29mm to 35mm to 50mm -> My evolution to the Cromotor

[Ypedal]

alright.. so what's the holdup ? .. you in a body cast or something ?

how un-methods like to take this long getting a motor bolted up to something.. anything.... at least for a test ride.. heh heh..

[methods]

My kid came out 3 weeks early and caught us by surprise
We were trapped in a hospital by psychopaths for 5 days
I am frantically trying to pack up my house and shop to move it 1.5 hours away... to a house that is not yet built~! Just a gutted out trailer in the woods.

All of my stuff is currently in a pile under a tarp in an old burned out greenhouse.
The mother in law has been here for 2 weeks
I am buried in emails and orders

that pretty much sums it up.
Oh yea - I have a newborn that keeps me up all night, I am totally broke (because I have not had time to take many new orders), and it is frigging nice outside.

Just soaking up the sun here in California. Eat your hearts out again this year Canadians.

-methods

[TylerDurden]

Congratz, DeviousDad.

(Dibs on a cigar.)

[Ypedal]

wow.. now that's a very valid excuse !!!!

Congratulations on the new baby !!!! ... must take after his/her dad.. sooner rather than later !

[nicobie]

2 weeks?

You poor man!

Congrats on the kid.

[GCinDC]

holy crap. awesome! congrats! sounds messy!

wondering if the thread title should be ... My Evolution to Cro-Magnon Man

[methods]

Its about time for a few updates.

Everything is moved to my new shop in Santa Cruz. The trike, motor, wheel, tire, spokes, controller, wiring, batteries - everything. So in good historical standing we start with one of my awesome lunches

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Some of my fine prototype work

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And the f'ed up dump that is currently serving as my office and will later serve as my home

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So I broke down that controller that I got from Farfle which was originally built by Stevo. It was a bad ass proven controller - but damn ugly

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I dont want to hurt your feelings guys... but a little bit of alcohol goes a long way (and not just on a first date!) Look at how pretty this is now - all ready for some 250V 1.2uF ceramic capacitors.

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The thing I love about these caps is how much power they punch in such a tiny package. You can just sprinkle them around for good measure - here I sprinkled 6uF around in parallel with the poly caps on the other side of the board.

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Then I started experimenting with making up some super low profile caps. You cant tell from this picture but this ceramic is half as thin as the 250V AC, has about the same capacitance but much lower ESR. This will be a lot cleaner when we spin the PC boards and they will do up to 5 in parallel for 6uF. Double sided will get you 12uF. Easily fit between 8AWG cables and the case and has heavy 12awg legs.

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Anyways I then conformal coated the controller and cleaned up some of the other wiring/switches. It is pretty much ready to go.

-methods

[hjns]

Hi Methy,

Nice work! And contrats with the now one month old brat. Is the mum ok?

[Farfle]

That thing is going to be scary power in a 20" kmx looking forward to trike power wheelies

[methods]

And contrats with the now one month old brat. Is the mum ok?

The kid is being a total brat and mum just wants to dote over him 24/7. I think I am starting to learn why men build their shop on the other end of the property - and it has only been a few weeks!

That thing is going to be scary power in a 20" kmx looking forward to trike power wheelies

I am getting really frustrated and excited. I KNOW this thing is going to be insane - even the 8x8 9C in the trike was an amazing thrill... I cant imagine. At the moment I am debating between a slick rear tire and a 16" motorcycle tire. All of our roads out here are dirt with rocks so I am afraid that with anything slick I am just going to lose traction. But... I dont know how much I will be riding this un-suspended monster on the dirt roads - may only ride it on the paved roads in which case the 16" motorcycle would just be a mess.

There are a few miles of amazing windy road just calling me - f'ing death trap but calling me.

Latest hangup is filing the drops on the trike. I thought I was just going to be able to hack in there but it turns out that on one side there is a solid 10mm of material but on the other it is pretty thin... maybe 5mm... and that is both the trike frame and derailer bits

Anyway - I need to quit being a puss and just go do it no matter what the result.

-methods

[liveforphysics]

If you're local right now, I can just set this wheel on the back of my insight in the parking lot and you can swing by and grab it.

16" Pirelli diablo tire on a 20" rim. Stickier and longer lasting than any bicycle tire, and you won't be able to get a flat.

[methods]

Stop temping me Forker.... damn that is a sexy tire... but the reality is that I cant even afford to pay a bum to punch me in the face so taking that tire would just spoil me'self.

