Quote:
Originally Posted by Stano7
ATrain, I have parts on the way to create programming cable and have downloaded the software. My question is, once you edit the xml file do you have to upload the edits? Or is simply editing it enough? Also, can the edits be made in Notepad or similar or do you use a specific program?
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The NEOS software reads/writes values directly to the controller's memory. It will write
anything you tell it to.
When you open the software, the developers wrote an "init" piece that will look in the software's local directory for the XML file (parameters) to tell it what to do. To tell it what's too much, too little, etc. The NEOS software could program non-golf cart controllers, such as fork-lifts. It needs the parameters to know what it's designed to do.
Those parameters prevent it from programming insane things (for this device). Those parameters are an extra-safe number range. As long as you stay out of the XML, it
should be very difficult for you to screw up the cart because the limits are extra-cautious. You don't need to upload/download the XML to the cart at all. It only provides basic instructions to the software on how it should interact with your cart.
I spoke with the main ICON software developer, and he just sort of
picked values, that he knew, from his extensive personal experience, wouldn't destroy your cart. So imagine you're a dude that works at ICON and you're like "ok I pushed it to 10k RPM's and things started to get dicey...let's set their max to 6k RPMs, that should be good". The guy is not an EE or a scientist, but he's experienced with the product, which goes far.
Individually, very few of us know more than he does, but as a collective, we surpass easily. ICON, as a company, needs to prevent dealers from accidentally destroying golf carts as they need to warranty them, so those values are always going to err on the side of being idiot-proof.
All of that said, if you actually understand the basic physics and things that go into these carts, you'll be far more comfortable with tweaking settings. Knowing your battery wire gauge, and knowing how many amps/volts it can safely take, knowing your voltage/capacity of your battery pack, etc.
The primary things to be concerned with are temperature of the motor (too hot burns it up) and amps (current [I]). If you tweak settings and the motor gets too hot, you can ruin your cart. The carts should have high/low temperature sensors that are connected to the motor and monitored by the controller, but as I've posted in another thread, I'm not convinced they're installed properly...they may not be installed properly because ICON dev's decided they put enough safety checks in the XML file...not realizing people like us may push the limits. That temperature sensor alone (if installed correctly) could prevent you from doing any damage at all no matter what you do...but we need to figure out if it's installed correctly.
So if you want to push the limits, you just need to monitor the feedback from the cart. There'll always be sacrifices for performance...i.e. if you want to drive up a 45 degree incline quickly, your cart will use more battery than if you do it slowly. The goal is for the ICON cart owners' community to collective figure this crap out.