# kelly controllers



## evz (Sep 11, 2008)

im thinking of buying a kelly controller 
seems like a good price 
windows compatible software
no start feature if the accelerator is pressed

people that sell curtis are quick to say kelly has a high failure rate , 
i take those comments with a grain of salt .

does anyone have something good to say about kelly controllers ?

cheers!


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## TelnetManta (Jun 5, 2008)

I would first try using the search feature of the site to see what other members here have said. I have not used a Kelly and only know what I've heard.

I use a Logisystems.....


Ben


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## evz (Sep 11, 2008)

i just found the search feature 

mostly ok comments 
they have new products coming out i like 

looks good on paper


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

I do have a Kelly Controller KDH09401 that I just finished installing and setting up. I have not actually drove the EV yet, but I found the external build quality very good and the software extremely easy to use, and has a lot more options than I thought. 

Tomorrow I plan on doing a test drive after I go over the circuit layout again.


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## chamilun (Jun 17, 2008)

id put cost at the end of your list, and quality at the top, and see what you decide then.


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

I will do a full review on my Kelly KDH once I get my coupling problem on my EV fixed. The controller itself worked fine, but so far the only tests I have done have been driveway runs.

There is also a reason why the Kelly controllers cost a lot less than Curtis. It's not so much to do with quality than with the fact that Curtis (and others) have their DC-DC converters built into them so they use the traction power for the logic board. The Kelly needs a completely separate source for the logic than the traction for isolation reasons.


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## Tom Thomson (Jun 11, 2008)

evz
Price and quality are two important considerations, but don't forget customer service. Anything can have a problem and you want to know that the guy who sold it to you will help out. I learned this the hard way with an alltrax.
tommyt


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

TheSGC said:


> There is also a reason why the Kelly controllers cost a lot less than Curtis. It's not so much to do with quality than with the fact that Curtis (and others) have their DC-DC converters built into them so they use the traction power for the logic board. The Kelly needs a completely separate source for the logic than the traction for isolation reasons.


I did not know that. Thanks for that piece of info.


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

david85 said:


> I did not know that. Thanks for that piece of info.


When I finish my full review and get it posted it will have info like that in it. I have lots of info on the different controllers out there and the costs and specs of each from the electrical component side. Since desiging my own controller (which I won't have time for until this winter to work on) I did lots of research on each controller and what the cost is per feature and such. It'll be a really good read when done.


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

I look forward to it.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2008)

I have a Kelly and the basics of this controller work fine. Mine is a Kelly Modified controller. It is a SepEx controller designed for the old Military Starter/Generator Shunt motors. The only thing we have not tried is the regen function. I must install the motor back in my Ghia before we can test that part. I need to check the program and turn on the regen function and field weakening. I actually have not checked the field weakening either but the normal function works fine. 72 volts a 600 amps. I plan on having it back in my Ghia soon. I am taking out the GE for cleaning and painting. The old Kaylor will be back on the road with new parameters real soon. I hope the Kelly is up to the challenge. So far it is. Price was good too. They have been very helpful and I always get excellent customer service. Always. 

Pete : )


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## evcars (Mar 15, 2008)

I have the Kelly 120 volt 800 amp controller in my Honda Civic wagon and have only good things to say about this one. From my experience Kelly is easy to work with and they have great customer service. 
The first controller I bought from them was a smaller model before they came out with the new larger ones. Being a bit undersized, it had trouble handling the heavy weight of my car and the thermal protection would shut it down occasionally after long runs. Kelly let me trade it in for the new controller and only pay the difference in price.
This new 800 amp controller is much larger in size and puts out much more continuous amps. The car's performance has significantly improved and feels like a normal 4 cyl gas car power wise. I've driven the car 46 miles continuously testing the max distance and one 35 mile run at average speeds of 55-65 mph without any trouble at all. The only limiting factors now are the batteries.


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

35 Miles at 55+ MPH? Nice!


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## engineer_Bill (Jun 24, 2008)

Tom Thomson said:


> evz
> Price and quality are two important considerations, but don't forget customer service. Anything can have a problem and you want to know that the guy who sold it to you will help out. I learned this the hard way with an alltrax.
> tommyt


SO far I've gotten good support from Kelly. The tech support guy barely speeks english, but when I had a problem they express shipped a new part in a few days, not bad from China.


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## evcars (Mar 15, 2008)

david85 said:


> 35 Miles at 55+ MPH? Nice!


Yes and it drained the batteries down to nothing. I won't be doing that again anytime soon.


