Another full suspension build

[methods]

Yesterday I found this most awesome candidate at the local Gray Bears. I would have taken it, but they wanted $60!!!

Pricing is all over the place.

What I took instead. . . was an astounding deal. It was 50% off day and I found 3 full aluminum frame backpacks, marked $25 each. I got an AWESOME REI frame pack for $12.50

... I mean a really nice pack. Weighs nothing. Lots of compartments. All the zippers work. The only thing I had to do was swap out the waist buckle with another REI they had sitting there.

S W E E T!!!

...

I also picked up a few $4 laptop power supplies that I am using to recharge Vacuum batteries, and some older, metal, surge protecting power strips.

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[methods]

SAFETY NOTICE

It is important for members to understand the difference between a "Safe" and "Dangerous" brick-type power supply. If you get anything name brand (like Dell) that is "Safe". If you open it up you will find hundreds of components inside.

* Very good thermal overload protection
* Very good abnormal function protection
* Very good noise suppression
* Very efficient
* Very good Power Factor Correction (PFC)

... that would be an amazing $35 (or more) new... but you can have that for $4 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Used

... now
By contrast...

You can chose to FAIL and go to AMAZON and buy some CHINESE BUILT (by American Design *) "Value Engineered" power brick, that is an absolute fire starter.

* Much fewer parts inside
* Much less efficient (so more heat)
* Prone to overload, overheat, fire. . .
* Horrifical noise. . .

Just open them up and look inside. The savings was in SAFETY and COMPATIBILITY

DONT DO IT!

-methods

 

[methods]

Laptop Power Supplies are more valuable than Gold. They are perhaps the most overlooked (and wasted) items in existence.

A very common voltage?
19.5V

You need to check the Compliance Voltage on all of these. They may be marked 19V, but then they may put out something like 19.4V! Whatever the supply puts out OPEN CIRCUIT is what your Lipo will charge up to. You take your number of cells in series and divide by this MEASURED number. That gives you the HVC that your cells will rest at IF you leave them on the charger overnight.

Remember that*

... I do it all the time
But... I am an Electrical Engineer and very experienced (non) firestarter.

So...
After you check your compliance Voltage (CV, or Constant Voltage) you check the CC (Constant Current). Do this by attaching the Power Supply to your lithium pile. Do it inline (as that is the only way) and take note of this current. If it is at all in excess of the rating of the circuit. . . you need to "burn it in".

Many Laptop power supplies are QUALIFIED to the load***

This means that they are ABSOLUTELY SAFE for the application intended. If you go then, and load them down. . . with a custom setup... any number of things may happen.

* Overheat cycles
* Actual melting or overheat
* Kicking in and out of various modes

... Since the original intent was to Charge Lithium Batteries. . . for the most part. . . they will work just fine. You will find that they run a bit over name-plate (or right on) and they are good to go.

DO NOT
Try this with the bricks sold on Amazon. Jenkem Brand. Wont work!

or worse. . .

WILL WORK (for a while)

* Hour
* Day
* Week
* Month....

Then when those 500hr capacitors dry out, the circuit starts ringing, the efficiency drops another 2%... SMOKESHOW.

- uncle methods

 

[methods]

Correction:

Divide the measured voltage by the series count*
(obviously)

20.4V / 5 cells in series = 4.08V per cell

Any lithium charge chart can show you how much you need to get in there to hit something like 80%

From the chart above we can see that if we tip in over 4V a cell. . . we are pretty much golden. 4.2V was an arbitrary number that we knew everyone could remember

"420 Bro!"

4.20V

You either know that or you dont. . . as the original upper cap was 4.25V

Dont tell me man, I was there.
4.08V is plenty into an unbalanced and unprotected vacuum battery. I run two of them, so one is always charged, and we never need more than 1.5 batteries to do whatever needs doing.

-methods

 

[methods]

NOTE

The intent was for everyone to use LiFePO4. . . which were designed as a perfect lead acid replacement. . . which are much more tolerant of floating over-charge. . . which can perform just as good as Lipo...

Only...
They are not quite as space efficient.

