Nova Cruz Voloci Scooter/Bike Info

Dui said:
It might be a little late, but to solve your magnet problem, have you thought about using some kevlar wire all around the rotor?
Just dip them in epoxy and as long as they don't touch the stator there should be no way that your magnets will fly off again.

that could work? ive never worked with Kevlar and have no clue how thin it could be but there is not much room for error in these motors, they don't work very well at low rpm either unless you use the stock controller. Very odd setup

if anything I would probably try to adapt a stronger motor to the bike, but there is nowhere to put it except exactly where it is...
 
skeetab5780 said:
Yes I have chargers for the Nimh batteries but they are likely toast and you probably shouldn't use them(if you want one for kicks PM me). I would use the original housing and get a custom 18650 lithium pack for them the 36v models run on 10s lithium. If you run them any higher like 12s then the on board dc dc converter will cut out and stop output of power to accessories which can get annoying.

I can almost guaranty the bikes will power up and work fine with a new battery, the easiest way is to take off the left side cover to expose the controller and tap the new battery into the red and black fat battery lead wires going into the battery compartment off the controller board.

OK but wouldn't it be easier to put a Li pack into the original battery sleeve, and just stuff the extra space with styrofoam or something? I really don't want to mess with new connectors and wires if I can avoid it. I also want the battery to be removable so my wife can take it into her office to recharge.

I think the seller is annoyed with himself for misplacing those chargers and will probably find them eventually. He had all the paperwork in a neat folder, and all four keys.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering how to cobble up a 36V supply just to see if the motors even spin. I don't have three car batteries lying around. Guess I could grab a couple of old 18V tool batteries at a thrift store or yard sale.
 
skeetab5780 said:
Dui said:
It might be a little late, but to solve your magnet problem, have you thought about using some kevlar wire all around the rotor?
Just dip them in epoxy and as long as they don't touch the stator there should be no way that your magnets will fly off again.

that could work? ive never worked with Kevlar and have no clue how thin it could be but there is not much room for error in these motors, they don't work very well at low rpm either unless you use the stock controller. Very odd setup

if anything I would probably try to adapt a stronger motor to the bike, but there is nowhere to put it except exactly where it is...

I never tried myself and it was just a wild thought, but I searched afterwards and it seems like some companies are actually doing it so I guess it does work.
An alternative could be to use some carbon fiber wire, which is easier to find and very cheap, so I'd say go for that instead.
https://www.arnoldmagnetics.com/products/wraptite-carbon-fibre-encapsulation/

Yes, it is extremely thin, thinner than a hair actually. If you wrap it tight and take your time to avoid the fibers crossing each other I think the size difference will barely be noticeable. Pretty sure it could work, the only important things would be:
1) to wind the carbon as tight as possible, so build some kind of jig (a crank fixed on the rotor shaft, two planks and it's done)
2) to use some high temp epoxy, so that it can last a long time. That shouldn't be an issue, a lot of motor windings are epoxied so I think it should be easy to find.
3)Make sure that your bearings are still OK, if you have any play in them then the carbon might come into contact with the iron of the coils.

It shouldn't cost you a lot, I don't think it is very difficult to do and it might be the solution in your case. I think your original magnet gluing was very close to be sufficient, otherwise it would have exploded in a few seconds. But you managed to get a few rides before the magnets flew off, so just adding a tiny bit of strenght would be likely to solve the problem. In this case, with the carbon fiber, I think you'll at least double the strenght if not more, given that the shear forces won't be on the same axis anymore so it should be reliable. Might worth a try, fitting a bigger motor in this tight spot is a much bigger challenge.
 
Elect Ron said:
skeetab5780 said:
Yes I have chargers for the Nimh batteries but they are likely toast and you probably shouldn't use them(if you want one for kicks PM me). I would use the original housing and get a custom 18650 lithium pack for them the 36v models run on 10s lithium. If you run them any higher like 12s then the on board dc dc converter will cut out and stop output of power to accessories which can get annoying.

I can almost guaranty the bikes will power up and work fine with a new battery, the easiest way is to take off the left side cover to expose the controller and tap the new battery into the red and black fat battery lead wires going into the battery compartment off the controller board.

OK but wouldn't it be easier to put a Li pack into the original battery sleeve, and just stuff the extra space with styrofoam or something? I really don't want to mess with new connectors and wires if I can avoid it. I also want the battery to be removable so my wife can take it into her office to recharge.

I think the seller is annoyed with himself for misplacing those chargers and will probably find them eventually. He had all the paperwork in a neat folder, and all four keys.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering how to cobble up a 36V supply just to see if the motors even spin. I don't have three car batteries lying around. Guess I could grab a couple of old 18V tool batteries at a thrift store or yard sale.