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## fugdabug (Jul 14, 2008)

As far as Kelly Controllers, well I am on my second one now. The first one is recorded in the thread 'Near Disaster' under the 'technical' section...
As someone who had a rather interesting experience with their 'tech support' who is actually Wen Li (calls himself Steven), I think he probably knows a bit about engineering... but I don't trust him as far as I could throw him...
I am now working on getting a new system on the road, a 108VDC with the Kelly 14500B that I received through the warranty from Electric Vehicles USA.
I have been waiting over a month and a half for three orders which one is for heavy duty terminals to cover the system I am implementing now. The 14500B is supposed to be good up to a maximum 168VDC and 500A... but that it of course the MAXIMUM. I don't think I would run it at 144VDC!.. I don't trust it. SO I am using only 108VDC and I am going to add a 400Amp fuse to the Battery '+' line from the Contactor just before the Controller... as an insurance. This way I am guaranteed NO overspike to the controller from the pack. The Alltrax AXE I have uses a similar config. and I figure with my previous experience this would be a safety measure I should employ. Money is not something to be thrown away, but more than that I want to ensure that I have a working vehicle for some time to come. Being I am a 'homebuilder' I came up with a housing for the heavy fuses in my system that use a PVC 'Tee' from a sink drain and some plexiglass for a lens and 1/4" rubber for seals at either end of the through line. See enclosed pics. If the Kelly fails, I will have no choice but to go for the Curtis 1231C. good luck!


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## evz (Sep 11, 2008)

hope it works out for you and please keep us posted 
im thinking of a similar set up 
the kelly as mentioned earlier dont have a dc to dc converter integrated into the controllers
i like the idea of separate components 

i like the idea of an alternator even better
no converter 

in fact if i can only drive for 1 or 2 hours at a time why even bother with an alternator ?
simply use another battery to power the accessories on the car .


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

evz said:


> hope it works out for you and please keep us posted
> im thinking of a similar set up
> the kelly as mentioned earlier dont have a dc to dc converter integrated into the controllers
> i like the idea of separate components
> ...


An alternator will lessen your range a bit because of the extra drag. I plan on just using the original car battery and keep a solar panel to charge it while I am parked all day long, and then have it plugged into a charger when I am at home. 

I just did a decent driveway test with my Kelly and it was fine. I did, however, set the low voltage slowdown waayyy too high (60 volt pack, 56 volt shutdown setting- my bad) and the current limit kick in making it a slow journey back up the driveway. Now I am dismantling everything to get some more machining down on my plates and I have to beef up the motor mounts because that sucker jumps under the torque of the ADC motor.


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## ElectriCar (Jun 15, 2008)

I initially was dead set on regen and thus landed on the new Kelly. After researching it a bit I found too many disasters for my liking and went with Curtis instead. 

One guy said he was driving around his house and the thing shorted out and took off! It put full pack voltage to the motor all at once! Too scary for me and I could see that happening in city traffic. You're talking potentially a death trap if it happened at the wrong moment, ie just as a semi or such was about to cross in front of you. NO THANKS!

Another story was the guy who connected his up and toasted it right off the bat. Something about the neg. side of the pack connected to the case or something. I also don't want an accidental anything to toast mine.

After reading about this and an Australian company deciding to discontinue Kelly sales due to numerous failures, I decided it wasn't for me.

But that's me of course. You do what you want but I'd just as soon be confident and not have to deal with replacing a controller, even under warranty or having my EV wrecked and having to start over just to save a couple hundred dollars.


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

ElectriCar said:


> I initially was dead set on regen and thus landed on the new Kelly. After researching it a bit I found too many disasters for my liking and went with Curtis instead.
> 
> One guy said he was driving around his house and the thing shorted out and took off! It put full pack voltage to the motor all at once! Too scary for me and I could see that happening in city traffic. You're talking potentially a death trap if it happened at the wrong moment, ie just as a semi or such was about to cross in front of you. NO THANKS!
> 
> ...


Just FYI, the only Kelly controllers that failed (that I have heard of, or were reported on this forum) were all of the same model number and revision. When Curtis first came out they had numerous problems, and they still do since many companies make a good chunk of change rebuilding the Curtis 1231C. The thing with the Curtis is that the design is like 10 years old and has had no changes to it in that time.


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## ElectriCar (Jun 15, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> Just FYI, the only Kelly controllers that failed (that I have heard of, or were reported on this forum) were all of the same model number and revision. When Curtis first came out they had numerous problems, and they still do since many companies make a good chunk of change rebuilding the Curtis 1231C. The thing with the Curtis is that the design is like 10 years old and has had no changes to it in that time.


