hydraulic brakes and regen ?

Would like to make regen to work, or even more importantly cut the power off when brake lever is depressed. So far have not been able to find a hydraulic bicycle brake lever that would have a switch implemented.

One though occured is to put a pressure switch to the hyrdaulic line - but I am a bit unsure if that would work in practise.

How have you guys implemented regen and immediate power cut when brake is applied with hydraulic brakes ?

Here is what I did... http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26221&start=45

Just dremeled the switch off the cheap kit ebrakes, and epoxied them onto my disc brake handles.

I am gonna use a twist throttle with a push button on it for the re-gen.

Yep, been thinking the same- adding a push button. Anyhow it does not feel right as an active motorcyclist my emergency procedure is to use the brake levers - and the engine is not shut off when depressing the brake lever.

There must be a better way... ?

PetriK said:

Yep, been thinking the same- adding a push button. Anyhow it does not feel right as an active motorcyclist my emergency procedure is to use the brake levers - and the engine is not shut off when depressing the brake lever.

There must be a better way... ?

Click to expand...

As a motorcyclist one of your levers operates the clutch, which is just like shutting off the engine.

The very small volume of bicycle hydraulic brakes will not likely tolerate a pressure switch if it requires any actuation volume. Seems like a bad idea.

If the rear brake is kept mechanical it can be easily used to trigger the e-brake line. It could be used for regen, or a separate control would also be fine.

Yes, youre absolutely right - left lever takes power off completely with a moroncycle , also usually i swap the levers so to that right lever is always front brske.

Been thinking of replacing the rear brake with regen to the left lever- but i need the rear brake to keep the bike still at trafic light as its pedelec and therefore very easily started by just rolling the pedals a bit forward.

Maybe its a switch that i need to implement, it would be best somehow combined with rear brake or rear gear lever which puts smaller gear in.

Just hoping to find a hydraulic lever with a switch, as the current ones can not accomondate a switch very easily.

This is what I came up with. A small or micro, micro switch mounted on the brake/shifter handle. When I pull lightly it turn on regen and cuts power, harder the frt brake comes in. The switch is real small and hard to see. On the right handle I have a small push button for cruse.
Dan

I have been playing around with analogue hall sensors for when I get my controller software finished.
You could equally mount a reed switch for the magnet to activate for simple on/off control.

see the video http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=20766&start=105.

This used a tine 3mm diameter, 3mm long magnet glued onto the inside of the brake leaver.
There is enough sensitivity to detect a difference between initial leaver movement and brakes grabbing.
A simple thresholding circuit using a comparator could be build to convert an analogue hall sensor to a switched signal for simpler controllers.

I'm thinking of using regen on the left (rear) brake.

If there's no room on the lever for a switch, why not put it on the calipers and mount? Either a mechanical or magnetic switch will work, as long as you set the switch up so it's contact is *just about* to be pushed (open or closed, whichever you need) when brakes are not in use, but as soon as they are barely moved (before actually engaging mechanically) then regen is activated.

That way you can engage regen without engaging the mechanicals first, so you can recapture energy more easily if that is part of your goal, and decrease wear on pads.

I have two levers and push button regen. If Im going slow with my speed less than 10-15mph I use my push button regen. Regen is much softer at this speed. I just reach over with my thumb and push the button on my switch/pod. At higher speed regen kicks in alot harder so I prefer a tighter grip on my handle bars to prevent myself from being thrown off the bike when regen kicks in. I pull lightly on my front brakes regen kicks in... pull harder and my mechnical disc brakes kick in. But its a fine line between regular brakes and regen. To have your disc brakes properly adjusted you have to have a certain amount of pull on the lever for them to properly grab and work. You tweak it to much the caliper wont grab the rotor like its supposed to and then there only a light drag.. but no stopping power.

Added EB to GND but no wiring to EBS pins yet.

Tested today and it feels like having the mode switch in a lower setting (33%) when doing downhill there is more "enginebraking". With mode switch at 100% there is virtually no enginebraking. My wattsup is in a position where its difficult to read it so need to do some rewiring to be sure.