The McLaughlin controller

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100 MW
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May 24, 2007
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Toronto Harbour
Seen here:
http://www.eaa.org/news/2011/2011-05-05_cafe2.asp
McLaughlin-1.jpg

The most homebuilder-like presentation was from Patrick McLaughlin, founder of Mountain High Equipment & Supply Co. (the maker of state-of-the-art aviation oxygen equipment) who spoke on “Motor Controllers for Electric Aircraft.” Starting with a clean-slate, wishing to use off-the-shelf parts for constructing inexpensive controllers, his desire is that this type of information will become "open technology" where designers and developers can tweak, improve, or redesign for the betterment of the end product, which should be available to all. His work started with what is available from the radio control community, and he's built up from there, incorporating the differences required for manned flight. At this point, all research and development has been done in his "spare time."

Specifications for the controller 50-60 kW at 250 volts, using 4-6 ounces per square foot copper substrate, bolted to glass. The system could run up to 80 kW and the cost of the parts and raw materials is in the $280 range. An interesting angle McLaughlin touched on is the idea of multiple controllers and multiple motors used in series to vary power.

McLaughlin's polymodal controller has what he called a "memory function" that in addition to controlling the speed of the motor, the system knows where the propeller blade is at any given time, allowing for a stepper function (built into the controller) to be implemented for "parking" the prop when stopped; its accuracy is down to fractions of a millimeter. This function is particularly important to self-launch gliders that might have a retractable propeller like Pipistrel’s Taurus.
 
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