Reading the rules, it looks like they are pretty serious about having
you design and build your own controller:
"The motor controller MUST be purpose-built
for the Shell Eco-marathon. Modifications to purchased motor
controllers or the use of purchased
motor controller evaluation kits are not acceptable. Motor
controllers built from sub-components
such as single-board computers, power stages, etc. are encouraged. If
a motor controller is built
incorporating one or more single printed circuit boards (PCBs), the
text "SEM" needs to be
included in the mask of the PCB etching. "
Why they want you to do this, I have no idea, but they make the
rules. If you want to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon, you must
follow their rules.
A DC controller is the simplest, but will it provide the efficiency
to win this competition? It would get you down the road, but it is
not the best technology and it is not all that much harder to make
the leap into a brushless drive. You have to build some kind of
electronics either way. You might as well build something competitive.
A "brushless DC" controller is probably the simplest AC controller to
design and build. Lots of examples on line. Brushless DC is what most
bicycle drives run. Not all that difficult to build by copying some
on-line example and copying the code that runs it. You can use
commercial power stages, which is the hardest part. You can buy an
Arduino kit, with motor, power stage, power caps, etc. Get it
running. Then make your own goofy printed circuit board that connects
the Arduino computer module to the power stage, battery, power caps,
etc. and you have 100% satisfied the rules. (Doesn't require you to
write the code, thank goodness.)
Here is an example that is not too bad to follow:
http://www.instructables.com/id/BLDC-Motor-Control-with-Arduino-salvaged-HD-motor/
You would likely have to scale up the power stage, but that shouldn't
be too difficult.
You can likely get one of the many printed circuit board houses to
take mercy on your team and coach you through the process of making a PCB.
Bill D.
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