Catastrophic motor failure - smells like it killed my new controller as well

[shaferz]

Just wanted to drop an update in here!

Spent an hour or two Thursday night getting everything put back together - as we were headed to the campground with the cart for fathers day weekend the next day.

New motor in - controller in - quadruple checked the wiring. Left cart on jackstands, and EVER SO SLIGHTLY pushed the accelerator to verify proper tire rotation. Took it off jackstands and went for a 10 minute test drive. All seemed well. Came back home, reinstalled rear seat and buttoned everything up and loaded it onto the trailer. We were on the cart OFTEN over the weekend and I am VERY happy with the results. At the campground, I plugged in and played around with ControllerPro a little. Made some slight adjustments to reduce the neck snapping happening off idle, and everything seems great. Seems like the controller allows plenty of juice. Motor got warm - controller got warm - but nothing ever felt 'hot.'

Have gone full throttle multiple times, but never for longer than around 1/4 block or so - meaning I have not yet tested top speed on a flat surface. Maybe this next weekend. This past weekend - I just wanted to make sure nothing was going to break! :)

Big thanks to ScottyB once again. He got me exactly what I needed in time for me to enjoy a fathers day weekend. :)

Do people pay money for failed Alltrax controllers? lol

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by shaferz

Do people pay money for failed Alltrax controllers? lol

only if you can find someone that either wants or needs a Alltrax PAPER WEIGHT!! lol

[JohnnieB]

If you find anyone that buys smoked Alltrax controllers, let me know.

The controller will get lukewarm and the motor will get hot.

I was running my cart pretty hard yesterday and logging the controller data to a file.
I managed to draw over 400A a few times and I managed to drop my pack voltage down to 1.56VPC a couple times on the way home with partially discharged batteries. Normally, I seldom go over 300A or drop the pack voltage below 1.75VPC.

Anyway, the controller got up to 38.8°C (101.8°F) and the motor got up to 220°F.
The upper operating temp limit for a DCX controller is 75°C (167°F) and the max allowable case temp for my motor (or any other motor with Class-H insulation) is 115°C (239°F), so I still had some room left.

BTW: When trying to reach your carts maximum obtainable speed, don't do a jackrabbit start. That draws a lot of amps and drops the pack voltage, so the cart will not reach its max speed until the pack voltage recovers, which may take several minutes. Get cart moving using as little pedal as possible, slowly add pedal until cart is moving at least half of its max speed, the floor it. I get about 2 MPH more using that technique.