... I am not talking about Thundersag
I am talking about high quality LiFePO4

It got passed up and forgotten, but it will return. . . if Toyota does not come thru with what was promised*

... Many things to convert from Lead to Lithium. Many things are between 3S and 4S, 12S and 13S, etc. Tough decision. You never make a decision that has something like 4.3V going into a standard Lipo... much better choice to have 4.1V or 4.15V or even 4.08V... Much better decision...

and you can prove it

* Charge to 4.20V
* Discharge to 3.0V at 1C
* Note Ah (using a CA of course, D U H :| )

* Charge to 4.08V
* Discharge to 3.0V at 1C
* Note Ah

See?

... we were just evaluating wear and tear on the cycles with all that super over-charging. Should only be needed for things like

* RC Vehicles
* Laptops
Or other places where you have to fit the most into the least***

Anywhere else?
Pffffttt... no way bro... undercharge FTW.

-methods

 

[methods]

Putting in an EV branch today

* 60A off the primary
* 20A GFCI outdoor outlets
* Garbage disposal
* Dish washer
* Big One over to the driveway. . .

... Got a couple more of those real nice knife sharpeners. They recover an old blade like nobody's business. . .



I run 12AWG on any standard run to power. 14AWG makes no sense where power appliances are concerned. Costs a few bucks more, let's you run a 20A breaker.

I prefer QO

I add GFCI to everything that goes anywhere near moisture. 5mA variety. Solves a missing ground real quick

... For repairing old work, you DO NOT need to go back and pull ground everywhere. you just add GFCI and the stickers to say it's on grounded. The ground wire was forced before GFCI existed. Duh!

... I run good quality UL rated plastic. it's real intent is to stop you from crushing wires. . . Metal conduit was forced before the stuff existed *

. . .

I spent a lot of time looking at new work. All sorts of industrial, residential... You can learn the most by going to a low-cost track house build every day for a year. They cut every corner they possibly can. . . That's in the materials AND install time domain.

... Take the ideas that are smart, cut out some of the value engineering... Like running 14 gauge wire everywhere. Heavy on copper, light on conduit.

... You can beat this PVC conduit with a sledgehammer, nothing in a residential areas ever going to damage it... Short of a sawzall.

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[methods]

 

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[methods]

Led bike light. . . Actually flashing, not constant. Ruins pics



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[methods]

 

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[methods]

Bah, I will try again later with a different light. Through the eyepiece this works perfect... Combining the shutter rate of the phone with its weird lens...



Garbage
Not what I see at all

-methods

 

[99t4]

I run 12AWG on any standard run to power. 14AWG makes no sense where power appliances are concerned. Costs a few bucks more, let's you run a 20A breaker.

I spent a lot of time looking at new work. All sorts of industrial, residential... You can learn the most by going to a low-cost track house build every day for a year. They cut every corner they possibly can. . . That's in the materials AND install time domain.

... Take the ideas that are smart, cut out some of the value engineering... Like running 14 gauge wire everywhere. Heavy on copper, light on conduit.

If you're going to be pulling wire thru an outlet box get one of these:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-Pull-It-Universal-Wire-Pulling-Tool-104/203352106
Best $12 you spent on that job. :thumb:

Works great on 12AWG.

Maybe a one-man job now?

I can't keep up with you!

 

[99t4]

Another labor/time/hand-saving wire pulling tool:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-Power-Pull-It-Wire-Pulling-Tool-MWP/203352104
Attach it to your drill.

Makes pulling wire as easy as flying a kite!

 

[methods]

Great Ideas!!!!

I am all over the road.
Currently using this thread as my mind-dump area. Not really intended to be easy to follow :thumb:

...

I learned to use powder in the conduit before pulling wires. Makes all the difference!

...

Yesterday I was making the big sparkles!



That is a Size 6 Sevcon
Current is cranked beyond the max
Voltage is to the absolute max

When I turned that bad-boy on. . . I. . . was. . . Really focused on Safety

Brushless Motors in the 40 - 80hp range can E X P L O D E into action. 0RPM torque is off the charts. . . so. . . Safety First man! When I talk about "ebikes not scaling"... a lot of what I am saying is that we can fool around with these 1hp toys and survive a mistake.

Make the same mistake at 72hp and you wont (hopefully) ever know that you made the mistake.

Follow Procedures!

-methods

 

[methods]

I meter-off before making any of the high power connectors. This is confirming that polarity is correct.

