Semi-Recumbent Recycled-Parts Cargo eBike: "CrazyBike2"

[amberwolf]

Since changing the rear wheel, it has ridden smoother than since just before the DeathRace in April. On the way there, the trailer ride bent the rear wheel some, and to make it rideable I had to loosen spokes, so that's probably the root cause of the spoke failures.

It *feels* several MPH faster than it has since then, though it is not actually any different in speed--it's just that the hop in the other wheel was so bad that it made the bike feel like I was going slower over a really bumpy road. It's very smooth now, like it used to be, but I had forgotten how smooth it rode before, so it's like a new bike.


I also noticed that while I had the wheel problems, my Wh/mile was higher than before, from 28-30Wh/mile, reaching up past that while I had the wheel-frame rubbing going on. Now it is back down to 24-26Wh/mile on longer stretches, and around 26-28Wh/mile on my work commute with lots of stops/starts.


I finally remembered to change the main screen to Watts instead of Amps on the lower left of teh CA, which for a while didn't even remember was possible, and thought odd.

On today's non-work trip, it was a bit windy, headwinds mostly, on the outbound part, and maintaining around 19.5-20MPH took 400-500W.

On the homebound part, there was nearly no wind, so it only took about half that for the same speed, which shows that the new Grin simulator
http://www.ebikes.ca/simulator3-2/
is pretty accurate:

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except for the Wh/mile figure--but that may well be off because of the many stops/starts I have to make, which are very inefficient and eat up probably as much power as the rest of the trip does.

Figures from today's trip:
26m 29s trip time
6.656miles
21.6mph max (momentary a couple of times getting into traffic, all the cruising was held as close as possible to 19.8MPH to match the simulator while I watched the watts as much as I could with traffic)
15.0mph avg

25.2Wh/mile
3.243Ah (3.3365Ah)
172.26Wh
59.49Amax

56.6Vstart
52.8Vrest
48.4Vmin

2.8% Regen
0.0911Ah Regen
-7.74A peak Regen

Most of the extra two miles on this trip vs my typical work commute were non-stop at cruising speed, so that is likely why the Wh/mile reading is up to two Wh/mile less than my usual commute, despite being a slightly higher average speed.

[amberwolf]

So far still running about the same Wh/mile. Even fully loaded with dog food and groceries, to the tune of about 85lbs cargo (more than most people's entire bike weighs!), and lots of stops/starts that eat up power (especially with heavy loads), I still got 28.5Wh/mile over a 7-mile round trip today. Don't have full stats, as the bike is recharging now.

Last night on teh way home form work, my CFL headlight failed, and idle current usage went up to almost 2A (from about 0.47A typical). The rear one still worked as brightly as normal, so it didnt' do anything to my laptop power supply used as a DC-DC to add 19V to the traction pack for running the CFLs, but the front didnt' work at all, but smelled fine.

When I got home, I screwed another CFL in there and it worked fine, so the socket's ok, as is the wiring. So just to see what happens, I put the other CFL in my regular wall-powered lamp, turned it on, and it lit up ok for way less than a second before KERZAAAPPPPP and blue sparks inside the base of the CFL, and me flipping the wall switch right off.

I'm guessing that when I cut it open I won't find much salvageable inside, but we'll see, once I have time to do that. It'll be interesting to see if I can still tell what failed on the road (my guess is an electrolytic cap boiling it's guts out, or physically having vibrated loose off the board, preventing the internal DC-DC ballast from working right).


In addition, by the time I reached my front door last night, the NiMH lighting pack was basically dead--no light from the halogen and turn signals wouldnt' even TRY to light up, nor would the LED brakelight. It'd been a bit dim when I started out from work, a bit more than 2 miles before, and started to nosedive about a quarter mile from home.

Total NiMH pack voltage was something like 4V by the time I disconnected it from the lights. Supposed to be 12V nominal, 10V minimum (10 cells). I recharged it, and it took about 16Ah to do it (for a nominally 13Ah pack), and it didn't get absurdly hot or blow up or anything. Good thing it started out as damaged before I got it, or I'd feel *really* bad about it.


Anyhow, it appears to be still working normally, with a nominal floating voltage of 13.1V after a little bit of use today for turn signals and brake light, down from about 13.4V once it cooled down from charging.

[amberwolf]

So far the NiMH pack hasn't kaplooyeed or anything.

Today I loaded up cargo in a way I rarely try--across the pods over the rear wheel:

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I dont' usually do it because it has to be very stiff to work, and msot of what I carry is bags of things like dog food, for the stuff that is too big to fit in the pods directly.

