The SB Cruiser : Amberwolf's 2WD Heavy Cargo Trike & Dog Carrier

[amberwolf]

No problems with the above until yesterday morning on the way to work, where about halfway there, the left motor (taht I just redid the wiring on) suddenly began acting as a brake instead of a motor. A quick stop and roadside check found no mechanical issues, and unplugging the controller form the motor didnt' fix it, so the problem was inside the motor or wiring. No time to fix it then, so had to wait till I got home last night, in the rain.

The main problem with riding it that way was that it took about twice as much power as normal just to cruise, and accelerating was realy really difficult, taking around 1/4 mile to reach 20MPH. So I generallly couldn't even get to 20MPH before having to stop again. THe wierd part was that the problem decreases significantly around the 10MPH mark.

Wierdly, I also found that the right wheel on the grinfineon isn't producing any noticeable regen braking when the lever is used, though the controller LED indicates it *is* braking. Was problematic on the wet roads with only a front mechanical brake. :/




Tilted trike over on side in the shed (to be out of the rain) once home, then took wheel off and cover off and found one phase wire coil-to-external-wire connection point was rubbing against hte motor cover, arcing to it part of the time, and causing the problem. There was also a single strand of between-coil wire in a different area that had become welded from arcing to the stator support ring. That broke when trying to fix that, so had to solder it together and heatshrink it. The main problem was easy to fix by reinsulating ti and bending it down into the support well and tying ti down better.

Reassembled and the rpoblem appears to now be gone, and the controller still works. We'll see how it continues to work on my commute today.

Is also expected to be raining a lot for the next few days.

 

[amberwolf]

No problems with the fix today on the commute.

Not really a lot of rain yet, just kind of a mostly-continuous misting that sometimes drizzles. Has been enough to make quite a lake out on our street corner, but there are actually still dry areas under some of the mulberry trees, and under Raine's trike parked under one of those.

I'd put cardboard boxes opened up flat over the few bare dirt areas in the back yard, to keep the puppies from kicking up so much dust while playing, cuz then they get coated in it and bring it inside. Under most of the cardboard, there's still dry areas too, and even a line under the gate I take the trike in and out of the yard thru.

So not much actual water coming down yet, at least not enough at any one moment to run or soak under areas it can't directly hit.

 

[amberwolf]

So I guess Murphy was listening when I wrote the above, and fixed the problem, starting around midnightish, when it began raining cats, dogs, elephants, whales, and possibly entire oceans.

I was asleep by then, but apparently the puppies had to go see what it was about; Yogi and Kirin didn't, and AFAICT stayed in teh bedroom with me. According to my brother, they mostly stayed outside playing in it for hours. I tossed and turned a lot, becuase everything hurt from whatever pressure/humidity/etc changes were happening. But around 6AM ish PB & J woke me up by climbing up on the bed and plopping down beside me, on top of Kirin and next to Yogi. I tried hard to sleep a little longer, but it was pretty useless.

If you can imagine two people each taking a huge hundred-pound load of soaking wet towels, and throwing the whole thing at you, one on each side of you, well, that's what it was like. :/


The rain kept up heavily until it got a bit lighter outside, then it changed to drizzly stuff for a while. Got heavier after that, and stayed heavy thru my ride to work, and got lighter and heavier thru the day....then just as I was leaving work it began super-dumping, just a continuous "sheet" of water, an intense pouring rain that was filling the parking lot and streets as I watched.

I started my ride home in that, but something around half a mile into the trip, I passed the edge of it, and there was suddenly no rain at all, not even sprinkles. Pretty much like riding thru a huge 3D waterfall and out the other side. Sprinkles started again soon enough, and kept that up to varying degrees all the way home.


By the time I was about half a mile or less south of the waterfall edge, most of the water had gone down from completely covering the road and sidewalks except the centerline crown, to where it was just hard to see the edges of the sidewalks in many places.

Most of the cars (and me) were going down the centerline on the part of the road we could actually see, most of the cars going no faster than me (20MPH) but there were some cars trying to pass everyone at twice (or more) that speed, and a van that did this around the curved Metro Parkway almost crashed, losing traction and spinning slowly across the road and water, recovering just before he would've hit stuff past the sidewalk, and managing to stop a bit further down the road.

Right at the south end of Metrocenter, the entire intersection was drowned in a lake that you could see the center crown poking up, and some ridges of road north south east and west from that, but nothing else; the sidewalks were underwater too. I could hear roaring as water poured down drains in the area and in the canals just south of the intersection, which had a green light for the cross-traffic as I approached.

It was way too late for me to avoid this intersection or to go up on the sidewalk by the time I saw that lake. I tried to very lightly apply the front brake, but instantly lost traction so I let it go and got traction back (and steering. Same thing with the rear wheels; the electric brake is too hard and sudden (on or off only) so even just a tap lost traction, so I had ot just let the water slow me down, which worked way better than I expected...it was so deep that as I approached the crosswalk the seatbox's bottom edge acted like a plow and pushed up a huge wave of water (the front wheel and bottom of the trike front frame was already doing a wedge-spray that was almost as high as the top of the trike). That dragged the trike to a stop all by itself without me braking at all.

Since the entire bottom of the trike was under the water, I expected electronics trouble, but didnt' have any. Thankfully the lights all went red as I stopped, so I was able to quickly make my right turn and go up the bridge over the canal, out of the water, and after taht the rest of the trip was on relatively lake-free roads, though there was still a lot of water along the edges.

Got home and didn't have water inside the seatbox, but I had expected there to be; thought I would have to disassemble the battery and dry out the cells.


Had a ride in the partly-sunny nice weather today, to go get some groceries and stuff, and just to enjoy the weather and ride, and didn't have any troubles.

 

[wturber]

Cool that everything survived the water. For people not in this area, yesterday's rainfall set an all time record for rainfall in October. For Phoenix and surrounding cities, this was a LOT of rain.

 

[amberwolf]

FWIW, I have some ~2 gallon buckets, that are about a foot deep, around the house and yard for water for the dogs, and the outside ones I had emptied out but not yet refilled when I went to bed before that rain. I didn't look at it before leaving for work a few hours later, but by the time I got home they were more than half full.

The previously half-empty doggie pool was completely full to overflowing with clear water (it had been very muddy before, from the dogs wading thru it).

The backyard was completely soaked and anywhere without grass that hadn't turned into a lake was slushy mud, under teh cardboard I'd spread around over the dirt. Most of the cardboard itself was torn and pulped into the mud by the dogs playing in it (mostly the puppies). Which is fine, since it'll still help to stabilize the mud with the fibers in it; and I'll add more as needed.

The front yard only has a couple very small non-grassy spots, but they're squishy mud too, and even the rest of the grassy areas are all squishy, as if it had foam rubber under the grass.


The rain was so hard that it splattered against hte roof hard enough to backsplatter up into the exhaust vents in the roof (the little T-shaped ones with the fans at the bottom end, in the bathroom and utility room; no actual inside vent or fan or vent tube on the kitchen one it's just a hole into the attic since the rebuild for whatever reason). Then that ran down itno the attic, between the rafters, and along the cieling panel seam between the light fixtures, and dripped down thru the recessed lighting fixture holes, and onto the floor.

