Cheap 144v 500amp motor controller, version 2

This is a dramatically improved prototype of a 144v 500amp DC motor controller for an electric car. It is open source, and will soon be available in the form of a kit. It is in the beta testing phase right now. This initial test was done at 72v.

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[jeffpicks]

"There's no room for accelerating" ... so take it out on the highway! Let's see what she can do!

[Thomato80]

Nice!  :) Any chance of getting hold of the plans for your controller? It looks great!

- Thomas, over in the UK

[ladedk]

Haha, love the cable tier meters on the dashboard!! cool project.

[unnefer1978]

@MPaulHolmes That is a HUGE savings Paul. On PCB Cart's website they state "As default we accept gerber file RS-274X format." I checked FreePCB's website and they state "Exports extended Gerber files (RS274X) and Excellon drill files". If you export as RS274X in FreePCB, then PCB Cart should accept it?

As for assembly and insurance, don't manufacturers get around that when a customers agrees to terms of sale (with indemnity clause)? How do Zilla, Netgain, Curtis and Solitron get around it?

[MPaulHolmes]

@unnefer1978 Yes. The place I want to go through is PCB Cart. For example, to do a 4 ounce pcb etched in large quantities, it's $8. To have the same thing in the U.S. is like $100 each. I'm going to buy Eagle as soon as I get $1000. Hey! that's $1 per amp. hahaha. I don't do assembly for people anymore because our insurance guy told us that if the people got in a wreck, that the person they ran into can sue us! Isnt 'that just stupid? OH well.

[unnefer1978]

@MPaulHolmes Is the pcb software holding you back on cheaper quotes? What software do you need exactly?

It's great to know you have the 1000a control board ready for production. I'm still a few months away from building my electric race car, and it sounds like you'd have everything ready to go by then :)

How much do you charge for assembly?

[MPaulHolmes]

@unnefer1978 Hi unnefer! If you want it for racing, I would recommend getting water cooling. Right now we just have the 500amp controller kit on the website. Actually, even that's not being sold right now, as I'm trying to make the 2 kits that people just ordered. The control board for the 1000amp controller is done, but I am waiting on having it made. It's stinking expensive, because I am using free pcb layout software that can only be used at Advanced Circuits.

[unnefer1978]

@unnefer1978 (cont). You said the controller you were working on should support up to 1000a - is that the kit that you sell on the Paul & Sabrina website - or is not released? I'm going to build an electric car for time attack racing that needs to handle 1 hot lap around a race track (upto 2min). I doubt it would sit on 1000a, but I assume it would draw quite a bit of current continuously. I need a controller to support this, which is cheap enough so I can have spare controllers ready to go.

[unnefer1978]

@MPaulHolmes I did a bit of google searching last night trying to find a diy "kit" for your controller but found several "versions" of it? I have found kits that go all the way to version "D" when yours is version 2? I also found a revision by a "blackpanther" that doesn't use mosfets of igbts, but something else (cant remember now) and it supported 1200a? I assume you are Paul from Paul & Sabrina's DIY controller, if so, I'd rather buy a kit from you to support all your hard work. (cont)

[MPaulHolmes]

@unnefer1978 The one I'm doing is air cooled, so the 1000amp would probably only be for short bursts. Maybe 10 seconds at a time, but I don't know yet. I don't think water cooled would be that complicated. I have some friends working on that. It would probably be easiest to make a water cooled IGBT controller. You could have a big cold plate, and the igbts bolted right to it. The control board can be the exact same as for the mosfet based controller. (that's been tested too)