Let's hear you vent

Joined
Jul 31, 2016
Messages
50
Ok, building or converting these machines is so satisfying when the job is done and you're ripping along on what feels like the future. But we all know that somewhere along the way, it probably got real ugly.

What was or is the hardest part of your build(s)?
For me, getting my motorcycle all built and legalized, then spending month after month trying to tune it into stability so I could actually ride it, then watching snow fly and knowing I missed my summer I was supposed to be riding. Man I've tossed things across the garage and felt like maybe I wouldn't actually finish it in the end after everything. I eventually got there, but jeez. Yea.

You?
 
I tend to forget the hard parts of a build somehow, then when I start a new build it comes back..
But I think you are right that it is usually at the end of a build that it gets heavy.
The part when you feel that you are almost finished, but run in to a lot of small problems.
When nothing really happens, you just keep on dealing with problems that dosent really show.

I think it will be a bigger part of my latest electric build than the ones I have done so far.
Because this time I am using a sevcon :roll:

So far to make cad drawings for the watercut parts was a big thing for me, until I started get somewhere with it.
 
It’s when you just want to fix something quickly and be done with it, make a foolish mistake and end up spending a day instead. Like placing your tool on the unprotected bms, shortcut the brains out of it and have to wait for a month for a replacement shipping from China. Stuff like that.
 
darseygodwin said:
What was or is the hardest part of your build(s)?
Not the hardest part, but one of the more annoying:

Needing a part that has to hit a requirement (like a brake caliper with more clearance) but that's not spec'd by the manufacturer. So you end up buying a part only to find it doesn't fit. Then you are left with the question - do you butcher it (almost) into failure to try to make it fit? Do you try again, and end up with four calipers, none of which fit? Do you go to bike stores and do "test rides" where you get the bike, ride it around the corner, take off the caliper and see if it fits your bike? (Haven't done that yet, but I've come close.)
 
larsb said:
...make a foolish mistake...

Haha oh man. I used to have the Curtis 1420 DC-DC converter on my bike without a remote wire, so if my pack's safety SO switch was on, it was always providing 12v power. Even with nothing on to draw power it still drew enough of a leakage current that it was slowly draining my pack... So when winter came, I forgot the switch on after working on it one night (I wasn't constantly recharging it each tuning session), the temp drops to -40C, and the trickle current was enough to drain the last 30-40% of my 7.5kWH pack completely to the low voltage cutoff. $5000 bucks in cells sitting at 0v for a week straight by the time I found it. I boosted them back 4 cells at a time with a handful of car chargers to try and revive them. 2 cells were fully cooked, the other 30 are still working well-ish but have high internal resistance. I still pour out some whiskey for that pack now and again. *sniff*
 
kdog said:
Darsey that sux big time... 7.5kwh, $5000 ouch.
Haha so many great things about living in Canada, and the general accessibility to everything you can buy from the US... But there's a price tag to import anything. Half of my build cost was shipping, duty and brokerage fees. Not exaggerating.

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