Also runs down in the bathroom too--that one splatters rigth on the toilet so if you're sitting htere you get a cold wet drip or stream on your head and back. :/

I'd previously bagged and tied these vents on the roof, so this won't happen, but the sun rots the bags, and then the rain beat them apart until splattered water makes it's way thru. Regular rains won't do it--it has to be a torrential downpour like yesterday's. Even big winds won't blow the rain into the vents enough to do it, but backsplatter will if there's enough rain and it's coming down hard enough.

The kitchen vent is only a couple inches above the roof, and the other two aren't more than double that. THe utility room one doesn't ever leak for whatever reason, but the kitchen one does, and I think mostly it's because there's no tube there at all, so the rain can splatter anywhere inside the attic, and once it's finally run down thru the layers of insulation it pools on the cieling panels till it can run down to that seam.


Until today I hadn't realized that there was not even a vent tube on that kitchen one; when I've been in the attic I saw a vent tube in that area, and assumed it went up there. But apparently it doesn't actually go anywhere at all, at either end, because I know it doesn't go anywhere in the kitchen, and today I peeled back the half-cylinder "T" top on the roof and found I can just see thru into the attic itself.

I did this because my plan was to move the T top up a couple feet above the roof, with some flash-tubing extensions, so backsplatter cant' get in there anymore. But seeing it didn't have anything to connect to, I just put some styrofoam sheet in a rough oval to fill the hole at the roof level, then sealed it in with sprayfoam. It's watertight now, since no air has to go thru there.

I didn't get to extending the other two yet, with other stuff going on today, but tomorrow I'm hoping to do that, so the next big storm (there will probably be one in the next month or two) won't leak into the house.

 

[amberwolf]

Since it was mostly sunny today, but cool (high 80s maybe), and breezy, I parked the trike in the sun, with teh cargo box opened up, batteries out, removed the styrofoam insulation sheets, and let it all dry out from the dampness.

This is because while it didn't get soaked inside, it did get some water in there, and if I don't let it dry out, it will mildew.

While all that was out, I reorganized the compartment, and I swapped traction batteries, just to give this one longer to be sure it's completely dried out, though it didnt' appear to be wet between teh cells. These batteries have a bottom plate that screws into all the cell holders together, and at the top they're held together by the busbars. (should also be long bolts thru the holders but I don't have the right length for those). Without the bottom plate (and those bolts), the bottom ends of the cells can be "fanned out" for airflow, so that's how I let it sit in the sun today, and that's how it's in the battery cabinet for storage for now.

I put the spare traction pack in, that had been in the storage cabinet at around 3.8v/cell, (I think it's been more than a year?) still balanced, even under a 40-45A load, and while charging at 12A.

The lighting pack is getting pretty old, 7-8 years I guess, and only has about 14-15Ah usable nowadays, and has gotten saggy. Since I have a lot of incandescent lights (halogen car headlight, turn signals, third brakelight), plus the LED downlighting and tail/brake lights, there's something like a 6-8A drain all the time, plus more during stops for brake light, and usually turn signals, and these stops can be more than a minute. Some of them are several minutes, while waiting to turn left from a median lane.

So the traction pack (40Ah, 14s) lasts significantly longer than the lighting pack, unless I'm really using up lots of motor power, like hauling stuff in stop-and-go-traffic, etc. So it's time to upgrade the lighting pack, so it will last longer, and the sag will be less (so the headlight doesn't pulse during turn signals, etc). And if I have to ever use the lighting for just sitting there for a while for any reason (roadside repair, stopping to help someone, loading cargo at night, etc.), running the air compressor for tire issues, etc., I'll have plenty of extra power for that.

It also gives extra juice for powering accessories, like a USB-charger for phones, etc., run off a "lighter socket" accessory plug.

Also, if I ever needed longer rides, and can't stop to recharge, but am already carrying a second traction pack (or improve the efficiency of the motor system, or the trike aero), I'll already have a larger lighting pack without having to carry a second and splice it in or swap them.


So I made a new pack that's 4s2p, instead of 1p, so now it's 40Ah too, with cells from the same somewhat newer batch that the present traction packs are from. I added the lighter-accessory plug that I've been planning to for some time, and changed the compressor's plug to that from the PP45s it had before. This lets me plug it in while I still have the lights on (since now it's got enough capability to run both at the same time). Or plug in a USB output converter, or any other "12v" powered accessory that can take up to 16V. (if the lighting pack is fully charged).


WHile I was in there I improved the insulation and water-sealing of the seatbox cargo and battery areas; they're not perfectly waterproof (because the chain still goes thru the middle) but significantly better than before. It's highly unlikely I'll have to go thru a lake in the road like that again anytime soon, but if I do, it'll probably keep the water out if I don't have to sit in it, and can just pass thru it like I did then.


I didn't have time to get to open up the controllers (which are under the cargo bed and definitely would've been under water) but I would like to do that to check them for any water ingress. Their circuit boards are at teh top, so any water that did get in shouldn't have settled on them, so they should be safe. But I'd rather find out sooner than later. However, I almost certainly won't have time (and energy) for another week to check, since my weekend is over and between work and puppies, I'm wiped out every day other than days off.

 

[amberwolf]

Still no problems yet, so I'd guess no water got into the controllers or other wiring underneath, at least, not enough to corrode anything in the last almost-week.

I'm still developing an under-deck battery box; it's a good thing I hadn't yet built and started testing the basic version, or the battery would have drowned completely.

So I'll need to make one that's as waterproof as possible, but that still has a way to drain any water that does get in (without letting water in thru the drain holes). I have thougths percolating about that, perhaps using aquarium air-pump check valves or something similar, located down in the bottom corners of the box.

It's going to be harder to service this way, since the safest seal is a "permanent" one that has to be cut open.

Thankfully, I haven't had to do much servicing. So far pretty much everything I've checked has always been fine, as far as traction packs go, except the CrazyBike2's original EIG pack (the 14s1p in the ammocan), which had one cell start to get higher Ri, lower capacity, etc. And the issues with the two old lighting packs; but they were because of drainign the cells to zero, and the one instance of pushing one cell negative and puffing it up; etc.


I experimented with a soldered connection between pack segments on the new 4s2p lighting pack, because it is low current (even the compressor probably isn't more than 20A or so). But I don't trust that for the traction pack.

I'd rather use bolted connections for the inter-pack connections, than to solder anything, becuase soldered connections can fracture under vibration and shock (which will happen all the time on the trike), and because they can also melt and come off under a high enough current especially after some fracturing has occured--and then the disconnected end could move and short across other stuff in the pack, or the solder could glob up between cells and short them, etc.

In order to do that, I'll have to get a tap to thread the brass I have to make the inter-pack busbars from. Right now they only need unthreaded holes to let the screws clamp them to the cell tabs, because the cell holders ahve integrated nuts. Don't have that for the inter-pack connection points, htough.

Now, I could just crimp much smaller lugs onto the inter-pack wires, and bolt them directly to the cell tabs with the existing nuts, but the spaces on top of the cells are very narrow, so I can't get enough surface area for lug-to-tab contact for high currents (100-200A+). Plus I'd have to Y-connect these wires at each end, because it's a 2p pack, and I need to be sure they're all paralleled equally everywhere.

Easier to use the busbar to do the paralleling and tab-surface contact, then single-point botl to the vbusbar with a much larger surface area lug, and no Y-connect needed.

Mmm...dozed off again so time to sumbit the post and try pondering mroe later.

