# Need advice with the WarP 9 motor



## Guest (Mar 31, 2009)

It is possible to go direct drive but you'd need a good controller to do it. If you own a zilla already then that should be a doable thing. The amps drawn depend upon the car, gearing, batteries, controller, and other factors. There is no cut and dry answer. Many would love to do 80 mph and some do but the distance is minimal the faster you go. I suppose you may be thinking of lithium batteries so you can get the maximum distance possible. If you get 80 mph I'd still suggest not to drive it that fast all the time. It is not a race car but a commuter. So remember that. If you want a race car then build it for that or keep it a decent commuter. Not quite so easy to do both together. It can be done but...............

The higher the voltage of the pack the lower the motor and battery amps you will draw. That is the best way. I have a 72 volt pack and will pull 200 to 250 motor amps at 60 mph on a fresh charge. As the batteries drain and the pack sags more the amps can jump to 300 but that is for only a short time. I also use heavy lead acid batteries and they also sag pretty hard. That will keep your top speed down if you sag alot. Lithium is not as prone to such deep sagging as the lead acid batteries. 

Pete


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2009)

I suggest you keep the transmission. The DC motors are low rpm motors compared to modern ICE's. If you keep the trans you lessen the risk of over reving your motor and having it blow its guts all over the place. If you intend to rev your motor high you will need to do some work on the motor to keep it together at those high rpm's.

Jim Husted is the motor guru but I am not sure if he is doing much right now. Search Jim Husted and get his web address and go check out his site and read it all. Everything. 

Oh well, I did it for you: http://www.hitorqueelectric.com/


Pete : )

http://greenev.zapto.org/electricvw


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## Derk (Mar 31, 2009)

First things first; I'm not looking to build a "race car" 
I need to go 75-80MPH on the interstate if I'm going to make this work.
I'll keep the manual transmission then.

1) How many RPM's should I run this motor at? 
2) What kind of RPM's should I expect if I apply 160v?
3) I know there is no way for you to come up with an exact figure for amps; but I need to figure out a ballpark figure so I can figure out how big and how many battery's I need.

I appreciate any guidance you can give me


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2009)

Derk said:


> First things first; I'm not looking to build a "race car"
> I need to go 75-80MPH on the interstate if I'm going to make this work.
> I'll keep the manual transmission then.
> 
> ...


I am not the best for guidance. There are others that can help more than I. The motor I use should not be taken more than 5k to be on the safe side but that is close to it's limits before it blows. I try to keep it below that. Even with 72 volts it is possible to over rev so pack size is determined for power and distance. To get the most you need batteries that are true deep cycle and not marine style deep cycle. Do not use standard car batteries either. They must be true deep cycle. Do some searching and you will find the battery information you need. You will want batteries with the most amp hours available. Do not go by cold cranking amps. Again searching about batteries will teach you what you need to know. If you use lead batteries you will be limited by weight that your vehicle can hold. To go fast you will need a bunch. Look at some conversions over on EVDL too and that can tell you a whole bunch on batteries and distance. Lithium will be your best choice as will a light weight vehicle that can hold lots of weight. That is why I chose the VW Ghia. 

On very important thing you did not mention was distance you need to go. At those hwy speeds you will be quite limited as to how far you can go if you drive that fast while on the hwy.


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2009)

The more voltage you use the less amps you draw off your pack and that is a good thing. You also will need a controller that can handle that 160 volts and amperage draw with out killing your controller or motor. The controller will most likely be water cooled too. It will get hot running those kind of speeds. 

Pete : )


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## bblocher (Jul 30, 2008)

Derk said:


> I want to be able to cruise at about 80MPH. I'm looking at about a 2000-2500lb car. I wont be driving over many hills. I'm looking to power this motor at 160v.
> 
> 1) How many amps should I expect to draw at 80MPH running at 160v?
> 2) How many amps should I expect to draw at 60MPH?
> ...


