My boat conversion from diesel to el.

[Bikemad]

Hi Björn,

Could it be that the controller and/or the motor is getting hot and this is automatically reducing the power?

Have you checked to see if either of them are getting excessively warm after continuous use?

Alan

[BjornO]

Hi Alan,

They do not become very hot. I will measure the temperature next time. It occures after just a couple of minutes at moderate speed.

It is strange that the speed is resumed when I move the trottle lever a bit towards higher speed.  Maybe it is the throttle potentiometer, I will try a multi-position switch with a resistor ladder later.

Björn

[Bikemad]

If you're able to easily measure the throttle voltages it would be interesting to see if the +5V and/or the throttle signal voltages drop slightly when the motor speed decreases.

Alan
 

[BjornO]

OK, I will try to measure the voltages. I just need to take the throttle apart to access them.

Björn

[BjornO]

I have been running today with high load, measuring temperatures and voltages. The speed was stable, so the previous speed change is still to be investigated.
The 5V voltage is stable at 4.5-4.6V.
The throttle voltage was 2V when standing still, 3.2V at normal speed, 3.5V at max speed and 1.9V at normal reverse speed.
The motor temperature went up to 45?C, and the controller 90?C. The ambient temperature was 28?C at start, but went up to over 30?C during the test.
I will test with a throttle consisting of a 12 position switch and fixed resistors instead of the potentiometer, as this will be more stable.

[BjornO]

Hi, another year has passed, and I an working on some upgrades.
The rotary switch with fixed resistors works fine, so the problem was probably the potentiometer and the salty environment.
I have 5 positions forward and 3 backwards. I have set the acceleration/decceleration to 600.
When I go from a forward or reverse position to neutral, the boat does not stop, and the prop will continue rotating so with a normal diesel I use the reverse to brake. When docking, I need to be able to switch more quickly between forward and reverse.
How low can the acceleration/decceleration be set? Does the controller brake the movement or just freewheel?

[Bikemad]

Hi Björn,

The motor will continue to rotate (if the water is moving fast enough through the propeller blades) when the throttle is placed in the "Neutral" position while the boat is still moving unless the brake is also activated when the throttle is in the Neutral position. However, this would still produce the annoying 15 beep error code when in Neutral.

As I don't have any way of testing the different functions I can see in the programming software, I'm not sure how they are supposed to work, but it might be worth setting the Enable EBS Auto-Mode to 1:Enable and then set the EBS Auto_Mode Speed (rpm) to your maximum motor RPM and then see if there is any braking effect from the prop when the throttle is reduced while the boat is moving.
Unfortunately, I don't know whether the Auto EBS (regenerative braking effect) would be activated instantly or whether there would be a noticeable delay.

I would also set the Acceleration (rpm/s) and Deceleration (rpm/s) as high as possible to see if you can achieve a faster motor response when changing direction.
The acceptable range indicated in the software is 50~1200, but I’m not sure if the controller will actually accept a setting of 1200.

If your rotary switch contacts are "break before make" type, I don't know what voltage the throttle signal wire defaults to when the contacts are open between throttle setting changes. If the throttle voltage momentarily goes outside the working throttle range, I'm wondering whether it may cause a delay. 

Ideally the throttle signal voltage should default to ~2V if the circuit is momentarily disconnected between the different throttle setting positions on your rotary switch with your particular throttle setup. You should be able to use a 10k trimpot wired in parallel with your throttle and then adjust it to give the required ~2V default throttle signal voltage:

Once correctly adjusted, this could be completely sealed with silicone or epoxy to protect against salt water ingress.

Please let me know if enabling the Auto EBS slows the boat as hoped when the throttle is moved to Neutral.

Alan
 

[BjornO]

Hi Alan and thank you for the answer,

Unfortunately I can not test new settings until launch in may, but I have fetched the controller from the boat to be able to set the parameters at home.

I have tried out various values, and set the maximum values that are accepted by the controller. These are the new settings:
Acceleration: 800
Deceleration: 800
EBS Auto_Mode: 1:Enable
EBS Auto_Mode Speed: 1000

The rotary switch is ”make before break”, so the voltage should not go outside the range.

After launch I will test the new settings. Maybe I have to momentarily activate the brake signal when going between forward and reverse.

Björn

[BjornO]

These are all my settings. Maybe someone has any suggestions on changes.