How
to Hook up to the Open Revolt for DUMMIES
(Written by a dummy, so this
authentic) I hope this saves someone out there a lot of pain and agony, like I went through.
First, you'll need a laptop. If that
laptop has a RS232 connector then you're probably using an older
computer. That is good. If it ONLY has USB ports then it's newer
and probably runs Windows 7 like mine. This, as I found, complicates
matters. This article deals mostly with the newer, USB based
computer.
Next you'll need a cable. A USB to
RS232 (or DB9) cable. There are many places to buy one. I found
mine at a local computer store for about $20. Amazon.com sells them
for about $15.
To go with that cable, you'll need a
driver software. My cable came with a disc that had a lot of
acronyms I didn't understand. Nothing said RS232. I read on the
internet where some of these drivers weren't working anyway. So I
did my own search on the internet to find an easy plug and play
driver. Like anything is Easy?!!
To make a long story short, many
companies that sell cables have some sort of PROLITHIC brand driver
out there that they sell with their cable. They are NOT all the
same. After 5 hours of install/uninstall/test/Code 10 errors/why the
@#$% isn't this working??????, and seeing the same version of
PROLITHIC over and over again, I found this site:
http://www.usbfirewire.com/parts/rr-usb-017.html
This is a different version of the same
driver and the first time installed, IT WORKED. This is where the
bells are ringing, the angels are singing and the trial of driver
install is over. I raise my hands to the heavens and shout, “Thank
you, Lord!”
Back to the dummie part. You need to
download and install the application RTD Explorer to your computer.
I had no problem with this part. You can find it here:
http://www.evvette.com/EVVette.com/RTD_Explorer.html
At this point, there's a video on how
to use the RTD Explorer and it is found here:
This is a good step by step guide of
how to use the software. Pay close attention to how he types in the
commands, you'll have to view full screen and notice you don't type
commands into the black area, but you use the text box underneath the
black area. But you might be wondering, what does Ki or CRR mean?
There's a good discussion found here:
You can also see how some people, based
on their vehicles, changed their settings by looking at this:
The main point here is your vehicle
will probably be different that others. Mine is. Setting the
correct throttle numbers is important to get the type of response I
want. When I took a test drive after connecting the controller, it
was sluggish and cut out on me when I tried to do 55 mph. NOT GOOD.
The beauty of this controller is it's designed to be adapted to any
electric vehicle at a great price.You should look at what others have
used for their settings, and use something similar to your car then
go from there.
Next, I put the rear of my car on jacks
and had my wife sit in the car so I could see what's happening on the
laptop. The cable I first bought was only 3 feet long, I later figured out I could buy a 25 foot long RS232 male to female cable for $7 and hook that to my 3 foot USB cord. Then I could do this myself
while sitting in the car. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND you do this WHILE
DRIVING. Talk about distracted driver looking to get a ticket or get
into an accident. Just say NO. Therefore, I had my wife come with me, after a little on the job training she was able to tell me what was happening.
NOTE: Keep the RS232 cable as far away from the battery cables and battery pack as possible to avoid electronic interference.
NOTE: Keep the RS232 cable as far away from the battery cables and battery pack as possible to avoid electronic interference.
To connect your laptop to your
controller follow these steps:
- Start the car by turning on the pre-charger, after 8 seconds you should hear a click from the controller. Turn off the pre-charger.
- Start/open the RTD Explorer software on your computer.
- Connect the USB end of your cable to the computer. Look to see if the computer is installing the driver. This happened to me several times before the computer stopped doing this. If this does happen, wait for it to completely install. You can check to see if there's a problem by going to Start>Control Panel>Device Manager>see if there are any yellow triangles with an !, (that's bad.) Hopefully you won't.
- Connect the 9 pin end of the cable to the RS232 outlet on the controller. (Be careful not to touch any of the high voltage wires) My cable had built in screws as part of the cable, I removed them to get a solid connection.
- Hopefully you saw the COM# that was attached to your driver. When mine was installed it said COM15. (You can also see this by going to Start, then Control Panel, then Device Manager, then look for your communication port, open it and see the number assigned) Go to the COMMUNICATION tab at the top right of the screen. Click and choose COM PORT then “other” and type in the number of your COM and click OK. Now go back to the COMMUNICATION tab and choose “connect.” The little green light on the bottom middle should start blinking and the Black box area should start to show some text. All of your current settings should appear.
To Change a setting:
1. To change a setting, you must type the command into the text box
below the Black area. If I want to change the Ki setting to 20, I
type in ki 20 and hit enter. The black area acknowledges what I did.
I must now save it to the EE. So I type save and it does that. To
see that the change has taken place, I type in config and all the
settings are displayed in the black area. I should now see that Ki
setting is 20 like I typed in.
- To see all the commands, they are listed under the HELP tab at the top middle of the menu bar, then choose command list.
You'll need to change your throttle
setting.
I had my wife place the car out of
gear and hit the accelerator all the way down briefly. The max
number in the upper right hand corner read 718. So I changed the
setting by typing in t-max-rc 720, then I saved and typed in config
just to make sure the change happened. The min throttle setting was
400, when my wife's foot was off the pedal, it read 000, so I changed
that by typing in t-min-rc 110 and once again hit save and config. I
love it when a plan comes together!
(Note: this lead to a High Throttle Lockout for me. Maybe I typed it in wrong? Either way, proceed with caution!)
(Note: this lead to a High Throttle Lockout for me. Maybe I typed it in wrong? Either way, proceed with caution!)
Overall Settings
(This is based on my Bradley GT
II, 144V, 100 AH Lithium Batts, 2,000 lbs gross??)
Kp 2 Ki 11 t-pos-gain 17
t-pmw-gain 0 c-rr 6 t-min-rc 110 t-max -rc 720
(Note: I ended up going back to the defaults, then everything worked fine.)
(Note: I ended up going back to the defaults, then everything worked fine.)
Finally, I took it for a test drive. I
went about 8 miles and am pleased with the response of the
controller. My previous Kilovac controller always had a jerk when
you pressed down on the accelerator, then it would get sluggish as it
gained speed. The Open Revolt is very smooth. I took it on the
highway at 55 mph with no problems.
The only problem I do anticipate is 178
amps is the most I can draw while climbing a hill, and I have a lot
of hills. That's my next test.
