Thursday, September 25, 2008

Latest data - don't go below 400A motor current!

I haven't had much time to spend calibrating recently, but I did run Electro around yesterday on significantly lower settings for motor voltage and current. The settings do work, in fact, I managed to set the current TOO low! I had it at 400A max motor current to start, and as many know, current equates to motor torque. I have hills in my neighborhood, and I purposely wanted to see how Electro handled a steeper hill on lower current. It could not do it for lack of torque! It was pretty weird, changing settings via my laptop while stopped on a hill, and then starting up the hill again! Suffice it to say, it seems that ~500A is probably where the 'mild-mannered' max current should be set to allow reasonable hill travel. I also had max motor voltage down to 110V, and did notice that max speed was affected. No distance data yet, stay tuned.

With Fall upon us, I have been also working on weatherproofing Electro in the garage when I have time. Top priority: replace the leaky roof, which is in terrible shape!

No comments: