Current Cycles Prototype Buildlog...

[manitu]

Hi. Nice to see someone build a bike from scratch.
Your plan is to drive the crank from the motor , and use a bike-chain to power the rear wheel?
If you run with the pivot as high up as on the early pictures of that frame i, you will rip the rear derailleur clean off from chain-growth.

.manitu

 

[Whiplash]

Actually, I changed my plan. I will someday be building my own frame, but for now I am going to be selling drives and complete converted bikes. I have a nice clean setup that I think most would enjoy without having to build my own frame, I get 15AH of 44.4v in it so its not bad at all...

As for the HP version it is a good way off so I don't have any details for that yet. I'll keep you posted for sure though!

 

[Whiplash]

OK I got the box all mounted up, changed the Hall mounting location for ease of adjustment, and rigidly mounted my roller for the primary chain. I need to just get some banana plugs from the Shack tomorrow after work to lengthen the phase wires and I am good to go! Oh yeah, I also figured out why my Cycle Analyst stopped working, the yellow wire that is soldered to the shunt came loose! I also figured out why I was not able to increase the Phase and battery amps! I PULLED THE PROGRAMMING WIRE OUT! The red wire from the programming lead was yanked out of the board when I originally built the drive, so I never actually programmed anything!! LOL! I can't wait to see what this baby has when I get it running again now that I can program it! Should be fun! I will be glad to have my CA back in business so I can see what I am actually using for power! I was just guessing before using the voltage as an indicator, yuck! Oh, I also changed my drive arrangement at the crank to the same style as Timma's with he drive powering the outer sprocket, then the inner sprocket on the cranks powering the rear cluster, This will solve my inability to pedal hard and allow even more range through human power adding! I did all this last night except for the controller mods, because today was my daughters (whoa, that sounds weird) first Easter so lots of family stuff today! Updates coming soon!

 

[Whiplash]

Cool, got the bike working again! I had to fork around with the Hall and phase wires again because I mounted the halls flipped over from their previous location, but with the new tighter straight cut gear box, the new crank config and all, I am seeing about 4.5A at WOT (CA WORKS AGAIN TOO!!). I am happy with his as its just a tad higher than before, and it makes sense since the new box it tighter. I will have to wait to test it till tomorrow, but I am hopeful it will perform as good or better than before!

 

[Whiplash]

The good news is I have a working bike again, the bad news is I tried to ride to work today, and after playing around with it yesterday, I must have worked the motor mount bolts loose. I got about a mile from my house and it fell apart! I was running late so I had to pedal home quickly and jump in the Explorer! Oh well, I guess I had too much fun doing wheelies in my back yard! I will get it back together with lock-tite this time around and get some vids. Nice thing is, the straight cut gears are only slightly louder and will hopefully hold up a bit better

On another note, I talked to my gearbox maker and he said he might be able to make me a compact 25:1 box with the motor mounted to it and all! I am pretty excited about this! If it works out, I will have a complete little box that will mount to the bike easily AND I will be capable of an easy 6HP so he says so I will incorporate the larger Turningy motor mount pattern into it as well as my little guy so there will be a choice. As soon as I have cad drawings of the box I will let you all know...hopefully in a few weeks!

 

[Whiplash]

Well, I made it to work and back BARELY! I changed the way I had the motor mounted and that required a small extension of the Phase wires. Anyway, I just used some bullet connectors from Radio Shack and I guess they had a fair amount of resistance and they got hot and melted the cheap sheathing off them and what I thought was a Hall sensor adjustment problem, was the wires making intermittent contact and shorting!! Anyway about two miles from my house on the BIG 6% two mile climb, the controller gave up the fight. I will have the controller out this afternoon to see what died. Hopefully not too bad and I can get it up and running soon. Live and learn! I guess, I just need to solder the wires and double heat shrink them to be safe! I won't make that mistake again!

 

[Whiplash]

Hey all, I just took the controller apart to see if I could find any obvious damage and the only thing I found was a little blob of Solder looks to have fallen off the shunt and landed on the board. Do you think it could have melted and fallen off? Is there a way to test the fets and such for damage??

