Y-pedal's two stage RC drive..........

[Ypedal]

Since my lipo packs have dual leads on the parallel harness, i have been wanting to double up the leads going to the board... and i am by no means a soldering expert, this task has been something i've dreaded for some time... but turns out it's really not that difficult after all !!

Replaced the stiffy stuff that it came with, used soft turnigy 10 awg wire !!

** crosses fingers it still works when i power it up lol..

[Ypedal]

Not, horrible, for an amateur ?

[Ypedal]

For the last few days i've been at it.. but took pictures along the way...

The 10 gauge silicone wires that exit the throttle box have to supply the controller with 100 amps, over a single wire, so i replaced the PP45's that were working ( without any problems btw.. ) .. and installed bullets instead.

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The trick here is to secure the pieces you need to solder while you work on them, a heavy pair of vice grips works well, just finger tight on the adjuster screw of the grips to hold the bullet..

Then with the iron nice and hot, I filled the bullets with solder..

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Also applied solder to the exposed strands of the wire, and with everything still hot.. put the iron between the 2 to liquify the solder and pushed the wire in all the way keeping the iron on there for a few more seconds, insuring a good fit.. then hold it long enough for the solder to set..

[Ypedal]

Then, drilled and mounted 2 switches..

[Ypedal]

The bigger one carries 24v for the ON/OFF power relay..

The smaller switch is for the 48v pre-charge resistor circuit that bypasses the relay and powers up the throttle box and controller.. and turns on the CA meter !

[Ypedal]

Gettin crowded in here...

[Ypedal]

Above, the yellow and green wires go to the spoke magnet sensor for speed and distance... I checked continuity on the sensor.. good... i checked the readings on the CA when i brushed the wires together and got speed readings... however after bolting everything up the speedometer does not work.. grrrrr...

--

See the mess of wires.. i had to sit back and think it thru one circuit at a time, and this does not come easy to me but i manage, 24v here, while this part needs 48v, 2 seperate pack with taps comming from harness A vs harness B... but.. luckily.. no sparks and no drama !! .. yet..

Covered the exposed ends of the Shunt with a few layers of thick PVC tape..

[AussieJester]

For a frame that is 'supposedly' and e-bike specific frame, they didnt think to long and hard about the whole placement of batteries scenario did they... Days counting since 'rebuild' and still running = 1
Would you like to place a bet on predicated number of days till the 3210 gives up the ghosts? too YPedal MaN? i have days 7-9 free everything below has been taken...
KiM

[Ypedal]

Heh Heh.. well.. i'm an equal opertunist, i give all my ebikes an equally hard time !

The bike is pretty well sorted out by now, what has not fried yet, will likely not fry for a while longer... the heat sinks will help too !!.. witch reminds me, i need to sent Matt some money !!..

To paypal i go !!

[oatnet]

For a frame that is 'supposedly' and e-bike specific frame, they didnt think to long and hard about the whole placement of batteries scenario did they...

Actually, Tidalforce thought long and hard about battery placement - they put the battery in the front wheel, got a patent on it that has since stifled exploration of this design. This location neatly balances against the weight of the rear hub motor. It also lowers the center of gravity, and keeps the front wheel well planted, so TF are always surefooted, easy handling bikes.

-JD

[recumpence]

For a frame that is 'supposedly' and e-bike specific frame, they didnt think to long and hard about the whole placement of batteries scenario did they...

Actually, Tidalforce thought long and hard about battery placement - they put the battery in the front wheel, got a patent on it that has since stifled exploration of this design. This location neatly balances against the weight of the rear hub motor. It also lowers the center of gravity, and keeps the front wheel well planted, so TF are always surefooted, easy handling bikes.

-JD

Hmm, I have to disagree. Mounting the battery in the front wheel and the motor in the rear wheel increases the moment of inertia drastically. Yes, it lowers the CG. But, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits when you are looking at nimble handling.

Matt

[Ypedal]

Nimble handling in the context of the market user, not that big a deal, most TF owners travel on paved roads at 20mph.. the bike looked right ( to me anyways ) and aparently worked very well for what it was intended.. Looked like a bicycle, worked like one too without rear racks or bulky frames. The TF was one of the biggest influences of me getting into ebikes in the first place, could not afford one at the time tho.. that goes back like 6 years !!

Got to ride the RC bike yesterday !! the speedometer works again, i had to set number of poles to 2 instead of 1 witch i can't quite explain because i only have one magnet on the spokes.. the sensor was salvaged from an ebrake kit so maybe that has something to do with it.. ( the sensor has 3 wires. i only used 2 )

Looks like the better connections may have fixed the surging throttle problem i was having, will need to run it a few more times to confirm that tho.

Switches work perfectly so far, one time i forgot to flip the relay switch and only had the resistor circuit powering the controller, the motor will turn a few revolutions then bog out.. kinda cool !!

The HV controller beeps every few seconds when powered up so no chance of forgetting the switch ON.. i plan to install some LED's soon..

Only glitch right now is that i'm reading Amp Hours, but in reverse !! lol.. i think that's because of the order in witch the leads on the shunt are wired up.. need to flip them around i think.

Almost crashed too !!!.. was running hot laps around the block and got to a corner going too fast and had to lock up the rear wheel a few times skidding sideways.. but i made it !!..

[AussieJester]

You can turn that annoying ass beeping off too YPedal MaN, theres a setting in the Castle Control software, simply uncheck it and the beeping stops..Just incase you missed it, i did till i got the V2 CC HV160 and the beeping
function was turned on...

