VEC500 setting configuration

[Jocarte]

Hi,

My name is Joel im a new member in this forum and im bussy now with my electric car conversion project using 10kw 72v bldc motor and vec500 motor controller. I can acces the contoller using the PI800 software but there are some items in controller parameter setting that confuse me like acceleration rpm/s and deceleration rpm/s for the speed seting, starting phase current, max phase current and max rated current for current setting, rated battery voltage, over voltage protection value, over protection exit, lowest ollowable value, low voltage protection value, low voltage protection exir value,low battery voltage value and throttle zero position to clear under voltage for voltage setting. For those who have some ideas about vec500 controller setting configuration please I need some help.

Thanks,
Joel

[Bikemad]

Hi Joel andto the forum.

I haven't seen any information regarding programming the VEC500 controller so I suggest you send an email to David at GM China and ask him what the best settings should be for each of those parameters.

Some of the settings should be obvious, like the "Rated Battery Voltage". If you are using a 72V battery then simply select 72V from the drop-down menu.

I suspect that the "Battery Main current" will need to be adjusted to suit the maximum current that your battery can safely supply.

Alan
 

[Jocarte]

okay thank you Alan for your reply actually I already sent an email to David regarding the correct setting parameter of vec500 but until now I don't have any reply from him.By the way do you have any idea about this two set of wire harness for the foot throttle? because what I am using now is the set with 3 wires an I connect it to the controller but how about this remaining set with two wires in it is it only a spare or I should connect it also to the controller?

Regards,

Joel

[Bikemad]

Hi Joel, I seem to recall that some foot throttles also have a switch built in which is often used to prevent the contactor from being energised (and the controller from being powered up) if the throttle is already operated:



This switch could also be used to automatically apply regenerative braking (or electrodynamic braking) when the throttle was fully released.
These functions would require two extra wires, but I cannot see either function being utilised in any of the following diagrams:







I did however find these figures in the VEC Controller Guide:
     Model      Rated Voltage    Rated Current    Max Phase Current    
VEC500-48           48V                 200A                  500A                 
VEC500-72           72V                 150A                  500A                 
VEC500-96           96V                 120A                  450A             

Any chance we can see some pictures and have some more detailed information of your conversion?

Alan
 

[Jocarte]

Hi Alan,
actually I followed that wiring diagram with contactor that you posted above and there are still wire harness that is not connected yet and one of those is the one in foot throttle but I already made a test run first was not really good because the throttle was responding late and if I will push the throttle in maximum the motor will stop but when it start the motor is performing well I can feel it during the acceleration.This photos are the update of my ev conversion since I left in the Philippine last january and as soon as im back this march I will make some setting adjustment like throttle voltage I already ask David for that current & voltage settings and finalize the wirings connections with utility box.

[Nuxland]

Did you get it working?
I have simular problem with 10kw motor and vec500 and gm throttle.
Throttle does not change rpm in whole range. I do not have load yet and when I engage throttle it spins the motor from 20% of throttle and full speed is from 23% of throttle. Remaining range from 24% to 100% throttle is not used because it is full rpm.

As it is direct dorque driven controller then maybe it should act like this then there is no load?

[Jocarte]

Yes it is working but it seems to me that the motor is only woking in constant rpm because what im trying now is to adjust the starting phase current from 30a and now 200a and I notice the power output deffirence but still the motor is still running the same the only deffirence is I start very bad maybe because of a powerfull torque pushing my car and probably is not for the transmission in the long run.

[Nuxland]

I wanted to put Max battery current 500A, but program wount allow me to enter more that 300A.
Can somebody knows what these error messages mean and how can I enter 500A to my max battery current?

[Bikemad]

According to the Motor Controller Guide that controller won't be able to handle 500 Amps of battery current as it is only rated up to 200 Amps:

Main Technical Parameters And Operation Characteristics
Rated operation voltage 48V~96V
Rated DC BUS current 30A~200A
Rated output power 1000~10000W
Motor control mode FOC
Quiescent operation current 20~40mA
Speed limit Controlled by motor and configuration
Driving method Direct torque control

The 500 Amps is for the motor phase current not the battery supply current.
The phase current is much higher because it is only being delivered in short bursts rather than continuously.
Here is some information copied from the Motor Controller Guide:

     Model       Rated Voltage     Rated Current     Max Phase Current
VEC300-48            48V                  120A                    300A
VEC300-72            72V                  100A                    300A
VEC300-96            96V                    80A                    250A
VEC500-48            48V                  200A                    500A
VEC500-72            72V                  150A                    500A
VEC500-96            96V                  120A                    450A

Alan
 

[Nuxland]

Yeah, but 200A is continous current. And as my motor is 10kw 48V then 200x48=less than 10kw. But motor can handle up to 20kw for a short period of time.
For a 30 secs it should handle 400A to get 20kw. But right now pi800.exe lets me enter only 300A and not more. Some weird error pops up if I enter 301A

[Bikemad]

Although the motor is capable of handling up to 20kw I don't think that the VEC500 controller can deliver enough current to produce it.
I suspect the error message you are getting is simply telling you that the figure you have entered is outside the acceptable range (300 Amps being the maximum).

According to the HPC User Guide the HPC500H controller can handle a Peak Input Current (battery current) of 300 Amps @ 48V and delivers a Peak Output Current (phase current) of 600 Amps.

As the Maximum Phase Current (Peak Output Current) for the VEC500-48 is only 500 Amps instead of 600, I would expect the Battery Current to also be 16.6% lower (250 Amps), not the 33.3% higher (400 Amps) that you are expecting.

I can find nothing that states the VEC500 controller can (or will) produce 20kW of power.

Alan
 

[Nuxland]

Yes you are right, but they say that it is for their 10kw motor and that motor can be run at 20kw for short period of time
So my only option is to increase voltage....

Are VEC500 different versions 48/72/96 actually different in hardware or only in software?
I have bought 48V version but I want to upgrade my batterys to 72V,.
In configuration software I can not choose nothing else than 48V for “Rated Battery Voltage” as 48V is only choice in combobox.
And “Over-Voltage Protection Value” can not be set bigger that 75V.


If the hardware is same, then how can I set my controller to work with 72V battery?

[Nuxland]

Hey

Got answer from goldenmotor and they say the hardware is different. MosFet-s are different.
So my only option is increase voltage to 20S that is 60V as 75V seems to be limit in software.
And 60V nominal is actually ~72V when fully charged.

[Nuxland]

VEC500 has in a connections also pin 3 (speed limit) white wire.
Does anybody know what this pin will do? Is there something similar in VectorPie?
I would like to get some amps limiting when I'm driving and be able to boos to full amps when needed for 5 seconds.
In that case a could set 250A to battery limit and still drive with full throttle and 200A limit and have 250A just a button away.

Can this be also achived with limiting throttle output voltage from 4V to 3V with voltage divider and then have a switch that bypasses it?