jonescg's NEW electric racebike BUILD thread!

[jonescg]

Wow! It's great to see the bike with the tires on and the frame looking somewhat complete! I might have missed this...but what motor are you planning on running?

An Evo-Electric (Now officially GKN-Evo) AFM140-4.

http://www.gkn.com/driveline/our-solutions/edrive-systems/Documents/Datasheets/AF-140-Tech-Sheet-V13.pdf

You can't buy them any more, however if you want to buy 10,000 units, GKN might talk to you.

This piece of crap from the GKN Driveline website:
"Suppliers
Welcome to the GKN Driveline dedicated supplier area.
GKN Driveline is the world’s market leader in CVJ production and its mission to grow the business and to be the supplier of choice will be met by surpassing our customers’ expectations for world-class technology delivered on time with superior quality, cost and service.
Integral and key to achieving GKN Driveline’s goals and ambitions will be the support and development of our global supplier base. As such every business will be expected to achieve world-class best practice, actively contribute towards GKN’s cost reduction activities through efficiencies and strive for zero ppm.
Our supplier partnerships are key and we look forward to working with you in a climate of trust, openness and mutual dependence."

Translation:
Contact us for more information.

 

[jansevr]

what a fantastic motor! 167.5 Kw peak! and liquid cooling!? im afraid to ask the price :lol: but im sure it will be well worth it. just out of curiousity - any chance you have a link showing the innards of the motor? this definitely looks like the motor to beat - you'll really have ripperton sweating with its mars motor :lol:

 

[jonescg]

Jan - If you go back through this thread you will find a picture of the motor with the top cover removed. Not much to see, except that it's got a 20 mm thick rotor, at about 350 mm diameter

Randy sent me some photos of the updated battery cradle. It's definitely much lighter, but hopefully equally strong. It leaves as much clearance to the front wheel as before but it's also a bit simpler. I think there will need to be some added support for lateral movement of the pack though - maybe some kind of tray for the pack to sit in at the base, which can have some oggie-sliders on the corners?

There are still a few things left to finish, particularly the seat subframe and the shock linkages, as well as the all important powdercoating. Kangaroo paw red The tank cover and nosecone will be white and green, leaving room for wealthy, generous sponsors to flog their wares below.









Got sent the final invoice too; fair to say I'm very happy with the price. Shipping is going to be a killer though, so if any Aussies need stuff sent over in bulk, let me know and we can try to make it worth while...

 

[jonescg]

It's been slow, but I have made some good progress on the battery box. Won't be long before I can glue the pack seams together with dichloromethane.

This is what the pack looks like from the rider's perspective, minus the main control box.

The top of the pack, looking through the BMS shelf.

I have used that 'noodle' stuff wherever a wire might potentially rub on a conductor or edge of polycarbonate. Split conduit for everything else. The charge leads go across the half-packs and together with the charge enable pair, head out the front of the pack to the charge socket. I am tempted to find a different socket-plug arrangement as the SBS75s are comically huge compared to the 18 gauge wire (which will be handling 6 A at 350 V and are fused to 15 A). Maybe just 6 of the 30 A Andersons all stuck together and looped up over the pack like a ponytail would work?

The right hand side:

The pair of stainless steel lugs on the left is sub-pack 4 and the pair on the right is sub-pack 3. With the BMS shelf removed, the packs will simply slide up and onto the supports with the stud in the middle. The charge ring-lug is positioned and the M8 nuts is tightened down with an insulated 13 mm socket. Then the BMS shelf is returned and the pack is ready for it's side covers!

Still need to finish the main control box. It's looking pretty messy right now, so hopefully I can get a PCB made up fairly soon.

 

[V-spec]

This is the absolute NUTS! I cant wait for you to finish this. Inspiring me to do mine!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/03-04-05-Honda-Civic-Hybrid-Integrated-Motor-Assist-IMA-motor-1A240-PZA-305-/230957961730?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35c62ad202&vxp=mtr

could a similar thing be done with an IMA motor?

 

[jonescg]

Probably, but I don't think that radial flux motor will put out a huge amount of power - maybe 40 kW? Not insignificant but it's a pretty large motor for the output. Hopefully I can inspire lots of other folks to burn a huge pile of money and have a shitload of fun in the process.

I have since tidied up the control wires. I couldn't get any kind of conduit that was waterproof and small enough, but I did find some 10 mm food grade PVC tubing. It was tough to slide the tube on with 8 silicone wires inside it, but I got there eventually. The charge leads out the front won't fit inside the tube sadly, so I will have to use heatshrink or something.

I found a solution to my charge plug issues - six of the regular little Anderson powerpole connectors stacked into a brick. Two for half the pack, two for the other half of the pack and two for the charge enable signal. Winnahgh!

