2WD Semi-Recumbent Recycled-Parts Cargo eBike: "CrazyBike2"

Not that I started out to do it, but I fixed that controller. At least, it runs the wheel off-ground.

I actually set out to weld up the evap cooler tray this morning while it was still relatively cool, but I somehow popped the main breaker to the house, and resetting it didnt' fix the problem. I troubleshot it and tried to find my spare breakers when suddenly everything came back on, and I realized that it probably wasn't anything to do with whatever I did here--there must've been a power surge that popped the breaker and then killed power to the block or whatever.

I can't imagine anything at my end that would cause that without also causing a fire or being pretty obvious....

Being daytime, I hadn't noticed that anyone else's power was out, especially since the laptop's wifi picked up a signal good enough to peek at ES a couple times.

So there was around 3-4 hours wasted; I don't know how long it was for sure, but by the time the power was back on, it was past midday and past 100F and I'd given up on any outside projects.


Anyhow, I was too overheated to think well, and I tried to take a nap after failing to remember what else I had planned for today, and decided today will just be a "day off", since it was already an "off day". I helped a friend in the evening, replacing his ipod touch's messed up touchscreen--fortunatley that went much better than I anticipated and I didn't break anything else on it. :lol: While doing this I was thinkng about the thngs I probably ought to accomplish tonight, and kinda made a mental list of them.

He donated a few lengths of PVC pipe to my solar water heater project, though as I was reaching into the bed of his truck to pick them up when he dropped me off back at my house, and I had just grabbed one end of the pieces, he just drove off, running over my left foot's toes. :shock:

Fortunatley the shoes I was wearing are steel-toed, and were stronger than the small amount of the vehicle weight on them for the short time as he drove over them, and nothing bad happened. but it was terribly surprising, and I can't imagine why he drove off at that moment rather than waiting till I was clear of the truck. :?


Anyhow, somewhat dazed and confused and unable to remember what I had been pondering doing earlier, I went in to greet and feed the dogs and let them out for potty time and playtime and such, and passed CrazyBike2 many times and it just bugged me that I'd broken that controller so quickly. :(


So after doing the various household chores I decided must get done, like clothes washing and prepping a few food ingredients for stuff to make later in the week, and then popping in here on ES a few times, I wanted to open up the controller to see what kind of carnage I'd done.

First, though, I took your advice and poked around at the Eagletree, but right now I can't see well enough or hold my hands steady enough to work on the tiny little thing. :(

So after a little while of that, I did open up the controller:

No visible damage, though I certainly see what you mean about the crooked-drilling of the FET mounting holes. They must've been drunk that day, or doing it blindfolded with both hands tied behind their back. :roll: but there were sufficient gaps that there shouldn't be any shorting--at least 1mm, sometimes 2-3, between FEt groups.

The controller doesn't really look that messy to me, though I am not exactly the best judge of that sort of thing.

Ohming out the FETs I found the rightmost (from the top, FETs on top) group had one side of the bridge (leftmost, cant' remember if thats' positive or negative side of the bridge) shorted completely out, gate to source to drain less than 1ohm!

I used that soldering gun you sent me ages back in an earlier "care package" to remove the FETs one at a time, and of course it was the last of the three that was dead shorted--the others tested fine. They might be damaged, but I still reused them, at least to see if the controller would work at all. I managed to peel off the gate trace to the leftmost FET, on the top of the PCB, when I removed it. So I had to scrape some coating off the gate trace to the others, and use the FET lead to solder to the top of the trace instead. I replaced the shorted FET with one of the ones I'd bought from you way back when (I still have most of those new in their rail, fortunatley).

Was about to reassemble and test it, when I thought that I had better maybe kinda put the shunts back to something close to what they started out as. :) So I again used taht soldering gun to melt the solder, and sucked it off off there with the little thumb-cocked springloaded soldersucker I'd inherited from my dad, and then used needlenose to pull off the (presumably) desoldering braid wrapped around the shunts, while continuing to heat the shunts with that gun.

It was starting to smell funny from the PCB heating up by the time I was done. :lol: Thankfully I was running the evap's high-volume fan (no water) to move the air thru the house at this point, with it finally down below 80F outside, at somewhere after 1am I think.

I also enabled regen BK to GND with a solder bridge, though I dont' remember now if I checked that the brake wires are actually hooked up to an external connector or not.... I guess I'll find out later when I go to set up a switch on there.


Anyway, then I carefully but quickly stuffed it all back into the casing, after re-verifying no shorts on anything major, and no escaped solder globs. Reconnected to the bike (except the hall wires, still soldered to the motor halls) stuff and powered on. No smoke yet. Tilted bike to get rear wheel offground and carefully pulled throttle...nothing. Remembered pack voltage high/low switch on end of controller, clicked it, and retried--now it worked!

Then I realized what time it is, and that I'd unintentionally spent at least two hours on this.... Well, at least this time it was productive!


So if I have to, I can now just hop on CrazyBIke2 and ride it...though I need to do some finishing work on the new battery box, which is a larger 50-cal ammocan, already painted white a long time ago--I used to use it as a toolbox, and long ago forgot I even had it till I was looking for something else a week or two ago, I think it was. I realized when I saw it that it should be just big enough for the experimental pack, and it turns out be exactly right to hold that pack and the Methods LVC/HVC system, and *maybe* the HF cutoff switch JEB sent me in a care package a long time back.

Sorry no pics on anything tonight, as I just am too wiped to get back up and go find wher eI left the camera.
 
Good job bro
I suppose you noticed the "insulator" that I jammed in between the PCB and extruded housing. Make sure you jam it back in there else the board might touch the housing.

