I've been very slack about updating this thread, but I have been steadily working on this project. There is some more on my blog, although that's running six months behind as well! Will put some more up soon. Starting to put together a controller that can run the minimised "bench Kona", and then it'll finally be time to put it all into a car.
Maybe... there are definitely ways to trip an interlock, one of the controller functions I've got working replicates the "crash" signal from the airbag ECU and can be used for this purpose. Presumably the high voltage contactors will always open immediately for safety if you do this. If that happens in a moving vehicle the accepted wisdom is that it'll blow the motor controller and maybe other components (i.e. the energy generated by the turning motor still needs to go somewhere, and in the absence of a battery the voltage on the HV bus spikes up until something gives out.) Of course with a runaway unloaded motor there is a lot less inertia and energy than a moving vehicle, so that voltage spike will be much smaller and the power electronics might survive. I have not been brave enough to test this out.
In other testing (documented in a blog post) we found that a Kona's motor will run away if you lift the two driving wheels off the ground, without any modifications or removed modules. So I'm not hopeful that there will be a control system solution to this problem. I'm counting on fitting the motor in a direct drive setup, with a manual gearbox locked into a single gear. This isn't ideal as I'm converting a ute and I'd like an option for higher torque & lower speed sometimes, but at least it'll be safe from runaway.
Awesome! Sounds like a rough accident though, I hope it's not too mangled.
