Alan B
100 GW
icecube57 said:
I believe I use #6 for the small sleeves and #8 for the large ones. Are yours numbered the same way?
CroBorg Super Commuter
- Thread starter Alan B
- Start date
I believe I use #6 for the small sleeves and #8 for the large ones. Are yours numbered the same way?
icecube57
10 MW
I get mines in a day or so... I actually do have a pending order so they will be my guiena pig for this.
Alan B
100 GW
Make a few test crimps. Try to pull them apart. If they are done right they won't come apart. You can't pull the wires out of the crimp.
icecube57
10 MW
Alan B said:
I know if you crimp something hard enough it actually fuses into solid joint... i assume thats what we are going for.
Alan B
100 GW
I don't think it is quite there, but it is close. Acuteaero cut some joints apart, and they weren't quite "solid" but they are not separable except by cutting.
I crimp pretty much to the force limit of the tool. Which is a lot for these tools.
I crimp pretty much to the force limit of the tool. Which is a lot for these tools.
Alan B
100 GW
What was the topic?
Today I received the rim protectors. The replacement tire is out of stock, even though they showed on the web in stock, but I decided to forge ahead without it. If the tire is bad I'll put a 2.50 on the rear (like the front), but if the tire can be patched or is ok I'll just replace the tube which I have.
The tire irons and rim protector worked pretty well. I had to remove the bike side cover, unplug the motor cables, cut a bunch of tie wraps, support the frame, and remove the axle nuts. The NordLock washers worked as expected, getting harder before getting easier as the nuts were removed.
I set the wheel on a 5 gallon bucket with the wiring in the bucket to protect it. Using the rim protectors and tire iron I popped the tough bead on the 3.0x17 M62 Michelin Gazelle. I fished out the tube and could not find anything wrong with it. It was torn after the incident and I cut it to help get it out, so I could not pressurize it during inspection.
I inspected the tire and quickly found the spot that I had seen before. It turned out to be a one inch long nail gun projectile. Thicker than the brads for my nail gun, this came from somewhere on the road.
The good news is the damage to the tire was very small. I put a patch on the inside of the tire for good measure, but it was just a little mark on the inside of the tire in the tread area, right through the thickest part.
It was difficult to get the tire back on the rim with the new tube but with a little help from my son, the rim protector and tire iron it was popped back on. We'll see if it holds air properly long term.
The charger is on now as I didn't recharge it after the flat. Best for the batteries to sit a bit discharged when not in use.
So these big tough tires can be damaged. Hopefully it won't be a frequent problem.
It would be pretty tough to change this tire on the road. Need to get it back to base. Something to think about.
Now I'm tired and my knees hurt. Hope I can ride tomorrow. Time to fire up the charger
-
edit - reference - Motion Pro 08-0481 RimShield rim protectors and Ken-Tool 32114 two piece handheld motorcycle tire iron
acuteaero
100 W
Alan B said:
I would be curious to cut apart some test crimps made with the ebay crimper and the cheap copper collars, just you know, in the interest of seeing what happens. If you are in fact achieving cold welding inside the joint it would be a little bit of a BFD, I think.
-Henry
Alan B
100 GW
acuteaero said:
I agree, it is not likely "welded", but it is pretty tightly mashed, far beyond the non hydraulic crimpers that we generally use. The experiments I tried - to crimp it perpendicular to get it to "release", which is usually possible with normally crimped joints, were total failures. I could not get it to release at all by re-crimping in different directions. That is probably not the best test.
What really matters is what happens when pulling on the wires, and what vibration and time will do to the joints. I can't easily predict what vibration or time might do, but pulling on wires doesn't seem to work, the wires just break outside the crimp, and that takes considerable force.
I suppose the steel collars would even be a bit stronger but have more potential for corrosion and long term issues, though they are protected by some anti corrosion finish, I suspect.
Alan B
100 GW
Tomorrow's weather: 70 degrees F and Clear
Alan B
100 GW
I checked the battery space when the covers were off during the tire change. With the coroplast there is not enough room for another 6S 5AH pack, but there is room for two 2.6AH 6S packs so we could squeeze 18S 25 amp hours in. Perhaps later.
