Need a peek at a LOGISYSTEMS ITS controller

[jonequest]

I have a Logisystems 480 amp ITS controller that I am repairing after I hooked it up incorrectly and burned a little resistor that I cannot identify. I have already tested the other components and just replaced all the IC's but I don't know the one resistor size and don't want to blow the new parts I just put in. Logisystems is dead and does not have an active website, answer the phone, or have diagrams anywhere on the internet so this is my one shot in the dark for info. This is an ongoing project of mine and I am still hoping I will find someone who has one of these they want to take a look inside of. It may be blown or whatever.

IF you have a blown one and want to take a look inside, I would LOVE to see what size that resistor is to fix mine. It is not as daunting as it may seem to open one up. They are NOT filled with epoxy like it appears and the epoxy layer is actually just a few mm thick to seal off the ends. I was able to use a razor and heat gun to heat the edges and slit the epoxy away from the aluminum sides. Then lift out the epoxy slice and the whole thing is exposed. Remove the black glue hiding the half dozen screws on the bottom and the whole assembly just slides out. I have attached photos of mine taken apart and which resistor I am trying to identify. I will subscribe to this post and hopefully someone will see it who is planning to open one of these up.

I am not asking someone to ruin their controller. I am just hoping to find someone who was going to open one up anyway to take a look if it is blown, they are curious, etc. I took apart 3 controllers so far to learn more about them, a Kelly, the stock Curtis, and this Logisystems. Funny thing is how much they are all alike except design differences in the low power board that I am having trouble with. I have since learned that upgarding for more amperage is not hard at all, it's mainly just adding more mosfets on some models. Voltage upgrades are a little trickier though, the curtis controllers are suppossed to be easy to beef up from what I read online of others doing it. Even if no one has the info I need take a look at mine and see what they look like on the inside if you are curious.

[sonicj]

hay jonequest! if you don't mind.... whats the model number on those diodes in the 5th pic? i think i see the ON Semi logo, but can't read the rest of it.

i'll take a look at the logic board on my 1204-410. its a club car controller, but might have some clues. it looks like he pretty much cloned the curtis design.
-sj

[sonicj]

not sure if these help... surely someone will need them at some point though!

also, i see remnants of color in your photo. does your camera do macro? desolder that sucker and take a highres pic of both sides. tripod + timer or else it'll be blurry. the camera can see much better than you can even with a loupe. if that doesn't work, you can send to me and i'll look for pigments under the microscope.
-sj

*pics are 2048 x something so you may need to open in a new window to see full res

[jonequest]

Originally Posted by sonicj

not sure if these help... surely someone will need them at some point though!

also, i see remnants of color in your photo. does your camera do macro? desolder that sucker and take a highres pic of both sides. tripod + timer or else it'll be blurry. the camera can see much better than you can even with a loupe. if that doesn't work, you can send to me and i'll look for pigments under the microscope.
-sj

*pics are 2048 x something so you may need to open in a new window to see full res

Your pics look great. My camera is one I have used as a real estate appraiser for 7+ years taking dozens of photos a day and a few more years as the family camera before that. It has taken many thousands of photos I am sure. As such the color is not that great anymore. I looked at the resistor with bright lights and a magnifying glass and could not decern anything much as far as color bands. That resistor has been cleaned to try and reveal colors and removed (but saved). There was one band that LOOKED blue but hard to tell. The others were incinerated. I am done with the reapir except for having that one resistor to swap. The funny thing is that it is in parallel with another one 2 spots over from it. This one burned and that one didn't which means they were vastly different in impeadance I guess. One thought is that it was some soft of diode but it looks like a good 'ol carbon film resistor to me. I have since added on two wires with spade terminals so I can swap in different resistors or plug into a variable breadboard circuit. I am paused due to work at the moment and would like to know the right one instead of swapping different ones in a burn test type of fishing expedition. Like I said before ALL the IC's are replaced now, most in sockets in case I need to mess with them again. I figured one could have been overloaded and they are not easy to test with a meter, so at the cost of about $7 I just ordered all of them from DigiKey. I have attached a photo of the board as it is now. If the LS guy would just answer the phone or I could look at one of these I would know the right size.

