Another RG250 with Colossus Motor

[markobetti]

Ok after weeks of work and jury duty getting in the way I have finally got to the next step....

The battery mounting plates have arrived and I will be constructing the pack over the weekend.
Just to show how this will mount up I took some photos today...

Battery Mounts by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mounts by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mounts by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mounts by Splinter, on Flickr

That should give you an idea on how the pack goes together and how it will mount up.

WOW, BEAUTIFULL ... Splint....Really clever

[SplinterOz]

Thx guys more updates today after I spend most of it in the shop.

[SplinterOz]

OK I was wrong about the material. Luke first talked to the material suppliers about it and they were talking Acetyl. What they settled on however is Polyethylene (High-density polyethylene I believe). I will get the invoice from the guys next week and confirm. They were supplied the weight of the cells and the number of mounting points and this was the recommendation.

All four plates weight 3.6kg each plate is 15mm thick.

[SplinterOz]

Ok here is the plates in place... will be building the spacers etc early this week and wiring up the battery later this week...


Battery Mount position by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mount position by Splinter, on Flickr

[jonescg]

As much as they sag, are heavy and low energy density, Headways sure are easy to put together. Looking good mate!

[SplinterOz]

As much as they sag, are heavy and low energy density, Headways sure are easy to put together. Looking good mate!

Other than all those bad things... I am looking forward to having the full pack running.

[SplinterOz]

Ok so I have the bike home with some threaded rod, bolt and spacers to work out the layout of all the components on the bike.

Here is a shot of the way the plates have been machined to hold the batteries in place.

Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr


Note the spacers so all the pressure is not on the batteries themselves.

Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr


See they will mount straight through.

Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr

Setup with all batteries in place so I can calculate and drawup the electrical connections.

Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Mount Size Layout by Splinter, on Flickr

Bike still feels light easy to move and lift of the stand etc....

[jonescg]

Tony, she looks awesome! Very neat job
You still have room for an on-board charger under the tank? (Which I still haven't sent you the mould for after Christmas OK?)

Or is that where the controller goes? Either way, it looks very professional.

[SplinterOz]

Current plan has the BMS and Controller under the tank... 12v system behind the battery pack.. Charger somewhere if I can fit it.. otherwise off board.
That is the main reason it is home so I can layout all of the other components. Pieces of the jigsaw are fitting together.

[SplinterOz]

Now I have the bike and the battery pack back home I am working on how I will fit all the components into the system.

Here is a shot showing the BMS, contactors and fuse. They will all fit nicely on top of the centre battery plates.

BMS and controller layout by Splinter, on Flickr

Now I have replaced the BMS etc with a plastic box of about the same size to see if the controller fits... and yep it looks good.

BMS and controller layout by Splinter, on Flickr


BMS and controller layout by Splinter, on Flickr

The tank (hollowed out) will fit well over all that. I plan to put all the 12v gear in the gap above the rear shock absorber.

Any comments? Do you think it will work that way?

[voicecoils]

I think it's looking sweet Tony!

I like the battery holder shape as well, it gives a bit of style instead of just a honkin' big box.

Will you keep the bike's full fairings or will the battery's be visible?

[Arlo1]

More video!

[AussieJester]

I agree with voicecoils its looking sweet mate!

KiM

[SplinterOz]

voicecoils, AussieJester, Arlo1. Thanks guys I am really happy with the work so far.

voicecoils I am getting all the fairings painted and most of the time the bike will have them all on. However the side and bellypan fairings are really easy to drop off and I will be doing that often or "show and tell"

Arlo1 I might do a video describing the pack in the bike and my options for the other components no more riding videos until I get all this stuff mounted properly.

[Arlo1]

Arlo1 I might do a video describing the pack in the bike and my options for the other components no more riding videos until I get all this stuff mounted properly.

Come on come on come on. You and me are the only ones working on making something out of colossus!

[SplinterOz]

Arlo1 you sound like black board from an old kids show over here.

"Hurry up... Hurry up"

[SplinterOz]

Arlo1 just for you...

