Plettenberg Nova motors and MST controllers: 15, 30, 150kW

240 000 ERPM is really awesome (like good RC controller)!
what can a normal Kelly controller do? only 45 000 or so i think..

Is it sine wave or trapezoidal?
 
h0tr0d said:
Have you respected the battery cable length referred in the manual?

Also there's a lot of stuff talking about 5V, everything according to the manual also?

Is DC coming from a battery, power supply, both, any caps in parallel... ?

Have you tried to fully disconnect the generator setup and just run the motor?

Have you tried using both controllers to serve as motor controllers? Same errors glitches?

Quality serial cables with decent EMI insulation?
Click to expand...

Yup, used the cables already provided on the controller which were to spec, hooked it straight to supply.

Initially I used another power supply to give the controllers 5v. But later just let the internal DC/DC handle powering the controller.

10Kw supply, going to hook another one in parallel in the coming weeks to drive it to spec.

Yep initial test was single motor with no load.

As far as I can tell yes. So with the next test we're going to run with the motors we're just going to use rs232 for data, and use analog control.

Could always use better serial cables. But I wouldn't expect seeing the same two faults again and again. (even though it was less than 10 times)


liveforphysics said:
Try to get solid control of a single motor first.

Even when controllers just share a battery and otherwise get fully isolated signals, Ive seen wonky throttle behaviors. I think it's gotta be ground loops in the main power bus.
Click to expand...

God no, not the ground loops again. Had an absolute nightmare with my Emrax setup.

So if anything I'd tie the grounds coming out from the serial ports together to have a more stable ground? Both motors already using the same power supply, connected to same computer controlling both motcos. Only serial Tx/Rx being used to communicate to motcos. Every other pin left alone, and isolated.


Giovanni LiCalsi said:
How can I see this in English?
Click to expand...

Google translate, or find yourself a German :shock:


Either way I do not like how the serial communication is working out. I'm just going to place my controller for analog signal as close to the rs232 ports on the motcos as possible, shield the crap out of everything and call it a day.
 
You might be interested in our E-Kart project. We have integrated 2 Nova 15 motors from Plettenberg with their controllers and 80V Lipo Power. I am adding a link to my building blog. I hope that is o.k. It would be nice to share experience. I don't think that there have been deployed too many of these motors:

My blog is found at holymachines.wordpress.com

It is all still work in progress. We just completed the monitoring and analysis software to better understand the controller data. More to come.

Cheers, sulzi
 
Sulzi nice to see that someone got their hands on couple Novas . (looks like an interesting projekt btw (nice looking rack 8) (steering rack)))

What controler are you using?
And if it is not to rude may i ask how much you pay for them?
 
We are using the Plettenberg MST 140-200 Controllers together with the Nova 15. We just started real-world testing with this setup. It will be interesting to see what results we will find. I have seen another post in this forum where somebody seems to be working with the Nova 15 as well. Of course it would be of interest to compare some findings.
As far as pricing is concerned: Probably best to contact Plettenberg directly. Pricing might depend on a few options (such as water cooling, etc). We definitely made a big mistake when we ordered the motors without water cooling and we will have to address this now. Order of magnetite for a pair of Nova 15 incl. controllers is 6K Euros...
 
thecmak said:
Two Nova 15s (SN000001 and SN000002), with the corresponding MST controllers.
Click to expand...

Sulzi, HolyMachines blog: http://holymachines.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/version-1-2-motors-rear-suspension/
"Plettenberg-Motors: The Nova 15. It seems that I have placed the very first orders for these motors as I have received serial numbers 00001 and 00002."

WTF?
 
Yes, we will need to add water cooling jackets. We are not clear yet if we will switch over to the Nova 30's for even more torque. The jackets we won't build ourselves as Plettenberg has developed them already. Before we make any changes, we will dive deep into the log files to better understand how motors and controllers are performing.
 
