After the motor was installed I was under a time crunch to complete my EV drive before the weekly beer can race on Lake Union, Duck Dodge.I only had a few hours, so I didn't take very many photos, but I did install and wire my contactor, controller, gages, and key. I followed the diagram shown below. After all was installed, I hurried to the local ORiely's to pick up three more cheap marine deep cycle battery to match one that I had purchased in hopes of resolving Yanmar starting issues I experienced prior to the winter sailing trip Ava and I wen on.Hurdle 1 - ORiely's only had one more battery. Oh well, my controller will work on 24v. I bought the one thinking we should have enough juice to get out of the marina and go for it.Hurdle 2 - My PC would not recognize the the controller to program it for my motor. This issue was a simple one, restart my PC, gotta love windows USB to Serial Drivers.Hurdle 3 - The controller sends error signals when the throttle is activated. This was a wiring issue of the potentiometer. To solve the issue I had to contact Curtis Controls who directed me to one of their dealers who explained how the potentiometer should be wired. This step was not completed until the following day, we missed Duck Dodge but proceeded to drink some beers and grill some brats at the dock and enjoy the evening.Hurdle 4 - After the batteries were connected and I heard the contactor make a solid "click click" as I turned the key on, but still received a low voltage error code from the controller. I was told that the contactor was not meant to work with 24V, so I needed to buy two more batteries. Back to ORiely's I picked up the final 2 batteries for my 48V system and hooked everything up.Hurdle 5 - Still receiving the low voltage error code. More back and forth with Kelly Controls (Fany was very helpful) only to determine the wiring of the coil on my contactor was incorrect (although it followed the schematic on the website).
Once I grounded the coil properly, everything worked! Instead of hearing the "click click" I simply heard a "click". This step took a while as I was sent to Australia for work for a month.
Wohoo! The Manta Drive is Alive!!Up Next, Sea Trials on Converting Our Sailboat to EV - Part 8.
