Good day all. I appear to have been afflicted with a controller failure. It's a
Sevcon PowerPak SEM PP745 (48v, 500a) connected to a sepex motor and for the
last many thousands of miles has been working just great.
Recently, I discovered that I no longer had reverse. All switches check out
fine, all continuity is continuous, or something like that. I have the Sevcon
calibrator and no error messages appear on the display, although that's
inconclusive, as I may not be qualified to make that statement, nor to operate
it in such a manner as to validate the statement. The calibrator does confirm
that the controller is seeing the commands to go forward or reverse and
recognizes throttle position and that all safety protocols are safe.
When in reverse, with the drive wheel on a stand, the wheel jitters a bit and
may even move forward slightly. If I hand-start the wheel, it may rotate a few
times. Forward selection means the wheel turns normally, although on the road,
forward appears to be drawing more power than usual. My CycleAnalyst shows an
average of 100-120 watt hours per mil during a typical trip. The last trip was
about 160 watt hours per mile. That would be mildly alarming, but combined with
the lack of powered reverse, it's more so.
I've spoken to a number of electric motor/controller people and the general
consensus is that the controller has failed, although one consultant suggests
that the motor could have been damaged by the controller, or that the controller
could have damaged the motor. I've not checked visually for burned brushes or
bad spots on the commutator, but when I was turning the wheel by hand, the
action was quite smooth. When running slowly on the stand, the action was also
quite smooth (in forward). I took great care to keep the speed at a walking pace
or less, while there was no load applied to the system by having it in the air.
I have learned from one vendor that the Sevcon controllers may have a two month
lag time or greater. I contacted another vendor to see about getting my
controller repaired and was told to go through a retail level service location.
The one local contact appears on google maps to be a private residence, while I
was expecting a forklift repair location. The other two vendors are many miles
out of local range, but I may have to contact them to keep my options open.
Does anyone have any observations about the likelihood that it's the controller
and not the motor? Does anyone have any recommendations for a vendor who can
assess the controller and/or repair it? I think that since the local contact is
unlikely, any other contact is going to require shipping and I'm okay with that,
it means the whole country should come into consideration for my scope of
repair.
Also, if anyone has an NOS Sevcon PowerPak SEM 48v, 500a controller they want to
sell, please let me know.
thanks, your advice is greatly appreciated
fred
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Sevcon PowerPak SEM PP745 (48v, 500a) connected to a sepex motor and for the
last many thousands of miles has been working just great.
Recently, I discovered that I no longer had reverse. All switches check out
fine, all continuity is continuous, or something like that. I have the Sevcon
calibrator and no error messages appear on the display, although that's
inconclusive, as I may not be qualified to make that statement, nor to operate
it in such a manner as to validate the statement. The calibrator does confirm
that the controller is seeing the commands to go forward or reverse and
recognizes throttle position and that all safety protocols are safe.
When in reverse, with the drive wheel on a stand, the wheel jitters a bit and
may even move forward slightly. If I hand-start the wheel, it may rotate a few
times. Forward selection means the wheel turns normally, although on the road,
forward appears to be drawing more power than usual. My CycleAnalyst shows an
average of 100-120 watt hours per mil during a typical trip. The last trip was
about 160 watt hours per mile. That would be mildly alarming, but combined with
the lack of powered reverse, it's more so.
I've spoken to a number of electric motor/controller people and the general
consensus is that the controller has failed, although one consultant suggests
that the motor could have been damaged by the controller, or that the controller
could have damaged the motor. I've not checked visually for burned brushes or
bad spots on the commutator, but when I was turning the wheel by hand, the
action was quite smooth. When running slowly on the stand, the action was also
quite smooth (in forward). I took great care to keep the speed at a walking pace
or less, while there was no load applied to the system by having it in the air.
I have learned from one vendor that the Sevcon controllers may have a two month
lag time or greater. I contacted another vendor to see about getting my
controller repaired and was told to go through a retail level service location.
The one local contact appears on google maps to be a private residence, while I
was expecting a forklift repair location. The other two vendors are many miles
out of local range, but I may have to contact them to keep my options open.
Does anyone have any observations about the likelihood that it's the controller
and not the motor? Does anyone have any recommendations for a vendor who can
assess the controller and/or repair it? I think that since the local contact is
unlikely, any other contact is going to require shipping and I'm okay with that,
it means the whole country should come into consideration for my scope of
repair.
Also, if anyone has an NOS Sevcon PowerPak SEM 48v, 500a controller they want to
sell, please let me know.
thanks, your advice is greatly appreciated
fred
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| Multiple-address or CCed messages may be rejected.
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