# Soliton ADC error ?



## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi,
this might not be correct department but here is more activity so i bent the title a bit.
My Range Rover started to make strange noise and in couple kilometres stopped completely. Soliton status turned ADC error instead of running.
There was no overheat or anything out of the ordinary. I would like to believe that brushes or something like that is the blame. Motor is Kostov10".
I have very mild settings and never had any trouble with temp or anything.
it has about ten thousand km since new armature and brushes. I overrewwed the first one
Any suggestions?
Harri


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

We have a technical support email address. Please use it.


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

I believe that controller is fine. Motor made the noise and has some kind of failure. But i will try that support when i tow Rangie home and have more data.
Thanks, Harri


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

An ADC error is posted when one of the analog signals monitored by the microcontroller goes outside of its prescribed range. This error will be followed by a pair of numbers in brackets that signify the ADC channel and the errant value reported (in hexadecimal, of course, because that's how the SPD, aka Swedish Programmer Dude, rolls). 

So when you next power on the controller and connect to it with a laptop pay close attention to the numbers in brackets following the ADC out of range error (eg - "[0x03, 0x0000]") and send us an email with this information to support at our domain name.


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## Qer (May 7, 2008)

Tesseract said:


> (in hexadecimal, of course, because that's how the SPD, aka Swedish Programmer Dude, rolls)


Well, it was either that or octal, 'cause computers don't have 10 fingers...


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

When i turned power back on controller was running normal. No response from motor. I took a look at motor and it seems that i have lost a brush. Brushes seem to have worn out in couple thousand kilometres and one finally disappeared. I will take motor apart and see if works after cleaning and new brushes.
I do my most driving at max revs,5800, and at nominal amps 270. Will this cause that rapid brush wear? I do know that 10" is too small for my Range Rover but i havent got my dual11" repaired yet.
Hope other motor parts are fine, Harri


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

glaurung said:


> I do my most driving at max revs,5800, and at nominal amps 270. Will this cause that rapid brush wear?


It is causing excessive arcing and plasma (referred to as zorch by some of us). This has actually cut part of the brass brush holder off. The heat is so intense metal cannot survive let alone carbon or insulation.

There will be repair needed to the comm and brush rigging at a minimum. The armature and fields may also have damage and need repair.

The root cause is difficult for me to say. You could be operating above the motor limits of RPM, voltage and current for too long. Or there may have been some initial defect or damage which started it all like a raised commutator segment.

Cool pictures  Thanks for posting. Sorry for your loss. But got Tesseract off the hook


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

Well then... It seems likely now that it was the current sensor that reported an "out of range" signal to the ADC... 

That is to say, motor current exceeded more than ~1400A, which is outside the linear range of the current sensor, but didn't exceed ~1800A, which is the lowest current that will trip a desaturation fault.

BTW - the 10" Kostov motors were aimed more at the Soliton Jr. I bet you have motor current set way too high for this poor motor, particularly if installed in a heavy vehicle (am I understanding you correctly that the vehicle is a *Range Rover*?!?)


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## glaurung (Nov 11, 2009)

If there is exessive damage i have to send both motors back to Kostov for repair.I have overtemp light connected to one of the brushes but it was not the one that failed first. Maybe it is good idea to get few more to cover all brushes?

On current limit, i have amps set at max 600, i had setting at 700 when motor was in Jaguar.I was so afraid of blowing the motor. Heavy use must have helped brushes to wear so fast.

When incident happened i was driving about 60kmh (4000rpm) at level road and high kind of scraping sound was heard. Soon slight loss of power and i pulled off the road.I could not move the car after that.Without gear motor spinned once and then nothing.So no drama in there.

Thanks guys, i will post how things turn out.

Regards, Harri


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## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

Qer said:


> Well, it was either that or octal, 'cause computers don't have 10 fingers...


Octal would have made a lot more sense. After all, people have 8 fingers.


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## Qer (May 7, 2008)

EVfun said:


> Octal would have made a lot more sense. After all, people have 8 fingers.


Especially if they work as carpenters...


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## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

EVfun said:


> Octal would have made a lot more sense. After all, people have 8 fingers.





Qer said:


> Especially if they work as carpenters...


Hopefully they still have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs.


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