A cheap RC throttle interface - what features do you want?

So, I'm guessing many want a cheap throttle converter that allows them to use a standard e-bike throttle on an RC controller box.

And I think I can do that while still adding quite a bit of features you won't get with a hacked together converter. Essential ones that can protect your pricey $100-$200 ESCs!

The difference will be that it won't limit based on current, it'll be a normal throttle-to-throttle converter that's for those that don't need current limiting like high-powered setups with powerful batteries with appropriately sized and cooled motors. So, I ask, what features do you want?

I think I can still keep a temperature sensor for protection and you could also add another temperature sensor if you wanted to. I can also keep LVC, or Low Voltage Cutoff.

Do you guys need capacitors or would you prefer that being an "extra"? I'd think they'd be necessary and it'd be nice to get the whole shebang done in one swoop, but the enclosures and capacitors cost money and I'm not sure everyone is adding capacitors and I think some have their own enclosure they want to use. I think I can add pads so you guys could install your own capacitors if you wanted to and you could provide your own enclosure. But let me you know what you guys prefer - adding capacitors and an enclosure would add an extra $10-15 to the cost as there's labor involved or you could DIY if you wanted to do it for cheaper. Also, do you need on-the-fly end-point adjustment like say with a pot?

I can still add the double-twist of the throttle to get a "boost", a throttle boost that is. It'd probably be less noticeable than a current boost in most situations, but it'd be nice to have. Also, I can keep the customizable throttle ramp or you could turn it off. It'd still be programmable, if you guys want to.

So, tell me what features you still want for an economy version.

Also, this could get small and it'd still work in cold weather, unlike some common RC equipment that isn't designed for the cold.

I am curious why your guys are not using hall based shuts? Just run a nice thick piece of wire and hall sensor around it and you get a really nice reading with almost no losses.


Also what are you using for a controller in your tests?

magudaman said:

I am curious why your guys are not using hall based shuts? Just run a nice thick piece of wire and hall sensor around it and you get a really nice reading with almost no losses.


Also what are you using for a controller in your tests?

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The current shunts are of such a low value that the losses are minimal. We're talking .25 mOhm and less, which at 100 amps equates to 2.5 watts and less - at 100 amps, you're typically pushing 3000-5000 watts through the system, so you're talking about a loss less than .1%. One tenth of a single percent is very negligible. I promise you won't feel the difference.

And implementing a repeatable manufactured product requires consistency and calibration, which for a home-baked hall solution requires extra labor for callibration and installation. Ready made hall-based solutions are somewhat expensive and the cheapest ones entail odd drill patterns and/or pcb trace widths that aren't capable of continuously passing 100s of amps unless you go with an expensive thickness of copper. However, I'm open to learn of any new possible better solutions, so if you could give an example of this working in practice that's suitable for manufacture, I'd be more than obliged to listen. I don't really have much experience with hall sensors being used to sense current, so perhaps there's a manufacture-friendly way to do it.

The controller being used for real life testing is a Castle Creation's HV Phoenix controller.

As an update, this isn't going to be developed for at least another month or two. It's not really suitable for most e-bikes since current limiting is kind of needed for heating purposes. There's a big reason why the vast majority of big heat-sink equipped bike controllers aren't rated at 100+ continuous amps and the controllers that can are a bit on the pricey side (Kelly controllers) compared to a normal RC controller. RC controllers tend to be rated at their "burst rating", it seems, and the Castle Creations controllers are rated based on the continuous motor current which a normal throttle does nothing to address unless the user is never running partial throttle at high speeds and/or high loads, like hills, or pulls it noticeably low (Hard to achieve due to the temptation to let it rip) which is kind of hard to be perfect at in practice. Extra heat sinking and cooling on the RC controller can tremendously help, though, but there's an upper limit on how much this can be taken where the heat simply can't escape fast enough.