Hi Chris,
Your voltage will be unregulated, leading to excessive motor speed.
A brushed motor controller naturally runs on the negative leg (nice smirk, Myles!), so a single controller would work just fine. You could also build a voltage regulator to limit the potential, with the balance of the energy (50%) going to heat. Since the windlass is a low duty-cycle, this isn't much of a problem.
Go with the motor controller to make the best use of your battery power.
Be Well,
Arby
How about something as simple as a high power resistor(s) in series with the 48V DC supply sized right resistance wise to cut the voltage to the motor in half? I found some power divert resistors at a solar/wind power site. The resistor would get warm but only for a couple minutes. Thoughts?
Chris
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Put the motor controller on the negative (common) lead. Your windless motor will be running off the "top" is the string, but no problem. Just make sure it's not sharing a common ground with the house bank.
Be Well,
Arby
Worst case: use two controllers.
Be Well,
Arby
Oh, I forgot to mention that the motor has 3 leads; one forward, one reverse, and one negative.
Chris
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Arby,
I like this idea best. Just trying to sort out the best approach. The standard way to run a windlass is with 2 foot switches on deck, one forward and one reverse. The deck switches pick up solenoids that send full battery voltage to the motor to make it run forward or backward. I'd prefer to keep this arrangement and not need a throttle for the controller. Couldn't I just use the foot switches to apply a fixed voltage via a voltage divider to the throttle input of the controller? I'm assuming that if I had a 24V motor and I input 1/2 throttle the motor would run full speed with my 48V supply. Can anyone suggest a controller for this application? Looking at max 1500 watts.
Thanks,
Chris
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Easy. No problem.
Use a brush motor controller to modulate the 48v to what ever voltage you'd like.
Don't exceed the rated RPM of the original motor. You can monitor the apparent voltage with a simple DC voltmeter.
Be Well,
Arby
Can you really not tap off the 48V battery bank at 24 or 36V?
It's not ideal, but hopefully you wouldn't need to run the windlass long enough to drain half the bank.
Mark,
Thanks. I'd like to eliminate the need for more batteries.
Chris
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1500 watts at 24 volts would be 62.5 Amps.
Would take a few DC/DC converters.
Possibly you could use the DC/DC to charge a small battery for the windlass.
Maybe some Dcell sized NIMH or Lipo batteries.
I beleive you can pull 10C out of most batteries. So 6 Amphr batteries would probably provide the current (60 amps).
The question would be how long do you need to use the motor and how much time is available to recharge.
just one idea
Hi group, My 12 volt windlass motor went out and the whole unit is not worth fixing. I've been researching new ones. I've found a couple manufacturers that make ones that run on 24V and 32V. That got me thinking, I've got this huge 48V propulsion bank at my disposal. I called Ideal Windlass and they are checking with their motor supplier about a 48V motor. I believe they are DC series motors. If I can't get a 48V windlass, could I step down my 48V to 32V or even 24V? We are talking around 1500 watts. I'm wondering if I could parallel a few DC/DC converters, if they could handle the inrush. Is there a simpler way? Thanks, Chris