Following on from the successful test of the Pro-360-HC in our workshop the guys at Osbit and Hyserve have now installed it on the crane of this mighty wind turbine installation vessel. It’s being used to fit the yellow turbine jackets onto the sea bed foundations. Each jacket weighs 1100 tonnes. The Pro-360 is driving a hydraulic pump that operates a clamping ring.
We were asked if we could add a feedback voltage input to our software so that the controller would respond to the input from a position sensor, the aim being to create a really powerful servo mechanism. We’re pleased to say that we’ve done it, here’s a short video of a very powerful linear actuator behaving just like a radio control servo. This software will be able to go in our Pro-100, Pro-160, and Pro-360 controllers, so if you need a 360A servo give us a call.
Another great project that we’re chuffed to be involved with. The guys at www.SeaweedGeneration.com are farming seaweed to capture and store CO2. We supplied one of our Pro-160s to control the winch on this prototype catamaran in Antigua. Shame they didn’t need on site tech support though!
Here’s a Turbo Caddy golf buggy in the middle of a controller replacement operation. One of our Pro-160s went in a treat, and the patient is up and running again. We found a design flaw with the original wiring, the battery plugs are not colour coded, it’s easy to reverse them and apply reverse polarity to the electronics!
While we can’t be too specific about the details….Some say that Barbies’ car in the latest movie might just be sporting some 4QD gear! All we know is that it’s very pink.
Many of you will know that I tend to bang on about motor noise suppression, my stern lectures are often met with a resigned smile and promises to fit some in the future. Well this week we had a really interesting case that highlighted the importance of taking this seriously.
The Lord Raglan is a tourist boat running on the Brecon Canal. It is unusual in that it has a rudder, motor, and propeller at each end, it doesn’t turn around in the narrow canal, the helmsman just turns off one motor, locks one rudder and goes to the other end to drive back.
It has a single battery bank feeding one Pro-360-HV and Lynch LEM-200 motor at each end. At one end the installation has been fine, but at the other end there have been three controller failures. We spent a day there this week looking to figure out what was causing the problems.
As soon as we opened the engine bay at the problem end the cause was apparent – there were no noise suppression components fitted to the motor. However these were also missing from the other end which did not have problems, so what was the difference?
Looking into the routing of the motor wires we found that they had been run directly on top of the battery wires feeding the problem controller. The motor wires are carrying a large current that is being switched on and off very quickly, this, along with the lack of noise suppression was inducing noise into the battery wires for the controller and causing mosfet latch-up to occur.
The solution was to fit an extra section of trunking to allow the motor wires to be routed away from the battery wires, and also to fit noise suppression components to both motors.
Looking forward to going for a cruise now that it back working as it should.
The OEM controllers for the Yamaha G22 golf cart have the part number IC3645SH4V262Y1, but these don’t appear to be readily available in the UK. A customer asked us if we could provide a solution, so we looked to see if our Pro-160-HC could be made to work. After some investigation we obtained the matching connector for the wiring harness plug, figured out the various bits and pieces, and created a solution that was pretty straightforward to fit. We’ll have a look at making up a small circuit board that should make it even simpler.
A slightly unusual project today …. We’re working with a company developing a novel electrochemical cell for producing hydrogen and they asked if we could increase the frequency of the PWM output. It’s not something we’ve done before [we’re usually asked if we can slow it down], but we took on the challenge and found that we could. It throws up some interesting problems around the various timing loops within the software but we’ve tripled it to 60kHz fairly easily and it looks like 200kHz is on the cards.
Over the years we’ve seen a number of controllers that have been damaged by faults in the motor they are driving, so we thought we’d make a short video showing how to test an electric motor for short circuit and open circuit windings.
The Train Mountain triennial in Oregon, USA is back and Steve will be there from 21-24th June 2022 and demonstrating 4QD products. Please do call by the stand in the vendor area for a chat. His cell phone number while in the US will be +44 745 335 1325.
