Tidal Force : "The Long Ranger"

[icecube57]

I spoke about stripping the paint of my Lumenator. Well here is the pic. I think it looks much better.

In other news. I had a lipo incident that happened months ago but lets put it this way... one of the balance connectors on one of my packs was left unusable. The contacts were all gnarled and fused but the connector itself was fine. I just finally broke down and bought a replacement connector. So that should be in the mail.

After leaving my pack on the charger and leaving the battery medic on it over night for a few hours all my packs are like in a super balanced mood lately. While charging all my cells are the same across the board. When it goes up in voltage they all are within seconds of each other. Before it was bad. Taking 20 min between voltage changes for low cells to catch up. It wasnt far out of balance but you can tell it was over due.

Im chargin in a 1s 9p configuration. I have another 3 packs off to the side that I use when I need the extra AH on my ride but it stays charged ready to rock and roll.

I have parallel plug for charging and a series plug for discharging. Very fool proof even for a newb. You cant plug it in wrong.


Its hard to manage packs of different brands and c ratings and keep them all balanced together. I used to run all my packs individually. They sub sections were parallel at the pack level but not at the cell level.

I now charge and discharge my packs leaving the balance taps connected in parallel on each pack sub section. I have 3 sub sections with 3 packs in them for (3) 22.2v 15ah packs. There is another harness that parallels the three subsection at the cell level for charging. I use 1 medic to balance the entire 22.2v 45AH pack at cell level. They stay balanced way better.

Some of you may say one day you are going to forget to disconnect all the packs at the cell level when you series the packs at the pack level. I doubt it . Its happened once but it wont happen again. I dont ride or balance every charge cycle. Im just sorta conditioning my packs so i can slack off and ride more during the summer. But I go over my battery bag several times before plugging it into the controller I spent hours keying plugs and making it to where they only plug in one way. Even color coded labeling. I do all this prep work before I go on rides. I make sure Im not rushed and have plent of times. If its going to be a while between rides I make the pack ready to discharge to where all I have to do is grab and go.

I also bough some buzzers. I should use them all the time but Im going to use them when I know ill be past 2/3 of my pack. But reading GInDC experience with them it seems like they may kinda inaccurate at the alarm voltage.

I have the LVC programmed kinda high on my controller. I plan to wire the CA to hit the ebrake at a certain voltage.

Ive been reading and absorbing peoples advice. I have more capacity than I will use at one time. Even on my longest rides this year I basically got tired and ended rides early with plenty of power left on tap. It took me 1 1/2 hours to drain half of my 20AH pack and I was giving it the business playing around... Jack rabbit starts and what not. Its very good piece of mind that you have almost an endless amount of power on tap. Everyone should go out and look at their riding style and play around with the speed switches. Even though the CA gives you an account for how much you used there is a difference between simulator range and real world range. I know that my real world riding with varing terrain with 25-30mph speed my riding range is about 10 miles per 4 AH or around 26wh/m so a 50 mile real world range. But the trail by my house that has a grade of 1-2% grade either uphill or down hill I can get the range in the simulator cause it is perfectly flat...... almost. So i know my bike can get 5-6 miles per ah pedaling along so thats around 12wh/mi so i have over a 100 mile range. And worst case senario hauling ass my range is 20-25 miles at 50-65wh a mile.


I find that my ass cant outlast my pack. Thats what it boils down to. If you get this valueable date and scale your pack accordingly.

Since my packs are scaleable I can run at many AH capacities. Its easiest for me to run these 66/15 , 66/20, 66/5 although I can run 44v and 88v in different combos also. So know your range know the speed you are traveling know you AH consumption for the area and riding style and carry what you need and 25% more. Dont carry packs if you dont have to. Save the wear tear and cycle count whenever possible.

Thats enough ranting for tonight Now for my final though...
This is how I feel about my bike..... Well put by Jerry Springer...

[chroot]

Hey ur light looks good!

