From the Ashes...

With a bunch of burned out chargers and smoked battery, things were not looking so good.  I contemplated buying replacement chargers or more of the Battery Tenders, but that would mean buying a battery or two.  Unfortunately, I could not justify $2000+ for Thundersky or CALB units, and even if I could, what would I charge them with?

Epiphany:  If I use a cylindrical cells, I can put together a modular pack that will handle my daily commute with a lower initial cost.  I may need to charge at work, and watch my Amps carefully, but at least I will be on the road.  As funds allow, I can add more batteries. Sure, the $/AH will be higher, but if my goal is decent acceleration and a 10.0 mile round trip, this really makes sense.

Big Break #1:  One of the guys on ElMoto.Net was selling a 72V charger made for Headway batteries.  It was a bargain so I jumped at it, thinking it could be used for any LiFePO4, and even temporarily for SLA's, if I stay that route a little longer.

Big Break #2:  Headway comes out with a new bigger cells (40160S).  These 16AH cylindrical cells will do 5C continuously and 10C for 30 seconds.

Big Break #3:  Manzanita Micro starts carrying Headway cells.  A reputable US based supplier is critical.  They are a long time player in the EV industry and have a terrific reputation for service.

So I dropped a small fortune on 25 cells, bus bars and holders.  Only problem now is all the empty space that is left.

Up In Smoke

Last month, after a test run on a fairly hot day, I plugged in my bank of ACI chargers and left them to do their job.  I returned a few hours later and noticed flashing red LEDs.  As I got closer I could see some severe distortion of the charger cases.

Crud!

All of the chargers had blown thier fuses, and three of the six had significant heat damage.  I tried replacing the fuses but the damaged ones still did not function.  A quick disection reveals the transistors smoked themselves - note the burn marks on the heat sink.

I'm no longer a fan of the ACI chargers. In fact I was pretty upset at ACI for building such a crummy product, for a while.  But you get what you pay for and they are cheap. 

The bigger question was what am I supposed to charge my SLA's with?  I proceeded to plug in Ole' Reliable:  my Deltran Battery Tender Plus.  The Battery Tender only charges at 1.25A, so it's slow and I could only charge one battery at a time. 

The other question, is are the batteries still any good?  After two days on the charger, the 17AH batteries seemed to be holdin a charge OK and voltages looked almost normal, but two were slightly lower than the others. Suspect cells were at 12.7V and 12.9V vs. 13.1-13.3V for the others. 

A trip down the street and back, the bike seemed to run fine.  Then I took El Gixxer around the block a few times and the batteries started to feel sluggish - so I gave the throttle a little more wrist. Oops! A high pitched squeal pierced the air - I thought it was a controller alarm, so I let off the throttle and the sound went away.  Then I heard a sound like a pressure cooker belching steam and looked down to see the #5 cell spewing gas only inches from my knee.  The controller went into Limp mode and I barely made it back to the garage.

Double-Crud!!



Back in Black

I've been risking life and limb with every test ride, due the fact that my rear tire is beyond bald. There was  significant amount of cord showing (check out the cross section).  So for Father's day my lovely wife gave me a new rear skin (OK I did the shopping).  In addition to the useless rubber, the rear rim is blessed with fluouresent green and purple showing through the two layers of poorly applied flat black   Might as well pull the tire and clean up the rim.  Check out the edge of the rim for the previous color samples. 

It was a total pain to clean and sand, thanks to massive amounts of chain lube and globs of paint.  I think the last coat of black was rolled on.  I also had to clean up the gouged edges of the rim where somebody had ridden the bike on it's side.  Honestly it's still not that great, but is a whole lot better.

Here it is with the new tire, a sport-touring dual compound that will last a little longer with my mild riding habits.  Nice to have some tread to use.

