What about AC motor controllers?You really can’t buy an AC motor controller separately
without knowing your motor. They come as a unit in almost
all cases.
Many suppliers of kits will provide you with the AC motor
controller that they have tested and works with their system
which has some serious advantages for you. You know it
works without testing.
They have mostly designed it to take the regenerative energy
out of the braking to be used in charging the batteries for
you, a great advantage for your system.
This saves on wearing out your brakes and it gives you peace
of mind that your system will perform well.
I really think the future will be in the AC designs but for now
we are using the DC for the various reasons already outlined.
For our own vehicle conversion we are using a Zilla 1500
amp unit, which is shown in the picture above in the DC
motor controller section.
It is rated for over 150 volts and it works well. It is a bit large
for our little Toyota car application but we really wanted to
prove that a range of 200 miles was possible with an electric
car.
It is kind of neat that the unit is water cooled and runs a very
small water pump to circulate the fluid. It requires a
radiator, just a small transmission rad works well.