 

[amberwolf]

Still pondering a good way to make an under-deck battery pack...but am rethinking that after a heavy grocery load trip.

Couple days ago I did a grocery run I've been putting off for several weeks (in the meantime getting only a few things I couldn't live without), for stuff both Raine and I needed. Raine uses a lot of little bottles of water (I'd rather reuse a bottle and refill it with filtered, but he doesn't), so that's a lot of weight, with multiple packs of bottles, plus some cases of soda he wanted, and a bunch of other smaller things. Filled up two of teh three coolers, plus the rest of the cargo bed. Figure about 80lbs for the soda, 25+lbs for each water case, dunno about how much for all the rest.

My own groceries weren't all that heavy, biggest thing was a gallon of milk; filled up one cooler. But I also was carrying 12 new dog-eared-cedar 6-foot fence picket planks strapped across the top of the canopy, adding another 15+ pounds.

Once it was all loaded, heaviest stuff up front of the deck, plus a case of water on the top of the planks on the canopy (could only put one rigth over the central supports) to shift as much weight to the front wheel (to balance the load) as I could, I could see the tires (Shinko SR-714 2.25-16) were only half the height they should've been.

IIRC they're rated for about 240lbs each, so I'm close to overloading them just with the trike and myself so this load definitely didn't help that. But I've carried Yogi in the back without them sagging, and he's 150lbs+. Aired them up to 40PSI isntead of 33PSI (their max), and got back normal tire height. Did that so I wouldn't be risking pinch flats at every little bump and driveway edge, etc., but also risked blowout or other problems from overinflation--thankfully no problems occured.


I meant to measure the weight of all of it when I got home, but forgot with the dogs and pups greeting me and playing, and just being worn out. But I'd guess it was around 200lbs or so, based on estimates above plus the way it handled, and the tire stuff above.


Anyway, what this adds up to is taht if I were to move the ~40lbs battery pack rearward, to between the wheels, it'd put even more weight on those tires, lessening my cargo capability back there (while increasing it space-wise in the cargo/seatbox just in front of the deck, closer to teh front wheel).


I've been pondering for a long time how I might put a battery (or cargo space) up front, over or just behind the front wheel, but it's a tough one because of the tiller.

I have a very small area below the tiller-swing arc, above the pedals, and behind the headtube, that isn't quite big enough for the lighting pack, which is much smaller than the traction pack I want to move. If I were to go outside the shape of the front "triangle", the lighting pack would fit, but I'd rather stick to the lines of the trike I already have if I can.

Another option is to remove the headlight and turn signals from the tiller, and put a wrap-around cargo/battery section there, and in the area above. Then the headlight/signals would attache to the front of that, so they'd be rigth over the front edge of the front tire.

I'd have to build it to test to find out if this changes the handling adversely; it'll certainly change the look of the trike. Haven't decided if I'm going to do it or not, but it's about the only way to move weight forward, short of moving my seat forward (whcih means moving the BB forward of the the "downtube" instead of behind it, and shortening the tiller to mvoe the bars forward. Would also be best if I modded the cargo/seatbox to eliminate it's sloped front and go for a straight front, liek the Raine Trike has). But that is a lot of work that is hard to undo if it causes problems.

 

[amberwolf]

Another thing I've been working out for a while is eliminating the need for a dog crate (or trailer) in order to take one of the dogs somewhere, or in order to have a "secure" place to carry cargo when I'm doing multiple stops on a shopping trip, etc.

In previous posts going back more than a year, maybe two, Iv'e had sketches of an enclosed rear end that looks a fair bit like the work trucks with the box style rear end, with sides taht are sloped from the top to halfway down, then straight down from there. Pretty much just following the shape I already ahve for the frame over the deck.


I've started to work on this several times, but haven't ever managed to get enough lightweight wood of simlar thickness. Originally I'd planned to do it with the same salvaged thin narrow lightweigth planks I built the rest of the wood stuff on the trike with, but I didnt' have anywhere near enough of them for that (miscalculated what I'd need).

I've been looking for scrap wood I coulc do it with, but it's all either heavy stuff, or really thick, or badly damaged, or simply not enough of the same kind. So I finally gave in and bought some planks at Lowes', at just over a dollar each: 6 foot long, 1/2" thick, 3.5" wide, dog-eared cedar fence pickets. LIghtweight, strong enough for this, thin enough.

I could've used thin 1/4" plywood, but that's boomy (don't like scaring the dogs in there), and can be heavy.

Planks, if left to flex individually along most of their length, won't be boomy like that. That's why I made teh deck out of planks instead of a single sheet; they're fastened only at the ends.


I want this to be removable fairly easily, in sections, if I have to carry something in the open-bed. If it's just something tall, I can take the upper deck off the rack, or lay it down in the bed and let it hang out the back door. If it's something wide I ahve to take the sides off (or at least one). Mostly, I'd just use the trailer instead, but there may be times I'm already at someplace far enough from home to not want to go back for it, or time limits prevent doing so, etc.


I started building it today (yesterday, now), plank by plank, attaching the first one to the upper outer rail of the deck, then adding vertical scrapwood supports behind it, screwed and glued to it, parallel to the metal rack supports. Then the next plank to those supports, etc. Each one has to be cut at the front to match the angle of the rack supports, because it's front edge buts against the back edge of those supports. (pics tomorrow; too dark when I thought of taht). The rear end goes against the outboard face of the rack supports, which are slightly narrower-spaced than the front supports.

I considered rebuilding the rack supports to make the whole thing easier, but decided it's simpler, or at least faster, to just build around what's there already.

Once i'm done with the sides, then I have to extend the floor deck out, because this enclosure will stick out about 10" from the rear of the trike, the same lenght the hitch does, which is about the same (a little more) as the dog crate does. Then build the rear wall and door, which I'm still deciding on exactly how it will work.

Most likely the rear panel will be a narrow vertical section on either side of the door, only enough to cover the area with slanted sides, so the hinging can be less complicated and be able to support the door top to bottom. Also so the latch and lock will more securely hold the door shut (in case I'm carrying a dog and they start pawing at the door, I don't want ti to be able to come open or flex open at the bottom corner).

Should only add about 20lbs total to the trike...unfortunately it's all on the rear end. (hence some of my thoughts in the previous post about moving some of the weight to the front...but no matter how I do it it'll make the whole trike heavier in total).

More tomorrow, with pics of today's work too.

 

[amberwolf]

This is what it looks like from the side ATM; there will be some details on it (and probably "SB Cruiser" painted on there) that will change the look a bit.
View attachment 9




The joints between sections of interior support are a kind of biscuit joint, using recovered biscuits out of some of the wood being used as these supports. I didn't have the time and patience for any of the stronger joints, since I'd have to cut and file them by hand to make them tight enough to work. This type of joint I could cut the slot with the angle grinder, after having cut and angled the ends with the saw and sander (and sometimes the grinder), then just glue together with the biscuits, and clamp it up to the frame to hold it till it dries.




They're not very strong joints, but they're better than butt joints, and they dont' need to be very structural, just keep it from coming apart if a dog paws at the side for some reason, or I toss in cargo that shifts around.








