solar powerd off road trike build log

S

solarshift

10 W
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Sep 23, 2012
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bit of backgrond, this will be my forth solar power trike, the idea is to ride it arond australia, Il try to reach cape yourk, steep point wilsons promentry and cape byron, just as a bit of a goal. this means that the trike will need to be effichent on road, and good of road.
the plan is
long wheelbase, full suspenchon
motor, 93% efficent minimonser from John in CR on mounted as a mid drive to a choince of 2 chinrings fixed to the rear wheel, this should mean that I have great hill climbing ability and a half resnoble top steed.
battries, 60ah of duct tape LifePo4 16s so about 52V
controller, 24 fet irfb4110 80A peak from greentime controllers, its way over speced for most of what I need but I want somthing that can crank the amps for short pieriods withoult getting hot. and I can always tone it down with a CA
solar pannels, 2 pareleled strands of about 80voc eatch realisticly about 7 amps total, I will be building my own fiberglass solar pannels.
I started building the frame today
View attachment 1
note my therd trike, and faithfull trailer, that should have died sooooo many times :wink: rear susprncon.jpg
 
its pritty good, the seat foam is made from the paceging from the motor so it dose get a bit firm after an hour or 2, the new one will have more apropriate foam
 
it actully loocks like a bike now, irelevently is there a list of the largest loads carryd on ebikes? somone in some third world cuntry would probebly smash us all but, Im quite happy with my trike and trailer that toock me and my windsurfer 20km eatch way to the estury, it would have to be a contender for the longest ebike setup :)windsurfing.jpg
an it was fully charged my mid morning the next day.
 

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thanks for that Sancho's Horse
Ive done a bit of work on the trike and toock it for its first ride today, I reallh need to oil the chain and ajust the geers but outher than that its great, really exited.redy for its first ride.jpg
 

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the frames pretty mutch done, as is the pedel drive chain and the battery box is getting ther, now ive just to do the ferring, motor drive pannel and luggageracks.View attachment 1
 

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finished my first pannel, and now almost finished my second, got the motor mounted and pannier racks on, welded on because Im sick of bolts and thin aluminum racks snapping. any opinyons on how mutch effort I shuld put into streamlining it? I was considering building a body oult behind the battery about halfway to the seat, but Im not shure how mutch effichency would be gainded. any ideas?
 

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shameless self promotion ( sorry admins) im planning to ride this around australia, my faceboock for the trip is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solar-shift/223767927704114 and my blog is http://solarshiftaus.blogspot.com.au/ thiers a bit of overlap but they should become more intresting once I leave.
 
can you give more info on the solar panels you made?
I looked at both your links on the build. What sort of amps you getting out of them. The fibreglass you used was clear type resin?
How are the cells holding up being totally encapsulated? they must get damn hot?
 
in good sun they put oult 3.5-4 amps Ive seen 4.5 in really strong sun. all solar pannels that arnt really badly built by people that dont know what thier doing are compleatly encapsulated, they do get hot, mabie a bit more than when thiers glass wicking the heat away but they cope, the epoxy will go long before the cells do. the cells are embedded into fiberglass cloth soaked in epoxy with a slightly higher resin content than would be posable. once that has partally cured I pour over a cleer uv stabelised ( but still not compleatly uv stable) epoxy resin, Im finishing them off with an automotive clear coat to protect agenst uv.
 
thanks for reply, so you use the matting on the sun side of the cells also? I haven't seen anyone do this before on a large panel,
I'm currently building a panel on 3mm aluminium with fins for cooling, your method for encapsulating would probably work for me
on the sunny side of the cells. I realise your probably very busy, but if you ever have time to document in detail your method i'm sure
many folks would be interested. Any idea of the weight of a panel after encapsulating it?
 
somtime when I have a bit of time Il do a more comprehensive deatild accont of my methord. I dont use matting on the sunside ofthe cells, I do put a small strip over the conections at eatch end of the pannel, but not over the cells. it may work to put a thin layer of cloth over the cells, like one layer 100g/M^2. a 36 cell pannel ends up waying about 1.5kg
 
I went for the first ride with the motor today, Im still ioning oult the chain drive and need to neaten up the wireing but the torque is awsome and crawling gear is really good for slow off road
 
how many layers of matting do you put on the lower side, going to give this method a try
 
I would strongly recomend useing cloth, ie woven ( as aposed to chopped mat) how many layers depends a bit on how heavy the cloth is, I use 4 layers of 200 g/m^2 cloth or 3 layers of 320 g/m^2 cloth, it is posable to do with 2 but the pannels are a bit flexable for my liking/ the framing Im uesing.
I have found that with 200 gsm cloth the best way to do it is to lay it oult on a thin piece of polycarbonate with a layer of dry pva then work the epoxy resin down into it rather than soak the resin up from the bottom. you probebly want to oversaturate your cloth a bit so that it can mould to the uneaven underside of the cells, I find that about 480grams of resin is good for the about 400 grams of cloth in a 36 3*6 cell pannel.
 
thanks for the detailed info, I was going to use aluminium heat sinks on the bottom of the cells, but after soldering on the bottom tabbing wires, I can see it would be difficult job, the fibreglass is the way to go
 
Ive been having a fair bit of trouble getting my midrive setup to work well. Ive done some kilometers but the chain (shitty chain) ceeps breaking under regen and while coasting, and makes a scary amont of noise under regen. today somhow it maneged to bend my dropoults, axyle and larger driven sproket, all at low power, ie avraging barly 500watts. any ideas as to what could be the problem, what i should check and what I could try?
 
not sure if i can help much, but you might need a bigger chain, and beef up the drop outs.
Sounds like you have alot of force during regen, if the frame is bending the chain might not be lined up
and causing alot of noise under regen.
Variable regen controller might help, or lower regen setting if using infineon type controller.
 
finally went for a sucsessful test ride, still no pannel, posably going on tomorrow. but 40 somthing km over mountains on 13 ah, with no breakdowns outher than a flat tire.
 

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Ive got the pannels on and conected today, still havent been able to test the charge current with good sun and a not full battery, but in good sun it short circet's at arond 9 amps and has a open circet voltage of about 76v so im hoping for 7-8 amps of charging in good sun. its a big pannel and dose make the trike a little top heavy but not to mutch.
 

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Wow so around 600 watts? Not bad at all! Should allow continuous powered riding at a mild pace! Cool!

Hey and if you get in some tailwind if the angle is just right it might make a good sail! Lol!
 
relisticly more like 400-500 watts as the volltage will drop as it supplys more current, but that is still a uesfull crusing power.
it was a bit windy yesterrday, it isent as bad as it loocks like it should be with wind but you can defenatly feel it. mabie a sail on the nulobor :p
 
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