That will require a compact wiring harness.
That will require a compact wiring harness.
Alan B
100 GW
It is good to be back
First commute ride in a couple weeks due to the flat tire and other factors, but this is one nice day for a ride. Clear and warm, almost didn't need a jacket. Shot another GoPro video, going to have to put some of these videos up. Just a boringxxx relaxing ride through a beautiful park, no daredevil high speed, except maybe one spot got a little fast.
Charging the 18S Lipo pack with the BMSBattery 400 watt charger, sitting at 3.96 amps on the watts-up. I do not like the sky high shipping charges on these chargers, and the fact that some of them blow up randomly, but when they work they are quite nice. A little noisy in my office, but it is not too bad. Looking forward to getting the silent LED power supply charger set up. May have to work on that this weekend. Will have to see if it makes the weekend list.
My knee is a bit sore still from working on that tire. Even kneeling on a big foam pad. Hoping that mild pedaling will help it.
Wattsup says 7.8 amp hours charging, CA says 9.01 amp hours. Charge took 2:20 with 4A charge tapering off to 0.23amp shutoff with 400W BMSBattery charger. 4.15 volts per cell. 6% amp rate cutoff. Note that charge rate at cutoff is about 5 watts, so a whole hour of that would only yield 5 watt hours. Probably could cut off sooner, it doesn't really add much energy. Charge current dropped from 4A to 3A at 1:40, so was dropping from 1:40 to finish at 2:20.
Data: CA, ride in 13.2 miles, 69.5V after, 644 wh, 48.8 wh/mi, 40.97 amax, 67.8 vmin, 18.0 avmph, 44 min.
My GoPro Hero 960 camera makes corrupt files if I run it too long, but if I restart it before about 2 gigs it does fine. My commute is long enough to hit the problem, restarting once takes care of it though. There seems to be no new firmware for this model.
First commute ride in a couple weeks due to the flat tire and other factors, but this is one nice day for a ride. Clear and warm, almost didn't need a jacket. Shot another GoPro video, going to have to put some of these videos up. Just a boringxxx relaxing ride through a beautiful park, no daredevil high speed, except maybe one spot got a little fast.
Charging the 18S Lipo pack with the BMSBattery 400 watt charger, sitting at 3.96 amps on the watts-up. I do not like the sky high shipping charges on these chargers, and the fact that some of them blow up randomly, but when they work they are quite nice. A little noisy in my office, but it is not too bad. Looking forward to getting the silent LED power supply charger set up. May have to work on that this weekend. Will have to see if it makes the weekend list.
My knee is a bit sore still from working on that tire. Even kneeling on a big foam pad. Hoping that mild pedaling will help it.
Wattsup says 7.8 amp hours charging, CA says 9.01 amp hours. Charge took 2:20 with 4A charge tapering off to 0.23amp shutoff with 400W BMSBattery charger. 4.15 volts per cell. 6% amp rate cutoff. Note that charge rate at cutoff is about 5 watts, so a whole hour of that would only yield 5 watt hours. Probably could cut off sooner, it doesn't really add much energy. Charge current dropped from 4A to 3A at 1:40, so was dropping from 1:40 to finish at 2:20.
Data: CA, ride in 13.2 miles, 69.5V after, 644 wh, 48.8 wh/mi, 40.97 amax, 67.8 vmin, 18.0 avmph, 44 min.
My GoPro Hero 960 camera makes corrupt files if I run it too long, but if I restart it before about 2 gigs it does fine. My commute is long enough to hit the problem, restarting once takes care of it though. There seems to be no new firmware for this model.
icecube57
10 MW
This crimper is a beast man! You are not pullin these apart. might have to do something with the overflow edges.. sand or file them a little bit... not to much but awesome device.
icecube57
10 MW
Alan B said:
I had a memory card i bought off ebay that corrupted after 2gb. I ran a test that reads and writes to every block and sure enough it was a fake 32gb card that goes fubar after 2gb.
Alan B
100 GW
icecube57 said:
Interesting problem. Gotta watch those "bargains".