I sell 36v batteries in the used for sale section if you need to get running on the cheap, they are 10s lithium 42v you can charge them with a $20 charger

check them out if you want, it would take more time and patience to get the battery retro fit into the canister rather than simply tapping into the wires. But it also comes down to how comfortable you are with electronics. I personally put a little more power thru the bike than it can handle and the spring terminals on the battery aren't the greatest things in the world. IMO I would use XT60 for quick disconnect and make two batteries for swapping when charging.
 
Dui said:
skeetab5780 said:
Dui said:
It might be a little late, but to solve your magnet problem, have you thought about using some kevlar wire all around the rotor?
Just dip them in epoxy and as long as they don't touch the stator there should be no way that your magnets will fly off again.

that could work? ive never worked with Kevlar and have no clue how thin it could be but there is not much room for error in these motors, they don't work very well at low rpm either unless you use the stock controller. Very odd setup

if anything I would probably try to adapt a stronger motor to the bike, but there is nowhere to put it except exactly where it is...

I never tried myself and it was just a wild thought, but I searched afterwards and it seems like some companies are actually doing it so I guess it does work.
An alternative could be to use some carbon fiber wire, which is easier to find and very cheap, so I'd say go for that instead.
https://www.arnoldmagnetics.com/products/wraptite-carbon-fibre-encapsulation/

Yes, it is extremely thin, thinner than a hair actually. If you wrap it tight and take your time to avoid the fibers crossing each other I think the size difference will barely be noticeable. Pretty sure it could work, the only important things would be:
1) to wind the carbon as tight as possible, so build some kind of jig (a crank fixed on the rotor shaft, two planks and it's done)
2) to use some high temp epoxy, so that it can last a long time. That shouldn't be an issue, a lot of motor windings are epoxied so I think it should be easy to find.
3)Make sure that your bearings are still OK, if you have any play in them then the carbon might come into contact with the iron of the coils.

It shouldn't cost you a lot, I don't think it is very difficult to do and it might be the solution in your case. I think your original magnet gluing was very close to be sufficient, otherwise it would have exploded in a few seconds. But you managed to get a few rides before the magnets flew off, so just adding a tiny bit of strenght would be likely to solve the problem. In this case, with the carbon fiber, I think you'll at least double the strenght if not more, given that the shear forces won't be on the same axis anymore so it should be reliable. Might worth a try, fitting a bigger motor in this tight spot is a much bigger challenge.

hmm ill have to give this some thought, I do have 50 motors to try it on...

what size would you use? When I google the stuff it looks like yellow yarn, way too thick 45lb rated?
 
skeetab5780 said:
I sell 36v batteries in the used for sale section if you need to get running on the cheap, they are 10s lithium 42v you can charge them with a $20 charger

check them out if you want, it would take more time and patience to get the battery retro fit into the canister rather than simply tapping into the wires. But it also comes down to how comfortable you are with electronics. I personally put a little more power thru the bike than it can handle and the spring terminals on the battery aren't the greatest things in the world. IMO I would use XT60 for quick disconnect and make two batteries for swapping when charging.

Right, I saw those. So they can be wired 3 in parallel to get 13Ah? And they would fit into the stock housing? Use the stock charging connector?

I'm OK with a little bit of wiring inside the battery housing but ideally I'd like to leave the bike itself as is. I just know it'll never get done, and I have a load of unfinished projects around to prove it, including a couple of gas bikes. It'll be quite enough work as it is, e.g. if I understand this thread, I can't just put a modern $10 ebay throttle on, I'll either have to fix the old one, or replace the controller, as well. That sort of thing.
 
Elect Ron said:
skeetab5780 said:
I sell 36v batteries in the used for sale section if you need to get running on the cheap, they are 10s lithium 42v you can charge them with a $20 charger

check them out if you want, it would take more time and patience to get the battery retro fit into the canister rather than simply tapping into the wires. But it also comes down to how comfortable you are with electronics. I personally put a little more power thru the bike than it can handle and the spring terminals on the battery aren't the greatest things in the world. IMO I would use XT60 for quick disconnect and make two batteries for swapping when charging.

Right, I saw those. So they can be wired 3 in parallel to get 13Ah? And they would fit into the stock housing? Use the stock charging connector?

I'm OK with a little bit of wiring inside the battery housing but ideally I'd like to leave the bike itself as is. I just know it'll never get done, and I have a load of unfinished projects around to prove it, including a couple of gas bikes. It'll be quite enough work as it is, e.g. if I understand this thread, I can't just put a modern $10 ebay throttle on, I'll either have to fix the old one, or replace the controller, as well. That sort of thing.