 

[RIPPERTON]

I dont usually do math but this got interesting.
My bike used 305Whkm during the recent Wakefield races.
My friends Suzuki GSXR750 uses 181ml of unleaded per km racing on the same track.
Converted into a value of electricity for refinement of the fuel, (1.6kWh per liter)
the Suzuki came out to 287Whkm.
Then try to factor in the Engineering, Drilling and shipping costs before the refinery and the transport costs going from refinery to gas station and the cost of running all the gas stations and exhaust fans in tunnels.
The oil industry on a recreational and commuter basis is doomed.

 

[jonescg]

Interesting. I figure petrol has an energy density of 9700 Wh/l, or 12940 Wh/kg. Since the ICE runs at barely 20% efficiency, battery chemistry only needs to get to 2500 Wh/kg to be equal. Big ask, but I reckon we'll get there in time.

 

[jonescg]

What does four lots of 42 series wiring harness look like?

They will be soldered onto the sub-packs once they are build and once neatly cable-tied up, will plug into the BMS units on the top shelf, like this:

See how leaving the gap in the middle was deliberate

I have it so that negative is on the end, then cells 1, 2 and 3 are the adjacent pins. 4, 5 and 6 are the next lot of 3 and so on. I left the gap so they fit snugly around the screw holes. The two green wires are auxiliary wires which I will probably use for temperature monitoring.

 

[Doctorbass]

Wow, that's a very exciting project!.. Thanks for taking time posting pictures!

I have 2 question:

Where did you got your orange master battery cable? is it that kind of super flexible lik ethe turnigy is ?

how will you manage to fix together the steel and aluminum frame parts near the motor aluminum bracket an dthe steel tubing? DP420 epoxy? Bolt + Dp420 Epoxy ? rivet?

If you use Bolt, than also use epoxy so this will better share the stress on the parts :wink:

Doc

 

[1000w]

Awesome work Chris, I must come around one day and have a look in person.
Cheers,
Matt.

 

[jonescg]

Doc - The chro-moly tubing is both bolted and epoxied into the aluminium billets. The battery cradle you reply-copied has since been updated for a more simplified aluminium tube one. A fir bit lighter, and hopefully as strong. These bolt in from the top down into the tubes. The trellis frame actually provide all of the strength to the frame, and the cradle will contribute very little.

EDIT to add - that cable is double insulated 50 mm2 cable, which is 0 AWG. There are something like 300 strands in there. It's this stuff here: http://www.evworks.com.au/index.php?product=ZDU50O It's not as flexible as I'd like it to be, but it's pretty good.

Matt - Yeah mate, come around any time. You should take this A123 powered E-max scooter for a blast. It tops out at 70 km/h but man it gets up there quick

 

[jonescg]

I finished soldering up all of the battery balance looms. I left a huge excess of wire on each of the leads, so don't be too put off by the huge mass of orange cable!

The battery monitoring PCB will be in two layers - one on the bottom and one on top, separated by a 15 mm gap.



The male plugs will be soldered to the circuit board and mounted on the edge. The idea is that I can unplug the BMS when not in use and even do a balance charge on the sub-packs if need be, without needing to remove the side covers.



I hope to have the main control box PCB sorted out soon too. It should make the wiring inside there much neater and cleaner.

 

[jateureka]

This is looking awesome!
Love the thought you put into your work and attention to detail.

 

[AussieJester]

Matt - Yeah mate, come around any time. You should take this A123 powered E-max scooter for a blast. It tops out at 70 km/h but man it gets up there quick

Would love to catch a lift with you when you do Matt? Get to see some nice lecky bikes AND get a ride in your smoking hot beemer hehe..

KiM

 

[1000w]

Yep, I'll pick you up when I go mate.

 

[heathyoung]

You reminded me I needed to get some more stuff together for the V, I take it you are responsible for this:

http://www.evworks.com.au/index.php?product=LPW-F1075VT-OR

Availability: Out of stock

Nice idea with the Sub D, Had a look and Farnell have 50 pin ones as well, great for the Cell-log monitoring system I am working on (complete with my cell-log drain equalizers) only 44 series though so nowhere near how many wires you have.

 

[jonescg]

Haha, nah I use Altronics medium duty hookup wire on the battery leads. I'm using light duty wire on the BMS side. I want to be able to do a 4 A balance charge to each sub pack, so some decent ampacity will help.

The D-subs came from Digikey - ordered on a Thursday night and they arrive the following Monday. I can't even get a letter sent from Brisbane to Perth in that kind of time!

I'm going to build a 42s harness for some CellLog 8s just for periodic checking but will also devise an off-board active balance charger which takes each cell to 4.16 V each. Later though...

 

[heathyoung]

Give me a yell when you do - I'm doing a run of boards for this with a balance mod ( Opamp buffer) if you are interested - means you can use a cell-log with the logging function under load without messing up your balance - with your number of cells - yikes - I thought 45 was a few...