[icecube57]

Ok posted this picture to put a face to the name. Also I just recently got another job. Its security for a very large apartment complex. I thought this would be a perfect application to use my ebike to cover the grounds. It takes almost 30-40 min to completely walk the property.. thats taking shortcuts and walking through buildings to save time and distance. I can cruise using my ebike and do it in less than 10.. Sad thing is the apartment complex doesnt have the best terrain. Its kinda hilly with speed bumps and bad tree rooted pavement. My consumption was 42 wh/mi. There is alot of low speed loading going on. It was like riding a technical off road trail but without the dirt.I was often starting on hills. Stop and go because of the speed bumps. I think this proves to be very effective for this line of work. I rode 22 miles last night. Each round is roughly 2.2 miles. I checked the property every 30-40 min or so. I do it on foot also so I can pay attention to detail. I think my prescence is more known because the dramatic frequency increase of being able to circle the property. I circle the property twice as many times than a person on foot. Response time is much quicker. The 8 led tail light from ebikes.Ca and the Cycle Lumenator made night riding a piece of cake. Blinding some people and lighting the way for others. I used about 8 AH the whole night.. Very high for the distance I covered. The Big Apples made it a pleasure to take most of the speed bumps. Im running 30 front 40 rear. I think its a little soft but I havent felt it try to give me a pinch flat so maybe it is serving its purpose. I could tune my front shock a little softer but it did its job very well. I got some looks and some wows from kic=ds and some laughs... Such a big guy on an electric bike. I think it was some jealousy involved. I had to show boat a little bit and you hear the oooo... ahhhh. But I think they realize how effective it is and how it increases their safety the looks and comments stopped. Actually some people said they never noticed they had night time security until the saw me zipping through 2-3 times an hour. Im tired as hell.. ill write up some more when I wake up later this afternoon.

[chroot]

Gratz on your new job as security, You look good on ebike even in enforcement uniform and keep it up.

[docnjoj]

You look good in the uniform. Even a bit scary. That's good for a security officer! Way cool! Interestingly bike cops are catching on again. Our town has a Segway but I am trying to convince folks in charge that electric bikes are cheaper, better and all that. We will see.
otherDoc

[Hillhater]

Hey Iceman ...do you get a gun ?? ...may be a Tazer would be more appropriate (ie..electric gun ! )

[icecube57]

Actually there is proper training before we can carry guns knives tazers and such... trust me its on the agenda. Right now Ill just get some 4G Jumper Cables steel wool a metal tub of water and my lipos and do some illegal torture...

I wonder how much a tazer would buck boost a 22.2v lipo pack. Most tazers run off a 9v battery. HMM.

[chroot]

You wouldn't want doing it because you will end up big lawsuit from the civil damages. The victim can sue you and you will be end up bankrupt forever.

I carry CWI license and understood the warning that I might end up big consequence if I shot a person in self defense. If the person is alive = AUTOMATICALLY enable him or her lawsuit me for damage his or her health no matter if he or she is a criminal.

Better get licensed taser better than use real gun. Let LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) take care involve with the weapon or gun fight.

[icecube57]

I swear Im baffled at what just went on today with my bike. It has been going countless miles without incident. All of a sudden today it wanted to run backwards. I unplugged the halls for it to run in sensorless its still running backwards. I reversed 2 of the hall and phase wires and it goes forward now. This has happened twice over the past two months. This could have ended badly because I was riding down a hill building speed to go up the another hill and I give it throttle and it feels like a blow fet but no its the controller trying to run the wheel in the opposite direction im going. WTF. The sensorless controller is quirky.

[Spacey]

icecube57....could do with you out in my job, my self defence items are pointless...I get a bullet proof vest and my gob (Uk slang for ability to use verbal) and that is it . Congrats on the job

I hear you with your 9C motor...I've just finished a build for someone using a 9C motor that has less 100 miles use (twice in the rain), it keeps juddering as if on 2 hall sensors then randomly works fine. I opened up the motor case and lo and behold even in this hot weather it is quite damp inside with rust!

