Back on Track

The Spring semester is over. It went well. Now where was I?

Oh right - So here's the deal:

• I'm about ready to wrap this project up.
• It's summer time and I don't have school to worry about.
• The bike is more or less mechanically, ready.
• The really detailed work is what remains.

...So I do believe there's plenty left to learn.

The foam gas-tank replacement didn't pan out. Although aesthetics wasn't a huge concern, using that shell and arriving at something functional and appealing just felt afar off. We turned back to the original tank and my Dad did some intricate metal-work in order to have something compact, workable, and down-right nice looking in minimal time. This is the space that will contain the chargers, DC converter, motor controller, main contactor and a fuse or breaker.

So, now that serious electrical wiring needs to be done, I have several questions concerning the new electrical system being installed on the bike:

What gauge wire should I use for my bike?

Lennon used #4 welding wire, which should be the same as size 4 AWG. But how come all the charts I find out there for AWG show very conservative numbers? For example, this site shows #4 wire being capable of only 135 or 60 amps, depending on use (what's the difference between chassis wiring and power transmission, anyway?). A good point my Dad brought up was that there's only so much surface area at our disposal on the controller terminals and that will absolutely place an upper limit on the size of wire we can expect to need.

Will the battery side of the controller need a different gauge than the motor side?

I haven't posted yet about how my motor controller works, but I some-what understand the principle at work, and that the battery side won't (or shouldn't) see more than maybe 140 Amps, while the motor side could see 300+ Amps. I know selecting too large a gauge is not a serious problem, so I guess I'm asking whether or not there's a reason (and what that reason is) to use separate gauges for each side of the controller.

Can my proposed charging system be implemented?

This is not a question of how well will it balance the batteries, but rather, can it work at all. The chargers have been tested and seem to work fine. We just aren't perfectly clear about whether or not we can leave them connected when the bike is being driven, or if we should add a component or place an existing component such that some charging circuit is broken in order to operate the vehicle. I expect it depends on the exact method in which the chargers are wired to the batteries as well as how the chargers are wired internally, so we're just still researching and figuring this out.

Here's what remains to be done:

• Sort out a wiring diagram for our specific bike.
• Research, select and install electric drive system wiring
• Adjust and install drive chain
• Test throttle switch
• Program controller
• First test of electric drive system
• Break-in the motor
• Install PakTrakr
• Re-cloth modified seat
• Remove and/or treat rust
• Finish and paint component shelves.
• Final paint and assembly

Oh, I did want to mention how I found a supplier of certain Lifan parts. Lifan being Chinese makes it kind of a big deal to have a good supplier of parts here in the US. I ordered parts from Hooper Imports. They're in Redmond, Washington and seem to be very genuine and rather-closely tied to both Lifan and American Lifan out of Dallas, Tx. Trust me, I would have ordered parts from American Lifan, considering their convenient location, but their online parts-store has been "coming soon" for quite some time now. I suppose I could have called, but I didn't have part numbers to reference. I feel good about my order to Hooper Imports, and I look forward to verifying I ordered and received the correct items.

I wish I had an image or two to show the state of the bike, but I'll be sure to snap a few in the coming weeks. I may take a few days off work to help get as much of this done as possible. Maybe by the end of June, we'll have something ridable and almost licensable.

-Colby

Road-Legal Lighting

As I got to thinking about which type of lights I would like to use and how, I started wondering what was legal and what wasn't. I went searching for the Texas Transportation Code and I found this website: http://law.justia.com/index.html

Just click the link to your state, your state's "codes" and then the "transportation" section.

It was helpful to read about the specific light intensities, heights and colors that are legal in my state.

Keep a couple things in mind though:

• I'm not 100% sure these all apply to motorcycles, but I'll post more as I find out.
• Legislation can change so remember that anything you find online could be outdated.

-Colby

Yes, I'm still here.

Sorry I'm just now getting around to updating. It pains me to have waited so long. A fair amount of progress has been made, but at the same time, several more large hurdles remain.

Cut to the Chase:
So here’s what we’ve got at this point. The bike’s frame is just about ready, as most of the alterations that remain are minor and aesthetic. The only big modification that is not complete is the gas tank area. The power train parts are ready. The battery trays are done and the motor mount as well.