Hey Derk,

I can at least offer stats from my conversion to help you. I'm running a 9" ADC FB1-4001 motor at 144 volts using a Curtus 1231C controller. At 70 mph I'm pulling 180 amps. At 60mph about 140 amps, 50 mph about 115 so you can see speed makes a huge difference  Also keep in mind that the car you use is going to make all the difference on these numbers as aerodynamics of the car you convert plays the biggest part in amp draw at these speeds.

The motor RPMs also will be based on the gearing of the vehicle you choose so nobody can answer that. The motors will have a range of RPMs that they are most efficient. My motor likes the 4000-4500 rpm range for efficiency and you should drive at a speed that works best for you and efficiency if possible.

You really need a lot more volts than that for direct drive, OR the ability to push 1k+ amps. My controller only pushes 500 amps peak. If I start off in 4th gear (which only reaches about 60 mph before I get to 5,000 rpm and I don't like to push the motor further than that) the acceleration sucks. The common motors and controllers you'll find out aren't rated for the juice you need to get the best of both worlds with direct drive. You can push them harder but I really can't say who long they'll hold up. I recommend sticking with the manual tranny. I also kept my clutch so shifting is fast and just like driving a normal car, no biggie.


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## ftaffy (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi Brian,
Awesome blog! I like the sensors set up, will need to read more about how you are feeding that back into the laptop. I want to add a touch display in the dash for that information + voltages, G-force, etc. 

Looking at here: http://www.racer-xtreme.com/cars.php?ck=1&tab=2
Looks like your 4th gear is : 1.16 And your diff ratio is: 4.1. From my calcs that is ~6000 rpm on 205 or ~4000rpm on 16" for 60mph or 100kph. So i am guessing your somewere in that range. This actually gave me thought to buy bigger wheels for my lotus 7 EV build, will help keep rpm down at high speeds!

Do you find that you use all the gears or just a few? If so which ones? I am currently split between Direct drive and using a 2 speed clutchless gearbox.


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## bblocher (Jul 30, 2008)

ftaffy said:


> Do you find that you use all the gears or just a few? If so which ones? I am currently split between Direct drive and using a 2 speed clutchless gearbox.


It's a 6 speed and I use 1-5. 1st is pretty optional but I use it be a bit more energy conservative. I find using all the gears allows me to keep the RPMs of the motor right where I want it. I can keep it low for good torque when accelerating or keep it high for efficiency. The more gears the better for keeping whatever sweet spot I want and keeping the clutch (which most don't do) makes it quick and easy to switch gears. I don't think I've really used 6th gear yet but I'll need it to see what my top speed is. My top speed is going to be limited by gearing sadly and not power. I could change my final ratio, but I'm not concerned really. 5th gear is perfect for cruising at 65-70 mph and 6th should be good for 75-80+ which is much more than I need for my commute to work.


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## Taztech (Dec 5, 2008)

I am not sure if I should be posting this question here or not.
But I have a warp 9 motor and I was wondering what are the wires that come out of the motor are? There are two black wires that come out and a connector that is recessed in the motor with two male spade terminals in it? I think one is for a thermistor (not sure which) and I have no idea what the other would be for. Could someone help me out?


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## bblocher (Jul 30, 2008)

Taztech said:


> I am not sure if I should be posting this question here or not.
> But I have a warp 9 motor and I was wondering what are the wires that come out of the motor are? There are two black wires that come out and a connector that is recessed in the motor with two male spade terminals in it? I think one is for a thermistor (not sure which) and I have no idea what the other would be for. Could someone help me out?


I'm not sure how closesly they copied the ADC FB1-4001 but it has two wires coming out of it that are normally open. When temperatures get too high it turns into a closed circuit. So you can connect a light or buzzer etc to warn you when the motor gets too hot.


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## dimitri (May 16, 2008)

the difference between Warp and ADC is that ADC has temp sensor as Normally Open contact, but Warp is Normally Closed, which makes it very inconvenient to use, since you need to add a relay to convert NC to NO, so you can drive a light or a buzzer.

I actually used OEM temp sensor and epoxied it into the lift hole on Warp9, so I can see temp rise on the OEM instrument cluster, instead of getting an alarm when its almost too late. 

If motor is properly used, you should never see those contacts trip, they trip at 120 Celcius, I believe, which is damn hot


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