Need Help with Kelly KLS7230S BLDC Motor Controller - RS232 Connection and LED Behavior

[Rigdig]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. I am currently facing some difficulties with connecting the Kelly KLS7230S BLDC motor controller to my PC via an RS232 cable. I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this controller and could offer some guidance.

Here's what we have tried so far: we connected the controller to the PC using a standard RS232 cable, but unfortunately, we only received an error message stating that the controller was not found. We even attempted switching the RX and TX connections back and forth, but the same error persisted. We have confirmed that the RS232 cable is working correctly by testing it with other RS232 equipment.

To provide more context, we measured the voltage on the VCC and ground connectors of the controller, and it reads approximately 10.81V. We believe this voltage is close enough to the expected 12V for RS232 connections.

To further investigate the issue, we decided to connect the controller to an oscilloscope. Surprisingly, we noticed a peculiar behavior related to the red LED output on the RS232 connector. We have recorded a video demonstrating this behavior (you can find the link below this post). Although we think that we understand what the error message means, we are uncertain about the significance of the LED input on the RS232 connector.

Here are our specific concerns:

1. Why are we consistently encountering the "controller not found" error when connecting the Kelly KLS7230S BLDC motor controller to our PC using the RS232 cable?
2. Does the unusual behavior of the red LED output on the RS232 connector, as observed in the video, indicate any potential issues or provide any insights into the problem we are facing?

We would greatly appreciate any assistance, suggestions, or insights you may have regarding this matter. If you have encountered similar issues with the Kelly KLS7230S BLDC motor controller, have expertise in RS232 connections, or understand the significance of the LED input on the RS232 connector, your input would be especially valuable.

Thank you in advance for your time and support. We look forward to hearing from you and resolving this issue.

sorry for the shakiness in the video.
kelly_kls.mp4

 

[eee291]

You need more than 10.8 volts to the controller. Connect something like 18v to it.
The error Code according to the manual is a low voltage error.

 

[Rigdig]

You need more than 10.8 volts to the controller. Connect something like 18v to it.
The error Code according to the manual is a low voltage error.

Sorry, i explained wrong, the 10,8V is measured on the 4-pin Rs232 connector, not at the input from battery, which is at 51V from 4S Pb gel battery. Also the motor spins at first for like a 2 minutes if we push down a throttle, but after that it stops with the error in the video, we believe that we could change the settings to resolve it, but the main issue persist and we can't connect to it.

 

[eee291]

I've had some bad experiences with the PC dongle as well, it only worked 1 out if every 10 connection attempts on my laptop with adapter. On my PC with rs232 port it worked all the time perfectly.

If you like I could send you the Kelly Bluetooth dongle to get the thing working. I've never had any issued with Bluetooth.

 

[Rigdig]

I've had some bad experiences with the PC dongle as well, it only worked 1 out if every 10 connection attempts on my laptop with adapter. On my PC with rs232 port it worked all the time perfectly.

If you like I could send you the Kelly Bluetooth dongle to get the thing working. I've never had any issued with Bluetooth.

Yeah, thank you, i think that we could give it a try.

 

[amberwolf]

Some thoughts to check:

Does the Kelly you have use 12v for the serial data connections? And does your serial adapter to the computer use 12v? 5v is pretty common these days, and some only use 3.3v, and either of these could be damaged by 12v. If the controller serial TX/RX get damaged, you might be able to replace the I/O buffer chip in the controller if it's a common one like Max232 or the various clones of those.


If you're not using a direct serial port built into the computer, but rather a USB-serial adapter, there are a number of chipsets for serial adapters, some of which don't work with some programs / OSs, and some serial adapter I/O hardware just doesn't work with some serial devices. (sometimes for the voltage reasons noted above, sometimes because of signal timing/noise/etc). There are also clones of various chipsets, many of which don't work right with certain programs when the original version does (but may work fine with other programs).




The Kelly may have to be in a specific hardware mode for it to be reachable via the serial port; the manual for your model should tell you how to make sure it is ready. (it may also have warnings against spinning the motor while connected serially, or risk bricking the controller; some of them have such badly written firmware and/or setup programs that they can do this, and instead of fixing the problem they just stick a warning in the manual not to do it).

 

[eee291]

I'm sending him a Bluetooth dongle to see if we can get it programmed that way.

 

[amberwolf]

Hopefully that will work.

 

[Kp0303]

I've had some bad experiences with the PC dongle as well, it only worked 1 out if every 10 connection attempts on my laptop with adapter. On my PC with rs232 port it worked all the time perfectly.

If you like I could send you the Kelly Bluetooth dongle to get the thing working. I've never had any issued with Bluetooth.

do you have any other bluetooth dongle you can part with need to find one asap. all the ones online are pricey and shipping takes to long

 

[eee291]

I do have one I could ship out by monday.
Just note that I live in Austria, shipping could get expensive depending on how it is shipped. Slow mail vs package.

 

[Kp0303]

How much would either one cost willing to pay for package

 

[nikto]

Your controller is probably fine as I see your video.

Always apply more than 18 volts to it. Actually to get green light you need power up Kelly with more than low voltage as configured controller and also you must connect hall sensors and throttle. Only after this *maybe* you will see only green light.
But to have connection via UART 18 volts is enough! You can reconfigure Kelly.

Any UART cable will not work with Kelly. Most will not work. This is related to many things:
1. Kelly has UART's TTL's 5V signals because Kelly old school controller. Most UART's adapters on market are 3.3V.
2. Software of Kelly(windows) is written literally for certain UART cables(because of special UART's timings).

Best choice for you is get original UART cable for Kelly or original Bluetooth.

Basically you can buy Unitek Usb rs232 + RS232 to TTL converter.
But they come in at least two versions. One of them works better, the other worse. And you also need a RS232 to TTL converter(MAX3232 RS232 to TTL Serial Port Converter Module Female DB9 Connector MAX232) for this cable. It is very cheap, well, you need to solder it - add a voltage regulator from 12 to 5 volts(for example 78L05).