Then I glue and clamp the pickets to the supports, and then run screws into them from behind, thru the supports. It would be stronger to put the screws thru the pickets into the supports, from the outside, but it's not as nice looking (and screws can then be taken off from the outside, as unlikely as it is for anyone to do that). The screws I have boxes of are either long enough to put about 1/4" of screw into the 1/2" pickets, or go all the way thru the pickets and stick out 1/4". So I'm using the short ones, and if I have problems later on I'll cut off the last 5/16" or so of a bunch of longer ones and use those instead. Picket wood is soft enough they'll go in even flat-tipped.
View attachment 8




The bottom three planks are just short sections that fill the portion behind the rear frame, below the long planks. So unlike the rest of the planks, they are also glued to each other along their edges, as well as to the interior supports.
View attachment 7




Jelly supervised for a while, after everyone else went inside once I started using the power tools.



Before that, Kirin had been supervising, while PeanutButter kept an eye out for birds coming down to pick up bits of the shredded cardboard scattered about (which I'd put down during the heavy rains of the past 2-3-weeks to keep the fuzzballs from breaking their necks in the nongrassy muddy areas during playtime, and so they wouldn't be bringing in the entire yard afterward and splattering it around the house).




The pickets on top of the canopy (along with other scraps and bits of wood and tools I needed to keep out of reach of PeanutButter and Jelly, who will still grab just about anything to play with, and chew up, if it's outside. They're better about it with stuff inside, but they are still learning to leave things alone that they shouldn't touch.

 

[wturber]

Shouldn't it have a window or two?

 

[amberwolf]

No side windows, because it's harder to make a strong side that is modular one piece, that is also secure/keeps meddlers from being tempted by anything I might have in there (anything that's not a dog).

Originally when I was going to make it out of the narrow planks the rest of the wood stuff is made from, I'd planned to leave out a couple of strips, between other strips, so it'd be like "bars". Hands couldn't fit thru those, and neither could doggie noses. If I do that with the much wider fence planks, anybody could stick their arm in and do whatever, and the dogs could stick their muzzles out (potentially getting whacked by bushes or other stuff I might have to ride too close to, or tempt people to reach over and play with them, with unpredictable results depending on what the people are doing and which dog.

Didnt' want to use "cage" or "crate" metal "mesh", partly because of the look, and partly becuase its' nto very secure. Too easy to bend or pull apart, by either the dogs or people, if either is determined.

I just remembered that I do have two plexiglass "windows" out of a swinging door set from a warehouse, including the rubber grommet that holds them in place. Only reason not to use them right now is complication of build, and that people can see into the cargo area and potentialy increase their desire to meddle. But now that I remembered them, I'm thinking about it.

Anyway, I decided when I started making it this week that I'd just go for solid sides, at least for now, mostly for simplicity's sake, so I can actually finish this part before my week off is over (I go back to work next Friday).

I might eventually add piano hinges along the line where the side's angle changes from vertical to slanted, and make it so I can lower the top half of the side panel, with a lock on each top corner on each side. Then go ahead and use the "crate cage" stuff inside of that area, so the dogs can see out while standing (but not while laying down). But right now, its' more weight, and significantly more complication to the design and build.



However, there will be an option for a view out in the front and the back, so air can flow thru, and they can can focus on where we're going or me, or where we've been. If they're focused on me in front of them, they're less likely to bark at everything we pass or that passes us (which can spook people, especially pedestrians on the sidewalk to our right as we pass them).

When it's cool enough (or raining) the rear can be closed off with the same door I'll already have for the cargo containment, so while they won't be able to see out back in that case, they'll still be able to see out front, which will remain open because it's under the canopy and behind me and so less likely to get much rain/etc in there anyway.


The way the rear end will work is that the solid door could be unbolted from the hinges, and a separate door could be used that is made from a special kennel door I have a couple of, that are aluminum bars. You can see one of them attached to the wall (to make half of a doggy gate to close off teh hallway/bedroom from the livingroom) here:




The front will be completely closed as well, for now, but the panel will be removable to replace with a widely-spaced bar/grate made from tubing, so a dog head could actually go thru it (but not hte rest of the dog), so they can stick their head out a little to either side of me. (the seat back prevents them from fully doing that while I'm there). Or, put hinges on the bottom edge of the solid panel to the rear rail of the seatbox itself, and locks on the top, so I can close it up for cargo or to secure the dogs inside if necessary. When open it would hang down into the cargo area. Not ideal (tough to close or open while dogs are inside).

Optionally, I'm also considering attaching this panel, to the seatbox top with piano hinge, so when I open the seatbox I am also opening the back end's front panel. Would still need to add a lock to the top of the panel. It'd fold over the folded seat, so that it won't hit the handlebars. (and so if I needed to I could get into the cargo area from the front, like when loading up heavier stuff).


Sorry for all the rambling for such a simple question.

 

[amberwolf]

Forgot to mention that today the welding helmet (autodarkening harbor freight crap) failed while I was tack welding a nut to the frame.

That was painful, even though I instantly stopped welding and looked away and clsoed my eyes. Afterimage only lasted a few minutes, so it could've been a lot worse.

The electronics unit casing is ultrasonically welded together, around the photovoltaic panel and the autodarkening panel, with the adjustment pot on a separate plastic piece screwed to the back / side of that. Once I'm done with the trike stuff I'll take a look at this, if there's time. Until then I'll have to use the regular dark-glass (once I remember where I put it, cuz it isn't with the welding stuff like it should be, even though I have never used this one).

To finish the tack welding today I just set the position of the welding tip, closed my eyes and turned away, then welded, stopped, and checked the work (whcih was crappy, and took a whole bunch of tries just to get a simple tack).

But there are some things I need to really weld, before I'm done with this new stuff, for the trailer hitch lowering, and I have to find my dark-glass to do that.

 

[amberwolf]

Got most of the right side completed today, and most of the rack deck. Still have to build the whole front panel and the rear panel, doorframe, and door.

Kirin decided to test it out while I was putting away stuff the puppies might use as chewtoys.
View attachment 4


The rack deck sticks out about 4" on either side of the rack rails, unlike the original metal rack I'd used. Gives more cargo deck, though it looks odd. It also gives an area under the left side where I can mount the cane holder (which used to go in a spot now blocked by the side panel). The holder could simply mount to the side panel, either inside or out, but if it's under the overhang of the rack deck, it's a little more protected, if mounted on the outside. If mounted on the inside, it takes up some of the cargo space, but not really much more than it would have in the original spot before the sidewall was installed.

THe overhang also gives a place I can attach cargo strap hooks to, for strapping down stuff on the deck (without having to run tehm all the way to the bottom edge of the trike).

Iv'e also got old drawer pulls I can mount under the overhang to use as tiedowns, which would let me use other types of strap or tiedown that doesn't have it's own hooks.

Time for sleep now, then back to work on it when it's light outside again.

 

[amberwolf]

(pics shortly, when I find my other USB cable...the puppies found the one I was using irresistible, apparently).

Today I finished the sides and the rack deck, including staining/sealing them inside and out with the "honey" stain I used on the rest of the trike wood previously.

Kirin tested it out again, when there was a really loud BANG noise in the neighborhood, and decided she needed a place to hide.

View attachment 4
View attachment 3







Then I started on the rear and front panels (working on cutting stuff for one while stuff on the other dried). Both are kinda complex, becuause I have to cut to fit the existing angles of things, and the front one has to clear the frame when the seatbox lid opens up.



