Joby Motors Santa Cruz, CA

Ok, now that we've finished the TTXGP and hillclimb bike builds, I will have time to go visit this place finally. lol
 
From Popular Mechanics, March 30, 2011:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/sci.../how-flying-turbines-will-change-wind-power-2
Joby's headquarters are tucked into the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, not far from the test site. The lodge-like main building is encased by tall windows and trussed with dark ­wooden beams; outside, there's a deck with barbecues and umbrella-topped tables, a shady lawn and a large organic garden. The place is patrolled by friendly dogs and catered by gourmet chefs, creating a vibe that's less corporate headquarters and more high-end yoga retreat.

Bevirt is pinballing around the grounds when I arrive. He jogs downhill to the warehouse, calling out questions to colleagues and striding between lathes, mills and other shop tools. The 37-year-old has been on the go from an early age: As a high school cycling ­fanatic, he designed and built several bikes; during college he worked as an engineer and saved $50,000, which he invested in the stock market.

By the end of the 1990s, after earning a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, he cashed out a $500,000 portfolio and seeded his first business, the laboratory-equipment manufacturer Velocity11, and then Joby, Inc., which makes the GorillaPod line of flexible tripods. These successes gave him the capital to launch Joby Energy, as well as an aviation company. Joby Energy is a project of environmental passion, but it's also a business. "Energy is just a commodity—one electron is no better than another," he says. "What matters is the cost."

Ground-based wind turbines don't spin at full speed every minute of every day. Sometimes the wind blows weakly; sometimes­ not at all. That's why conventional ­windmills generate only up to about one-third of their theoretical full power. But the wind where many airborne companies want to fly, at an altitude of about 1300 feet, ­typically blows more consistently and one and a half to three times faster than at the earth's surface. That means airborne wind could run at a projected capacity factor of 70 percent, Bevirt says—twice the efficiency of terrestrial wind.
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`Nother nice article here from the CAFE Foundation:
http://blog.cafefoundation.org/?p=3303
JoeBen Bevirt is an extraordinary individual – and that’s no hyperbole. Creating a lucrative underpinning with his line of knobby, infinitely-adjustable tripods, cell-phone and iPad™ holders, and LED lights, he has expanded into designing giant kites to fly into upper-atmosphere winds and generate high-output electricity.

To loft these kites, he has created a line of motors with the aid of Diederick Marius, shown on the Joby Motors web site, and so far include two versions each of the JM1S and JM2S. Each can be configured with different windings for different applications.

The JM1S weighs 1.8 kilograms (3.96 pounds) and can put out 12 kilowatts peak (16 horsepower) at 6,000 rpm. Diminutive, it is only154 millimeters in diameter (6.06 inches) and 53 mm (2.08 inches) thick. Although recommended usage includes radio-controlled models, one can see electric ultralight aircraft being designed in enthusiasts’ heads. Prices are $895 and $955 for the two configurations of the motor.

The larger JM2S weighs 3.35 kg (7.37 pounds), and produces 15 kW peak (20.1 hp) at 2,500 rpm. Prices start at $1,099.

Both motors feature 10,000-hour dual bearings, a characteristic anodized alloy outer ring (stator) and 22 poles (JM1S) or 46 (JM2S). Drop the “S” from the designation and each motor becomes a little thicker and heavier, draws a few more Amps, and puts out more power and torque.

The JM1S twists 13 Newton-meters, or 9.58 foot-pounds continuously, while the JM1 exerts 21 N-m (15.49 ft-lb.). The JM2S manages 40 N-m (29.5 ft-lb.) and the JM2 produces 53 N-m (39 ft-lb.), all impressive for such small motors.

With these light, torquey little units available, what’s an intrepid designer to do? Make a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle to shorten the daily commute – of course! JoeBen announced his Monarch Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) at this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium in Santa Rosa, California on April 29 and caught a lot of attention with his animated video of the eight-motor craft levitating, climbing, travelling and landing in a depiction of a perfect commute.

Such technology in the hands of amateur pilots will require a lot of automation (know anyone with an eight-engined multi checkout?) which Joby is capable of managing. Note the $550 autopilot on their Robotics page.
https://www.jobyrobotics.com/category.php?id_category=5

The prototype is under construction at Windward Performance in Bend, Oregon, with designer Greg Cole making almost everything but the motors and controllers in house (that may explain the resemblance to the SparrowHawk sailplane). Although JoeBen did not mention pricing in his CAFE talk, an earlier presentation mentioned a price under $30,000, possible with the low cost of the motors and automation available if volume production took off, but obviously not with batteries. He has also mentioned going 100 miles for a $1.00 recharge. If that doesn’t get people out of their cars, what will?

One extension of such technology would be the need to revamp our outdated air traffic control system into a more flexible, dynamic entity, all the more reason to hope for JoeBen’s success.
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liveforphysics said:
Ok, ...I will have time to go visit this place finally. lol
Click to expand...
could you ask about wider stacks and water cooling? both will be needed for our motorcycle projects. merci, rolf
 
Holy cow ! :shock: That is amazing !
that Mercury 7 "flying platform" has to be the most stable, controllable, versatile, impressive, flying device i have ever seen !
either thay used a team of brilliant RC pilots, or they have one hell of a effective autopilot / stabilisation system.
 