The guys over at Nervous Squirrel have used some of our Pro-160s to drive these funky motorised wheelie bins. They are for the Bureau of Silly Ideas – a street theatre company and we’re hoping to see them in action soon.
There’s a video of them in action here.
Here’s a case study that we’re really rather proud of. V O Vehicles asked us to design the control system for this unique pedal / electric, solar charged di-wheel taxi that they launched at the recent CENEX exhibition. The vehicle is quite complex with pedal torque sensing, a joystick for steering and reverse, a removable battery, and a phone as a display. We helped VO understand the options and trade-offs around the battery and motor, and also on how the different controls could be integrated. Our solution uses two of our Pro-160 controllers with the input signals being handled by our new dual channel interface module and a custom scaling board.
We just love the colours of this pedal car conversion that one of our customers has done.
It’s using a Porter 10 and a pretty beefy LiPo pack so it should shift a bit!
Here’s an electric motor dyno we’ve been working on for a customer. It’s using a brushed motor to provide a load for a brushless one. We’re using our new rpm control software in a Pro-160 to manage the load speed while the torque is measured by the sensor.
The motor on the left is the load, it was surprising just how warm it got after only a few minutes operation.
Billy is working on this really stylish electric super moto. It’s running one of our new Pr0-360s so he will be able to take the voltage up to 84V in due course which should give around 30kW. It’s also capable of having a fully mapped throttle, torque limiting, and lots of other clever stuff in the software.
Henry has built this ingenious funicular railway to haul building materials to his house. It uses a chain and gypsy drive arrangement controlled by one of our 4QD-300s. We’ve also supplied a contactor arrangement that provides a failsafe regen braking system.
We’re still here, open as usual!
If you’re fed up with the Covid 19 news, self-isolated, or just plain bored, why not give us a call to talk about your next motor control project and how we can help get it moving?
Also to re-assure all our customers, our supply chain has minimal exposure to foreign suppliers, we’ve got good stocks of parts for all of our products, and our team is hale and hearty.
Here’s a sneaky peak at the first prototype of our new Pro-360 high power controller. We wanted the feature set and voltage rating of the Pro-160 coupled to the brute current handling of the 4QD-300. We’ve used the control board of the Pro-160, and created a new power board that uses the same heavy duty bus bar and heatsink structure of the 4QD-300. The result – a digital H-bridge controller that can go up to 96V, 360A, and that has liquid cooling available. Now I’ve just got to build a rig capable of testing this monster!
The guys at Riverside Miniature Railway asked us if we could come up with a solution to help a lad with restricted mobility be able to drive a loco. We eventually settled on the joystick control you see in the picture, a custom profile for our Pro-160, and a deadmans handle button for the guard.
It all worked a treat – here he is taking his mum for a few laps of the track wearing the biggest grin I’ve seen for a while!
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Yep it’s finally happened – our Pro-160 has started to roll off the production line.
We’re really pleased with the way this controller has turned out, it’s a stronger, smarter, and better looking brother to the Pro-150.
We set out to design a controller with all the features you’ve been asking us for. The brief was for a full H-bridge controller to do away with reversing relays for long term reliability, you wanted full control over the motor current in both drive and regen modes, and you also wanted lots of inputs for radio control, temperature and speed sensors, dead-mans handles, and limit switches etc. You also asked us for a wider voltage range, so we’ve made one that works from 12 – 84V.
We gave it a unique detachable display that you can mount conveniently to show you exactly what your motor and battery are doing.
A single switch lets you quickly switch between any two profiles, e.g. fast / slow, or handset / RC.
Oh, and we also added a uSD card slot to make adding new features via software updates easy.
All of this adds up to a highly versatile controller ideally suited to a wide range of hobby and industrial users.
Think it’s safe to say mission accomplished!……. come and have a look.
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Here at 4QD we like boats, fast things, and particularly jet engines. So when we got a call from the guys at Project Longbow we were tickled pink! They are putting together a jet powered hydroplane for a serious assault on the world water speed record, and asked us if we could help them with the starting system for the two Viper jet engines that power this beast.
