Yes I use the same motor seen here as a load with a 5m length of about 2mm enameled copper wire in a tank of water. I can then vary the length of wire to change the load on the motor.
Have a sample heatsink being machined now and a huge 6kw 42v 120A power supply on the way.
Building a nice big spinning drum to test out regen braking and different control modes.
Building a new cnc mill to make the heatsinks and copper bus bars at a reasonable price. As quotes for the heatsink is about £170. Will be using the revolt 160sh and v1.2 hardware with the huge power supply for a spindle motor. Coupled to a Chinese BT30 spindle. Will be a good test.
(reply to #111) Nice. I have done that before. I had a problem with noise triggering the fault early so I added an RC filter before the comparator (I assume you will feed analog current sensor right into the comparator) and it helped.
I now realize I don't have the height left to add a switching power supply on the top board inductors are too tall, and there is no space on the main board either. So it will just be a straight 12v input and linear regulation down to the 5v and 3.3v as that takes much less room. I got a NRF module now and it looks like it should be reasonably easy to add, might end up on the outside of the top pcb if it doesn't fit between the screw holes.
dafuck - its a good thing it blows up without a load of mods then! I shall inquire to the board fab. Its a bit silly that they very obviously put a black box over the name and my name lol.
My guess is it might be a scam tbh as I never released the Gerbers to anyone except the fab and that picture is from this thread. Reading more into it this seems to be a problem getting stuff made in china. So V1.3 will be more closed to stop counterfeit hardware appearing.
Yeah first batch was made in china. I got in touch with the fab and they said
"I am surprised that the below link is your product.
The link shows the shop is in Shanghai city China.
I tried to connect the shop to know the details, but their tradeManager shows gray (can't connect).
The link shows the product is pre-sale (the client can purchase it on next month).
I also checked the sales record in this shop, it shows 0 now."
That's crazy that they leaked the design somehow. Did you have the assembly done with them as well or just the PCB's? What was the fabricator so we can maybe steer clear?
I had pcbs assembly and functional testing. The price was very good though. Next time will not get the complete thing made and keep some things private to stop this happening again. Apparently people will deliberately sabotage their design then fix it later to stop copying.
I don't yet know if that listing is genuine. Could be a scam shop. Until there are any actual sales we won't know for sure. Hopefully pointing it out will make them think twice next time.
The modules are a bit too big, not got a lot of space to play with and a LOT of stuff to fit in. So the slightly less integrated solutions are a bit better space wise. Only have about 30x50mm to add anything.
Here is the overvoltage circuit. Not sure how well it will work yet.
I have 82v TVS diodes on each phase to ground, so the idea is that on a spike the overvoltage will trigger at 80v. Turn off the 12v supply. Then the gate drivers go into undervoltage lockout and turn off the fets. The TVS catches anything that makes it higher before the fets turn off hopefully saving them. If the tvs explode hideously its still better than blowing the fets, drivers, 12v supply, microcontroller, etc.
Plan is for overvoltage to turn off the supply enable line within 2uS. Not sure how long the supply will take to react and stop though. The TVS might last for 1ms at most, probably less.
Just added a mosfet on the 12v supply to turn it off. Looks like the dc converter has quite a long turn off and it removes the large capacitance from the 12v bus. Then a pulldown will quickly pull the rail to ground.
I might need to use them, but would rather not as it increases board price. I think it will fit, might need to change some packages on the needlessly large things.
They are just mounting holes for the board stackup. The controllers are in a high impact/vibration environment so the boards cannot be allowed to flex. The case has anti vibration mounts to help as well. This is the top board that sits on top of the main power board, so the connector locations will be cutouts. There is only 1 linear regulator for the 3.3v rail now which looks massive, I can probably shrink that a bit. The 12v and 5v are from those tiny buck regulators.
I'd like to design higher voltage driver for my downhill ebike. Motor is ~5kW and I have 20S (12.5Ah) lithium battery. So design requirements for now are:
At least 84 V input voltage
80 A constant phase current
150 A peak phase current
Size is not a priority but should fit in ~ A6 paper area.
I'll take your design as reference - thanks for that. Could you sum up important stuff you learned while making your design? I read the whole thread and got few good pointers. Is there anything else maybe not mentioned in this forum thread?
Where could I get ltspice simulation files for FOC and PWM modes?
Where could I get firmware (source code if possible) that you used?
For now the design is made with large safety factor (almost 2 for MOSFETs) but better have a larger power capacity than burned fets. I'll try to make the PCB in 4 layers with 2 oz internal and 1 oz external layer thickness because of small pitch logic components. I also have a small CNC machine so making aluminum heatsink parts is easy.
Yes...and this is an 18 fet controller with some really good specs. I'm still interested, but it will be a while...OUCH! I'm usd to paying less than half that for a decent sinusoidal 18 fet controller. Admittedly this is FOC but that's still with top end mosfets and is good up to 100 volts. About 2.5X the cost is pretty steep for a single controller only good to 66 volts. I can get decent sinusoidal 24 fet controllers for a good bit less. Of course that's just cost and a lot of people have to make choices based on cost instead of what is perhaps the best there is.