Lowering that current limit was a wise move - I think you have yourself a good controller now. Soft start might even come in handy.

If that big soldering iron ever gives you trouble I remember having to "push" on it some times to get it to kick in. Not sure why - probably something stupid. You can feel it buzzing in your hand when it is working - but the light on the front always seemed to have a mind of its own.

Fixing things is satisfying.
A true value added activity that makes the world a better place.

-methods
 
I did see the insulator card, and ensured it went back where it is supposed to when I put it back together, just in case.

I would bet that evertythign mounts via "bus bar" screwed together in that soldering gun, and that the mounting screws are loose. I didn't even get the lights on at all at anytime, but I didn't need them anyway then. Have to open it up and check later, if it gives me problems on the soldering part (didn't so far).


I figured if I didn't put the shunt mostly back the way it was, I'd blow up the controller again, because even with the controller in it's highly-modded condition, on THIS bike with that knobby Maxxis tire from Mdd0127, I can't get wheelspin evne on loose dirt/gravel in my front yard, with this thing on the rear wheel (whereas the front version spun even on less than 1KW even on asphalt if it wasn't sticky). So it would just ahve locked rotor current levels at startup every time, because it takes a LOT longer to get going than on a regular bike that's probably 70-80lbs less.


Anyway, I set up the ebrake and verified it works to stop the motor, but ot doesnt' do regen. I dunno if that's a voltage-level thing I can fix with the "R12 mod" or some other mod, or if it would have to be reprogrammed. (or if it even *can* be). Without regen braking, this bike does not have sufficient braking power to be safe to ride at higher speeds, above maybe 12-15MPH, in traffic conditions.

The front disc brake I spent about an hour and a half fiddling with, and basically I guess the rotor is hosed or something, because it feels like glass on the pad contact areas, and no matter how hard the lever is squeeze or how far pads are adjusted (even full contact with disc before braking!) you can easily spin the wheel by hand. Same with both calipers I have handy, probalby the same with all the others wherever I put them.

The front rim brake is ok, but I need to move it to a real lever, not the crappy ebrake lever, so I can actualy get the right leverage so it doesn't hit the bars before I get full braking power (or have the calipers so close to the wheel taht they rub a lot). Wheel is still not perfectly true either, plus I had to offset to the right to fix the disc rotor/ fork leg interference issue, so regardless of adjustments to brake arms the right arm still never really springs away from the right rim side properly. So I can't adjust them down as closely as I would like.


That means that I really need that rear regen braking, to do most of the slowdown work from higher speeds. So if I run into more experimental time (and energy) I will poke around to see about how to figure out which mod, if any, will let regen actually work. (it already has BK soldered to GND pad next to it).


Anyway, the main reason for hte post was to note the test ride data. I used TWM1, not the CA (which is on the Fusin test bike), so I don't have speed/distance data. Ride was about half a mile, kind of just around the block. At a guess I might've gotten close to 20MPh, probably not even that, becuause of the braking issue.

Wh/mile might be more than 70, but I was deliberately riding it hard to see if I coudl blow it up again. (rather do it now than later).

0.669Ah
36.1Wh
84.89Amax
4440.7Wmax

57.6Vstart
56.92Vrest
51.79Vmin

Motor was definitely very warm, as the stator coils were hot enough to not leave my finger on them very long. Nothing else in the motor had noticeably warmed up yet, as the ride was very short. I probably would not want to ride this motor as hard as this normally, without working out some additional cooling, especially for when I am stopped.


Acceleration from a complete stop is way better than before (should be, with what might be up to twice the power!), so that part is a success. Plus that strength of acceleration continues for longer than with the ecrazyman 12FET.
 
Since this controller can take up to 100V for sure (whereas I haven't verified beyond 60V on the 12FET Ecrazyman), I decided to add 4s to the 14s experimental pack to see what difference that makes to acceleration (since I dont' need a higher top speed, even if it would be a lot of fun).

Since I don't want to mess with the existing charger (as I also use it for my 14s2p RC LiPo Ammocan pack currently on the Fusin test bike, which I'm commuting with every workday to review it), I dug out the other charger I got from Dirtdad/Comcycle's super clearance sale a while back. It's an HP8204L3, marked as a LiFePO4 charger, which while it has a different charging curve than this pack needs, will still get it to the final termination voltage correctly. Or should--I'm testing the theory right now. :)

Using Kingfish's instructions in this thread:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16800
I found that it only goes up to 67.0V--not high enough for 18s (74.7V for 4.15V/cell), so the closest I can get is 16s (66.4V).

I'm hoping the other charger can be made to go to that 74.7V, but I'm not experimenting with it until I am sure this one works fine, so I have a backup. :)

This one is only a "3A" charger, and the other is 4A. FWIW, this charger's initial current was about 2.5A, which increased to over 5A during a period of 15-20 seconds, then it went back down to less than 1A, then back up to 2.5A, and swinging back and forth like that for a while. Eventually it settled down to around 1.8A and slowly dropped over the first 0.8Ah of charge to about 0.9A it's at right now, still dropping as the pack voltage increases.


Ideally I'd like to use the big Sorenson lab PSU for a charger, but it only goes up to just under 56V (rated at 55V 55A). So to use it for high-current charging at even 14s, I'd have to find one of those server supplies and mod it for series operation wtih the Sorenson. If they're 12V output, I'd actually need two, as I need another almost 20V to get up to 18s charging voltage. Eventually I may want to go to 22s, as I have enough cells to do that (but they're currently in use as the lighting pack).