We’ve donated a 4QD-300 to the cause and will be assisting in developing the circuits to get them turning and burning.
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The guys at Pyrojunkies asked us if we could make the inflatable men used in Kylie’s latest tour a little more wobbly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/By_aFD3nLuA/?igshid=tch00ukuexrqInstagram
5 x Porter 10XXs got things sorted by turning down the fan speed.
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We are proud to be sponsors of the Team Chicken guys! Congratulations on two brave 2nds at the Lotus event. Not only did they overcome some tricky technical issues but managed to drive through from the back of the field in the 2nd race. Oh and did I say that their car looks a million dollars!…
They again used their Porter 10XXX to great effect and were only just bested by a team running errrr…. another 10XXX.
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Maybe it’s because the sun is shining here today, but this picture of the CPR AC4400 at Iron Horse Park in Alberta made us smile.
It’s running a 4QD-300.
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As a refugee from the mobile phone industry it was inevitable that we’d have to try coloured covers on our controllers at some point.
Here are some of the ideas we’ve been playing with on our Pro-160…..
We’ve 3D printed the brackets and used tough 3mm perspex as a wrap around case. The LCD can be seen through the cover for programming, or can be mounted remotely.
Please let us know if you like the idea.
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Our Pro-160 passed an important milestone today [23/1/19] – the first installation in a loco!
Ian and the guys at the Aylesbury MES kindly allowed us to use their Deltic 2hp as a test mule. The new menu structure made it easy to tweak the ramps and limits and then off we went for a few laps. Everything worked exactly as intended and it barely got warm [due to the high performance mosfet drivers we’ve used].
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If you’ve got a heavy load to shift then have a look at this floor transporter from the guys at Pelloby. It’s an automated guided vehicle fitted with two of our Pro-150s driving a really neat 4 wheel steer system.
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Here it is, the first complete sample of our new Pro-160 😀 😀 😀 It’s a modular, relay free, full H-bridge progression from the Pro-150.
The testing is coming along nicely, we had it running happily at 100A today and the mosfets were only just starting to get warm. The main software elements are all working now, we just need to stitch them all together with the UI.
The headline features are:
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I love the strap line that Scaled Rigs are using for their new mini truck!
This is the sort of project we love doing at 4QD. The truck has a very complete specification including lights and a startingly loud and realistic engine sound system. We designed the the full wiring loom which we’re sub-contracting out for them, and we also developed a new radio control servo emulator to allow the sound card to be driven directly from our DNO-5 controller. This needed a new PCB and software which we turned around inside 2 weeks.
The design and attention to detail that has gone into this product are mightily impressive, it is definitely not your average electric vehicle! If you’re short of Xmas present ideas for your nipper then you know who to call!
The DNO-5 is being slightly customised, and joint branded.
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Recently we’ve been involved with a few electric vehicle projects where we have needed to work out the gearing and wheel diameter required to achieve a target speed from an electric motor where we know its maximum rpm. This gearing calculator helps work it out.
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Earlier this year Steve at Team Chicken asked us if we could do something to give them an edge in the Greenpower kitcar series. It took a lot of nagging on his part but we finally got our butt in gear and created the Porter 10XXX. Did it work I hear you ask? You bet, here they are en-route to winning the kitcar final at the weekend!
These guys are masters of marginal improvements, they’ve gone right back to basics and followed the Lotus maxim of “add lightness and simplicate”.
We’re chuffed to have been able to help.
Team Chicken now style themselves the Kitcar Final Champions [KFC], I suppose that’s just about better than the Vindaloo Victors, or the Madras Medalists, or the….
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We’re always on the lookout for neat or alternative ways of doing things, and Les’s approach to electric car conversion meets both those criteria.
He’s taken a classic mini engine, thrown away the cylinder head and block, and grafted a Lynch 200 motor to the flywheel.
It’s going into a Magenta kit car, can’t wait to see how it turns out!
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A long, hard day in the workshop saw us get the prototype drive system for this self propelled lighting tower up and running.
