Power Wheels
- Thread starter RClippa
- Start date
I am struggling. We are scheduled to go for assembly this weekend and I am in week 2 of my back being trashed. It got better for two days over the weekend and is back to garbage again. I need to get over and build the wiring harness so that when Lucas is helping things move quickly.
Fingers crossed that my back will allow me to walk around later this week so I can build the harness. I am just about in crawl mode only at this point.
Fingers crossed that my back will allow me to walk around later this week so I can build the harness. I am just about in crawl mode only at this point.
What a bust. Lucas was not in a good mood at all. He remembers it differently, but it was pretty bad. He spent the whole morning complaining that we didn't go to the zoo. He did help and had fun at times, but it was mostly complaining. Hopefully I can edit what little video I got to show excitement. We got it to 80% and called it done. Loaded it up on a trailer for me to finish at home. He tried to drive it and blew up the speed controller. Stupid speed controller. Even with him in it the thing was a total dog.
Today I grabbed a speed controller that I had planned to use when I added a drive to my bead roller and gave it a go. 40amp soft start controller. Night and day difference. The old controller barely moved me on a single motor. With two motors it was so-so but I was very disappointed. This controller with a single motor was driving me all over my yard. It is slower than I want because of the gearing, but we will stay there for now. Once I get both motors going it will have torque to push Lucas and Mallie all over the place. Now I need to get to the shop to build a resistive throttle pedal and a switched brake pedal. The old controller used a hall effect pedal and the new one uses a 100kohm pot. I will have to get somewhat fancy because the pot is a full turn so 360° and the typical pedal throw is down around 15-30°.
After my test I opened up the problem controller and found two of the primary capacitors flopping around. It looks like it either got hot enough to flow the solder off or their quality control is absolute crap. I can't return it for a warranty return now that I opened it, but it was $25 and I am sure shipping would have been 10-15 so I am not worried.
Today I grabbed a speed controller that I had planned to use when I added a drive to my bead roller and gave it a go. 40amp soft start controller. Night and day difference. The old controller barely moved me on a single motor. With two motors it was so-so but I was very disappointed. This controller with a single motor was driving me all over my yard. It is slower than I want because of the gearing, but we will stay there for now. Once I get both motors going it will have torque to push Lucas and Mallie all over the place. Now I need to get to the shop to build a resistive throttle pedal and a switched brake pedal. The old controller used a hall effect pedal and the new one uses a 100kohm pot. I will have to get somewhat fancy because the pot is a full turn so 360° and the typical pedal throw is down around 15-30°.
After my test I opened up the problem controller and found two of the primary capacitors flopping around. It looks like it either got hot enough to flow the solder off or their quality control is absolute crap. I can't return it for a warranty return now that I opened it, but it was $25 and I am sure shipping would have been 10-15 so I am not worried.
I was really excited for shop time tonight. I had a plan to make a string potentiometer for the throttle pedal. Some light aluminium machine work and everything looked like it might work. I used the string and spring from a badge holder. Machined a few simple pieces and it was done. Only the spring isn't strong enough to turn the potentiometer that came with the new speed controller. Plan Z upcoming.