The drive system is right at 99% done. As far as I know, we have everything, and we just haven’t hooked it all up yet. We went with a chain and sprocket system, mainly for how easily it can be tweaked. Additionally, the swing-arm won’t have to be removed to replace the chain as it would for a belt, plus the parts were readily available. We found a new rear sprocket locally somehow and dad came up with a creative way to mount it. Seeing as how the old rear sprocket had the exact bolt pattern for the hub and how the new rear sprocket had an extremely open center area, we just combined them. I am only slightly concerned about the strength and balance of the weld, but those can be slowly tested or measured and corrected as needed. For clarity, we’re using the old rear sprocket only for mounting the new one – there will be no shifting of gears or de-railing of the chain between gears, as the two sprockets are in the exact same three-dimensional plane on the axle.

Once a Fuel Tank:
As an experiment really, we covered the gas tank in plastic-wrap and then aluminum foil and covered it in Great Stuff – an expanding spray-on foam. This resulted in a form which matches the tank overall. Dad shaved / ground / sanded down the outside to give it a good external shape and we played around with ideas about mounting it, covering it in fiber-glass, and how much space it gave us to work with (a ton, internally). Here's what that looked like:

On a separate afternoon however, we got to looking at the original gas tank, how symmetrical it was, and its fair condition. An hour or so later, we’d cut the bottom off of it and had just a top shell like so many others modders have done. I wasn’t sure about if it would really work out or not, but as of this moment, it has more potential (in our minds) than the foam shell. It is of course very symmetric (which is pretty important to me) and without a bottom contoured around the backbone of the bike, the internal space should be ample.

Right now, the plan is something like this: Ease of access is important since several core components are going to be housed within the tank. We might try hinging the tank at the seat and simply providing a sturdy metal plate beneath the backbone to which the tank can be secured and potentially air-sealed. Within the tank, we’ll keep it simple I bet and use simple flat plate to which we can mount the battery chargers, main contactor, main breaker and d.c./d.c. converter. Whatever gauges, LEDs, and other indicators end up being used can either be wired up to a dash area or back-mounted and exposed directly through the tank itself.

Stay in the Light:
The headlight is a stubborn problem for me. I want it to be reliable, safe, unique, legal and as efficient as possible. Those are competing interests, it seems. I don’t know a ton about the various lighting technologies (LED, Halogen, and HID) but I want to keep the front of the bike distinctive, clean, and functional. Wikipedia yields the following:

• Halogens are prevalent and inexpensive, but require high power on average.
• HIDs are the brightest, somewhat efficient, have good longevity, but are expensive.
• LEDs are bright, very efficient, have superior longevity, but can be the most expensive.

My brother had this idea: It could be advantageous to have multiple technologies on the bike for different purposes. Yes, an all LED bike would be cool, but if it's not practical (not to mention legal), then it's just not. Anyway, a running-lamp could probably be LED and homemade without any legal or safety issues. Meanwhile, the actual headlight for actually lighting the road could be a halogen module that's DOT approved. I don't see myself riding much at night, but I guess it is bound to happen eventually, and I don't want to be pulled over for having too bright or dim a headlight, so I might just go this route. From what I've seen, it wouldn't be too difficult to build my own LED module. Keep in mind that the laws where you live might also have a lot to with what you feel comfortable doing.

Here are some links I stumbled across while trying to find either professionally manufactured (and DOT approved) LED headlights or how to make my own.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/led-headlight-6514.html
http://www.hebeiltd.com.cn/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator
http://ledsupply.com/led-resource.php
http://www.mvlc.info/index.html
http://www.projectresponder.com/pse/d304-Solstice-Solo-10w-LED-Light-Euro.htm
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=228933

Still to do:
The tank needs a sturdy hinge and secure point, and a way to seal it off. The seat needs to be trimmed and re-covered, and potentially hinged as well. A shelf needs to be made under the tank and the components fitted and mounted to that shelf. The headlight technology and hardware must be researched and a solution planned. New high-power wiring should be accounted for and purchased. Original wiring harness and connectors should be used where convenient. Any missing or broken parts on the bike need to be ordered.

I'm already working on another post concerning motor controllers - what they do and how. I'm doing my best to get some facts straight and present all the material in a way that is easy to grasp. I'm learning an awful lot, so hopefully it will be of some help to others as well.
-Colby

Important Progress

Seeing as how I've spent 3 or 4 of the last 5 weekends on the bike, I figured I'd provide an update while it was still June. Things are moving along just fine, with a great deal of help from my father and his varied expertise.

What plan:
We've cut, heated, bent, tacked, welded, ground smooth, and stared. I'm really pleased with the way our semi-precise design and ideas are turning out. The bike frame has undergone more modifications than I ever intended, honestly, but it's opened the door to a far better looking and more well-constructed vehicle too. I had a plan, based on my rather time-expensive quarter-scale 2D profile of the bike (in the photo gallery). I'd placed battery cut-outs all around my rendering in order to get an idea of what could fit where. It ended up being useless really. Once we got the frame sitting next to the batteries down in the shop, it was obvious what to do. Thus, we've spent several days measuring parts, thinking about where they can and should go (considering maintenance and factors out of our control), modifying the frame to be what we need, and carefully adding anything we need as we go.