The sides of the rear, to either side of the door, are simply two vertical planks on each side. Each pair is connected with tongue-and-groove joint, glued and clamped to dry. I don't have a router, and am unable to make a guide rail system that will let my makeshift table saw (handheld circular saw clamped underneath a table) cut the grooves. (it always shifts around, even though everything is tightly clamped and/or screwed down, and can't be moved by hand, but it always moves or warps or wiggles while actually cutting, and destroys the cut I'm trying to make). An actual table saw with guides would probably work great, but I don't have one of those.

So I had to use the angle grinder to roughly hand-cut first the groove, in the outboard plank's inboard edge, while it's mounted on the trike. Then to roughly cut the tongue out of the outboard edge of the inboard plank. THen I lightly used the handsaw along the groove and the sides of the tongue to straighten those, and then a straight square rasp to square up the sides of teh tongue and level out the edges, so it all fits tightly. Probably took two hours or more, for something that should've taken seconds. (not counting the couple of hours I wasted trying to make it work with the circular saw).



Not done with those though: the space between them for the door has to be wider, so I have to trim them about 1/2" to 3/4" narrower, so that I can slide coolers / etc in and out without problems. Basically needs to fit anything that will fit in between the wheel wells of the cargo bed. That trimming will have to happen tomorrow; I'm too worn out to safely deal with any of the possible cutting methods.

Most likely, I'll hand cut it, because all I ever do with the circular saw is screw up edges, making them all "rippled", rather than the same width the whole length of a board. No idea how I can manage it with guides and everything, but I do; it's part of why I couldn't make the tongue-and-groove with it.

The hand saw will take a while, but if I clamp a guide board on the plank on either side of the cut, just spaced wide enough for the handsaw, it'll "trap" the blade between the guides, and I can run the blade along the surface (rather than down thru the edge), which will give me a straight and level cut all the way down the board. It takes about twice or three times as long to do it this way, but it'll end up clean, instead of destroying the planks.

Can't do that with the circular saw becasue it cuts the guide boards too, and anything I have that the blade won't cut will damage the blade.


The front panel I think I'm going to go with the version that has it's lower planks attached to the back of the seatbox lid, so it tips forward with the rest of the lid when opening it. Then a hinge on the top of the upper one, that lets the rest of the front panel fold down over the top of the folded seat, or if possible down into the cargo area behind the panel. Then a lock at the top of the panel to the frame. THen I can open just that if I want, or the whole seatbox.

If I can open it both ways, then I can open it outward for cargo access, and inward to leave it down for doggie passengers to ahve a forward view / ventilation. I have a bunch of different hinges, including some cabinet stuff, so I might have a set that will work for this. If not, then opening just inward will have to do.


The rear door I'll build after the rear side panels are trimmed, and the top and bottom are covered. That way I can ensure it fits tightly enough to the enclosure.

If I have time, I'll make a "kennel" version of the door, so the dogs can have a view/ventilation, and probably use carriage bolts to secure the door hinges to the rear panel, for relatively easy swap out, but difficult to take off from the outside if the door is locked.

If I run across the "windows" I might be able to put one of those into the regular door, which lets the doggies see out, but doesn't make any ventilation, for when weather is cool enough, a very few months out of the year. Then worry about the "kennel" style door later. I can put a curtain or a sliding panel to cover the window from inside for when no doggies are riding.

 

[amberwolf]

I edited in some pics into the post above, and there's more new stuff below.


The front panel is done, but I had to go with one that opens outward only, at least for now. This is mainly because the support I have for the side panels are in the way of it opening up inward, unless I make the front panel significantly narrower to clear them (around an inch on each side).

Embedded the lock in the top edge, locks to the metal frame. Hinges just above the folded seat; folding the panel folds the seat; unfolding the seat unfolds the panel.

Moved the seat forward about an inch and a half, for two reasons. First, to shift my weight forward as much as possible, without interfering with being able to pedal (as much as I am capable, anyway). Second, so my back isn't hitting the front of the front panel; instead is still supported by the fabric of teh seat back. (I could've built the front panel so it has a "recess" there, but that was a lot more complicated to build vs moving hte seat. If I run into problems with teh seat where it is, I'll rebuild it with the recess). I still have to move the handlebars forward on the tiller to compensate, but that's just a couple bolts on the stem clamp.
View attachment 8






Added the light inside the cargo area, under the rack deck. The power plugs into the side of it, rather than being directly wired, so I can easily disconnect it and take the deck off if I need to for any reason.
View attachment 4View attachment 3
View attachment 2
View attachment 5


At present it's just wired so it's on anytime "downlights" are on, but I'm making a switch panel with switches for that, the main downlight that used to be over the cargo bed that's now over the rack deck, and one that I'll be adding over my head in the rider area. I may add switches for the extra red LED strips I intend to add on the back, and white ones under the body, once done with the rest of the stuff (might not happen this week, or even soon).


Finished the top of the rear end, and bolted the rear light bar (tail/brake, turn signals) to the top of it.



I also took the canopy cover off the rear half of the canopy, until I can remake it in a permanent way, and painted the aluminum cot frame there red to match the trike, and ziptied the rack deck light and it's wiring to it. Hose clamped the bottom of that frame to the rear light bar. Fixed the "temporary" mounting of the front of the frame to the existing canopy frame, so it's now mounted using the original mounting points on the existing frame that were for this other half in the first place.

The way it's setup now, it has a more "sporty" look to the top, but with the big box on the back end it kinda takes away from that. :lol:

Also touching up the red paint here and there on the tirke, where I've had to modify things and not had any red to repaint, just white primer to keep rust away.

I replaced the front turn signals with a pair like those on the trailer, and very similar to what's on the back of the trike. Been meaning to do that for...couple years maybe. The plastic mount of the left front signal has been broken for a really long time, and it's been held on with electical tape wrapped around it and the trike frame; every time I have to redo that tape I think about replacing them (already fixed it a bunch of times, and it just breaks again). Anyway, now that's done, finally.


Have to wait till morning for good pics of that, but you might just be able to see some of it in the pics above.



I have not yet made the rear door, and it's going to take more than a day to do. I only have a day left of my time-off-work, so I'm just going to go with the quick-and-easy way of putting the metal kennel-crate style door (gate, really) on there. All I have to do is bolt the hinges and a lock hasp to the rear wall, and hang the "gate" on there. It's not much work, so it leaves more time for other stuff I really need to get done, like the lighting / wiring stuff, and hopefully an axle fix for the MXUS 4504 that needs to go back on the right rear wheel. (is still the HSR3548 right now).


I also haven't put the trailer hitch back on yet. I have to decide whether to mount it 3 inches lower (where it's likely to scrape some of the curbs and speedbumps I have to go over now and then, or even hit the ground when I'm going up some of hte steeper driveways from the street), or take a section out of the bottom rear "deck" of the cargo box extension, below where the door will be, and just box in the hitch itself in a way that allows the trailer tongue to move as needed without hitting anything.

If I do the latter, I have to make a "lid" for that area for when dogs are in it, so they can't accidentally stick a paw down in there and get it squished, if I have the trailer on there, or just get the paw stuck or twisted if there's no trailer.

 

[amberwolf]

First, the pics of yesterday's status, that couldn't be taken in the dark.

View attachment 9





My "quick install" for the gate-door (vs making the solid one from scratch) wasn't very quick, because about everything I needed to do or find took several times as long as it should have. But it's done.


The gate is wider than the doorway, which means it has to be mounted on the outside of the cargo pod..

