Controlling 2 Sevcon Gen 4s with one accel pedal

Hi all.

I'm new and do apologise as I'm sure this has been covered, but I searched for hours and couldn't find any concise answer.

I am building a car with two motors and controllers. For initial testing I need a way to control both Sevcon Gen 4 Size 6 controllers with one Hall effect accelerator pedal. I have been told by the supplier of the controllers that I cannot use a "Y splitter" type device to split the accel signal to two controllers. Can anyone explain simply if this is correct, and if so, why it's not possible to do so?

Many thanks.

Seb Steel.

Link to my project, if anyone is interested. https://www.facebook.com/ghost.ev.hillclimb.prototype

sebsteel said:

Hi all.

I'm new and do apologise as I'm sure this has been covered, but I searched for hours and couldn't find any concise answer.

I am building a car with two motors and controllers. For initial testing I need a way to control both Sevcon Gen 4 Size 6 controllers with one Hall effect accelerator pedal. I have been told by the supplier of the controllers that I cannot use a "Y splitter" type device to split the accel signal to two controllers. Can anyone explain simply if this is correct, and if so, why it's not possible to do so?

Many thanks.

Seb Steel.

Link to my project, if anyone is interested. https://www.facebook.com/ghost.ev.hillclimb.prototype

Click to expand...

Can't or shouldn't? If you are using the same DC supply to power the logic on both sevcons you have a common ground and could simply wire the output of the throttle to both controllers. That is not the recommended approch. The prefered method is to configure one controller as the master and the second as a slave and send torque commands over CAN. I have never had the need to do either so I can't help but there should be enough guidence in the sevcon docs to get there. A few people on ES have done it so it is certainly possible.

What motors are you using?

If the reason for no y-splitter is to not electrically connect any signal from one controller to the other, then you could build a pair of non-inverting 1:1 op-amps, and feed the throttle into both of those, and their outputs individually to each controller.

If necessary, an isolated double-amplifier circuit could be made, so there is not even a common ground between them.

[/quote]
Can't or shouldn't? If you are using the same DC supply to power the logic on both sevcons you have a common ground and could simply wire the output of the throttle to both controllers. That is not the recommended approch. The prefered method is to configure one controller as the master and the second as a slave and send torque commands over CAN. I have never had the need to do either so I can't help but there should be enough guidence in the sevcon docs to get there. A few people on ES have done it so it is certainly possible.

What motors are you using?
[/quote]

"Can't" and "shouldn't" can probably be assumed to mean the same thing, but the supplier hasn't yet elaborated on why this is. They have also said that while operating a master/slave config is possible, they have had issues with customers failing to get the system running properly, so as a supplier, they prefer to stick with their plug-and-play motor/controller/loom kits, as opposed to being expected to solve issues with master/slave setups remotely.
I'm using Motenergy ME1616 motors.