About power wheelchairs...

[IgoVROOM]

Hi, I'm hoping I'm allowed to post here about DIY questions and not just forum stuff.

I was thinking of trying to modify an electric wheelchair to go faster and I had a bunch of questions.
1. How would someone go about removing the voltage cap inside the circuit board?
2. Could you simply increase the power supply, or would this likely destroy sensitive components (are there any?) inside the circuit board (excluding the motor burning out)?
3. If it was possible to increase the power supply without destroying the circuit board (perhaps by upgrading parts of it) would it be possible to replace the original motor with a new one? Would this involve issues with the gearbox?

 

[landuse]

Hi, I'm hoping I'm allowed to post here about DIY questions and not just forum stuff.

I was thinking of trying to modify an electric wheelchair to go faster and I had a bunch of questions.
1. How would someone go about removing the voltage cap inside the circuit board?
2. Could you simply increase the power supply, or would this likely destroy sensitive components (are there any?) inside the circuit board?
3. If it was possible to increase the power supply without destroying the circuit board (perhaps by upgrading parts of it) would it be possible to replace the original motor with a new one? Would this involve issues with the gearbox?

Welcome to the forum!! You can ask any questions, as long as they loosly relate to engine powered vehicles. If it is something electric related, start a thread in the electric section. If it is something else, there is an off topic related section, If it is a build log of something other than karts and wheeled stuff, there is also the More Builds section where any build goes.

 

[IgoVROOM]

Welcome to the forum!! You can ask any questions, as long as they loosly relate to engine powered vehicles. If it is something electric related, start a thread in the electric section. If it is something else, there is an off topic related section, If it is a build log of something other than karts and wheeled stuff, there is also the More Builds section where any build goes.

ok, thanks

 

[itsid]

why exactly is this a FAQ?

Anyways..

if the intention is to make it faster, then you asked the wrong questions.
1) remove the voltage regulators and short the I/Os , but that'll NOT make the wheelchair faster, it'll simply destroy the circuit board!

2) increasing the powr supply? you talk about increasing the voltage again, right?
see above: ALL components have a voltage limit, most will not care much if you run 36 instead of 24V through the system.. but the important ones will fail;
Just get a new controller!

3) it's not, but yes getting a different motor could cause issues with the gear box as well.
without seeing and testing it's hard to tell what it can handle, but it's designed to run very slow. So it's most likely not up for the task of running fast

'sid

 

[Standard issue]

Most power wheelchairs are slow because they're geared super low so that they can carry pretty hefty people without bogging or burning out. If you changed the gearing and used the stock electronics in a lighter frame, you could get it going pretty good.