Midnight Status:
I bark at the moon... <ARrrooooo!>
I was thinking I might leave today but then by 10 AM it became wishful thinking; too many little details to complete. Here’s what’s been done since 6:30 AM…
- Finish Trailer cable mod; termination
- Finish Ortlieb cable mod; extension & wye
- Sort out Controller-side power bus connector
- Shorten Throttle Cable
- Shorten Rear Hub cable if possible
- Tried configuring Speedict one more time: Got it to recognize the device on XP but wouldn't take latest firmware upgrade (might already be installed). Android couldn't connect to device. Tried both apps; no joy. Taking the unit with to resolve on the road. Maybe with a 2nd set of eyes this too shall be overcome.
It doesn’t sound like much, and that was my thinking when I got up out of bed. But these little jobs are tedious. For instance, signal wires solder quickly – actually they go pretty dang fast now as I’ve developed better technique. Battery cabling though takes time because I tie off each connection with a lineman-hitch (I forget the proper name but it was something I learned when I was in the Navy): Take two big wires, overlap them, then take a single piece of strand (I use silver-plated copper because it’s ready to wick), and then I tie the two wires together. Finish by soldering. Works well for holding large joins together. Not long ago my Uncle said
“Screw that – I use Butt Splicesâ€. That made me laugh; I am such a fool. :lol:
Once I relinquished spending another afternoon in Redmond I added more nice-to-haves tasks. The eBike bus was originally redesigned around the Speedict device; there are two sides: Battery and Charger, and the Controllers and DC-DC converter on the other with Speedict in the middle.
It’s the other side that was funky and ghetto, cobbled together from past efforts. This I remanufactured and it made the whole assembly fit better. I also had to take into account how to create extensions to that bus for the Road Trip which could be reverted or removed after said adventure.
The replacement Magura Throttle had an 8-foot long cord which I reduced to a reasonable length; too many wires means clutter means probability something will catch, tear, fail.
The same was done to the rear hub as the original wire length was designed for the trailer and not the bike. With these last three items the rats nest developing post-trailer mods was greatly reduced.
Replacement Controller
Oh I wanted to share some pictures of this other controller. It’s essentially the same layout as the Lyen 12x4110 except it has older-style power regulation. I think I bought this April last year and began to modify it – boosting the traces with this mombo 10-AWG solid copper wire. I shouldn’t laugh cos the 6FET controller that I’ve been using all along up till most recently had the exact same modification – and
THAT controller took me to Californy. So I hope the magic rubs off. I never got around to trace-beefing the Lyen boards cos I didn’t think they needed it for what I am trying to do, I mean come on: two 12x4110 controllers pulling two hub motors = plenty of horsepower.
- Battery and phase wires are Mil-Spec silver-plated 10-AWG.
- Halls connector is the USB-2 Micro-B Female.
- CA connector
- Programming Connector
- Slave Cable: 6-pin Molex carries signals, Blue APP = VCC-L from the key switch, and spare green wire is for future use, likely +12V from the DC-DC converter when I get around to it – but not today…
- Two big Caps are the lowest ESR rated I could find.
- It’s been flashed to provide 24A Battery and 60 Phase and drives the rear hub.
In the afternoon I began putting the bike back together. The saddle bag wiring was problematic and took a while to sort out. The bike faring and saddle bags are now good to go, although I might add another safety belt just in case. All batteries are unified onto the same bus, both controllers check out, both wheels turn: We are ready for another test drive. This time however I am going to load up the trailer as if I am going to leave – mainly cos I really want to.
The things that are left are sundry items. Will tomorrow never come?
Waiting for the Sun…
KF
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