GT i-drive 2.0 Build

So Cool G

Bike is moving so well with the new batts, great to see local news getting involved, I always backed away from any news interest that has has been shown, dont want to draw attention to my super powers!! ha ha but still great though, towing the kids is the key here for me, simply amazing I will have to work on my other half to let me tow my son in a trailer though, hes 1 in a month though.

That camera of yours is simply amazing, I see them everywhere these days, motoring shows use them now proper movie makers and sports shows all use them, looks great in widescreen and HD, a sound investment Greg and whilst the old movies were great they aint a patch on the new ones.

Have a good weekend buddy!

Knoxie
 
Low key is the key.

I have read some posts on "Mountain Bike" forums where the hard core MTB'rs are not too keen on the idea of electric bikes on the trails.
They were screaming it is Blaspfemy. "Might as well ride a dang motorcycle on the trail"...............
So stealth is the key.
I start peddling any time I see someone.
And if they ask what is the big thing in my frame, I'll say its a battery pack for lights....I like to ride at night and I need alot of juice 8).
Also, here in CA, they have a restriction on wattage.
I THINK anything over 250W is then required to be registered (not sure).

My feeling is, what they don't know, won't hurt them.
So don't let them know.

Eventually, EB's will be common place here (like China).
Then all the rules and regulations will be put in place and that will be that.
I figure we have a few more years, so ride em hard while you can kids.
 
fantastic, Glad you got local news got involve with your ebike. Don't let them see you over speed unlawful federal ebike laws. I don't want any idiot cause add more laws restriction on ebike. Keep it up!! Greg

We need more reputation like Justin from ebikes.ca and supporters.
 
yeah, unfortunately, the cat's out of the bag. kinda regretting it now. the producer is a friend, so i'm gonna ask her to tone it down. i already did ask, but the youtube vids are pretty exciting... and how tempting it must be for them to write about bad dad, speed demon... i'd intended to be lawful but they kept egging me on so i gave them quite a few shots of me whizzing by. oh well, hopefully it won't get too much attention when i runs.

it's too bad really, this cool hobby, that i'm really proud of. wicked dark side though. :|
 
GCinDC said:
yeah, unfortunately, the cat's out of the bag.
chroot said:
fantastic, Glad you got local news got involve with your ebike. Don't let them see you over speed unlawful federal ebike laws. I don't want any idiot cause add more laws restriction on ebike. Keep it up!! Greg

We need more reputation like Justin from ebikes.ca and supporters.
Dude, it wasn't a good idea to suggest going 40mph!!! :shock: down Connecticut Ave. :twisted: :p :roll:

Since you're friends with the producer, please, please, wisely, ask her to not emphasize this example of the ILLEGAL eBike underbelly... :lol: :wink:

You're in DC, THE FEDS, PITA REGULATORS ...Sheeeit... :?:
 
gollie, didn't know you were all a bunch a law-breakers here... :lol:

remind me to explore the hypocrisy sometime... hopefully in old age thinking back to the good ole days... in the meantime, i voiced my concerns to the production team in no uncertain terms and expect they'll honor my wishes. (they may be reading too!)

back to work: i'm taking hyena's advice again here. this just arrived and i pried it apart. let the games begin!
P1000640.JPG
the 24V setting puts out 24.5V.

so i'm going to test the resistors on the board first, see the differences. maybe try to parallel one to see what that does. should be pretty obvious that whatever the range is, i'll need to make the resistance closer to the next setting (20V).

i've got to double check the ping output; i believe it's around 60.4V, so if i can configure the new laptop charger to a clean 23V, that should be perfect.

not sure if it's cc/cv, but @ $15 it may be a nice solution for each 5s pack, should i want to bump up to 25s.
 
GCinDC said:
i think it's time to do some more 'touring videos' and dial it back in traffic. i'm not going that fast

GCinDC said:
should i want to bump up to 25s.

Yep, 25S is the bare minimum you'd want for casual riding in your 'touring videos' :lol:

What wattage is that lappy charger ? Most are around 90w but some are up around 120w. Keep in mind that that the lowest powered unit in the string will hold back the current on the more powerful ones.
 
Hyena said:
What wattage is that lappy charger ?
96W, so 4A @ 24V.

the ping is 2A, so 2A it will be, roughly ~4hrs for a full charge, 2hrs for typical charge. are they cc/cv generally?

i think i found a combo that works, outputs 22.4V. the resistor i'm replacing is a tiny fart, not an SMD but wee little. can i replace it w/ a 1/4 watt w/o a problem? no problems during testing.

i'm thinking of paralleling the AC inputs to have only one cord. Why have extra cords? Any problems with that? The ping doesn't have a ground but the lappy one does... Need I keep it?

dbaker said:
Did they shoot any video of your bike? I only saw you on your wife's bike?
might not have been clear, but the cameraman was in the open window of the suv in front. the vid i put up is what i shot of THEM, with a tiny bit of my wife. they took lots of video of me and my bike, but i don't have that...
 
