Hi all!

I recently inherited some parts from a treadmill to start a project. I have the motor, a 130VDC unit, and a controller board labeled ICON MC1650LS-2W. I have figured out all the connections for the motor, power input, et cetera, but I am stumped on the input header. I know that Header 4 (HD4) is where the input from the treadmill's control panel plugged in, but it's different from all the ones I can find online. The other controller boards from the same company have either three pins (for a potentiometer) or have eight pins for an incoming PWM signal.

I will also attach a photo of the cable that connects to it.

I do NOT have the upper control panel, so I can't use that for any diagnostics.

If anyone can help with what input I need here, and which pins connect to what, I would greatly appreciate it. Photos attached.

Thanks!
Jack

 

I would also like to say that yes, I have Googled for hours to try to find schematics or pinouts, but mostly what I find are the other boards, or links to where I can buy what I already have!

Jack

 

Can you tell what the IC's U1, U2, U7 are?, they appear to be opto's.
Max.

 

Can you tell what the IC's U1, U2, U7 are?, they appear to be opto's.
Max.

Good eye - they are L1636 817A W, which comes back as an 817A Optocoupler. Now, I'll admit ignorance as to what they are, but you seem to be onto something. Thoughts?

 

For opto's the input is going to be a digital signal of some kind, not a simple 10k pot.
I would do a little reverse engineering and trace where the 4 pins of the HD4 go to, opto, gnd, +ve etc, based on this you could experiment with a 555 based PWM input to one leading to opto pins.
Max.

 

Thanks, I can do that. I may have to come back, though, for guidance once I figure out where they go!

Thanks, MaxHeadRoom

 

For opto's the input is going to be a digital signal of some kind, not a simple 10k pot.
I would do a little reverse engineering and trace where the 4 pins of the HD4 go to, opto, gnd, +ve etc, based on this you could experiment with a 555 based PWM input to one leading to opto pins.
Max.

Hi Max,

Thanks for the guidance. I used my meter to run down traces, and here's what I found:

1 - ground

2 - when connected to ground, I got a momentary beep from the meter that would go away until the charge dissipated, then it would give another small beep, very momentarily.

3, 4 - connected to the optocouplers as indicated in the attached image.

The blue question mark indicates that I was not able to find ANY continuity between that pin and anything else on the board, at least, not as far as I could tell.

Any further guidance you can give would be very much appreciated. Again.

Jack

 

Can you see if 2 connects to any point that may be the low V+DC? 12vdc etc?
Max.

 

Can you see if 2 connects to any point that may be the low V+DC? 12vdc etc?
Max.

Well, I probed every single point that I could see, and pin 2 of HD4 only shows continuity with ground, and even then it's a momentary beep. It seems like there must be a capacitance there - though I was unable to directly locate any capacitor that showed continuity with it.

 

Update: I have been comparing my board with thenMC2100, and I see a lot of similarities. I believe pin 2 is the V+ supplied to the pwm unit. Now I have decided to build a pwm module for it.

The problem is that I now live in a town with no real suppliers, and most of my own collection is buried in a storage unit somewhere. Anyone know of a kit available?

 

There are ebay $4.00 versions, and DigiKey for a supplier if you need to build.
http://www.discovercircuits.com/DJ-Circuits/simplepwm2.htm
Max.

 

Max is right, that Icon unit appears to be Serial driven, as in "Digital" model treadmill. The serial info runs from upper to lower thru the offset opto's and the small connector looks to be control feedback like speed sensing.

 

hello. we are trying to use the same controller in a gokart application and were wondering if anything else was known about the circuit? specifically if there is any sort of tach signal. the exiting pin data seems consistent with our findings. thanks!

 

Is this the same board as the OP? MC1650LS-2W.
If so, so far there has been no confirmation of the type of signal, it does not resemble the MC2100 style, which requires a 50Hz PWM command signal.
The MC series do not require a tach signal to operate.
Max.

 

Yeah it is a MC1650LS-2W.
We cant seem to get a clean tach signal. We wanted a tach signal to get close loop control but experimentation continues without it.

We have speed control working with a PWM signal from an arduino but the ramp up / down rate of that signal is limited. We were tying the pulse width to a throttle pedal position but just sending it max from the min value (stomping on it) causes it to freakout and need a reset. Resetting takes a couple of seconds which is undesirable in a gokart. Same effect from going max to zero. A tach would give us a way to keep from asking too much. If we decide we NEED closed loop we may end up going with an optical wheel but also using a reed switch stuck on the side of the motor may work.

Right now we just have safe max ramp speed we apply and are controlling the throttle with a knob and buttons. Functions are: Set max speed (knob), Accel to Max (button), Brake to min (button), Brake to Zero (button), pause ramp (button), reset mode (button).

Since this is for a race application (http://www.powerracingseries.org/) this may be good enough.

Ill post updates and maybe some code as we figure out more.

 

I have never worked with the MC11650, just the MC2100, and that will ramp up slowly regardless, if you have the speed set for max and apply the start full PWM it ramps up at a preset built-in accel rate
Max.