The Result:
Instead of batteries lying in all different directions, being difficult to remove and replace, and perhaps most importantly difficult to wire up, all the batteries sit uniformly in three efficient pairs. They will have space for removal, wiring, and routine inspection. Also, instead of a frame that suggests it can support two people, the frame has been trimmed in the rear. This cuts some weight, shows some individuality, and makes it a bit less misleading at first sight. Sure, we've added far more material up front to support the batteries, but every bit of weight counts. As much as I'd love to share a picture, I'll not be posting any until we reach a certain milestone on the frame. Then, I'll show it off for sure.

Hurdles Remaining:
I have yet to decide on the exact type of drive system. Partly, I'm still unsure whether or not it will work. I haven't seen many belt-driven EVs, but then again, I haven't searched, so I need to figure out what my options are, and make a decision. Going the belt route may have it's issues though. I'll need a way to couple a belt pulley to the wheel, or rather, the existing piece that grabs the wheel. Besides that, there's plenty of wiring to figure out and other parts to order and custom make. We'll get there.

Another Find:
Lastly, I wanted to direct anyone interested in Lifans to http://www.americanlifan.com/lifan3/customer/ which is the forum for American Lifan it appears. It's new to me, so I'm posting it. I'm not exactly an American Lifan buff, so to speak, but it does have very knowledgeable folks behind it providing help to owners of just about anything Lifan has made. I've had a few problems getting my account approved but I'm sure it will be done soon. I'll probably be asking some questions on there before long. Apparently, they get a lot of spam from gmail accounts, so they prevent gmail-based accounts from being created. A bit of a bummer, but oh well.

-Colby

Interesting Find

While I'm trying not to be terribly picky about what my bike looks like early on, I am wanting to end up with a nice looking ride once it has been proven road-worthy. While searching for motorcycles that I could take design cues from, I stumbled upon one of the very first electric motorcycles I absolutely loved - the ShocKing. I hadn't been able to purposefully find this bike on the net in the past year, so now that I found it accidentally, I thought I'd share it.

There is just something about this bike that I love:
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2007/12/14/shocking-electric-motorcycle-by-patterson-cycles/

I don't have anything against cruisers, but I've always preferred sport-bike styling. Regardless, that cruiser looks great and supposedly has some pretty good performance stats. I hope I can say the same thing about my own project eventually.
-Colby

Round Two

Today, I placed an order for one of the most crucial components - the electronic speed controller. I also purchased the main contactor and a couple fuses.

First Impressions:
I selected the KD72401 from Kelly Controllers. I was unsure at first whether or not to do business with them. I found slightly cheaper prices else-where, even though they manufacture the controllers themselves. Their website is alright, but not 100% clear, because of a language barrier. Also, I'd seen a forum thread where a VIP of Kelly was kinda rough on someone trashing their product. I was unsure, but I'm not anymore.

As of this moment, I could not be happier with the service they have provided, especially when compared to that of another internet-based electric vehicle component supplier. I contacted ElectricVehiclesUSA.com because of their competitive prices more than a week ago. I have not heard anything back from them as of yet. Mean-while, I contacted KellyControllers.com for the first time on Tuesday and I received a reply in thirty minutes. Furthermore, they have gone above and beyond what was necessary to make sure I'm taken care of. Plus, they seem to have some kind of 24 hours service thing going on because their operations are divided among different continents. They don't claim anything, as far as I've seen, but I can tell you one person or another has been working on my order for the last 7 hours (it's currently 11 pm, and I just got a confirmation email!), so I'm impressed.

ElectricVehiclesUSA.com has the best price on another few components I need, but I don't plan on doing business with them anymore. I've heard ok things about them, but not paying attention to a potential customer sends the worst of signals. To me, saving a few bucks is not worth poor customer service, especially when it's easy for something to go wrong with an order.

Anyway, the true test will come when it's time to install, program and operate the controller on the bike itself. Then, when it works and keeps working, I will be sold on their product and service, alltogether.

Power to the people:
Speaking of companies...
I called Mars Electric LLC today, for the fourth time. This call was 10 times more productive and meaningful than the previous three.