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The wheel sticks up above the tops of the pods a couple of inches, so anything I put across the pods has to be lifted up at least that far, so it doesn't rub on the tire as I ride, and has clearance for bumps (which deform the tire a bit, and also if big enough will slightly flex the cargo pod rails downward enough to possibly have the stuff across the pods hit the tire, if the weight is sufficient).

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It's something I keep thinking I should change, but never get around to. Mostly since it means drilling new bolt holes in the pods to line up with the ones in the rails, but lower down. Also because the pod lids will then hit the back of the seat when opening them, and won't be fully openable anymore, unless I move the pods back a few inches at the same time.

That isn't practical, because it would put the majority of the weight in them behind the rear axle and put a longer lever force on the pod rails, reducing my carrying capacity.

That won't be an issue with the new bike, since it is designed specifically around this kind of setup, but CrazyBike2 is just a pile of experiments that are at least partly successful, and added together they still work, they way they are. Changing things on it sometimes results in drastic misapplications of force in unintended ways, so I try not to unless I plan it out carefully.


Once I have the new bike available, I can experiment more with CB2, or vice-versa, and still have something functionally useful to ride around on that is also comfortable, unlike DayGlo Avenger and the rest of the "normal" bikes.



Oh, as an aside, the cargo is three defective dog crate cages that were being thrown away. Why are they defective? Well...

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They're kind of topless. Somehow the factory "forgot" to install tops on all three of them. Made in China, of course. Apparently the person that got rid of them said they were clearanced out for $40 on the website they got them from (typically this kind of thing is two or three times that cost), with free shipping. Now we know why.

But I can easily turn three of them into two good ones, by taking the two long sides off of one of them, and using them as tops for the other two, using the loop-hooks off the first crate, or if necessary tied together with loops of thick steel wire from an old coat hanger.

They're too small for most of my dogs, but Fred fits just fine, and Bonnie can use one if she has to. Thus I now have "containment" for 4 of the 5 dogs, should I need to do that for any reason. Of course, it's not practical to put Loki or Nana in any kennel without me around for more than maybe an hour, or they'll tear it up trying to get out. One of these days I'll have to fix that by welding one up out of some of that old steel tubing and old bike frame parts and such, that'd look more like a jail cell than a crate.

[amberwolf]

All of my projects are now on indefinite hold until the hostile takeover of Endless Sphere is resolved in a satisfactory manner, or a satisfactory replacement forum is started and my data is moved to it.

[amberwolf]

More later once I have time to troubleshoot it, but I suddenly had a problem tonight, just as I was about to leave work after closing time, with 80lbs of dog food on the bike.

Under a startup load (typically 60A+ for an instant), the battery would cut out as if it hit LVC, and require actually disconnecting the main power plug at the BMS from the battery itself, in order to reset it. It'd run fine just spinning the wheel, even with the bike weight on it, skidding on the ground, but if I tried to ride the bike, or have the load on the wheel enough to keep it from skidding/spinning, it'd cut out completely.

When I have hit LVC on it during the capacity testing I did, it only had to have the pack/BMS disconnected from the bike to reset it, IIRC (but i'd have to go back and check previous posts about that to be sure).

Unplugging the cell balance taps didnt' work, either, as I couldn't even get it to reset with them disconnected, while I was trying to do this to get home. It did work later, once I got home.

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Thankfully the manager I was closing with had had motorcycle trouble (wouldn't start, so he couldn't ride it to work) and was being picked up by his family in a small wagon/suv type vehicle, so they took the dogfood, one of hte sidepods, and the battery to my house for me, and I pedalled CrazyBike2 home the ~2.2 miles, at about 8-10MPH most of the way, with frequent rest stops.

I didn't really feel any extra drag from the motor, and I even tried it with it unplugged from the phase wires on the controler just to see if it made a difference. Nope, just a really heavy bike that's not geared right for pedalling by itself.

I haven't pedalled in MONTHS due to my ankle and then my leg/ankle injuries, so this was exhausting on top of already being wiped out from work (shuffling a couple of tons of dog food bags around on stocking carts and stocking it on shelves, checking expiration dates, etc., for several hours).

Plus the chain is too long for really low gears, as I was using it only to add to the motor assist at higher speeds, last time I had planned on using it (at the race), so it would tangle in the derailer and jam the derailer against the rear cassette every 1/8 mile or so. I didn't have my chain tool with me, as I no longer carry my good tools or any of them that I only have one of, after having lost all my other tools earlier this year by carrying my best and unique tools with me all the time. So I couldn't shorten the chain to fix the problem.

