# Contact Coil Voltage Curtis 1238



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

probuild521 said:


> Has anyone had any experience changing to a contactor with a different coil voltage on 1238-7601 (650amp model). I was looking in the programming manual and it looks like the controller is capable of outputting any voltage 0-100% of pack voltage (mine will be 111V nominal). I've only used a 24V Tyco LEV200. I need to buy a new contactor for a different project and trying to determine what makes most sense. Also, do I want an economizer or not?


It's been awhile since I wired one, but IIRC, the economizer interferes with the coil driver so cannot be used. You can change coil rating but why not just use the 24V?


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## probuild521 (May 3, 2009)

major said:


> It's been awhile since I wired one, but IIRC, the economizer interferes with the coil driver so cannot be used. You can change coil rating but why not just use the 24V?


I need to buy a new contactor and just trying to get a feel if there is any reason to not get exactly what I've used in the past. 

Also, at 24V the switching frequency coming out of the 1238 to drive the contactor is rather annoying, I'm not sure if that PWM is fixed or if it varies without coil voltage.

I believe the higher voltage 1239 now supports an economizer, I just couldn't remember regarding the 1238.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

It depends on what the 1238 is programmed for. At one point HPEVS switched from 24VDC to 48VDC contactors without economizers, and newer 1238's from them have parameters in there that reflect 48V contactors. 

DO NOT use EV200 series, they do not work correctly. They need to be an LEV200 or other without economizer.


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## probuild521 (May 3, 2009)

For anyone's future reference that may have this question...I just talked to Bill at HPEVs.

They are now recommended 48V coil GV200QA. No economizers on the 1238. He suggested these gigavac contactors are much quieter than the tycos were.


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## EVisa (Jun 30, 2014)

Thanks for sharing,

My wife got stranded today, in an otherwise well-working EV, due to a welded Tyco Kilovac 24v LEV200 contactor. 

I have been so stupid to hammer up its casing (kind of gently), to free up the contacts. This damaged the decal / exact type number etc. 

So for any newbees like me, the actual way to free them up, is to hit the HV terminals themselves. 

That worked, but I suspect there to be a limited lifetime to that solution, so I ordered a Gigavac GV200-QA replacement.

If any of you could advice me on how to explain this to my Curtis controller (do I have to change some setttings, and if yes, which ones), I would be very thankful for your input.

Edit: This happened after +- 2000 miles/ 1 year after installation. I'm hoping, the Gigavac will last longer.


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## EVisa (Jun 30, 2014)

I found it. It's under the 'Drivers' menu


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## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

Didn't a contactor come with your Curtis 1238? Mine came with the LEV200A6NAA one. And it takes 48V on the orange wire with white stripe. And the blue wire with white stripe is the coil return. 

I remember being surprised at that when I found out. I was expecting it to be 12V.

*I haven't actually measured it in real life to make sure it is 48V however.

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=LEV200A6NAA


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## Moltenmetal (Mar 20, 2014)

The relay coils are all driven by PWM circuits from the main pack DC voltage. The main contactor can be set for 24 or 48 V coils as shipped but with the programmer you can set it for other voltages. The small relays set up for things like the brake light etc. are set for 12V coils.


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## probuild521 (May 3, 2009)

Caps18 said:


> Didn't a contactor come with your Curtis 1238? Mine came with the LEV200A6NAA one. And it takes 48V on the orange wire with white stripe. And the blue wire with white stripe is the coil return.
> 
> I remember being surprised at that when I found out. I was expecting it to be 12V.
> 
> ...


Back when i bought my contactor the recommended one was a tyco 24V coil. However since then they have changed to recommending 48V gigavac GA200.


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## zapyourrideguy (Oct 25, 2012)

I also had a tyco contactor fail on me and replaced with a Gigavac per Bill at HPEVS. It is working sweet thus far. Same MO with the tyco tapping it to get it working and it soon failed altogether.


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## mizlplix (May 1, 2011)

Most of you may already know this but once those contactor points are stuck and even if you tap them loose, they are screw'd. My 1238 knew the difference and threw an error code of bad points resistence. 

Miz


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## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

Why would that part go bad so quickly? And did the 48V version go bad?

Here is the part number of the one they currently recommend, should I replace mine before I even use the old one? GIGAVAC Contactor Part# GV200QA-1


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## mizlplix (May 1, 2011)

Most contactors are damaged by insuficiant capacitor pre-charge.
This leads to there being an existing electrical load before the contactor closing the drive circuit.

A precharge resistor will prevent this. EXAMPLE: Like me, I am running a 96 volt controller. I have a 130 volt pack. The internal precharge time is only 1 second and is not adjustable. I run an 1 second on delay timer in the contactor 24 VDC circuit. (Making my precharge time 2 seconds total.)

Systems that do not have this built in precharge interval use a precharge resistor across the contactor points.

Miz


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## grip911 (Dec 14, 2011)

mizlplix said:


> Most contactors are damaged by insuficiant capacitor pre-charge.
> This leads to there being an existing electrical load before the contactor closing the drive circuit.
> 
> A precharge resistor will prevent this. EXAMPLE: Like me, I am running a 96 volt controller. I have a 130 volt pack. The internal precharge time is only 1 second and is not adjustable. I run an 1 second on delay timer in the contactor 24 VDC circuit. (Making my precharge time 2 seconds total.)
> ...


would anybody out there have a part number for a delay timer suitable to use on a lev200 contactor with curtis controller. would it work?


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