It’s got 2 x 48v 2.2kW Leeson motors which we’re driving using 2 of our Pro-150 controllers. These were configured for push button operation with variable speed.
It turned out to be a real beast – hugely torqey and easily capable of a brisk jogging speed. Our customer is targetting this at railway, highway, and runway maintenance operations.
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We seem to be having something of a military theme at the moment.
This gun carriage is used by a college cadet force for hauling equipment around rifle ranges.
This one just happens to be using an old Uni 8 model, but it could easily use a Porter instead.
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We know that our controllers go into some hostile environments, but this range robot must be well up the list.
It’s a radio controlled target drone for a shooting range, it’s using 2 x 4QD-300X controllers and a DMR-203 radio interface.
Wonder if the dummy has a name?
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We’re big fans of Scarletts Garage. Here’s a clip of their latest creation which actually raced in the “Little Lemans” race. Pushing one of our DNO-10s to the max!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpT5x7tsSOs
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With a sense of style reminiscent of a Patek Philippe watch advert a customer sent us this picture of the two cars he built.
Each is fitted with one of our Pro-150 controllers.
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4QD were delighted to attend this years Train Mountain Triennial in Oregon. For those who haven’t heard of it, the scale of this model loco event is simply staggering, 37 miles of 7″ track with around 400 models from 8 countries. All hosted by the most amazingly friendly volunteers. Here is just a small selection of the many, many pictures we took…
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Here’s a short video of the Greenpower grid setting off under the new “no push” rules. The acceleration of some of the cars was really impressive.
Lots of our Porters being used.
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We like this overhead shot of 3 teams from the recent Greenpower Goodwood event. We’re particularly proud of the Team Chicken car from Bromsgrove School at the bottom of the frame, these guys kindly ran one of our prototype Porter 10XXX units, I’ll let them take up the story of how it went……
“Firstly, we were able to complete approximately another lap further than the xx. And this then leads me onto the best factor we had from the xxx. The tail off seemed to be much, much, much slower. Before we would go strong, slow a little and then very slow for the last lap or so. The xxx allowed us to keep pushing at a far faster pace with only losing a few seconds per lap (over a 2.4 mile Goodwood lap) during the last few laps. This then allowed us to gear up and get the Kitcar to an average 26.5MPH over a race. Your controller did not heat up at all. The only cooling we had on it was a computer heatsink with thermal paste. We came first Kitcar by several laps, and 8th/11th overall out of 100 teams (43 Kitcars). It was so impressive that we are looking at gearing right up next season if tests continue to be successful.”
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Our controllers end up in all sorts of applications, this mining train must surely have one of the hardest working DNO-10s out there.
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As keen sailors we love getting involved with nautical projects. The owner of this magnificent ketch wanted to get smoother control over the operation of the mainsail outhaul which is powered by a hydraulic ram with the pump being driven by an electric motor. Our marinised Porter 10XX fitted the bill nicely.
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We’re getting a lot of interest in our Pro-160 that is in development so we thought we’d share some good news…..
It works!
Admittedly these are rev 1 boards, and the software still has a way to go but it makes a motor run forwards and backwards, and we’re seeing sensible current readings on the display.
A lot of effort has gone into getting the internal power supply able to operate between 12V and 100V which gives us the foundation for a very flexible range of controllers. We’ve also got a water cooled heatsink designed which will allow this baby to handle some big numbers.
The rev 2 gerbers are going to the factory next week so we’re expecting what should be sample ready hardware in May.
Nico has done a great job on the schematics and layout, now it’s over to Erica for some software magic.
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Well it’s actually a French loco to be honest, but as Marc Roulin sent us this picture of his loco running at the Swiss Steam Park we couldn’t resist the title.
Using a Pro-150 driving twin 500W motors.
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Here’s a preview of our update to our BCM-524 battery meter. The old analogue model has been extremely popular and features in many designs. However battery technology marches on and we wanted something that would give more accurate results with lithium batteries and other types with flat discharge curves. We’ve used an ATtiny micro to produce a programmable replacement that can work with the small voltage changes these batteries give. Other features include temperature compensation, and a switchable output that can be used for a low voltage cut-off. Oh, and it still has the same hole spacings so it’s a direct physical replacement in most applications.
