Curtis 1212S Manual,
Rev. B
27
6 — VEHICLE PERFORMANCE ADJUSTMENT
6
VEHICLE PERFORMANCE ADJUSTMENT
The 1212S controller’s adjustable parameters allow many aspects of vehicle
performance to be optimized. Once a vehicle/motor/controller combination
has been tuned, the parameter values can be made standard for that system
or vehicle model. Any changes in the motor, the vehicle drive system, or the
controller will require that the system be tuned again to provide optimum
performance.
The tuning procedures should be conducted in the sequence given, because
successive steps build upon the ones before. It is important that the effect of
these programmable parameters be understood in order to take full advantage
of the controller’s features. Please refer to the descriptions of the applicable
parameters in Section 3 if there is any question about what any of them do.
Instructions are provided for the following four tuning steps.
5
Setting the maximum speeds
6
Setting the acceleration and deceleration rates
7
Adjusting load compensation
8
Fine-tuning the vehicle’s response smoothness.
5
Setting the maximum speeds
The four maximum speeds with full throttle applied are set by the four Max
Speed parameters:
M1/M2 Max Speed and M1/M2 Rev Max Speed.
Each of the maximum speeds is programmed as a percentage of the maximum
possible speed. Set each of the maximum speed parameters to give the desired
performance.
6
Setting the acceleration and deceleration rates
The acceleration and deceleration functions have been designed to provide
smooth throttle response when maneuvering at low speeds and snappy throt-
tle response when traveling at high speeds. This is accomplished by defining
acceleration/deceleration rates at each end of the throttle range. The rates are
scaled linearly between these two endpoints. Four pairs of parameters define
the endpoints of the acceleration/deceleration curves:
Forward acceleration: Accel
Min Speed — Accel Max Speed
Forward deceleration: Decel
Low Speed — Decel High Speed
Reverse acceleration:
Rev Accel
Min Speed — Rev Accel Max Speed
Reverse deceleration: Rev Decel
Low Speed — Rev Decel High Speed.
The programmed acceleration and deceleration rates are independent of
mode. However, it makes sense to adjust the low speed rates under the slowest
speed conditions (Mode 1) and the high speed rates under the fastest speed
