New Motenergy ME1616 Motor installed
After a lot of consideration, the old ME1306 has been upgraded to a ME1616 LINK. This new water-cooled motor with Sin/Cos encoding brings a smoother, quieter drive, more power, and with water cooling, an elimination of over-heating concerns. It was directly compatible with the existing Sevcon Gen 4 Size 4 80v controller.
Top modifications required:
- Small cut-out in the frame with subsequent reinforcement for 2-inch larger motor
- Adding a glycol/water cooling system for the motor and controller. this included a radiator, fan, and coolant reservoir. All straightforward, but required a range of brass fittings to adapt the different hose sizes to shoehorn the components into the constrained engine compartment.
- New Sevcon Configuration DCF settings - This has required extensive trial-and-error to dial-in the settings. The system is working about 95% now. Still needs more tuning for high-torque situations. DCF file available here LINK
Top teachings:
1) The inductance setting is important and the spec for this motor is very broad.
2) Gains require precise adjustments to avoid current errors under heavy acceleration.
3) Field weakening is important and produces a noticeable improvement in mid-RPM range torque.
4) Without a Dynamometer, tuning is a slow process.
