| AC | Alternating Current, an electrical system where voltage oscillates in a sine wave. |
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| Battery | An energy storage device based on chemical reactions. Used as the power source for electric vehicles. |
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| BLDC | BrushLess Direct Current, refers to a type of motor which has no commutator or brushes, instead having its magnetic field rotated via electronic switching. |
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| Circuit Breaker | An electronic device designed to switch off automatically when current flow through the device exceeds a threshold. Used as a resettable fuse for safety. |
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| Commutator | The part of a brush motor's rotor which controls transmission of power into the rotor coils to maintain magnetic field rotation. |
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| DC | Direct Current, referring to a type of electrical flow where current flows continuously in one direction. |
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| EV | Electric Vehicle, any vehicle which uses electric motors as its sole means of propulsion. |
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| HEV | Hybrid Electric Vehicle, any type of vehicle which uses an electric motor as a supplement to it's prime mover (usually a petrol engine). |
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| ICE | Internal Combustion Engine, a type of machine which converts fuel and air into mechanical motion by burning it in an enclosed space. Sometimes called Infernal Combustion Engine. |
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| IGBT | Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, a type of semiconductor transistor designed for high power amplifiers. |
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| Lead Acid | An old type of rechargeable battery commonly used in older electric vehicles and as auxilliary batteries in ICE vehicles. |
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| LFP | LiFePO4, or Lithium Iron Phosphate, a type of lithium ion battery technology boasting very long lifespans and (relatively) robust operating range. |
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| Lithium Ion | A type of battery which uses lithium ions as the charge carrier. Very high power density, though relatively expensive. |
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| Lithium Polymer | A newer type of lithium ion battery, offering the highest power densities though at the expense of robustness. (Not very tolerance of overcharging or overtemperature conditions.) |
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| MOSFET | Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor, the most common type of transistor used in modern amplifiers and motor speed controllers. |
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| PHEV | Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, a type of hybrid vehicle which has the option of having its batteries recharged from an external source (such as mains power). Usually they have a larger battery enabling ~50km range on electric drive alone. |
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| PWM | Pulse Width Modulation, a high-efficiency technique for controlling voltage output in a motor controller or voltage converter. |
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| Regen | Abbreviation for Regenerative Braking, a system where the electric drive motor is used as a generator to recover kinetic energy from the vehicle while slowing it down. |
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| Rotor | The part of an electric motor which rotates (connected to the drive shaft). |
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| Sepex | Abbreviation for Separately Excited, referring to the way in which a DC motor's field coils are energised. In a Sepex motor, they require a separate power source. |
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| Shunt | 1) A very low value, high power resistor used as a reference for current measurement. Using ohms law, the voltage drop across the known resistance is proportional to the current flowing.
2) A format of DC motor, referring to the field coils being connected in parallel with the rotor coils. |
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| Stator | The part of an electric motor which does not rotate, usually referring to the field coils. |
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| ZEVA | Zero Emission Vehicles Australia. Surely you should know that already!? |
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