 

[jonescg]

The side covers and top cover are made now!
I had to glue the little triangles on where they failed to cut the plastic at the right angle, so it looks a bit ratty. I can live with it.

It's always hard to get bent plastic to bend evenly, so it will sit up a bit. I might get some closed cell foam and use that as a water barrier, and it should fill the gap


The idea is that I can take the top cover off and inspect the BMS and access the balance taps without exposing myself to the high voltage stuff below. Even with the side covers removed, there will be a bunch of wires in the way of the terminal posts.

 

[jonescg]

Randy and Karsten have started their road racing tours so the progress on the bike has slowed. Not that I am upset - these guys are living the dream and I am insanely jealous!

But they have finished the seat subframe and shock linkages. I will be getting ZX10 fairings to suit the bike.

Some pictures to enjoy:

I might need to position the shock upside down, as it might foul the motor phase cables...

Getting very exciting

 

[voicecoils]

That just keeps looking better and better!

Tell me you'll have it in your shed by August?

 

[Tinto]

Anyone else quickly dash in here when there's an update? I can't help myself.
If this was in my shed I'd spend hours gazing at the metalwork... I do it often enough to these pics as it is.

So many good things coming together... And speaking of which - Just had to look up what the zx10 fairings are like - and they're stunners.
I'd imagine this would be coming home via boat?

How complete and detailed were your plans on this before you began?
I'm curious about the reality of an undertaking like this, especially when you've engaged an external frame builder from across the globe. The variables you can tackle and resolve on the fly in person seem to become far more complicated via email/phone, so both of you must be really comfortable with how one another communicates.

I hope the AUD taking a dive hasn't hurt too much.

 

[jonescg]

Anyone else quickly dash in here when there's an update? I can't help myself.
If this was in my shed I'd spend hours gazing at the metalwork... I do it often enough to these pics as it is.
So many good things coming together... And speaking of which - Just had to look up what the zx10 fairings are like - and they're stunners.
I'd imagine this would be coming home via boat?
How complete and detailed were your plans on this before you began?
I'm curious about the reality of an undertaking like this, especially when you've engaged an external frame builder from across the globe. The variables you can tackle and resolve on the fly in person seem to become far more complicated via email/phone, so both of you must be really comfortable with how one another communicates.
I hope the AUD taking a dive hasn't hurt too much.

If you look at the first post in this thread, it goes back to 2011. So yeah I have been planning this build for a while There were really only three main shapes which had to be accommodated - the battery box, motor and controller. The motor was the first design constraint, followed by the battery and the controller being a large rectangular box wasn't too hard to sneak under the tail. Getting a fully isolated, insulated, waterproof and safely designed battery pack has been all my doing, and so far I'm quite pleased with the result.

I came up with the basic idea of the recessed motor and hollow sing arm cavity on paper, and bounced a few ideas around with Randy. Framecrafters build race bikes. Not choppers or cruisers, but proper race bikes which should handle right and go fast, so I have full confidence in them. I couldn't do it myself, and the response I got in Australia was lukewarm to say the least. With the mock motor and battery box, they were able to build around the numbers. All going to plan the motor will slide right in and support the rest of the bike.

The falling Aussie dollar blows chunks, especially since I haven't paid for it all yet. I still owe about $1500 on the fairings and linkage work. Shipping will be interesting. I will look at what the DHL express cost will come to and weigh that up against having it sent over by slow boat in a container full of sprintcar parts. I think for peace of mind the DHL freight might come up trumps.

Abraham, I really hope it's here by the time you arrive. I might need a hand installing the motor

 

[AussieJester]

it just keeps getting better every post CHRiS.. I bet your getting extremely excited
right about now! I still can get over the size of the motor and voltages your running
on this bike...Would it possibly be the highest powered e-road race bike to date?
Surely have to be close to it...Looks the shit anywayz CHRiS, could park it in the pits
and stand about posing eveeen if it wasn't running would be bloody impressive!
If it goes half as good as it looks you will be lapping the opposition!

Now...we just need a rider, i heard a certain ex-MotoGP champ is back in OZ
and not going so well in V8 SuperCars peeeeerhaps he could be persuaded to
swing his leg over this beast? Didn't a one "Casey Stoner" quit the MotoGP
circus because the bike development was no longer heading in a direction
he was happy with...well Mr Stoner, this shit right here could do with an experienced
high profile rider to get some $$$ behind the e-movement from big companies...
imagine Casey riding your bike CHRiS! he could bring some serious $$$ to
the e-road racing scene... aaaagh we can continue to dream can't we!? LoL
Should fling him an email CHRiS...can't hurt... haha

Look forward to the next installment buddy, really impressive stuff mate!

KiM