Re: (ET) E20 down, only one speed forward

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

David Roden wrote:
> I stopped having these kind of problems - and headaches with those flaky 
> little connectors GE used on the card edge - when I put a modern (well, late 
> '90s era anyway) transistor controller in my ET.  

True, there is that option, and to be honest it makes the Elec-Trak a 
lot more survivable than say my US Electricar Prizm. If that controller 
fails either we fix it or you have a large rock in your driveway.

That said, the thing that is annoying me about the Elec-Trak is the same 
thing that annoys me about the Prizm: Both controllers do not have 
proper fuses.

On the E20 there is a "fuse" for the controller circuitry, however it's 
rating is much too high for the circuits on the control boards. As a 
result if a component shorts you don't blow the fuse, you blow traces 
and the like. Very annoying. On the other hand this is a single-layer 
board, and is as dull as dirt to fix. Assuming I can find out the part 
numbers for the transistors.

That said, it looks like the smaller diodes are starting to die. The 
bigger ones for the field control have all been replaced, guess I need 
to get some smaller ones from Radio shack now.

Chris