Instant Start 18 fet Infineon Boards are here...

[ZapPat]

I have no idea if this will work, but have you tried connecting a regular throttle to the brake input, instead of just a switch? Most brake inputs simply parallel the throttle input, so what you are doing when the switch is activated is grounding the throttle input. With this regen/brake input maybe partial "throttle" will give partial regen? I think this is how the Kellys work.

-- Gary

I doubt this will work as I think these controllers use a digital input for the EBS signal (and it is definitely not just in parallel to the throttle input or else it would just coast as usual when grounded and not engage the ebrakes). It would be cool though if it would be this easy to make the ebrakes work like a nice adjustable analog throttle, but I doubt they are made this way... :?

 

[Arlo1]

Yeh I tried a 2660 Ohm resistor then a 550 Ohm resistor then a 176 Ohm resistor accross the brake switch and they all made the CA get brighter but only the 176 Ohm made the brakes work and they hit just as hard as normal. I will reserch this more soon.

 

[methods]

I dont like hearing that your CA is getting brighter or dimmer.
Check your wiring

Are you running the diode and inline resistor on the throttle control output of the CA right? You must be running the diode but it sounds like you are not running the resistor.

The CA screen should never change brightness. If it is then something is wrong.

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

Wow look this guy ^ lol you are correct I never put in the resistor. Hummm Guess I will install it tonight? I got to take it apart to figure out the 3rd speed setting anyway!

 

[methods]

I have put a few controllers together in my time.

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

So when is the next level of voltage coming methods? I meen if I have a pack I can charge to 350 volts I should be able to hit 150mph
No but seriously for an electric motocross bike this controler is pretty good as long as you can have two speeds somehow like wye delta switch. I have more power off the line with my little bmx then my crf 250r right now lol but once you load that down with a heavy mx bike it wont be as good. I realy do feel it is the x5 holding me back though. If we want to continue with the "Electric revalution" we need to get a real kick your ass motocross bike out and get people to turn their heads. I meen the zero bike is cool but come on a brushed engine?? As well who do we talk to about designing a better motor?

 

[methods]

Get an X6.
It has 7AWG phase wires
-methods

 

[markcycle]

So when is the next level of voltage coming methods? I meen if I have a pack I can charge to 350 volts I should be able to hit 150mph
No but seriously for an electric motocross bike this controler is pretty good as long as you can have two speeds somehow like wye delta switch. I have more power off the line with my little bmx then my crf 250r right now lol but once you load that down with a heavy mx bike it wont be as good. I realy do feel it is the x5 holding me back though. If we want to continue with the "Electric revalution" we need to get a real kick your ass motocross bike out and get people to turn their heads. I meen the zero bike is cool but come on a brushed engine?? As well who do we talk to about designing a better motor?

10kw brushless hub motor for real
http://www.doingitall.net/EnerTrac

Mark

 

[Arlo1]

http://www.doingitall.net/EnerTrac[/url]

Mark

Is that not a x6? are they water proof? I will read about it later. How american of us to think more is better eh! :lol:

 

[Arlo1]

So...... why are we not suposed to try 115% and 120% speed settings? I had to flash mine about 15 times to get x1 and x2 speed settings to work. While I was doing that I found 120 gives the fastest free wheel speed with my pack charged at about 92v I was getting 90.8 km/h free wheel speed! I have to try it!

 

[methods]

You will find that under heavy load the motor will start making bad sounds.
Basically they did a crappy job programming the output so they cheese it back to 90%
Depending on the motor (trapezoidal wind, sinusoidal wind, different loading, etc) you will get different results.
Some times it will crap out at 105%, some times you can get away with 110%. I have yet to see a bike that will run good under load at 120%

What? You thought you were going to get something for nothing

Like I said - others have tried up to 150%.
Probably worked on the bench but wont work in the field.

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

Uhm so... uhm Yeh 120% works for me and I tried with about half a pack when I was done it read 88v and I just got done pulling up a good hill at 65km/h I was pulling 75km/h and still gaining speed on the flat when I hit the brakes. I have only gone about 72-73 before today and was with a pack just off the charger at 100v with a good balance. I am wireing up my second pack and all the ballancing tabs now so hopefully tomorow night I will try a big blast. I think with my pirelli 2.5 x 16 tires and a decnet charge I should brake 80km/h

 

[methods]

I have had trouble with the 9C at that high of a percentage.
The X5 has a trapezoidal wind which is friendlier to the controller - perhaps they get along good
If mine was not smoked - I would do a test

You do some more testing and perhaps I can change my recommendation.

What is up with the Regen testing?

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

Everything is great I have regen that will start at any voltage below 97volts and charge the battery back up to 98 volts before it quits. I get to test that with a battery that is slightly un ballenced then ride out of the house and it is alot of down hill from here so I get to regen for a bit till I am at the bottom. If my pack is fresh and ballenced it will be over 97 volts and I get no regen as I leave. but it only takes a couple blasts of the throttle and it drops enought to work. As for the regen it is very powerfull and at full speed you have to hang on. So I found it was hitting so hard and then I had so much power when I accelerated again it would make my axle work back and fourth. SO now I added another layer of steal to the rear of the bmx and made a 8mm pinch bolt on each side to squeaze the axle down tight! I also replaced the axle and both nuts because they striped on me. Now I dont torque them as hard and I rely on the pinch bolts to hold things in place. I use blue lock tight on the axle nuts and torque to 30 ftlbs and then use grease on the pinch bolts and torque to 22 ftlbs. I snug the nuts a bit then the pinch bolts to full torque then the nuts to full torque! I hooked as many balancing tabs together as I could to let all my lipo self ballance. then tomorow I will wire the rest of them and duck tape the batteries back on and charge it up to give it a go. After that all I will have left is the battery boxes I got to build.

