Saturday, October 12, 2013

Motor Driver

Here's my planned motor controller. I've tested it without the gate driver and relays installed, so hopefully it'll work.

The HCPL3120 also optically isolates the gate of the IGBT from the microcontroller IO. It's basically a half h-bridge that can drive up to 2.5 Amps to quickly charge and discharge the capacitive IGBT gate.

The precharge relay is used to slowly charge the large capacitance across the 48 volt battery bank, avoiding a large current rush into the caps. This is easier on the main power switch as well. I haven't decided whether to use a main relay or just a large mechanical switch. I like the idea of a big red button.


The IGBT will have a 3 volt drop across it, and at 100 amps will need to dissipate ~300 Watts worst case. I'll mount the IGBT inside an ammunition can with the heat sink on the outside.


1 comment:

  1. Did you finish the electric motorcycle? What were the results and performance?

    I am using the same motor for an electric ice boat. Like to find out, how your project turned out.

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