29mm to 35mm to 50mm -> My evolution to the Cromotor

[methods]

We took the kid out to the woods today. As you guys may know "urban decay" is what the wife and I like to explore... this is anything that once was and now isn't - ghost towns, abandoned mines, burned out sites, old camps, etc.

This time it was a wood mill that ran from ~1880 to ~1920 when it was retired by arson.

Can you see the bricks peeking out?


There is nothing I like to see more than some urban decay deep in the woods. How could you not want to explore that? Up above and to the right we could see where the railroad used to run - a small piece of track was left on the side of the trail back a ways. Next time we plan to brave the poison oak to further explore the old tracks.



Here is a shot of Tania crossing the creek down the way a bit.



On the way out we found this big crazy cast iron piece of mesh. Not sure what it was originally but when I went down for a closer look (thinking I would try and pull it up) it was much thicker and beefier than I had expected.



No updates on the Cro build other than to say that once you have a wife and a kid time dries up quick. I have so much ish I need/want to do that I actually need a dry erase board to keep track of it all.

-methods

 

[methods]

Finally...
Dont know what my problem was but I just could not get my ass in gear to complete this project. Finally Luke was kind enough to come over and hook me up. He did an awesome job modding out the ass end of my KMX. Has a pair of torque arms with full capture that bolt into the frame - super easy to remove. Absolutely rock solid and very clean - almost invisible. Full use of the disk brake and access to the freewheel thread to space it in and out.

Shortly I am sure you will see a movie of the maiden run which was a smokey burnout in my house at midnight. We got in a short ride before blowing up one of my prototype controllers - a perfect night.

No idea what the settings were out of the box - probably around 80A on 24S. Pulled pretty damn hard off the line - but there is room for more for sure.



The rest of the bike is totally slapped together... unmatched wheels, zip ties, no pedals, whatever. All that stuff is easy to geek on later. The Cro is mounted and that is all anybody needs to know. Thinking about keeping a second cro for my Kona Stinky now that I have felt the fury.

-methods

 

[Farfle]

gotta get that big mofo 24 fet on there man!

 

[methods]

That was a 24 fet - but one that I had not yet programmed. Basically the same as the one I got from you but with more capacitance and copper

Tomorrow I am going to test the GreenTime controller then after I blow that up I will get to testing my cro with yours :wink:

-methods

 

[gensem]

Haha, I just love my cromotors... give it more juice and im sure you ll feel your heart pounding!

 

[Farfle]

I dont think that controller is possible to blow... Unless a phase short or low r/l motor. I ran it at 175 amps for 5-7 mins merging onto the highway and maintained 70mph till the offramp. Almost 200wh/mi at that speed. Plus, its got a thermal breaker tied into the ignition line thats strapped to the back of the fet heatsink, even if you do find a way to get it hot, it won't let you cook it completely.

 

[Ypedal]

even if you do find a way to get it hot

Awww come on .. have a little faith..

 

[liveforphysics]

This was my longest distance covered in a burnout inside someones house to date.

Thank you for letting me rip on the trike bro, that thing rocks.

[youtube]pDtrFr7rUA0[/youtube]

 

[kentlim26]

hi LUKE,
wow, that one SURE got more then 80amps output, it could be much more higher. what is the peak output power ?

kent

 

[methods]

Texting while driving on way to RadioCrack to get thermal grease so I can give farfunkles controller a spin. Excited... I want to smash my face and swallow teeth

 

[cal3thousand]

Texting while driving on way to RadioCrack to get thermal grease so I can give farfunkles controller a spin. Excited... I want to smash my face and swallow teeth

That's a scary message after reading about that Texas guy

 

[gensem]

Methods, can you post some more pictures (close ups) of your full capture TA that bolts into the frame. Im thinking of modding my frame for hi power numbers.

 

[methods]

Methods, can you post some more pictures (close ups) of your full capture TA that bolts into the frame. Im thinking of modding my frame for hi power numbers.

Absolutely bro.
I am currently trying to catch up on my business emails and then I am going to spend a few hours working on the trike. Basically Luke just took a pair of standard torque arms (old school ebikes.ca) and widened them to 16mm. On the freewheel side the torque arm is on the outside and on the disk brake side it is on the inside. The torque arms are just clocked so as that they land flat on the frame... the inside torque arm is threaded so that a fastener can run through the frame and grab it. The freewheel side one... would have to look but I suspect the frame is tapped. Either way there are not nuts to screw around with as that is bullshit.