GCinDC said:
Oh, and good news from my friends at revolution cycles: V-Brake Posts! It was an odd fit. Three shops didn't have them. So now I can attach the rear brakes!
The pic you had was too far for me to pickup enough details, so did you weld on the posts or ?

Awesome you have such nice trails to ride nearby even for your commute? Dang lucky! :twisted:

What % of your commute can u do by trail? :mrgreen:
 
GCinDC said:
Hyena said:
What wattage is that lappy charger ?
96W, so 4A @ 24V.

the ping is 2A, so 2A it will be, roughly ~4hrs for a full charge, 2hrs for typical charge. are they cc/cv generally?

i think i found a combo that works, outputs 22.4V. the resistor i'm replacing is a tiny fart, not an SMD but wee little. can i replace it w/ a 1/4 watt w/o a problem? no problems during testing.

i'm thinking of paralleling the AC inputs to have only one cord. Why have extra cords? Any problems with that? The ping doesn't have a ground but the lappy one does... Need I keep it?

dbaker said:
Did they shoot any video of your bike? I only saw you on your wife's bike?
might not have been clear, but the cameraman was in the open window of the suv in front. the vid i put up is what i shot of THEM, with a tiny bit of my wife. they took lots of video of me and my bike, but i don't have that...

We are good then. If they shot you from/with the SUV in front of you the footage would be fairly tame unless you passed the SUV :twisted:

A resistor is a resistor; wattage rating tells what heat they can survive and remain a stable R value.
 
deVries said:
did you weld on the posts or ?
Dang, what page of the thread was that from? No welding! The bike came w/ disc brakes, but the disc rubbed the dropout... so I used the existing v-brake bosses (there as a courtesy?) and searched and searched until I found the right size (and thread) v-brake posts...

What % of your commute can u do by trail? :mrgreen:
I'm usually late and racing to get in, so take CT ave, but could go 2x the distance on legit bike path:
commuting_options.jpg
It is VERY bumpy however, and far too crowded in warm weather. Now that it's cold, it might be more fun. After a snow, it'll typically be full of frozen footsteps, which are tedious... Perhaps i can make my own trail though on some stretches! And I don't need to do the whole thing either. I can pop up and out anytime...

The other option shown in green I'll do once a season, at a low traffic time, just for the fun of it, but there are lots of steps made from railroad ties, etc..

As for the UNIVERSAL AC "LAPPY" CHARGER:
- soldered in (two resistors for a total of) 2.95K-Ohm on the 24V switch channel
- Am now reading 22.6V ouput
- So 22.6V + 61V ping = 83.6V / 20s = 4.18V per cell
- Just have attach to ping, solder bullets, etc. Got to lazy last night so balance charging 5s now.
- I had spent 45 minutes searching the garage for my 10K potiometer:
pRS1C-2160266w345.jpg

The thing is sweet, capable of dialing the resistance to the ohm! But it's too big for this job, and while it might be nice to adjust from time to time, I don't want it getting bumped and having to monitor it! :shock:
- Might be nice to have something like this in there on the next one. IF I did add another 5s, I could just use the old 20V charger I've got and dial up the universal! Score more for Hyena... :p
 
Dear eBike Diary,

This morning sucked. Allow me to list the ways:
- Woke up and streets were covered with snow (and it was 24 deg F). Great, except it wasn't in the forecast and I wasn't ready! :shock:
- Took from 5:30A to 6:45 to change the tires! Couldn't find the tools, and the snow tire wouldn't fit with my my homemade rim liner :x
- Back ached and girlish hands now dry, cracked and aching :x
Finally, on the ride in:
- Rear brake line froze in compressed position; this was happening last several mornings, so didn't notice it also seemed wedged. Rode so I didn't need it (and regen was giving me -10A!) but the noise, and inability to properly see w/ full face was irritating. :x
- Last night, I wired up lappy (22.6V) and ping (61V) but was surprised when tip voltage was only 82.4V??? :?
- I hooked it up to fully charged pack (83.3V w/ iCharger), and to my surprise, it revved up and started charging full speed. I watched it for a while as several cells rose above 4.2V... :roll: So at rest it's 82.4V, but either it's higher in action, or doesn't know what to do... :?
- The BM6's didn't start beeping as cells rose above 4.2... Perhaps they only monitor LVC... :cry: This blows my charging strategy out of the water... :(
- And now, at desk, the ping/lappy charger won't work at all! Does nothing. (Usually the Ping light would go read and the fan would start.) Fortunately, I brought iCharger! :(

On the positive side, it was nice to have a stiff 83.8V 'under the hood'. :twisted: The snow tires are skinny so speeds are higher, despite nobbies. Still need to get used to turning characteristics tho...