So I'm going to order him a MAC geared motor and make another loss of £200. I swear I'm losing more money on dodgy parts than I am making profit. Here are a couple of pics:

16 cell 16ah Headway
Kelly 35amp controller
9C 2807

9C Bike 1.JPG

9C Build 2.JPG

[icecube57]

Ok so i was being lazy for the past few days and havent touched my bike. I decided to rewire my pack up for 100v 15AH and do a little bit of playing. It was all fun and games until signs start to show up and this goes to reinforce my belief that there is a boundary you shouldnt cross with the 9C motor. 100v 50-60A is extremely hard on the 9C especially if you have nothing but hills in your neighborhood. It will kill itself blasting you around your "playground".I decided to ride in the next neighorhood. Its nothing but an extended ride around the block but its alot of hills. It was all fun and games and then you start feeling the perfomance decrease more and more but it still had spunk. I was riding the final stretch on the sidewalk doing about 25 mph and going down this hill is fine but coming up dumping 6000w into a motor isnt. It made it up the hill fine and I made to my street. I come down the hill into my culdesac with regen all the way down and I swing back around to pull into my driveway and I had no power. I plugged the controller and there was no consumption showing up on my CA but there was power going all the way to the controller according to my VM. I spun the wheel and it was smooth so it want a blown fet. At this point of time smoke was coming out of my motor from the ride... bad times. We all have that feeling to where you know something bad has happened. I starting breaking down my bike to remove the controller and I hear something shaking in the controller. Im like wtf. What popped in my head is I though the shunt or the traces on the controller got hot enough to reflow the solder and drip away from the traces. So I though I had some solder beads or shunts just rattling in the controller box. I finally get the controller open and guess what falls out. A resistor. R01 resistor just fell out of its hole. But everything else looks fine. I soldered it back in and it works fine. Ill reassemble everything later on tonight if I dont have to go to work. Im happy it wasnt that serious and Im happy my controller could dump 5-7000w.

I had a concern that at 100v under agressive acceleration there is rough commutation. This happens when the controller is peaking past 55-60A but im not sure if Blocktime is affecting this or not. I probably dropping back down to 66v so I dun care but Id figure id share my thoughts.

[Spacey]

I hope you've got spare motors kicking about, I now have 2 9C 2807's as paperweights.

[Hyena]

I just recently got another job. Its security for a very large apartment complex. I thought this would be a perfect application to use my ebike to cover the grounds. It takes almost 30-40 min to completely walk the property.. thats taking shortcuts and walking through buildings to save time and distance.

That sounds like an EXCELLENT application for an ebike! Better yet, all ebike expenditure is now a tax deduction! I wouldn't be surprised if the idea catches on with your co-workers. Hyena Industries can hook them up

I hear something shaking in the controller. Im like wtf. What popped in my head is I though the shunt or the traces on the controller got hot enough to reflow the solder and drip away from the traces. So I though I had some solder beads or shunts just rattling in the controller box. I finally get the controller open and guess what falls out. A resistor. R01 resistor just fell out of its hole. But everything else looks fine. I soldered it back in and it works fine.

WOW, that's incredibly lucky! I can't believe you got it so hot you melted the solder off the board, components fell out of their holes and yet nothing manage to short! Out of interest was the outside of the case hot ? Had you beefed up the traces ? If you don't ride in the rain air cooling your controller might be in order. I ran mine for a while with holes drilled in both end plates so it allowed a straight through passage of the breeze which kept it nice and cool. AussieJester went even more extreme with his and put 2 big computer CPU coolers hanging off his.

I think regen is harder on out motors and controllers than we realise. In the brief time I was playing with magic pie motors (with internal controllers) the few times I managed to get the thermal protection to kick in was after regenning down a long hill.

[icecube57]

Well when I had I had two previous controllers that I truely had heat issues with. Both were 12fet that I ran on the 5303. One controller the shunt got hot enough to reflow the solder under the shunt. When it reflowed the solder it created a short between the controller case and board. It blew the mosfets.

The second time I had an issues was on a controller that I bought from Lyen. He beefed up the traces with copper. It looked very impressive. I ran it for a while and the same thing happened. Right under the shunt som solder had dripped away but it didnt create a bridge. I just had solder balls rolling around in the controller.

This time I think the vibration and maybe cold solder joints shook the resistor loose. But considering the resistor was soldered to the board and to the neighboring resistor I doubt that both ends of the resistor had cold solder joints. So im thinking the resistors were hot and it temporarily reflowed the solder long enough to to fall out. My controller is mounted upside down under my rear rack so a nice little bump could have shaken it loose. All the traces looked fine on the board. I dont think it needs beefing up. It was 80 ish out side the controller was warm but not hot to hold..

