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Starting yesterday about noon, Darin and I started on the Paul and Sabrina controller kit I bought.
Quite a pile of parts BUT VERY WELL ORGANIZED. Each controller board component was individually identified and packaged by OEM part Number and Board location number. NICE.
Once we had the parts invantoried and layed out we started assembly. Darin did the control board and I did the power board (mostly).
An couple of IMPORTANT NOTES here.
1.) Paul mentions it and if you follow the open source thead on EcoModder it is restated many times. You Need Good Soldering Skills to build the controller board. No Joke. Practice, Practice and more Practice or do what I did and get help.
2.) There are many versions of the boards, components and instructions, so be sure you understand the differences and have a firm grasp of the sequence of assembly. It's better to wait a day and get the right info. Print them out and make notes and inserts or modify Paul's instruction files with you notes.
3.) Be sure you have the Lock Tite, some tape or shrink tube and JB Weld you will need to complete the assembly.
4.) There is room for customization, things like putting chip sockets on the board instead of direct soldering chips to the board. Plan these in detail and have the material on hand.
Now on with the show. Pictures at the bottom of the post
Once Darin laid out and sorted the packages of components soldering went well. He had the sockets and most other components done in about 3 hours.
(See last attachment)
I started building the Power Board after going over all of the metal and deburring and smoothing. Had a nice big Snap On soldering gun so the soldering of the vias went well and once I figured out the new mounting configuration of the heat spreadder (spacers instead of heat shrink on the mounting bolts . . . MUCH BETTER), I started mounting the mosfets and diodes. The process that Paul describes in the instructions works very well.
(See first attachment)
When final tightening the spring clamps on the mosfets and diodes, I had difficulty because the clamps kept turning before they were fully tightened. Getting these fully seated so the spring pressure presses the mosfet or diode to the heat spreadder is VERY important. Loose clamps will cause component overheating. (Blows up mosfets)
I came up with a method that works very well. Using a welding clamp, I suppose a small C Clamp will work as well, I squeezed the spring clamps down until they were fully seated then applied the Lock Tite and tightened the screws. This way there are NO loose clamps.
(See second attachment)
Found something that helps when doing the heavy soldering, having someone helping makes the job much easier. Darin and I did it this way, I held and positioned the board with one hand and applied/controlled the heat with the other, this left Darin free to position the solder to build the best puddle, and left me relaxed enough that I could pull solder up the pin to get a good joint to the pad.
From that point we attached the copper bars with the silver epoxy and brass bolts, installed and soldered in the caps, the copper braid and the 3 filter caps.
(See third attachment)
From there we mounted the gate resisters then attached the power board to the heat sink. Next I routed the resisters through the separator plate. We found that a bit of hot glue was handy to hold the standoffs in place while getting the resistors into place. I epoxied the current sensor and temperature sensor.
(See fourth attachment)
While I was doing that, Darin ran he circuit checks on the control board and then installed the chips to the sockets.
(See fifth attachment)
Finally we attached the controller board to the power board and soldered the gate resistors to the controller board we left a loop in the resistor leads in case we have to lift the board to unsolder a component to make a repair.
(See Sixth attachment)
After a bit of tidying up, we took the controller out to the garage and hooked it up to a 24 volt motor and WOO HOO it works.
At first the build seemed daunting but with the right skills it is fairly easy.
I'll have to say that I learned a bit doing this and have a much better understanding of what goes on in the controller now. Still incomplete but better.
Was it worth it . . . FOR SURE.
I've got a controller that is equivalent to something commercial that would cost twice as much, I now have more knowkledge and a sense of accomplishment. I can point at it and say I built that.
A final comment, I paid $600.00 to Paul and Sabrina's EV stuff for the kit. Considering what they have done to co-ordanate the development, do the research, maintain support and put together the kits I think it's worth it to support them.
I guess you can just order the boards and source the components yourself and build one for about half the price. I don't think it's worth it. The amount of time they have put into this makes what they charge well worth it for the efforts in developement and maintaining support and developement. The are also developing new stuff like a open source IGBT high current controller and an AC controller.
Anyway I now have a controller for my pulling tractor that will kick butt. RAAAY.
