Curtis 1237/3402 help!

[jay]

Greetings all.  I'm starting to freak out a little - San Mateo is getting close and though I've built the mechanical side of my PowerWheels, I'm having no luck with my controller.  I have a Curtis 1237-3402 that was salvaged from a shopping cart pusher and I have not been able to get it wired up and working.  I have the manual with its wiring diagram, but there are 16 pins in the control wiring for this thing and everything I've tried so far is no good.  Is there anyone on here that has experience with this model of Curtis or something similar that can give some advice? 

Having less fun that anticipated...I'm about ready to pull the plug and try a different controller.

Jay

[Mattmaxsr]

Do you have the manual?
here's a PDF from Curtis
http://curtisinst.co.jp/122535manual.pdf

I'm playing with this one from Robot Power (Chris Baron)
http://www.robotpower.com/products/vyper_info.html

Features

The Vyper contains the following features:

• 120A continuous current (>250A peak!)
• 7.0V to 42V battery voltage
• Overtemp protection
• Size: 3.125" x 2.875" x 1.375"
• Weight: 6.5 oz (185g) without wires
• Input pin headers for:
• RC input or Pot/Voltage Control - fully reversible H-bridge channel
• Limit Switch inputs

[Ray Scheufler]

As a note if you get your 1237 working, the design of a curtis controller is to use the bottom metal plate as a thermal conductor.  It is strongly recommended to thermally couple it to a heat sink.  Basically, don't have the motor controller just hanging out, bolt it straight to a beefy frame member or a nice finned piece of metal.  In KC last year we had our controller mounted to thin sheet metal and the controller got quite warm.  For Detroit we found a finned chunk of aluminum to mount the controller to and it stayed right at ambient.  The controller should thermally limit itself but it is harder on the controller.

Ray Scheufler

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[jay]

Matt,
Nice! But probably outside my budget.
I am interested to hear how you like it.
Jay

[Mattmaxsr]

I like it so far! It is great to be able to EASILY switch back and forth to RC and 5k pots or hall effect throttles. 
It's rated at 120 amps, but we've run it on a mag in the old Barbie jeep and I was getting peek reading on my meter at 200+amps So Far So Good!!!!

[Nabil Hanke]

I found there is a guy on eBay from Illinois renting the handheld programmer.

We have had good success in using it to program our 1244 controller.

Anyway, it's $30 a month and doesn't count on your budget anyway. Works well.

[jay]

Thanks for the feedback.  Had to give up on the Curtis for San Mateo and go with something else.