Controller recommendations for alternator motor.

btdale

1 mW
Joined
Nov 30, 2019
Messages
12
Hello all. Helping my brother put together an alternator motor setup for his kids go-kart. Great excuse for to me to work on my first motor project on someone else's dime ☺️.
I'm looking for a 48v(minimum) controller in the 150-200 amp range. I would like something that can run sensorless, and also would love to be able to use the VESC software(I'm relatively newb. Not sure if only VESC controllers can use the software.). Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
 
Currently looking at the Kelly KEB48200X. Not sure what software it uses yet but that's what I'm looking at rn.
 
All software is brand and (often) model specific, and comes from the manufacturer of the controller.

In very rare cases, there is open-source firmware available to replace the OEM firmware, allowing more customizability. There's a few projects here on ES, mostly by Casainho, Stancecoke, et.al., if you poke around for the OSFW threads. Mostly they are lower power than you are after, however, you may be able to find some higher current KT controllers.

There are a number of high power VESC-based projects here on ES, as well.

If you don't mind a lot of DIY, then there is the Lebowski brain board, discussed in a number of threads including one linked in my signature, which you can build your own powerstage for to do exactly what you want. There are a number of powerstage threads for it, some of which you must build, some of which you can buy and convert, like the one in my sig (project not yet finished, but has already been done successfully by others).


Before you settle on any of the "popular" options like Kelly, Sabvoton, Sevcon, etc, I highly recommend you search for threads and posts about them and read up on the problems encountered, so you can decide if they are for you or not. (same for any other controller, but there's a lot more of those threads for those controllers than most others).



Does your alternator project use permanent magnets, or a field coil? If it uses a field coil, are you using a separate brushed controller to run that?
 
Flipsky got a 75/200 vesc that could push any alternator to it's limit, the more power you put in the primary field coils the slower the motor runs but the more torque it produces.
Play about with a lab power supply and see how much you can feed the primary before it gets hot then set that as the base for the internal coil and use a vesc in FOC mode on the secondary and see if it will self calibrate I'm no pro with the software on vesc but I have had a bash spun a hoverboard motor no issues but a dualtron motor thing is clunky as hell couldn't sell it as a product stalls out makes massive harsh sounds grrrrrrring and clunking maybe a faulty unit but I doubt it after many hours of playing in settings i got it to a manageable state but still poor show to be fair let off at full throttle and it would slam to a stop throttle it spin backwards then forwards and any slow speeds was ruff sounding just like it was out of sequence some how but did manage to make it better after alot of brow scratching.

I'm interested in the new vesc 7 to get my ebike using FOC if I run full speed for long time it builds unwanted current in the motor core that vesc can help fix save me battery and push the limits a bit more.
 
My initial guess from listening to Benjamin from short circuit I mean vesc there's an issue running very low inductance motors on vesc below hardware version 7, vesc 7 has a low pass filter to help drive the motor timing more accurately.
 
btdale said:
Hello all. Helping my brother put together an alternator motor setup for his kids go-kart. Great excuse for to me to work on my first motor project on someone else's dime ☺️.
I'm looking for a 48v(minimum) controller in the 150-200 amp range. I would like something that can run sensorless, and also would love to be able to use the VESC software(I'm relatively newb. Not sure if only VESC controllers can use the software.). Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

btdale said:
Currently looking at the Kelly KEB48200X. Not sure what software it uses yet but that's what I'm looking at rn.

Kelly Controllers only work with hall sensors, AFAIK. And their software is proprietary.
And you can install hall sensors on the alternator if you follow some of Austiwawa's advice on his new video, where he tries a sensorless Kelly KSL and "fails", before simply getting a KEB controller and installing hall sensors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQy-hIMY__A
(I can't simply embed the videos because it makes the post too big, so people need to roll a lot)

The youtuber (and user here @ ES) Enrengineering also installed hall sensors on his alternator-powered go-kart, so he could swap his chinese no-brand controllers for a BAC-0501, and even with the hall placement that Austiwawa had problems, his kart still goes well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeJPAhFpp-g

And about the VESC controllers, the youtuber Fixitmoditbreakit ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWObvAzP341gA8HRlKcHRQQ ), used two versions of the VESC project, first the cheaper ones (V4.12 HW), then a FlipSky VESC6 60V 200A, that he got to pump 100A at 36V (135A in motor amps) in his basic load test bench

The V4.12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQvMUGrk4U

The V6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4r2mIIkrbk
 
Back
Top