OH WAIT: I totally just remembered about those DC-DC units I found in that networking rack unit's PSU!
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=555639#p555639
If the outputs can be isolated from each other, I can take an intact PSU and series 3 of the DC-DCs on there, to get 12V (15A) + 5V (25A) + 5V (25A). Assumign that the input side is isolated from the output; I can't remmeber if I determined that or not yet. I have at least one more of these PSUs (several more I think), so I can experiment with this...soon, I hope. Probably not, though.

Then I would have 22V @ 15A out of that, plus the 55V out of the Sorenson, for up to 77V @ 15A for charging. Of course I can also parallel more DC-DC units if I could use more than that charging current, but I have trouble imagining a need for it just at the moment. :) I *will* eventually want higher charging *voltage*, and for that I can simply series another of these modules on there....


I think I'm really glad I didn't just desolder all the DC-DCs off those PSUs yet. :)
 
Pack charged perfectly to correct terminal voltage, and the charger shut off like the other one does.

Will try to dig out one of those netwokring PSUs and see if I can play wiht putting the DC-DCs on it in series.
 
Care package from Ohzee came in. I can even use the packing material, which is insulation styrofoam sheets, as insulation in my windows for this summer. :)
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Very useful will be a couple of Infinity Armadillo-armored kevlar lining tires, almost road-slick tread just like i prefer, round profiles. These will go on CrazyBike2 as soon as I get the chance to do it.
View attachment 10

A mirror (Electra?) that will go on Nishik-E when I get the chance to, as that really needs a mirror and hasn't had one yet.
DSC06839.JPG

Strangely, a couple days ago when adding the cells to the experimental pack, I pulled 3 of those Epbuddy balance-connector grips off 3 packs he'd sent me before,
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=559270#p559270
to help protect the balance taps on that pack...and here in this care package were three more grips. :)


Also a rear rack, whcih I used on Nishik-E to replace the one I'd moved from it to the Fusin test bike. It's not structurally as good a rack, but I don't need it to be on Nishik-E, as it won't see the kinds of loads the other bike will, as Nishik-E is still not E yet. :) But it fits better than the other rack as it's more adjustable.




The main thing was really an MXUS motor from AmpedBikes, which had been repaired but with some sort of undetermined stiction/friction issue inside.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=575454#p575454
I played iwth it for around half an hour or so and couldnt find the problem, but I suspect one of two things:

1) side cover lips are not quite centered on bearing hole, causing it to rub the then off-center magnets on the stator. This shoudn't be it cuz he marked the covers.

or

2) one of the wire sets is rubbing on the cover right at the outer edge, like maybe the halls on the lip.

I don't know which it is, if either, but it's definitely going to take some time and experimentation to figure out.
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Some other bits and bobs from two other (local) friends:

A couple of those "shake to recharge" flashlights, but both seem to have leaky caps and so they dont' really charge much and don't hold it long, never get very bright.
flashlights and busbarsDSC06787.JPG
Some very thick copper busbar from netwroking rackmount stuff.
View attachment 15


And some depressed dogs melting in the heat.
hachi and nana DSC06791.JPG


I finally got a chance to remember to recharge those powerchair batteries, and they took 12.363Ah to reach full charge.
DSC06794.JPG

A couple of racks made of 3/4" square tubing and 1/4" wire rack, saved from a tossed-out display stand at work, hauled home with the Fusin test bike and the Bell flatbed trailer. Might be using some of the tubing to make a better battery cage for CB2.
racks from CM display DSC06857.JPG
 

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glad you found use for everything.. that foam is from JRH when he shipped my 5404.

I worked that mxux motor pretty good when I had it , but I don't think i weakened the magnets or anything.
Just made it smell funny with the insulating varnish. I had thought of maybe using small washers between the
cover and the magnets for a bit of additional space so the hall wires did not rub. Otherwise I was out of ideas.

Really glad you like the tires.. they were pricey , but once I got into fat tires and the ride they provide I could
not go back.

Wish I had a spare air conditioner to send you. they have some decent 120$ units here - I hate being sweaty
near my pc so I have one in my office myself.
 
Oh, I have window AC units and a main house AC unit...it just costs a lot of electricity to run any of them enough to make any difference, so I only run them when there isnt' any other option, or if I and the dogs will only be in one room for a long time (like sometimes when it's bedtime), and I can close up that room to keep the cool air inside there so it doesn't have to run very much on it's highest-temperature setting.

Usually I wait until it's cooler outside than inside, and run the cheaper main evap cooler (minus water) to blow cooler air thru the house in bursts, longer each time until I just keep it on till dawn after about 2-3am or so, to help cool the house. If it's *really* hot, I'll turn on the water too, but usually that just ends up making the house feel hotter the next day as the humidity comes back out of everything.
 
amberwolf said:
A couple of those "shake to recharge" flashlights, but both seem to have leaky caps and so they dont' really charge much and don't hold it long, never get very bright.

Ahhh, yes... wankerlights... :twisted:
 
I thought I would test out the tires from Ohzee here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=596613#p596613
on the Fusin test bike, as that'd be easier to change than CB2, but I was wrong, and wsted about 5-6 hours diealing with a bunch of things, leaving me with an unrideable mess for now.

In a few hours I gotta go pick up 2 35lb bags of dog food i bought last night but couldn't take home on the Fusin test bike I had with me, at least not with the trailer I didn't ahve with me, and with the fusin bike down, i'll be using CB2 for it. First "real" road test with it; I really wish i had regen braking working on the controller, because I can't safely go 20MPH really without it. The mechanical brakes just aren't good enough, and I don't have time to fix the disc brake issue, which probably requires a new rotor, which means filing out holes on another of these nonstandard 180mm rotors.