I test all interlocks and review my secondary.
In the event that an interlock should fail, you need to know (BEFORE IT HAPPENS) how to initiate E-STOP for a broken slapper.

Generally Speaking
E-STOP directly breaks current to the coil of the primary contactor.

It is totally unacceptable to have E-Stop do something like trigger a pin on a uController than then relieves the contactor. E-Stop needs to be fundamentally reliable. In something like. . . a real serious rig. . . you will see things like explosives for the true Estop.

...

None of it seems important until you are running your arm thru the spokes of a 26' wheel that is direct-drive to 72HP.

It is then. . .
That you will know. . .
That running any kind of E-STOP into a microcontroller that then controls the contactor is. . . Completely unacceptable.

-methods

 

[methods]

Cascading Failures


If you find yourself looking for margin by proving the unlikelihood of a cascading failure. . . I suggest not doing so. Not unless you have run for 420hrs in a Salt Spray chamber, while on a Vibration table, after going thru D-Test Shock, within an Igloo ... that is temperature swinging your from Frozen to near melting.

Survive that and you can shave hairs.

For anything else. . . you go FUNDAMENTAL.

... We gloss over this with Ebikes (as we do not even have a Primary Contactor) ... and that is fine for a hp... but that is not in any way fine for tens of HP. It is basically illegal (in engineering terms) for hundreds of HP

... The first time you see a machine go berzerk, you will understand. There are unimaginable ways for a machine to behave unexpectedly, the most likely being::

* Some idiot re-flashed the Firmware!
* Some idiot bypassed some Wiring!

... So
Whenever you approach a very serious rig. . . you WILL take some time to review

* Primary Power Routing
* Primary Interlock Control

... Find the wire, trace it back, test the interlock

....

At the places where I do professional work, we take this very seriously. We never rush, we get it right, nobody gets hurt. Schindler Engineering is still at Zero deaths or Maiming's on the job. I wish I could say the same was true for my entire career. . . but there have been casualties.

I remember every single one (deaths and injuries) and every time I approach a powerful machine I "pour some out" for the homies. In the same way you pour some of your beer out on the floor for a dead friend. . . you pour out some time for those who got hurt and died for the Revolution.

... Avoidable

So ->
Go big or go home. . . but do it safe.

If someone tells you to cut corners, do something stupid, move faster than your procedure dictates... remove them from the work area. Remember that what we are doing is not "wiring something up". What we are doing is . . . trying to the best of our ability. . . to ensure something is Safe.

If not safe... At least Understood

... The absolute minimum (in the gnarliest of gnarly) is to ensure that the Hazards Present are Understood and that all involved know how to respond.



-methods

 

[methods]

Before Initial Fire-up...

* Make sure everybody knows how to make it stop
* Make sure at least one person knows how to make it stop in cascading failure

... Yank out this cable, rip this cable, cut this cable, slam this with a hammer... whatever it has to be, at least recognize it and discuss it....

that is how we do it when it is serous business.

... I work with a guy (who together...) we have seen a powerful motorbike go out of control. The failure mode was a "sticky throttle" and it ended up with a guy having his leg caught in the rear wheel.

I am not exaggerating or joking.
It was worst possible outcome. . .

... anyhow

The guy I work with. . . we had reviewed safety before getting started.

In the middle of the disaster...
He stepped right into an out of control bike, found the kill stop, hit it.

very brave
very responsible

...

As a consequence of that failure (lessons learned) we terminated that project. It was one of the closest calls we have ever had. The guy with his leg in the wheel walked away. . . but. . . had that throttle turned 1/32 of an inch further. . . he would have been mangled.

He walked away with a rub-burn

Very lucky. . . and we carry this lesson with us every time we fire up heavy equipment.

-methods

 

[methods]

Heading to the field again.

Drive what you have to drive until you can afford better. First buy tools, then better transportation.



... Setting up a station for a new Engineer

He gets my stuff, I get this stuff. Mostly inspection and rework.

-methods

 

[methods]

If in doubt. . .

* Download a complete backup
* Duplicate your backup to Solid State
* Duplicate your backup someplace in the cloud

* Blow out root
* Reinstall, or start fresh

. . .

Every year I start a new website.