I realized that you guys have not seen these two videos...

Friend on board for the first time


Just a little ride down the street.

[SplinterOz]

Ok so I have the connectors designed and the outer plates slightly modified to fit better. I will be using 3mm Aluminum for the battery connectors and they will be all laser cut. This should all be ready for me by Wed next week ready for a long weekend.

You will see I have increased the gap between the plates...


Battery Holder Designs by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery Holder Designs by Splinter, on Flickr

Note the green highlight is the outer battery holder plates.

[Dreddydave]

This is the first time I've seen it and I'm very impressed! I'll keep an eye on this one; great job!

[SplinterOz]

Next week is Australia Day. This year it falls on a Thursday and in the tradition of all hard working Australians I plan to take Friday off as flex time. This gives me 4 days straight to get a huge amount done on the bike.

The next major task is to build the final battery pack 72 volts and 50 amp hours of Headway batteries. Luke and I have designed the layout and holders for these and we got the first try a month ago. We needed to make some minor adjustments to the outer plates and also design the electrical connectors. I made a small video on the battery layout so you can see how it all goes.



My CAD work (Cardboard Aided Design) was put into a real CAD system by Luke and everything looks sweet.


This weekend I cleaned up the frame, pulled out the motor that was in the way and charged the batteries (man did that take some time).


Here is the bike ready for major work next weekend. I am hoping to complete the following:

• battery pack constructed and fitted to bike
  
• all battery sense wires connected to the battery pack
  
• fuses mounted
  
• contactors mounted
  
• BMS placed in a case and plugs wired
  
• BMS mounted

This would then only leave the following tasks:

• Controller mounted
  
• Water cooling plumbing and mounting
  
• 12 volt fuse and battery setup
  
• 12 volt wiring
  
• All panel work complete

I can see the end of the tunnel.

[SplinterOz]

Ok so the plates have only just arrived (don't ask) and not all of them yet (don't ask again).

However we have enough to test assemble the pack outside the bike and get all the measurements for all the spacer rods etc.


Battery test construction by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery test construction by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery test construction by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery test construction by Splinter, on Flickr


Battery test construction by Splinter, on Flickr

Last one shows the spacing between the 3mm aluminum plate and the plastic.

[markobetti]

Beautifull! beautifull , i like it very much. The design is great and it will fit like a charm on the bike

[SplinterOz]

I will be putting the full pack into the bike next weekend however.. I have had some small progress this week. Between putting in about 60hours each week for the last two weeks and sleeping I have done very little.

However I did get into LiPo! No I am not replacing my nice Headway pack... but I needed a battery pack to start building all my wiring. So three 6S RC packs and some wiring, some sparks and some swearing I have a pack with enough volts to drive all I need for testing.


Test Lipo Pack by Splinter, on Flickr

That has allowed me to test a switch/light combo for the controller turn on. I picked up a pushbutton switch a while back with a illuminated green ring. The ring is just a LED with no load resisters so it runs straight out of the Kelly. 4 Wires pack positive to NO switch to controller on and the two for the LED.


Controller Switch - Off by Splinter, on Flickr


Controller Switch - On by Splinter, on Flickr

I plan to complete my turn on circuit and testing it this week. Next week the last of the battery plates and spacers arrive so I should have the full pack and enough wiring to safely turn it on and off and go for a ride

[jonescg]

Must be so frustrating being so close yet still can't get it to turn a wheel! So the LiPo was just to make sure the Kelly fires up and turns the motor, while testing all the 12 V stuff?

I highly recommend a fuse box from Eastern Beaver (if you haven't already got one from there). And never ground the low voltage wiring. One stray wire and your BMS transistors tend to pop when anything over 4 V hits them.

[SplinterOz]

Yep got the beaver fuse box. Not really to spin the motor but to do all the DC/DC setup, turn on circuit and the control lights out of the controller. Although these batteries would turn the wheel .

Yep the frame has neither pack or 12 volt earthed. That is the other thing to get the wiring loom complete.