
14
20 - Wheel System, Traction
Functional Description
The SC901 machine is driven by an electrically
powered transaxle The transaxle is an open
differential powered by a 1/2 hp, permanent
magnet, 36V motor A Curtis 1228 solid state
speed controller regulates the speed and
direction of the wheel drive motor The motor
speed controller is located in the electrical
compartment of the battery bay The drive
controller uses what is called a “Wigwag”
configuration for throttle and direction control,
and a speed limiting potentiometer to set the
maximum machine speed These are discussed
further below
Speed Limiting Potentiometer
The speed limiting potentiometer (R1 pot) is a
3-wire variable resistor connected to the Speed
Limit input of the drive controller This pot
sets the upper speed limit of the controller,
which serves to “scale” the speed range for the
throttle potentiometer This scaling permits full
throttle movement to control machine speed, even when the
maximum speed is set very low
The drive controller itself provides the 5-volt bias voltage to
both the speed limit and throttle potentiometers
Wigwag Throttle Potentiometer
The throttle potentiometer (R2 pot) is controlled by the
drive paddles When the drive paddles are pushed forward,
the output voltage from the potentiometer increases toward
5 volts, and when the paddles are pulled back, the output
voltage decreases toward 0 volts In the neutral position, the
potentiometer output voltage is approximately 2 5 volts, plus
or minus a margin of error called the deadband
The Curtis 1228 drive controller interprets these output
voltages as forward, reverse, and neutral When the drive
controller receives a throttle input voltage greater than 2 5V
plus the deadband voltage (0 2V), it interprets the command for forward motion That is, a voltage from 2 7
to about 5 volts (4 6V actually) is a forward voltage, and a voltage from 2 3 to about 0 volts (0 4V actually), is
a reverse voltage Note that even though the potentiometer is biased between 0 and 5 volts, the actual wiper
voltage range is 0 4 to 4 6 volts
Control
Handle
Transaxle
Drive
Paddles
Speed
Limit Pot
Hour
Meter
Key
Switch