[frodus]

I posted this on a couple other forums, and decided I'd throw it up here for those interested.


My website is: http://www.evfr.net and there are plenty of pictures, and a blog or two a week since I started last year.


About the project:
The bike is a 1986 Honda VFR700F that I found in Florida for $400 with no title, in like new condition. Brand new tires, been stored for 10 years with 4270 miles on it. I got it shipped to Oregon for $675, and parted out the engine, exhaust and electrical and just about broke even. The bike was essentially free. I had to work on getting a title, but that issue is solved.

I'm currently working with a company in Portland (Synkromotive) on building a very robust 600A 156V fully programmable series motor controller. We're finalizing the design. We've got a PDA communicating with it for my display. It will display MPH (tach input to controller), motor rpm, battery side voltage and current, motor side current and voltage. It will display each battery voltage in the future. We're also working on battery balancing and charging for both SLA and LiFePo.
A couple months ago I found an Advanced DC K99-4007 motor on a surplus website, and bought 2 of them. They are equivalent to the ADC K91-4003. They max out at around 50 or so ftlbs or torque and 18hp. Its 56lbs and has plenty of thermal mass. max RPM is around 5500. Just need to shorten the shaft.
I also scored 12 18Ah batteries from another EV Motorcycle guy. They're about 13lbs a piece, for about a 18Ah pack at 144V. Still working on how I want to charge and balance them as well as how I want to do my DC-DC converter. I've got a 74W Vicor right now for testing.

So I've got batteries, DC-DC, motor, controller, contactor, rolling chassis, display and charger. Just finished mounting the motor, sprocket and chain. I need to make a battery cage and some battery/motor cables. I'm trying to pick sprockets and think I'll go with a 4:1 ratio. Some guys with eteks/perm132 go 5:1 up to 7:1. Other guys with smaller ADC motors go anywhere from 3:1 to 4.5:1. My motor is larger with more power, so 4:1 should be just right.

Here's a video of the motor driving the rear wheel on Sat for the first time in this motorcycle's 22 year life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D27TJUc1fK8

So thats about where I am. Comments, critiques appreciated.

Travis Gintz
1986 eVFR

[ngrimm]

It's nice to see more of these projects posted here. Looks like you have put a lot of thought into your conversion. 144 volts on a bike ought to be fun! Seems like that 4-1 gearing would be pretty close based on some conversions on the evalbum. Norm

[mattW]

I've been reading your blog actually but its nice to see the blog and connect to your name here. What sort of performance are you expecting with such a high voltage? I'm probably only going with 72V (unless you want to ship the extra motor and your controller to Sydney =P)... Do you think you will ever get anywhere near the 600A of the controller? 144V @ 600A is like 87kW!!! I would guess your batts could put out around 230amps burst... that's still 32kW (sealed LA i have seen get about 13C). Very nice conversion, can't wait to see it on the road.

[frodus]

Originally Posted by ngrimm

It's nice to see more of these projects posted here. Looks like you have put a lot of thought into your conversion. 144 volts on a bike ought to be fun! Seems like that 4-1 gearing would be pretty close based on some conversions on the evalbum. Norm

Thanks for the feedback.

I chose 144V because the batteries I got (free and new from another EV'r) were small and could easily be moved within the frame, unlike the larger bats.

The kWh is the same as 72V 36Ah. The higher voltage allows me to detune the controller to 50% duty cycle as its "max", and have smaller battery cables. We've tried it already, and we can get over 200A out of the motor side (quick test) at lower duty cycles, and feed it with less than 100A on battery side. Gotta love PWM and DC Bus capacitors. I know my pack is small, but I only NEED 10 miles, 15 preferably, and when i switch to LiFePo next fall, I'll be getting 30+.

This is getting fun though. I think we're going to strap 4 of the small bats together, hook up to my 48V controller, contactor and magura, hook up my lights to an aux battery (safety first) and take her for a spin around the industrial park the shop is next to!. I'll post video.

[frodus]

Originally Posted by mattW

I've been reading your blog actually but its nice to see the blog and connect to your name here. What sort of performance are you expecting with such a high voltage? I'm probably only going with 72V (unless you want to ship the extra motor and your controller to Sydney =P)... Do you think you will ever get anywhere near the 600A of the controller? 144V @ 600A is like 87kW!!! I would guess your batts could put out around 230amps burst... that's still 32kW (sealed LA i have seen get about 13C). Very nice conversion, can't wait to see it on the road.

Thanks for reading my blog, its great to hear people are reading it and watching the progress. Stop by and drop a comment.

I outlined above why i chose the bats, mostly for size. Plus, battery balancing/charger is being designed for a 144/156V car/truck system, so we're using me as a guinea pig to test it out. Plus there's the cool factor of being one of the highest voltage street legal bikes

I won't ever run the motor at 144V, it'l be set to PWM at 50% which is 72. Plus, we're only building the controller for 400A. The bats I have can put out 5 sec bursts of 200A, continuous at 80A, so with a 50% max, the actual motor current will be higher. And I'm not going to be pegging it to 50%, it will most likely be driven under 45mph most of the time, which helps my current capability a little bit.

Thanks for the feedback guys, if you have some input, let me know, this is a bike dreamt by one, designed by many, and built by few.

[mattW]

Yeah most people don't get such high voltage because of the added cost but if you are building your own controller it will just mean less power dissipated in the battery cables and probably internally in the batteries as well. When I first saw your bike on the EV album I thought you must of been one of those crazy drag racing types!

[frodus]

nope, just one of those guys that gets good deals on motors, batteries, contactors, bikes and controllers

I'll go lifepo in the future at 100+ volts, so it kinda makes sense to overbuild the motor/controller combo a little bit.

[frodus]

I got some more work done, we fabricated some battery trays, and should have them finished by next week. Then I can start wiring this thing together!

Click on the pic to read more:

[DVR]

Frodus, have you any estimations of your range with this setup?
I'm very impressed with what you've done so far. And am VERY jealous of your donor bike. All that for about 1K and then to break even with a like new roller? UNREAL!!!!That bike would have been maybe 4-5K here.
I've not looked into doing bikes much so I'm not familiar with what different motors deliver performance wise, but I would consider doing one for "practice and more experience with EV's so I look around Ebay and such just in case a "bargain" turns up. Australian Ebay doesnt have the volume of auctions that the US has so when something comes up people jump all over it.

[frodus]

range is going to be ~15 miles at first, might split the 144V pack up so its 72V, we'll see. Its easy to reconfigure the pack for 48/72/144V to put them in parallel and decrease the peukert effect. They're small batteries (18Ah) for now until I can afford lithium.

I'm only expecting 10-15 for now, they're used batteries too.... might buy a new pack, but for now, for testing and getting her going, It'l be fine.