I also couldn't shift while riding, as the derailer would jam then, too, for reason i couldnt' determine. Too loose a chain, I suppose. So I had to just set it in a gear I could startup from, and that was just about the lowest I could get it to, without such a loose chain that it would fold up the derailer again. Middle gear on front, next to highest on rear (for some reason, going lower in gear in back made the problem much worse).


Once home and after feeding the dogs, I started trying to measure at the balance taps for voltages, but my hands are so unsteady from being exhausted that I can't get good readings. Just typing all this is quite the effort, but I can't sleep due to worrying about the fate of ES
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30607
after the buyout debacle began.


Since I would like to use the battery to ride with to work tomorrow, I put it on the charger and will leave it to run and hopefully balance some overnight, even though this will take away some evidence of what might be wrong. I'm sure I can fix that just by running a high load on the pack. But I doubt it will just work again like this, so another plan had to be hatched for my commute, more later in the post.

I suspect it's one of those strings that was running low during the discharge/capacity tests, or another runt cell coming to light after pushing the pack like I have been.


I PMd and emailed Cell_man (a couple of days or more ago) to see what cost of new cells similar to what's in here might be, in case I need several (or more) to fix it (though mostly to repair another member's pack if it turns out to be cells on his similarly-built pack, once it arrives here and I can get to testing it). No response from CM yet, but I know he has some pretty busy times, sometimes.


For now, CB2 is still partly disassembled, electrically, with the battery box off the bike and just charging up.

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I dug out the old pair of 24V NiMH packs, and am recharging them now (actually I think they finished halfway thru me typing this, cuz it's taking so long), but I cant' find the stuff I'd need to mount them on CrazyBIke2, or my power cable extension to allow mounting them in a rear pod. Hachi agrees they needed charging, at least.

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Plus, while stopped to fix the chain one of the many times it jammed, I knocked CB2 over and that broke the mirror off again.

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This time it's missing a piece, too, that I couldn't find on the sidewalk or pavement. I'll *have* to cut a new piece of mirror for it now, out of some other mirror.

So I dug out DayGlo Avenger, and spent an hour or so checking it and fixing things I forgot to fix before I put it away. Plus, the rear tire had mysteriously gone flat for no reason I could see, so I aired it up again and about a second after I was done it began hissing, as it has a defect on the valve stem/rubber interface.

That sucks, as I thought I was done with all that crap, since I have been using the thick Slime brand tubes they sent me as replacments a while back. Oh, well, I guess age probably got to them, as I think they might be 3 years old or more...whenever it was that my liner was punctured by the roofing nail and they warranty-replaced them. Or maybe this is the newer Slime tube I got as a spare, much later on? I can't remember.

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Anyway, I don't have another good 26" tube that I can find, and I can't patch the valve stem. Well, I think there's a good one on The Velcro Eclipse, but that bike is buried in the bakc of the "bike room" right now, and it'd take me hours to get it out. So I dug out the 26" "airless" rear wheel I got off a Freecycled bike a year or two ago, and put that on there, since it was in an easy-to-access closet of tires and wheels.

I can stick the NiMH in DGA's pod easy, as it already has a cable running in there for it, no extension needed. So once I get done posting this, I'll go test the NiMH on DGA and make sure it works so I can use it to get to work in the morning.

Even if it doesnt' work or work well, I can at least still pedal DGA liek a regular bike without all the problems I have on CB2 with that right now, and it still has a cargo pod on it to hold the stuff I need for work (since I cant' take my backpack in anymore, and I have to leave the bike locked up outside instead of bringing it inside, these days).

More data/etc on the Vpower/CammyCC battery later.

[Solcar]

Hope you get the DGA up and running quick enough. This forum trouble has been taking a lot of time and I hate such distractions that hinder getting real things worked on.

[amberwolf]

DGA is up; I got it going after a few involuntary naps (one while standing up outside waiting for the dogs to do their potty thing, and I fell over into the wall and woke up on the ground). Rode it to work today and back home without issue, using the NiMH packs.


Regarding fixing the Vpower pack, Cell_man doesnt' carry this type, which I kinda expected, but it was worth a shot. I still have some PMs from another member discussing getting some used cells, but I am so tired that I can't recall just now who it was, and I'll have to dig thru my PM folders when I get that far in diagnosing the pack.

After working today and then spending way more time than I'd like (or can spare) checking up on recent events here on ES, I've not yet had time to do cell-level checks, but the pack charges up to it's normal nominal voltages just fine, and it cycles thru balancing/re-topping-off, keeping the bleeding resistors in the BMS warm, though I haven't yet caught it actually restarting the charger, it must be doing so periodically.

For now, CB2 is just leaning against the wall in the living room, like in the pic above with Nana in it.

[Solcar]

That's a relief about the DGA making it successfully into service.

