Cannondale Super V 3000 build

[willo]

I'm prepping for my first e-bike build - and I *think* it's the first (and likely only) Cannondale Super V 3000 build. (There's one later model running around)

Parts list:
Lipo Batteries - ordered 9 5ah Turnigy hard packs from hobby king, thinking that I'd run 16s2p. After some consideration I'm now leaning towards 20s minimum.
Charger - purchased a Hyperion 1420i to work on packs and be able to charge 10s balanced at a time.
Motor - picked up a Magic Pie via ebay - it's a V1 with a V2 controller (that'll soon be ripped out)
Controller - bought a lyen 12 fet modder special (happy birthday to me). I have TTL -serial adapters and this gives me programming and more options.
Brains - ordered a CA from ebikes.ca and a half throttle to fit into the rapid fire plus gear.
BMS - still need to get some celllogs - curse you chinese new year. waiting...

The bike...
I own a Delta V 700 - an awesome hard tail from 1993 that I built in high school, cost more than my car and still love to this day.
So, poking around on ebay found a 1993 Super V 3000 frame with rear swingarm for $50. (Should be here this week)
I figure that a bike capable of 30mph+ needs full suspension, so more happy birthday to me.

Now, I can transition parts from my 700 to the 3000 as needed, and will probably build another super/uber V for mountain biking later this year.
Meanwhile, issues have come up.


1) Batteries and charger arrived. I forgot to order bullet connectors, so amazon is the best option during chinese new year. (ordered for tuesday via prime)
2) The Charger's usb port doesn't seem to work. Took a peek inside to see if a bluetooth serial port would fix the issue and found signs of a badly performed usb repair. (really badly done - melted bits, poor soldering)
3) Must find a freewheel for the magic pie - looking into 7 speed options.
4) Torque - the super V has a beautiful aluminum swing arm. It'll need reinforcement. I'm hoping to use the university machine shop and my personal mill/lathe to take care of this.
5) Need to decide on bms/charger wiring and order connnectors.
6) Need to find a suitable on-board bulk charger and get / mod it.


Now... I figure 20s will be good, but 24s is an option. Thoughts? It's not that much more, and A pair of 1410i's will charge and balance a pack...

I will run 5Ah for now and order more cells to run 20s2p as soon as I'm satisfied with the build.

 

[migueralliart]

Is that a y frame ? where are you going to put the batteries?

 

[Drunkskunk]

John in CR had a Super V, but he greatly modified it.

The super V was a great bike. And it sounds like you have a good plan so far. So where are you planning to mount the batteries on a Y frame?

 

[Ykick]

If it has the 4 water bottle threaded lugs they make a great way to attach a rack or box for batteries.

Love my V900...

 

[willo]

I'm waiting for the frame to show up. Typically, the 'dales all had four mounting points for water. Oh, I forgot to mention that I picked up a shock at the local bike shop for $15 - factory fox 4r, it'll work for now. Will replace when I can.
I'm interested to see the frame when it shows..

 

[John in CR]

$50

On my SuperV the main tube was just starting to collapse at the shock attachment, and I did a permanent fix without welding by forming a solid fiberglass/epoxy plug at that section of the frame. I just wanted to let you know because at that price something could be wrong with it, but anything is fixable.

Yes, you'll absolutely want to protect that AL swingarm with torque arms.

 

[willo]

Update:
I didn't expect this to come together so fast! My first build is wired up, but still needs torque arms.

I pulled my magic pie apart and pulled the wee controller and wired up the phase lines and hall effects through the shaft. Not much room in there! If anyone has managed to squeeze 10 gauge through there, let me know how! I'm temped to machine another channel through the other side to run bigger wires...

I'm stuck on the super V at the moment. I've got the wrong shock! Oh well. I'll probably have to shove a 6 speed cassette on there for that frame.

So, I tossed a blackburn rack on my other bike, taped up a 24s hard pack, zip tied it on and wired everything up. I hard powered the controller for now. I don't know if there's an elegant design for the controller enable. Any ideas for awesome power switches? Also, would adding a switch to it reduce the sparks seen at battery connection?

I started to keep the lyen connectors but did't like the look of the main power blades. I opted for andersons on the main leads but left the bullets on the phase wires for now. I'll probably swap them out for 4mm gold hobby bullets in the future. (lower resistance - more power, etc)

I've yet to decide on brake switches... I really like my XT brake levers! I may add a switch for manual control.

oh... and throttle. This is sorta crappy at the moment. I put a twist throttle on but it doesn't clear the shift levers. I offset it for testing and will figure something else out going forward. I'm tempted to cut it down to a half twist and mount that on my bar end.

Meanwhile I still need to rig up the serial connection (I have a FTDI ttl cable) and play with programming the controller.

Other than my own incidental damage, I'm really pleased with my prototype build. It's giving me a good feel for what it'll take to build up the super V version. The CA works right out of the box (note to self - check calibration) Final changes are the addition of some cell logs and addition of some custom balance harnesses for said logs and use with my hyperion charger. I may make up some custom boards for that - is anyone interested? I can build one offs, but it's easy to get em produced and kitted up.


Wiring has been sorted out, but not finalized.
Swapped phases and halls around and got the wheel spinning. Then I managed to do some damage to my drop outs (I did NOT ride it, but just the torque of moving the wheel was enough!)
Lesson learned and the frame is ok, just not pristine anymore.

I poked around in my metal bin and only found some half inch 6061-T6. I could probably mill it up, but I decided to order some amped bikes torque arms. I've got a pair of them on the way.

 

[BarkMau]

Did you finish it?