Got the Farfalufugus controller working. Had to replace very single active surface mount part on the center phase. Not his fault... while I was cleaning it up I accidentally got some solder over a via pair that goes between the high and low side drivers. Damn it... blew out all the transistors and left the center channel working very oddly. Only found it with the scope after noticing that the wheel would only start from a few positions in the test stand.

Farf had loaned it to Henry who was driving some outrunners motors at a race and Jerremy then programmed the controller to turn it down to 80A (which still blew the motors) - anyway whatever programming was done that day was still in the controller. Ran great for me tho - 80A will cause great chirping of the tire even up toward 20mph

Going to reprogram it in a few minutes here now that I have internet access again. Zombie recommended 150A battery and 300A phase so I will start there.

Oh yea... did a crazy ride yesterday - 45mph up windy ass roads pushing hella hard on the pedals to stay in the seat. At one point I thought to myself that if the pedals popped out (which they can on this trike) I would crash horribly. Then 30 feet from my house in the final approach they did lol. Luckily I was only going about 20mph. TO HELL with that friction fit on the KMX... I am driving a 1/2" bolt through there before I ride it again. (box tube inside of another box tube with two set screws... allows setting the pedal length)

-methods

 

[methods]

That's a scary message after reading about that Texas guy

Not familiar and I probably dont want to be... I wear a full face helmet and gloves. When I intend to go over 45 I also wear a motorcycle jacket.

-methods

 

[methods]

OMG...

Henry came over last night and I thought I was going to impress him with my lowly 80A totally unstable trike.
Dude showed up with the baddest ass kart I have ever seen or ridden in. Acceleration was so fast that it was un-nerving to watch.
I am sure some videos are on the way....

Guy drove it like a champ too - literally spinning in circles down my street at 50mph like a mad man. I thought for sure there were going to be loose teeth and cops and angry neighbors and smashed kids everywhere... but it was so quiet that nobody even noticed.

I dont know if Video will do it justice but I am hoping he can get some 60 frame per second video up soon. Wow.... only thing I can compare it to is this video right here: Time 3:26

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pM1j2d1RMU

Only Henry did not crash and his hookup was instantaneous acceleration.

OK - programming controllers
Building controllers
bikes all day today. Look for pictures tonight.

Look out for Henry too... dude is a mad man who will run over your cats and spew rubber in your face

-methods

 

[Alan B]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

I guess Henry got his battery together.

 

[NeilP]

How big is the axle on this motor anyway? Thread diameter and width across the flats?

 

[Alan B]

My Cromotor is 16mm axle 10mm across the flats.

 

[hjns]

mine as well. M16 with fine threading 1.5mm. I needed to specially order the nuts.

 

[NeilP]

Still 10 mm flats. Suppose they have to do that for bicycle compatibility,shame though

My new 5304 axle is 20mm with 17mm flats, not threaded

 

[Alan B]

Still 10 mm flats. Suppose they have to do that for bicycle compatibility,shame though

My new 5304 axle is 20mm with 17mm flats, not threaded

Only 1.5mm flat on each side? Not much to get hold of with the torque arm.

I'm not sure we're communicating accurately. Here's a CroMotor axle. Method's is probably slightly different than this one, they made some changes in the last batch.

 

[NeilP]

1.5mm depth. yes, but the chord length is longer than that, flats about 12mm across

 

[Emoto]

Here is another angle Neil, mine is quite recent 3 weeks

 

[NeilP]

Still quite small. I wil maybe go up to 30mm round in tghe next axle I make, if the steel insert in the stator will take it..Will need to machine it out to take 30mm...it is 25mm in the centre on a Xlyte 53 series..so I reckon I can go to 30mm.

The axle can then have a 10mm bore, both sides if necessary

 

[Emoto]

Still quite small.

Totally 12mm

I will maybe go up to 30mm round in tghe next axle I make, if the steel insert in the stator will take it..Will need to machine it out to take 30mm...it is 25mm in the centre on a Xlyte 53 series..so I reckon I can go to 30mm.

The axle can then have a 10mm bore, both sides if necessary

Yep over build the axle and never have to worry about that again
If i want another strong or stronger motor ill source scooter motors with thicker shafts and just custom the swing arm to accommodate the wider droupout.