Ya Id recommend at least four of the hover board batteries since the Voloci seems to be pretty power hungry 36v 40a you'll get only 10 miles range, but I think only three will fit in the housing(not even sure) Full draw up a hill with no pedals can get upwards of 45amps! You need lots of batteries to go far on these things unfortunately. I had 7 hover packs on my commuter voloci and it still only likes to do 20 mile trips

the throttle is 2.5v so its very hard to find one that matches the OEM controller. They are easy to fix tho and are pretty much bullet proof. Loosen the bottom flat head screw that holds the throttle twist assembly on and then you can pull it apart(don't lose the spring) either the magnet could be reversed or needs to be adjusted one way a bit, or the wires came off. I was able to make every throttle on all 12 of my Volocis work without problems
 
Thanks, that's a big help. Three packs should work for my wife's commute which is about 4 miles each way and she can plug in at her job. Getting groceries is about 5 miles round trip. But it wouldn't be of much use for anything else. It really sux that public 110v outlets are rare. Guess the charger would "walk away" if I don't stick around, LOL. Don't want to lug the pack around and explain a zillion times, mind if I plug in here, it's just a nickel per charge.

The throttle grips are both tight/stuck mechanically. Not surprising since the bikes saw use on a farm and lots of weather, judging from the rust. Electrically they may be fine, can't tell yet.

I just opened up one of the packs for a look-see. Yikes that's a lot of wires in there. This one has a 40 amp fuse in the + wire, wouldn't that blow on a long uphill stretch?
 
skeetab5780 said:
hmm ill have to give this some thought, I do have 50 motors to try it on...

what size would you use? When I google the stuff it looks like yellow yarn, way too thick 45lb rated?

I would probably use carbon fiber instead of aramid/kevlar actually. Carbon it much stiffer/less susceptible to deformation under the high centrifugal forces and available in much thinner sizes. It is electrically conductive, but I don't think this will affect anything since it's very thin and apparently it's used by professionals on electric rotors, I guess they know what they are doing. Plus the magnetic field is supposed to follow the rotor so the carbon shouldn't see much field changes.
You can try something like this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32731953761.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.28.49661b62yOEeKc&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0%2Csearchweb201602_6_10065_10068_319_10546_10059_10884_317_10548_10887_10696_321_322_10084_453_10083_454_10103_10618_10307_537_536%2Csearchweb201603_52%2CppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=2f23c445-21d1-446c-a394-78a4c44027c3-4&algo_pvid=2f23c445-21d1-446c-a394-78a4c44027c3

One layer should be enough, but since it's thin you can probably even go for 2 if you wrap it around properly, I'm not sure if you have enough space, you'll see :)

You can test on one motor, you don't even need to install the motor on your bike, just put it on a bench, move away for safety, throw 72v at it for a while and see if the magnets stay in place
 
if its not under load I doubt it would fail stock. a no load bench test wont prove anything IMO. This wrap is a good idea just not sure when I will get around to it at the moment.

I'm 6' 3" 240lb riding these things hard in rough trails with hills at four times their rated power or more and at slow speeds at times which is worse
 
Part of the magnet problem is the epoxy stuff they used gets much weaker when hot. The motor could probably take 60v if the motor stays cool. Simply using a different glue would probably help a lot, but removing the original glue would be difficult.

I've seen motors with a band around the magnets. My Honda hybrid had something like that. You could use thin stainless steel wire with epoxy too.
 
skeetab5780 said:
if its not under load I doubt it would fail stock. a no load bench test wont prove anything IMO. This wrap is a good idea just not sure when I will get around to it at the moment.

Yeah, I don't know.
Without load you can at least check that it resists the centrifugal forces, it will spin faster without load than it will ever spin once installed on the bike.
 
Quick update, the seller never did find his chargers but he felt so bad about it he got in touch with Thatcher Ulrich who sent him one. So now I have one of Thatcher's extra chargers and it turns out one of my packs still has life in it! Took a few cycles but now it will charge to 42v and I can't seem to run the pack down just going in circles in my yard/driveway. Not registered yet but we'll take it to the farm next door to get a better idea of the range.

I'm totally new to riding, if you can believe it, but it seems to me it wants to speed up too much. As soon as the motor engages, it'll accelerate way past safe speed for a parking lot or such. Yes, with the mode switch on slow. I end up cycling on/off a lot to go slow. Okay, I'm not even 160 pounds, helmet and all, but that seems wrong. Throttle? Mode switch not working?
 
that's NIMH pack is like 10ah or something really small so it will likely get around 8 miles full charge in good working order. Who knows how much capacity was lost from sitting at zero for years...Never mind how heavy it is. You can get a decent 36v lithium battery for $150 now a days online just make sure its capable of 40a max draw

about 80% of the Voloci bikes I own the speed limit switch doesn't work at all, I have one or two that it does work on and its pretty neat. It lets it use pretty much full power until a certain speed and then it cuts out and intermittently keeps the wheels turning, you can still get going pretty fast on flat ground with it

figures the controller I have that this works on the dc-dc conveter doesn't work on and the lights and horn does not work, im thinking of putting a remote dc converter in it soon
 
I don't mind the weight, actually, and 8 miles of range would be great. Still not registered, we forgot to get a BoS from the seller at the time, sorting that out now. It was a blast on the farm road but started shaking itself to pieces so I stopped. Not before ruining a chain, just as I thought I should really check the tension...

