[slomobile]

I'm building a 4 motor articulated steer vehicle as test mule to learn what works for electric rock crawling, and what does not. I'd also like to compare some motor types against each other first hand and play at turning alternators into motors. Silly stuff to occupy the coming winter.

I'm starting with 2 pole PM wheelchair motors, but would like to test with some stock take off golf cart motors, and alternator motors eventually.

Is there any controller which can run most DC motor types?
Can I leave field terminals open when running permanent magnet motors? Or use a resistive dummy load?

I want to avoid wheelchair controllers because I cannot obtain an oem programmer dongle. Please suggest a good and common controller with programming tools widely available so others can replicate my tests.

300A is plenty for my purposes. A complex controller is fine with me as long as documentation exists. The 4 controllers will be managed by computer programs I'll write. Voltage is not fixed at this point. The wheelchair motors are 24v rated, but I plan to push at least 36 through them, maybe 48v.

I'm sure I've said a bunch of dumb things already revealing my ignorance of golf carts. I know very little about them, kind of jumping in blind. But do know wheelchairs and robots a bit.