA
I designed my next build around the high power density Nucular controller, but per their 2021 Nucular News(letter), the 6F and 12F will undergo a future case redesign and are delayed -- more or less indefinitely.

Here is my wishlist:
-FOC
-200A peak phase current
-Variable Regen Braking
-Native Cruise Control (not dependent upon display) via physical switch/button
-Easy to setup
-Traction Control/Acceleration Limit/Overspeed Protection preferred
-First-party display preferred
-24s LiHV-safe (105V) preferred

Adaptto would have been the obvious choice, if still available :(

Grin Phaserunner (ASI BAC800) and the ASI BAC855 don't offer native cruise control "for liability reasons" -- strange, since I consider cruise control a safety feature. They're also only good to 21s, and the PR is only 90A peak, and the ASI BACs are hard to setup.

Sevcon does go up to 120V but also hard to setup.

PowerVelocity NextGen FOC is still in development and won't offer a display.

Mobipus 72100 would give 250A peak, but only good to 90V and not available.

Kelly KEB series does have a 105V 230A peak model, but is not FOC.
However, their KLS-H series also has a 105V 220A peak model that seems to be FOC, but they seem to suggest a third-party APT TFT 750C display.

That would really only leave the Sabvoton, as far as I'm aware. Unfortunately, the modern SSC series is not available -- only the legacy SVMC. But the SVMC still appears to be FOC, have variable regen and native cruise control, and an LCD display. Setup is described as "no-brainer"

Any other good options? Maybe VESCs?
 
fatty said:
-FOC
-200A peak phase current
-Variable Regen Braking
-Native Cruise Control (not dependent upon display) via physical switch/button
-Easy to setup
-Traction Control/Acceleration Limit/Overspeed Protection preferred
-First-party display preferred
-24s LiHV-safe (105V) preferred
No display or cruise, but everything else is in the Lebowski brain...however you have to build your own controller with it. The good part of that is that you get whatever powerstage you want, by using one from any controller (including large EVs) that will give you the voltage and currents you want. (building a powerstage from scratch is more difficult the higher you go in voltage and current...so it's easier to use a proven existing one).

The Lebowski-Honda IMA thread in my signature is one method (I haven't finished mine yet, but others already did it before I did and it works), and there are links in that thread to others with different EV powerstages. Those are generally large, and probably bigger than you want...but overkill often means never running out of headroom and may make it more reliable. ;)

Cruise control (for any controller) with a separate physical switch/button can be done using the Crystalyte Cruise Control unit (shown on this page http://www.crystalyte.com/Crystalyte%20motor%20related%20part.htm ). Or if you wanted to develop your own, a little Arduino Nano or ATTiny, etc., that does the same function (takes in the throttle, does a sample/hold at start of cruise and outputs that, otherwise just outputs the throttle exactly as it comes in).

The display...depends on what you want that display to do for you, whether you could use an existing one with some Arduino (etc) smarts between it and the brain, or even one of the ones that people around ES have written OSFW for (which could be rewritten to do whatever you wanted, within limits of the brain capabilities).
 
amberwolf said:
No display or cruise, but everything else is in the Lebowski brain...however you have to build your own controller with it. The good part of that is that you get whatever powerstage you want, by using one from any controller (including large EVs) that will give you the voltage and currents you want. (building a powerstage from scratch is more difficult the higher you go in voltage and current...so it's easier to use a proven existing one).

The Lebowski-Honda IMA thread in my signature is one method (I haven't finished mine yet, but others already did it before I did and it works), and there are links in that thread to others with different EV powerstages. Those are generally large, and probably bigger than you want...but overkill often means never running out of headroom and may make it more reliable. ;)
Thanks, but I have too many projects right now. Need something off-the-shelf.

amberwolf said:
Cruise control (for any controller) with a separate physical switch/button can be done using the Crystalyte Cruise Control unit (shown on this page http://www.crystalyte.com/Crystalyte%20motor%20related%20part.htm ). Or if you wanted to develop your own, a little Arduino Nano or ATTiny, etc., that does the same function (takes in the throttle, does a sample/hold at start of cruise and outputs that, otherwise just outputs the throttle exactly as it comes in).
Thanks for the tip. Most properly, the throttle would have to set up for speed throttle, not current, power, or torque.

I asked Sabvoton about maximum eRPM, and just received reply that their controller can only drive hub motors -- so looks like Kelly it is.
 
Similar question but looking mainly for instant throttle response- so many of the cheap controllers seem to have a very noticeable lag on throttle (some of them when you let off the throttle too!) plan was for a nucular but as above not available for some time.

Are any of the ordinary 100A or so controllers better in this regard?
 
Definitely not the Sabvoton: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebikes/comments/fx3my7/starting_torque/
 
fatty said:
Thanks for the tip. Most properly, the throttle would have to set up for speed throttle, not current, power, or torque
That's in the controller, and doesn't have anything directly to do with the incoming signal, which is just a voltage corresponding to physical throttle position.

Most controllers are setup for speed throttle control; some of the Kellys have the option for torque (phase current) control, so if you don't want that make sure you ask for it to be setup for speed throttle control. I don't remember any options to change it at the user end in the stuff I've seen. I think that's pretty strange, given that it should just be another option in the setup program.

Also, according to various posters, Kelly changes that program sometimes and takes out options or adds others in, without any notification and without leaving any old versions around, so if you don't save your old setup program when you update to a new one, you may lose access to settings you need. :(
 
amberwolf said:
That's in the controller, and doesn't have anything directly to do with the incoming signal, which is just a voltage corresponding to physical throttle position.
Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant -- speed throttle in the controller, so the voltage output by the cruise control maps to speed, rather than current/power/torque.

amberwolf said:
Most controllers are setup for speed throttle control; some of the Kellys have the option for torque (phase current) control, so if you don't want that make sure you ask for it to be setup for speed throttle control. I don't remember any options to change it at the user end in the stuff I've seen. I think that's pretty strange, given that it should just be another option in the setup program.

Also, according to various posters, Kelly changes that program sometimes and takes out options or adds others in, without any notification and without leaving any old versions around, so if you don't save your old setup program when you update to a new one, you may lose access to settings you need. :(
Actually, I think I've read that Kelly's torque option was fake -- that it still worked as a torque throttle.
I think I'll start a new thread to try to get recent feedback on this.
 
Back
Top