[frodus]

Here are the most recent pictures of the bike at the shop:







and here's one of the latest side project, my battery discharge setup (in this other thread as well):

[frodus]

Blog update:

Wow, It’s been a long time since I’ve had something to update on here. I’ve done pretty much nothing to the motorcycle in 6 months. I’ve been busy, I’ve moved, and most of February and March was spent with friends who moved and had birthdays. The guys helping me with the fabrication have been slammed as well. Now that that is all over, I’ve hunkered down and decided to get serious!
I didn’t like the fact that my battery test setup didn’t cut out automatically at a set voltage and temperature to protect the battery, so I bought a CBA-II and a temperature sensor to help automate the test. I increased my discharge current ability, but now I can just walk away. So far the tests look good and I love the graphs from the CBA so far. It gives me all the information automatically (Ah, Watts, temperature, voltage). I want to set up “Burst Mode” on the CC400/CBA setup so I can alternate between 2 currents with 2 associated durations. For instance, set the CBA to 5A, and set the CC400 to alternate between 15A continuous and 75A for short bursts. This will allow me to check that the cell can discharge at 2C continuous and 8C bursts. From that, I can look at my CBA output and get the voltage at 2C and 8C and calculate IR for each cell. Its gonna take a while, but hopefully I can catalog all of the batteries. I better get to work, there’s 160 cells to test!
Another big thing to announce that I’ve found some help on the mechanical side. A guy at work who goes to ITT has 2 classmates that wanted to do an EV project for their senior project. I talked with them a bit and they’ve decided to use my project as their final project. They’re mechanical engineering students and wanted something real world, not just a drawing of something. I’ll do the electrical, and help with ideas on the mechanical, but for the most part, that is their project. I’ll be working with Aston and Bryan on getting the bike finished by June 4th, when they have to present. We won’t have the bike street legal, but it’l be drivable. I can work on the lights/paint after its done.
I also decided to sell my AC15 and Curtis 1238-7501 (AKA AC18) combo. Why? well, I decided to buy an AC20 off a friend of mine. It’l fit in the same motor mount, but it’l stick out 1.5″ more. I sold my AC18 to a fellow board member on ELMoto, so I know it’l have a good home.
So this week, I removed the old motor and shipped it, and readied the chassis for the AC20 motor. Aston and Bryan came over and we made foam mockups of all of the batteries (160 of them) in groups of 55, 55, 25 and 25 to fit in the chassis. We think we can get everything in without cramming everything in. At this point it looks like those groupings will get us the 160 without any issues. We’ll probably go with steel for a battery box and make it somewhat easy to remove out of the top of the frame. We measured and everything looks like it’l fit. I’ll have some photos and drawings soon.
So this weekend, I’ll probably fit the motor in the bike and get some of the Headway batteries tested on my discharger. I’ll throw them on a single cell charger for a bit to charge them up, let them rest for 24 hours or so, and then do a burst mode discharge to ensure they can do 80A (8c) and estimate their IR. I want to catalogue the cells by barcode so I have a “file” for each cell. This will prove useful in matching as well as future use. I may decide to measure these cells again at a later date, so I have some real world data on % capacity loss after XX cycles.
Anyway, thats it for now. Hopefully we finish by June without any hiccups.

[frodus]

Blog Entry

So these 2 students helping me are kicking some ass. They’ve got just a little help from me with the electrical layout and basic ideas, but they’ve done awesome at getting the drawings done for my fabricator and making a nice finished drawing. There are only some minor changes we’ll do, but overall things look awesome!

Last week I purchased a 3/4″ thick 4′x5′ piece of UHMW (Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene) sheet. This will be the basis for the battery holders and covers. We’re making 5 packs. Two 11s5p packs, one 6s5p pack, one 4s5p pack and a 4s1p auxiliary 12V pack. The 4 large packs will be enclosed in an aluminum box which will be sealed to prevent water getting into the system. I’ve tested the batteries at 5C and do not think they’ll get too warm in this setup. I will get a fault/warning if the batteries are too hot (My BMS monitors temperature for each cell board).

Here are two drawings of the 11s5p packs we’ll build:






So we’ll be meeting this week to finalize any issues we’ve got and then send to my buddy Dave Boyd (formerly of Synkromotive) to route them out on his XYZ Router table. Once that is done, we’ll assemble and start fabricating the battery box and get bussbars waterjetted out of Copper sheet (1/16″).

We’re hoping to have the battery box, controller, motor and charger mounted and wired up by the last week of May. We’ll get it “running” but not street legal in time for their final presentation the first week of June.

[frodus]

EVFR 2.0: Battery holder prototypes finished
http://blog.evfr.net/?p=389

We got a first run prototype done, it's a 2x2 holder for my 12V battery.


So far so good!
Gonna try and get the bike to Dave's shop soon so I can start doing some more measurements done. The help from the students has ended, so I'll be getting help from Dave on the fabrication of the rest of the battery holders. I'm impressed with the way they turned out!

[frodus]

Little bit at a time. I got some new levers for my front brake (the old one has an adjustment piece that was rusting) and some other spare parts. The big thing I got was a heatsink from Noah that he did. He milled a second one for me that fits the curtis 1238 exactly. I'm very impressed. Right now I plan to mount it very low on the bike so that the fins kind of stick out from under the fairings where the exhaust was located. It will provide pretty good cooling. I might also consider the front behind the front wheel. Just need to see how my mockups fit.



