Thursday, July 5, 2012

Overheating Open Revolt Controller

So I finally got the RTD Explorer to work while driving.  The first time I had put the 25 foot RS232 cable next to the battery cables, this lead to the connection to the laptop cutting out.  I couldn't get a constant reading on what was happening while I was driving.  My wife was watching the computer while I drove and she said it kept "stopping", meaning the graphs weren't displaying.  I would stop, restart the connection and sometimes the controller.

Once I moved the cord as far away from the battery cables and pack, the RTD Explorer worked like a charm.  But what I did notice was the heatsink temp was at 600 after about 5 minutes of driving.  FYI - outside temp was 75 degrees.  I don't know what the 600 translates to in actual temperature but then when I tried to climb a hill it rose to 700 and then the yellow Overtemp fault light came on.  This lead to my amps being cut to 60 and below.  By the way, I have the Revolt controller sitting on a heatsink fin and there's a fan underneath to help disperse the heat.

Hmmmmm.....what this controller needs is a way to really cool off.  I saw on the EV West EV site where they created a "chill plate" for a new Curtis controller.  It attaches to the bottom and then you add the pump, radiator, reservoir and hose.  What a great idea.  Maybe someone should come up that idea for all controllers that don't have a built in water cooling system.


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