Motor Wiring Diagram

See the motors pages for more details on our motors. They have a custom dual coil arrangement that we can switch between to get higher speed or higher torque.

The proposed wiring diagrams with (connector part numbers) between the rear firewall and the motors is shown below.

Decision:

During hardware standup on July 29, Option 3 was chosen.
@Micah Bai We should contact Amphenol to see if they would be interested in sending free connectors and if we can get our hands on the installation tool.
For the installation tool, if we cannot get it from Amphenol or other distributors, we will make one. Either on a Mill/Lathe or getting it 3D printed in metal (or Carbon Fiber?).

Option 1:

Completely modular and quick swappable.

Open

Option 2:

Connect motor controller directly to the firewall panel. The cable lengths on the right/left from motor controller to firewall will be different, so we will not be able to directly swap motor controller between right/left sides of the car. Since we don’t have spares, I don’t think this will be a huge issue.

Open

Option 3:

Least parts out of options 1/2/3, so least points of failure and cost. Switching coils is done with manually swapping the connector for the coil. We should watch out for swapping coils too often - the connectors are specified to around 100 mating cycles. We should limit the amount of coil switching during testing, and keep the high torque coil connected for the majority of the pre-race time to limit the cycle count. The connector that is not connected should be protected against corrosion/degradation with a cap (likely 3D Printed). The motor controller mount does not need to provide room for the large switch on it (which is about (15x20x12cm) - since it is starting to seem like we wont have too much room in the car, this is starting to seem like a fairly good idea. The DC input cables for the motor controllers should be located on their respective sides of the car to keep rear wiring neat. This means running a cable across to the other side in the rear electronics enclosure. Given how much space we have in there, this should be fine.

Connector Purchase List:

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

We should purchase at least 1 extra of the panel mount connectors so we can power the motors from a power supply instead of batteries for testing.

ALSO - we need to get our hands on an HVSLP033002 for assembly of the right angle connectors.
Ultimately, we decided to go for the straight connectors to avoid having to find or make this tool.