The roads were clear after all. :roll: But now I'm ready. And my, how they're already dumping the ice out! I gotta figure out how to seal the spoke holes or else these wheels won't last till January! Perhaps a tiny line of caulk until I find some manly stainless steel wheels...? Something that can handle the great outdoors...

Only thing to finish off the morning right is to spill my coffee on my lap.

Bet you had fun, Mr Baker. :D What snow tires did you put on? Got a link?
 
GC,

You look JUST like your grandfather! What a surprise!

I guess you won't have to worry about Alzheimers. He was an amazing man!

Ambrose
 
I need to find my all in one tool! I must have 'organized' everything recently... I would have fixed it on the road.

Tried the ping/lappy charger at home and fires right up. Maybe the power cord had loosened up? Now just gotta watch it.

CA showed 6.9Ah, which is A LOT for a 6 mile return commute. The wind is out of control. I almost got swept over twice!
 
I ride Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires. They are a little weird cornering compared to non studded tires. Carbide studs last! This will be my 3rd winter on the front tire.

The wind was intense :!: Gusts surprised me many times today, almost knocking me down several times :)
 
P1000643.JPG
Output oscillates between 22.5...
P1000647.JPG
and 22.7, at rest, no load.
P1000646.JPG
I wish I tested it under load though...

i decided to use the existing resistor and a new one, soldered to it. can't remember the values, but total was something like 2.85kOhm. I'd been expecting avg cell voltage up to 4.18V.
P1000644.JPG
End voltage is too high though, so I'm going to go in and lower it, but I found that the highest cell got up to ~4.2V. Never beeped. Charging took from 5PM to 8PM for 6.9Ah.
[youtube]XrU7QJQdpn0[/youtube]

And there was a serious security breach on the ginger bread house. It's amazing how the damage escalates once penetrated... :D
P1000652-1.JPG
 
Quiet huh? Is it Friday yet?

Yesterday's commute. Blinding inbound. Home via trails (1:25). Went out of way to go through Battery Kimble park. Went slowish (see below about gloves). Music at 720 now.
[youtube]OiFhYg4AtVc[/youtube]

The map, upside down to show latter bit through woods...
batterykimblecommute.jpg

OTHER UPDATES:

CHARGING:
- BM6 works! Beeps at 4.22V. Heard it two floors below while gift-wrapping in attic. (meanwhile, trouble in paradise: 5 year old son found a gift labeled from Santa... i told him i had no idea how it got there... :lol: )
- (Lipo) Babies are getting balance charged (5s8p on iCharger) today. Cells on one pack are 0.002V out. Cells on another are 0.02V out of balance (the one that beeped.)
- I do need to lower that resistor on the lappy. I don't need to charge up to 4.19V...

CONNECTORS:
- So nice not having to b*tch about melted powerpoles!
- The dangling db25 and 8x bullet plug would not do, so I'm reusing the mount. The 4mm bullet housings needed some coaxing but fit where these powerpoles were:
file.php


WINTER RIDING:
- New jacket and pants are great. Warm and Dry.
- Gloves are a crisis! Old driving gloves (nice firm grip) not warm enough. $9.99 costco HEAD ski gloves are slipperier than rotten bananas. Can NOT grip for shit. What good are warm fingers if I fly off the fracking thing? Have searched online $40, tops, but not sure... Wife got me leather army surplus gloves with wool inserts. I remember them being ok, and I tried them out this morning. Grip is ok, but fingers and thumbs numb after 10 minutes... :(
- Snow expected today, so that should be fun!
- I gotta protect my rims though since this will happen in no time if I don't protect them (from p. 12)!
file.php
 
I use these in michigan.
http://www.mammothmotorsports.com/MSR_Cold_Pro_Gloves/Page_1/MSR-CP-TR_332580.html
i think you can find them for a better price shoping about.
phenominal grip
 
Thud said:
I use these in michigan.... phenominal grip
dude, THANKS for the tip. they look great. and a good grip is what i need!

Snow falling outside... :D

Looking forward to the commute home... :twisted:

Lotta salt out there already tho... :?
 
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