Involuntary naps can get pretty annoying. I often wake up and discover that I've eaten my food, not to mention the drooling.

CB2 has taken its sculptural place among the wall artwork for now. BTW, if you get a chance, check your Google email.

[amberwolf]

The good thing is I have never woken up to find my food eaten *by the dogs*, though usually the drool is theirs, as they wait for me to give them tidbits (which I don't do, but they still wait).

I'd hoped to get back to the Vpower pack today, which is still on the charger for balancing (I hope), but several things intervened. If I get done with making dinner soon enough, I may still have time to at least set up for testing it out. (Dinner is a big pot of chili, which will be food for several days, so the prep time is worth it as it saves me time and money in the long run:

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Makes a good portable lunch for work, too).

[Solcar]

The good thing is I have never woken up to find my food eaten *by the dogs*, though usually the drool is theirs, as they wait for me to give them tidbits (which I don't do, but they still wait).

LOL

I'd hoped to get back to the Vpower pack today, which is still on the charger for balancing (I hope), but several things intervened. If I get done with making dinner soon enough, I may still have time to at least set up for testing it out. (Dinner is a big pot of chili, which will be food for several days, so the prep time is worth it as it saves me time and money in the long run:

DSC04627.JPG

DSC04629.JPG

Makes a good portable lunch for work, too).

Food preparation and other chores interfere with my ability to work on my electric bicycle project in a similar way. However, nutritious food is essential, so there is no choice, and that chili sounds awfully good.

[amberwolf]

It is...still eating on that pot of it. NOM NOM NOM


Crossposted from another unrelated thread, a random thought or two about CB2 and parking it outside:


Having my CrazyBike2 parked outside the store I work in actually brings in people just because they stopped to look at it, even though they have no other reason to come in (either no pets or they don't buy stuff for theirs at pet stores, only grocery stores).

We've gotten a number of new customers just because my bike is out there. (some of them also come in to find the maker to talk, but I usually don't ahve time right then...I need to make up some cards for ES with my thread links on them!)


But if I lock it to the only possible place out there (a handicapped parking space sign post), it's sitting right in the sun. It's already severely faded the dayglo vest and pink shirt draped over the seat back for visibility, to near uselessness, just in the time since April.

Another problem is that the cargo pod, even though it's insulated with thick styrofoam inside, doesn't keep things very cold (for lunch) with the sun shining right on it all day, even though it's white. If I put an extra 2liter bottle of frozen water in there plus several small gel ice packs, all wrapped in reflective silvered bubble wrap, it'll stay cold till lunchtime, but is usually melted by the time I go home, regardless of tiem of day I start and leave. The 2liter of icewater is usually at least 1/2 to 2/3 water by then.


In the same vein, the black battery box in the frame gets so hot that I'm afraid it's damaging the pack, especially after the recent battery failure:
viewtopic.php?p=442006#p442006
Sometimes it wont' even power on correctly at first unless I disconnect the main power lead from the pack to the BMS inside the box, to reset it, because it's so hot in there. Usually I can just open the lid to cool it a minute and it works, but sometimes requires the reset.


So I've taken to parking it in the shade against the wall, and just cable-locking thru the front wheel and thru the frame and pedal chainrings. it is not ideal, but it is so big and heavy (as much as i myself weigh!) I doubt anyone will try to walk off with it, and they can't just ride off on it without cutting the lock first. It's visible thru the front windows of the store from inside, so it's a little safer than some places.

I do wish we had a bike rack or other lockup, but if we did they'd probably put it around the side or something useless, where it would just end up with remnants of stolen bikes and locks hanging off of it for years, like so many racks not directly in front of storefronts do.



I wish I could take pics of it (and DGA with the trailer, particularly when I bring the dogs) parked there, but no photography or video by employees is allowed on the premises (also not supposed to be done by customers, but that's harder to enforce).

[Solcar]

It is...still eating on that pot of it. NOM NOM NOM

That's cool how the bike is a customer draw and a conversation piece. It's an advantage of not having stealth.

I was riding up to the store on the bike trail just yesterday and noticed a bike locked way around back on the bike rack, like you were saying! I was thinking then how vulnerable it looked there. I happen to have the view of zero theft tolerance. I would feel wrong for putting a nicer bike like was there just out of fear of possibly facilitating a theft.

At the store, I put the bike down a ways on the store sidewalk and hope that it will not get a comment from the police. I really hate walking anyway, and like the bike pretty close to the store entrance. It means that there isn't anything except maybe a cart to lock it to, and I'm a bit reluctant to cable it to a cart like that, though maybe it could make sense.

Heat is killer of batteries, from what I understand. I prefer lowered capacity from a cold battery so long as the total life is longer. I have some 9V batteries that have been in the freezer for several years now.

