[tennisthehilife]

Hi everyone,

I am working on a 2000lbs electric vehicle using the Curtis 1238 Motor Controller and AC 50 Motor powered by 96 volts lead acid deep cycle.

I want to have the all the electronics in a box and have panel mount circular connectors for 1/0 cables so I can disconnect and connect from the box easily. 2 contacts for the battery, 3 contacts for the motor.

My question is what continuous and maximum Amperage rating do you recommended for the 1/0 connectors?

Or, what is the max and continuous amperage a 1/0 cable can withstand?
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Please and thank you.

 

[JRP3]

My first question is why? I have an AC31 in my car and once I had it built and on the road I only pulled it out once to fix an oil seal in the transmission, and unbolting the 5 connections was quite easy.

 

[madderscience]

These are what are very commonly used for traction circuit power connectors in EVs:

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/multipole-sb.html

The 175 amp size would probably be fine for everything on the battery side of your circuit. You might want the 350 amp size for the motor side (due to higher currents)

(The 50 amp, 2 pole grey size is the standard plug most chargers come with)

Helpful hint if you are the scrounging type: Many old computer UPSes (midsize ones) have batteries with a 50 amp anderson on them. RV supply places will also frequently have the 50 amp size.

Good luck

 

[helluvaengineer96]

JRP has a good point. Making it is easy to remove sounds great, but you could be creating more problems then you are fixing.

For the high current connections the focus should be on:

1. Few connection points as possible. A connection is nothing more than a problem waiting to happen. Plus a connection adds loss=resistance. To add a disconnect point you are actually adding to more unnecessary connection points.
2. Little resistance as possible
3. As few moving parts as possible. Every moving part increases MTBF (mean time between failure).

My first question is why? I have an AC31 in my car and once I had it built and on the road I only pulled it out once to fix an oil seal in the transmission, and unbolting the 5 connections was quite easy.

 

[dtbaker]

Hi everyone,

I am working on a 2000lbs electric vehicle using the Curtis 1238 Motor Controller and AC 50 Motor powered by 96 volts lead acid deep cycle.

I want to have the all the electronics in a box and have panel mount circular connectors for 1/0 cables so I can disconnect and connect from the box easily.

I dunno why you want all quick disconnects... why not just unbolt from motor if and when needed? You might have one or two of them terminate thru you main circuit breaker/emergency disconnect, and maybe another with a big fat 450amp fuse.

also, you probably want to use at least 2/0 welding cable for main pack at 96 volts as you could well be pulling up to 500 amps during acceleration.