The first model will be suitable for 12V – 24V, we’ll produce some standard voltage curves for the common battery technologies, but if you want something custom please let us know.
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Pronch Mulholland brought his PDQ power trike in for some TLC. We’ve now found a way to fit our Porter 5 into the existing control box making for a neat installation that retains most of the existing wiring. We’ve written up some quick notes on how we did it and included a wiring diagram.
The supersize battery box is made from steel and houses 3 x 15AHr sealed lead acid batteries. It gives much better traction for hill starts as well as extending the range.
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Drum roll………. 4QD are pleased to introduce to the world our new baby – the SST-31.
It’s a small but perfectly formed, very clever, single direction controller for 12-35V and up to 30A.
It’s built around a Picaxe microcontroller, so as well as providing basic motor speed control, it can accept multiple control inputs and also has spare outputs for controlling ancillary equipment.
It’s ideal for the smaller motor control project, particularly those that need some element of customisation. We’ve made the software open source, and the Picaxe development system makes writing your own programs easy.
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Not really our normal line of work, but we do know a fair bit about batteries and mosfets, so when we were asked if we could design a PCB for a Vape mod machine it seemed rude to say no.
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An exciting day for us – we’ve just received the first PCBs for our new Pro-160 controller.
This is a modular, relay free progression from the Pro-150, headline features are
Where’s my soldering iron? – lets get building!
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Lewis S sent us this video of his amazing Armotek Panther tank. It has just been fitted with twin DNO-10s and a DMR-203 radio control interface.
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One of the best things about running 4QD is seeing all the projects that our customers are involved in. This picture is from the Warsash Superyacht Academy and shows their fleet of training vessels. Featuring our Pro-120s and DNO-10s
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I had to share this picture of Michael F’s Bay Cruiser for no other reason than the simply outstanding colours!
It’s got a 2.5kW motor running at 36V and is controlled by a 4QD-300L with a closed loop fresh water cooling system.
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Francis Servieres sent us this video of his loco running under radio control. It’s the first time that we know of that this has been allowed in France – well done Francis!
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The Guys at the Broads Authority sent us this picture of a Kapf Solar boat that they have re-powered using 2 of our 4QD-300X controllers.
Should make for some lovely days out on the water!
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Is this a mini monster truck, or a monster mini truck?
Either way it’s a great piece of engineering and a totally new take on what to do when the kids say “Dad, can you build us a car please?”
A water cooled 4QD-300L is fitted to deal with the high currents that this beast needs.
Here’s a sneak preview of our soon to be launched Softstart. This is a small motor controller stripped down to the basics that gives a progressive start-up ramp to eliminate the large torque spikes that occur if a motor is switched on instantly via a relay or switch. We’ve designed this using a small microprocessor which means that the ramp time is configurable, and also given it a couple of other inputs so that it can be used for a variety of other simple switching tasks. We’ll be making the code available to allow [encourage?] experimentation.
Here’s a lovely rendition of an early Renault Voiturette that a customer has built. It’s using one of our Pro-150s driving a pair of electric scooter motors.
Here’s a prototype electric trials bike that a customer brought in today. Really powerful and very light, it’s using a Lynch motor and one of our 4QD-300s which we are modifying to give the required throttle response.
Here’s one of our Pro-150s driving the turret ring gear on a pretty serious looking Humvee. It’s a challenging application as it has to change direction rapidly, and the EMI and physical environments are hostile.
Seeing as how we’d melted our air cooled test load, we knew that we needed something that could handle some really high currents. Here’s a quick video showing how we built a water cooled dummy load.
This mighty machine has been built by Doug Wilkinson. It weighs in at 1200 lb and is using a 4QD-200.
I’ve just got to share this clip of Scarletts Ferrari, it’s using one of our DNO-10s and looks absolutely stunning. I guess that’s what happens when your Dad restores cars for a living – not that I’m jealous – oh no!