[amberwolf]

At Safeway, when it is nearing dark, I do not use their bike rack because it is way out past all their carts and vending machines, where people walk past but it is not visible from the store at all. I'll often use it in daytime because everyone can see it from the parking lot where most people park.

But when I am not using that, I lock it to the No Parking sign on the sidewalk just outside and away from the other entrance. Once, there was an officer parked in that No Parking Fire Lane area writing up paperwork for something, and I asked him about that. He said that there's no law regarding locking bikes up to signposts like that. As long as I'm not posting signs of my own on the post, or defacing it, there is no reason to worry, unless the property owners themselves take issue with it, which he has only seen a couple of times over the last three decades. Same goes for Handicapped Parking signs (whcih is what I had been lockign up to in front of work these last few months).


Now it's back the melty outside for some more fun tossing stuff over into the alley for bulk pickup....but I'm using the sprinklers while I'm out there to cool it off a lot (it's also breezy, despite the 108F)

[Solcar]

That's good to hear about it generally being OK to lock bikes to signposts. I did it this summer a couple of times at a couple of stores.

At least you didn't say that you were melty from exposure to water! (Wizard of OZ allusion)

[amberwolf]

Forutnately not, though i am melty in the brain right now. it's just too hot and i am very tired, but i'm not done yet. Pretty far in, almost done, only a few hours left to go probably. maybe finish by dark, maybe not, gotta rest a bit first. Even the dogs are tired just from watching me.

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Most of the stuff above is on the other side ofthe vfence, in the alley, but lots of little bits on the ground that won't just rake up, or sweep up into a dust pan, so ihave to pick them up a bit at a time.

easier to see what's left in this pic:

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with the only really big pile left being all recyclables, which i am going to stick in the not-yet-shredded plasticky type dog food bags, and store in the new shed or the back room until i have time to take them to a recycler for whatever cash it's worth. Most is aluminum, cans or stuff off electronics, plus a van's twisted alloy running board and a part of a car alloy chassis beam. Some other stuff is steel of various types, which I think i'm just going to put into the blue city recycle bin, as it is not worth enough in such small quantities to be worth me hauling it down there.

Also a cart of old very dead SLA batteries, in teh background, that I can barely drag along.

A few bits i may keep, after all, as I ended up with a little bit of space left. I did decide to keep the old Honda Scooter chassis/engine, although I don't know why,there is just something niggling at me about it....



Remember those trees I transplanted and thought I had killed? Well, I'm glad I didn't dig them back out and toss them, because they started finally growing new leaves, at least on two of them. The middle one might actually be dead; no sign of revival yet.

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[Solcar]

LOL, dogs can be so funny. Getting it all done bit by bit. I'm surprised that it is still hitting close to 110 there. Here the temperatures are on the way down in anticipation of fall. The map http://weather.yahoo.com/img/na_fcsthi_440_mdy_y.html indicates that the arctic is cooling off from declining daily sunlight duration.

Cool about the trees sprounting new leaves. They have the cooler part of the year coming up to help.

Those trees to the left of your place look pretty lush.

[amberwolf]

Some trees around here are pretty nice, but they can afford to water them generously all the time (I can't...sometimes I do good just keeping them alive).

I'd love it to get cooler faster but it mostly doesn't because the humidity goes up this time of year and seals the heat in. Otherwise it *would* get cooler. Instead, it clears up in daytime, then near sunset it begins to cloud up, sometimes just patchy and sometimes high altitude fogginess, and overnight it tends to stay mostly cloudy with the really thin foggy clouds that you can almost see really bright stars thru. just enough to hold the heat in.



Oh, and I almost forgot--the vpower pack is nearly finished charging that cell group. If I turn off the single-cell charger (sorenson) and disconnect it, it sits at 3.34V steady, even after a couple of hours on the meter. It's now continuing the charge, at 500mA (I haven't had time to watch it for the 1A charge, so ti's just gonna have to take longer). I may not have time to test it on the bike or bench under load today, though.

[Solcar]

I see what you mean about the rising humidity.

It'd be cool if the Vpower pack can behave itself.

[amberwolf]

So after several successful runs on DayGlo Avenger, the Vpower pack appears to be "well" again. I have not yet done a range test on it, because DGA's rear wheel is about to taco itself:
viewtopic.php?p=451687#p451687

I have to work tomorrow, so rather than futzing around with DGA's wheel, I decided to just put the pack back on CB2 since that's "all" that was wrong with CB2--no battery.

Naturally, I forgot about several other "little" things because of the problem with the pack the night it failed, the hard trip home pedalling, and the all-nighter getting DGA back up and running.

