[TubaMorg]

Hi and welcome to ChiefDelphi! Normally your post would have recieved numerous replies by now, but yours is a special situation that may be introducing some reluctance to many to replying for a number of reasons. As you are aware, most members on this forum are associated with FIRST in some way or another (not BattleBots!). We do indeed like to design and build robots, and I'm certain there are many on this site that can address your situation. Some concerns are, however, that when we make a mistake with our robots, generally only the robot suffers. In your case, however, bad advice could cause injury to YOU! Not something any of us wants to cause.

From your description of your problem, it sounds as if wheelchair speed controllers are designed to NOT provide full power to your drive wheels if it's not moving. The reason being that your motors are able to provide enough torque at full power to flip you upside down. Translated that means if your wheels are stuck and too much power is put to your drive wheels, you would simply be flipped out of your chair backwards. That is why your controller is designed to slowly increase power as you pick up speed. I imagine the same circuitry would prevent you from flipping if you were going backwards and suddenly changing directions to forward.

As far as burning your controller out, I would hope that a breaker of some sort is built into the circuit, to prevent over amps. I am guessing, though, that even with this protection, the controller still gets hot if you get stuck often enough. Maybe some additional cooling fans will help prevent this. Also try driving with a little more strategy. If you are going over some rough terrain that you know may cause you trouble, keep your chair moving until you find a good stopping spot that won't block your wheels. If you do get stuck and no one is available to boost you out, try rocking back and forth to get your wheels moving (like people in snowy areas do when their cars get stuck).

Sorry I can't be of any more help!