I was going to use some regular door hinges, minus the pin and one side, to hold the pins built into the gate-door that act as hinge points. But they're too thick, and the pocket for the hinge pin doesn't stick out far enough to put the mounting plate of hte hinge behind the door (so people can't unscrew them).

So I knew I had some hinges that *would* work, that actually come from a very similar door, but they weren't where I thought I had put them. Used up at least half an hour or more looking. I had a second set still on the other similar door, but had to take them off, and that took another half hour plus.

Similarly, the lock hasp I had intended to use wouldnt' work, because it's meant only for flush-mounting, but I did have one that could be used, off the oldest shed (the one I don't store much of anything in since it's roof is heavily damaged from the hailstorm 7-8 years ago, I think it was). That one also has another feature I haven't seen in any other hasps--it's lock "U" isn't a U, it's a ring with a pivot, so it can be used to latch the hasp closed, securing the door, without a lock on it. (as well as holding a lock). At least an hour to go thru all the options, then remove the hasp from the shed door (screws rusted out, hasp is fine; had to cut the screw heads off and drill them out).

To mount the hasp's ring/pivot plate, I had to first make a plate that bolts to the back of the bars of the gate-door, to bolt the pivot plate to (since doing it any other way would not mount correctly or clear the gate / fit the hasp). Plate was easy, just cutting out a bit of steel. But mounting it...I could drill holes all the way thru and run nuts and bolts, but then those could be removed from outside.

So I dug out the tap/die set, and tapped the holes instead. This way the bolts can't be undone from outside because they're trapped between the plate and the wood of the cargo pod, even if someone can get their fingers thru the bars and hold a tool.

Probably took another hour and a half to do all the mounting up. Then took it all apart, and painted the gate and hardware red like the trike metal.

WHile that was drying, I nibbled some food (forgot to stop and eat anything all day till then), and fixed a handful of little things around the trike I've been meaning to get to; tidying up wiring, etc. Then sanding and staining some of the various new bits, and touching up old ones. Cleaning up some of the scattered tools and leftover woodcut bits, etc., since this is my last day of the week of PTO, go back to work tomorrow, and don't want to leave stuff around for the puppies to eat. Bit more than a couple hours for all that.

Once the paint was dry enough to handle, I mounted the door and hasp, got some pics, and somewhere in there Yogi decided to test out the new cargo / dog box.


Then I remembered I still need to mount the SMV sign on the back (since it indicates something moving less than 25MPH, and that would be me on the trike, helpful for drivers to know as they approach). I used to just clamp the sign on the old kennel crate wire door with large fender washers and bolts, but this deserves something more elegant. So back to the tap/die set, and tapping more holes for bolts for the sign.
View attachment 5
View attachment 4



Was way after dark by the time I was done with all that, probably 830pm, so I'd been up and at it for 12 hours...and still hadn't gotten to half the stuff I wanted to do today (like LED lighting strips for extra tail/brake/turn signals, downlighting, etc.). Yogi went in and had a nap, while the other three stayd out to supervise, after exhausting themselves playing.



But it's done enough to ride normally to work tomorrow.

View attachment 2

 

[amberwolf]

Test ride (work commute) went fine; it rides "smoother" than before, probably because of the distributed weight addition.

The left motor is quieter (sound is absorbed more by the wood); the right motor is louder (sound is amplified). Each one has a different sound partly because they ahve different controllers, and partly becuase they're different motors (MXUS 4504 on the left, Crystalyte HSR3548 on the right), but the change is not very much.


When I got home, I took Kirin for a short ride around the yard, since she wanted to get into the new cargo hold. Yogi just wanted to play; after they were all done I got the puppies into it one at a time to start training them to ride in it. Kirin stayed right there, wanting to get the puppies away from "her" new space. :lol:

 

[amberwolf]

Getting some creaks and squeaks after a few days of riding. Gonna see where they're coming from, figure out what to fix; if it's actually a problem or just things settling in.


The SFOC5 by Incememed is back from repair; basically the stuff run off the 5v line was replaced, and tested on his bike, so it should be fine now. Hoping to hook it up tomorrow to the MXUS 4504 on the left side and give it a quick test, at least. Hoping to also get the LED strips installed and wired up (which will eventually replace the whole rear light cluster).

Doubt there wll be time to put the trailer hitch back on (which requires cutting the middle of the rear extension deck to access the hitch ball).

 

[amberwolf]

Got the SFOC5 mounted and wired in. Since I need to be able to swap it back to the regular controller if something doesn't work out, roadside, I need plugs on the throttle (already have PP75s on teh phases).

Because I wanted waterproofing, I'd used some old battery connectors on the righthand side when used there, but didn't have more of those, so I just went ahead and used 3-pin JSTs, and filled them with petroleum jelly, then connected them together. I'll do the same to the righthand setup if I get the other MXUS axle fixed and retest the SFOC5 on that side.

Remounted the Status LED / switch panel on the bars and reran the cable under the frame. Still need to put in the serial extension cable and tie it down. Once I do that then I can setup the SFOC5 for the 4504 and start testing it.



I also got some of the LED strips installed, one red across the rear edge of the canopy frame,
View attachment 3





and one white across the front edge of the canopy.
View attachment 6
View attachment 2



The red one is wired as a tail and brake light, just like the two main taillight units on the lighting bar--it lights up at partial briaghtness all the time (resistor in series with taillight supply to it), and brightens to full when brakeswitch is engaged (essentially shorts across resistor). There will be vertical and diagonal strips on the edges of the wooden cargo hold, facing backwards, along with one across teh top of the cargo hold, and some along the bottom edge (split due to the hitch cutout I still have to make), and they'll all be wired the same way, parallel to the top one on the canopy edge.

I haven't installed the ones on the wood yet, because the sticky backing will only work on a smooth glossy surface. So I've coated parts of the back with polyurethane, and after that dries I'll recoat it until it's smooth and glossy, so the stuff will stick. If that doesn't work, I'll make strips out of metal or plastic that the stuff can be stuck to, that then screw into the wood.

If I had a router I'd love to make inset channels to put the strips in as inlays; I could do ti with hand tools but it'd take a lot longer than I'm willing to spend on that.

Either way, I'll be drilling small holes for the wires to go thru the wood at one end of each strip, then connect the wires together inside the cargo hold, run along the upper inside edges/corners of the hold so it wont' be at risk of dog chewing or cargo catching on it.


The white one is also wired with a resistor in series with the power, becuase at full brightness it's way too bright, like having a row of offroad lights up there (not quite that bright, but too bright for oncoming traffic). I intend to wire a switch that will allow me to turn it to full brightness, for times when I need more light forward, and there's no oncoming traffic, etc.

There will be downlighting strips added under the "eaves" of the cargo deck, to light up the sides of the trike and the road around it. They'll be left at full brightness; just shaded so the actual strips shouldn't be visible, just the light from them, except perhaps from teh forward direction (since they'll be white).

Will also add some underneath the seatbox area, if I have any left.

I won't have enough red or I'd add red downlights under the rear end (since there's already white up front).


I may also add some on the fork legs, and a little strip above the headlight inside the sidelooking mirror unit (it has a clear strip for a light there), for a bit more light when not using the car headlight (like on canal bike paths or other non-road riding). They'll be wired in parallel with the strip on the canopy, so they also are dim normally, but can be switched to full when needed.