Your thoughs on regen maybe true. A few weeks ago i took my stator out and dremeled the edges because it was scrubbing the magnets. I havent had a problem since but I havent opened her up WOT to stretch her legs. When I was on the final leg I was coming down hill. I was using regen all the way down. Then I started to hear that stator scrape again. I had to go up the other side so I had to grind through it I only had less than a qtr mile to go. I get to the top of the hill and into my neighbor hood it stopped. I went around the block in my neighborhood....nothing. As soon as I go down the big hill on my street Im using regen all the way down... It starts scraping again... Without using regen alot I can ride longer without that problem but If im heavily using regen I have that problem happen alot more. The dremeling did help. It stopped doing it at 66v but at 88v without backing off at the appropriate time its starting to do it again.

[Hyena]

Curious...
I guess it's a combination of being heated up alot then jarred around to shake things loose.
I wonder how it'd go thermally if you put a thickish layer of epoxy over the board ? That'd stop your components running away and your solder traces going all T-1000 terminator on you.

[chroot]

Yeah, It sound like you talking about military's specs and I used be work with the LLNL (http://www.llnl.gov).

They used put a high temp ability handle epoxy in bottom of the PCB electronics traces and components and rest kind of hardened silicon or epoxy filled the whole electronics components along the case housing for the EMP resistance. It also helps soak the temperature without break the electronics or traces I.E. soldering melt away etc.

It sure helps lot, Once you do it and you will not able repair if it needed. You will need buy brand new controller again.

[Hyena]

and rest kind of hardened silicon or epoxy filled

Yeah I was going to suggest silicon too. Even the relatively flexible stuff would do for the top of the board as long as it's high temp and non conductive. High temp automotive silicon is probably a good option - I've used blue RTV silicone before -the stuff that's used on gaskets or to make gaskets around water pumps, thermostats, manifolds etc. It's rated up to 200 oC so it should be fine for our application.

Once you do it and you will not able repair if it needed

The idea is hopefully it prevents you from having to repair it! I think icecube has used up all his luck after having liquid solder run around on his board and NOT short anything out

[chroot]

Right, He still needs the tab welder lock all electronics components before filling the hardened or silicon cover the bottom of the PCB. It helps stay still forever such anti-vibrate, and loose when the soldering melt away. It also helps prevent short the mosfets.

Edward Lyen repaired my controllers twice and he said somehow my controller kept shorted my mosfets. That's why somewhere electronics components got loose and shorted mosfets. I have been thinking build a tab welder and I could do anything to ensure LOCK the electronics components as anti vibrate or any kind prevent short the mosfet.

I know it's pain in the butt but hey military's way = superior compare corporation's way = sucks.

[icecube57]

Ok I went to a local Earth Day EV Show. There werent many people there but I did get to see a Tesla Roadster and a Prius Plugin Hybrid/Aftermarket.

The EV Club out here ask members to show up. Im not quite a member but I showed up just so there will be something different there. I had some hits on my bike. Two guys took a ride and were blown away by the torque. Both almost popped wheelies on the intial twist of the throttle. One girl trashed my bike. The seat was too high so she lost her balance when starting off.

The previous day before the show I replaced a gnarly looking brake cable I had. I adjusted my brakes and I also went through and replaced alot of my Anderson connectors. Not that there was anything wrong with them but running at 100v and 50A really does a number on 45A connectors. 66v I dont seem to have any problems at all.

The prius had an elegant setup and couldnt ask for a cleaner upgrade 35-40 mile EV only range at 50mph on the 10kw pack

[chroot]

Smart move, Pirus equiped with the BMS built-in on all the thundersky batteries. I like it!!

Tesla is so beautiful piece of the EV vehicle. Keep coming! Love these pictures.

[icecube57]

Ok so i brought the bike out today to get my self motivated to start riding to knock off the winter coat around my waist. All in all it was a good ride. I saw a guy commuting to work at like 8:30 9:00. He had a flat tire and he was swapping it out. I used my trusty Lumenator and gave him some light to complete the tire change. I paved the way and flooded the trail with light for him as we paced together at a steady 18-20mph until he got to his destination about 10 miles away. Ofcourse I had barely put a dent in my pack so i kicked back and relaxed the entire ride. I escorted him to his destination which was 6 miles past where I had to get off to go to my car. I rode back.... I had the trail to myself and the light was plenty bright so I opened her up to WOT . Oddly i was topping out at 32-33 mph. I thought it was low. Im supposed to be right at 40mph. I came home and check the simulator and it proved my assumption correct. Either I have my Tire Pressure to low or I must have forgot that I may have limited my top speed when I programmed the controller. Ill have to check into it later. Maybe.