The cards I have are the ones GoPro sold when I got the cam, and they hold more than 2GB ok, so it is probably something with the camera firmware. I have two of them, and they are doing the same thing, so it is probably not just one bad card.
Right now I have one card that has about 8 files totalling nearly 16 GB and these files are fine. GoPro is saying something about warranty on the camera, unfortunately I suspect it is too old for that. I was hoping for new firmware.
Alan B
100 GW
Tonite my son and I rode our electric bikes to the Ham Radio club meeting. We ended up showing them to folks during the break. Lots of questions. It worked out well except the part where we discovered that my son had left his Magicshine headlight plugged into the battery pack so it was dead, and we had to ride back in the dark, and his backup headlight was not in his trunk bag. There were some big piles of pine needles on the bike lane and he didn't see them and rode right through them. Luckily not a problem. Good idea to have a backup headlight.
I decided to test my 200W BMSBattery bulk charger again. This time it worked, and with the WattsUp meter I measured 2 amps charging. Last time I tested this the battery was only slightly discharged and it did not kick on, this time the fan kicked on and it definitely charged for 45 minutes before we left. I will test it again today and check the end of charge.
I decided to test my 200W BMSBattery bulk charger again. This time it worked, and with the WattsUp meter I measured 2 amps charging. Last time I tested this the battery was only slightly discharged and it did not kick on, this time the fan kicked on and it definitely charged for 45 minutes before we left. I will test it again today and check the end of charge.
Alan B
100 GW
Here's how to use a WattsUp or equivalent to get data from the charge cycle of a bulk charger like the BMSBattery. The voltage reads 1/3 in this case, and the current and amp-hours read the full amount.
Take care to never apply more than the rated voltage to the meter, which is 60 volts.
Take care to never apply more than the rated voltage to the meter, which is 60 volts.
Alan B
100 GW
BMSBattery 200W charger
Just completed a charge using the BMSBattery 200W bulk charger. They set it for 2 amps and I measure just over that with the WattsUp, about 2.06 amps. I did not see the current when it shut off, but the voltage was 74.0 resting and it was supposed to shut off at 74.7, which it may have done. It makes a bit of noise due to the fan, but otherwise no real objections that I could see. It put back about 6.7 amp hours today, and about 1.7 yesterday.
Package in the Mail
I received a package from San Francisco today. My 24 FET controller is back from the controller hospital. I haven't put it back in the bike yet, hope to do that very soon.
Just completed a charge using the BMSBattery 200W bulk charger. They set it for 2 amps and I measure just over that with the WattsUp, about 2.06 amps. I did not see the current when it shut off, but the voltage was 74.0 resting and it was supposed to shut off at 74.7, which it may have done. It makes a bit of noise due to the fan, but otherwise no real objections that I could see. It put back about 6.7 amp hours today, and about 1.7 yesterday.
Package in the Mail
I received a package from San Francisco today. My 24 FET controller is back from the controller hospital. I haven't put it back in the bike yet, hope to do that very soon.
Alan B
100 GW
Another lovely commute to work on a warm morning. Tried a 32G Transcend class 10 SD card in my GoPro. It did NOT have the problem at 2G that the Kingston 16G class 4 cards had! Those were the cards that GoPro recommended a few years ago, but they seem to be marginal when the files get large, or the formatting is not set right...
In any case, will get a couple more of the 32G Transcend cards, they seem to work fine. The commute to work makes a 3.66GB file.
Going to test out one of the Wasabi power GoPro batteries (third party 3.7V 1400 mah) on the trip home. Also perhaps a different mount perspective.
Note that the Wasabi charger is pretty nice, with swiveling AC prongs and a separate 12VDC cable it is very flexible for various situations. It came with a pair of the extra batteries so with all three batteries the record time is around 7 to 8 hours. The video consumes about a Gig every 10 minutes, so a 32G card is good for about 10 hours of record time. Not sure I would want a 10G file though. With the new GoPro you can power it from USB and record nonstop. It is probably advisable to stop and restart recording from time to time so you don't have such large files to deal with, perhaps it does that automatically but I don't know about that.
