Motorbike Conversion - 1985 Nighthawk 750S - From Junk

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

there are four over here (but i know nothing about them):

I've never thought to search by Opel there.

The white one with the black stripe is Charlie's, he's the one who actually finished his that I was talking about.

The other 3 look like they were mostly just wishes. Nothing that anyone ever did much more than tear down and buy a motor for. The point of "This is an actual vehicle" is when someone actually drops money on batteries. That means they're actually going to finish it not just fart and tinker around. None of the other 3 had batteries, so, that seems like they like the idea of an EV, more so than actually building one. One guy was already 8 years into his conversion by 2008.

That's not far from typical for completion on EV conversions, or, heck, any automotive hobby project. The newest one on that list is also from 2012. EV conversions have lost a lot of interest since around that time because you could just go out and buy an OEM EV (Leaf, Tesla, etc) for less than it costs to convert one, so a lot of conversions died on the vine.

One guy I know has been restoring his GT for 34 years, and just got it running last month. His broke when his wife and him started dating in his early 20s, and how his kids are grown up and he's semi-retired.

i highly recommend putting stiff insulation plates (fr-4, etc) between each set of parallel groups

Yes of course. I wouldn't rely on a strap to keep them separated. I hadn't considered fiberglass, I was going to use PVC or ABS or something (wood?), but, fiberglass seems like a good option too.

 

[tylerwatts]

Hi Matt

Thanks for the info. I've not done the maths but it does seem like some 18650 cells are more energy dense than their bigger 21700 versions, not sure why. I've got to work out my packaging for my battery.

Thanks for the open inverter info. I follow most of Damien's threads on DIYelec too. I've got an entire donor ev in my garage and a donor to convert with it, bought too many projects and never get to finish them... The open inverter appeals as you say because the OEM hardware is so over spec'd.

Anyway, looking good so far. Will you weld your cells to build the battery then?

Cheers
Tyler

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

I follow most of Damien's threads on DIYelec too.

Just FYI... last year after the idiodic forum owners had their tech team misinterpret the context of google memo, and read the year wrong on it, they simultaneously upgraded every forum they own (hundreds, mostly automotive they'd been buying up over the years), and broke all of them. For months you couldn't post, database corruption, etc. Half of the sites still aren't back up. Anyway, after that, and their lack of communication, Damien and Johannes creates the Open Inverter forums and he's since withdrawn from posting things there, not wanting them to get lost in the next big screwup.

So if you want to read any more content from him, the OI forums are where you have to go. He updates probably a half-dozen project threads a week there.

Will you weld your cells to build the battery then?

I don't like welding because then I can't unweld them if I want to change configuration, and I'll already have ripped tabs off once so, a second time might be too much stress on the canister.

I'll probably solder them on wires to bus wires that run between cells.

 

[amberwolf]

The other 3 look like they were mostly just wishes. Nothing that anyone ever did much more than tear down and buy a motor for. The point of "This is an actual vehicle" is when someone actually drops money on batteries. That means they're actually going to finish it not just fart and tinker around. None of the other 3 had batteries, so, that seems like they like the idea of an EV, more so than actually building one. One guy was already 8 years into his conversion by 2008.

i have a lot of those kinds of things around here. thankfully they're almost all small enough to fit *inside* a car, so i'm not buried under them all. :lol:

That's not far from typical for completion on EV conversions, or, heck, any automotive hobby project. The newest one on that list is also from 2012. EV conversions have lost a lot of interest since around that time because you could just go out and buy an OEM EV (Leaf, Tesla, etc) for less than it costs to convert one, so a lot of conversions died on the vine.

yeah. ebikes would probably be like that too but oem bikes still cost an arm and a leg for anything remotely comparable to what you can diy.

i highly recommend putting stiff insulation plates (fr-4, etc) between each set of parallel groups

Yes of course. I wouldn't rely on a strap to keep them separated.
you'd be surprised how many poeple do, and with what kinds of projects and sizes of packs.

I hadn't considered fiberglass, I was going to use PVC or ABS or something (wood?), but, fiberglass seems like a good option too.

the best built batteries i've had in my hands (that i was allowed to take apart :lol have used fr-4 in them for dividers and such, when they didn't actually have custom-made casings and such.

it's unliekly to melt (like plastics) if there *is* an overheating or fire situation, and thus alllow contact between cells that allow even more of them to short and increase the problem... though if ti's already on fire it won't make much difference, if it isn't on fire but just really hot it could be the difference between a fire and vehicle loss, and just a damaged pack.

i don't know what wood would do in an overheating but non-fire situation. probably depends on the wood and it's age and condition.

fr-4 is also pretty hard, so unlikely to allow shifting of stuff over time, but both plastics and wood will compress / deform over time under compression, which could allow shifting of cells/etc inside the pack over time.

 

[amberwolf]

. last year after the idiodic forum owners had their tech team misinterpret the context of google memo, and read the year wrong on it, they simultaneously upgraded every forum they own (hundreds, mostly automotive they'd been buying up over the years), and broke all of them. For months you couldn't post, database corruption, etc.

that explains why i couldn't login there anymore until literally a couple of weeks ago. their "tech support" couldn't help me either. they suggested i just make a new login and start over. but they apparently got my login working fine for some spammer that edited spam into many of my posts at some point.

(anyway, i only even fixed my login there so i could see tomdb's images in his posts about the lebowski brain with the honda ima (and other ev inverters), cuz i'm about to use a pair of those on the sb cruiser trike for the rear hubmotors.)