motor controller

[Jeff Kantarek]

I was looking over the motor jeremy picked up.  I wanted to get some specs/details worked out before pulling the trigger on the two motor controllers (I prefer it to building our own given the time constraint).  My biggest concern with them is that they are only 250W vs the max rating on the motors at 2450W (though I don't think they can handle running anywhere near that for any amount of time).

• What's the voltage configuration for the motors (12V, 24V, 36V)?
• how do we want to run the controller?  Speed mode (low, med, high) or throttle?
• the controller doesn't appear to have a reverse, does that matter?

I'll be at the space today/tonight and we can talk more, the initial specs and work looks great though!

Jeff Kantarek

[Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin]

The controller I picked is probably the only under-rated Chinese thing out there. Although it claims to be 250W, it performs at up to 400W. It's also current-limited (as controlled by a resistor), and can therefore be modified and will run up to 700-800W. They also do a bunch of clever things with sensored commutation.

As for the motors, they will actually run at 2400W, although not for more than a few minutes. It's best to run them around 1200W for a vehicle to prevent overheating.

[Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin]

Actually, we should order a bunch of these controllers (http://www.ebay.com/itm/160663378888).
I may or may not destroy one, and Josh might use some. If you email the seller off ebay, he will give you a discount for ordering in quantities of four or more, and will give you a discount on shipping.

I was doing some research on the boards, and figured out that for $18 in MOSFETs and some solder, I can safely boost the power output to about 1400W, and if I put in active cooling I could probably get more out of it. There's some clever circuitry in those little boxes.