Im too tired to do it now, and it's already dawn, so i eithe rtake a nap which i desperately need, and then work on a rotor which could take me hours to fix up, the way I feel now, which would put me out at riding this thing in the midday/early afternoon hot sun. Then if/when something goes wrong roadside, i'll be baking with no shade. Would rather just go slower and have my nap and start out earlier when i'st stll reasonably cool (less than 100F) with shade still around.

i'd be sleeping now but i am still too wound up and frustrated wth myself to doze off yet. am hopeing "venting" here will help me nod off.

I wonder if any of the above will make any sense to me when I wake up. :?
 
My nap was a lot longer than planned, so I didn't end up leaving till midday anyway. :roll: Fortunatley it only reached 100F around when I got home 15 or 20 minutes ago (at least, outside my house--it was way way hotter than that on the roads in traffic, and it's only 89F inside).


It was also way hotter inside the motor and controller...I checked every time I could when I had to stop anyway for traffic controls, and even after only the first half mile, the windings were too hot to touch. A mile later, the whole motor casing was too hot to keep my hand on for more than a second--if it wasn't ventilated, I might well toast the motor like that. By the time I reached work to pickup the food, it was hot enough to smell like hot not-yet-dry spray paint, making me fear for my windings, which I can't see directly because of the cargo pods, and I hadn't brought a mirror that would fit down between the pods and the motor at an angle I could see with.


I gave them a good 20 minutes or so to cool off, while I did so myself inside the store and then loading up the two bags on the trailer.

I didnt' bother checking them on the way home, they'd only be hotter than before. But I could smell the motor every time wind changed direction and blew hard enough to push air past me from behind. :( My front room now smells of this, as I am running a box fan on it with the cargo pod removed so they cool off rather than soak in the heat.


After getting home and taking the pod off and setting up the fan, I also looked at the windings and they are still perfectly fine coppery colored, no darkening that I can see. Phase wires aren't melted yet, either, although they sure get toasty warm. I think they're only 15-16G with teflon insulation anyway--whatever is standard on a 9C 2807.


So I think it would be a really good idea to not use this controller on CB2, even though it's a LOT of fun with really zippy acceleration (relative to the 40A 12FET, at least) even with the other 100lbs of traielr and load and drag on there! I'll end up melting the motor or the phase wires or something. I'd say I can get up to speed at least twice as fast as with the 12FET, maybe faster. I didnt' even try to see what top speed would be like--I may test that before putting the smaller one back (and reducing the pack back to 14s), but I have to find a safe place to do it.

Have to test it out on that huge powerchair motor, which is designed for high currents and big loads. :) Gotta put it on a bike first though...so probably not soon.


I *might* just fix the friction issue and beef up the phase wires on the similar MXUS wheel Ohzee sent me, and oil-fill it, and use that on CB2 with this controller, though I think I would add a thermal sensor first so I can monitor internal motor temperatures. But I think I would like to preserve the existing 9C 2807 as it works well and reliably for just commuting and whatnot, with a 40A controller at 14s. Commuting needs reliable. :)


I DEFINITELY miss the regen braking. I had to plan every stop and let it coast down where possible, then pretty much squeeze as hard as I could on both disc and rim on front brakes, to complete the stop with plenty of control and time. I HAVE to fix the mechanical brake problems, too.


Also: I guess it does make a bit of a spectacle going down the road, with the dayglo trailer on CrazyBike2: I had at least two people pass me very slowly while the passenger took video or pictures of me, one on the way there and one on the way back, plus another person that passed me at normal speeds and then pulled over and waited for me to pass, then caught up with me and drove along side, but I couldn't see what they were doing as I had to keep my eyes on the road. A few others, pedestrian and driver, yelled out various equivalents of "cool bike". A few drivers didn't pass me, but instead stayed behind me, until I passed where they were going to turn at, even though that was up to a half a mile from where they came up behind me, even though they have another whole lane to the left of me if they want to use it. Nobody honked or yelled get off the road or passed me so close as to scrape paint, etc.


All completely the opposite of what happens when I am riding the very bicycle-like Fusin test bike, whcih only has motorcycle lighting to make it any different from a regular bicycle in appearance, and that only makes any difference at night. I'm so tired of all that stupid behavior from drivers, I don't even want to ride anything that looks "normal" anymore.
 
I completely forgot to post the CA numbers from the run. I had problems with the speed sensor coming loose (was just velcroed to the frame) so it kept detecting 500mph+ speeds, and thus all distance-related stuff was wway wrong. I forgot to note the nubers down when I fixed that at destination before resetting and heading back, so I lost all the data for the trip out.

But I do have the data for the trip back, towing the ~100lbs of trailer and food. Comments interspersed with the data.


10m 8s trip time
2.312miles
20.2mph max
16.7mph avg
The avg speed is higher than normal; I wonder if it is because of the much faster acceleration, so spending less time at slower speeds during the dozen-or-so complete stops I have to make? But that should be made up for by the coast-down I had to do at each stop, rather than waiting longer and braking hard with regen and then mechanical brakes. :?

56.2Wh/mile
2.114Ah
129.88Wh
113.8Amax

66.3Vstart
62.9Vrest
56.9Vmin
Almost 10V sag...seems like a lot. The pack was doing almost 6C at that point, being a nominally 20Ah pack with Amax of nearly 120A. It would have been anywhere from 2 to 4Ah down already out of it's capacity, and I only charge to 4.15V/cell, so I am probalby only charging to like 90-95% capacity, maybe a bit more.