I have also found a couple of things out since using these Castle Creations ESC... Firstly, if i power on the main
power leads first THEN switch on the power for the servo tester i get a HUMUNGOUS ripple spike-->

RiPPLE.JPG

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Also...if you switch the power to the servo tester OFF and not also Turn the main power leads OFF
prior to again switching the power to servo tester ON you get error code beepingits head off BUT the
ESC still works... I ALWAYS now switch power to servo tester first THEN power to ESC second
whether this had anything to do with the spikes i dont know, but doing it this way the highest recored
spike has been 1.97v opposed to 11v which by all accounts should of killed the ESC.

KiM

[Ypedal]

I actually like the beep, it's a good " Hey.. i'm ready.. " reminder.. like when you have your fingers in the chains messing with something .. and hear Beep... yeah..

The ripple thing, i don't quite get, i have the fechter throttle box not a servo tester, when i power up the box the controller also powers up, the F box has a big bank of caps in it that i charge up slowly thru the resistor then clamp on the relay circuit... so far so good.

[AussieJester]

And once again for the record i will say those Fechter boxes are terrible (with all due respect to Mr Fechter) get rid of it ASAP if you want controllable unflattering throttle control, i was shocked when i first read you still used it, even after the mods Fechter gave me to do to it, was still 100% worse than a servo tester AND i guess you havent read the current limiting on them does more harm than good to the ESC?

KiM

[Hillhater]

...they put the battery in the front wheel, got a patent on it that has since stifled exploration of this design.

but patents dont prevent individuals using those ideas, ..and i dont recall many private builds with batteries in the front wheel. ! ..I wonder why ??

..Lucky for us they got that patent though,...or some other foolish Ebike companies may have copied it !

[EVTodd]

...they put the battery in the front wheel, got a patent on it that has since stifled exploration of this design.

but patents dont prevent individuals using those ideas, ..and i dont recall many private builds with batteries in the front wheel. ! ..I wonder why ??

..Lucky for us they got that patent though,...or some other foolish Ebike companies may have copied it !

Don't forget that they had to issue a recall on those wheels too.

[Ypedal]

I know of one guy who rode off a curb and had a front fork failure, broke a leg.. I still think that done right, that front hub battery thing was a good idea in certain situations, the weight does not spin, just the shell does..

About the servo tester / Fechter box, i've never used the limitter ( knob was always set to 100 % ! ) .. but that has been disabled now, so it acts like a caps box and throttle box, I got too many cakes in the oven to worry about that right now, as long as she runs reliably i'm ok with a less than ideal/perfect throttle response for now.

Today, i get to work on the Anderson ballance bracket making.. and covering that white tape on the rear pack.

[oatnet]

but patents dont prevent individuals using those ideas, ..and i dont recall many private builds with batteries in the front wheel. ! ..I wonder why ??

It is pretty damn hard for a private person to manufacture a front hub to that holds batteries.

[url]..Lucky for us they got that patent though,...or some other foolish Ebike companies may have copied it ![/url]

E+ has leased the rights, and is currently building bikes with front hub battery/rear hub motor.

You say it is foolish... Have you ever ridden a TF or an E+? Given your comment I would bet dollars to donuts that you have not, whereas I've put thousands of miles on TF/E+ bikes, on top of having built/ridden dozens of my own ebikes, and sampled a huge number of other products. Based on that experience, I assert that TF/E+ are the most incredibly stable, balanced commuter ebikes I have ridden. I saw recumpence talking about the moment of inertia... Frankly I don't think that is an issue on a commuter ebike , I maintain that this format is the most stable hubbie configuration, and with the low COG I lean those bikes way way over in turns, and even new folks can balance on them while stopped. In fact, this format is clearly superior to the rear-hub/rear-battery configuration used by the majority of bikes on this site, which dangerously offloads the front wheel.

TF is my first recommendation to Neophytes who wants a reliable commuter but doesn't have the skills to build their own. A2B is a close second; Stealth and Opti are quality too but not in the typical neophyte budget. They are built to American quality standards, and have the most sophisticated eBike control scheme on the market - which also makes them the most silent EV out there - a 9c sounds like a Harley in comparison.

I love the design, but the company has held it back, they have done little to update it. They still use NiMh, only 36v9.5ah of it, and the bikes are restricted to 1000w, and do @26mph unassisted. Not a HotRod, HyperMiler, or trials bike to impress the bragging-rights crowd, but for a commuter the bikes run every day without fiddling.

The TF was one of the biggest influences of me getting into ebikes in the first place, could not afford one at the time tho.. that goes back like 6 years !!

I wanted one back then too , but at the time I couldn't imagine spending $2,500 on a bicycle. That led to me building my own, frying tons of stuff, and spending crazy $$$$... $2,500 sounds cheap now, If I had just bought one to start, I would have stuck with it and saved tons of $$$ and effort building my own, but I wouldn't have learned a fraction of what I know now.

Don't forget that they had to issue a recall on those wheels too.

Are referring to the early recall of (100) S-750's that were built with defective Spokes? Pretty small recall, that speaks more to a supplier issue than the underlying design issue.

-JD

[Ypedal]

Long overdue update time, Back in July i received these AWSOME heat sinks from recumpence !!!

[Ypedal]

I had to remove the belt pulley and also remove the motor from the mount to install the heat sinks and had been putting it off since the RC bike was still missing half it's Lipo packs borrowed for the U2 concert a few weeks ago.. however.. tonight was the night !

After installing the heat sinks, it became impossible to mount the belt, i had to take it all apart again and trip 2 pieces off from one of them in order to slide the motor up high enough to mount the motor properly ..

I hate hacking such beautiful parts, but it had to be done..

[Ypedal]

[Ypedal]

This thing looks so cool, pictures do not do it justice..

[recumpence]

I am curious to see what these do for your motor temp.

Matt

[karma]

ypedal did you use any thermal heat transfer Compound?