You do have a very compact, high wattage, 66 volt controller that's FOC.
Hopefully prices will go down so these types of products are reachable by more people. That happened with the original VESC. They used to be quite expensive and now you can buy them for $160.
There is a plan in the works to get the price down to about half, but its a while off. Unfortunately getting the quantity required to get to the kind of price you are talking about is not possible without massive investment. Also this will work up to 75v (18S), but I recommend not going above 16S for EU regulations and to give some extra safety margin.
Can you send me a link to one of these cheaper 18 Fet controllers? I am interested to see what they are like.
Hey I received my pcb and have time to start building now. Can you make the bom available? I got the v1.3 schematics off your website but don't see the bom listed there or on github.
Been working on a V2 version using DirectFETs which can support 18S properly and low inductance motors <0.6uH.
It is quite similar to the 75/300 but adds another 4 ceramic caps per phase and moves the fets closer to get lower inductance. The logic board will be on top and connected with headers. I am planning to make the logic PCB also the top cover, which saves some space.
Only a few V1.2 assembled units left from my reserve. Better be quick!
Also have a bunch of bare PCBs available.
Nice to follow your progress. Thanks for letting us know about your observations and upgrades. Keep up the good work.
Ooo big dc motors also work!
Are you using a DC motor as load? I mean in your other tests, not this one!
How do you brake the DC motor?
Yes I use the same motor seen here as a load with a 5m length of about 2mm enameled copper wire in a tank of water. I can then vary the length of wire to change the load on the motor.
I received all the parts, minus bus bars for V1.3 now so assembled one to make sure it all fits together.
Its capacitor city here! They are erecting tower blocks already.
Have a sample heatsink being machined now and a huge 6kw 42v 120A power supply on the way.
Building a nice big spinning drum to test out regen braking and different control modes.
Building a new cnc mill to make the heatsinks and copper bus bars at a reasonable price. As quotes for the heatsink is about £170. Will be using the revolt 160sh and v1.2 hardware with the huge power supply for a spindle motor. Coupled to a Chinese BT30 spindle. Will be a good test.
I am going to be adding an NRF51822 module and hardware overcurrent / shoot-though protection features to V1.3.
V1.2 used a linear regulator to drop the 18-75v input down to the 12v for the gate drivers.
V1.3 will use a separate 9-30v input to generate both the 12v for gate drivers and 5/3.3v for logic and external devices.
Nice.What sort of method of hardware overcurrent?
Overcurrent will be using a comparator and latch, into the fault input on the STM.
Same as on the paltatech 150kw version. https://eyrie.io/board/6f397be723754f039735d8350260c2c0?active=schematic...
Heatsink and bus bars have arrived! Looking sweeeet.
You gotta be proud of that. Really nicely done.
(reply to #111) Nice. I have done that before. I had a problem with noise triggering the fault early so I added an RC filter before the comparator (I assume you will feed analog current sensor right into the comparator) and it helped.
I now realize I don't have the height left to add a switching power supply on the top board inductors are too tall, and there is no space on the main board either. So it will just be a straight 12v input and linear regulation down to the 5v and 3.3v as that takes much less room. I got a NRF module now and it looks like it should be reasonably easy to add, might end up on the outside of the top pcb if it doesn't fit between the screw holes.
China is not sleeping I see :D
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z2k.11010449.931864.4.256c509darR...
dafuck - its a good thing it blows up without a load of mods then! I shall inquire to the board fab. Its a bit silly that they very obviously put a black box over the name and my name lol.
My guess is it might be a scam tbh as I never released the Gerbers to anyone except the fab and that picture is from this thread. Reading more into it this seems to be a problem getting stuff made in china. So V1.3 will be more closed to stop counterfeit hardware appearing.
WTF. Did you have some 1.2 made in china?
Yeah first batch was made in china. I got in touch with the fab and they said
"I am surprised that the below link is your product.
The link shows the shop is in Shanghai city China.
I tried to connect the shop to know the details, but their tradeManager shows gray (can't connect).
The link shows the product is pre-sale (the client can purchase it on next month).
I also checked the sales record in this shop, it shows 0 now."
Just found this absolute beauty! https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/LMZM23601SILT?q...
18mm^2 !!!
Nice, and you can use the same one for 3.3 and 5.0V.
That's crazy that they leaked the design somehow. Did you have the assembly done with them as well or just the PCB's? What was the fabricator so we can maybe steer clear?
Cheers!
I had pcbs assembly and functional testing. The price was very good though. Next time will not get the complete thing made and keep some things private to stop this happening again. Apparently people will deliberately sabotage their design then fix it later to stop copying.
I don't yet know if that listing is genuine. Could be a scam shop. Until there are any actual sales we won't know for sure. Hopefully pointing it out will make them think twice next time.
You should check this: http://www.ti.com/power-management/modules/non-isolated-module/products....
The modules are a bit too big, not got a lot of space to play with and a LOT of stuff to fit in. So the slightly less integrated solutions are a bit better space wise. Only have about 30x50mm to add anything.
Here is the overvoltage circuit. Not sure how well it will work yet.
