Hello all. I have not tinkered with my Gem in a while and it’s time
I have a 2002 Gem with
Chevy bolt lithium battery
Ride for fun motor
Higher gear ratio
My T1 controller keeps over heating. I have the controller on a heat sink and computer fans blowing.
What would be a better controller. I have limited capabilities when it comes to soldiering. But I am willing to try anything right now
Was thinking to change to t2 but wanted everyone opinions
Thanks
Wow- It’s been a while…
I had to go back and review your build. Have there been any changes since your last post?
Still getting your -41? Or something else?
How long before it is set? - Immediate? Or after a 30 minute run with the pedal mashed on the floor? How long do you have to wait before it clears?
Gears - Still 8.9’s? Was this by choice? or what came in the car?
What size tire? - (Tire height, not rim size-) Are they properly inflated? Brakes dragging? Why make it any harder than necessary to move this car around?
What terrain are you in? - Flat or rolling hills?
Heat sink from Inwo and mini fans - How did this turn out? (post some pics) Perhaps some refinement in this area is needed?
-Did the install of the heat sink assembly help at all?
-Did you get any more run time before code set?
-Did you use thermal paste?
-Is there any room for something bigger?
-Is it getting enough air flow?
Programming - Have you been into your controller and looked at your numbers? There might be room do dial back a few parameters
How hot is your motor getting? - If only warm then we should look for some other means of electron consumption.
Is your controller actually getting hot? - Maybe you are getting a false code from a thermistor that has been cooked too many times. I might have a blown up T1 here. Let me see if I can find where the heat sensor is mounted. Have you tried another T1?
Bad connection? - Specifically on the A1/A2 terminals. I worked with someone a while back that melted his case due to a loose and dirty post. It is possible it can generate heat and setting off the thermistor if it is located near the terminal.
(Pics from previous thread)
T1 and T2 are both 350 amp controllers. Similar design, T2 has better firmware. I doubt that T2 would solve the overheat
I always assumed the FET count was higher in the T2? (spread out the amp load?)
Maybe I’m thinking if T3/T4? 500A and the T3 is running cripple-ware
Could the windings/roto settings be off and causing too much heating in the controller and motor?
BTW, I did some evaluation of a diode laser cooling when there was a muffin fan at the end of a long heatsink and what I found was that the airflow was ejected from the heatsink in the first 30%. There was little to no cooling at the lower half of the heatsink.
What I found worked way better was to close off the upper side for 30-50% of the heatsink and this caused the airflow to be more laminar and travelled down the full heatsink length and did a better job at cooling. YMMV.
Wow thanks for the in-depth approach
I do get an error about 30 mins into driving it. I forget the error right now since it has been parked for a while now. We have used it in the Local Parade and it over heats even going slow. luckily they were able to finish the parade before it got to hot.
The tires are 12s and are brand new! the brakes seem free to move, no rubbing.
We are driving on main roads/Streets
Heat sink did prolong the over heating and yes I used thermal paste. I was getting the over heating code much quicker with out the fans and heat sink
What code number should I check to see if it is way out of wack?
The controller is defiently getting hot. I have looked for bad connections and everything seems tight.
I when to the higher gears way back when I received the Gem to try and get more speed out of it. I was able to get 5-10 mph right off the bat. then I started working with someone on programing it. I do have the original program code numbers vs what we changed.
thanks for all the help. Let me know what else I can do to help fix this thing. it is almost to the point we don’t want to drive it.
Dougl
What setting would that be. I have a sheet here of what my settings are compared to what they were before we started changing things.
might be a good idea to post those since it sounds like you and someone else went in an started changing things and then it started overheating.
What setting would that be.
This is very tough to say since we don’t know what was messed with in your controller. Post a screen shot of your numbers and maybe something will jump out. Do you have access to Sentry Software and have the ability to get in and adjust the numbers?
T5 swap or BS?
A Rebuilt T-1 upgraded to T-2 was the Normal upgrade that lots of us did to get over the overheat issue. You will need a few parts to make the upgrade. Let me see if I can find the thread T-2 Swap
This LG post offers swap to a T5.
I have never seen anyone swap a T-1 or T-2 car for a T5. I wonder what that would entail. Don’t know how much work that would be. I’m pretty sure a swap to a Rebuilt T-2 would fix the Over heat issue.
Lg, said that it’s a factory upgrade from t2. News to me.
What would I lose by swapping to a T2. hoping it will help on the over heating. and does anyone still have a 24 to 12 pin plug?
thanks
I’m not a believer. Even though it’s LG. 
Ask him about it.
I could get it to run the motor, but dash functions will be lost.
T1 to T2 swap is easy. At one time I made the 8p to 12p adapters. Not difficult but time consuming one at a time. May yet be available through normal channels.
T1 Direct swap to a T4
Theory: I hesitate to even suggest something I have not personally tried, But I think (electrically) a Gen1 car would have the proper inputs for a T4.
However, you will probably lose the little round display. The swap gets complicated when you attempt to wire up the Gen2 Display as it has a few components inside the PSDM that it needs to function.
Thinking out loud -
A swap of this caliber would be quite the handful, as you will need to source more than just a new controller. To make this easier, you would also need a PSDM, throttle pedal, Dash Pod assembly (including plastics), turn signal stalk, and the entire wire harness out of a Gen2 car. You might as well start looking for a complete Gen2 car and use that as your new project.
So in other swap with the T2 