With 16s, 10V distributed among the cells would be a bit more than 0.6V sag each, assuming it is even. I haven't tried monitoring them at cell level where I could see the display yet. I should make a balance lead extension out of the stuff Methods sent me and mount the Battery Medic from Mdd0127 next to the CA. Then I can monitor one set of 6 cells at a time on there, and see how they are actually performing in realtime. Too bad it can't log it.

I could also use a laptop and the Venom charger to log it on a ride, but I have planned to do that for a long while and not ever gotten around to it--even back with the Vpower/cammycc pack!



Note that there isn't actually any regen happening, so not sure why it comes up as having some, and I think the numbers are wrong (might be my writing):
0.01% Regen
0.013Ah Regen
-1.04A peak Regen


I also forgot to note that there's a LOT more dust in the motor than before, when I had equally-drilled large-hole covers on both sides--it was pretty dang clean in there all the time, regardless of road/wind/atmosphere dust conditions. Now that it has small holes on the right side at the periphery of hte cover, and large holes in the middle and inner of the left cover, it appears to be pulling dust into it thru the large holes, based on the distribution of the dust on the "inner" part of the windings (vs the part closer to the magnets).

This lends credence to the theory of centrifugal airflow with this type of arrangement, though it is not conclusive.

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While waiting for a friend to come by, I played with the MXUS from Ohzee. I removed some little bits of stuff stuck on the stator and magnets (best pics I could get are in the previous post about the motor, above), and trimmed back almost a centimeter of heatshrink from the hall leads, and removed the larger heatshrink that covered the whole set of 3 wires from each hall. Then I tacked down the wires to the windings with a dot of superglue and held them there till they stuck.

Reinstalled the covers (using the dot and doubledot alignment marks Ohzee made on teh covers prior to disassembly), and now the wheel spins easier than before, but it still feels harder to turn than what I remember of the 9C or 9C/GM motors that are very similar to this one. On those, I thought I recalled it being very easy to turn the axle by hand with the wheel in my lap, but this one is pretty tough to do, though possible. No cogging or detent-feeling, so it prbably does not have any winding shorts. Bearings turn smoothly enough with a light fingertouch when covers arent' installed.

I am not sure if the resistance is physical still, rubbing, or if it's electromechanical, and normal. If I spin it up and run it as a motor for a few minutes, then open it up, any rubbing ought to be pretty apparent. ;)

Since I had it bolted together, I decided to stick it in an upside down bike frame to do an actual powered-up test. I didn't want to deal with finding the right combo of hpase/hall wires, so I thought I would try the new Fusin test bike's sensorless controller, as it has female bullets (automotive type) and this motor has HK bullets of a size that will fit into those almost correctly (a little loose but good enough for a test).

I just plugged the phases in color for color, as it shouldn't matter with a sensorless, right? ;) Worst it could do is spin backwards, but should still work either way. But it doesn't--it tries to start spinning, but then it fails and acts pretty much like a sensored controller with no halls connected. I tried several times, and every time it did the same thing, same pattern of attempted movement.

I guess it's because the BEMF this motor puts out is insufficient at startup speeds to feed the hall-emulator PCB that's in the Fusin controller, whereas the Fusin geared motor can easily do it.


I hand spun the motor up as fast as I could, then tried to throttle up, and it started to try a little better than before, but then stuttered and jittered the motor back and forth again.

I guess I can't drive this motor from that controller. Oh, well. No time to try another one now, as my friend is on his way now. Maybe later.
 
I didnt' get any further with the above yet, but the same friend and I went thrift-store shopping, and I found this pair of wheels for $3:
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They appear to be perfectly true and round, just rolling them on the ground and spinning them in my hands looking down the rim edges. They have "aero" blade spokes, which I've never had on any wheels before. Dunno if they're quality or not, given that the company is a Chinese one: A Class Wheels http://aclass-wheels.com apparently affiliated with Alex Rims, and Tektro. Specifically they are this one:
http://www.aclass-wheels.com/en/road_alx270.html

Standard cassette splines:
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Rim brake type rim:
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Is a double wall rim with eyelets, 20F/24R-hole, Presta valve size (easily fixed with a drill and a file if you have to):
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and a plastic rim band that feels kinda like the packing crate straps I use to hold the ammocan pack onto my Fusin Test Bike
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Probably alloy hubs; bearings feel fine:
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This page has some review info on them:
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-628588.html
and they seem to be good enough.

This review of a bike that comes with them:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/prodreview/tribikes/tequilo_07.html
doesn't say much about them, except that the rear rim stayed true even when riding home on it after a flat.

I couldn't find any of this same series for sale on the web right now, but did find other similar series anywhere from $170 to $300 a set. :shock:

Seems odd to me that one would be radially laced, but I've seen that a lot in "light" bikes (usually expensive-looking ones, no idea of actual cost) around here. I guess it saves a tiny bit of weight in spokes, vs the extra strength of cross lacings.

The only real issue with them is that they are 622mm rims, so I can't use them with most of my bike stuff--AFAIK only the Specialized aluminum frame abandoned here by a coworker a couple years or more ago will work with them without modification. I do have the tires on that bike that will work with them, but no others that are any good at all. Actually I guess some of the old ten speed bikes I have might work with them, but they are generally pretty junky bikes with only one exception, and that one is far too tall for me, as if I stand next to it, it's top tube is somewhere in the vicinity of my belly button. :lol: Pretty sure it was made for Lurch.


So I will perhaps see if I can find someone that would like to trade something I *can* use for them.
 
A care package from Oatnet arrived yesterday while I was at work, and oddly enough one of the things in it was a tube that would fit the above rims.