The mirror is broken off again. I forget how that happened; I think it fell over as I was opening the front door, landing on the mirror first. Since the mirror is also now missing one of the broken pieces, and I'd need to cut a new mirror for it, I moved the mirror over from DGA, seatclamp and all:

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It was quick and easy; I left the old mirror mount on there because I will cut the new mirror for it at some point (have to find my glass cutter scoring tool and relearn how to use it).

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I moved the CA back over (putting it on the left of the stem this time, so it's closer to the mirror for a marginally quicker glance at it for data when checking mirror if I need to), and that was easy, but the CA has developed a button problem while it was on DGA. I don't know what's wrong inside, but the buttons got intermittent, and then a day or so later suddenly stopped working at all, sometime last night I think it was. I'll have to open it up to check the connections--hopefully it just vibrated loose.


Moving the pack itself over was complicated...I didn't want to put it back on in the black box, because of the width of the box blocking any real use of pedals. I don't want to pedal, but if I have to, I'd like to be able to. So I wrapped parts of it in foam to keep the clamps from pressing on the cells/etc., and used a piece of thick Kydex over the top of the BMS to keep it from being squished by the clamp. I used the top of the battery box as the base of the pack, since width down there doesn't matter to the chain, and it is nice durable ABS.

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It looks terrible, and that's ok, but it can't be clamped down as hard as I'd like because I don't yet have enough hard plastic out where I can get to it to put between the pack and metal sheets to spread the clamping forces.

I'd also like to split it into the two halves like I did the NiMH, that makes it thinner, easier to work into the frame out of the chainline. That will require a stiffer battery box that fits tightly around them. Most likely I will need to bend one up from metal sheet, and pad it inside with foam and plastic sheets to prevent any cell shorts to case plates. Probably not going to happen soon.

Most likely I will end up putting the pack back into the black box, and sacrifice the pedals/chain usability, because it will keep the pack itself safer.



When working around the pack for the chainline, testing shifting, I found the shifter was loose and I couldn't shift correctly. I had that problem on the way home, too, that night, and thought at the time it was just issues from the chain flopping around cuz it's too long for the lower gears...and it sort of is the problem:

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The cable pull-stop on the derailer is broken OFF.


I've never seen that happen, even on ones I've crashed with, but here it is. Until I can dig out another derailer, I just zip-tied the stop back to the derailer, with two ties, to make it work for now, so I can leave it in 4th gear for the most part (at the rear) and then 2nd gear in front, which gives me the power to help launch from a start if I need it.

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So that covers the problems I had setting the bike back up, and then I tested it around the block. Worked ok, but I had one intermittent problem I haven't found the source of yet: A kind of shuddering of the motor, which feels like it is missing a hall sense when it happens. It continues to commutate, but only because the bike's inertia is forcing forward motion. If I were testing this on a stand, it would probably shudder to a stop pretty quick, and judder between two points rapidly.

I can see the power usage spike when it happens, on the CA, nearly doubling whatever was on there at the time.

Every time I began to slow to a stop to check, it went away, and didn't come back for a while. So I need to go over the hall wiring harness and connector; it's almost certainly what's wrong.


Other than that, it went well, for a couple of miles of testing. Feels like flying to be back on CB2 after riding DGA--I"m always uncomfortable on regular bikes, because of the saddle and becuse I always feel like I'm going to fall off, pitch over the front, or skid out in turns. On CB2 I am not worried about those things.

[Solcar]

I miss my mirror, in a way. It kept hitting things like the door post and also kept getting loose on its own. But it was nice while it was on the bike and working.

Bummer about those extra problems associated with getting CB2 back on the road.

[BikeFanatic]

What about the NIMH batteries are they still working? Or did CB2 do them in?

[amberwolf]

The CA button problem was indeed just that it had come unplugged off the CA board inside. Dunno why. Easy fix, though. Now I've reset it so I can do more number testing on CB2's rides, and maybe manage a range test, sticking around home for the last few miles I expect to get out of it.

Used to be 20, so around 15 maybe start riding only around the block at home. 15 is three trips to work and back. I've already done two easily, plus some, hopefully it'll still do at least three.



@Ianmcnally: Still working; I used them on DayGlo Avenger to commute to work while I repaired the Vpower pack.

But CB2 definitely abuses them, which is why I'd rather use the Vpower pack on there: regular 40-60A bursts out of them is not what they were designed for. They're much safer on DGA, which typically uses only 20A max, with the limiting on the 6FET.


They've been a lifesaver several times so far, even though I doubt they have much more than half their capacity left.