In stock! 1 item in stock
https://www.jobyrobotics.com/product.php?id_product=49

We need someone here to snap the JM1S up for beta testing in a traction app, otherwise I'm guessing it's going to end up in the hands of someone with a big rc plane after this weekends Maker Faire :D makes Joby more well know
 
Awesome...and the price seems reasonable, especially for such a lightweight motor..but it is still out of range of most mortal beings :roll:
 
Ok.

Just spent a couple hours at Joby.

Omg. These guys rock. This place rocks. The motors rock.

Worth every penny. Just extremely cool place. I took about a hundred pics, don't know what I can post up.

One of the coolest places and coolest group of staff I've ever seen.

Also, the parking lot had ebikes and scooters with outrunners. They had piles of nanotech packs everywhere. This place was like heaven.
 
:D

...so they're invited aboard ES? Any interest in selling motors and controllers to the ES world?
 
I'm still kinda stunned at how awesome Joby is.

I was expecting a garage and a couple geeks.

What I found was an amazing machine shop, motor research facility, a large engineering group with a super computer server cluster, and everyone I met was somebody who was 'turned-on' so to speak, these guys get it. These guys are soldiers for the electric revolution, like a special forces team working around human electric flight and wind power generation.

It wad just bad ass. Everything was bad-ass.
 
regmeister said:
Did you meet Diederik? He told me they are building controllers in house, but hasn't provided much for details.

http://newsletter.jobyenergy.com/public/q1_2010/features/04.php
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Diederik was our tour guide. Very very cool guy. Very very smart guy.
 
I'm beginning to think Luke and party had to sign a NDA for the tour :wink:
 
Lock said:
I'm beginning to think Luke and party had to sign a NDA for the tour :wink:
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Nope, no NDA, but I got enough respect for them not to show pics of anything that I think they aren't ready to show the world yet.

I'm like 500 pics behind on my camera right now... Still have pics from the death-race I haven't posted yet.

I will try to chug through and upload a few batches and put some Joby pics up.
 
job1w.jpg



job2k.jpg

job3.jpg


job4v.jpg


job5.jpg

job7.jpg

job8.jpg
 
More pics.

job9.jpg


job10.jpg


job11.jpg


job12.jpg


job13.jpg

job14.jpg

job15.jpg
 
job16.jpg

job17.jpg


job18.jpg
 
As you can see, Joby rocks.

It actually restored some of my faith in USA based engineers.

It was also funny to see that we both fell in love with the same HobbyKing connectors, the same HobbyKing (turnigy) wire, the Nano-Tech's they of course discovered were the best batteries on planet earth, and they said the only RC ESC worth a damn was the Castle ICE HV160. It was all funny to see a group that didn't even know about Endless-sphere arrive at the exact same conclusions as we have.

Also, these guys were shockingly smart. Like shocking shockingly smart team of engineers, only the best from around the world. I would value these guys at a 1:50 ratio for engineering usefulness vs the engineers I used to work with at Microsquish.
 
Wow. You call that a rotor? THIS is a rotor!

Interesting - for applications like aeroplanes or other large framed items the bigger the radius the more power. Is it just too difficult to stack more rotors for more power? Cooling would be the issue I guess? I'm just wondering why all of these BL motors seem to stop at 12-15 kW, and if they go higher it's all about bigger diameters, not depth.
 
It isn't too difficult to stack more rotors on an inrunner. Going larger diameter is a smart move though, it reduces geardown losses.



Drooooool over that largest motor. Frickin WHEEL motor!
 
jonescg said:
Wow. You call that a rotor? THIS is a rotor!

Interesting - for applications like aeroplanes or other large framed items the bigger the radius the more power. Is it just too difficult to stack more rotors for more power? Cooling would be the issue I guess? I'm just wondering why all of these BL motors seem to stop at 12-15 kW, and if they go higher it's all about bigger diameters, not depth.
Click to expand...


An excellent observation. The reason you see this trend, is due to the design applications they are working with, driving props (or being driven by wind spinning a prop). A smaller diameter rotor, with it's smaller prop mounting area and hence smaller prop doesn't need more stator thickness, it's got an efficiency speed range that requires a certain amount of torque to do, and they can do it with this stator thickness.

I had a nice chat with the guy who glues up the magnets, showed me the challenges they have to overcome to fixture and jig those fragile long strip magnets and ensure good bonding. It's all done by hand 1 by 1, and it's an elaborate process just to blast and prep the surface of the magnet for bonding alone. Then they get wound by hand. It's honestly amazing they can sell them for $899 to $1299. I bet it costs them $3,000 to build each one.
 
johnrobholmes said:
It isn't too difficult to stack more rotors on an inrunner. Going larger diameter is a smart move though, it reduces geardown losses.



Drooooool over that largest motor. Frickin WHEEL motor!
Click to expand...


Yep, a hundred horse motor that didn't weigh much more than the wheel of a normal motorcycle.
 
I am very excited to see such masterpieces of engineering here in the states. With a simple shroud any of their motors could be perfect ebike powering machines.
 
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