Should upgrade include F/R?

[DBlom]

Message received; it is of course all about balance (maybe I am beating a very dead horse). Same here as in all of life. Enjoy your day and thanks again.

[DBlom]

Hey Scottyb - do you use the 12V contactors and wire them to 16V (2 batteries from the pack) or do you like the 48V ones wired across the entire pack?

[scottyb]

48v but I don't know if it really makes much difference which activation voltage you use.

[DBlom]

If you put one of these contactors in (and in order to install it such that coil failures are tolerated, one solenoid is activated for either F or R operation), do you still need the regular solenoid, or does this contactor serve double-duty as both a motor direction switcher and and isolating solenoid?

[scottyb]

You still need the regular solenoid between battery + and the controller.

[sonicj]

personally, i would recommend getting a contactor with the coil voltage matched to your pack voltage. my controller wants to see +48V on it's interlock pin so it keeps things simple.

im not using a main contactor, only the reversing contactor. only downside i see is if the controller failed in a manner that required removing power, i'd have to watch it burn. otherwise, the factory interlocks on my cart remain intact. i'll likely just add a emergency kill switch or powerpole key as opposed to adding another contactor.

this is my wiring setup in a nutshell. there may be a better way to accomplish this but i haven't given it much thought.
-sj

[DBlom]

Yup, decided to go with +48V contactor, but believe I will retain main contactor to keep controller protected (and cold when key is off). I, too, like the ergonomics of the original FR switch and will use it to control the contactor. Next I'll see if I can be a bit more clever about wiring it in so that instead of having to fire one side (F) or the other (R) of the contactor, I'll look for a way to have both off = F and both on = R, but this may not be feasibe while retaining the fault tolerance of the "one side on" approach (design of contactor ensures that if one or both solenoids fail, you dont get a short across the pack)

[sonicj]

sounds like you've got it figured out!

i think you'll likely want to replace your factory contactor as it will be the next bottleneck in the chain.

the controller doesn't actually go completely cold; the pre-charge resistor keeps it powered up. holla if you have any more questions! take some pictures if you can! cheers!
-sj