Follow the links to see some of the other fantastic cars he’s made.
Steve W sent us this picture of his Robot Wars contestant Gyrobot. It’s using one of our Porter 10XXs to control what must surely be one of the most powerful rotating energy weapons we’ve seen so far. We’ve made some mods for him to allow the current limit to be adjusted, and he’s also trying out a prototype heatsink arrangement to cope with the rather unusual power profile.
Mr B sent us this picture of a highly classified Xmas panto prop built out of a commercial scissor table with one of our Porter 10s driving a hydraulic pump.
Oh not it’s not……
…and here they are…. the first results for our new range of cooling options for the 4QD-300.
The finned air cooled heatsink gives approx 50% increase in performance and this can be increased further if a fan is fitted.
It’s the water cooling that we like the most though, it turns the 4QD-300 into a real powerhouse. More detailed results at higher currents to follow once we have uprated our test rig!
We’re still working out the pricing for these but please get in touch if you are interested.
Here’s a picture of our embryonic test set up for the soon to be launched water cooled 4QD-300. On the left is our current air cooled load cell, ammeter, and data logger. Front right is the 4QD-300 fitted with the water cooled heatsink. Right rear is the control and pump for the water. We’ve left space for a second pump which will be needed when our water cooled load cell is ready. Can’t wait to run this lot and see what results we get.
Jeff Ivers sent us this picture of his tow truck that he uses to haul a gravity racer to the start line.
Fitted with one of our Pro-150s
Here’s a sneak peak at our uprated 4QD-300X. We’ve had a custom heatsink made which really improves it’s ability to handle high currents for extended times. During testing it melted our test rig and was still only warm to the touch! Full details will be announced once we’ve built a new test rig.
The heatsink itself will also be available as an aftermarket upgrade.
We’ve also got a water cooled version coming soon that will take things even further, and be particularly suitable for electric boats.
Here’s a picture of MR Speed Squared, a 2016 Robot Wars competitor. Using 2 of our DNO-10s and a DMR-203.
Patsy brought a couple of PDQ Powertrikes to us with broken control boxes. We fitted one with a Porter 5, and one with a DNO-05 to see if we could get reverse, however we discovered that the motor has a one way clutch that prevents reverse from driving. The standard twist grips were swapped for our Magura throttles, and we fitted one of our key switches to the DNO for security.
Footnote:
Two weeks later Patsy sent us this picture of the neat bag she made to tidy it all up
And the verdict:….
"The power box is working briliantly, so speedy that I tend to do wheelies unless I am careful. The battery is lasting longer too........ Thanks again for doing a great job on the trike."
We love this video of a customer putting one of our Porter 10s through its paces…
Chris Sharpe sent us these pictures of his enduro bike. It’s running a 4QD-300 controller, Lifepo4 batteries, and an Agni 95 motor.
Here’s Charlie having his first go at driving a loco. Thanks to Pete Ottley of Riverside Models for letting him try out his Class 37 at ndsme
Running a Pro-120 with switchable radio control / hand throttle.
A big thank you to the Electric Boat Association for inviting us along on their trip around St Ives / Earith.
In the foreground is Cedric Lynch’s remarkable electric canoe. It has no batteries [apart from a very small one to “get under bridges”], uses a small Lynch motor, a model aircraft propellor, and one of our old 1QD controllers. Goes jolly fast it does too!
We hope you like the new look. We’ve tried to make it easier to find the controller and accessories that you need, whilst still keeping all the interesting information and technical support articles in a new knowledge base that makes it easier to find what you’re looking for.
All of our controllers are now on the range page.
In our new knowledge base we’ve sorted all of our old articles into some clear categories. All of the information about our old controllers is there, and a lot of background information about motor speed controllers. Our sister site 4qdtec.com still has all the reference and circuit information.
We’ve also added some application areas that show just a few of the areas that 4QD controllers are being used in.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Adam from Cambridge web solutions for his excellent work in creating the new site.