Thursday, July 29, 2010

I finally got the trail ride thing right.I put a big sla battery pack on the trailer attached to a 12 speed rhino and off I went. I crawl along the three miles while I pedal about 50% of the time. When I pedal I leave the motor pulling just enough to compensate for the trailer and the hills. In other words I am riding a stationary bike in effect. The pull is almost ways the same. Instead of a smelly gym I get fresh air and great things to occupy my mind. Walking was boring this isn't at all.

Monday, July 26, 2010

I tried to drop the trailer filled with batteries and then ride the rhino drive bike down the bike trail.... Bad bad idea. I was choking in less than a hundred yards. There is more drag on the bike than I would have thought. It really is a terrible idea to do the trail with no power. I think I'll just ride around doing pedal assist for a while. Not even bother with the trail. Just ride in the neighborhood.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

I got really bored today. I had to rework my nimh battery test project so I did that all morning. Now I am waiting for batteries to charge so that I can test them. In the mean time I got really, really bored so I turned my 6year old grandson's 15" bike into a ghetto chopper.

I added larger handlebars, a more comfortable seat, a 20" front fork and wheel complete with brake. he will have to be a little careful with it but no other kids is going to have one like it for sure. My real computer is down or I would make a picture of it for the blog. I will when I get the computer working again.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Today I took the bike to the lake. I hooked up both sets of batteries and off I went. I was shocked when I got almost home and found the bike dying. I got it home and checked the drain. The nimh drained the least so that was good. Of my three sla batteries one was much lower than the other two. I screwed up and reversed the changer for a few minutes last week on that battery. I guess it is pretty much gone. I rode the bike again after about three hours of charging and that battery was again way lower then the others. Enough so that it concerns me to take it out again until I get it fixed. Since I have all those nimh batteries I might just replace it with a similar amount of those things. I might as well they aren't good for anything else.

I think I am going to do that then replace the whole thing later.

Monday, July 19, 2010

I did a couple of test rides on the bike with the coaster hub used as a drive wheel. It works at least as well as the rhino except that is much much noisier. It isnt going to bother me but it might the people around me. Even so it still needs a stronger controller. I don't want to get too much more though since I really do want to pedal and increase the range by staying close to the minimum amp draw controller.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

I was at the friction drive bike again this afternoon. I got the motor with the bicycle hub for a drive wheel onto the bike. I even took time to fix the kickstand that won't hold the bike up.

Now I have to see what the drive will do. It has to go faster than it did before. How that will transmit to torque or hill climbing remains to be seen. I could always rewire it without the controller just to see how it would run at 36v with a big time controller on it. I just really don't want to do that since the sudden torque of the motor when it is hit with 36 volts it will rattle your teeth.

I should know something tomorrow. I kind of look forward to learning something new from all this experimenting. So many guys my age just sit down and do nothing physical when they retire. It keep life interesting and fresh to constantly try new things.
I am half way through switching my rhyno drive. I built one using the hub of a coaster brake wheel as a drive wheel. It might look a little better at least. Cut the size of the wheel over the bike wheel. We shall see.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Today I went to my special bike shop, thrift store of course, they had an alum suspension bike, I almost bought it but since it was alum I wanted to think about it a while. I came home and did some experimenting with my Ebike. I replaced my hard front forks with suspension ones. First I tried 24" inch but my wheel is in pretty bad shape so I switched to the more substantial twenty inch suspension fortks and a good solid wheel. I have no idea why I took the suspension fork off because I really do like it. I also found that I like the 24inch front wheel. It makes a good weight shift for me. I can also ride it with the seat lower making the bike feel more stable. Thats a bigger issue with me every day it seems.

So I have decided exactly what kind of bike I want to build with. The perfect bike for me to use as a platform for the parts I am now using.

I need:

A fifteen speed 24" mountain bike. Yes I know my rear wheel is a 20" inch one speed but I figure I can leave the dérailleur on the bike and set it for the sprocket I have on the one speed wheel. Then I can use the three front sprockets to give me a three speed bike. It shouldn't be hard to do at all.