You all have a great New Year,
Jim
Quite a pile of parts BUT VERY WELL ORGANIZED. Each controller board component was individually identified and packaged by OEM part Number and Board location number. NICE.
Once we had the parts invantoried and layed out we started assembly. Darin did the control board and I did the power board (mostly).
An couple of IMPORTANT NOTES here.
1.) Paul mentions it and if you follow the open source thead on EcoModder it is restated many times. You Need Good Soldering Skills to build the controller board. No Joke. Practice, Practice and more Practice or do what I did and get help.
2.) There are many versions of the boards, components and instructions, so be sure you understand the differences and have a firm grasp of the sequence of assembly. It's better to wait a day and get the right info. Print them out and make notes and inserts or modify Paul's instruction files with you notes.
3.) Be sure you have the Lock Tite, some tape or shrink tube and JB Weld you will need to complete the assembly.
4.) There is room for customization, things like putting chip sockets on the board instead of direct soldering chips to the board. Plan these in detail and have the material on hand.
Now on with the show. Pictures at the bottom of the post
Once Darin laid out and sorted the packages of components soldering went well. He had the sockets and most other components done in about 3 hours.
(See last attachment)
I started building the Power Board after going over all of the metal and deburring and smoothing. Had a nice big Snap On soldering gun so the soldering of the vias went well and once I figured out the new mounting configuration of the heat spreadder (spacers instead of heat shrink on the mounting bolts . . . MUCH BETTER), I started mounting the mosfets and diodes. The process that Paul describes in the instructions works very well.
(See first attachment)
When final tightening the spring clamps on the mosfets and diodes, I had difficulty because the clamps kept turning before they were fully tightened. Getting these fully seated so the spring pressure presses the mosfet or diode to the heat spreadder is VERY important. Loose clamps will cause component overheating. (Blows up mosfets)
I came up with a method that works very well. Using a welding clamp, I suppose a small C Clamp will work as well, I squeezed the spring clamps down until they were fully seated then applied the Lock Tite and tightened the screws. This way there are NO loose clamps.
(See second attachment)
Found something that helps when doing the heavy soldering, having someone helping makes the job much easier. Darin and I did it this way, I held and positioned the board with one hand and applied/controlled the heat with the other, this left Darin free to position the solder to build the best puddle, and left me relaxed enough that I could pull solder up the pin to get a good joint to the pad.
From that point we attached the copper bars with the silver epoxy and brass bolts, installed and soldered in the caps, the copper braid and the 3 filter caps.
(See third attachment)
From there we mounted the gate resisters then attached the power board to the heat sink. Next I routed the resisters through the separator plate. We found that a bit of hot glue was handy to hold the standoffs in place while getting the resistors into place. I epoxied the current sensor and temperature sensor.
(See fourth attachment)
While I was doing that, Darin ran he circuit checks on the control board and then installed the chips to the sockets.
(See fifth attachment)
Finally we attached the controller board to the power board and soldered the gate resistors to the controller board we left a loop in the resistor leads in case we have to lift the board to unsolder a component to make a repair.
(See Sixth attachment)
After a bit of tidying up, we took the controller out to the garage and hooked it up to a 24 volt motor and WOO HOO it works.
At first the build seemed daunting but with the right skills it is fairly easy.
I'll have to say that I learned a bit doing this and have a much better understanding of what goes on in the controller now. Still incomplete but better
. Was it worth it . . . FOR SURE.
I've got a controller that is equivalent to something commercial that would cost twice as much, I now have more knowkledge and a sense of accomplishment. I can point at it and say I built that.
A final comment, I paid $600.00 to Paul and Sabrina's EV stuff for the kit. Considering what they have done to co-ordanate the development, do the research, maintain support and put together the kits I think it's worth it to support them.
I guess you can just order the boards and source the components yourself and build one for about half the price. I don't think it's worth it. The amount of time they have put into this makes what they charge well worth it for the efforts in developement and maintaining support and developement. The are also developing new stuff like a open source IGBT high current controller and an AC controller.
Anyway I now have a controller for my pulling tractor that will kick butt. RAAAY.
You all have a great New Year,
Jim