I ordered my motor, the ME709, from them nearly two weeks ago. I emailed their sales department (only email listed) for a tracking number two days later and I didn't get a response. I called and spoke to a gentleman who took my name and email and said "he'd get right on it." Two days later, I still hadn't received a tracking number, so I called and left a polite, clear, and detailed message. I never got a call or an email with the tracking information I wanted. My other parts, from various merchants had arrived, but I knew nothing at all about the status of my motor. So, this afternoon, I gave it another shot and all things were made clear to me.

The actual sales person for Mars Electric had been on vacation for more than a week. The salesman was super nice, knew my order based on my name alone, took interest in my application, and said he would do his best to get it processed asap. I received a tracking number late in the afternoon and apparently the package is already on its way. Whoever I talked to originally was having to fill-in, I suppose. The problem is, they didn't communicate that to me at any point. I realize you don't want to tell customers to just "try again later because so-and-so isn't here", but I'd prefer that over the silent treatment. At least then, I would understand why nothing was being done, and that I should just wait. Mars Electric had the best price, so I'm glad it's worked out so far.

Overview:
At this point, I've ordered or received the following:

• Batteries
• Battery Chargers
• DC-DC Converter
• Motor
• Motor Controller
• Main Contactor
• Main Fuse w/ holder
• Controller fuse w/ holder
  

I still need to get the following (not an exhaustive list):

• Throttles for Motor Controller input
• Drive and Driven sprockets
  
• Chain to match the sprockets
  
• Large & small wiring cables & hardware
  
• PakTrakr (maybe a Fit-PC w/ custom software to log / report / graph on)
  

I'm getting there though, and I'll tell you. It's really exciting. With a lot of help from others (with more experience than myself), I'm designing and building my own vehicle and that feels pretty cool to me.

-Colby

Sudden Purchases

About 2 months to the day since I worked on the bike, I have begun to actually order parts for the conversion0. The delay is due mostly to having other, more important, engagements, but I just decided the other day to go ahead with it, as planned. I have researched a fair amount, so I have some confidence that I'm not wasting my money.

The Parts:
I've ordered the motor, DC-DC converter, battery chargers, and picked up batteries.

The motor is the ME709 by Mars Electric LLC.
It's 36 lbs of PM goodness and was $537.

The DC-DC converter is the 300 Watt Sevcon 11086.
It will convert 72 Volts to 12 Volts with 25 Amps. It cost $213 from Electric Motorsport.

The battery charger (x2) is the JAC0891-102 by Japlar.
It's a 36 Volt, 4 Amp charger that can accepts anywhere from 100 to 240 Volts AC. These cost $246 online and should be idiot proof.

The batteries are the DCM0035L model from Interstate Batteries.
Not too expensive, nor too heavy, nor too skimpy, I believe. Rated at 34 Amp-hours and non-spillable, these will hopefully make nice starter batteries. I'm not thrilled about the terminal type, but I don't really think another 1/2 inch is a deal breaker. These cost $564 and I picked them up locally. I continued trying to decide where to place the batteries on the bike this evening and made decent progress.

Still to do:
I've still got to verify a few things related to the speed controller and order it as well. Apparently, there's a waterproofing option that costs $20. This component might also be back-ordered or slow to ship, in the amount of 4 weeks or more. Additionally, the Kelly controller I've selected is cheaper somewhere other than KellyController.com, which I find strange. Then again, I found several items on that site that seem over-priced.

There will be many other purchases, but these are the big, exciting ones for me. These are the components that are critical and must be selected for each application, individually. These that I've already purchased make up for more than half the total project budget. I'll probably try and go back through all the parts later on, describing them and my reasoning for selecting them.

Another e-Lifan:
On a similar note, I found another electric Lifan.
The first electric lifan I found was Lennon Rodger's eMoto. Last night, I found on the evAlbum, Mark Gelbien's electric 2009 Lifan GS200. It's a nice looking conversion and has impressive stats. Apparently, the guy has made his own version of a hub motor and tested his design by converting a Lifan to electric. There are videos he's posted on YouTube that aren't bad either. I'd be interested in his technology if I hadn't more or less finalized my design before seeing it. Also, his hub design being sold for $1,300 right now, so it wouldn't quite fit my project anyway. Maybe I'll seriously consider hub motors for any future conversions though, as there might be some promise in that technology.

The Goal:
National Ride to Work day for 2009 is June 15th. I'd like to participate in the global event, so this is my only deadline of any kind. I guess I'll need to have the thing legally road-worthy around the end of May so that I'll have time to practice riding, get used to the bike, and make sure it's actually safe. I'll have to get some riding gear too, which is fine by me.

I'm seriously enjoying this project now. I know I may be waist deep in wires, measurements, calculations, and nuts and bolts in a few weeks, scratching my head, but I'm thinking it will be worth it.
-Colby