# Open ReVolt Controller



## SolarCar (Aug 21, 2010)

Hello there every one..
I'm from South Africa and EV's is a very very rare car to see, in fact i have never seen one here..
I'm thinking of building the ReVolt controller, because to buy a controller (from overseas) will work out much much more than to build one..
I'm not too bad with a soldering iron, and have some electrical knowledge.
And for the motor i can get a Forklift motor, but not sure what the specs is on it.. But the biggest problem is the motor controller..


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

Sounds like a plan. Good luck. I have been using one since august '09.

alvin


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## DawidvC (Feb 14, 2010)

It should not be too difficult to build. Have you read the thread yet - there are some excellent advice in there.

BTW, the only ev in my parts I have seen is the Honda that Eskom converted, a shame they pulled a plug on that project.

Let me know if I can be of assistance.

Dawid


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## SolarCar (Aug 21, 2010)

DawidvC said:


> It should not be too difficult to build. Have you read the thread yet - there are some excellent advice in there.
> 
> BTW, the only ev in my parts I have seen is the Honda that Eskom converted, a shame they pulled a plug on that project.
> 
> ...


Hello there, did not know there is SA people on here. But anyway thanks for the reply.. I have been trying to see where i can buy the parts from but its bit hard getting a place online or maybe i just don't know how lol..
I found Digi-Key and so far it will cost 194.70USD (ZAR1345) for the parts but not the resistors have to find a place to buy the resistors from .. And to make the PCB..


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## alvin (Jul 26, 2008)

Here is a link you might try.


http://www.paulandsabrinasevstuff.com/evmotorcontrollers.html


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## DawidvC (Feb 14, 2010)

SolarCar said:


> Hello there every one..
> 
> And for the motor i can get a Forklift motor, but not sure what the specs is on it..


Where did you find the motor? I've been looking around, but couldn't find anything suitable. I was actually thinking of getting a motor from Transvaal Electric, if they would sell to me. They got a nice looking 37kw watercooled  DC Series motor that looks quite nice.

BTW, there is a member here that lives in Pretoria. His forum name is Albano. 

Dawid


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

DawidvC said:


> Where did you find the motor? I've been looking around, but couldn't find anything suitable. I was actually thinking of getting a motor from Transvaal Electric, if they would sell to me. They got a nice looking 37kw watercooled  DC Series motor that looks quite nice.
> 
> BTW, there is a member here that lives in Pretoria. His forum name is Albano.
> 
> Dawid


Hello Solarcar, DawidvC and all,

I'm trying to collect some forklift to remove the motor for us all to do the conversion. I have a few dc and ac motor that we are busy striping.Here are some of the pic of our yard.


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

Also we did a Nissan 1400 that belong to Gill Dias about 2 years ago, we was quiet impress with the job we did. We sold Curtis 1231c controller to a guys in Klerkdorp and we bought Zilla 2k EHV last month It took only 2 week from date of payment to get here, but man it cost us arm and leg to get it here almost R60000.00. Now we still have to get the batteries.

Here are the pic of our first conversion on a Nissan 1400.


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## DawidvC (Feb 14, 2010)

It looks good in that yard. Whereabouts is that?

Dawid


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

DawidvC said:


> It looks good in that yard. Whereabouts is that?
> 
> Dawid


Pretoria, Hercules.

Albano


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## DawidvC (Feb 14, 2010)

I went past there last week to fix a machine in Rosslynn for my work.

I have to make a turn there sometime soon.
Good luck with the new project. Hope I pass by before it is all done

Dawid


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## SolarCar (Aug 21, 2010)

albano said:


> Also we did a Nissan 1400 that belong to Gill Dias about 2 years ago, we was quiet impress with the job we did. We sold Curtis 1231c controller to a guys in Klerkdorp and we bought Zilla 2k EHV last month It took only 2 week from date of payment to get here, but man it cost us arm and leg to get it here almost R60000.00. Now we still have to get the batteries.
> 
> Here are the pic of our first conversion on a Nissan 1400.


Hi Albano..
Nice to see it has been done in SA..
I really cant buy that Zilla for R60000 its bit expensive.
I found the motor in Richards Bay for free, but i did not take it coz its bit hard to pick it up lol.. I now stay in Bronkhorstspruit.
What will you ask for a motor??