An assortment of odds and ends, not worth much to most people, but very useful to me, comprised the rest of the box. Most of it will not see immediate use because I just don't have time, but I already have some ideas for the threadless stems. They shoudl work for the steerer connections on the new bike, once I cna get back to it, as well as mounting accesories or even jackshafts to a bike. Might be able to use one for the motor mount on the Nishik-E; not sure if it'll fit yet.

Brakes...some pads and levers and arms and cables and elbow/noodles, all of whcih I have needed for a while for DayGlo Avenger, and can also use on CrazyBike2 and the new bike. I haven't checked them all yet but the parts I looked at were Tektro. Better than what I have already, for the most part.

Some pedals, which will be useful when I break the ones on the Fusin test bike, might not be long as I keep whacking them on the ground in turns, as it is the only bike I have that has them low enough to do that. :(

A DMM with a flaky display; a few minutes with a screwdriver and some door-strip foam has fixed that at least for a while (until the foam compresses permanently). Not the most "reliable", as for instance the 200ohm setting varies a lot just by pressure on the jacks of the meter. :/ But hey, it's still very useful, as it has all the functions to troubleshoot an ebike except a direct FET tester. :) (temperature, if I find a thermocouple; ohms, A up to 20, V, capacitance to 20uF, diode, continuity, transistor tester, and I forget what else).



A crank with swaged-on chainrings, some trigger shifters, handlebar grips, etc. Some other bits and bobs I'm not sure what they are yet, probalby they go to something else int he box. Some red LED flasher taillights (2AA, I think), and an LED headlight (3AAA). The latter plus a taillight are going to a friend I loaned a Huffy Aspen bike to indefinitely till he doesn't need it, as he was actually stopped (not ticketed) for not having a headlight just past sunset by the oh-so-helpful Phoenix police. :roll: (They actually even told him that they only stopped him because they were bored and had nothing else to do!). I think there was something else but now I'm forgetting what it was.

Gotta go work on the yard after some dunch/linner, so just attaching all the pics below. Woulda had more time, but my trackball became intermittent due to the wires in the cable breaking inside right at the USB plug. Had to cut the plug apart and resolder them, which took more than half an hour. :(
 

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I keep having this vision of hte four stem clamps as cargo rack holders, so i could sort-of quick-release side-mounted racks, but have them strong enough to hold LOTS of wieght. Just loosen the "steerer" clamp bolts a little and slide the rack out from under them or something. The handlebar clamp end would go over the frame tubing. Or vice-versa.


Went to Goodwill again with a couple of friends, and picked up one of these:
http://www.slime.com/shop/comp03/
for a few bucks, less than 1/5 of retail, and in very good condition--just missing it's cord/hose compartment cover. I have been looking for a 12V pump that is smaller than my Sears version, and more reliable--the Sears one is getting so worn isnide that it has toheat up before it will begin pumping air above about 20-30PSI, making it a project to just air up a tire--and it will usually not air up the shock on the Fusin test bike enough.

This one easily does both, and it has an LED light on it for a worklamp. It's also less than half the size of the other one, which means it won't take as much space in my cargo pods to carry with me. The only issue is that it doesn't just pop the hose end off the valve easily when I release the lever after inflation, so I always end up letting a little air out trying to get it off the valve stem. Not that big a problem for the tires, but a huge problem when airing up the shock. I cna work around it by only putting in on the stem lightly, and holding it in place so it doesn't pop off from the pressure, but it's still a little annoying.

THey had two of them...i'm sorely tempted to go back for the other one as a spare.
 
I have done various test riding on CB2, and shopping trips that cant' be done on the Fusin test bike, about 60 miles worth. So far I haven't blown up the controller again or burned out the motor, but they both get pretty dang hot. :(

I still need to see if I can reprogram the controller for less phase current, because while it is nice to have 2.5-3 second 0-20MPH speed, plus at least 10-15MPH on top of that if I have to have it to get out of the way of someone or some situation in traffic where braking would be the wrong solution, I'm going to forget to coddle the throttle at some point and melt something down.


As an example, today I just went to Safeway for some beef for chili, as I only have chicken and turkey around right now, and neither one works well for the chili I want to make. It's only about a 2 mile round trip, but just the mile getting there in the 110F heat plus my lead-thumb ;) got the motor so hot that when I poured water on/in it (because I coudln't touch the windings for the heat), it hissed and steamed. That's generally not good. If it werent' ventilated it would probably have already cooked. The controller was too hot to leave my hand on.

I kept putting more water into the motor on the left side hub-area holes, and spinning it up off-ground, letting it sling the water around magnets and whatnot and then out the outer edge holes on the right side. Took about 3-4 minutes of that off and on to cool it to just noticeably below ambient. It was totally dry by the time I came out of the store about 10 minutes later, and of course felt hotter than the ambient air, even though the motor is shaded from the afternoon sun by the cargo pod, while locked at the bike rack at the front of the store.

The ride back I babied it, so it wouldn't pull more than 1200-1400W peaks at startup, and tried to keep it under 800W for all acceleration, and 300-400W for cruising, at soemthing like 18MPH. Still, both were pretty hot when I got home--too hot to leave my fingers on the windings, and uncomfortable to hold the controller.

Peak battery current on the way there was 108A, and on the way back was 79A, using the 66V (16s) pack.

EDIT: Forgot to note that I changed out the crappy plastic ebrake handle I'd been using for the front rim brakes for one of those Tektro handles Oatnet sent in the box in the previous post. It works MUCH better; I can actually stop using it, though it won't quite lockup the wheel at speed. I also swapped positions of handles, so the disc brake that isnt' working well is on the inside/above and the rim is on the outside/below, for easier and stronger grip of the better-working rim brakes. Still no regen braking till I reprogram it, I guess.


