# Upgrade Curtis AC controller specs



## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

I've heard of people upgrading 120V curtis controllers to handle 144V...going from 100 to 400 whether DC or AC would require a complete redesign.


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Zig

Is this because the driver circuitry is not specc'd for higher power MOSFETs/IGBTs? I was looking at it as an optional alternative to building my own controller from scratch.

Anyone else with advice on upgrading an AC controller (only chose Curtis as I need to link 2 and the Curtis can).


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## TigerNut (Dec 18, 2009)

tylerwatts said:


> Not looked very hard, most threads seemed to talk of DC controllers, but has anybody upgraded the internals of a Curtis AC to higher output specs? I'm thinking a 100V controller to say 400V to over clock industrial motors. Otherwise DIY is my other option but Curtis controllers seem plentiful...


Tesseract had a note in another thread about this topic - his observation was that increased voltage leads to increased EMI, and sooner or later you reach a point where the noise inside the controller starts affecting the operation of the control loops - whether it's analog or digital.

I have a Curtis controller in my near future, and I expect to be looking into this in more detail as time and equipment permits. As Ziggy noted, going to 400V will likely require serious redesign and may not be possible at all within the confines of the Curtis enclosure; something intermediate like 200-230V would still be a huge improvement and it may be that this is attainable, but I don't expect that to be cheap or easy.


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## palmer_md (Jul 22, 2011)

I'd love to see an upgrade that allowed for a 240 v pack. Perhaps 74 Calb cells. I'd be in for one of these controllers if there were a 240v option.


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

tylerwatts said:


> Is this because the driver circuitry is not specc'd for higher power MOSFETs/IGBTs? I was looking at it as an optional alternative to building my own controller from scratch.


In a 100V controller nothing will be specced for high voltage. All the parts are chosen to work together as economically as possible. You'd have to replace the FETs/IGBTs, capacitors, control logic, maybe circuitry, resistors, heat spreaders, and case.

Check out the Open ReVolt websites. They have several projects with many great minds contributing and discuss the parts necessary to upgrade some of them.


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Oh ok thanks for the guidance Zig, and all. I misunderstood that the OpenReVolt was for a DC controller only. I'll check it out.


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

There's at least on Open ReVolt AC project. I don't know how far along it is.


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