It has to be a steel frame of some kinds since I need to weld on a piece of steel to hold the brake mechanism for the smaller wheel. I also have to weld on a plate to bold the motor to for stability. And finally I have to attach a trailer hitch of some sort. All of those are doable they will just require some thought. Now all I need is a little patience till the perfect bike frame comes along. In the meantime I have a perfectly good bike and soon with have a fifty ah battery pack on the bike. That I will have to test for months. 17ah are sla 32(approximately ) are nimh.
Today I went to my special bike shop, thrift store of course, they had and alum suspension bike, I almost bought it but since it was alum I wanted to think about it a while. I came home and did some experimenting with my Ebike. I replaced my hard front forks with suspension ones. First I tried 24" inch but my wheel is in pretty bad shape so I switched ot the more substantial twenty inch suspension fortks and a good solid wheel. I have no idea why I took the suspension fork off because I really do like it. I also found that I like the 24inch front wheel. It makes a good weight shift for me. I can also ride it with the seat lower making the bike feel more stable. Thats a bigger issue with me every day it seems.

So I have decided exactly what kind of bike I want to build with. The perfect bike for me to use as a platform for the parts I am now using.

I need:

A fifteen speed 24" mountain bike. Yes I know my rear wheel is a 20" inch one speed but I figure I can leave the dérailleur on the bike and set it for the sprocket I have on the one speed wheel. Then I can use the three front sprockets to give me a three speed bike. It shouldn't be hard to do at all.

It has to be a steel frame of some kinds since I need to weld on a piece of steel to hold the brake mechanism for the smaller wheel. I also have to weld on a plate to bold the motor to for stability. And finally I have to attach a trailer hitch of some sort. All of those are doable they will just require some thought. Now all I need is a little patience till the perfect bike frame comes along. In the meantime I have a perfectly good bike and soon with have a fifty ah battery pack on the bike. That I will have to test for months. 17ah are sla 32(approximately ) are nimh.
since I've used the chain drive all I have been doing is testing stuff. Well that is until this morning. This morning I needed gas for the lawn mower, so I rode it to the service station. It wasn't far but there is a wicked hill on the way down and then on the way back. It is one of the test of how a bike performs. With the 25 amp 36v controller it was a challenge. With the 30amp controller it rolls eight up it like a little mountain goat. I felt so good about it that I tackled the very steep grade of my driveway and it did just fine. This bike seems to be a winner alright. Yesterdays test of the combined battery pack seemed to go very well. So all in all, I think the bike's motor and battery system are very good. My one complaint is the suspension system I need to find a full suspension frame to move everything to. I'll just keep an eye on the thrift shop and craigs list and eventually one will come along.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I have built rebuilt and redesigned the battery pack a doZen times. I have more cells on the way but they are not going to make the battery strong enough. I would have to double the size and I'm just not going to do it. What I am going to do is to run it piggy back with my sla pack again. With the added cells it should really do well like that. We will see.

Monday, July 12, 2010

the wild hair

I got a stupid idea to try to build a 30v battery pack for my new chain drive bike. I spent all morning setting some twelve volt nimh packs to six volts. When I got it to run I decided that it didn't have enough power so i'm back to the drawing board.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

today im working on the batteries again. I have them wired into the sla circuit replacing one of the batteries. I am trying to find out how many batteries it takes to run the bike. When I can add a battery that will run flawlessly with the sla I think I will have the right amount of amps. But then who knows.

It looks as though the pack needs approx 26 strings of AA nimh batteries. That is 260 cells per battery. Or about 150 per battery. Not much cheaper than a set of lith that you don't have to build. So I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I'm going to do make some changes to the friction drive bike today. I'm going to put a larger motor on the drive with the small controller. It should give me a bike that will climb the hills with a little help. Of course we shall see.