 

[Arlo1]

So uh yup 80.5 km/h (50mph) new top speed on the flat! Hummm I actualy got a little scared going that fast on my bmx it starts to get very responsive or should I say twitchy It will only do it with a freshly charged pack and me tucking and the motor cool. Man it would be cool to make this all more consistant! Like a liquid cooled motor and a DC-DC inverter to keep input voltage to the controler at 100 or just shy of 100v On the way back after burning off 3ah it would only pull 74k on the flat!

 

[methods]

A man after my own heart

That ish is Methods Ghetto Fabulous!

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

Arlo,

You reach 80 Km/h with the 120 % top speed on 20 " wheel is that right ?, if yes it's really cool wow

Good day!
Bikeraider

I sure did and I made sure the CA is perfactly set to my wheel size! I also run 65 psi in my tires! A friend has a hemelt cam I will try to borrow!

 

[Arlo1]

A man after my own heart

That ish is Methods Ghetto Fabulous!

-methods

You like my black to purple fade job? I wanted to feel like I was in the 90s again! I plan to dismantle the whole bike and repaint it once I know I have something that will last.

 

[Arlo1]

apperantly the 120% setting doesnt work for many wheels but it worked for mine You can feel 2 spots in the end of the throttle range where the wheel just bursts faster. Freewheel speed with a 1/2 pack is 95km/h I still have bigger tires coming too. SO I went out this morning to grab some junch from a store near by and coming home was a steep up hill and this jeep was going about 50 (the speed limit) and I pulled out and passed him up the hill at 65km/h and he looked over to see some bmx in the rain going faster up hill then him without peddleing! He had the funiest look on his face I will never forget that I just wonder what he is going to be telling all his buddies later!

 

[GGoodrum]

My favorite thing is to pass 20-something, lycra-clad guys, struggling up a hill, on my Townie. The look on their faces as they see some 50-year old+ guy in flipflops, jet past them barely pedaling a beach cruiser with balloon tires, is just priceless. They just about crash into each other. I got a bigger rear view mirror in order to better watch the chaos behind me. :lol: The trick is to pedal, but just at the same pace you might on the boardwalk, at the beach, checking out the "scenery". If you don't pedal, they figure out too quickly it is powered.

-- Gary

 

[Arlo1]

Its funny you say that gary. Last night I came up behind a cop car so I kept it at 25km/h and peddled while sitting down and I was peddling slow but made it look real (normaly I would have to peddle so fast to go 25km/h) then when they were gone wham back up to jet speed. You realy don't know how fast this thing is till you are beside a car or truck and they are racing to keep up to you! :lol: So far all incl I have spent $1500 cdn to build this and it is still my favorite toy man it is so fun!

 

[Arlo1]

Arlo,

I like to know if you change your capacitor on the controller kit to use it at 100 Volt.

Thank you good day!
Bikeraider

No I use the original capacitors. It is 24s lipo so you charge it to 100.8 volts ONLY if the pack is perfactly ballenced. So usualy I have to stop charging at around 99.5volts. Then when you start using it the voltage drops to ~95volts right away. It realy never sees any use at 100 volts.

 

[Arlo1]

So after over heating my x5 to 180deg C I found a shorted phase wire and fixed it then tried and it was rough still and took a couple of my fets. So I tore the wheel apart and found that one of the halls all the solder melted off the wires and on another one of the wires the solder melted off. I got this wheel used from steveo and it looks like two of the halls had been replaced and silicone was used to hold them inplace but they seem fine sure his work was ok it was just to much heat for the solder. So I fixed them up and with the stator in my hand I used a magnet to test all the halls and they seem to turn on and off. I took the bord apart and found two of the fets had welded together and shorted to the heat sync. So I will be replacing them tonight.
Needless to say cooling an x5 is my new favorite thread.

 

[methods]

After you fix those fets I want you to paint over the fets with an insulator - like conformal coating or whatever you have.
Luke has pointed out that a common problem is to have the fets "float around" when they get real hot which can cause shorts.
This does not look to be what happened in your case - but I can tell from the picture that you got one of the crappy heat sinks that Keywin drilled when he was drunk

Each group of three can touch but if any two groups of three touch you are going to have serious fireworks.
Go ahead and get some insurance by painting some insulation between those bad-boys

Interesting how those fets there failed......
You must have really been hammering that thing.....


RE-> Hall sensors
As I have stated in some of the hall sensor threads - 90% of the time it is the hall wiring / soldering / gluing that fails, not the hall sensors themselves.
What you found makes sense.

RE-> Caps
When my last X5 blew out I also lost 3 fets. Looks like neither of us lost the main caps. that says a lot for the design as back in the old 12 fet crystalyte days the first thing to hit the fan would always be the main electrolytic. You and I are the only two people who have managed to damage 18 fet controllers and we have both done it via a blown X5 and we both lost fets - but not caps. On mine - It was a drop in replacement - didnt lose base resistors or anything.

-methods

 

[Arlo1]

Hi Arlo,

I'm sorry about your controller and your motor is not cool, and like to know actually your motor as hole drilled on both side right ?

Good day!
Bikeraider

Yes I have 6 inner and 6 outer holes on both sides of my motor. The theory is the centrafugel force pulls air into the center and pushes it out the outer holes.