[albano]

Hi! To all,

As anyone had the Soliton1 controller on the track?

[TX_Dj]

Originally Posted by albano

Hi! To all,

As anyone had the Soliton1 controller on the track?

What kind of track? Drag strip? Autocross? Other?

I'm sure someone probably has... or it's probably been simulated.

[albano]

Originally Posted by TX_Dj

What kind of track? Drag strip? Autocross? Other?

I'm sure someone probably has... or it's probably been simulated.

Drag strip.

I need to know, cause I need a strong and reliable controller for drag racing.

As I see we can't relies on Zilla, because the production is always on and off.

Albano

[TX_Dj]

The Soliton 1, by everything I've seen, is a well designed, properly-engineered controller.

Talk to the manufacturer, they even give you a performance boost with the addition of a special "racing" warranty.

The guys who designed and build that controller are members on this forum.

[electrabishi]

Originally Posted by albano

Drag strip.

I need to know, cause I need a strong and reliable controller for drag racing.

As I see we can't relies on Zilla, because the production is always on and off.

Albano

Otmar has fully loaded Z2K's on his shelf. A large number of them for immediate purchase ;-)

Mike

[Tesseract]

Hey albano... no one uses a Soliton1 for drag racing, so far as I know. The Z2K still delivers the highest short-term power rating for now; we would only be able to compete with it if the race were longer than 1/4 mile.

We are currently designing a smaller version of the Soliton1 and are contemplating a larger version. The smaller version (300V/500A) is not really relevant here except to say that we expect it to be profitable very quickly...

In contrast, we suspect the larger version will have a very limited market but know it will be very costly to develop. As of now my estimate is that we might sell 2-4 "megawatt class" versions of the Soliton per year. That doesn't quite justify the development unless we charge a large premium for them (as in, much more expensive than simply buying two Soliton1s!)

So, while there is much talk of wanting a bigger, badder controller than even the Zilla Z2K, there doesn't appear to be much actual buying going of such going on.

Speaking of... hey Mike, are those Z2K's the same 14 that were built last year and featured prominently in this post:

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums...41&postcount=4

How many are left?

[electrabishi]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Speaking of... hey Mike, are those Z2K's the same 14 that were built last year and featured prominently in this post:

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums...41&postcount=4

How many are left?

Nope. They are different ones. The ones Otmar is advertising are ones he had built prior to starting in with EVC. They still have the Cafe Electric Logo on them. And if I am not wrong the number of them is >10.

Mike

[Qer]

Originally Posted by JRP3

That seems an odd target. The 500A rating is low, suggesting a low controller price

Not for a small car, a MC or for a bigger car if you don't care about being able to take off like an oiled lightning at the stop lights. That said it might be on the small side for a big pickup, quite true.

Originally Posted by electrabishi

While the cell count would be higher you could do with lower AH capacity. And with the higher pack voltage than what you put on the motor you should never run the controller at 100% duty cycle. Plus the lower amp draw is easier on the batteries for continued use (more so than with lead acid that exhibit Pukerts effect).

There's that, too. And of course, a 300 Volt pack could easily provide suitable anode voltages for a class A valve amp with suitable output power for a car stereo, making it possible to finally have GOOD sound quality in a car!

[JRP3]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

We are currently designing a smaller version of the Soliton1 and are contemplating a larger version. The smaller version (300V/500A) is not really relevant here except to say that we expect it to be profitable very quickly...

That seems an odd target. The 500A rating is low, suggesting a low controller price, but the 300V rating is high, and would require a high cell count while allowing higher performance. Is the 300V rating basically an artifact of the Soliton components and design, high voltage being easier/cheaper to achieve than high current?

[JRP3]

And why are you building a larger version of the Soliton when I'm still waiting for my 3 phase AC controller I know you could sell more than 4 of those a year