The Power Wheels we always Wanted!!!

[amberwolf]

Now THAT is the kind of EV grin I love to see.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason it seems a lot smaller than I imagined it was.

Now you just need to up the voltage, take out the current limit, and put it on a drag strip.

[Quajochem]

Now THAT is the kind of EV grin I love to see.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason it seems a lot smaller than I imagined it was.

Now you just need to up the voltage, take out the current limit, and put it on a drag strip.

I believe it's smaller because the frame was originally made to house a chair and not much more than that.

[inspiredvoltfreak]

Honestly, it was a lot smaller than I thought it was too and I'm the one building it. When i sit in it my knees are bent at 90 degrees and my feet are resting on the black footplate/bumper up front.

The neat thing with the contactor controller is that when it's in 12v mode the relays are paralleled which means 2 x 30Amp relays gives 60 amps of punch to start off with, then when you go to 24v mode they get put in series so you now have 24v 30 amp which is more than enough to keep this thing going.

Currently nothing even gets warm when i'm driving it around like a mad man despite having put tires on it that are double the diameter of the originals. SO I have no reservations about trying to over volt it to 36 or 48 volts. I could simply switch out the 2 bigger batteries for 4 smaller ones.

I'm also considering that the current motor has a low rpm/v. I might see if i can find a different motor with higher rpm/v to swap in. I'm pretty sure I took that motor off and it had a rubber shock absorbing disc coupler in between it and the transmission, i know many power chairs use that same design. So at the most I might need to drill a new bolt pattern into the trannie housing.

The motor is currently a cheap 2 pole without even removable brushes. We have robust 4 pole motors constantly being thrown in the scrap metal because they come as one piece from the supplier with the transmission attached and the trannie is the part that's munched. Then there's also the idea of turning the brushes a little bit to change the timing. But that's not always a good idea as amps can go WAY up.

(ON a side note, reminds me of a hobby motor i had when i was in my teens that was designed for6 volts and i ran it at 12 volts with the timing adjusted. that thing had such a wicked gyroscoping effect that it would stand on it's output shaft vertically as the shaft was spinning probably 10-15,000 rpm on the cement in front of our garage and bounce around as it hit the little imperfections, it was quite fun to watch)

if i did {correction, when i do} over volt it. I will put a switch on the front for each additional 12 volts so i can disable the higher speeds for those who aren't ready for them. i.e. my kids.

[Quajochem]

All wheel chair motors are low-rpm so you'd have to get a high-rpm non wheelchair motor..
As long as you program the controller lame you could also do with changing the gears to an even faster setting..

And it's also small because it was not built to go fast, it had to be small and manouvrable to fit through the door...

[Quajochem]

They also have huge torque, because someone who is completely immobile should be able to get up a steep hill anyway without overheating, these things were built for safety and reliability, so you can stretch it's gears alot further if you want to.. It just wouldn't be as agressive as you like, more like a diesel..

[Quajochem]

I don't know I didn't read this whole tread, but do you use the stock controller?
I happend know from where I worked there are alot of settings in that software, I had to use a dongle to open the program.
But there are settings like timing; how long between a stop and a start, reaction time, what happends when you jamm it in reverse at full speed, and how the power progresses with a certain amont of throttle and rpm, just the most precise I have ever seen, completely regulated as to not overheat the motor or create dangerous situations while driving, very smooth.
Once i set all those settings to zero and the thing became nervous as an angry bull! Great stuff!

[inspiredvoltfreak]

I don't know I didn't read this whole tread, but do you use the stock controller?
I happend know from where I worked there are alot of settings in that software, I had to use a dongle to open the program.
But there are settings like timing; how long between a stop and a start, reaction time, what happends when you jamm it in reverse at full speed, and how the power progresses with a certain amont of throttle and rpm, just the most precise I have ever seen, completely regulated as to not overheat the motor or create dangerous situations while driving, very smooth.
Once i set all those settings to zero and the thing became nervous as an angry bull! Great stuff!

No, stock controller died that's why it went to the scrap pile. I replaced it with a contactor controller (relays). Yeah, i work in the mobility industry so i'm well aware of the crazy number of settings on these things.

[Quajochem]

[amberwolf]

The motor is currently a cheap 2 pole without even removable brushes. We have robust 4 pole motors constantly being thrown in the scrap metal because they come as one piece from the supplier with the transmission attached and the trannie is the part that's munched.

Just remember that the 4-pole will spin at half the speed of the 2-pole, most likely, so driving the same transmission you'll end up needing twice the battery voltage to get the same speed out of the vehicle. Or twice the wheel diameter. (this was the case with the ones I have here, that drive rright-angle gearboxes for direct wheel mounting; I assume it'll be the same for the transverse box you have there).

But the 4-pole will also probably let you climb a mountain with it if the batteries can take it.

[Quajochem]

I would just put 48V on it and make the rear wheels even bigger, aswell as the front wheels, lower the frame and lengthen it and see what happens

[inspiredvoltfreak]

Pictures to be added later.

I brought it in to work for modifications and improvements this week. It turned out my daughter was strong enough to pull the steering wheel to go, but not strong enough to push it to stop. Recepie for disaster? So I had to do a force multiplication of some sort and this is what I came up with. Originally the cables connected directly and I had no problem locking the wheels up. Now I can lock them up with very minimal force so I think she shouldn't have any problem.



The other thing I've done is moved my manual disconnect switch up front onto a new dash I built for it. The gauge is an amps gauge and on level ground the needle shows about 5 amps. I climbed the hill outside our building and it drew a touch over 30 amps which is what the relays are rated at. I have 40 amp automatic circuit breakers for each battery so in low speed mode I can pass 60 amps through the relays or 80 amps through the breakers. Climbing the hill at high speed was as much as this circuit is rated for. But my kids weigh significantly less than I do so I think they'll be fine. I can climb at low speed.



My kids are homeshooled and I plan on making this car the center of many homeschooling lessons. Partly because of this I have decided to ad an angle gauge as pictured below which was salvage from a quickie iris manual wheel chair. This way I can ask questions like "in high speed mode climbing a 10 degree hill what was the amperage draw from the batteries" Gotta teach em young!