I have 82v TVS diodes on each phase to ground, so the idea is that on a spike the overvoltage will trigger at 80v. Turn off the 12v supply. Then the gate drivers go into undervoltage lockout and turn off the fets. The TVS catches anything that makes it higher before the fets turn off hopefully saving them. If the tvs explode hideously its still better than blowing the fets, drivers, 12v supply, microcontroller, etc.
Plan is for overvoltage to turn off the supply enable line within 2uS. Not sure how long the supply will take to react and stop though. The TVS might last for 1ms at most, probably less.
Just added a mosfet on the 12v supply to turn it off. Looks like the dc converter has quite a long turn off and it removes the large capacitance from the 12v bus. Then a pulldown will quickly pull the rail to ground.
This might be a bit of a squeeze! Everything needs to fit in the small area on the corner...
Are you considering to use buried VIA's if components won't fit? They are really useful in cases like this.
I might need to use them, but would rather not as it increases board price. I think it will fit, might need to change some packages on the needlessly large things.
Seems it should fit, the holes are using a lot of useful space. Are they used to remove the heat, generated by linear voltage regulator(s)?
They are just mounting holes for the board stackup. The controllers are in a high impact/vibration environment so the boards cannot be allowed to flex. The case has anti vibration mounts to help as well. This is the top board that sits on top of the main power board, so the connector locations will be cutouts. There is only 1 linear regulator for the 3.3v rail now which looks massive, I can probably shrink that a bit. The 12v and 5v are from those tiny buck regulators.
Fits easily :D ... mildly compact placement but it will keep the noise down a bit.
Eh? Probably spam I guess?
Finished the layout for the power and protection board.
Top cover pcb:
Have now tested the V1.3 board, everything seems to work properly. Now just to test the protection features!
I want one :)
Amazing work man !!!!
I would also like to order one
I already sent you a PM
Ordered one can't wait
Thanks for all your help and great communication
Any v1.3 bare pcbs available?
Hi!
I'd like to design higher voltage driver for my downhill ebike. Motor is ~5kW and I have 20S (12.5Ah) lithium battery. So design requirements for now are:
I'll take your design as reference - thanks for that. Could you sum up important stuff you learned while making your design? I read the whole thread and got few good pointers. Is there anything else maybe not mentioned in this forum thread?
Where could I get ltspice simulation files for FOC and PWM modes?
Where could I get firmware (source code if possible) that you used?
My design for now:
For now the design is made with large safety factor (almost 2 for MOSFETs) but better have a larger power capacity than burned fets. I'll try to make the PCB in 4 layers with 2 oz internal and 1 oz external layer thickness because of small pitch logic components. I also have a small CNC machine so making aluminum heatsink parts is easy.
Thanks for any help!
galp
This is impressive so far. I'm very interested!
DIY Zap scooter build...20kw peaks.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/zapino-zap-rebuild.205012/
currently out of stock...boo hoo! I was going to buy a v1.3 controller today.
DIY Zap scooter build...20kw peaks.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/zapino-zap-rebuild.205012/
@ElectricGod I have just finished a batch so can accept new orders now.
Here is a complete V1.3.3 unit.
$650 is pretty steep! I got to the point of checking out and nearly fell over.
It will be a while before I can afford that!!!
DIY Zap scooter build...20kw peaks.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/zapino-zap-rebuild.205012/
This is supposed to compete with / outperform MGM Controllers which are not exactly cheap. https://www.mgm-controllers.com/cars/speed-controllers-escs
The components alone are very expensive and it takes a good 5 hours or so to assemble and test each one by hand.
Yes...and this is an 18 fet controller with some really good specs. I'm still interested, but it will be a while...OUCH! I'm usd to paying less than half that for a decent sinusoidal 18 fet controller. Admittedly this is FOC but that's still with top end mosfets and is good up to 100 volts. About 2.5X the cost is pretty steep for a single controller only good to 66 volts. I can get decent sinusoidal 24 fet controllers for a good bit less. Of course that's just cost and a lot of people have to make choices based on cost instead of what is perhaps the best there is.
You do have a very compact, high wattage, 66 volt controller that's FOC.
Hopefully prices will go down so these types of products are reachable by more people. That happened with the original VESC. They used to be quite expensive and now you can buy them for $160.
DIY Zap scooter build...20kw peaks.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/zapino-zap-rebuild.205012/
There is a plan in the works to get the price down to about half, but its a while off. Unfortunately getting the quantity required to get to the kind of price you are talking about is not possible without massive investment. Also this will work up to 75v (18S), but I recommend not going above 16S for EU regulations and to give some extra safety margin.
Can you send me a link to one of these cheaper 18 Fet controllers? I am interested to see what they are like.
Hey I received my pcb and have time to start building now. Can you make the bom available? I got the v1.3 schematics off your website but don't see the bom listed there or on github.
Been working on a V2 version using DirectFETs which can support 18S properly and low inductance motors <0.6uH.
It is quite similar to the 75/300 but adds another 4 ceramic caps per phase and moves the fets closer to get lower inductance. The logic board will be on top and connected with headers. I am planning to make the logic PCB also the top cover, which saves some space.
Ok, have now finished the new layout and boards are being made. We will see soon how it does.
Pages