Now back to the chili-makin'.
 
Speaking of heat...I am unlikely to get to any of hte bike project stuff this week of vacation; everything else that's priority is taking a lot longer than planned (I just get too tired too easy and have to rest too long).


But, finally, after a few weeks of pondering and preparation, and three days of exhausting sweat-drenched work of shuffling things around in teh house while dodging anxious worried dogs, I have finally moved the bare essentials from the bedroom I've been using for the last 12-13 years to the one my sisters used to use before each one left.

The bed (or rather, the mattress, to a hospital bedframe that has a motor to adjust the shape, acquired for nothing from Freecycle), the computers (because I use them from the bed, whenever I am too tired to do anything else but not able to sleep for whatever reason), speakers, box fan, dog kennels (one is Nana's and one is Fred's, Fred stays closed in hers when I am not here, and Nana likes to sleep in her own sometimes, even when i am here, and sometimes even pulls the door shut after herself). Already had a small window AC unit in there.

The hardest part was moving stuff off of some shelving that would hold up a few hundred pounds of dog foood, up out of reach of the dogs (well, there IS no out of reach if Nana or Hachi really wants it, but....), then moving the shelving into the new bedroom, then stacking hte food up in styfrovoam boxes then the bags on top of those, up to the cieling.

I added several layers of styrofoam saved from boxes fish and plants are shipped in to work, to the much smaller windows this room has, to keep heat out. Works pretty well; you can feel the difference just standing there in daytime. Without it you can feel the heat on your face even from the door to the room, when the room itself is cooled to 85F. With it there's no heatsources in the room that you can feel.

For now I blocked off the AC/evap vent, and added blankets across the doorway on the outside, so the dogs can go in and out of the room when i'm not here and still not cause the window AC to run much more than with the door closed. The dogs are mostly smart enough to go in the cool room instead of staying in the very hot (100F and up) house when I'm at work.


I moved to this bedroom because it is the easiest and cheapest to cool, now that I have finally gotten enough trees growing out front and around the side to shade it (been less successful on the rest of the house, except for one on the north side of the other bedroom at this end of the house, but it isn't enough compared to this bedroom, plus this one gets most of the air from the main house ventilation system due to the shape of the duct system.

That means if I use the evap cooler (which is useless with the current humidity level) or the main house AC (whcih I haven't used in years because it costs too much to run for the whole house), I can block off all the other ducts in the other rooms, and only cool this room (and the hallway, if I use the AC), and use less power and make it much more effective than when I was at the other end of the house, where the narrow long duct doesn't let much air thru at all (so little that it actually has a fan built into the duct to move some more air, but still not enough).

The only big issue i ran into was that i'd forgotten i'd taken most of the outlets in teh room offline a coupleyears back, because a breaker was bad int the box and the landlord never has fixed it (needs a new breaker box to do so, which i can't replace as i don't have an electrician's license for the inspection it would need afterward to get power turned back on). i had to reshuffle circuits on the breakers and left out all those outlets because they weren't needed at the time.

So i went out around I guess near midnight to wire them back in, and naturally just as i was in the middle of the rewiring, the clouds that had been threatening all day finally rolled in with thunder and lightning, and sprinkling. The actual rain held off just long enough to finish an close up the breaker box, and as soon as i was inside it dumped pretty hard, and was still drizzling last time i looked a long while ago, i guess i dozed off at some point, cuz now it's predawn and clear skies, but very wet outside, puddles in the yard as i closed everything up after having let it all air out and cool off during the rain overnight. Now it's only about 85F in the house, and might stay cooler today than the usual, with all the wet outside to evaporate away.

Anyway, now i'm laying back in a room that feels cooler than the other one did, even if it's only a few degrees. I tested it over the last day and a half and for about the same running time of the window AC unit, even though the one in the new room is much smaller capacity than the one in the old room, it gets 3-5 degrees cooler and stays that way. Plus the smaller one uses less electricity. So overall it should cost a lot less to cool this room than the other one, to keep part of the house livable until the weather changes to cooler days.


I dozed off again, and I'm forgetting what else i meant to type. oh, yeah, the ball fell out of hte trackball when i was moving it from one room to the other, and now i can't find it. so I'm using this stupid little Fellowes hand-held thingy called a MicroTrac, which has really crappy buttons that are hard to click, but would be a neat device if it wernet' for that. I spent over an hour looking for the ball, but havent foudn it yet.

i hope if the dogs got it that they swallowed it whole, and it comes out whole. Guess i'll see tomorrow sometimes. :lol: :roll: :( Sucks because this is a special ball and can only be replaced with the same kind, and it's only used on this one trackball model, that they don't make anymore, and last i checked costs a fortune to get even a well-used on from ebay and the like. :( The one I liked even better than this one died in it's electronics that scan the ball, and that one sells used for up to a couple of hundred dollars.

Oh, and the dogs are still not sure about the whole move thing, but they are at least content that I'm laying down now and not moving all over the house, so they are all grouped around me finally dozing. They've been pretty upset about the whole shuffling house stuff around thing.
 
Friday the 13th is usually a luckier day for me, but not today.

Needed to go get more cleaning supplies, and thought I would do regular grocery shopping while I was at it, so I took CrazyBike2 out this afternoon just after the rain stopped for what seems to be the last rain today, and the heat started increasing again as it got partly sunny, with humidity still very high, too.


