Dui said:
I'd say fardrive or sabvoton.
In my opinion, given the fact you said your BMS is only 100A, I believe the figures you gave us for your current controller (300A peak and 400A boost) are likely the phase currents. That's the first thing you need to make 100% sure of, otherwise you are likely to make a wrong choice. So yeah, step one is to identify precisely what's your current setup.
My BMS wasn't paired with the controller, since I chose the BMS before I knew anything after I bought the bike. Regardless, you're right, I found
this document from BorgWarner (who bought Sevcon) that lists the Dragon 8 as 110A cont/200A peak/400A boost
phsase current. You called it.
Dui said:
Votol has been a disappointment. A friend tried it but it didn't work, the programming interface was terrible and he had to return it. I'm not even sure he got a wheel spin from it, I don't remember the whole story but it was a complete disaster.
I have a Votol EM30SP that's supposed to arrive on Monday. Got it just to get the feel of setting up my controller (and more specifically, the Votol software). I'll report back what I find, but your note on it means they'll certainly have to prove themselves.
Dui said:
APT are supposedly very nice and robust. I'm about to try one on my motorcycle soon so I should be able to talk about it a bit more in a few months, but their main disadvantages are that they aren't very user friendly towards DIYers, and they are insanely huge and heavy, at least for the old models.
Unfriendly towards DIY = instant turn off. I had a terrible time figuring out the Dragon 8 exactly for this reason. No way I'm buying anything that ignores the DIY community.
Dui said:
Both of these brands have controllers that will do better than 400A per phase. The sabvoton 72200 will do 200 battery Amps pretty much continuous, the 200Amps are actually what the controller will consume during 80% of the acceleration, while on most other controllers the battery rating will be reached for only a split second at the very beginning of the acceleration. So basically what I'm trying to say is that the sabvonton is quite a bit under rated.
The 72200 can do more than 500Amps per phase reliably. I never tried more than 510 but I bet it could do it, so far mine remains cold even after hard rides.
I've heard that they aren't as reliable as they used to, but I can't say if this is actually true or just some users who had bad luck/didn't used it properly and complained loudly.
NanjingFardrive has many controllers that could match whatever you need, their lineup is arguably the most comprehensive aside maybe for kelly.
So that's another good choice. I'd go fot that if I were you, even if it's a bit expensive, so far they are doing well and more and more people start using them. The bigger the user community, the more likely you'll find help later.
I'm definitely getting good feelings about Fardriver in this thread. Most likely that's what I'll get. I'll look at Sabvoton again with the new insight about the dead Dragon 8. They're SO common, and as you said, it's a great sign for finding answers if I need them.
Dui said:
So yeah, once again, make absolutely certain we are talking about 400A per phase and not battery side. I believe its phase otherwise your BMS would be having a hard time at only 100A, it would cut under any kind of load. This battery/BMS will be your bottleneck no matter what, so there's no need to go too crazy on the controller unless you plan on upgrading the battery later. I wonder how you got a 200 kilos ebike with such a low current output battery. Could you give us more specs about your whole setup since so far it is quite blurry? Also pictures would be nice.
I'm running a 2-seats 2013 EVbike I got second hand with nearly dead batteries and completely dead BMS. Nothing about it is of a known brand (Googling returns nothing). Completely reworked the entire electrical system, leaving only the original motor and controller (now just the motor). It makes 90KM/h on a good day with the current setup, and has relatively low torque (accelerates about as fast as a medium car in economy-mode) - I'm guessing this is the big point here. It's more of an electric bicycle (relatively fast-strong-heavy at that) that's road-legal, than an actual EV motocycle. I don't know its range, but I believe I can do 50KM on a charge from what I do know.
Battery is 24s2p LiFePO4 3.8kWh made from
TopBand cells I got from BatteryHookup (which I highly recommend after buying from them a few times now, especially for their reliability and international shipping).
My BMS is an
ICGOGOGO 17-24S 100A which I don't actually recommend since their software and hardware both are lacking (I've modified my with thicker leads and big heat sinks). Will be replacing it once I rebuild my bike budget after the current controller mess.
Charger is some 800w LiFePO4 unbranded thing I got second hand from some local guy. It's huge, doesn't heat up at all (HUGE heat sink fins) and works well, so I don't care about it.
My phone had an unfortunate encounter with gravity, so pictures will have to wait, but I really should post my work on it when I'm done with this repair.