To program or not to program, that is the question..

[MSHax]

Ok, so I'm starting my research/purchasing of parts for my the 48V conversion and system upgrade. I wanted to know who is using a programmable controller and why. Unless I'm missing something, I'm starting to think a non-programmable controller is right for me. It kinda reminds me of the 6,000 way adjustable seats in the Pontiac Bonneville SSEI, sure you have all those buttons, but reality is you'll set them once and never touch them again.

Project:
1990 CC DS
formerly 36V
20" wheels
4 passenger, typically will be 3 (me-195lbs, 2 boys-40lbs each)
very flat, paved street usage

Goal:
25-ish mph (police in my town told me as long as I don't piss anyone off on the road; ie..going to slowly, they don't have an issue with street use)

Upgrade/Conversion parts

Already have:
Roll of 2 gauge wire (50% off from ex who's dad owned a welding supply store)
(6) shiny new Trojan 890 8v batteries
Heavy duty 400amp, 48v solenoid

Planning on buying:
Heavy duty f&r
"the assassin" motor from plum quick
misc other parts such as fuse, potentiometer, etc

Controller I'm leaning towards:
Alltrax NPX 4844 Series Controller from evdrives.com?

Curious on your thoughts of controller to buy programmable or not. Of course I'm open to suggestions on it all (except the stuff I've already bought, money's gone there )

[MichEE]

engineer to engineer - you MUST get get a programmable controller, right? Or are you a Mechanical engineer?

Seriously though, I would want a programmable one to simply have the flexibility in case it didn't perform like you wanted it to.

What have you looked at and what is your price range?

[timflury]

Don't forget about a charger.

I figure if you don't get a programmable controller, you might be disappointed in the future. The boys are not going to stay at 40# all their life, you know.

20" wheels??? Have you added or are you going to add a lift kit to the cart??

[MSHax]

Yeah mechanical engineer, was in the automotive field for just over 11 years until I just got sick of it last year and quit. REALLY starts to piss you off when you work on a design for 13 months and they say "ya know what, we've decided to scrap the whole project, need you to direct your focus on this now". That's when I decided to direct my focus on sitting on my couch.

Was always fascinated by the electrical side though. You must be electrical; all the electrical engineers I know MUST have SOOO much stuff loaded up everywhere. One of my buddies is a retired electrical engineer for gmc, and his house just makes no sense to me. We're both into home theater, he has items controlling items that control items through a remote to turn all the components on. I have a single switch on my wall that turns on my projector, dims the lights, and lowers the screen. Us mechanical guys tend to go minimalist style, the fewer components the better. Less components = less problems, plus it's more efficient. I say "tend to" because I know a few guys that have things like linear actuators that open their refrigerator and 7 part accordion doors on their bathrooms, but that's not me. simple and smooth is my preference.

I've given very little thought to the controller thing so far. As far as price goes, well ideally $5, but considering I've already got a couple thousand into it and it's not even drivable yet, and that's not including the cost of the cart, I'd say I'm open to anything less than 600 or 700-ish range. I think at this point there's really no need to start skimping since your system is only as good as it's weakest link. My main thing is making sure I'm getting use out of it. I don't mind spending the money IF it's something that I'll actually benefit from. There's obviously no reason to have a platinum plated, $6,000 super controller if I'm scooting around town at 25mph and only driving it less than 10 miles a week. cost:benefit ratio must be appropriate. From the poll so far, it seems as though everyone is using programmable. If I went programmable I would most likely need add the cost of a new windows laptop to it as well. From what I've seen all the software seems to say "Windows", and I have 6 computers in my house, but all are Mac. VMWare doesn't cooperate well with drivers for strange and unusual items like programmers, and barely covers some microcontrollers, so I highly doubt my windows VM is going to cooperate with a controller for a golf cart.

I've been shopping for chargers today. There's a pretty wide selection of them on eBay so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I have a lestronic 2, 36 volt charger that came with the cart when I bought it. I'll throw that up on ebay as soon as I get around to it.

About the wheels; I'm sorry, I should have more clear. They're 20" overall diameter not just rim size, it's a 12" rim. Here's a picture of the wheels and tires I ordered, should be here on the 29th, they claim. This isn't my cart, this is just the photo from the ebay ad where I bought the wheels, I'll post pics of mine when my stuff actually gets here.

[timflury]

Yup, I did mean 20" tall tires.

I have 18.5s on my '89 ds, with a rear seat kit, and I don't have any rubbing issues with the cart loaded.

With a 20" tall tire, I would be more concerned with the front tires rubbing when turning corners. There are heavy duty rear springs available that can help any "overloading" issues, say if the tires only rub when the boys are sitting on the back.

I'm an electrician, but I deal with ME and EE pretty much on a daily basis and I can see your points.

An ME tends to like the K.I.S.S. formula. It reduces unnecessary maintenance, Whereas the EE likes how steps 1-56 get accomplished with the push of one button, or the trip of a limit switch, and then the whole process starts all over again.

[MSHax]

As it turns out I have no rubbing at all, even at a full turn. It looks as though no one really has an opinion on controllers

I have my rims/tires, mirrors, seat belts, etc... installed and don't really feel like waiting to buy the next set of toys. It does look like 4 people are using programmable so I'm going to order the AXE4865 and find a new charger. This little car is starting to come together. Still can't decide if I want to do a paint job or just replace the body with a prepainted one from ebay. But that's stage 3 with the seats so, that'll have to wait.

Thanks to those who did let me know they're using a programmable controller.