Energy consumption is right around 50 watt hours per mile on the inbound trip. It is just about linear with speed, today I went 10% faster than friday and consumed 10% more energy.
In any case, will get a couple more of the 32G Transcend cards, they seem to work fine. The commute to work makes a 3.66GB file.
Going to test out one of the Wasabi power GoPro batteries (third party 3.7V 1400 mah) on the trip home. Also perhaps a different mount perspective.
Note that the Wasabi charger is pretty nice, with swiveling AC prongs and a separate 12VDC cable it is very flexible for various situations. It came with a pair of the extra batteries so with all three batteries the record time is around 7 to 8 hours. The video consumes about a Gig every 10 minutes, so a 32G card is good for about 10 hours of record time. Not sure I would want a 10G file though.
With the new GoPro you can power it from USB and record nonstop. It is probably advisable to stop and restart recording from time to time so you don't have such large files to deal with, perhaps it does that automatically but I don't know about that.Energy consumption is right around 50 watt hours per mile on the inbound trip. It is just about linear with speed, today I went 10% faster than friday and consumed 10% more energy.
Stevil_Knevil
10 kW
Alan B said:
What was the topic?
HA! Still has fur on the tread. Glad to see you got it sorted and back on the road. These Gazelles are tough, right?! Took a few weeks before mine wore off - but I was using a rear brake.
Speaking of rear brakes (since you do not use them here) ..scale of 1-12.. how awesome are those dual front disk brakes?
Alan B
100 GW
Hi Stevil! Sorry I missed you this weekend.
I've got about 500 miles on those tires.
They are tough, but a nail went all the way through, right through one of the thick rubber pads in the tread, so through the thickest rubber. I'll have to take a pic of that nail. Anyway, today I noticed that the tire was asymmetrical so I worked on that and improved it, though it still seems to bulge slightly at the location of the fill port. I need to use lubricant on when seating.
The front brakes work well. I want a rear brake but it is doing fine with dual front.
Thanks for all hour help! How is your Borg #2 doing??
I've got about 500 miles on those tires.
They are tough, but a nail went all the way through, right through one of the thick rubber pads in the tread, so through the thickest rubber. I'll have to take a pic of that nail. Anyway, today I noticed that the tire was asymmetrical so I worked on that and improved it, though it still seems to bulge slightly at the location of the fill port. I need to use lubricant on when seating.
The front brakes work well. I want a rear brake but it is doing fine with dual front.
Thanks for all hour help! How is your Borg #2 doing??
Alan B
100 GW
Tire Seating Lubricant
Definitely a good idea to use some kind of tire bead lubricant, but what to use? You can buy it, but the smallest container I saw was 8 pounds. Some advocate WD40, Silicon spray lube, liquid detergent and a few other BAD ideas. There are some recipes around for making your own, but it is not clear the ingredients are all good for tires, tubes and rims. Looks like one of the better simple ideas is water based personal lubricants. Hmmm. Perhaps Astro-lube?
So what do folks around here use?
Definitely a good idea to use some kind of tire bead lubricant, but what to use? You can buy it, but the smallest container I saw was 8 pounds. Some advocate WD40, Silicon spray lube, liquid detergent and a few other BAD ideas. There are some recipes around for making your own, but it is not clear the ingredients are all good for tires, tubes and rims. Looks like one of the better simple ideas is water based personal lubricants. Hmmm. Perhaps Astro-lube?
So what do folks around here use?
docnjoj
1 GW
I simply use Dawn dishwashing detergent. Works fine and is water based so no harm to rubber. It also works fine on my swim masks as a defogger instead of the expensive stuff the dive shops sell. Good stuff. Makes tire irons slide smooth.
otherDoc
otherDoc
Alan B
100 GW
docnjoj said:
Thanks for the suggestion.
There have been comments that I found on the net that detergents have chemicals that cause corrosion in steel and aluminum. Not sure what is in that particular detergent, or if it is a problem with most/all of them.
