controller mounted next to battery?

[shr00m]

working on a 1000w rear brushless / gearless hub, built a battery out of 18650s from laptop cells seems to be working good. my rear box that holds my battery has just enough room for the battery and the controller in front of the battery with a piece of foam between the two. is this ok? i was planning on making a cloth enclosure to hide all of it so it looks like a rear case to make it more incognito. is it ok for the the controller to be close to the battery like this? or fully enclosed? should a fan be used?

 

[agilehumor]

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[wesnewell]

Controllers need to be in open air. They will over heat in closed space.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes. Don't mount a controller inside the bag, unless you live at 12,000 ft elevation or some other arctic climate.

My favorite trick is to put a block of wood in the bag, then screw the controller to the front of the bag, through the fabric and into the wood.

Then fill the remaining space in the bag with foam, to lock the battery in the bag tight.

This puts the controller in an ideal location, in the wind, but if it rains, it's under your ass enough to stay dry. Put something under the rear rack too, so you have a fender of some kind keeping the controller out of the wheel spray.

 

[shr00m]

yea after a 18 mile ride last night i learned that the bag wasnt going to work. i got a thermal shutdown... so it is to be moved outside of the bag... didnt seem to get very warm riding it 8 miles before... but it is obvious it cant stay in the bag... i love the look of it in the bag though... would it be crazy to think cpu heatsinks and cooling fants and vents in the bag? probably better to just put it in front of the bag but it takes away a little stealth.

 

[dogman dan]

In some climates, you can get by with just unzipping the bag some to let air in.

But that would never work for me. I have pondered though, what if you cut a hole in the bag, just exposing the bottom side of the controller to the wind. Then had it glued to the box, so the hole doesn't leak.

Stuff like that could be stealthy, and allow enough metal to see the wind to work. Just not in my desert climate.

Bag with a mesh pocket added to the front would work in my climate. Make the pocket from shade cloth or something.

 

[LewTwo]

.... Bag with a mesh pocket added to the front would work in my climate. Make the pocket from shade cloth or something.

Fiberglass Window Screen ... the stuff you use to keep the bugs out.

Yet another thought: Make the entire bag from it.

 

[shr00m]

Screen is a great idea. I moved it in front of the bag. its under the seat now so it is pretty hidden. wrapping it in screen is a great idea to obscure it more though. I was thinking if painting it black too. So black plus screen would work great.

 

[agilehumor]

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[agilehumor]

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[shr00m]

Are any of the chinese controllers better than the others? like made with better components... i have a 29 amp controller and 1000w motor... i was thinking about getting one of the 48v / 60v controllers in case i ever want to bump up the juice a bit with another pack in serial. Just curious if there are better made ones than others. The cheap ones seem to work great but id rather get a known good quality one if the price isnt insane. also i pondered on buying quality caps and changing out the caps to make it better... im not having any issues with mine at all just thinking/planning for future or to just have a backup for if/when my controller bites the dust.

 

[wesnewell]

There can be differences in quality, but imo, in general, the only difference is cost and support. I've been running my $35 (shipped) 72V 1500W 40A controller for 5 years on 24s lipo up top 100.8V for the last 4 years.

 

[shr00m]

thank you for the reply! thats awesome then maybe theres not much need to worry about them if you arent abusing the heck out of them. i will likely just order a cheap 48v/60v just to have a spare just in case... or if i want to run a little more power. are you running a 1000 watt motor on that controller?

 

[wesnewell]

Yes, see sig line.

 

[shr00m]

how many miles do you get on that 10 ah 24s on the 72v controller?