I tried to hold back on throttle usage, and slooowly get up to speed, but there were a couple times I had to hit it harder because of cars changing their mind after the last second and wanting to be where I was--it is indeed nice to have the 4KW on tap for those moments, but with slightly wet streets I had a bit of trouble keeping it from sliding the rear a little under power when I was also turning, which was one of those times.


A bit less than a mile in, though, just as I was starting to turn out of the parking lot I have to pass thru at 29th Ave & Dunlap, the rear suddenly really got sloppy and I stopped before getting into the street much, and then backed out of the way onto the sidewalk corner ramp.

The rear tire (rather, tube) blew out, and fast. Tried airing up with that nifty new Slime brand electric pump from Goodwill, and no go. Couldn't even get 1psi in there, just blew big bubbles of slimy wetness around the rim at the bottom. :roll:

Not really wanting to try to fix the tube on the side of the road in the muggy sunny increasing heat, I abandoned the trip and gently rode it back home at about 10MPH, which is as fast as I could go without it getting super squirrely. Being Friday afternoon, traffic was already getting pretty bad, so I had to wait many minutes to cross Dunlap, as I needed a very large gap in traffic to ensure I wouldnt' cause anyone any problems or skid out and get run over, trying to gun it to get thru a small gap.

Made it home ok, parked it in the living room, and took the Fusin Test Bike instead, as the next easiest one to get to (as the other Fusin-powered bike, DayGlo Avenger, is still not re-completed for the oil-filled hubmotor testing).

Even THAT was a trial just to get there, shop, and get home, but at least nothing went wrong with the bike itself, just a bunch of stupid little things, like my shaded MC faceshield just randomly splitting in half down the front center vertical, for no reason I can see. Maybe I can make something to rivet it back together and still use it. Oh, well, it was good while it lasted.

Anyway, I did finally get home, made a burger, onions, a sort-of garlic bread out of some frozen pizza crust given to me by some friends, and some frozen veggies solar-heated in a glass-topped pan while I cooked the rest on the stovetop and in the toaster oven (which I use outside in the summer). Now is nom nom nom time, with the dogs all around me in a circle wishign they could have some, too. :lol:
 
This wwas a heck of a blowout, not caused by a puncture AFAICT. Looks like the rubber just gave out, as it if stretched thin and just blew. Very strange. There is also no sign of any wear, rubbing, or other damage in the area the tube contacted the old innertube I had sliced open and used as an extra thickener shell, and the slime stirp protector outside of that was still in place against the tire.
View attachment 5

The only other thing, which happened because I rode on it while flat, with enough weight on the tire itsel plus enough power in a burst to force the whole tire, protector, liner, and tube to stay in place whle the rim spun inside it, at least once that I could feel, so it sheared the entire valve stem off. :roll: So no patching THIS tube either, just like the many others that failed in the stem.
View attachment 4

I was sorely tempted to just stick in the other airless tube like I did in DGA, but for tonight I just changed the tube to another well-patched normal one, which isnt' as thick as I'd like and still has a valve stem I don't trust, like almost every tube I've had so far.

I also changed from the Maxxis knobby to the slick Ohzee sent me his old (but barely used, if ta all) pair of (the ohter one is on the rear of the Fusin bike still). Didnt' test ride it yet. With this tire I have way more clearance than the knobby, both for the fender and the stays, both of which sometimes had rubbing with the knobby.
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OTOH, my clamping dropouts are doing a great job at keeping the axle from spinning, even with this much power, or what I put it thru before I blew up the controller and turned down the amps afterward.

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First test has passed, it still holds air just sitting overnight. Gonna ride it around the neighborhood a little and see how it behaves.


Side note: Last two days have been cool and a little rainy, so it's hard to say exactly what the effect of moving to this other easier-to-cool room is, but the "smart meter" usage on SRP's site shows that the last two days are less than half the power usage I had been having for the previous few, and still several KW less than the typical day when I had the bedroom in the other room, with the bigger AC unit (that still didn't keep the room as cool). And this is with this little unit running a lot fo the time, maybe 75-85%, just so I could see how cool it could get, down to maybe 72F. Set normally, to 85F+ ("min cool", as it doesn't have an actual degrees setting), it should use even less power, and still actually keep the room at that temperature.

The other room even set to 95F for most of the day, would give me total house usage around 24-39KW of power for the day, depending on outside conditions. This one so far is giving 22KWH day before yesterday, when I had it on around 25% setting, and 26KWH yesterday when on 50%. Today I have it on "min cool" and it is hotter outside by around 5-7F so far, so we'll see what it reads tomorrow. (edit: it is now getting heavily cloudy again, and may start pouring again for the afternoon--time to go take the clothes in off teh line!)

As a comparison, having *both* units on, when I was doing the actual move from one to the toher and pre-cooling this room, for those two days total house power usage was still only 47KWh the first day and 45KWh second, and the second I only had both on part of the day. IIRC I only had the new room's AC on "min cool". So it's a dramatic power usage drop to be in this room plus using a smaller AC unit (taht can still keep this room cooler than the other!).

Last month's power bill was $118, where the previous had been $65. Let's see where this one goes--typically it's the highest one of the year--last year it was $195!
 
That's one weird looking flat. hope those tires work out well for you. I prob put 30 miles on em. I did like them , but
just having a big bouncy tire is much better for my commute especially since I have a hard tail.

that's awesome also the new controller is working so good for you. I cant wait to use my 18 fet one day.

You'd hate to see my electric bill - I am jealous of even your big one. if I lived out there id probably build myself a
man cave in the ground to just use natural cooling. the temps you have to deal with are just crazy. hope your
keeping cool.
 
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