Electric Buell racebike build

[stamen]

Been a while, but I've got some updates to share. I found a home for the controller. I will mount it in the subframe. It fits nicely and can get decent airflow if I mount a heat sink on it. The only down side is that the motor phase wire will not reach it so I plan to make a small junction box. I know it's not optimal, but the overall cable lengths won't be that much longer. I thought about mounting it under the batteries but it reduces lean angle clearance and mounting is tricky. Also in a crash it is less protected Here are some photos.
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I started charging the modules one by one with a lab power supply. For now that's my method until I decide on a charger. I charged each cell to 3.8V. The idea is to keep them around nominal voltage while I setup the Sevcon and configure the motor.
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Then I assembled my two battery packs. The first one is 9 modules and will be mounted in the main area of the frame where the engine used to be. The second one has 5 modules and will be mounted on top of the steel tube frame and will be inside the perimeter of the original Buell frame. So overall I like that everything will be well protected.


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Saftey first! :wink:
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Next I took the stock wire harness from the Buell and tore it apart to get some free wires out of it.
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I ordered a bunch of connectors, terminals, etc from Mouser to wire up everything and start the configuration of the Sevcon.
Here is the super special old IXXAT USB-CAN compact cable that works with the old DVT software. Cost me ~$350 I bought a Sub D9 connector and soldered the CAN High, CAN Low, and GND connections on it. You also have to solder on a jumper wire from pin 2 to pin 24 on the Sevcon for the CAN termination if this is your only controller/CAN device.


Here are some pictures of my bench top setup. I screwed down the controller, contactor, and a SS relay that I bought to switch the high-voltage on. For now I am providing the 12V power through my lab power supply, but in the final design I will use a DC-DC with the enable switch. The relay has a nice green led to indicate when 12V is applied on the input side.
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You can see the SS relay here on the right
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My battery cables are quite long, but I will shorten them when everything is finalized.

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So far my wiring diagram seems to be correct.The first power up was successful. I got the contactor to close once I flipped the on/off switch on the handle bar and closed the SS relay. FYI I'm using a 48V coil contactor based on what I read about the Sevcon not liking 12V/24V coils, since it PWMs the contactor.

Now I have to setup the CAN interface on my computer and start talking with the Sevcon so that I can set up the initial parameters like the contactor PWM voltage. More to come soon hopefully.

 

[stamen]

You made some unbelievable lemonade here though. That trellis frame is a work of art. I'd love to hear more details on the process of fitting and welding the tubing. Did you make a jig? Was it TIG'ed? How did you settle on 1" DOM? My gut says 1" is overkill, but my gut isn't calibrated for swingarm mounts ...
Looks like fitting the leaf modules might be a challenge. What's the strategy there?
Really great job, I hope to hear more about it.

Thanks! I only designed the frame, I did not weld it up myself. But the guy who did did a pretty good job considering how small the frame is and how tight the clearances were. He did make a jig and it was TIG welded. I did some FEA analysis on the frame and I tried to keep the torsional stiffness high. I do believe it could have been a bit lighter, but I wouldn't necessarily go with a smaller diameter tube. I would actually use a bigger diameter with smaller wall thickness and have less tubing. Bigger diameter has more geometric moment of inertia which provide effectively more overall stiffness than a smaller tube with larger wall thickness. But I'm still happy with how it turned out. The next one will be lighter and easier to manufacture 8)

The leaf modules will be mounted with Al two end-plates and a "skeleton perimeter" frame which will run along the edges of the pack and leaves the faces open for air exposure. The packs will then have Al brackets welded to the end plates. Then that will be bolted to welded steel brackets on the steel frame. I will share some picture of this soon.

 

[stamen]

By the way thanks for all the positive comments and great questions!
Please keep the questions coming and any constructive criticism

 

[stamen]

Beautiful work, I'm looking forward to the finished product. If you don't already have the Leaf cell modules, it's my understanding that the newer ones have a much higher C-rate.

Thank you! Unfortunately I do already have the old 2012 batteries purchased so I will use them. Although my packaging design and the cells' carry over design should allow for an easy upgrade to the new 2018-2019 cells. So there's always the possibility for a performance upgrade in the future if the funds are there :lol:

 

[bitDad]

an epic build ever....

 

[Frank]

So, any updates?

 

[flat tire]

This guy got most of the hard stuff done did the bike ever roll under its own power?

 

[Hillhater]

. Although my packaging design and the cells' carry over design should allow for an easy upgrade to the new 2018-2019 cells. .....

It may not be a easy as you hoped..
https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21399

https://images.app.goo.gl/8u8VY8zCbmiAi4vAA

 

[WestCoastClassicRacer]

Awesome thread- thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Eastwood]

Well, looks like the original poster hasn’t been online since 2020. I wonder what happened with this build?