Series Cart Lithium Ion Controller Upgrade

[Ricklock2007]

Looking for a sanity check here gentlemen...

I have 2 Club Car DS Series carts I am working on at the moment. One is a 99 DS with an Epoch 48V 60AH GC2 set up, the other is a 95 DS with a Roypow S5156 Battery. Both carts have a 6 inch lift, 22 inch tires, 2 AWG cabling and Plum Quik Bandit motors.

Of course as I am nearing completion, I am getting the itch for a bit more freedom. Carts split time between the running the neighborhood with the little one, and taking it out on some 2 track trails. I'm not hill climbing, but I wouldn't take a ford focus back there either.

I am interested in a controller upgrade, but after some research, it seems given the amperage limitations, an aftermarket controller is a complete waste of money.

Is that right? Will I see a difference with any controller, 300a or up to 600a with either battery?

I do not want to overwork the batteries leading to heat or shutdown. I'm thinking I should have made this decision prior to the Bandit upgrade and battery purchases.

Any insight would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks!

[CP241]

Money better spent would have been on an iq conversion. Way more efficient and better design

[jasonojordan]

The Amp rating on the controller between 300a and 600a has to do with its max output. If you run a stock motor it will pull the same amount regardless of what controller you have. You only need a larger controller like the 600a if you upgrade to an aftermarket motor.

[augiedoggy]

Originally Posted by Ricklock2007

Looking for a sanity check here gentlemen...

I have 2 Club Car DS Series carts I am working on at the moment. One is a 99 DS with an Epoch 48V 60AH GC2 set up, the other is a 95 DS with a Roypow S5156 Battery. Both carts have a 6 inch lift, 22 inch tires, 2 AWG cabling and Plum Quik Bandit motors.

Of course as I am nearing completion, I am getting the itch for a bit more freedom. Carts split time between the running the neighborhood with the little one, and taking it out on some 2 track trails. I'm not hill climbing, but I wouldn't take a ford focus back there either.

I am interested in a controller upgrade, but after some research, it seems given the amperage limitations, an aftermarket controller is a complete waste of money.

Is that right? Will I see a difference with any controller, 300a or up to 600a with either battery?

I do not want to overwork the batteries leading to heat or shutdown. I'm thinking I should have made this decision prior to the Bandit upgrade and battery purchases.

Any insight would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks!

So.. the amount of power the controller can output to the motor is corralated to but not equal to the amount of amps its pulling from the batteries.
Say the battery outputs a max of 150amps continuous. well the controller can use that to output a stronger higher perieved amp output to the motor when accelerating or at part throttle. I believe when at full throttle though things change. others can probably do a better job of explaining it but the controller uses something called PWM to power the dc motors and some likely have some mppt buck boost circuitry in there too.

You also have much higher peak and short term rated amp outputs with a larger controller. many have a setting where you can tell the controller what the max output from the batteries should be and they work from that.

So to answer your question, no it wont likely give you any faster wot speed but it certainly can make your setup stronger and have more torque when crawling around in the woods.

This is why I have installed the curtis clones myself since for under $150 shipped from amazon or ebay they are a great deal for a 500amp controller from my experience.

[Ricklock2007]

Originally Posted by augiedoggy

So.. the amount of power the controller can output to the motor is corralated to but not equal to the amount of amps its pulling from the batteries.
Say the battery outputs a max of 150amps continuous. well the controller can use that to output a stronger higher perieved amp output to the motor when accelerating or at part throttle. I believe when at full throttle though things change. others can probably do a better job of explaining it but the controller uses something called PWM to power the dc motors and some likely have some mppt buck boost circuitry in there too.

You also have much higher peak and short term rated amp outputs with a larger controller. many have a setting where you can tell the controller what the max output from the batteries should be and they work from that.

So to answer your question, no it wont likely give you any faster wot speed but it certainly can make your setup stronger and have more torque when crawling around in the woods.

This is why I have installed the curtis clones myself since for under $150 shipped from amazon or ebay they are a great deal for a 500amp controller from my experience.

This is what I needed. Thank you for the explanation. I need to figure out what the actual peak from the LI is program the controller to that. I think the specs on the websites are either misleading just plain wrong.

[augiedoggy]

Originally Posted by Ricklock2007

This is what I needed. Thank you for the explanation. I need to figure out what the actual peak from the LI is program the controller to that. I think the specs on the websites are either misleading just plain wrong.

Keep in mind the peak is just momentary for a few seconds.

I got 20mph with multiple people in the cart using the 500a curtis clone and a stock GE 36v series motor running on 48v lithum. i'm running diy 72v now with that same motor and getting 26-27mph so yeah in hindsight maybe an AC conversion would have been more cost effective but I had use for my old 48v battery in my electric mower and the 72v curtis clone was $175 so..

btw the stock 36v 2.9hp motor uses far more amps now at 72v and even with an original 48v stock motor at 48v it will try to pull more amps with just oversized tires depending on use and load.

being you have plumb quicks you likely can benefit from a bigger controller regardless. again not necessarily for any more speed but more torque and power.

[Ricklock2007]

Originally Posted by augiedoggy

Keep in mind the peak is just momentary for a few seconds.

I got 20mph with multiple people in the cart using the 500a curtis clone and a stock GE 36v series motor running on 48v lithum. i'm running diy 72v now with that same motor and getting 26-27mph so yeah in hindsight maybe an AC conversion would have been more cost effective but I had use for my old 48v battery in my electric mower and the 72v curtis clone was $175 so..

btw the stock 36v 2.9hp motor uses far more amps now at 72v and even with an original 48v stock motor at 48v it will try to pull more amps with just oversized tires depending on use and load.

being you have plumb quicks you likely can benefit from a bigger controller regardless. again not necessarily for any more speed but more torque and power.

That's super helpful. I was originally thinking the LI amp draw limitations wouldn't support the after market controller so it would be a waste of money.

Epoch 48v Specs - 120A Max Continuous Discharge (200A 10S Discharge) (400A 3S Peak Discharge)

Looking at that I think I could do a 400 A controller without being concerned with over current shut off.

Removing 300lbs while going to LI, simultaneously upgrading to the PQ bandit makes the cart a completely different machine. I didn't pull out a GPS speedo but no question I am pulling over 20 MPH.

Thank you for the help. I got the batteries as Market place finds for $700 for the Epoch and $1k for the roypow set up. Seeing the high performance LI battery line from RoyPow made me question the limitations of the standard product lines.

Thanks again!