TOD discussion

[mbeach]

I'll try to work on this today. I have a lot of parts available to me that may not be readily accessable for most people.
Today I found a really nice trimmer that would make a cool knob. Very tactile with nice feedback. It felt like a BMW iDrive unit. It could be easily replaced with a 2k ohm potentiometer from Radio Shack though.
I'm trying to make it as simple as possible for everyone to build/commission to build.

Reality is, all we did here was to confirm the work that the Terracan guys did. I never was able to look at the links, but from Bob's first post, it sounds like we have just done our own version of the same thing.
I can't take any credit for this, but I assure you that a VX ready solution will be on the way asap.
I'd still like to share my spreadsheet, but I think that we can get started without it.

[mbeach]

It appears that there is a mass-produced PWM controller that will suit our needs. All we need now is a pot, a knob, and the ability to ground the indicator lights at will. This can be done through the same pot(entiometer) that selects the 4wd mode.

It's getting easier and cheaper by the day.

[Maugan_VX]

mbeach, if this works, and its simple enough for me to pull off in an afternoon's worth of work....


I'll fly out to Alaska and kiss you.

[mbeach]

Ha, I'll pass on the man-love -but thanks anyways.

Actually, when I stated looking back through old posts, it hit me that we (the board) were on to a solution a long time ago.
Especially in this post by SGT. Batguano:
"It may be a Pulse Width Modulated signal, like the speed signal, which is why no one has come up with a soultion to the top speed limiter of our ecu.

I may be wrong, but I've been under the impression that you can use a dc motor controller on a pwm circuit. So, I'm wondering if one could replace the rheostat or variable resistor on the dc controller board with a 4-position switch and four fixed value resistors."

And that's exactly what I've come around to. I found a DC motor/fan/lamp PWM controller that will work nicely, and only cost between $40 and $50.
That unit, a switch to activate MANUAL mode, and a rotary switch (no longer a potentiometer -long story) to select the modes and we are looking at a $75 mod, depending on how fancy you want to make it look.

I'm ordering a PWM controller from Critical Velocity today for testing.