Problems with VEC 500

[Mickwah]

Hi all — who likes a challenge...

1) What is meant by 16 beeps / flashes?
2) I have a VEC500 out of the vehicle and completely disconnected (no main power connected and no motor coils or hall sensors connected) — when I connect the USB programming lead between my computer and the VEC500 programming port, the controller LED flashes / beeps once, then short pause, then repeatedly flashes / beeps 16 times. Is this normal / expected? If not, does anyone know what it means?
3) I have a 48VDC system and are using the standard settings set other than I have the Starting Phase Current set to 200A, and the Maximum Phase Current set to 250A.  I need a strong starting torque, hence the increased Starting Phase Current (is this correct thinking?).  I am using the PI-800 utility to set up the motor controller.

I am in Hall-effect mode, and for my configuration I am using a microcontroller DAC (digital to analogue) output connected to the motor controller to control the output motor speed.  The DAC output range is 0.1V - 2.55V (min - max), and I have this connected between the throttle Ground (black) and Signal (green) wires.  The Red throttle wire is disconnected, as the DAC is already powered.  There is a common ground between the VEC500 and the microcontroller.

The issue I have now is that my vehicle will move for 1~3 meters (approximately 10-30 rotations of the motor) then stops suddenly and returns 14 beeps / LED flashes.  If I reduce the throttle input to minimum (0.1V) for a short pause and then increase again then the system briefly moves as expected before again halting after 1~3 meters of movement and again returns 14 beeps / flashes.  It does this in both forward and reverse directions.

I would very much appreciate some assistance in solving this riddle.

Mick

[Bikemad]

Hi Mick,

1) Unfortunately the 16 beeps/flashes is undocumented and I don't know what this indicates.

2) If you are not using a GM programming lead perhaps this could be the problem: 

7. When I connect the USB or Even Power the VEC300 by 79V the led blinks for 16times.

The problem is solved by using this connection:
CH340 Tx-> VEC300 Rx
CH340 Rx-> VEC300 Tx
CH340 3.3v-> VEC300 5v
CH340 GND-> VEC300 GND

The jumber on the CH340 makes connection between the Vcc->3.3V.
The wiring diagram is showing wrong information that the USB power pin must be connected to 5v but in actual case it must be connected to 3.3v.

3) I think that 14 beeps/flashes is connected with the throttle signal voltage (either out of range or too high when controller is initially powered up)

Try enabling the Throttle voltage range protection enable setting to see if it makes any difference.

The Throttle lowest allowed voltage (V) is usually slightly lower than the Throttle lower voltage fault exit value (V) so try lowering the Throttle lowest allowed voltage (V) to 0.1V.

You could also try increasing the stall protection time (s) and/or the Maximum phase current duration (s) to see if it makes any difference.

Try transposing the figures for the Rated phase current (A) and the Maximum phase current (A) as I would expect these to be the other way around.

Please note that the phase current can often be a lot higher than the battery drawn current. On the Magic Pie hubmotors the battery current is 25/30A max but the phase current goes up to 70A.

The Starting phase current (A) seems to be set a bit high, as the tooltip text implies that it is the minimum phase current that the controller can output.

You didn't mention which motor you are using but the Rated motor speed (rpm) of 7000 rpm seems to be a bit high, as the 5kW and 10kW GM motors are both rated at 3500 rpm with a maximum rpm @ 48V of around 4400~4750 rpm.

Try these suggestions and please let us know what happens.

Alan
 

[Apcerame]

I’m really new to VEC 500, but mine was blinking nonstop after downloading changes.  And then nothing would work till I physically disconnected the usb cable, and than cycled the power off/on. 

[Evolknuj]

I finally got a windows machine to run the programming software against my VEC300.  Took a while to get it working (the windows machine was a questionable quality at best chinese win/android tablet), so when I got the 16 beeps I thought I was screwed.  However, in my case it seems to have had no effect at all -- once I determined that COM3 was my tablet's usb port and that I had to click the button to the left of the COMx selector to connect, I was able to load the VEC300 settings, alter them, and push them to the VEC300 again.  I disconnected the tablet and reconnected it a few times to make sure the changes had "stuck", but it seemed to have worked.  The 16 beeps were repeated constantly while the tablet was connected, and were scary, but appear to be meaningless/harmless.  If I had to guess, I would say that the 16 beeps are the "USB is connected" indicator.

[Bikemad]

If I had to guess, I would say that the 16 beeps are the "USB is connected" indicator.

Perhaps the 16 beeps/flashes are simply an indication that the controller is in "Programming mode" instead of its normal "Run mode". 

Alan