My solar-assisted custom tricycle FOLLIES

uhm...

That voltage alarm is (probably) pretty loud, (feels), but me, being pretty deaf, can't actually hear it. Which makes the alarm, of course, quite useless for me!
...So I guess I'll continue to just look at the meter before and after using the battery.

Commas for fun.

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while two trikes are better-er than one, three trikes is one too many.
Gotta figure out what to do with that third trike. My son has no place for it (no place for young men)
(for someone younger than 55, long-term rv parks are few 'round hare)

Too bad I live too far from amberbeast.
 
I've an interest in wwii machines and I recently noticed that MPDPM's interior dimensions is actually as big as early war medium bomber aircraft -amusing but horrifying.view from a seat.jpgHampden_cockpit_WWII_IWM_CH_1207.jpg in other news there is no new news
...but I always takes pics anywhoseshe alls and babby.jpglets go fishing.jpgshaded.jpgweirdest cloud formations on coast.jpg :pancake:
 
This is a pic of a Bombus occidentalis, or more commonly known as a Western Bumblebee, which, while having everything to do with e-trike operation, also appears to be a species rapidly going extinct.bimbly boo.jpgbimbly bee.jpg
 
some observers of this thread might wonder why I've applied over 500 RGB LED elements all over MPDPM's frame (My Personal Disco Pope Mobile)
Summer in my personal paradise is subjected to massive infusions of, what's commonly called fog is why.
almost pair of dice.jpg

25 miles or so inland temperatures climb over 100F but the coastline remains cool to the touch because of this thing called fog.shifting focus.jpgfoggy notion.jpg
 
That way with all the lights at least people can see the mothership before it lands on devil's tower....er...before they crash into it. ;)

Yeah, lighting, especially color lighting, can certainly help people see the self-lit vehicles/objects in a fog, though sometimes the lights make it harder to see past them to see other stuff, for the driver of the lit vehicle.
 
amberwolf said:
That way with all the lights at least people can see the mothership before it lands on devil's tower....er...before they crash into it. ;)

Yeah, lighting, especially color lighting, can certainly help people see the self-lit vehicles/objects in a fog, though sometimes the lights make it harder to see past them to see other stuff, for the driver of the lit vehicle.
As a driver of a car, caught in dense fog, I personally try to find a way to completely clear a road and wait for change (parking lot, driveway etc.) On the trike where I'm crawling along at a few miles-per-hour I want to get home safely and soon and the lights give me additional confidence that this will happen.
...although there is no solution to boni fide idiots who pretend to be drivers.
BTW- with the *new* *improved* RF controllers I can now instantly switch the lights to a flashing yellow (implies CAUTION) I lieks this...
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I'm not an ornithologist so forgive me if I misidentify a birdy or toody. In fact I'm completely not sure of this bird but it does 'fly' underwater for great distances before surfacing. (like a cormorant) I observed it covering distances over 200' in a few seconds
oh yeah... picshowdy hi.jpgwrong side.jpgstep by step  inch by inch.jpgbanded leggings.jpg
I think this is probably yer common tern, as opposed to yer not-so-common turn
 
The fingers said:
no idea what this bird is
Looks a lot like some kind of mud hen. :?
HA HA-made me look (for about 4 hours)
-due to my observations of the (solitary) birds' habits (diving from the surface, swimming like a penguin) I think it's probably a juvenile Common Murre.

But it could also be any number of accidentals that visit here from east Asia, Africa and Australia/New Zealand... I've spotted flamingos, spoonbills and other non-local birds here; mainly during winter months.

Here's some pics of birds I do know about *grins*
iSPY oSPREY.jpgmast err piece.jpggulls pelicans cormorrant.jpg
and because these are usually about:waaaa.jpg
 
...the best part to using a bike (or trike) as transportation is:
you can go as slow as you want (try doing that in a car or truck)a tern for the worse.jpg
 
reiterating the not-so-obvious:
Been riding bike and bike-like-objects for about 60 years where I've been hit by cars and trucks, run off the road and cut off at intersections too numerous to remember.
except while riding one particular trike which I estimate I've ridden over 10k miles due to the number of tire replacements (I accidentally reset the odometer regularly so have no reliable data there)
this one:low intensity nite cruise.jpghello flash.jpgI'm guessing all the funni lites and MPDPM's height makes other traffic aware of my existence in the existential scheme of things..
 
Probably--after a little fire on the SB Cruiser trike I have had to return to riding CrazyBike2, which while big isn't as big as SB Cruiser. Cars go way around the trike, usually all the way into the next lane, but less of them do that for the bike--even though it is nearly as wide, it is not as tall and does not "look" as big.

They don't pass me nearly as closely as on a "normal" bicycle, where I might get almost run off the road on almost a regular basis, but they are on average considerably closer than on the trike.
 
you'd think I'd have something to say, but I don'tarf arf arf.jpggaggle of gaglers.jpg
 
fluer.jpgtrike w trailer.jpg
For those who assume I never use trailers carry a wrong assumption, as assumptions tend to be.
I just rather not use trailers and usually don't haz topropane delivery.jpg
 
The picture of the little blue trailer is nostalgic. I built that prior to joining ES back in 2007, about my third or fourth attempt to make something that would climb a 20% grade. This is a picture:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1722

This was posted in 2007:

Sun trike EZ3-USX with 20" WE BD36 front hub - 75#
Trailer with 9 SLA 12AH and 2 20" WE BD36's - 140#
My weight - 205#
Gear and misc. - 10# (or more)
Total weight when riding is about - 430#

Edit: My Son's wife still rides the EZ3-USX trike with the same front hub and controller that has never been worked on, no trailer, and a 48V 15AH Ping battery behind the seat.
 