@Solcar: The mirrors do get in the way on doorways and such, but I can work around that---the pods are nearly as wide! The real problem is the landing on teh ground when the bikes fall--if the mirror is loose enough to move when pushed on impact, it's also loose enough to vibrate around and require re-orienting every few hundred yards on the road.

[amberwolf]

Today was almost uneventful, and quite a lot of fun riding CB2, compared to DayGlo Avenger. It really feels a lot more like flying over the road than on an upright bike...but it doesn't feel as fast as it actually is, so I end up going way faster than I meant to; I kept reaching turns that I can't take (with the cargo pods, cuz the'll scrape the road) at more than 14-15MPH, and having to brake hard becuase I found myself often at 23-24MPH instead of my usual 19-20.

I'm still getting used to the new position of the CA, to the left of center (closer to the mirror for ergonomics), so I keep not noticing the speed even though I am seeing it. My brain is trying to read the numbers from a space that doesn't have them anymore, to the right, and is not processing them from where it is now. Gimme a few days and that should fix itself.


The one problem I did have was nearly disastrous, though: The stutter/shudder I had intermittently last night came back as soon as I started off for work today, and the motor simply wouldn't start up--kept trying to go backwards, with massive current flow evne off the ground.

First I checked the axle exit, because it *has* fallen over on that side at least twice, hard enough to break the mirror off, and although I didn't notice any damage the first time, I totally forgot to look the second time, due ot all the distractions of other things that night. Indeed, it does have nicks in pretty much all the wires...but none are touching each other, or the axle, or the frame, and when I spread them all apart so they *couldn't* touch at all, guaranteed, the problem persisted.

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I pulled the hall connector apart between motor and controller, and could see a bit of green corrosion on two of the wires--hall ground and one of the hall signals. Plugging and unplugging repeatedly helped, and it actually worked for a second, but then stopped again.

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Being in a rush, I just cut the connectors off, twisted up the wires together in sequence, and taped them off from each other, and it worked perfectly then. So now I've toasted the only JST connectors I had left on there (I do have some extra pins for the male side and a shell each for M/F, but no female pins). Oh, well, I didn't really like the JSTs anyway. Time to find some other (waterproof) connector type.

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For now I'll leave them wired directly, but I'm going to solder them and then retape them neatly cuz right now they're a mess, and kinda hazardous.

I've also gotta deal with the axle wires, but I'll have to open the hub to fix them, cuz they're too short to pull out any further on the phase wires (the halls had a bit extra so I can pull them out a bit and tape them). If I had any heatshrink of the right size left, I could just slip it down each wire and over the nicks, pushing it slightly into the axle end to protect them a bit more. But lacking that, a bit of tape will have to do.

I'll have to take the wheel off, and the cover on the solder-side, then desolder each phase wire in turn, pull it slightly out, just enough for tape to be put over the nick, and pull back into the axle and resolder it. Then do the next one.


I remembered to recharge the bike last night, so it was fully charged on my way to work, and I decided that I would do a discharge / range test starting today...but apparently I forgot about that as I plugged it right into the charger when I got home, and only remembered that now as I type this up, about two and a half hours later. I only *meant* to recharge the NiMH lighting pack, not the traction pack, but i did both. Oh, well. I guess the test starts tomorrow.



21m 6s trip time
5.132miles
23.7mph max
14.5mph avg

27.8Wh/mile
2.79Ah (2.9161)
149Wh
61.84Amax

56.4Vstart
52.7Vrest
48.7Vmin

4.4% Regen
0.1248Ah Regen
-8.19A peak Regen

[amberwolf]

I still havent gotten round to the reapairs above.

I couldnot sleep at all tonight so i worked out a way to add my two wheelchair batteyr boxes to the sides in front of the cargo pods, whcih i have intended to do since the day i go tht e boxes, maybe two years ago.

on the seat/cargo rails, there has always been some excess tubing sticking out the sides and front that I didn't bother trimming because I kept planning to do someting with the stubs,

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but i've long forgotten what that was. probably irrelelvant by now anywoaay, so i cut them off smooth flush with the rails.

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then i drilled holes in the rails just like there are for the cargo pods, but right under the seat edges, and bolted the boxes on there just like i had done with one of the boxes in place of the left cargo pod fo the death race thsi past april.

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there's an aluminum plate salvaged from some old EKG/ECG equpmient, same palce I got the plate used for The Velcro Eclips's battery bag mount plate. Just like on TVE, oN CB2's new batt boxes, it helsp spread the laod across the face of the plastic batt boxes, so the bolts' don t shear thru it from the weight of the packs. I can't find the bolts i'd used to hold the box to the rails before, so i dug out some titanium bolts and nylocks that came off a Quickie wheelchair, IIRC. they are a lot longer than the old ones, sticking out at leat an inch but it's all inside the rails so it doesn't matter.