Sulzi said:
Yes, we will need to add water cooling jackets. We are not clear yet if we will switch over to the Nova 30's for even more torque. The jackets we won't build ourselves as Plettenberg has developed them already. Before we make any changes, we will dive deep into the log files to better understand how motors and controllers are performing.
Click to expand...

switch over to the nova 30 would be a good idea, but very expensive (about 10 000€ right?) maybe there is no need of a watercooling system with these motors.
The nova 15 seems to me more like it acts in the power range of big RC outrunner motors. it will never do 15kW without very good cooling! look, it weights only 2,5kg!

did you consider about "joby motors"? http://www.jobymotors.com/public/views/pages/products.php
The JM2 30kV should be very close to the nove 30, but these motors are not sealed up and have no option for water cooling. i just want to bring it up.

btw: very nice e-kart. awesome engineering skills :)
 
Giovanni LiCalsi said:
Why are these motors so expensive?
Click to expand...
Because they are directed at the low volume, V large scale RC, and ultralight flight, "playboys"...
..where money is not a limitation !
as opposed to say Marrs or G' Motor, where the focus is to the domestic/ small industrial consumer, which is V'high volume, and price is critical.
 
This is nice to see, some real world projects with these new motors! Sulzi, based on your short experience if you were planning to build a scooter with a single watercooled motor to offer comparable performance to a 125cc scooter is the 15 motor going to be enough, or is the 30 the better option?
 
I was thinking for quite sporty performance, more like a very powerful 125, vs a 50cc sort of bike. 15kW seems like a good number, but want to be sure it can be sustained without damaging the motor. I'm not in a rush so can watch and learn as more people purchase the motors.

The idea is to convert one of these bikes.

GP1-50cc.jpg
 
I am backing away from the 2 Nova 30 motor design.
I am designing the front wheel drive to use a Taylor Race Engineering belt drive torque biasing differential.
Here is a photo of the bare drive without the frame, belt drive pulley and inboard disc brakes. I'm showing a one-off build of a chain drive differential to show how a frame with adjuster rods will look.
I'm thinking that a 600-800lb. reverse trike may only need one motor and it very greatly simplifies the front suspension.



 
So after tying all the signal grounds to the same ground plane serial communication seems a lot more stable. But we're still controlling with analog, just because it is a lot quicker than serial.

Previously we had both of the motco's tied to the same psu to test regenerative braking. Now one of the motcos are tied to the psu, and the other to our pack. Driving with one, braking with the other, we are getting some good regen numbers back through our BMS. Need to start recording our serial comm to determine regen efficiencies.

YOYxmlbl.jpg

U8GJIHal.jpg
 
Very excited for you thecmak!

Did it turn out to be a ground loop control issue between the two controllers?

I'm eager to see what these nice motors can really do with respect to continuous power. :) I think with excellent high-flow cool water circulation, 15kW steady may be entirely possible.
 
Sorry for the late update, developing a hybrid vehicle is quite some work. But the result does sound pretty good. The vehicle is a carbon monocoque and features an AWD topology with two 15kw novas coupled to a 3:1 planetary reduction built into the wheel upright, and a rear single cylinder 250cc with a Drexler LSD. The high voltage accumulator contains 32 asynchronous capacitors, and the motor controllers. Communication throughout the vehicle is done through a CAN network with two master controllers, and numerous slave controllers. All in all the vehicle weighs only ~450 lbs, and combined powertrain output of approximately 60 kw.

[youtube]aQEEPIsOJ9E[/youtube]

1655808_594466537296090_2128771457_o.jpg
 
Formula Student, nice! 8)
 
Hillhater said:
Giovanni LiCalsi said:
Why are these motors so expensive?
Click to expand...
Because they are directed at the low volume, V large scale RC, and ultralight flight, "playboys"...
..where money is not a limitation !
as opposed to say Marrs or G' Motor, where the focus is to the domestic/ small industrial consumer, which is V'high volume, and price is critical.
Click to expand...

Anyone care to decrypt "Marrs" (no relevant search hits) and "G' motor" (same)? The upside to saving some letters is that it saves spme letters. The downside is that all the remaining letters become purposeless unless read by hardcore slang users. In the purpose of having the forum as a information hub for all interested users please use real names. Regards, the newbie.
 
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