"I beg to differ. Most of the early battery chargers and controllers were built with generic parts that are still widely available. There was little or no software in the way, as they didn't *have* microcomputers running them. Schematics can usually be found quite easily on the web, either in the old service manuals or ones that someone has reverse-engineered and posted."
Lee, you are correct; however, the early BC and controllers were inefficient and would not be acceptable for a present day EV conversion. Same applies to the GE EV1 controller. My comment concerned the low value of a 10 year old DC EV conversion and the difficulty in maintaining the system. As to easy of troubleshooting an older EV just read the on going discussion "Slow due to 96V pack". This system was used on a lot of early EV conversions and the knowledge base is still limited and conflicted. It has been and still is my opinion that someone needs to design an open source PFC battery charger and 200KW motor controller with direct torque control. I have always felt the EAA should have sponsored and supported a technical group for this purpose. I started working with the EV group about 15 years ago. No production EV was available. The only choose was a conversion. EV equipment was limited and many people like you developed some equipment; however, national support was limited and no central repository for documentation was available. In my opinion, this has hurt/killed the EV conversion market. As a compliment to you and others who developed early EV equipment, we all thank you. However, the big boys (car companies) have won. ________________________________ From: EV <ev-boun...@lists.evdl.org> on behalf of Lee Hart via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2017 4:34 PM To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List Cc: Lee Hart Subject: Re: [EVDL] Two EV's to Donate From: ROBERT via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> >"You can actually work on them yourself, without having to fight some >automaker's proprietary security stuff." That said; however, on older >conversions and on most conversions the conversion documentation is very weak >and documentation on the individual components is limited or non-exist. Many >companies that made battery chargers, motor controllers, meter, and other >electronic devices had limited documentation or proprietary documentation and >never a schematic or software source code. I would rather hack a production >EV product than reverse engineer or troubleshoot a product from a company that >was out of business. A good example is the original EV1 hardware. Try to >work on that stuff. Its value is nil. I beg to differ. Most of the early battery chargers and controllers were built with generic parts that are still widely available. There was little or no software in the way, as they didn't *have* microcomputers running them. Schematics can usually be found quite easily on the web, either in the old service manuals or ones that someone has reverse-engineered and posted. If by "EV1" you mean the GM EV1 electric car, then you're right; its controller, charger, and associated systems are essentially undocumented and unfixable -- just the way GM wanted it. But if you mean the GE EV1 EV controllers, they are eminently repairable and hackable. Full service manuals with schematics are available. Virtually every part can be easily replaced with basic tools. There is *no* software to get in the way. I would much rather fix a Curtis 1231 EV controller than a GM Dolphin controller. -- Excellence does not require perfection. -- Henry James -- Lee A. Hart http://www.sunrise-ev.com____________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20170913/8714915c/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
