This was the completion of my first week of commuting to and from work. Over 50 miles round trip each day completed and I was anticipating writing this blog entry as I was driving home when
BANG!!! Something in the back sounded like a gunshot and the car died. I pulled over and got out to see what had happened. I immediately noticed the 250 amp circuit breaker was popped and thought maybe I exceeded 250 coming up the hill. (But why would it make the big noise?) I flipped the switch, got back in the car and turned everything on and got the "bat outta hell" broken controller syndrome. That's where the motor goes from 0 to 4K rpms in like no time flat. I quickly hit the two BIG RED disconnects and turned off the 12v power. Got out of the car again and took a look only to see....
Look at all that black soot! And the smell of something electrical having shorted. Yeah, this baby is dead as a doornail. Toasted to a crackly crunch.
It's not my fault!!! Really, most Kilovacs have managed to get fried one way or another, the manufacturer renamed themselves to Altrax and now they only do low voltage controllers. This one was rebuilt probably four years ago so I expected it to last forever. Looks like that didn't happen. So what's out there to buy?
Replacing a controller is easy. Having to dish out the loot for one is "not so much" easy. There are some great "kick ass" ones for thousands of dollars and there are some crappy ones for over a thousand bucks. There's also this Open Revolt 144V 500 amp controller that a guy makes for you at $700 bucks but you have to wait a couple weeks. I would have to eliminate a couple batteries from my pack to slim down to 144V nominal. Hmmmmmm, let me think over night about this and I'll have to talk with my wifey too. : )
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