Rassy said:
The picture of the little blue trailer is nostalgic. I built that prior to joining ES back in 2007, about my third or fourth attempt to make something that would climb a 20% grade. This is a picture:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1722

This was posted in 2007:

Sun trike EZ3-USX with 20" WE BD36 front hub - 75#
Trailer with 9 SLA 12AH and 2 20" WE BD36's - 140#
My weight - 205#
Gear and misc. - 10# (or more)
Total weight when riding is about - 430#

Edit: My Son's wife still rides the EZ3-USX trike with the same front hub and controller that has never been worked on, no trailer, and a 48V 15AH Ping battery behind the seat.
I can attest that Rassy builds very good trailers with extremely clever hitch attachment devices.
Me. I built trailers from wood and little metal and my clever hitch device was a locking carabiner (still use it (the carabiner) and you can see it on the rear basket of MPDPM trike)

My trikes have also been very stable since all the little bugs were stomped out. Hand-made chain drives always suffer alignment problems. The occasional tube/tire fix is all I ever deal with anymore. *knocks on hard wooden thing *cause luck IS a thing*

BLUESTREAK said:
MR DDK , your photos are always perfect. keep them coming. 8) 8)
T-thanks :oops: . It's been foggy the last few weeks (not unusual this time of year) While flat light has it's personal charm, I don't care for the results because I use light/shadow as about my only photographic 'effect'.
 
crescent.jpgView attachment 1nemisis.jpg
rambling on/
With the last rain sighted in June, now that it's late summer everything's kinda dusty and dirty.

Reading OPT (Other Peoples' Threads) makes me think about how I getter dun.

Batteries- I was tempted to replace those dreaded LiPo (gonna catch fire any second now) home made packs with18650 w/bms thingies except:
a) multistar
b) charging
Take a) I can stuff one of my 'standard' battery cases with 1.6kW of multistar joy...'Standard' means I can use any battery case (got 7 battery cases stuffed) on any trike because they all fit. Not that they're all interchangeable but at least they all fit the space allotted.
Charging (b) is interesting as I spent 3 hours doing my once a month(!) charge routine and thinking "this is great". I wired my cases with switches that isolate say, a 6s battery from the next series 6s. Therefor I can charge each series section separately from the same power sources without needing isolated power supplies, transformers or other devices... so I had 3 batteries charging on the solar system and 3 batteries charging on line power, some batteries bulk charging with some on balance chargers. I can charge as at rates as high as 1.5kW per battery and still not quite reach a 1C charge rate.
Most the batteries are rated higher than 2C charge but I think 1C probably the highest I'll ever charge at in the interest of extending battery life.
At 30+ Ah of battery and controllers rated at 25A the batteries are discharging at less than 1C

Trails riding:
First off -I use trikes which limits the kind of trails I can ride.
Second off -Ain't interested in going fast as I'm looking at stuff because- photographics is my hobby.
91cm width is actually not too wide for most trails but I'll never do a small animal path with this thing. But I have followed deer/elk trails.
What makes this trike usable on trails is a mid-drive geared very low and front wheel motor for those special moments.

There's an owl hooting on my roof. (barn owl)
Must be getting close to that seasonal change thing.

/rambling offthistle.jpganother day ends.jpg
 
I kinda know I overdid the last battery setups but what the heck. There's something just right about only charging the batteries 7 times since November 2015.
After riding around for about 30 miles, I thought to check the battery status and found they were hardly discharged, hovering around 4V per cell.
Considering that I charge batteries to 4.10-4.13 per cell... depends on how fast I catch'm all.30 miles later.jpgView attachment 4View attachment 5

Anyways fall fatally fell falling rain all week*.fall fluer.jpgma buds.jpgsealions and boay.jpg I haz a new camera... haven't played with it much but OMG 83X zoom.

*proper poetic treatment would be "Fall fatally fell fluids forever"
 
...So many changes in the bike and eBike biz and I probably could now buy pre-built, the trikes I modified/built.

new camera made me procure a stronger tripod. Funni how much 3/4 pound weight increase affected things.
hazy night picshazy night.jpghazy zoom.jpghazy craters.jpg
 
-between rainstormsIm reddy.jpgautomn color2.jpghiding in the bush.jpgaspen vs myrtle.jpgautumn color1.jpg

Yesterday I got to experience 80kph headwinds in MPDPM, with rain and yes, wind did slow down forward motion to a point where I had to use both motors at full power to barely maintain 25kph.
 
MikeSSS said:
Your thread is very interesting and your photos are very good.

What camera are you using? Any after processing?

Mike S
I recently acquired a Nikon P900, a "point and shoot" camera with an 83x zoom lense.

I've chosen to only do the occasional photo crop and use no other processing. I think this is because in a time, long long ago I worked as an advertising photo director and heavily processed every image ...and now I rebel against the thought.
Where I previously only liked film/film processing, I've grown quite fond of instant gratification offered by digital photography and I admit, I really like having a 'what you see it what you get' viewfinder where the auto modes work most the time (except when they don't but the camera offers a decent selection of manual settings) and the anti-shake mode on the P900 is nothing short of amazing, which is the reason I upped from a Nikon P510 to the P900. I sold the 510 to my sister thinking I could always borrow it back the 510 does cut though fog and focuses through windshields a bit better than the 900. The 510 and 900 have the same 'camera body' but the software is very differentaccurate meters.jpg :mrgreen:
 
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