Got the drive motor wiring redone, and checked all of the connections on the reversing contactor. Everything seems to match what's laid out in the wiring diagram.
The speed controller is, maybe, responding to throttle signals. A voltmeter reading between the M- lead on the motor controller and the ground terminal shows 0v with no throttle input, and 3.1 v after a certain threshold. According to support at Kelly Controller, this is standard behavior in order to get the motor spinning. Presumably, it will start producing a proper signal when current starts flowing - I'm not sure I can/will source a resistor capable of faking being a motor, so it might just be a hook it up and see what happens situation.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Electronics Update
Checked all of the wiring today and a lot of things look good. However, two problems showed up.
1. Turns out I misinterpreted the manual (or, more likely, the manual was incorrect), but the controller will not accept a 0-5V throttle without being reconfigured. I had mentioned in a previous post that I couldn't get configuration to work. Fortunately, I had a 0-10k pot on hand to test, and things seem okay. Unfortunately, I have to buy a 0-5k throttle.
2. I'm not getting the proper voltages at the motor leads. My assumption now is that I messed up wiring the H-Bridge, but I will do further testing next week.
1. Turns out I misinterpreted the manual (or, more likely, the manual was incorrect), but the controller will not accept a 0-5V throttle without being reconfigured. I had mentioned in a previous post that I couldn't get configuration to work. Fortunately, I had a 0-10k pot on hand to test, and things seem okay. Unfortunately, I have to buy a 0-5k throttle.
2. I'm not getting the proper voltages at the motor leads. My assumption now is that I messed up wiring the H-Bridge, but I will do further testing next week.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Cable management is for posers
I replaced the throttle pedal with one known to work with my controller. It still needs to be mounted, but the wiring is identical, so it was just plug and play from that perspective. It, unfortunately, feels a quite a bit cheaper than the VW accelerator I was originally planning to use.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
8/23
News for this weekend:
I bought a new welding helmet, since my old one stopped darkening. It was unpleasant.
Motor is mounted, at least to some extent. I would like to get the vehicle up on a lift to finish up welds on the underside, but this will have to do for now. I have also got the electronics panel (containing the ESC, the reversing contactor, and the main contactor) located in the rear of the vehicle, though I didn't have long enough screws to tighten it down. And, of course, the plate will need to be cut to actually fit within the final vehicle.
Two issues with the chain. First, I neglected to order the proper connecting link, so the chain isn't so much a closed loop as it is a loose collection of links that will fall apart at the slightest vibration. Oops.
There is also a clearance issue with one of the bolts. We'll see if this is still an issue when the vehicle is properly loaded down, but it should just be a matter of adding a countersink or counterbore to the mount. No big deal regardless.
Also, WIRES! All of the heavy gauge wiring is complete, so the next steps are the lower gauge control wires. I still need to order a new throttle to play nicely with the controller, but my bank account is advising me to push that purchase back just a hair.
I bought a new welding helmet, since my old one stopped darkening. It was unpleasant.
Motor is mounted, at least to some extent. I would like to get the vehicle up on a lift to finish up welds on the underside, but this will have to do for now. I have also got the electronics panel (containing the ESC, the reversing contactor, and the main contactor) located in the rear of the vehicle, though I didn't have long enough screws to tighten it down. And, of course, the plate will need to be cut to actually fit within the final vehicle.
Two issues with the chain. First, I neglected to order the proper connecting link, so the chain isn't so much a closed loop as it is a loose collection of links that will fall apart at the slightest vibration. Oops.
There is also a clearance issue with one of the bolts. We'll see if this is still an issue when the vehicle is properly loaded down, but it should just be a matter of adding a countersink or counterbore to the mount. No big deal regardless.
Also, WIRES! All of the heavy gauge wiring is complete, so the next steps are the lower gauge control wires. I still need to order a new throttle to play nicely with the controller, but my bank account is advising me to push that purchase back just a hair.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Motor Mounting
Work continues slowly and steadily.
The motor is positioned and the mounting subframe is welded - I needed an extra assembly to do two things:
1. Provide support for the motor mount itself.
B. Elevate the motor ~2", to line the center of the motor up with the center of the rear swingarm. If this hadn't been done, the chain would have been riding the chain guide pretty hard.
That said, the subframe needs to be mounted to the frame, and the bracketing that holds the motor needs to be mounted to the subframe. Though at least now we can kind of see how things are going to line up:
The motor is positioned and the mounting subframe is welded - I needed an extra assembly to do two things:
1. Provide support for the motor mount itself.
B. Elevate the motor ~2", to line the center of the motor up with the center of the rear swingarm. If this hadn't been done, the chain would have been riding the chain guide pretty hard.
That said, the subframe needs to be mounted to the frame, and the bracketing that holds the motor needs to be mounted to the subframe. Though at least now we can kind of see how things are going to line up:
Sunday, August 9, 2015
A productive weekend!
So perhaps in direct response to the negativity of last week, fate has bestowed upon me a weekend that was quite productive.
First, after looking around a little bit, I decided it would be worthwhile to just order a more compatible accelerator instead of replacing the ESC. Probably about $400 in savings.
Next - the CNC mill.
Just by stroke of luck, woot was having a sale last week on scratch and dent computers. Since the computer that ran everything previously was ~10 years old, and all I needed was a PCI slot for a parallel port. After swapping hard drives with my main computer (because I wasn't going to pass up a "free" windows 7 installation), ordering and installing a pci-parallel port card, installing a new OS, and changing a few parameters, things were good to go.
Cutting:
The cut out motor mounts, still in need of some grinder love (not grindr love, which is a completely different thing):
I know more or less how the assembly is going to go together, based on experience in my senior design project (of all things). Will be ordering things from mcmaster, and busting out the welder next weekend.