[jonequest]

Bump on an old thread. Still would like to do something with this paperweight. Maybe for another project.

[yurtle]

Have you contacted the manufacturer? I've sometimes had good luck in asking for schematics, as long as they know I'm an individual and not someone trying to reverse engineer the thing. Sometimes they made me sign a non-disclosure agreement.

[TerryH]

Originally Posted by yurtle

Have you contacted the manufacturer? I've sometimes had good luck in asking for schematics, as long as they know I'm an individual and not someone trying to reverse engineer the thing. Sometimes they made me sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Logisystems is dead so contacting them is not possible.

[jonequest]

Yurtle - Logisystems closed up shop and left a LOT of people hanging. I got a decent deal on this one used but a lot of EV guys spent big bucks on their controllers only to be left out in the cold. I run two small businesses and I understand sometimes you may have to close shop. The one thing he should have done was post all the schematics on some free website just to offer some support to people who own Logisytems controllers since LS won't be repairing them. They had nothing to lose since they simply cloned curtis from what I heard anyway.

I have had bad luck with controllers. (Chapter 1) I bought this one working and at a good price but with no diagram or pin out description. Logisystems saw no reason to label anything and they also produced a few models that look almost identical, some with the power spade connector later used as throttle input connector and vice versa, all of this with no labels on the actual controller itself. I guess $.05 was too much to spend making labels. Anyway I hooked this one up wrong by following some else's diagram who had the exact same cart, and identical looking Logisystems controller. That had me putting power to the throttle leads burning up that input resistor. I later learned about the at least two different EZGO, ITS, TXT, unlabeled Logisystems 48 volt 500 amp flavors out in the world.

(Chapter 2) I then had even less money and still no controller, so I ordered a 48 volt 500 amp Kelly controller for only $299.00 that was suppossed to work with "any throttle" on the planet.... unfortunately the one of a kind EZGO ITS was made on Mars I guess because Kelly won't work with it. I then hand fabricated a 0-5k PB-6 throttle to work within the stock EZGO box in the floorboard with a home made rod and clevis actuator. That works fine but the Kelly controller always gave me problems and there was some sort of flaky connection in the controller that lead to many temporary failures over the last year that were resolved on their own. I could never find a specific problem with anything just random failures about 1-2 times a month until recently when it just stayed on "error" condition. Thinking it was one of MY wires I tested all my wires and found no problems but STILL rewired everything a second time and tested every connection again only to realize that the controller itself was not even working on the test bench.

(Chapter 3) I have decided that money is no object since I have lost more money and time than can be measured, so I just ordered a brand new Alltrax SMP 72400 controller for another $545.00 yesterday. I am at 48 volts now but can go up to 72 volts later with that controller plus the 400 amps (460 peak) is more than enough for neighborhood cruising. My only problems now are having to make some sort of power supply to run my green "power on" LED and voltage meter on the dash. They used to run off of the remote LED and 5 volt out feature of the Kelly controller. I will probably do a resistor and zener diode or something, no biggie. The one thing I am confident of is the dependability of the Alltrax from what I have been hearing for years. These new ones have better software and even smart protection that will save the controller if your motor ever shorts out or whatever. Thank GOD I was smart enough to save all the original EZGO ITS parts and didn't modify any of them for the PB-6 throttle.

The moral here is, sometimes saving money = paying twice..... or three times. So far I am ahead in life overall but this one stung me pretty bad. I would like to fix at least ONE of these old controllers to salvage some of my money spent.

P.S. I have a great 0-5k throttle for sale that will fit a TXT EZGO like a glove. I am laughing and crying at the same time.

[la-boy]

Gonna reply to this old post b/c I think my 700a LS controller is fried. It allows me to go slow speeds but something in it had burned up the "fast" whatever's inside it. I also plan on taking it apart and attempting a "fix" any input before I do this would be very helpful. Thx

[Gonkulor]

I think jones should have sent it to sonic for forensic analysis.