Ideal Controller

This project is purely virtual. What would I do if I built a controller.

Features

Battery Voltage

Obviously should support 72+, possibly even 200+ volts

Motor

Starting 5kW and up to 40kW

Motorbike Features

• Indicators - Use accelerometer to help auto cancel
• Brake lights
  • Brakes engaged

Lock movement

• Hill lock - on stop, not pressing reverse, or holding brake, stop roll backwards using the motor.
• Lock for parking

Emergency Features

• Limp mode battery - adjustable amount remaining
• Lights and Indicators/Emergency flashes must be almost always availble
  • Could be done with very low power (since LED lights)
  • Or with a separate backup small battery

Brakes

These could be outside of scope of controller but ABS

Alarm

• Motion sensor
• Wheel lock - electrically lock wheel rotating
  • Could be done not fully, like a parking lock, or when movement is detected
  • Shorting the phases on the hub motor works well
  • But many controllers do not allow shorting easily.

Battery Management

• Volts - clearly
• Amps - both out and in the charger

Regenrative Braking

It is useful and relatively simple.

Display

• Configurable widgets
• Some examples:
  • Speed
  • Accelerator position (how hard you pulling)

Architecture

Ideally split components into sections that are reusable.

Main parts:

• Battery Power convert
  • Convert power to lower power for controllers and lights etc
  • Indipendent of motor controller to allow lights even on motor failures
  • ie. this is a 84V to 12V or 5V
  • Two levels
    • low quiesent low current for alarms and LED lights
    • Higher power for headlights, and other services
• Motor Controller - also called inverter in EV cars
  • Cut off on low power (see below re safety controller)
  • Full control of hub motor (3 phase, rotary encoders etc)
  • Regenerative brakes (see Drive controller)
  • Locking control (either short or input on move)
  • CAN bus or similar
• Input Controller
  • Human inputs
  • Brake switches (not the brakes, just the switch)
  • Indicator switch
  • Headlight control (high beam etc)
  • Throttle
  • Kill switches (e.g. kick stand)
  • Mode switch
  • Horn
  • Accelerometer
  • GPS
• Drive Controller (mostly talking to Motor Controller)
  • This is a CPU for controlling the drive, but from a higher level
  • Controls things like soft start and traction control
• Brake controller
  • ABS et al
  • Talk to Safety controller for brakes
  • Work out if inputs need to be direct or not
• Safety Controller
  • Take power from converter, indipendent from motor control
  • Control indicators including emergency flashing
  • Control lights
  • Horn controller
  • NOTE: Safety would allow for lights or indicators to remain on during catastrophic failures - e.g. loss of CAN input
• Alarm/Theft
  • Separate battery to allow batteries removed for charging
  • Movement sensors - from Accelerometer
  • Control the output alarm
  • Coded disable alarm
  • Quiet beeps - for enable/disable alarm
  • Medium - warning on move
  • Loud - stop steeling
• Display
  • See also input controller
  • Display components such as speedo