Yamaha YZ250F

[j bjork]

I have worked a lot on the bike, there just isn't that much result to show..

I fixed the finish on the upper part of the battery box.
It isn't perfect, because I took too much with a 240 paper.
I didn't have anything between 240 and 1000..
I can take more with 1000, but I don't want the gelcoat to be thinner than necessary.
I finished off with 1500 and then 3000.

A before picture.

The inside is pretty much done, some tiding up the wiring and sealing stuff left to do.

Making the mounts..
It is a lot easier when you can just get in position and spot weld with the mig/mag.
I have to get things in position and take out the battery, tig it in position and check and adjust.

 

[j bjork]

Bottom bracket for the battery:

It did shrink a little when I finished up the welding, so it got a bit to tight.
But with a little massage it is getting there.

 

[rivvs]

That is one of the best conversion I have seen so far! Personally I would have put the controller where the radiator were. How much do you think the bike will weight? I bought the Qs 180 myself and 3d printed th emodel while I wait for the real one and It does not look like the one you have. The redesinged the casing.

 

[j bjork]

Thank you
It is a bit problematic to put the controller where the radiator was, it is both thicker and wider:

It would mean a pretty big and heavy brick on one side, sticking out pretty much.
I did consider double, smaller controllers to be able to do that.
And then split the windings in the motor. But I didn't really find any suitable controllers, and I felt that it could be problematic to share hall sensors etc.

 

[rivvs]

I see! I did not thought the sevcon was that big. My bac 8000 was small enough to fit where the radiator was.

 

[Haggan90]

Have you got the motor running with the Sevcon controller yet?
I'm really anxious to see this thing running
Great job so far!

 

[j bjork]

Have you got the motor running with the Sevcon controller yet?
I'm really anxious to see this thing running
Great job so far!

No, I have just started with the wiring.
I might try to connect to the controller this weekend, it depends if I get enough time..

Still no sign of the shaft between the sprockets for primary and secondary reduction either, I gave the cad to a guy who should get it done in June :?
I havent needed it, so it hasnt been a big problem. But soon it will be..

Thank you
I thought you left the forum, it been a while since we heard from you :wink:

 

[Maico4]

I have been watching your build. I know how much work goes into these builds. I am building a prototype right now, but here is an idea on mounting your Sevcon controller. This is built by XEMX1.com in Florida. We started this 2 months ago, and have not had to do much to everything, since this is going to be a production kit in a while. The motor gearbox bolts into 2014-2018 and maybe newer YZ Yamaha's. Here is how he bolted in the Sevcon. The battery is started, you can see it 's shape. Talk to Mark in Florida, and ask if you can get/buy the controller mount, (the full kits are not available yet). You have to reshape the plastic on the right side of the rear fender to get the Controller to fit. My battery is going to be 2 packs of Molicel 21700cel 20S7P with 2 ANT 300A Smart BMS's. He is going to have a quick removable battery system in kit form also. Different than mine.
I have built many electric conversions, 2008 KTM, EVALBUM>com #3817, then my 2008 Yamaha with gear reduction ( using KTM 450 gear box parts) and ME1304, my current bike, BUT your work looks so much cleaner than mine, but this one does have a whole season at the moto track last year and back again soon, (I live in the Desert of Arizona, and it gets too hot to ride in the summer), you can see this on the Alta Owners forum, https://altaownersforum.com/threads/a-little-bit-about-my-2008-yz250f-electric-conversion.2055/, and a newer project I just built in 2 months is a KX100 with QS 138 70H V3 motor, also on the Alta Owners forum (the forum is going to be co-named Electricdirtriders.com) https://altaownersforum.com/threads/kx100-electric-pit-bike.2364/

 

[j bjork]

I have 100:s of hours and quite a bit of money in my battery build, Im not scrapping it to move the controller.

It was a nice touch though to mount it over the rear shock, too bad it takes up so much battery space.
I prefer to have the contactors in the battery, I think they are not that much use if the battery is still live when you unplug it.
Sure, they still take care of the sparking.

Interesting looking build though, the motor assembly looks really nice.
I have seen the build in the first link before, but not the second one.
It hard to see much on the small pictures, I guess I should register to get to see bigger pictures.

 

[j bjork]

I have been trying to find a way to get a speed output from the sevcon, but it seems like I can only get it on can bus.
I guess I will have to use one of the hall signals, I wanted to avoid that to not have to risk interference on the signal.
I made the wiring harness for the battery and sevcon:

When I was finished I realized I forgot the speed signal
Well, I could reconfigure another wire to it, so it was not a big problem.

Basically in position, I have to decide where to cut and where to position things.
I need to get the contact to be able to connect the ixxat to the controller, but I couldn't resist to turn it on :wink:
But first I disconnected the contactors, so I can make sure they are set up for the right voltage.

Anyway, I got 7 blinks on the sevcon. So there is some sign of life

 

[j bjork]

Trying to set up the sevcon..
I have this annoying dynamic range error all the time:

I also have the internal fault all the time, but from what I read that is probably from other faults.
When I press "find range error" it points to the overvoltage setting, but it dosent seem to matter what I set it to.
I have tried between 115-125V or so.

