[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by DIYguy

I think one of your programmable inputs would be fine. I am not worried at all about someone defeating it. I would like something like a key switch under the hood. Valet on, or off. Valet settings adjustable in software. If I take it to the paint shop... it will be set to move the truck around the shop/lot only. If my daughter drives it.... I dunno, but there will be something set up in there! (boyfriends are the most worry.... ) lol

There's a "ghetto" way to implement Valet mode and I can't believe dimitri didn't think of it since it's the flip-side of his idle kludge: just wire a resistor in series with the +5V line to the throttle pot and put a toggle switch across it to short it out for "normal" mode. Calibrate the throttle with the switch closed (resistor shorted) so that when the switch is open the max throttle is limited proportionally.

For example, if your throttle pot is 5k and you put a 1k resistor in series with the 5V line then the max motor amps would then be reduced to ~83% of whatever is programmed; a 4.7k resistor would knock 'em to near 50%, etc.

Now, this won't change the ramp rate, which is probably something that a "real" valet mode would alter, but it also can't be defeated by plugging in a laptop - you have to know where the switch is that shorts the resistor out.

[DIYguy]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

There's a "ghetto" way to implement Valet mode and I can't believe dimitri didn't think of it since it's the flip-side of his idle kludge: just wire a resistor in series with the +5V line to the throttle pot and put a toggle switch across it to short it out for "normal" mode. Calibrate the throttle with the switch closed (resistor shorted) so that when the switch is open the max throttle is limited proportionally.

For example, if your throttle pot is 5k and you put a 1k resistor in series with the 5V line then the max motor amps would then be reduced to ~83% of whatever is programmed; a 4.7k resistor would knock 'em to near 50%, etc.

Now, this won't change the ramp rate, which is probably something that a "real" valet mode would alter, but it also can't be defeated by plugging in a laptop - you have to know where the switch is that shorts the resistor out.

Sounds like it would work ok... only thing is, using my exaple, I would have to get the soldering iron out each time I wanted to change the valet setting...which admittedly would likely not be often.

I suppose the cream would be a whole new set of operating perameters... ramp rate, max amp, min battery ... although one likely doesn't need all of that.

(i could always throw my other controller in each time ... ouch!)

[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by DIYguy

Sounds like it would work ok... only thing is, using my exaple, I would have to get the soldering iron out each time I wanted to change the valet setting...which admittedly would likely not be often.

Or you could replace the fixed resistor with another pot (wired as a variable resistor) so you could tinker with the value until you are happy.

Originally Posted by DIYguy

I suppose the cream would be a whole new set of operating perameters... ramp rate, max amp, min battery ... although one likely doesn't need all of that.

Changing the ramp rate would useful, but only if it's much above 500A/s in the first place, so we might hard code that into valet mode just to keep the home page as uncluttered as possible.

Originally Posted by DIYguy

(i could always throw my other controller in each time ... ouch!)

No comment!

[DIYguy]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Or you could replace the fixed resistor with another pot (wired as a variable resistor) so you could tinker with the value until you are happy.

Ya, good idea. That would work.