Re: (ET) E15 Traction motor pulley

[dave maize <daize frontiernet net>]

On 31 Aug 2009 at 17:35, daize frontiernet net wrote:

> Since I switched to an Alltrax controller on my E15, the top speed is 
less
> than I would like (about 3mph).Has anyone  tried a slightly larger 
diameter
> pulley on the traction motor to increase speed ?

The Alltrax has a "turbo" setting in the configuration menu which (IIRC)
allows you more zoom at full pedal.  Have you tried turning that on?  It'd
be easier than switching the pulley, I'd think.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA

By chance, the E15 that I have was bought from Damon Crockett, who 
designed the Alltrax controller.  Here's what he says about the turbo setting -

Turbo lets the motor spin up faster by reducing the field current at
lower armature currents.  It does this by switching to a different field 
map
when the throttle goes wide open. The field map however needs to return to
higher field amps (just like the normal field map) as motor armature 
current
goes past 150 amps.  I don't recall how the motor behaved on the Turbo map
that is loaded into the controller now - does it go too fast, or seem to
pull excessive battery current for the speed it's going when Wide Open?  My
concern would be that we don't want to underexcite the motor and cause it 
to
overheat.
Some casual operation of it with Turbo enabled won't hurt the motor and 
will
reveal a few things.  Go climb a grade with it, not just flat ground.  If
there's brush arcing, more than 50% more battery amps being pulled -vs-
non-turbo mode when in same operating condition, or overheating on the 
brush
end of the motor, that would be reason to craft a different field map.