DIY tail

I really would like to put an AirTech fiberglass tailsection on the bike, but the budget continues to be tight, so we continue with the "use what ya got" theme.  I dug up some acrylic sheet, and glued a paper version of the sheetmetal pattern I've been working on for the tailsection. I used a 3/4" bar and a small torch to form the bends on the rough blank.  I then took the dremel tool to finish cutting the pattern.

A quick shot of  primer, wentsand, a layer of Rustoleum. Viola, a tail is born.  Just don't look too close.

No longer Flying Blind (sort of...)

For some reason, after putting a guard on the left side of the Upper Battery Tray, I felt the compelled to make an identical piece for the right sided of the bike, even though it serves no functional purpose.  Still looks better, and more importantly is more symmetrical (OCD issues).

Up until this point, a test ride was an excercise in guesswork.  My speedo didn't work and I had no way to measure anything except with my multimeter.  The speedo cable I got with the bike was the wrong one, so I reluctantly ordered one from an eBay retailer. 13.95+shipping and now I can see my speed tops out at 43mph (very close to what I geared for).

I also wanted to know Voltage at any given instant, so I can see how much the batteries are sagging under load.  One of my ELMOTO.NET brothers was selling a cheap voltage panel menter, so I went for it.  Unfortunately, I may have it hooked up wrong, because as soon as I use any juice, the voltage display varies wildly, and shows negative values often.  Seems to work fine at static readings.  I will hold off making a permanent bracket until I figure it out.

I'm still shopping eBay for an analog current gage that will fit in my Tach location. The hard part is finding one that looks right with a black face and white graphics.

Earth Day

I spent Earth Day at the local Community College displaying El Gixxer along with some other EV's.  Although I'm not a terribly social person, it was cool to hang out with the other local EVer's. When we weren't answering questions from the casual observer, we were busy comparing notes on our projects.
This video doesn't have much of the EV's in it, but I neglected to take any pictures (doh!), so I can only blame myself.
Earth Day Video

The Earth Day experience has inspired met get this thing road-worthy.  I need to start securing the batteries in the racks so they don't shift around. First on the list is a Guard for the left side of the Upper Battery Tray - to keep the batteries from falling out. 

The removable Guard is necessary for battery maintenance.  A simple piece made from 3/16 sheet aluminum, and of course cut with the plasma cutter.  The Guard mimics the geometry of the tray, but extends the left side of the tray high enough to prevent shifting of the power pack.

Performance Corrections & Wiring Cleanup

I was so enamored by the fact that my creation actually worked, it completely escaped me that it wasn't working as planned.  The acceleration and range were on par with a toy.  I initially suspected the batteries weren't capable of generating the amps needed.  A quick visit to the B-B Battery site shows these 17AH units can do 299A for up to 5 seconds.  Pack voltage seemed plenty high after charging:  78.2V

I knew that any one of the components with temporary connections could be suspect.  First on the list to correct was the main battery disconnect.  Gone is the 30A breaker zip-tied to the wiring panel.  In its place is a real battery disconnect switch, mounted in a new aluminum bracket behind the battery tray.  Since I don't need access to the wiring panel to flip the power on, I could now ride with the tank on.

I also needed to mount the 400A  fuse, rather than suspend it off the contactor terminal.  I know there are mounting blocks for these fuses, but why not take advantage of the acrylic wiring panel, and save myself $20.  Looks cooler too.

Subsequent test rides still showed something not quite right.  Three trips down the street and back later, the bike would barely limp up the driveway, but the pack voltage was still 74V.  The best thing I could think of was to pull some data from the controller while riding.  This would also give me a chance to tweak the controller settings.  Upon connecting the controller to the software, my neglect was evident.  The "Under Voltage" slider was was maxxed out, essentially cripling the controller immediately.  By hitting the "Defaults" button, reasonable starting values were inserted, but I upped the top speed and Max Output Curent a little just to be safe.

Acceleration is much better and the controller logs show almost 180A.  I will need to get some lights wired up ASAP so I can test the range.

Starting to feel like a real motorycyle.