I hope you're correct re one model being the culprit. I didn't notice that. And I'm not in love with the Curtis by any means. It lacks many standard features I'm accustomed to in industrial drives, ie self monitoring for overspeed, no input for feedback etc. In industrial equipment the controls know what is happening and can shut down in event of failure. The Curtis drive is quite rudimentary by industrial standards but at this time there isn't many options out there, motors or controllers.

If reports come out good for the regen unit I could switch to it in the future.


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## Guest (Oct 27, 2008)

> If reports come out good for the regen unit I could switch to it in the future.


Soon I will be testing the regen. Real soon. I am going to be pulling the GE for painting so it will give me time for testing the Kelly and my starter/generator motor and full regen functionality. I now have the basics for what I need to do the testing. We are also going to test the field weakening to see if that gives some extra speed. I will check on my computer all the functions and set them to what will be needed and to set my over heating function to a reasonable setting to help protect my investment. 

Pete : )


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

ElectriCar said:


> I hope you're correct re one model being the culprit. I didn't notice that. And I'm not in love with the Curtis by any means. It lacks many standard features I'm accustomed to in industrial drives, ie self monitoring for overspeed, no input for feedback etc. In industrial equipment the controls know what is happening and can shut down in event of failure. The Curtis drive is quite rudimentary by industrial standards but at this time there isn't many options out there, motors or controllers.
> 
> If reports come out good for the regen unit I could switch to it in the future.


The "defective" model that I have heard/read about was the KDH14500A, the B version supposedly has the problems fixed.

I have the KHD09401 with REGEN, but I disabled the REGEN because I have a series wound motor, not a PM.


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## fugdabug (Jul 14, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> The "defective" model that I have heard/read about was the KDH14500A, the B version supposedly has the problems fixed.
> 
> I have the KHD09401 with REGEN, but I disabled the REGEN because I have a series wound motor, not a PM.


SGC,
What is your battery pack voltage? Are you maxing it out at 144 or are you lower? Inquiring minds want to know... 
(For some reason my connection to the forum started working properly yesterday! Yippy - Skippy!)


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

fugdabug said:


> SGC,
> What is your battery pack voltage? Are you maxing it out at 144 or are you lower? Inquiring minds want to know...
> (For some reason my connection to the forum started working properly yesterday! Yippy - Skippy!)


My controller is a KDH09401, which is 96 volts and 400 AMPs rated. My car will be a 96 volt system when done (hence the 96 volt controller), but my test setup was 60 volts. I didn't have the front racks done for the last three batteries but I hope to have those ready for the next test drive.


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## Qer (May 7, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> I have the KHD09401 with REGEN, but I disabled the REGEN because I have a series wound motor, not a PM.


Have you advanced your motor? If not regen should work.


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## fugdabug (Jul 14, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> My controller is a KDH09401, which is 96 volts and 400 AMPs rated. My car will be a 96 volt system when done (hence the 96 volt controller), but my test setup was 60 volts. I didn't have the front racks done for the last three batteries but I hope to have those ready for the next test drive.


I apologize I should have remembered to go to the garage and check out your EV, which is a nice looking project I might add...
I have the eighteen batteries for my Toyota all neatly set forward of the rear wheels, but have been thinking of rearranging the configuration with at least six in the front compartment come next Spring (and also gutting the wiring harness and re-doing it to eliminate all extraneous stuff and simplify it all!). I will then figure out what I am going to do with the power steering situation as well...
Ya know with 60VDC I bet you were surprised at the up and go~ just like I was with my original 72VDC... It doesn't take much of a battery pack to make an electric vehicle 'giddayup!' if you have the proper configuration. Press on!


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

Qer said:


> Have you advanced your motor? If not regen should work.


No, I have not advanced my motor.

Regen does not work with series wound motors and you might toast your controller trying too. The REGEN only works with PM motors because the generator effect you get with reversing the polarity and spinning the motor. A series wound doesn't have that effect and to the best of my knowlege the only series wound controller available is from Zapi, but I never actually heard of one working. 

Unless I am missing something.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> No, I have not advanced my motor.
> 
> Regen does not work with series wound motors and you might toast your controller trying too. The REGEN only works with PM motors because the generator effect you get with reversing the polarity and spinning the motor. A series wound doesn't have that effect and to the best of my knowlege the only series wound controller available is from Zapi, but I never actually heard of one working.
> 
> Unless I am missing something.


Sepex and AC works with regen as well, but again, its a different controller type.


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