Beginners motor / controller question

D

drod

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Joined
Mar 26, 2024
Messages
4
Location
York
Hi All,
I've got a very basic question initially - apologies for the vagueness. I have borrowed a friends home made 3-wheeler to replicate. It has 2x48V Proud Eagle motors and 2x Sevcon Gen4 controllers (in a master-slave mode). It's a few years old - circa 2015. Are Proud Eagle/Sevcon motor/controllers still a good combination going forward, or is there something more modern/lighter/reliable/cheaper etc that I could be looking at?
 
Do you have the software and expertise to setup a Sevcon, or access to someone that does? If not, they wouldn't be my first choice, as you won't get support from Sevcon (unless you're a big OEM buying lots of them), the software and hardware to set one up is more expensive than some whole controllers, and the processes some people have described going thru for setup make it sound like starting a Mars mission from scratch is easy. :/

Given the number of systems out there manufactured using Sevcons, they are likely very reliable once they are setup and tuned for the specific application and all the bugs of the setup worked out, as long as they're sized correctly for the application.

If you have the know-how or can find someplace that says how, or someone that can do it for you, you *may* be able to copy the setup data from the existing controllers to your new ones...as long as nothing gets corrupted in the existing ones in the process, and there's no form of read-protection in place.

I don't know which controller would be best to replace the Sevcons in the system with, as none of the good ones are easy to setup (or have support from the companies that make them unless you're an OEM, except maybe ASI if you buy directly from them as a "dev kit" or whatever).

The ones that are "easier" to setup all have non-English setup software, manuals, etc., and most of that support stuff is very poorly translated in the few places it is at all, and poorly designed / worded / programmed.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I personally dont have the software but hoping I have access to someone who does - chasing that at the moment. It's helpful to know that I'm likely to see some issues with a replacement controller too. I'll progress this a bit further and see how far I can get. Thanks again.
 
drod said:
Hi All,
I've got a very basic question initially - apologies for the vagueness. I have borrowed a friends home made 3-wheeler to replicate. It has 2x48V Proud Eagle motors and 2x Sevcon Gen4 controllers (in a master-slave mode). It's a few years old - circa 2015. Are Proud Eagle/Sevcon motor/controllers still a good combination going forward, or is there something more modern/lighter/reliable/cheaper etc that I could be looking at?
Click to expand...
Kelly Controller isn't great, but they are cheap and easy enough to setup. The previous comment is spot on with the ESL issue. Be prepared for broken English
 
drod said:
Hi All,
I've got a very basic question initially - apologies for the vagueness. I have borrowed a friends home made 3-wheeler to replicate. It has 2x48V Proud Eagle motors and 2x Sevcon Gen4 controllers (in a master-slave mode). It's a few years old - circa 2015. Are Proud Eagle/Sevcon motor/controllers still a good combination going forward, or is there something more modern/lighter/reliable/cheaper etc that I could be looking at?
Click to expand...
If you're looking for alternatives, check into VESC type controllers. TONS of info out there and, for "throttle only" type vehicles, they work great. They also have some of the best size-to-power ratio's for controllers. There's a learning curve, but it's free and youtube videos/tutorials galore (lot's of it based on eskate, but would apply here for the most part).
 
chuyskywalker said:
If you're looking for alternatives, check into VESC type controllers. TONS of info out there and, for "throttle only" type vehicles, they work great. They also have some of the best size-to-power ratio's for controllers. There's a learning curve, but it's free and youtube videos/tutorials galore (lot's of it based on eskate, but would apply here for the most part).
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I'll take a look and see if we can apply those.
 
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