 

[Solcar]

Alas, yes, the shunt got too hot from too much current and melted its solder. If the resistance readings between any two of a MOSFET's leads read about zero with an ohmmeter, then it is toasted. (Be sure the gate-source doesn't have an enhancement voltage above the turn-on threshold. Otherwise the resistance between the drain and source won't be super high like it should be during the test.)

 

[Whiplash]

OK I got the controller getting fixed ASAP.

Here is the cool stuff,
I just ordered this:



Time to cut some metal!! Now I can make the small parts of my kit, accurately drill all the holes and such. THIS is what I have needed for some time!

Incidentally, I have to pay for the darn thing, so if anyone needs one off parts made up, let me know, I need the side work!

 

[kfong]

I've always found that a separate lathe and mill works out better than these multifunction setups.

 

[bandaro]

wants....

well at least you can get your axles made up nice and accurately now, after you have made a few they get very easy and boring... hardest part is finding the patience to measure it out accurately enough...

not a clue as to the shunt, may find something in the technical section.

 

[Whiplash]

I've always found that a separate lathe and mill works out better than these multifunction setups.

Yes, but I think for a small garage workshop, this is the only real choice. Plus I basically got two tools for the price of one! It is not the little one though, its a decent size, over 650lbs! Its a 12x20" lathe and a 8x14 mill. So really a decent size machine..

 

[kfong]

That's bigger than I first thought. Should work out good for your ebikes.

 

[Whiplash]

Woohoo! One step closer to being able to produce quality kits/bikes!

 

[grindz145]

That was a pretty exciting race at Thunderdrome. We had a great time rooting for the electric bikes. Sorry that Rochester, NY got the credit

 

[Whiplash]

OK, I got it up and running, but I need to build the table I will place it on. I was going to use my workbench, but its too tall to be able to work easily on. I can't wait to make this thing CNC ready! It has plenty of area to do most things I will ever use it for. I am anxious to start my re design of my drive now that I can build what I really wanted to, an enclosed #25 chain reduction box! I think three stages will net me a box about the same size that will work far better and be considerably stronger/quieter than the little gearbox! I need to play with some stuff first to figure the ratios..

 

[johnrobholmes]

Dang! Congrats on the new machine!

 

[Whiplash]

Thanks!

 

[AussieJester]

Nice mill/lathe setup... Have you ever actually used a mill and lathe? Would love similar myself
have you got a link to the shop you got this? something like that here would be into the thousands.
Good luck with the new drive 'production' Looks like Recumpence will have some competition
soon with you and Thud both gearing up to pump out drives for RC Motered setups.

KiM

 

[Whiplash]

Thanks! Yeah, I used to own a race motor machine shop and had mills, lathes, seat and guide machine, dyno, etc!

 

[Whiplash]

Oh yeah, I got it from http://www.boltonhardware.com I count some good reviews of this machine and I got it delivered for 1600, so not bad considering you can barely get a lathe this size for that!

 

[etard]

That's an excellent price, congrats man! I know this is the baby you have been wanting, while your wife had the other, less practical one. :lol:

How is the bike running? Have you thought about showcasing it out at the Willow Springs event? I would say you could carpool with me n Debbie, but we are camping that night and then quad/ dirtbike riding the next day. Hey, if anything, you could get a taste for it out in the woops...

 

[Whiplash]

I would but I melted the cheap connectors on my phase wires and cooked the controller. Lyen is getting it fixed up right now. I have some better engineering coming soon that will make the bike look and perform better than ever so ill wait for that to show it off..

 

[bandaro]

ahh cheap connectors... like so many other things the cheap off the shelf item is actually not cheap at all. I always try the reliable option, but do try to save a few bucks and get the cheap ones sometimes... or better yet, spend 20 hours fabricating a 20 dollar part

 

[Whiplash]

Lol! Tell me about it! With the new machine I am sure I will have hundreds of hours in a bunch of custom parts I could have just bought!