By the way I have been the member of a bike forum on the web for some time. I was there when I built the china kit bikes, that was a move from my first ebikes, I was there when I began building bikes with alternate gasoline engines. I even helped to start the first diy section of that forum. When I moved back to Ebikes there was almost no activity in that part of the forum, now it is thriving. But now I realize that I'm tired of it. It has gone from a bunch of guys sharing information and trying new things to a bunch of fucking experts with their gauges and a nice dose of attitude. So if you want to know what I'm doing, you will have to come here.

I'm off to feed the dogs, put Dixie in her kennel, and Roxie, the house dog, out to do her thing. Then I will probably need to unload the groceries before I can upgrade the motor and downgrade the controller.

Building these bikes must be a lot like a woman deciding what to wear. what top and what bottom.

Friday, July 9, 2010

I switched out the controller. I put the big one back on the chain drive. I am going to put the small one with a bigger motor onto the larger bike tomorrow.
I put the low amp controller on the bike to get more range. Then I accepted that I had to pedal assist the bike. I put on a small chain ring so that I wouldn't have to pump so hard to get the bike started or climb hills. It all works fine on small inclines or short steep inclines, but it is a bear on long steep inclines. I actually had to pull over to catch my breath on one today. I think I didn't let the bike set the pace. I was trying to force it to go the speed I wanted not the speed it wanted to go. The bike workout is more fun than the walking around the mall so I'm going to stay at it.


I am also going to build the rhino again with the big motor and the big controller. I want at least one bike that I can jump on and run to the store for a box of nuts and bolts. But I'm also going to keep this one as is. I want to be able to ride it for at least a small workout. Actually I probably should put the big controller back on this bike and the small on a rhino with a 500 watt motor. It would most likely give me an equally good workout. I think I might just do that over the weekend.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

tiny chainring..

I found a 6" chain ring no doubt off a 16" bike. I put it one the chain drive bicycle. I tested it and it picks up the pedal much later. It is easier to be the bike moving but not much for helping with the speed. It should be better on those hills that seem to be giving me a problem this morning. I have no idea how it will effect the range. I got about eight miles on the charge this morning and it still had something to give. How this will work I don't know. It should cut the range a little since the pedal assist will be starting later. We shall see.
I rode my ebike to test the range of the lower powered bike. I got almost double the milage on the charge that I had been getting with the high priced spread. Yes there is some work involved but it isn't too hard. I might try to ease it a little but I'm not sure just how I would do that and still keep the range I want.

On another note I think I am going to go down now and put together a hybrid battery pack for a short ride just to test it again.,

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

As promised, I took the bike down to the shopping center. It did okay... I think I need to learn how to pedal assist. I keep trying to get the speed up to the motor speed on level ground and it just ain't going to happen. I think I need to let the motor do more of the assisting. I feel like, if I let the speed bleed off enough, I will be able to just pedal it like I was on a level surface. I will have to check it out on my next ride.

I have also been working on my battery pack. I started this because I wanted a battery pack so that I was able to replace a couple of pieces without a major effort or outlay of cash. I lost sight of that and was trying to save pennies again. I now have decided that, when a battery over heats for any reason, it is probably best to check the cells inside the damaged string and toss any that show any signs of wrapper deterioration. I have been trying to repair them with vinyl tape but they seem to fail again anyway, so I'm just going to toss them from now on.

I figured I needed a minimum of 20 strings to make a 25amp discharge battery. So I put together one 20 string battery and I have 14 strings ready for the next one. I am supposed to have another 14 strings on the way so that will give me enough plus a few extra to make repairs with or to add more ah for range.

Tomorrow is another day/.

Trip the mall

I rode the bike with the smaller controller to the mall for my walk this morning. The ride down was mostly downhill so it was okay. The ride back however was a different story. I had to climb one wicked hill in traffic so I chose to ride a different route home.

The hill was more wicked but it was without any traffic at all. I worked my butt off getting up that hill. The motor did not seem to be any help at all. it is true that it was a very, very challenging hill so I want to try another one more realistic. that is my project for a few minutes from now. I left the house with the batteries hot off the charger. When I came home after a two mile ride they were reading 13.24 which is still almost full power. It ran the two miles on surplus charge only so that part seems to be an improvement.

