I have completed my Porsche 944 conversion and I am running 260 volts at about 110 amps with a warp 9 motor. I have had some bad experiences and I wont bore you with the details but I am looking for a mechanical high voltage high amperage shut off or even a way to sever the "00"cables while under load? I have a low voltage shut off for the contactors but I have had contactors fail! I want to manually disconnect the high voltage side as an EMERGENCY FAIL SAFE regardless of the damage I may do the motor or controller. Any Ideas?
EMERGENCY shut off.
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How quickly?
If you are comfortable with a couple of seconds I would just include some big Anderson plugs between your battery and the first contactor/s. In case of issues just grap the plugs and pull them appart.
If you need something quicker I'm not sure. Contactors seem to be the component for the job. If you don't trust them then there is a problem.
Maybe some mechanical method (cable, lever, servo etc) to disconnect a physical connection (eg Anderson plugs)
What was the scenario where you had contactors fail? Was it a rating issue? I can kind of imagine damage to a contactor when it is used to sudenly disconnect high voltage/current. But I would expect the damage to only become a problem after that point, not during.
If you are comfortable with a couple of seconds I would just include some big Anderson plugs between your battery and the first contactor/s. In case of issues just grap the plugs and pull them appart.
If you need something quicker I'm not sure. Contactors seem to be the component for the job. If you don't trust them then there is a problem.
Maybe some mechanical method (cable, lever, servo etc) to disconnect a physical connection (eg Anderson plugs)
What was the scenario where you had contactors fail? Was it a rating issue? I can kind of imagine damage to a contactor when it is used to sudenly disconnect high voltage/current. But I would expect the damage to only become a problem after that point, not during.
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For development and testing purposes an old fashion knife switch with a pull rod could be used until all the bugs are worked out of the contactor solution.
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Pyrotechnic cable cutter, make sure you get one with a ceramic blade.
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DC rated multiple pole circuit breakers can be found on ebay with ratings within the specs you are looking for. Mount it someplace near where the driver and passenger(s) can reach or use a remote cable pull. This type of breaker new is very expensive, but used ones aren't too bad. I think they originally come out of large telecom and data center battery backup installations.
Here is one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SQUARE-D-CI...870775&hash=item1a30560f16:g:U2AAAOSwuMZZC6~V
Its very similar model to the one I am using in my car. These are fairly large, but not unmanageable in size (about 4x3x6")
Here is one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SQUARE-D-CI...870775&hash=item1a30560f16:g:U2AAAOSwuMZZC6~V
Its very similar model to the one I am using in my car. These are fairly large, but not unmanageable in size (about 4x3x6")
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