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i put the vpower pack in the left box, and the right box is currently empty, but will be used for testing the volgood pack of RTLSHIP's taht I have here for repair, once i get tot hat stage, since it is virtually identical to my vpower pack.

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that way I cna have both on there so if someting goes wrong in testing the volgood pack, I can just connect my own back up instead, and still get home.

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Now there is plenty of chain clearance to everything, even the NIMH lighting pack i stuck back where i used to be on the rear "seattube".

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The whole center frame area is now nearly empty, so it looks funny to me. I guess I could still shove all the old 48V of NiMH in there, too if I had to.


I also finally remembered after many chain jams to take two links out of the hcain cuz it's been too long for a while. I forget now why I had it longer, but it has been a problem for a long time now, only not fixed because i haven't been able to pedal for months utnil a short time back.


I don't expect handling will really be any different, but i'll report on that after i test ride it a while.

[amberwolf]

In addition to some battery testing here:
viewtopic.php?p=462410#p462410
I also tested CrazyBike2's new headlight:

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which is a 50W (on highbeam, both filaments lit) car headlight I salvaged from the old 85 Ford LTD before I had to get it hauled off because of the city's interference.

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I kept the metal enclosure the headlights mount to on the car, that then would screw-adjust for aiming in the car, but I couldn't get those mounting brackets out of the car that these bolt to, so I have to adjust it via the mount pivots on the bike stem mount itself.

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The adjustment frame isn't light-proof, so there's a lot of rearward light leaks, pretty bright, I had to tape over, and block the central one around the connector with foam. It wasnt' a problem with the halogen MR16 because it was hidden from my direct view by the former CFL holder, which is now totally removed.

I needed a way to attach the frame to the pivot, and there's not enough space between bulb glass and bottom of frame to put a nut'bolt in there to bolt it to an L brakcet, and I can't find my pop-rivets, so I had to weld a bit of square tubing that I'd just cut off of CrazyBike2's cargo pod/seat rails yesterday. Then I drilled thru the tubing for a bolt, with a a star wsaher between the tubing adn the bike's mounting pivot so it'll stay in place once adjusted.

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Welding...that was a totally un-fun adventure. THe feed problems are back, only this time it's totally mechanical, and I can't get it to work right at all. It appears to ahve several separate problems:

The feed wheel roller is not pinching the wire right, so it slips on it a lot, even at it's tightest. Manually squeezing it tighter with zipties and stuff plus turning it to fastest feed rate helps a lot, but not completely fixing it.

Then, there's a problem in the feed tube, apparently it's pinching somewhere, but I can't see it unless I cut away the whole cover tube. Don't wanna do that yet.

Then there's an issue at the welding electrode/grip, where I can feel wire catch inside, but if I take all the pieces off and run wire thru them individually, they're all fine.

I don't know what I can do with it, but i'm awfully tired of dealing with this POS welder. I'm probably going to have to rebuild it with a totally new feed mechanism somehow, putting the reel at the grip/electrode end instead, so it doesn't have to feed thru the whole long tube and stuff.


Anyway, after about 3 hours of dealign with welder problems, I got a few bits of what amount to spot welds to hold the tubing to the headlight moutning frame. I hope it's enough, cuz I am out of time to waste on it.

So then I did a basic adjustment of the light,

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and then took it outside for further alighnments and a test ride.

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and a pic of it in total darkness (just a streetliht on the opposite corner from me)

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Then a front pic in darkness,

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with flash

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and then flash plus carport lighting (4x 40w fluorescent tubes)

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It works pretty well on the road, with most light focused in the center of the road, and a beam the width of the road to either side of it. Much better concentrated lighting than the halogen, bbut I kinda miss the wide lighting to see everything out there. If I can get enough lighting battery on the bike to support another 50W, I will add the halogen as a switchable wide beam.

Right now, though, the NiMH barely supports a headlight plus a turn signal, and dims both when on simultaneously. Two headlights plus a signal and it cuts brightness of headlights by way more than half.


Anywya, it's good for now.


Handling on the bike is different, especially with both heavy LiFePO4 packs on there, just under the seat to teh sides. But the only really bad part is having to be really really careful not to put my feet down wile still moving forward.

Before putting the boxes there, I could ride with feet down just above the ground, at very low speds in parking lots/etc., for stability. Now, if I do that and a foot touches and is dragged back a few inches, the box hits my hamstring and could suck my foot under it, and that would suck really bad.

So I gotta remember not to do that now, which is gonna be tough for a while.

Other than that, it seems to work fine.