Dual motors 1 throttle

Paul_young

100 µW
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Jul 19, 2024
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Evening all, I'm in the planning stages of an extended tricycle build for my dog with a front hub motor and a mid drive. I'm having the rear axle converted into a differential so it will be full wheel drive, with the hub only being used as and when it's needed also for redundancy just in case the inevitable happens and the chain breaks. I'm planning on some long journeys and with front hub kits being dirt cheap it makes sense. My question is, is it possible to connect both motors to one throttle going through a switch to engage either or both motors, if so how would it be done? Thanks for reading.
 
Typically, you'd need a separate controller for each motor. In your case with 2 motors,.. 2 controllers.

 
It's not all in one post in the thread, and there aren't wiring diagrams, but my SB Cruiser thread discusses various 2WD setups I've used on it over the years, most of which use a single throttle-control-source for both controllers.

(the crazybike2 thread has other discussions of various 2WD implementations I've tried; those wheels are inline with each other rather than parallel so the effect is different, regarding steering effects)

At present for SBC I use a Thun BB torque sensor as primary throttle control via a Cycle Analyst v3 to run both Phaserunners, and customized the PR's throttle input ranges on each one to try to match the response of each motor (they're slightly different) to each other for the same throttle input. There is also a thumb throttle on the CA's input (taht it then sends out to the controllers) for the rare (but increasing as I age) times I can't use the pedals to control or start it from a stop. (usually it's used more like a go-button from complete stops, and once I'm moving then the pedals control everything).

There is also a second cable-operated throttle unit and some relays controled via the left brake handle that use the CA / PR setup to create variable regen braking, that I use as the primary braking source nowadays, since the design and weight distribution of the trike means the rear wheels have much more traction than the front, and thus much greater stopping power before wheelskid starts.



It is also a long delta trike built to carry dogs (St Bernards in my case).
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Certain VESCs can control two motors from one throttle natively and even provide ABS and traction control while they're at it.

Probably your best option!
 
The VESC traction control won't work in this case as there is no setup (yet) for different ratios of ERPM to wheel speed. But pretty much any VESC can be connected like this by just connecting the canbus. You can set them to different settings entirely based on the motor to balance the power however you want but switching between using one motor or the other would probably require changing a setting in the app but there are probably some wiring work arounds that would work there too.
 
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