I'm going to ride down to the shopping center. It has a big hill on the way home but there is no way to avoid all the hills on a ride so now I will see what the bike with the small controller will do real world.

With the thirty amp controller it will run up the hill with no pedal assist needed, but I am sure this is going to require some how much is the question.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

rather be lucky

It's kind of nice to find out that by accident you did something right. When I build batteries i use common kitchen foil to make the connectors. I stretch vinyl tape over the foil to add tension and some protection from wear. So last night I found I had a battery that wouldn't charge well. A battery is really a 12 volt string of smaller 12volt batteries in parallel to increase the amp hours. So when I took it apart I found a couple that had lost their connections somehow how no big thing, but I also found one that had over heated. I replaced the connection that was heated and the battery was fine. There was no other damage. Obviously the foil and vinyl tape disintegrate with heat. It is a good thing since the circuit went open before it damaged the aa cells. I still need about a hundred to a hundred and fifty aa cells to finish the battery. I have real hopes that it will work as it should.

Monday, July 5, 2010

I think I have figured out the safe way to calculate the batteries. I figure all AA batteries at 1.25 amps. I then take my controller and read the max amp output and match the number of batteries to it. I will probably give it a little extra for Kentucky windage.

With the test proving that I can mix the batteries, I could have replaced the sla one at a time as they wore out. I think I am going to just order enough to complete the pack before I mess with them again. I am almost there and my sla pack is working just fine.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

new battery test.

I wired all my batteries into two 12 volt lines. I had the equivalent of 26 aa batteries per 12v unit.it should have been 60ah but also no they lied to us lol... The true ah rating on those lil bitty things is about 1.5 or less. I don't think the output per battery comes to more than 25amps. or about 1.? per aa battery. I'm at least now in a position that I can figure it out soon. More later...

Saturday, July 3, 2010

stumbled onto to something maybe.

It looks as though I can co mingle batteries of different types after all. I have used one 6v nimh with 24v sla and it works pretty darn well. Then I set up 12v nimh and 24v sla and it works pretty good. I got impatient and tried it with less than a full charge I think. So I need to run that combination again tomorrow. After I test it that way I want to test it as 24v nimh and 12v sla to see how that does. I have more batteries coming I think. If so I may be able to give it a try with 24v nimh and still keep my 6v nimh pack wired up as it is. I would like to keep that 30volt pack as well as a 36v pack. I have that now but with only 12v nihm. I want to see how it all interrelates.

new approach to hybrid battery test.

I tried co mingling sla and nimh in the same pack one before and burned up the nimh batteries. I had a thought that maybe the problem was that I had the nimh way too low and the sla pack just pushed more amps through it that it could stand. So today I setup a 30v pack. two 12v sla batteries and a 5v with about 50ah rating. I ran it a mile and it didn't seem to heat up at all. I'm not sure just yet what all it will do, so I have several more tries with this configuration. Then I may try a 36pack with 12v of it being nimh.I would like to see just how far I can take this.

I did try running the bike on the pure nimh pack I have and it runs like crap. I'm not exactly sure why but it just runs awful.

Friday, July 2, 2010

build and rebuild batteries

I am working today on rebuilding the battery pack. It looks as though I lost about ten aa cells which isn't bad at all. If it had been lithium I expect that the heating would have ruined the whole pack. I don't know that to be true, but I have a feeling.

So I got a bunch of aa batteries in the mail and I am adding them to the pack today. I am going to try to build a 24v pack since I have a controller that will run either 24 or 36 volts. Im going to build it without the c cells to see how it does. I might reconfigure it for 30v as a compromise I just don't know yet.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

more battery problems.

I set my bike up for a run to the marina. It seemed not to be at full power but I thought I was just paranoid. I found out quickly that I was wrong. I had to push it home. I used the dieing battery to pull the bike alone while I walked beside it. That proved to be a mistake. I had a minor melt down battery wise. I am trying to fix it tonight. More tomorrow on how that goes.