# Chennic controllers or Open ReVolt



## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

ky-honolulu - that is scary cheap for a controller supposedly rated for 120V/400A. Given that I manufacture a controller myself I am obviously not unbiased here, but like most things in life, if something seems too good to be true it probably is. By all means, though, buy one and see how it works. I'd consider it a true win for Chinese controllers if this one were able to deliver at least half its claimed amperage rating without blowing up!


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## 9852 (Jan 17, 2010)

i was quoted the same price, but im with T on this one, I felt like it was to good to be true, so i did not buy from them, they do have other stuff that looks interesting though.


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## dexion (Aug 22, 2009)

For JCECX-15650 series 156volt 500a controller, price will be USD528 with express fees to your address. 

Ye gads....

If my controller goes woosh I'll take the plunge.


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## TX_Dj (Jul 25, 2008)

After the whole Kelly fiasco, I'm applying controllers to the old addage of "Only rich people can afford cheap batteries" by saying "Only rich people can afford cheap controllers."


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## jyanof (Nov 11, 2008)

ky-honolulu said:


> I was wondering if any one has tried one of these Chennic controllers. I got a quote of $285 for a 120 volt 400 amp controller. I have also checked on the Open ReVolt on cost and avaliability Paul said $600 and no available now due to shortage of capacitors. I want to know the pros and cons of these controllers if anyone has tried them.


I just responded to you in another thread, but for the sake of completeness I'll re-post here. With regards to capacitors, you can likely find a substitute, or complete the rest of assembly and wait for the caps to come in stock.

My previous post...

I've been using the ReVolt controller for almost a year now in it's basic kit form (no other mods, other than the heatsink I had that it's mounted on). It has survived an AZ summer with 110F heat. In the 10 months I've had it installed, I've put 4500 miles on the controller so far.

It makes no audible noise - 16khz switching frequency at all throttle positions. 

The throttle sensitivity can be customized, but since throttle controls output current (torque), it is very smooth. The problem with curtii (and logi?) is that they control voltage (PWM). So, at a dead stop, a little bit of throttle is just a little bit of voltage, but that's enough for huge amounts of current (torque) which leads to jerky starts. If you control current (torque), you control how smooth it is.

I used a heatsink I got on ebay. I run 144v worth of batteries. At 200A continuous output (cruising for me), it'll operate at +12C relative to ambient. It also has temperature sensing to power back if it's too hot. I haven't experienced that yet, even with AZ summers, but I also try to keep the amps low by keeping rpms high.

You need a precharge resistor, but those are cheap. It does have automated contactor control, but you'd have to defer to jack for questions about that. I never set it up.

Once i started from a stoplight uphill and forgot I was in 2nd gear. The output was pegged at 500A for maybe 15 seconds straight. This was a few weeks ago, so it wasn't crazy hot out, but i think it still says a lot about the controller. The curtis I had would never do that...

You will be responsible for your own work, but I think it is safe to say that the design has been well tested and verified. It's just up to you to assemble it correctly.

I'd definitely recommend this controller as a substitute with superior performance for any 144V 500A controller . 

http://www.evalbum.com/2358


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Can't speak to the controller quality but I'm happy with my $99 Chennic DC/DC so far. Of course if it stops working someday I'll be less happy, but it doesn't seem to get hot and it does what I need.


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## ky-honolulu (Apr 7, 2010)

JRP3 said:


> Can't speak to the controller quality but I'm happy with my $99 Chennic DC/DC so far. Of course if it stops working someday I'll be less happy, but it doesn't seem to get hot and it does what I need.


your talking about dc-dc converter are you not. I also order and am happy with the converter, but the controller is totally different and is what this thread is about. Aloha


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Yes I realized that, which is why I said: "I can't speak to the controller quality". Just making the point that inexpensive doesn't necessarily mean poor quality.


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## ky-honolulu (Apr 7, 2010)

I agree. I ended up buying the Open ReVolt this weekend because if it goes bad I can fix it and get parts. The other reason is because the Chennic is a sealed unit and if something goes wrong I'll won't be able to fix it. Not to mention that no one has tried the unit yet.


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## Qer (May 7, 2008)

ky-honolulu said:


> I ended up buying the Open ReVolt this weekend because if it goes bad I can fix it and get parts.


I think this is a bit optimistic. Fixing a blown controller isn't like changing the spark plugs or replacing the exhaus pipe on an ICE. When a controller breaks it's more like if a piston breaks and the crankshaft will slam the now wildly flailing piston into the engine block, breaking it from inside. From all I've read in the forum about failing controllers (Kelly, Logisystems etc) and from our own experiences with early test runs with the Soliton (when we were still blowing up IGBTs every now and then) a blown controller usually is beyond salvage.

Sure, you can reuse the casing, but the transistors, which is a big part of the cost, will be blown and with them probably the driver electronics as well and our experience is that even if the drivers seem to work they can still be damaged so they eventually will fail and then bring with them another set of power transistors. You might be able to salvage the logic board and the capacitors but there's always the risk of damage that's not immediately detectable and therefore will cause new problems in the future.

So I wouldn't say that the ReVolt controllers strong point is that it's possible to disassemble if it blows, the strong point is that it's now reasonably well tested and seems rather robust so that it doesn't blow to begin with.


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