Charging

Well, Ive been testing and testing and more testing with the welder as my DC source for charging with my Synkromotive. A new firmware version is in the works and should be a major improvement. I have installed my external inductors in series with my motors field windings. The change in frequency makes the motor field windings buzz or hummm with the controller in charge mode and charging. Using my clamp multimeter to check amperage I was getting a solid 24 amps into my pack.  Since the welder I am using for my DC source is old it also does not provide a clean DC output. The controller does a pretty good job of cleaning things up. It bucks that low voltage through the inductors and field windings to the pack voltage needed to charge the pack. The welder provides about 75 volts and up to 150 amps of output. This is an ideal voltage and since the welder is connected to 220 volts that 60amp circuit becomes 120 amps on the 110 side of things. So with that much current available I can pump in some pretty good currents. I set my current on the controller to 75 amps but that is not what goes into the pack. I am going to do some more tomorrow and set my current level at 150 amps to see how well it will handle that power. The benefit of this controller being a charger allows you to save space, weight, and gives you the ability to charge no matter what your pack voltage happens to be. There is no bulky heavy equipment and there is no need for that. I am going to be mounting the inductors on the car but the weight is minimal. It is actually not required to have an external inductor. One of my upcoming tests will be with Solar Panels directly. I'll wire up a bunch of panels and set them out and connect up the power to the car so I can charge directly. Not from batteries. But straight from the panels. Should be smoother but would take a whole lot longer. My inductors are from some old medical equipment that was discarded and I swept it up. I have some excellent quality 1/0 cables too. They are marked as ground but if covered could be used for anything. The quality is just too good to be thrown away. The inductor is a dual wire 5.5uh inductor. I have two. I have them in parallel then connected to the motor field windings. These make the field windings hum. Power goes into these before entering the field windings. The three contactors below are the main, charge and forward contactors. Also seen are two shunts for amp meters for both the motor and battery amp checking. The controller will do this for me so these are moot unless you want a mechanical gauge. I like the gauge. You can also see my throttle connected to the board. This board is fully a demonstration board for the purposes of testing and moving if needed. I can take out a couple cables and then just pop out the whole assembly. Makes for an easy way to check that your connections are correct before committing to a final installation. It is also great for demonstrating different things. Like a dual external inductor. I can connect up different ones and compare output. So my log functions are working so I can do some quick checks and log them and label them and then compare the graphs. It shows what happens if you use this or that. These are not huge inductors but they do work. My hand is in the photo to give a good indication as to the size of them both. So until tomorrow.