My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

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justanotherJohn
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My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

Greetings,
I purchased Tom's (win32forth) XB-600 with a 72V controller and the extra battery.
It ran well for quite a while (several weeks) but blew up today Badly.

How it blew up was at a stall ( small 1.5 inch incline into my garage ) and I applied a small amount of power to get into the garage.
What happend next should make a number of us think about our setups.
The first thing was that the 30A fuse blew. But this fuse was not rated for the voltage involved.
In general the blade fuses you find are for automotive 12V systems. When my fuse blew, it arc welded its way to a fuse holder melt down.
That apparently caused the controller to blow.

I was lucky that the arc only lasted about 200ms because with the voltage involved and the tiny wiring, I could have had a great roasting of my butt on the scooter.

I will be doing some investigating of fuse holders that will take the current and voltage that the machine is dealing with. I may be changing some FETs in the contorller soon also. Maybe 100 V FETs are not enough for the long term operation with 72 Volts.

I am very handy with soldering iron etc. so that should not be too big a problem.

So a couple of questions.
1. Anybody else have this problem? If so what was done..
2. I saw a nice picture of the controller wiring somewhere and cannot seem to find it now. Anyone remember where??

win32forth
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Re: My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

Bummer John!

I did give you the extra controller right? I must have, it isn't in my filing cabinet.

One correction, it was running at 60 volts, not 72. Yes there is almost 70 volts in five x 12 volt batteries, but the the 5 battery mods are referred to as 60 volt mods, and the 6 battery mods are referred to as 72 volt mods.

I'm glad your butt didn't get fried too!

See you at breakfast. (for everyone else, we have a 6AM men's breakfast at church on Tuesdays).

Tom

justanotherJohn
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Re: My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

OK Tom,
I agree 60 not 72V and what you told me at breakfast means that even the FETs are not the 100V models.
So it's time to:
1. upgrade FETs
2. Upgrade Caps
3. Replace melted fuse holder.

I am still waiting for anyone who remembers the nice pictures of the controller wires.

John

sixpax2k9
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Joined: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 22:54
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Re: My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

I had the same thing happen to me on my xb-600. Luckily for me though, only the blade fuse blew up and melted, it did not ruin my controller. It happened the exact same way too!!!! I was at a small curb and while still on the bike, tried to rev it up onto the curb.... seems that kind of a strain is not good for it. I since then replaced the fuse and holder with a new one.... If I recall the old one was a 30A or was it a 20A. Regardless, I installed a 10A LARGER holder and fuse than the stock one was and have had no problems since.

Your bad luck was the complete fusing of your fuse.... If it would have blown properly it would have saved your controller. the higher rated fuse should work better in the future. Possibly putting TWO 30A fuses and holders in parallel could prevent the arc welding of the fuse in the future?

Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.

justanotherJohn
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Re: My XB-600 72V Controller Blew!

OK. Here is my plan (parts on the way)
1. I will put in STP120NF10 Fets 100V 120A and the gate capacitance looks like the driver (CP1205S) can handle that. $1.80 ea at Newark
2. Replace the 4 470uf 63 V caps with 100V units $1.42 long life units at Newark
3. Replace the fuse holder with a midget type fuse ( good for at least 120V )

There are some drive caps that are 4.7uf 50V in the unit but I will take the chance and not replace them.
All the other components appear to be behind one of the three regulators and therefore should be OK.

I am wondering if a MOV type surg supressor would work for the times when the fuse blows and you get a big back emf.
Ah well one step at a time.

Mean while I have put in the other controller that Tom gave me with the bike. I have removed the extra battery for now and run everything stock. And Tom is right, the performance sucks. Especially after having it the other way.

Oh well - This is a fun project and I will just have to put up with it for now..

John

justanotherJohn
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Re: My XB-600 60V Controller Blew!

I finally got the parts from Newark today.
Let's see that is :
Ordered on 3/18
Acknowledged on 3/19
Confirmed on 3/22
Shipped 3/23
Arrived 3/26
So shipping time moved OK, just nothing exceptional. Of course when you are waiting for something it feels slow.
Now for the fun part putting it all together.
The capacitors have a height of 1.025 inches the old ones are 0.825 inches.
With only a 0.2 inch difference I am tempted to see if I can make them fit. But alas, the lead spacing is different (wider) and therefore will require some laying over or something.

I will try for some pictures also. We shall see.

John

justanotherJohn
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Re: My XB-600 60V Controller Blew!

OK, sorry but no pictures. I got so carried away in updateing the controller that I finished it without taking pictures.
I will say that the new FETs appear to have a little extra torque on first take off.
I replaced the FETs and the 4 470uf capacitors with 100 volt units. In the FET case I worried that the input capacitance of the new FETs could overpower the drivers. The spec sheets put the driver ability just at the FETs load. After putting it all together - it runs great.
Saves me a few bucks where I would normally use my truck and burn up some gas.

John

John

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