[ambroseliao]

Hey Ice,

What voltage were you seeing running WOT? Doesn't the Lumenator draw off your CA and can lower your voltage a bit?

Ambrose

[icecube57]

Hey Ice,

What voltage were you seeing running WOT? Doesn't the Lumenator draw off your CA and can lower your voltage a bit?

Ambrose

I was at nominal so right at 66v but still i should have been doing a little more than what I was... there maybe was a 1-2% grade combined with lower tire pressure I suppose its enough to lower the speed. The CL does tap off my CA but it only consumes 10w or 0.15A. or barely registers .1v drop.

[icecube57]

Ok so Im caffiene sensitive..... I stumbled across a deal of Arizona Energy drinks that was a part of a shipment that got missing. (whistles innocently) $5 a flat of 24 cans. I drank one at midnight last night... I get off at 6.... Im still wide awake. I decided to knock out a good 15 miles on the bike.... It ended up being 25miles.... Pretty good for an after work workout.

I sipped the amp hours 2.87AH for 25 miles. This new security job has condition my legs to where im a machine.

On a previous note... My tire pressure on my last ride was 10-15psi. It felt really good and soft but that can definitely slow you down. I put 35 in the front and 45 in the rear. I got up to 36 today before i backed off to not be sticking out like speed racer. I also think that yes my top speed is 40mph but its going to need a semi tucked position and a good strip of road to get there. I makes me want to bump up to 20s to change the power band a little to where I can easily sustain the upper 30s and have a top speed of 45 instead of me barely being able to sustain the lower 35s and barely get to 40mph.

My TF seems to have a Death Wobble. I had some Bell slicks 1.95. I used to be able to ride at round 18mph with no hands on the handle bars and just chill and enjoy my ride. Any faster I had a death wobble. I put the Big Apples on and the speed of where the death wobble comes in is much lower. I can barely hold the handle bars lightly with one hand at 15mph....

I must say that is a well rounded above average ebike that I feel very confident on and it gets to the business when I ask it to 66v is proving itself to be a reliable carefree voltage...88v leaves much reinforcement to do. At 66v at near top speed... Although the acceleration does drop quite a bit while climbing to top speed it can hold its own in the low to mid 30s without h effort and still had a nice strong pull. The low end torque of 4-5k on tap is something that you never get used to. The situation it can pull you out of from a dead stop till amazes me. Ive given my bike to several people to test ride and they pull mini wheelie with the first blip of the throttle. They come back with a grin that so big and often ask for another spin. They were timid at first but they get confidence and get bolder and start pushing the bike harder and they are still amazed and knows that there is much more power beyond what theyve tasted. Momments like this is what the public needs to experience. The store bought shit is a joke. Spend a little more money and build something from the ground up thats actually useful and powerful and demands road respect.

I still have visions of making a ebike that crushes the 50-80cc scooters and be reliable...

My swiss cheese side cover shows off the lovely tan my windings are getting. Still copper but a slightly darker shade. On level groud dumping 2-3kw its barely warm... 2-4kw with hill leaves it roasty... I hate the area where I live. Im looking for new playgrounds. Even if I have to make a 4-5 hour drive... So guys if you are in the next state and u wanna ride or meet some where half way lets do it!

[icecube57]

16mph - 77 miles unassisted 132 miles assisted 100 Miles unassisted for 180lbs
18mph - 69 miles unassisted 104 miles assisted
20mph - 62 miles unassisted 86 miles assisted 75 Miles unassisted for @ 180lbs
22mph - 56 miles unassisted 72 miles assisted
25mph - 48 miles unassisted 62 miles assisted 55 Miles unassisted for @ 180lbs
28mph - 41 miles unassisted
30mph - 38 miles unassisted
35mph - 29 miles unassisted
39mph - 24 miles unassisted

Revised Mileage Chart for my bike
400lb Total Vehicle Weight Rider Included... Being Very Generous.
66v 20AH battery and 100w being used as the assist value.