What is the stuff that dive shops sell? Have not seen that unless it is referring to the silicone grease they have. I don't think a long term lube is desirable, so silicone is out. Solvents that can attack rubber like WD40 are also not good. I think a non-corrosive water based lube that dries out and becomes non-lubricating is probably desirable.
Alan B
100 GW
Riding Gear
Another foggy morning commute. As usual, it starts out clear and sunny in my neighborhood, but you can see the fog cap on the hills toward the Bay, and my route takes me through those hills. About 2/3 of the way in to work we enter the fog belt and the temperature drops. The trees filter the fog and drip on the road, so the road is wet at least in some spots, sometimes in large areas where the fog is thick enough.
Then in the afternoon it may be quite hot, or not, especially on the last half of the ride. Also windy in the canyon along the lake, one gust can take 3 mph off your speed, or push you toward the side of the road, or less often towards the traffic, and be cold or hot or neither.
So what to wear? I've been trying different things. This is what has been working for me lately, a very adjustable layered system:
Lightweight long underwear pants under my work pants.
T shirt and work shirt, then a down vest, then a light dark jacket, then the bright lightweight yellow-green bicycling jacket.
Sturdy shoes, motorcycle gloves, and bike or light motorcycle helmet.
I like the heated vest but the battery and wires are annoying and the weather is not cold enough to need it right now. The down vest is a bit warmer than the electric vest when unpowered. What made the difference so I didn't need the heated vest now was the lightweight long underwear pants, plus the extra insulation of the down vest. The one downside of the long underwear is removing them at work is harder than everything else, but they just make the system work so much better. On a cold day I might wear them all day. On a warm day I take them off at work and don't wear them on the way home. On a cool day I'll wear them again on the way home. Same for the down vest and possibly the light jacket. I always wear the bright green light jacket, it is a sunblock as well as windblock and very high visibility.
A DC-DC converter to power the vest would make the battery issue go away. There is still wiring and plugging in, so the down vest is a bit easier until it gets colder. Regulating the electric vest is easier as well.
Key to this flexible system is the ToPeak trunk bag with fold-out panniers to carry extra clothing as layers are not needed.
Staying warm and comfortable is very important. It is hard to look forward to and enjoy the ride if you are not warm.
The bike and tires are doing great. I skipped riding yesterday due to needing the vehicle to bring home 20 pounds of green tomatoes someone gifted me at work. So this weekend we'll probably make a batch of the old family picililli recipe. So it was important to get those tomatoes home without bruising and I'm not set up to do that on the ebike. Even a cargo bike would be problematic not carrying the weight but providing cushioning. This Borg has the suspension but not the load carrying on that cantilever trunk.
Currently I'm bulk charging at both ends of the trip and using the little BMSBattery chargers. The 4A 400W is at work, and the 2A 200W is at home. I check balance periodically with a battery medic type unit, and use the wattsup to get amp-hour data on the charge cycles. The charging voltages are set to 4.15V/cell to provide a little margin to 4.2. The 4 amp charger works out well at work, charging in less than 3 hours. At home it has the whole night to do the job, and less to put back, so the 2 amp unit is more than adequate.
I've collected a lot of GoPro footage. The problem I was having with corrupted files when it went over 2GB went away with a 32G class 10 card. I'm not sure they are youtube worthy, but perhaps significant editing will produce something interesting at some point. The other day I forgot to turn off the camera, so I have the complete landing and a few minutes of dark garage. Another day I left it run on the way in, going down the hallway at work and into the office. I presently have the camera mounted on the front fork tube just above the tire toward the curb side. So it sees a little bit of tire which gives a nice frame of reference. I still have the camera mounted upside down which works much better since it tends to stay put hanging much better than balancing over the mount.
Showing GoPro location on front fork and bulk charging.
Ride Safe!
Another foggy morning commute. As usual, it starts out clear and sunny in my neighborhood, but you can see the fog cap on the hills toward the Bay, and my route takes me through those hills. About 2/3 of the way in to work we enter the fog belt and the temperature drops. The trees filter the fog and drip on the road, so the road is wet at least in some spots, sometimes in large areas where the fog is thick enough.
