What Y'all think, repairable?

[Spitnhit]

controller board.JPG

Opened up the controller, found this.

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by Spitnhit

Attachment 162884

Opened up the controller, found this.

Obvious signs of a reverse polarity or an extreme overvolt condition. Typically, it takes reverse polarity to cause those polarized capacitors to pop like that. To repair, you wold need to replace every cip and discrete semiconductor. It would cost more to repair than just buying a new controller. And you would still need to source the firmware to burn into the replacement microcontrollers.

Bob

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by Spitnhit

Attachment 162884

Opened up the controller, found this.

Sure. piece of cake.

[Spitnhit]

Originally Posted by BobBoyce

Obvious signs of a reverse polarity or an extreme overvolt condition. Typically, it takes reverse polarity to cause those polarized capacitors to pop like that. To repair, you wold need to replace every cip and discrete semiconductor. It would cost more to repair than just buying a new controller. And you would still need to source the firmware to burn into the replacement microcontrollers.

Bob

Ok, A new Navitas controller already programmed is $1600 plus labor and tax. UGH!!!
The IR multiplexer and the ceramic capacitors aren't that expensive but, was hoping for some good news.

I believe it was an overvolt issue, I tried to move the cart while it was plugged in charging.

[Spitnhit]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Sure. piece of cake.

Not funny but, love it!

[Jmzvet]

Originally Posted by Spitnhit

Not funny but, love it!

As least you have a good attitude about it👍

[Spitnhit]

Originally Posted by Jmzvet

As least you have a good attitude about it👍

Thanks! A bad attitude gets me no where. And, it's nothing that time and money can't fix. I don't have much of either!

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by Spitnhit

Ok, A new Navitas controller already programmed is $1600 plus labor and tax. UGH!!!
The IR multiplexer and the ceramic capacitors aren't that expensive but, was hoping for some good news.

I believe it was an overvolt issue, I tried to move the cart while it was plugged in charging.

Those are not ceramic capacitors. They are high capacity, low Equivalent Series Resistance/Equivalent Series Inductance, polarized tantalum (solid state) capacitors. Not cheap, I use them myself. They do not handle overvolt or reverse polarity well, as you can see. You would have to replace every tantalum capacitor, chip, diode, transistor. In other words, every active component. Discrete components and simple non-LSI chips are fairly easy, but the programmed chips are not going to be easy to replace. Only the original manufacturer will have the code that must be programmed in. Typically, they do not share the code. In fact, they program the chip and lock it afterwards to prevent others (like china) from reading the code out and copying their work. I know I do that in the products that I have out on the market. The difference is, I make preprogrammed microcontrollers available to customers that need them for products of my design. I would suspect that the controller mainboard is toast as well. The FETs are probably shorted at the very minumum.

A controller should be designed to handle maximum charger voltage. Maybe something went wrong with your battery pack or charger to allow the voltage to climb high enough to cause damage. Towing can do that however, as the motor can become a generator and cause severe controller overvolt on the output.

I build controllers and do some repairs. I would not touch a controlller that suffered that level of damage, no matter how much it costs. I would either buy or build a replacement.

Bob

[Pargo]

Spray a little Windex on it and you'll be good to go.

[Spitnhit]

Originally Posted by BobBoyce

Those are not ceramic capacitors. They are high capacity, low Equivalent Series Resistance/Equivalent Series Inductance, polarized tantalum (solid state) capacitors. Not cheap, I use them myself. They do not handle overvolt or reverse polarity well, as you can see. You would have to replace every tantalum capacitor, chip, diode, transistor. In other words, every active component. Discrete components and simple non-LSI chips are fairly easy, but the programmed chips are not going to be easy to replace. Only the original manufacturer will have the code that must be programmed in. Typically, they do not share the code. In fact, they program the chip and lock it afterwards to prevent others (like china) from reading the code out and copying their work. I know I do that in the products that I have out on the market. The difference is, I make preprogrammed microcontrollers available to customers that need them for products of my design. I would suspect that the controller mainboard is toast as well. The FETs are probably shorted at the very minumum.

A controller should be designed to handle maximum charger voltage. Maybe something went wrong with your battery pack or charger to allow the voltage to climb high enough to cause damage. Towing can do that however, as the motor can become a generator and cause severe controller overvolt on the output.

I build controllers and do some repairs. I would not touch a controlller that suffered that level of damage, no matter how much it costs. I would either buy or build a replacement.

Bob

Thank you, Bob. Your input gave me a really good detailed explanation of what I'm facing. Guess I'm just going to have to replace the controller with a new one.
Again, thank you!