I have my $20 bmx tire to run

Hey - you have a good idea for getting this insane 16" knobby tire off of my BMX rim? My tire levers just break - they are the black plastic covered metal ones. Usually they do good for everything up to extreme downhill tires. Maybe I can bring the tire by your shop and you can pop it off the rim for me? I put a trailer on the wifes bike... I can ride it over there. Imagine that... ride an ebike

I am doing eagle layout for my Arduino Shield right now. Stealing parts from LadyAda... she is a very clever designer.

-methods

[Ypedal]

I've resorted to using kitchen butter knives ( if you got the thick stuff and an understanding wife .. or better yet, dont tell or ask her ) as tire levers !

I finally got a good set of motion-pro levers, that rock everything else on earth ...

Damn luke.. that tire looks tasty.. i suspect it wont clear the KMX frame tho.

[liveforphysics]

Come get this tire/wheel buddy. I'm tired on banging my shin against it sitting under my desk.

[bigmoose]

methods, sorry I missed the big news! Congrats on your new addition. I was going to ask if it is a boy, girl or a FET; but I see you mentioned your son above.

Just wait in a few months you will be building eStrollers for him with a joystick to control it. The joy is in the journey... and boy are you about to go on one!

[methods]

We took the kid out to the woods today. As you guys may know "urban decay" is what the wife and I like to explore... this is anything that once was and now isn't - ghost towns, abandoned mines, burned out sites, old camps, etc.

This time it was a wood mill that ran from ~1880 to ~1920 when it was retired by arson.

Can you see the bricks peeking out?

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There is nothing I like to see more than some urban decay deep in the woods. How could you not want to explore that? Up above and to the right we could see where the railroad used to run - a small piece of track was left on the side of the trail back a ways. Next time we plan to brave the poison oak to further explore the old tracks.

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Here is a shot of Tania crossing the creek down the way a bit.

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On the way out we found this big crazy cast iron piece of mesh. Not sure what it was originally but when I went down for a closer look (thinking I would try and pull it up) it was much thicker and beefier than I had expected.

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No updates on the Cro build other than to say that once you have a wife and a kid time dries up quick. I have so much ish I need/want to do that I actually need a dry erase board to keep track of it all.

-methods

[methods]

Finally...
Dont know what my problem was but I just could not get my ass in gear to complete this project. Finally Luke was kind enough to come over and hook me up. He did an awesome job modding out the ass end of my KMX. Has a pair of torque arms with full capture that bolt into the frame - super easy to remove. Absolutely rock solid and very clean - almost invisible. Full use of the disk brake and access to the freewheel thread to space it in and out.

Shortly I am sure you will see a movie of the maiden run which was a smokey burnout in my house at midnight. We got in a short ride before blowing up one of my prototype controllers - a perfect night.

No idea what the settings were out of the box - probably around 80A on 24S. Pulled pretty damn hard off the line - but there is room for more for sure.

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The rest of the bike is totally slapped together... unmatched wheels, zip ties, no pedals, whatever. All that stuff is easy to geek on later. The Cro is mounted and that is all anybody needs to know. Thinking about keeping a second cro for my Kona Stinky now that I have felt the fury.

-methods

[Farfle]

gotta get that big mofo 24 fet on there man!

[methods]

That was a 24 fet - but one that I had not yet programmed. Basically the same as the one I got from you but with more capacitance and copper

Tomorrow I am going to test the GreenTime controller then after I blow that up I will get to testing my cro with yours

-methods

[gensem]

Haha, I just love my cromotors... give it more juice and im sure you ll feel your heart pounding!

[Farfle]

I dont think that controller is possible to blow... Unless a phase short or low r/l motor. I ran it at 175 amps for 5-7 mins merging onto the highway and maintained 70mph till the offramp. Almost 200wh/mi at that speed. Plus, its got a thermal breaker tied into the ignition line thats strapped to the back of the fet heatsink, even if you do find a way to get it hot, it won't let you cook it completely.

[Ypedal]

even if you do find a way to get it hot

Awww come on .. have a little faith..

[liveforphysics]

This was my longest distance covered in a burnout inside someones house to date.

Thank you for letting me rip on the trike bro, that thing rocks.

[kentlim26]

hi LUKE,
wow, that one SURE got more then 80amps output, it could be much more higher. what is the peak output power ?

kent

[methods]

Texting while driving on way to RadioCrack to get thermal grease so I can give farfunkles controller a spin. Excited... I want to smash my face and swallow teeth