Next, I pulled the sprocket off the rear wheel. Which sounds like it would be easy, but it's wasn't. But you know what they say: when life gives you lemons, get a bigger breaker bar (and shittons of WD40).
Success!
There was, however, one casualty.
RIP Harbor Freight Special ratchet. 2011-2015. You will be missed. (I think I popped out the ratcheting mechanism somehow, but I used my terrible wrench for a reason)
And finally, WIRING.
Not too much to report here - handled the heavy gauge stuff this weekend, and all of the loose ends are meant to be connected to either power or the motor.
SUPER BLURRY WIRING PIC!
Gee, I sure am glad I paid extra for the insulated connectors:
First, after looking around a little bit, I decided it would be worthwhile to just order a more compatible accelerator instead of replacing the ESC. Probably about $400 in savings.
Next - the CNC mill.
Just by stroke of luck, woot was having a sale last week on scratch and dent computers. Since the computer that ran everything previously was ~10 years old, and all I needed was a PCI slot for a parallel port. After swapping hard drives with my main computer (because I wasn't going to pass up a "free" windows 7 installation), ordering and installing a pci-parallel port card, installing a new OS, and changing a few parameters, things were good to go.
Cutting:
Next, I pulled the sprocket off the rear wheel. Which sounds like it would be easy, but it's wasn't. But you know what they say: when life gives you lemons, get a bigger breaker bar (and shittons of WD40).
RIP Harbor Freight Special ratchet. 2011-2015. You will be missed. (I think I popped out the ratcheting mechanism somehow, but I used my terrible wrench for a reason)
And finally, WIRING.
Not too much to report here - handled the heavy gauge stuff this weekend, and all of the loose ends are meant to be connected to either power or the motor.
SUPER BLURRY WIRING PIC!
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Bad News All Around
So I've been meaning to post, and make lots of progress, but clearly neither of those things have happened.
1. The CNC mill is still not operational, because it operates off of this archaic thing called a "parallel port." I attempted to run a usb-parallel converter after installing linuxCNC on my Rose laptop. This was entirely unsuccessful. It's looking like I may have to build a new computer with a parallel port card, or try to order one from Sherline. Either way, costly. I could also just buy a bandsaw and do it more by hand. But where's the fun in that?
2. The controller I ordered at the beginning of this project needed to be reconfigured to adjust the voltage input (and maybe set to use voltage in instead of resistance). Regardless after going through the ridiculous act of buying a DB9-DB9 converter from China (I guess they just didn't put the pins in the right order when they made the board), and emailing support to get the configuration software for the (now obsolete) controller, it wouldn't connect. After asking for the correct baudrate, and trying compatibility mode, I still got a nondescript failure to connect error. Tech support, while responsive, didn't actually help, and suggested that the RS232 chip might be bad and I should just buy another controller.
I might be able to figure something out. Or I could just buy another controller. From someone else, clearly.
1. The CNC mill is still not operational, because it operates off of this archaic thing called a "parallel port." I attempted to run a usb-parallel converter after installing linuxCNC on my Rose laptop. This was entirely unsuccessful. It's looking like I may have to build a new computer with a parallel port card, or try to order one from Sherline. Either way, costly. I could also just buy a bandsaw and do it more by hand. But where's the fun in that?
2. The controller I ordered at the beginning of this project needed to be reconfigured to adjust the voltage input (and maybe set to use voltage in instead of resistance). Regardless after going through the ridiculous act of buying a DB9-DB9 converter from China (I guess they just didn't put the pins in the right order when they made the board), and emailing support to get the configuration software for the (now obsolete) controller, it wouldn't connect. After asking for the correct baudrate, and trying compatibility mode, I still got a nondescript failure to connect error. Tech support, while responsive, didn't actually help, and suggested that the RS232 chip might be bad and I should just buy another controller.
I might be able to figure something out. Or I could just buy another controller. From someone else, clearly.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Grad School, Nerdsniping, and things
So grad school is effectively done for me, which hopefully means I can put a lot more time towards this project. And I'll drag Daniel along for the ride, because he doesn't do his homework until the end of the semester, anyway.
I've been organizing, ordering, and checking my bank account, and actual work is finally starting to get done. This weekend I spent some time with the drawings to get the signal connections set up for the motor control (manual/diagrams are available on the google drive, for anyone who has access). The controller was bolted to the electronics plate, but I won't mount that plate until the motor is mounted. The reversing contactor still needs to be wired.
Much of this weekend's progress can be chalked up to the valiant efforts of Aaron Bamberger (AKA I nerd-sniped him) who helped me reverse engineer the circuit in the VW accelerator pedal I have. Despite some initial doubts, it will be usable, providing a linearly scaled voltage range from 0.7 to 4.6v. Some reconfiguration of the controller will be required.
I've been organizing, ordering, and checking my bank account, and actual work is finally starting to get done. This weekend I spent some time with the drawings to get the signal connections set up for the motor control (manual/diagrams are available on the google drive, for anyone who has access). The controller was bolted to the electronics plate, but I won't mount that plate until the motor is mounted. The reversing contactor still needs to be wired.
Much of this weekend's progress can be chalked up to the valiant efforts of Aaron Bamberger (AKA I nerd-sniped him) who helped me reverse engineer the circuit in the VW accelerator pedal I have. Despite some initial doubts, it will be usable, providing a linearly scaled voltage range from 0.7 to 4.6v. Some reconfiguration of the controller will be required.
After this, it was just a matter of connectorizing the correct wires and running them along the body of the vehicle. A revision will be done before the system is "done", but this will get me through early testing.
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