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

SolarCar said:


> Hi Albano..
> Nice to see it has been done in SA..
> I really cant buy that Zilla for R60000 its bit expensive.
> I found the motor in Richards Bay for free, but i did not take it coz its bit hard to pick it up lol.. I now stay in Bronkhorstspruit.
> What will you ask for a motor??



Hi SolarCar,

The motor going From R2500.00 to R4000.00

Albano


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## SolarCar (Aug 21, 2010)

albano said:


> Hi SolarCar,
> 
> The motor going From R2500.00 to R4000.00
> 
> Albano


Okay its not a bad price for a motor, and maybe a controller if you mite have one around..


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

SolarCar said:


> Okay its not a bad price for a motor, and maybe a controller if you mite have one around..


What vehicle are you planing to do the conversion, range, volts.....


Albano


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## SolarCar (Aug 21, 2010)

albano said:


> What vehicle are you planing to do the conversion, range, volts.....
> 
> 
> Albano


I have a Lada Niva that i can convert, but not much space inside it.. So i'll get something els to work on but the biggest problem is the controller if i have a good controller then i can work from there.. But to import a controller is really not a good idea..


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## Snakub (Sep 8, 2008)

Hey solarcar make sure when you put together the intelligence board that every component on it are the ones recommended for it the resistors too. You get one component wrong the over current protection will not work and you will blow up your power section even the resistors have to be the exact value within 1% to 2% tolerances. Just a heads up.


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## MPaulHolmes (Feb 23, 2008)

Well, if you are driving mosfets it's not such a big deal. The overcurrent protection circuit doesn't care about resistor tolerances. It's basically just a comparator and a nand flip flop, to remember that the comparator was tripped. If you use resistors that are way off, then the hardware overcurrent might come on at 540 amps instead of 510 amps. The control board can also drive some IGBTs, but then to reduce heat loss, you need to modify the drive circuit just a bit. Snakub, you guys were driving darlingtons, I believe.

Here's what Tesseract had to say awhile back about driving them:



> “What's the switching frequency? IIRC, you are using fairly old Darlington modules. Depending on the vintage, those were typically rated for 1.5kHz operation. Some VFDs of that time offered a "quiet mode" - 8khz, which is the default frequency today - but required a 25% or so derating.
> 
> Realize that Darlingtons require a proportional base drive circuit to achieve fast switching while minimizing Vce[sat]. Count on an overall beta of 100 (so a 500A controller will require 5A of base drive... and this is continuous, not impulse, current...).
> 
> The driver circuits used these days for IGBTs and MOSFETs will hard saturate a darlington which will lead to incredibly long turn-off times. This can be mitigated somewhat with a Baker Clamp, but then your driver power is going to shoot through the roof. Proportional drive really is best for Darlingtons (and, to be perfectly honest, is such a bitch to get working just right you might question whether you really got such a good deal on the Darlingtons in the first place )


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## Snakub (Sep 8, 2008)

MPaulHolmes said:


> Well, if you are driving mosfets it's not such a big deal. The overcurrent protection circuit doesn't care about resistor tolerances. It's basically just a comparator and a nand flip flop, to remember that the comparator was tripped. If you use resistors that are way off, then the hardware overcurrent might come on at 540 amps instead of 510 amps. The control board can also drive some IGBTs, but then to reduce heat loss, you need to modify the drive circuit just a bit. Snakub, you guys were driving darlingtons, I believe.


Still if you have a bad nand or comparator and a couple other ic's on the board that you mentioned your power section might blow up is there a way to test those? Will your board drive this guy http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-MG600Q1...658?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item518d67cf1a?
Two of these guys?


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## MPaulHolmes (Feb 23, 2008)

I generally just have a blind faith that the nand and comparator is good. One way you could check that the overcurrent section is working right is to solder the control board, and then apply a fake voltage of greater than around 3.55v or so to the output pin of the LEM current sensor, then verify that the pwm signal has been disabled.

I don't know if it could drive 2 of those buggers, but I know it can do at least 1 very large igbt, but it may depend on the type you use. jackbaeur (how the heck do you spell that) is the expert on using igbts with the control board though.


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