Once that website hits 1,000 posts (or the year end comes) I blow it out and start a new one. This year we exceeded 1k posts and the year came to an end. Now it is time to delete all folders in root -> Start again

Tools you need to have::

- MAMP
- Knowledge of Database, Apache Server, PHP, WP

MAMP is a tool that will allow you to run a "sandbox". This means you can do WP development local on your machine, instead of remote on the server. Your server is nothing but

* A computer someplace with an internet connection
* It runs a server... Apache most likely
* It has some support or advanced actions. . . PHP is what is currently popular

. . .
The most simple website you can create is::

* index.html

that will always work. You can create that with anything, including Microsoft Documents. Just put HTML in the index.html, and you have a website. I will demonstrate that now.

...........................

* Open Google Docs
* Write whatever you want (KISS)
* Download as Webpage (sets extension to .html, renders as HTML)
* Change the name to "index"

You can now open this
It appears as a standard website link



* Open with (something like notepad)

You can now see the HTML that Google Docs created for you. All they did was take your text. . . and give you source on that. IF you did something very clean, simple file. If you have any

* Color
* Hyperlinks
* Pictures. . .

More complicated.

... START SIMPLE
This is literally what the Internet is made of. It is not made of. . . magic.

-methods

 

[methods]

If your old website had a bunch of Wordpress, crap like that. . . just start blowing it out.

Look to your .htaccess
Fix that... that is where you re-direct

For instance -
You may have your WP install in a folder.

You may have a website called www.Lame.com

If someone goes to Lame.com, they must be redirected to http://www.Lame.com/subfolder for it all to work. ... SO, since we are "talking it back to the old school" -> Dont need any of that. We are going to drop index.html right on root... make it happen.

Trust your server permissions to protect the content that is in there. IF ... if you content THAT is not protected THEN it is accessible just the same as you can access the folders on your computer.

... All the php crap is doing in Wordpress...

Is giving you a way to put a bunch of crap up there (set to private) then giving the software permission to grant access in a controlled way. OF course -> That is hacked in every way possible, so ... assume that anyone with 15 minutes can access any files on your server.

Eh hem

... Waiting for delete to finish
4GB - takes a while apparently

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[methods]

Use tools like Filezilla to access your FTP.

... Website Hosting...
Is nothing
You dont need it

Your website is nothing but a file structure
You access that file structure via FTP
Filezilla is an FTP client

... You can do things faster by setting up parallel connections. FileZilla is smart, so you can run 8 threads at at time...

HOLD

-methods

 

[methods]

This is real simple man.

* Go to any webhosting company - agree to pay them $6 (or whatever)
* From them, buy a "domain name". How about BumClues.com ... should cost you like $15 for a year

A domain name is nothing more than a re-direct to the IP address where your website is at. If your website is on your home computer. . . you will need a fixed IP and you ... eh... just dont do this, K??

... Your webhost
They will handle all of this business for you. To make it extra simple, buy the domain name from them. If you already have one, unlock it and transfer it there. Expect up to 48hrs delay on a transaction like this. Beware that some of these actions come with freeze periods... SO DONT GO CHANGING IT A BUNCH.

www.BumClues.com

here is what it looks like before



I use Chrome
Just accept the Borg



Here I am making the website in Google Docs.
You just write it man... no HTML required (rolls eyes)



You then save it off. . . as a .html document

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[methods]

Microsoft Office used to have 2 choices

* Website
* Website clean



There is our website. If you click on it, Chrome will open it and display it from where it is at (on your machine)



now to make that WORLD WIDE. . . all you have to do is drop it on the server.



Since you probably have another index.html at root, you need to serve this other one from a different folder. This can be complicated or simple. It is highly likely that some robot has auto-generated some bullshit for you. In that case, just STOMP on the index.html and you are dialed

... Since I have Cache turned off (first thing I did) the changes I make to my server are I N S T A N T L Y propagated out to the entire world. Anyone who wishes to see, can see... instantly.



That is the website we just made
Published

-methods

 

[methods]

Now...

There are 4, 5, 16 ways to update that index.html page. You may

* Drag and drop
* Select file and upload
* FTP in via some Client

... Or
Thru any Android or any Arduino... you can simply FTP in, then

* Swap the file
* Directly write the file



... you getting me here?

-methods