Dear all,
I may not be addressing the correct forum here, though motors, mechanics, and power seemed to be the best place for my question.
I'd like to build an electric vehicle sometime in the next ten years! It seems to me that an industrial Variable Frequency Drive would be the obvious choice for the control of the AC drive motor. My understanding of the VFD is that it takes 3-phase electricity, rectifies it, charges up large capacitors to 600vdc (or thereabouts), then chops that dc to synthesise the output waveform.
A common failure mode of a VFD is failure of the capacitors, so it would seem obvious that if a 400- 600vdc battery pack were connected to this dc link then the basis of a vehicle drive system could be implemented...that's my simplistic view.
Has anyone here actually done this here? If so, what were the unexpected (at the time) pitfalls and how were they overcome?
Could a VFD modified in this way be used to provide regenerative braking and therefore perform on a par with one from a mass produced car?
It's just an interest at the moment...but you never know...
GM