Then in the afternoon it may be quite hot, or not, especially on the last half of the ride. Also windy in the canyon along the lake, one gust can take 3 mph off your speed, or push you toward the side of the road, or less often towards the traffic, and be cold or hot or neither.
So what to wear? I've been trying different things. This is what has been working for me lately, a very adjustable layered system:
Lightweight long underwear pants under my work pants.
T shirt and work shirt, then a down vest, then a light dark jacket, then the bright lightweight yellow-green bicycling jacket.
Sturdy shoes, motorcycle gloves, and bike or light motorcycle helmet.
I like the heated vest but the battery and wires are annoying and the weather is not cold enough to need it right now. The down vest is a bit warmer than the electric vest when unpowered. What made the difference so I didn't need the heated vest now was the lightweight long underwear pants, plus the extra insulation of the down vest. The one downside of the long underwear is removing them at work is harder than everything else, but they just make the system work so much better. On a cold day I might wear them all day. On a warm day I take them off at work and don't wear them on the way home. On a cool day I'll wear them again on the way home. Same for the down vest and possibly the light jacket. I always wear the bright green light jacket, it is a sunblock as well as windblock and very high visibility.
A DC-DC converter to power the vest would make the battery issue go away. There is still wiring and plugging in, so the down vest is a bit easier until it gets colder. Regulating the electric vest is easier as well.
Key to this flexible system is the ToPeak trunk bag with fold-out panniers to carry extra clothing as layers are not needed.
Staying warm and comfortable is very important. It is hard to look forward to and enjoy the ride if you are not warm.
The bike and tires are doing great. I skipped riding yesterday due to needing the vehicle to bring home 20 pounds of green tomatoes someone gifted me at work. So this weekend we'll probably make a batch of the old family picililli recipe. So it was important to get those tomatoes home without bruising and I'm not set up to do that on the ebike. Even a cargo bike would be problematic not carrying the weight but providing cushioning. This Borg has the suspension but not the load carrying on that cantilever trunk.
Currently I'm bulk charging at both ends of the trip and using the little BMSBattery chargers. The 4A 400W is at work, and the 2A 200W is at home. I check balance periodically with a battery medic type unit, and use the wattsup to get amp-hour data on the charge cycles. The charging voltages are set to 4.15V/cell to provide a little margin to 4.2. The 4 amp charger works out well at work, charging in less than 3 hours. At home it has the whole night to do the job, and less to put back, so the 2 amp unit is more than adequate.
I've collected a lot of GoPro footage. The problem I was having with corrupted files when it went over 2GB went away with a 32G class 10 card. I'm not sure they are youtube worthy, but perhaps significant editing will produce something interesting at some point. The other day I forgot to turn off the camera, so I have the complete landing and a few minutes of dark garage. Another day I left it run on the way in, going down the hallway at work and into the office. I presently have the camera mounted on the front fork tube just above the tire toward the curb side. So it sees a little bit of tire which gives a nice frame of reference. I still have the camera mounted upside down which works much better since it tends to stay put hanging much better than balancing over the mount.
Showing GoPro location on front fork and bulk charging.
Ride Safe!
Alan B
100 GW
24 FET Controller
Today I took the side cover off and swapped the 24 FET controller back in. I tested it and the top speed was 26 mph, lowered from the usual 37. The default programming in the controller is probably set for 33/66/99%. So I installed a 3 speed switch and sure enough, speed I is 12 mph, II is 26 and III is 37. I set the CA to 1 milliohm (close but not actually calibrated) and it reads 4kw max. It pulls stronger and feels great! I tested it on the 10% hill. Looks good so far!
The CA settings for the 12 FET were 1.89 milliohms.
Today I took the side cover off and swapped the 24 FET controller back in. I tested it and the top speed was 26 mph, lowered from the usual 37. The default programming in the controller is probably set for 33/66/99%. So I installed a 3 speed switch and sure enough, speed I is 12 mph, II is 26 and III is 37. I set the CA to 1 milliohm (close but not actually calibrated) and it reads 4kw max. It pulls stronger and feels great! I tested it on the 10% hill. Looks good so far!
The CA settings for the 12 FET were 1.89 milliohms.
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