To help design a harness for members, I rhinogated my 2018 EL-hd
Took out the oem controller and plugged in a 48v S6 controller that I had cloned to a 2012 Ranger EV.
Everything else is stock. 48v lead, 17:1 gears, charger, and converter are untouched.
Ranger has 3 modes. Economy, low, and high.
Economy I have set to 75% power and 30mph
Low is 15mph full power
High is 35mph full power
Regen can be set to different values in each mode.
First test seems fine. It’s no hotrod, but the 35mph lets me keep up with traffic.
Rubber mounted transmission is smooth running 9,000 rpm
Not bad, just limited to lsv/nev rules.
Polaris Ranger is 4wd utv. The three modes can be anything you want. Turf etc.
Forgot to mention. Next step is to turn power down to S4 levels. 450amps, to see if a S4 will cut it.
S6 is 650 amps, but I doubt my little Gem agm batteries can supply that. The rangers have a double set and use the S6 Gen4 Sevcon to power the 8.5kw motor.
Gem uses S4 48v S4.
More info
Original Gem controllers will not run other sw.
Gem runs fine when limited to 450a, so a 48v S4 should work. I don’t have a source myself.
Good news
I do have 80v S6 controllers rated 550a
Available for an early adopter
Plug in kit to raise speed to 35mph- works from 40v to 120v- upgrade battery later
Need programmed controller and harness kit to make the conversion
Easily reversible upgrade
About 3/4 mile end to end. 30mph plus 1/4 mile of 55mph to my brother’s store.
30 mph is a world of difference and no changes needed except the controller.
If I can get the word out, new Gem owners will be beating my door down.
A big plus is that this lays the groundwork for big battery and or big motor.
My truck motor is 6.5kw as built.
Plan for today is to replace the 48v s6 Sevcon with readily available 80v s6.
If that works, I can send it to you along with a wire harness.
This will be easy for you. No motor, battery, or charger swap. Just drill for the s6 controller and plug some wires in.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Got a little time today. Forgot where I was, but seems to run smooth.
The only issue is speed limits at 30mph.
Ranger program is holding back at 8500rpm.
Power map only goes to 6000rpm. I need to tune it up to 9000rpm if possible. It may be limited by low voltage, but a different program ran 35mph with the same 48v lead.
Good news is that the S6 80v controller is working. Nothing over 350a motor current, so may test with S4. That will reduce the cost considerably, but also limit power.
I believe it’s close enough that if a guinea pig let @MikeKC use a 2016+ Gem, we could have a winner soon.
We can get it going - you and I just need to spend some quality time together.
Send me your DCF, I will see if I can get it loaded on an S4 and setup the PDO’s.
Need some help testing on 48v though. Pdo’s can wait until I have a good running car.
I thought of copying power map from one of our 9,000rpm files, but that changes with voltage.
Only need another efficient 1,000 rpm and I’m good.
Maybe someone near one of us needs a little more speed.
The only guy I know of is in NC. And wants the whole @grantwest treatment. Too big a job for me.
The S6 80v Ranger system is running pretty well in my 2018 EL.
Controller-only change.
Whenever you’re ready. Need feedback right away, so wait until you have time.
You may not like it as-is. Same pathetic performance as 48v Gems have new. Speed limit raised to 35mph.
This is what most users will want, I think, boosting acceleration will cut range dramatically.
On the plus side, voltage can be raised to 60v without changing other parts.
With a dci charger, to 100v +.
@grantwest
Logged a run. 37mph/9500rpm uses less than 50a, as you predicted. High speed profile #2 set to 90% torque and 9500rpm. Only needs a fraction of full torque to maintain speed.
However there was an event logged over 350a @ 30 rpm. Set at 550a max motor current.
So it looks like starting from zero speed it what eats the juice.
Other than that the S6 is ready to rock.