I have set up both voltage ranges to match, but it dosent seem to help:

I have also tried to set the default values (calculate/write voltage cutbacks), still the same thing.
Well, I get an battery overvoltage too. Because I have something like 119.5V in the battery.

I also tried to load the dcf the controller came with before I changed anything, still the same fault.

 

[larsb]

I am wondering how the Sevcon logic is built up here, does the Sevcon report it's own voltage measurement (what is it?)
I also wonder if the cutback and limit are allowed to be the same, what happens if you set them apart and increase the limits?

 

[j bjork]

Yes, it does report the voltage somewhere in the settings..
From what I remember it is about 119,3V. I have tried to increase the limit up to 130V, but it dosent seem to help.
I started with 120V and tried just under that as 120V is supposed to be the limit.
But I actually at one point got pointed at a problem with the undervoltage setting (that were both at 84V)and changed that.
The fault message remained, but then it went back to pointing at the overvoltage setting.

Something I have been thinking about is if I have turned on and off the ignition after changes.
Maybe the problem has been solved from time to time, but the message stays as long as I dont turn off the controller?
Other faults have been cleared just by changing the settings, but you never know..

 

[j bjork]

Progress
The main problem seems to be as I suspected, I had to turn off the controller after a change.
Otherwise the fault remained.

I can even run the motor now :wink:
It spins up in the wrong direction, turns off and sets overspeed..
I can do it again if I turn off the controller first..
But it is something, slowly getting somewhere

 

[j bjork]

The motor seems to run fine in either direction, I have variable regen brake.
I even found where I could set up safety high and low values for the throttle, of course not in the throttle menu

I dont seem to be able to get engine braking when I release the throttle if I dont get a throttle with a switch like a domino.
But I may very well have missed something.
The program is not very easy to work with. One setting is in one place, and another in a totally different place.
So it is often hard to find everything, and also often hard to know exactly what a setting does.

It wouldn't hurt if there was an explanation menu for menu in the manual, but sevcon dosent work that way :wink:

It would be interesting to be able to test with some load, if I ever get the jackshaft..

 

[ray88]

This is an amazing build you have here ! Can you please share your build in Electric Motorcycle Builds Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/electricmotorcyclebuilds

 

[Dui ni shuo de dui]

How did I miss this thread?
Absolutely great job, I love what you've done with the motor brackets and the battery box. Keep up the great work!

 

[j bjork]

This is an amazing build you have here ! Can you please share your build in Electric Motorcycle Builds Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/electricmotorcyclebuilds

Thank you, but I will pass on facebook. I dont see the point, just a flow with a mess of different builds.

How did I miss this thread?
Absolutely great job, I love what you've done with the motor brackets and the battery box. Keep up the great work!

Thank you
I dont know how you missed it either, it has been here on the first page all the time :wink:

 

[rivvs]

Quick question for: does your version of the QS180 have an encoder or hall sensor? QS just told me that my Qs180 will use an encoder.

 

[j bjork]

My motor has 3 digital signals, like from hall sensors. So I guess that is what it is.
I saw that comment in the qs sales thread and wondered what it meant exactly.
Do you know if it is supposed to be an analog encoder with sin and cos signals?

They seem to use a fardriver controller, but I havent seen any connections in the wiring diagram for sin/cos signals.

According to this "encoder" can mean just about anything:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_encoder

 

[rivvs]

Normally encoder means sin/cos signal. Thats why I dont understand while they say they use a fardriver controller since it is not compatible. I purchased the motor a while back and a fardriver 961800 and it sucks that they did not mention it before. Did you weight the bike?

 

[QSMOTOR]

Quick question for: does your version of the QS180 have an encoder or hall sensor? QS just told me that my Qs180 will use an encoder.

It is encorder.

 

[hugok]

Do you have

Sensor supply +
Sensor supply gnd
Encoder out 1
Encoder out 2
Motor temp

Or

supply supply +
supply supply gnd
Hall A
Hall B
Hall C
Motor temp

 

[j bjork]

Quick question for: does your version of the QS180 have an encoder or hall sensor? QS just told me that my Qs180 will use an encoder.

It is encorder.

Do you mean that my early model with 3 digital outputs have the same encoder as the new model?
So in that case it is 3 digital outputs on the new model too?

Do you have


supply supply +
supply supply gnd
Hall A
Hall B
Hall C
Motor temp

Yes, I have 3 digital outputs U V W or if you want to call them A B C.
A positive and a negative supply, and one wire for the temp sensor.
I haven't checked if it is hall sensors, optical sensors or whatever.

 

[j bjork]

Time to make some more fiberglass parts while I'm trying to find someone to make my shaft :?
I started with the top, in front of the seat.
After some tries I settled on a design:

Something like this, now on to a endless filling and sanding.
This is how it ended up:

I planned to put the display in it, but I didn't find a way that wouldn't be ugly.

Now on to the side covers..