Renewed vigour
Posted by Brian on Friday, June 15, 2012
A lot has been happening with the 944 since the last post around Christmas. Since then we got the car road-safe and legally on the street, and then had yet another controller blow up. Fun and busy times.
The controller seemed to suffer from over-heating despite the built-in thermal sensor. Once overheated it completely self-immolated itself, leaving only some black powder and a lot of molten metal.
Back into the garage, we took everything out again to re-design. We have since ordered and received the new Warp-Drive 1200A controller, complete with a liquid cooling kit. The disconnect switch is going to be re-worked, the contactor is going to be cooled, and some of the other mounting brackets are going to be tidied up a little.
Since the motor was out again to check for damage during the controller melt-down, we decided to upgrade the brushes to the Helwig Red-tops that are now standard with all Warp motors. They are getting bedded in as this is typed. New brushes make a lot of noise while initially setting! They have run for about 48 hours are at about half-way set. They are getting quieter and using less amperage each hour.
Posts should be rolling out frequently these days as we ramp up our work with renewed vigour. Counting down the days to the next EV Fest!
The controller seemed to suffer from over-heating despite the built-in thermal sensor. Once overheated it completely self-immolated itself, leaving only some black powder and a lot of molten metal.
Back into the garage, we took everything out again to re-design. We have since ordered and received the new Warp-Drive 1200A controller, complete with a liquid cooling kit. The disconnect switch is going to be re-worked, the contactor is going to be cooled, and some of the other mounting brackets are going to be tidied up a little.
Since the motor was out again to check for damage during the controller melt-down, we decided to upgrade the brushes to the Helwig Red-tops that are now standard with all Warp motors. They are getting bedded in as this is typed. New brushes make a lot of noise while initially setting! They have run for about 48 hours are at about half-way set. They are getting quieter and using less amperage each hour.
Posts should be rolling out frequently these days as we ramp up our work with renewed vigour. Counting down the days to the next EV Fest!