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Electric Vehicle with No Starter Relay

2545 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  dtbaker, 
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The college I am at is currently revamping our electric vehicle. And while we do realize that in a normal vehicle (gas powered) there is normally a starter solenoid or relay. We were curious if the one in the vehicle was even needed. What would be the benefits/ downsides to having no starter relay in the vehicle. Instead, we were debating on going to a 2 switch system, where the initial switch is a single pull double throw, allowing us to turn on the peripherals (lights, music, etc.) and the second switch would turn on the controller, allowing for a double failsafe system. We are using a Curtis 1238r controller at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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dtbaker
the Curtis controllers have relatively small capacitors compared to zilla or soliton. soliton handles pre-charge internally. even with zilla a pre-charge resistor is not always used.... the big main contactor pads slam shut pretty fast, and have a large area; unlikely to weld shut from the momentary arc.

look up threads regarding 'pre-charge resistor'

lots of people DO leave the DC-DC 'always on' to keep everything like interior lights, and clock running....
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