Also got my old 28Ah 12V SLA's back from the guy that I sold them to and didn't use them, along with some parts he wants me to sell. Should make a nice test setup.

This week:
Hot glue and foam-board mockup of my battery pack and location of charger and controller.

[frodus]

Got my forks rebuilt last week and drilled out my triple clamp to attach a bar riser I found to mount some Spiegler superbike handlebars. Only 1 problem, the brake line isn't long enough, so I need to order some new lines. Kind of a bummer, but now I can upgrade to braided brake lines quick would be good since I'm running with 25+ year old lines.

Got me thinking about just replacing the front master cylinder too. They're harder to get parts for. Since I don't NEED anything immediately, I'll let things go until I get the bike running because I'll probably want to rebuild the front and rear brake slaves, replace brake lines, replace pads and put new brake fluid in there. It'l be a good nice weekend project in the spring.

But at least it's back together. I'll throw the old bars on there for now until I get the lines. Probably be a couple months because I don't really feel like rebuilding the brakes too. At least I can get back to the battery pack I keep putting off.

So here's the current state:

[frodus]

Unfortunately this project has stretched to over a year longer than intended due to starting a business, consulting people and having a girlfriend, etc. Couple that with the fact that I don't own some of the metalworking equipment I need to build my battery enclosure and holders, and time just runs away.

Because of that, the batteries sat in a box in my apartment.
So, one thing I was a little weary of over the last 6 months, is the health of my 180 cells. I charged them about 4-5 months ago one-by-one with an RC battery charger. They had never been charged before that and didn't apear to be consistently charged from the factory. After charging, they all had basically the same voltage (I know SOC isn't a real accurate measurement of SOC, but at the top/bottom, it's fairly accurate).

Last night, dreading the chore, I measured all 180 of my batteries with a handheld multimeter. Not one was below 3.28V and they only varied about 0.06V amongst all of the cells. No dead cells. None had a large self discharge. I didn't record the starting voltage for each cell bar-code, but I'm really happy with the fact that these things can sit for months and months and have no problems. When I do make the pack, I'll start things slowly and not hammer on them too much just to wear them in properly.

Since it's winter time, I've got some more free time, and I'm starting to work out the electrical system. A friend of mine is taking my extra frame and we're going to make some mockups of the battery pack. We were considering spray foam, that way we can cut it away as needed and fiture out the final dimensions of the pack. He's a welder so we should be ok on the enclosure side of things.

[frodus]

I’ve still been working on the 12V test pack and wiring while parts are fabricated. I got the BMS controller + cell boards talking and shutting off the charger correctly.

Working on a schematic, but here’s what I’ve got so far:
Ordered some optically isolated FETs to wire to the throttle since the Curtis I/O is not isolated. This will allow me to limit throttle as I reach my discharge current limit (DCL). It’s an analog output from the BMS, the more that output is driven, the less throttle I get. I can also limit regen by using another optically isolated FET on the CCL line and limit the Brake input.

Got the delta-q algorithms set up and wiring figured out. There’s an enable line that is grounded to B- when you want it to run, and ungrounded when you disable it. I control this with a little automotive relay connected to the HLIM (High Voltage Limit) on the BMS controller. This allows the BMS to turn the controller on/off when cells go high.

There’s a Relay inside the DeltaQ that turns on when you plug it in. I’ve taken the 12V always on from my Surepower DC-DC converter and wired that to the COM of the relay contacts. N/O goes to my V-Source of the BMS controller, so when it’s plugged in, it powers the BMS but nothing else. The N/C contacts go through the Ignition, and to the Key-switch input on the DC-DC converter. The switched output of the DC-DC goes to the V-Load input to power the BMS. It also goes to my 12V system (lights, signals, etc.).

The Curtis does its own Contactor control and pre-charge, but the BMS needs to be able to turn on/off the load. I can do that with DCL limiting throttle, but nothing disables the controller in case of a fault. I’m thinking I’ll use the LLIM line to drive a small 12V coil 150VDC contact to switch B+ and pin 1 (enable) of the controller.

I also wired up Canbus, changed the Elithion to ID 7E0 for OBD-II PIDs. I connected a Bluetooth-OBD-II dongle, paired with my Android tablet, started a program called Torque and imported a list of PIDs that I got from Elithion and added some Gauges. Screenshot:



So I’ve got the logic all figured out for the 4 main electronic pieces (controller, DC-DC, BMS and charger)… so after that, it’s on to the lighting/existing electrical.

Other pics of the bike below. Have fairings mounted, starting to sand and get ready for paint:

[frodus]

More pics....

Pic of the fibarglass faux tank (just 1/2 of it, used as a cover) with filled in gas cap:


Pic of the battery pack:

[RIPPERTON]

StreetFighter ! woo


I got a Kwaka ZX10 radial brake master cylinder for my R1.
Check the cylinder diameter before you buy so you know what you are doing to your hydraulic advantage. Its ok to change the ratio, just so you know how the brakes will feel ie,
Bigger cylinder = shorter stroke harder lever.
smaller cyclinder = longer stroke more brake power.
Dan