I don't think I would trust those cheap Chinese packs. I would definitely stick it inside the grill for charging, and hang around! Plus it doesn't work with the stock charge indicator, right?

Send me a PM if you have any NiMH packs left, or even individual cells. The second pack had some electrolyte (I think) residue inside and will only charge to 24V so I guess that means a bad cell somewhere.
 
Elect Ron said:
I don't mind the weight, actually, and 8 miles of range would be great. Still not registered, we forgot to get a BoS from the seller at the time, sorting that out now. It was a blast on the farm road but started shaking itself to pieces so I stopped. Not before ruining a chain, just as I thought I should really check the tension...

I don't think I would trust those cheap Chinese packs. I would definitely stick it inside the grill for charging, and hang around! Plus it doesn't work with the stock charge indicator, right?

Send me a PM if you have any NiMH packs left, or even individual cells. The second pack had some electrolyte (I think) residue inside and will only charge to 24V so I guess that means a bad cell somewhere.

I have no old technology batteries, I recycled every single one of them when I got the lot of voloci's they are just as dangerous as anything else. They are too heavy and too useless for me to use them. they get pretty hot when charging/discharging also which is a sign of high resistance, atleast a Chinese lithium battery has a BMS system in it...NIMH does not. I would almost say SLA is better haha

the battery gauge works pretty decent on 10s lithium its lights up all the way and goes to red before it actually dies so its useful to me

depending on which state you live in, you can likely ride this with no troubles from the cops, it really does look like a bicycle to most people, I just made a bill of sale on Microsoft word and registered it with the RMV here in MA we get a 2 year sticker
 
skeetab5780 said:
I have no old technology batteries, I recycled every single one of them when I got the lot of voloci's they are just as dangerous as anything else. They are too heavy and too useless for me to use them. they get pretty hot when charging/discharging also which is a sign of high resistance, atleast a Chinese lithium battery has a BMS system in it...NIMH does not. I would almost say SLA is better haha

the battery gauge works pretty decent on 10s lithium its lights up all the way and goes to red before it actually dies so its useful to me

depending on which state you live in, you can likely ride this with no troubles from the cops, it really does look like a bicycle to most people, I just made a bill of sale on Microsoft word and registered it with the RMV here in MA we get a 2 year sticker

Dang! One man’s trash, huh? I would have taken a bunch of them.

Anyway, that’s good to know about the gauge LEDs, thanks for the info.

I’m in Massachusetts, as well. I knew I needed the sticker but the previous owner never registered the bikes, just used them on his farm. So what he gave me was the certificate of origin with his name as the dealer and I thought that was enough. I got the BoS now, it’s just a low-res texted photo though. Think they’ll accept that at the RMV?
 
Xootr scooter proto type sighting on web, this is the only pic ive found of this very early Voloci...other than the one i own
images
 
Well took about two hours but i got this one thread with all pictures properly backed up on ES now! I will try to get one of my pages done each day...
IMG_3638.JPG
IMG_3641.jpg
Voloci rear wheel.jpg
volocicomparemotor.JPG
volocicomparemotor2.JPG
volocimotor.JPG
voloci battery wiring.jpg
 
Here are some pictures of the new(old stock) Kollmorgen India motor that dropped a magnet on its first ride at 72v 2500w... I'm slowly investigating to see if there is a way to fix this solution easily...likely with epoxy

Could just barely pull the rotor out of the center with how much magnet force there is
IMG_4738.jpg
Ended up having to tap out the loose magnet first and then push it out
IMG_4739.jpg
Here you can see how the magnet lodged against the stator lams
IMG_4740.jpg
IMG_4741.jpg
IMG_4742.jpg
IMG_4743.jpg
IMG_4744.jpg
IMG_4745.jpg
IMG_4746.jpg
IMG_4747.jpg
I didnt have much around the clean it up with so I'm using some Tuff towels they kinda work
IMG_4748.jpg
The epoxy they used just peels right off
IMG_4749.jpg
IMG_4750.jpg
Not sure why half the magnets are painted gray and the other half are painted black? Does it matter which way they go?

Also i have to believe that this paint could have caused the magnet failures, if the magnets are painted how can epoxy stick to them properly? Does the paint need to be there?
IMG_4751.jpg
Cleaned up nice looks decent
IMG_4752.jpg
Here you can see the stock "glue" just fracturing/splitting

Do you think they painted them before or after they glued them, it is hard to tell?
IMG_4754.jpg
IMG_4755.jpg

What do you guys think should i use JB weld to hold them back on and call it a day?
 
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