speed control, single direction, electric motor controller

Porter: Single direction, 12V – 48V, 100A.

£55.50 – £87.00

The Porter range are tough, low cost, single direction controllers that are particularly suitable for karts, golf caddies, electric bikes, equipment handling, and industrial applications.

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Please scroll down for full controller specification

Motor noise suppression

We strongly recommend fitting motor noise suppression components to each motor in your system. This is because electric motors are electrically noisy machines, the sparks commonly seen at the brushes are a source of radio frequency interference [RFI] that can interfere with, and even cause terminal damage to a controller. We have interference suppression packs suitable for 24V and 48V systems, and a page of advice on how to fit them and other steps to take to reduce RFI.

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Description

The Porters are tough, low cost, single direction speed control components that can work from 12V to 48V without adjustment. Particularly suitable for carts, golf caddies, electric bikes, equipment handling, and industrial applications, they are designed to be simple to install and use, and have very simple wiring. They can also be used to give a soft start function to reduce high initial torque spikes.

The key features are:

  • Adjustable acceleration and deceleration ramps allow smooth, controllable performance.
  • Integral box and heatsink.
  • Reverse polarity protection.
  • Pot fault detection.
  • Porter 5.  1 minute current 75A. Continuous current 50A [with suitable extra heatsink].
  • Porter 10. 1 minute current 120A. Continuous current 100A [with suitable extra heatsink].
  • Regenerative braking [can be disabled via mod].
  • Input 4k7 ohm to 20k ohm potentiometer, direct voltage control, or PWM control by Pi or Arduino etc.
  • Can accept a Hall effect throttle on 12v or 24v [10mA max, contact support for use on higher voltages].
  • Adjustable current limiting can be added, see this page of our knowledgebase for details.

Porters have enjoyed great success in the Greenpower race series [kit car winner 2018], and have also proved a good after market replacement for the PDQ Powertrike. A number have also been fitted to Sinclair C5s, note; due to the low resistance of the C5 motor we recommend using the Porter 10XX variant.

The manual provides full instructions on setting up and operating the controller. The manual is available in PDF  format:

Adobe_PDF_file_icon_32x32   Read manual

Specification

Model 5 10
Nominal voltage range 12 – 48
Minimum / maximum voltage 10 – 55
Motor current A [max] 95 190
Motor current A [1 minute] 75 120
Motor current A [continuous] 50 [depends on mounting / cooling] 100 [depends on mounting / cooling]
Reversing N
Half speed reverse n/a
Regen braking Y
Gain adjustment N
Dimensions [mm] 136 x 62 x 35
Weight [g] 125 145
Power connections 6.3mm push-on blades
Input 5k to 25k pot, 0 – 4V, Hall effect 6mA max @48V
Reverse polarity protection Y
Over voltage protection Y [68V]
Under voltage protection Y [8V]
Pot fault protection Y [>50k]
Thermal protection N
Current limit – drive Y
Current limit – regen n/a
High pot lockout N
Joystick/Wig-wag input n/a
Radio Control ask
Selectable dual ramp reversing n/a
Pre-select Reversing n/a
Ramping Acceleration and deceleration adjustable between 0.1S and 5S
Parking brake N
Inhibit function N
Powerdown state (motor) Diode
Tacho feedback ask
Ignition, Electronic pot
Heatsink Basic integral
Double heading n/a
Switching frequency 20 kHz
Quadrants 2

Support

The manual provides full instructions on setting up and operating the controller. The manual is available in PDF  format:

Adobe_PDF_file_icon_32x32   Read manual

The manual is designed to be printed double-sided in A4 booklet format. To print the booklet from the PDF on a double-sided printer, select Booklet in the Page Size & Handling section of the print window, and set Orientation to Portrait.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common to all controllers click here.

Specific issues you might hit with the Porters are:

Hall Throttles. A lot of people use hall effect throttles with the Porter, unfortunately there is no standard wiring colour scheme for these and it can be difficult to tell which wire is which. Our method is to connect a power supply to the hall device and find out what the wires are before connecting it to the Porter.

Notes on Current

  1. The motor current can be a lot higher than the battery current, however the motor power will be equal to the battery power.
  2. At half speed motor current can be twice the battery current, at full speed motor current is nearly equal the battery current.
  3. Do not allow the battery current to exceed 100A otherwise circuit board damage may occur.
  4. In practise the current limits can be significantly higher than quoted. On the Porter 5 we can measure 95 amps into a stalled, large, motor. As the MOSFETs heat up, this reduces so, after a minute, the motor current has reduced to 75 amps and the heatsink is near 100°C. This is with the controller in free air, no additional heatsinking.
  5. The 1 minute current on the Porter 10 is really limited by the wiring and crimps.

Accessories

You may need some or all of the following

Heatsink. Depending on the application some thought should be given to heat dissipation, some options are;

  • Making sure that there is a good flow of air over the standard heatsink, either by siting the heatsink in the vehicle airflow, or fitting a small fan.
  • Bolting the standard heatsink to a metal part of the vehicle chassis.
  • Porters can also be fitted with the heatsinks from our DNO.
  • Fitting an aftermarket heatsink to suit your application.

Pictures

Porter - top view

Porter 5-10 heatsinkPorter 5 power end