Since I want to eventually replace the lighting bar in back with these strips, I connectorized the cable to that bar, so it now uses the same plug as the trailer. I'll have a multiple-output plug on the trike, that I can plug the lighting bar, the trailer, these LED strips, etc, into, as needed. If I can find it I have an old AT-style KVM switchbox that I will take the keyboard jacks from, and their mounting plate, and wire them all in parallel, to provide places to hook anything to I need. I'm using MIDI / AT style (5-pin DIN) connectors mostly because there are just enough pins (+12V, GND, Brake+, Left, Right), and it's just large enough for handling, and I have enough of them in old keyboard extension cables, etc, if I have to use them.

The only reason for not wiring it all in direct is that I already did that, and keep having to splice in new things, making the harness messier and less safe (and less water resistant). If I use connectors I can just plug new things in, instead.

I still have the white light bar for the cargo deck area, which shines down around the whole rear of the trike, and also of course the deck itself. (formerly this lit up the cargo bed, but the deck itself prevents that now)


Since it shines forward, it also has a tiltable "shade" that keeps it from lighting my mirrors so I do not get night-blinded or distracted by it, since it's used as downlighting while riding. (I won't need it as downlighting once all the LED strips are in place, as they'll do it's job from less conspicuous places.)


Planned for tomorrow are wiring up more of that stuff, including the brightnes switch for the front white lights, and ovalizing the headlight mount bar holes so I can put it's horizon line a little farther out; right now it's unable to point high enough to see far enough away in several areas of my commute, where they have changed the streetligthing in a way that makes it much harder to see upcoming potholes/etc with oncoming traffic's lights in my eyes.



I am also going to see if I can order some amber lights for sidemarkers/turn signals.

 

[amberwolf]

Got a lot of lighting done, here's what the trike as a whole looks like now:

View attachment 8



Got the programming cable setup, and the SFOC5 is now setup for the values I could find for the MXUS 4504:
kv / R (mohm) / L (uH) / pp
8.9 / 112 / 307 (extrapolated) / 23
and the rest of my system (battery voltage, throttle range, etc). Set for only 100A phase current (40A battery) for initial testing. Everything else left at defaults in the stats&settings sheet.

Offground spinup test ok, short yard ride wimpy; it tries to move me but not enough oomph; basically about the same as the previous round of testing with the other motor, with low phase currents. Have to up the currents to test "for real". Haven't tested on the road yet, or at anything above walking speed.

Ran out of time last night, today I have to work so no messing with stuff yet. Maybe when I get home if I am not too wiped out.



Also finished installing the rear red LED strips and wiring them up (except the lower left bottom edge). The top edge and bottom edge strips are wired as only brake lights, so they stay off except when braking. The right and left strips are wired in parallel with the rear canopy/rack strip, so all of those are around 1/3 brightness as tailllights, then full brightness when brakes are engaged. Uses a big diode between brake signal and lights so there's no backflow from tail signal to brake signal, and three 14ohm heatsinked resistors in series between tail signal and lights to dim the taillights.


View attachment 6



It's hard to see the difference in the pics between brake and tail, but it's a huge difference; people will definitely know I"m braking at night.

In the daytime, the LED strips are much less visible, so that's why the horizontal strips are wired only to come on during braking, so they're more conspicuous.


When I have time, I'll also wire the right and left vertical strips as turn signals, so they will blink brighter during turns. I have amber strips on order, so I'll use those for turn signals too, but will leave the red ones blinking as well. (note that while brake is held the red ones wouldn't blink, because they'd already be at full brightness).

Still have to add the lower edge marker/turn signals on the sides, and wire them in.


Added white downlights on the sides of the cargo hold, under the rack deck edges. The left side has the cane holder in the way of the rear one, so I put it on the bottom of the holder instead, but I might move the holder somehow, not sure where, to allow the lights to all fit the same. There's little "edges" added around the lights so they aren't directly visible, only the light reflected off teh sides.

View attachment 2


Also wired in the overhead "cockpit" lights with the rear deck lightbar, so if I'm working on something that needs that ligth (or need to be extra super visible), I've got it, but can switch them both off for riding normally.

View attachment 1

All the dogs gave up on supervising and just went to sleep once it got dark, at least until dinnertime, when they all ganged up and came to insist on work stoppage.
View attachment 11
View attachment 5

View attachment 3

 

[amberwolf]

Had some intermittent problems with the rear red LED strips--sometimes they don't light up at all. When it happens, the brake light doesn't work either. However, it does still keep those resistors pretty warm, so it's not an open-circuit, it's a short between the LED strip +V input and something else, probably ground. I poked around a bit, but haven't found the problem yet; it's very intermittent.

It doesn't affect any other lights on the trike, just those red ones, which considerably narrows down the possibilities.

 

[amberwolf]

No repeat of the intermittent issue, but at goodwill I picked up a box of two-conductor "alarm wire" by Honeywell that I'm going to redo all the lighting wiring with, just in case. All teh wire I used before was old two conductor with just the insulation on each wire, no outer jacket. This has an outer jacket as well, so will provide some amount of protection against pinching or other damage that could short wires to each other or to the frame. Didn't get to do any of that this week, but might next.


The reason I couldn't do it (or any of the other planned stuff, like adding the amber LED strps for markers/turn signals, or getting the SFOC5 tuned for the 4504) today was that yesterday on the way home, the righthand thumb throttle tab snapped off as I hit a rough patch of road while at full acceleration (so the tab was already at the stop). :/ And that the front wheel hub/bearings have sounded "loose" for a few days, and brake rub in turns has been gettng worse. Both critical issues.

Throtle was easy enough; I was going to just drill and tap a hole where the tab used to be, then put a "thumbscrew" in there with loctite on it's threads so it wouldn't turn, with the flats of the thumbscrew replacing the tab. Then cover that with gorilla tape to make it smoother for my thumb (whcih has enough calluses already).

But when getting the materials out, I found I still had the ambidextrous throttle like Grin sells, received from Cvin at some point while I was helping her out with one of the projects. It had the Higo connector on it, which I thought I had a mate for but didn't (wasted an hour looking), so I removed that connector / cable an inch or so away from teh body, and spliced in the cable I already had on the trike. Tied down the wiring, and was good to go.

Then I found I'd somehow damaged the wiring to the mirror turn signal on that side in the process, so I undid the tiedowns and replaced that wire wrun with some fo that new wire, which fixed the problem. Another couple hours lost in troubleshoot and fix, since I was being as neat as I could so I wouldn't have to go back and redo anything later.


Next up was the front wheel. Set the rear parking brakes, jacked up the front frame, then undid the brake cables and the axle nuts, took off the wheel, and found the bearings very stiff; had to use a wrench to turn the axle. At a guess the cups are probably damaged, or at least one bearing has disintegrated and is grinding the rest of the stuff to bits. Didn't open it up to check, I just pulled one of the trailer wheels off (whcih are all front wheels), so I could move the tire/tube over.

But the tire has worn down to threads in a few places, so instead I pulled the front motor hub wheel off CrazyBike2, which has the same tire, and used that whole tire/tube/protection stuff to move to the "new" wheel, and left the old wheel completely intact as a spare to carry with me in case something goes wrong with the new one the first few days.

The new rim is a narrow Araya, whle the old Sunlite is wide. So I had to take all four brake pads off and flip the washer sets to compensate for that, and readjust the pads. Did thta and tested around the block a bit, no problems.

