[ausev] A little confused about motors....

[Rob]

Yes - Batteries provide DC.
Yes - AC motors are may be cheaper than DC expect that both types of motor
require a controller

A DC controller is simpler - it has to modulate the power output from the
batteries to the motor (pulse width modulation)

An AC controller is more complex - it converts the battery DC into variable
frequency AC that governs the motor RPM (frequency modulation).  It is much
more complex and therefore expensive.

The combination of AC motor + controller is much more expensive.

-----Original Message-----
From: ausev-bounces at austinev.org [mailto:ausev-bounces at austinev.org] On
Behalf Of evehicle4me at hischopsticks.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 7:41 PM
To: ausev at austinev.org
Subject: [ausev] A little confused about motors....


I have only a basic understanding of electricity which is probably why  
I am having some difficulty with this question.  When I looked at the  
album of e-cars on austinev I noticed that some had AC motors and some  
had DC, yet all had batteries.  Why is this?  Doesn't DC (from a  
battery) need to be converted to AC to be able to power an AC motor?   
Is there a significant loss in the process?

I have noticed that larger AC motors are cheaper than larger DC motors  
- at least there are more second hand AC motors available.

And while you are at it...what is the difference between one phase and  
three phase, etc?

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