Suggestions for controller...

[bakerm07]

Ordered it today, we'll see how it works!

[jjance]

This might be a good time to bring up peak HP or to at least have a discussion about it. I may be wrong about but peak HP is the maximum HP a motor can put out before it stalls and if left unattended burn up.
A Club Car Precedent has a stock 3.3Hp motor. That would equal 2.4KW and that equals 50 amps flowing through the controller. Now the peak HP of that same motor is 13Hp. That is equal to 9.6Kw and that equals 200 Amps flowing through the controller. Anymore means letting the smoke out.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you need a larger motor to go with the high amp controller that you install.

[Sergio]

Your calculations assume a 100% efficient motor, which will never happen due to mechanical and electrical losses.

The HP rating is output power, to figure the input power required to produce that output You would need to know the efficiency of the motor at the measured rpm.

There are too many variables in a motor like flux per rpm, no of poles, back emf volts per rpm, etc to be able to simply compare 2 motors based on their name plate rating.

What I am curious is how one goes about matching the motor to this Madjax controller.

Alltrax makes available some motor maps they have created for the different motors, does Madjax do anything like that?

Anyone here that has installed a new higher HP Sepex motor knows that in order to get the best performance off the controller/motor combination, the relation between field current and armature current needs to be properly adjusted (aka: field or motor map).

Yes You can weaken the field or increase the field current on the fly to get the motor torque and/or speed to change, but if you get the motor outside the safe commutation zone as defined by the manufacturer of the particular motor, you can can create arcing in the brushes and/or overheat the motor (core meltdown).

Assuming You could get the motor curve for a particular motor, can You set those parameters in the Madjax controller?

[scooterman]

I wonder about how that is configured in other controllers, I got a new motor from PQ and a Curtis 500 Amp at the same time, they configured it (programmed) to match that motor, I don't know how that came about when it was programmed.

[jjance]

Your calculations assume a 100% efficient motor, which will never happen due to mechanical and electrical losses.

In that case we'll just have to go with the theoretical calculations.

[Sergio]

Originally Posted by scooterman

I wonder about how that is configured in other controllers, I got a new motor from PQ and a Curtis 500 Amp at the same time, they configured it (programmed) to match that motor, I don't know how that came about when it was programmed.

I would imagine they know their motors well

The 1268 curtis manual has an entire section devoted on how to configure the controller field map settings.

It also has a pretty good tutorial about fine tuning it based on real time readings you get from the IQDM programmer during actual operation.

I think the hardest part is getting the information from the motor manufactures.

I posted the field curve for the stock ADC motor a while back, if You look at the graph, the curtis manual section about the field motor curves makes a lot more sense.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/attac...ning_curve.jpg

[jjance]

The information from Alltrax is non-existent. Two basic pages. Your on your own to try and figure out the settings. The default setting are no were near adequate. Then again Curtis provides this information but you need to spend $1500 for a programmer.

[Sergio]

As far as I know You have no way to program a new field map or modify one on any Alltrax controllers yourself, you need one of their custom made files.

If You are not a member of this site, I don't know how You would ever know that your new motor may be under performing (or being damaged) because of the wrong field map is installed on the controller.

I don't know why they don't make that information more publicly available since they market the controllers as a consumer programmable device.

[scooterman]

You know, I didn't think much about it at the time, hopefully there is room for error on these controller maps, just in case someone wouldn't realize that they should be configured optimally for your particular motor. I must say, the PQ motor and controller is precisely what I wanted and I see no reason why I would ever want to change it and chance damaging that expensive motor. That was one thing I thought when i first got a cart just a couple years ago if that and found out they make programmable controllers, to me my thought is once you configure it what would ever be the purpose to change it?

[jjance]

to me my thought is once you configure it what would ever be the purpose to change it?

I thought it would be a one time thing. But I find myself constantly fiddling with the adjustments trying to smooth out the throttle. Only now since they came out with a new controller that they admit the jerky throttle is a problem. Which they haven't completely solved.