But it was getting towards twilight at that point, getting cold, and I hadn't eaten all day, so I ended up giong inside at that point, and didnt' get anything els edone. wound up taking an involuntary nap at some point. No pics of anything today; didn't remember to take any. After dinner (mine and the dogs) I ended up with another several naps, in between browsing ES sessions, and now I think I'm ready to sleep for a long while. Weather change from "summer" to "winter" has been fairly sudden and is kicking my butt, making everything all hurty, and leaving me exhausted.


Have to see what I can get done before work the next few days (since it's at least daylight out, if not warm; after work it's already dark and getting cold quickly; too cold for my hands).

 

[amberwolf]

No problems with either repair so far, except the new throttle has more of a deadband at the start than the old one. Might see if I can mess with it's magnets to change that.

Brakes actually work better now; this rim lets them grab better than the Sunlite; dunno why. It's not the narrowness of it; the previous rim to the Sunlite was also narrow and didn't grab any better that I can recall, but it's been a while. But I have more modulation before lockup, and lockup still happens, so they're working like they should.


Odd problem happened today while riding at 20MPH, on a smooth stretch of road--the chain came off the input end of the transfer axle on the rear. That hasn't happened before, on this version of the trike.

It did happen when it was a bare frame with planks for a cargo bed, when I had a single chainline from the cranks all the way back, and the chain had lots of extra sag, so could easily wiggle enough to let it jump off. Had to use a ghost ring to take up the slack and stop that. But it is two separate chains with the IGH in the frame between them now, and doesn't have that kind of slack--there is *just* enough slack for me to be able to put the chain on without moving the IGH in it's slots, so it isn't under enough tension to cause excessive chain wear and drag.


I haven't had time to check for possible reasons, just slipped the chain back over the sprocket and continued on to work; it hasn't happened again even riding over bumpy road stretches.

The pedal chain isn't under much tension even while pedalling, most of the time, because I can't pedal hard enough with the gearing I have to put any on it above a few MPH, which I reach in just a second or so from a stop with the motors.

Once I put a front derailer on there, and a guide on the input sprocket to the IGH, so the chain will always stay on the sprockets, then I'll be able to put some pedal tension in up to around 10mph or a bit more. To put the derailer on, I have to weld a bit of tube to the intersection of the "toptube" of the two vertically parallel "keel" tubes, and the "stays" of the front triangle. I haven't worked out what is needed for the other guide.


When I do up the new wiring for hte lights, I also want to make a set of switches to be able to individually turn off each of these lights:

--downlighting front, rear, and sides, as a unit
--internal cargohold
--deck
--under canopy

as well as a switch to go between dim and full brightness for the front edge of the canopy, so I can use it just as markers for normal riding, but turn it to full brightness when there's no oncoming traffic or if the lighting is so bright facing me or from vehicles behind me that it would be helpful for one reason or another. Or if I'm on a bike path with no lights, and don't need the car headlight, just some more diffuse lighting that shows me the whole area in front of me.

I already have a switch to turn off the downtube downlights, and I could (probably will) use it to switch all the others. But that still leaves three other switches I'll need.

There is a switch on the cord from the deck light (old aquarium light) that switches it from white to off to blue, but I don't use the blue; I have those taped over with black electrical tape because they are on if any of that light is on, and blue lights aren't legal on anything but emergency vehicles. I could probably open up the tube and cut traces or something to disconnect the blue permanently, but I'd rather leave it waterproof. So what I'd like to do is take otu the siwtch module on it's cable, and wire it up to a switch on the "dash".


The dash I still need to build, but it'll probably just be a sheet of aluminum or coroplast or plastic, that's clamped to the bars via slots in the sheet. I did something similar with coroplast and zipties on CrazyBike2, same handlebar type so same idea will work here on SBC. Then I don't have to clamp a bunch of switches to the handlebars, with wires hanging around; they can be fit on the dash around the Cycle Analyst's display (which itself can be behind a window in the dash instead of a box sticking out from the stem).


So many ideas, so little time.

 

[amberwolf]

I pulled something in my lower back last week, so havent' been able to do much outside of work (and needing help there, too), so between that and exhaustion from too much puppy-playtime waking me up when I do manage to get to sleep, all I've managed to do on the trike is fix some wiring spaghetti and add turn signal LED strips.


First up, last week, was to redo the spaghetti of wiring for rear end interconnects (including the trailer plug), so now it's all in an old KVM switchbox, cutdown in height to only the AT-style keyboard plugs at it's base, and bent the top to make a flanged mounting cover; the KVM box fits upside down under the cargo deck, and I can plug in various lighting bars or accessories to it, including the trailer(s). I removed the switch and the VGA/serial connectors, and paralleled all the 5-pin DINs, pin for pin, and ran the trike's lighting cable into those.

The box holds the electronics for things like the dimmed taillights that brighten during braking (resistor and diode),
View attachment 17
and may house transistor switches for the side markers so they are on all the time except when signalling a turn, when they will blink *off* while the front and rear facing signals blink *on*.

I changed the wiring pattern from what I've always used before, where shield/case is not connected, leaving me 5 conductors (+12v/tail+, Ground, Brake+, Left+, and Right+). Now the shield is ground, and the +12v and tail+ are separate, so the tail+ can be switched in brightness while the +12v is constant, for downlighting, interior lighting of dog crates/kennels, side markers, etc.

I'd prefer to use a different connector, but I use the 5-pin DIN (MIDI, AT-keyboard) simply because I have them laying around in both genders. And they work well enough; I have had only one connector failure I can recall; the plastic was just so old around the pins that it disintegrated when I plugged or unplugged the connector for the trailer. They're not waterproof, but dont' really need to be, exactly, for this.




Today I added the turn signal light strips front and rear, and finished the extra rear brake light strips, and removed the old lighting bar (as it shouldn't be needed now; this is a test to see how drivers / etc react to the LED strips vs the single-area signals, taillights, and brake lights).

First are pics of just the taillgiths, then brake and tail, then turn brake and tail (left then right), then turn and tail. Then pics of the front turn signals, and the "Max" antlers added for holidazeness.






View attachment 4
View attachment 3





OH, forgot: Added a 1/8" thick plastic sheet that had a wood-grain dog printed on it to the inside of the "crate" door, since it is expected to rain the next few days, to see if that keeps the inside relatively dry (it doesn't seal anything, just blocks the big open "cage" of the doorway). It's just ziptied to the door at the corners; if it works well enough I may tap holes in the door's framework to be able to screw it on when needed. It also keeps the casual passer-by from seeing inside the cargo hold, which might reduce temptation if I'm carrying anything "interesting" to them. Nothing to stop a serious thief from breaking in to find out what's inside, but hopefully it's more work than they'd want to do in public out in the open.

The sheet would block the dogs' view of the rear, as well, and most of the ventilation, but it's also cold enough these days that last isn't much of an issue for the next few months (probably at least till March or early April). They'd still have the view out the front around my seat and me, once I get the double-hinge installed on that so it folds in as well as out.


And of course, my supervisors:

Jelly, who until I pointed the camera at her was napping cutely:
View attachment 16View attachment 15

while Peanubutter, Kirin, and Yogi helped from the other side of the yard:


And later Kirin, who was napping with her head lolling off the back end until I grabbed the camera, while PeanutButter destroys something off in the background:
View attachment 13