http://www.emotorwerks.com/
The open source charger is based on Arduino microprocessor. Details about the charger design can be found at DIY electric forum.
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59210
and here
http://www.emotorwerks.com/VMcharger_V12P/
I ended up scavenging a box from an old dead laser power supply. The inductors are mounted with 2" pipe hangers from ace hardware, with a strip of HDPE (from an old cutting board) underneath. I opted to use a contactor with 200 ohm pre-charge resistor at the input. If you decide to use a coil relay be sure to put a suppression diode. Otherwise you will kill the BJT driver. Ask me how I know.
All in all the kit was pretty complicated to assemble, mostly due to the lack of instructions (which have been vastly improved since I undertook the project). I went slowly and tried check everything at each stage of the build process.
I still managed to solder one of the capacitors backwards on the driver board, but fortunately caught my mistake quickly (while testing with 12V only) and therefore I only had to replace the one capacitor.
The PFC input worked perfectly, boosting the input voltage to approximately 375V
The first test of the charger was a success running on 120V AC I was able to deliver 1.4kW to the electric load used for testing. Next step is to find a 240V outlet to test full power 10kW.
Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteSuccess on ther first attempt, Impressive.
What did you use as your "electric load"?
I am building the same kit, Non-Pfc UK 220V AC version, for my Honda Beat conversion.
Graham
2nd attempt actually, I blew one of the 15V capacitors on the driver board the first time ;-).
ReplyDeleteI used a lead acid battery cycler (Bitrode LCV 100A / 200V unit) at work. I think the standard water heater coil and a 5 gallon paint bucket full of water should be sufficient for basic testing though. I just ended up using what I had access too, since I didn't have a clamp meter to measure current hand this also allowed me to verify the current.
5 kw* 1000 (J/Kw s) *1200 s/(( 4000 (J / kg K))*20kg water) = 75 deg K
so you should be able to apply full power for about 10 mins before starting to boil the bucket of water using something like this
http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-9000092-045-Screw-Flange-Element/dp/B000DZHAQO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333343402&sr=8-1
Success on the 2nd attempt is still impressive are you an electronic engineer by trade?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, I am hopefully not far away from actualy testing this thing. just heatsink drilling/mounting, and low voltage wireing to do, I am awaiting a reply from valery on the differences with the UK version, It is much simpler by the look of it than the US version due to no requirement to double the voltage, and because I went for the non-pfc version.
Looking forward to making a nice bucket of tea with all that boiled water ;-)
Graham