Quote:
Originally Posted by jerrygallow92
Alright, I spent about an hour exploring controller settings, making some changes, and testing them in real time. I was able to accomplish most of what I wanted to.
Huge thanks to BobInDaytona for figuring out the hardware side. The USB adapter you recommended worked great for me.
A few tips to get out of the way first:
1. Download the FTDI drivers for the USB adapter here and install them.
2. Your cart has to be on for the software to communicate with the controller.
3. I don't know if it makes a difference but I plugged the adapter into my laptop first, then into the controller port on the cart.
I started off in the monitor section. There's a whole bunch of data you can get in real time here, all listed in the "21 Monitor" tab. Anything with a DI suffix means it's a digital input to the controller, for example Fwd DI is the input to the controller from the Forward/Reverse switch. When the switch is in forward, the value of Fwd DI is 1, when the switch is not in forward, the value of Fwd DI is 0. etc. You can also see here that the controller has a digital input for a high/low speed switch which for us is always 0, i.e. our carts are always in high speed mode.
1. I was hoping to find throttle position here and I did, it's called "Throttle AI Votage". I suspected my gas pedal was pegging before it actually reaches the floor and I was right. It's actually pretty severe, the voltage pegs at 4.65v with about 1.5 inches of pedal left. I was hoping this could be fixed in software but I wasn't able to find a way to do it. I might try to fix it in hardware later because it bugs me.
2. I was disappointed to see that although "Brake DI" is listed as an input, it doesn't seem to be connected or in use by the controller. That bit stays high for me whether or not the brake pedal is pressed. I was hoping that I could tell the controller to only do regenerative braking if I was actually pressing the brake, instead of doing it any time I take my foot off the gas. I moved over to the tuning screen next. My goals for today were to add some finesse to the gas pedal and turn down the regenerative braking so me and my passengers don't feel like we're on a bull ride.
In the "05 Paddle" tab I changed 05.01.03 Throttle Max to 4.65v since I had observed this as the maximum in the monitor tab. This gave me a tiny bit more gas pedal range before it reaches 100% throttle. I tried adjusting 05.01.04 "Throttle Offset" to correct my gas pedal pegging issue but it didn't seem to have any effect, so I set it back to 0.
In the "06 Speed Mode" tab I changed 06.02.06 "Fwd Acc Partial" from 5 to 30. The higher this number is, the slower the acceleration rate of the cart is when the throttle is partially pressed. I left 06.02.04 "Fwd Acc Full HS" alone because I still want to be able to accelerate quickly by flooring the gas pedal. The degree of acceleration when the pedal is floored is controlled by 06.02.04 "Fwd Acc Full HS".
I did the same as above for 06.02.12 "Rev Acc Partial" so I can reverse in a gentle manner as well.
In the "08 Restraint" tab I changed 08.03.01 "Soft Stop Mode" from 1 to 2 at KRAZYMATT's advice, this turned off regenerative braking for the most part -- if you take your foot completely off the gas pedal, it will just coast. However, say you're going 25 with your foot to the floor, and then you reduce the gas pedal to 50%, it will still decelerate unnaturally instead of just coasting like a gas cart would. I believe that the degree of deceleration in these circumstances is controlled by 06.02.09.
I saw in the "03 Vehicle Setting" tab where the speed could be changed but I left it alone for now. I'm driving mostly on cart paths and 25mph is fast enough.
I saw in the "10 Power Limit" tab that the controller progressively limits current to the motor the faster you go. This is probably why it take the carts a while to get up to top speed.
Hope this is helpful. If I mess with it again in the future and find anything interesting I'll let you guys know. |
Under Menu 5 Paddle, if you set Throttle Map 1/4 to 25 and Throttle Map 1/2 to 50, it will accelerate better at the start. Not sure what the defaults are - I have seen 10 & 35 on most carts... You can go higher with these numbers if you want to really launch it!
Under menu 10, the current limit - if you copy what's in for Mot Current Limit BS 2 and use that number for 3,4,5 you will have a better chance at reaching your target RPM...