Endless Sphere

Best way to analyse this now would be to make IR photographs of the used modules. Or fully calibrated power measurements with irradiance and cell temperature, taken before and after the race but that's not likely to happen either. It would also eliminate errors in reported panel output ratings. Raf...

This website offers plenty of information about winning long distance races: https://ridefar.info/ Okay, we are talking about 10 days vs 45 days, but still the 250km/day don't look so impressive any more. Great resource, thanks. I look forward to reading more of it. If we're looking for ultra long ...

Thanks for the analysis. This provides a stark contrast to my much higher Wh/mi consumption in my city e-bike commuting. Same here. It took me a long time to figure out what kind of Wh/mi to expect for solar touring. It's different from everyday local riding where a bigger battery will easily solve...

My last post offered some conclusions about building a solar bike for casual touring but what does the data say about strategies for winning The Sun Trip 2020 ? Max out your solar array For single riders, the 2018 rules allowed up to 450 solar watts deployed while riding. The 2020 rules no longer sp...

There must be an abundance of data form all those data Loggers. I was interested in exploring the data to see what guidance it may contain for selecting solar panel size and tilting vs. non-tilting mounting design choices for casual solar bike touring. Here's what I found: Screen Shot 2019-11-27 at...

Here is maximum output of Jack Butlers solar array... I don't know, but I assume that the solar panels Jack Butler used did have significant performance problems at the end. When searching for a picture of the mounting of his solar panels I noticed that he crashed his bike. Interesting idea to look...

IR Pictures can be made easy and cheap with a dark room, a suitable DC power source to reverse power the solar module (bypass any diodes) and an old Sony F717 or Sony F828 with s small magnet to put it into "nightshot" mode. This is great. Thanks for sharing. I remember we talked about this a while...

I don't just randomly buy cheap solar panels from eBay hoping for the best. I look for domestic importers/manufacturers that use eBay as another store front and have a review history online. Mine was at about $1 per watt. I also did my research and still ended up with some good panels and a couple ...

<sarcasm> OTOH, ebay seems to be the place where you can find the most high tech of 18650 cells. One need not look far to find 18650 cells that have 6800, 7900, and even 9900mah capacities. So clearly ebay must offer the leading edge of high tech componentry</sarcasm> I buy plenty from ebay. And th...

Damn, I just checked solar panel prices on eBay and they are real low compared to when I built my 100W solar ebike like a couple years ago. I didn't check the latest prices on eBay until I saw your post. Searching for " flexible solar panel " returns a lot of generic solar panels with non-Sunpower ...

Do you happen to know about builders of custom made lightweight solar panels within the EU? I spoke with Gochermann in Germany a couple of years ago. They've been making arrays for solar race cars, boats and the airplane that flew around the world since 1996. I was surprised that they were willing ...

Do you already have an indiction about the price they do ask per Wp and how much customization is available? I do not have any specifics beyond what is on their web site and Instagram account. Based on the materials and the fact that these are being hand-assembled in small quantities in Canada, I w...

I worked for Boeing many years and I've drilled millions of holes in the stuff. Hey Karl. Thanks so much for sharing your industry experience and knowledge about working with carbon fiber. I've cobbled together what I know mostly from working on a handful of fiberglass projects and doing an insane ...

What do you consider the maximum width for solar panels on a trailer? Perhaps the same width as the handlebars? Assuming a solar panel made from 125 mm wide Sunpower cells, 6 cells wide seems to be the most common width among The Sun Trip participants although I've noticed one or two vehicles which...

I’m taking this new trailer build very slowly since it’s made of expensive materials and is mostly held together by adhesives. This kind of ups the stakes on getting it right on the first try. It would make for a better post if I held off until the trailer is done but in the meantime here are a few ...

Are you concerned about the lift/drag you might start to generate if the front of that panel lifts a bit at high speeds? Hmm... I've been riding around with it for a while now and I haven't noticed anything that negatively affects the bike's handling. You're probably right that there's some lift/dr...

I wasn’t going to post this since it’s only an incremental upgrade to something I’ve posted before but I took some photos and they came out pretty good so I figured what the heck. I finally got around to upgrading the roof mounting hardware to larger diameter carbon fiber tubes to increase stiffness...

I went through this thread again, and I don't think you've discussed your bike frame at all. It started off with a 26" wheel in the back, and then switched to one with 20" wheels front and back. I had assumed you put the motor in the front for the higher efficiency at higher rpm, but what made you ...

Are you going to buy a couple of commercial flexible solar panels ? ( if so which ones and from where ) or Are you going to make your own panel ? If You make your own panel what cells are you going to use ? What is the cost of each cell ? Strips and solder , taxes and shipping costs ? And On what m...

Oh I see now, there are 10 fixed LEDs that represent the state of charge! That makes sense now naturally. I was thinking that you were doing something more advanced, like red + green LEDs equaled the state of charge, but then green represented how much was estimated to be remaining when you reached...

So do you basically just have to keep one or two LEDs showing green while you're biking, and you'll arrive before running out of charge? Sorry, I'm struggling to unpack this sentence... One or two green LEDs would be 10-20% SoC. On very long days, I don't want to run out of sun and battery 10 miles...

Thanks, guys. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. If there's sufficient interest, I could spin this off on its own thread. I'm willing to put the source code up on Githhub for anyone who wants to try this although I could probably use some help with modifying it to be more universal. The curr...

I'm still working on the TailBrain (Arduino-based trailer tilt controller), having fixed coding issues which were causing random reboots and overheating issues resulting from trying to power my Arduino with 13.8V. I think I just lost another photosensor so not quite there yet. Having figured out mos...

I found on my setup it reduced the average cruising speed watts consumption by over 50W. Very nice. I like the simplicity of the 3D printed mounts. How have they held up over time? Have you noticed any reduction in solar power from the cells cracking as the panel flexes? I had a front fairing for w...

dunno if these are the right thing, but they start at under $30 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=360+Degree+Camera&s=price-asc-rank&qid=1559766308&ref=sr_st_price-asc-rank Good point. To be honest, I didn't really look at the low end of the market. Looks like there are all kinds of options out there. I'm...