Amberwolf's DayGlo Avenger, MkII

[amberwolf]

Today I cannot find the piece of chair I had yesterday; I have a feeling that my crazy sister may have taken it or moved it (since it was in the living room on the floor by the front wall, rather than with anything specific of mine).

So a little more digging and I found a bracket for an alternator, with what appears to be a 10mm hole for it's pivot that should work as the start of an axle hole, if I am careful in filing it out flat without expanding it. If I screw up filing I can always weld on one edge and then refile that.

DSC04010.JPG (48.12 KiB) Viewed 798 times

As you can see, I also found some dropouts I'd cut off a couple of BMX frames, originally to put onto CrazyBike2 or some other project for a middrive usng a hubmotor. They're not as thick as I'd like, at only about 3mm, but they are quite long/deep and can have a bolt and support welded on each side of the dropout, and a nut used to tighten that as a clamping dropout.

DSC04009.JPG (68.45 KiB) Viewed 798 times

I have three to choose from, so could put one on each end of the axle, maximizing the clamping force.


I remembered also that I have similar but much thicker, maybe 5mm, BMX dropouts welded to the legs of CrazyBIke2's original fork, which itself came from the ReCycle 'bent project I never finished.

They were put there originally so I could use a 20" wheel in the 24" fork, without changing it's length/etc. So if it comes down to it, I can always cut those off that fork and use them. Rather not, but can.

[amberwolf]

Post above was actually typed up a few hours ago, but I got pulled away for lunch with a friend before I could submit...since then, I have now tried the above idea with the clamping dropout,

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and it doesnt' work any better than the 10mm wrench, maybe even less so, as it began to fail after a few hundred feet, and maybe three stops/starts:

DSC04012.JPG (82.96 KiB) Viewed 792 times

Also, my bolt isn't evenly applying leverage across the dropout, causing it to deform sideways as well, probably contributing to the issue.

DSC04014.JPG (85.79 KiB) Viewed 792 times

Maybe fixing the last problem would also fix the first. If so, I'd basically have to cut the tips off the dropout, and weld the bolt and loose-nut across the end of it, instead of the side. Then when threading the fixing nut on the bolt, it'll put tension evenly across the plane of the dropouts.


However, I think I will first just try filing out the other thick steel bar's 10mm hole, and then if that doesn't work, I'll make a clamping dropout out of THAT.

[amberwolf]

Tomorrow I may be riding DGA to a friends out in Mesa, but I have to make the torque arm(s) first. I'd rather ride CB2 but the way things are likely to work out, I'll be so tired by the end of that day I'll need his help to get back safely. That means riding a bike I can put on his car's rear rack, and CB2 ain't that. DGA is pushing it, even with the battery out of it. At least it will be a nice long test of DGA.

[karma]

i think its a good idea. i rather have the hubmotor spin in the forks than have it spin and fall out

[AussieJester]

Tomorrow I may be riding DGA to a friends out in Mesa, but I have to make the torque arm(s) first. I'd rather ride CB2 but the way things are likely to work out, I'll be so tired by the end of that day I'll need his help to get back safely. That means riding a bike I can put on his car's rear rack, and CB2 ain't that. DGA is pushing it, even with the battery out of it. At least it will be a nice long test of DGA.

AW, which bike will you be taking to the Death Race this year CB2 again ? And do
you plan on participating in the race this year or just going for the practice and socializing?
You should be able to show a few of those gassers the way!

All the best anywayz mate...

KiM

[amberwolf]

CB2 will almost certainly go again, and I will try to ride in the race. I was afraid last time that the wheel was going to come out of the dropouts, every time I hit the throttle, because torque arm didn't keep it from that (almost came out several times on the ride there, and nearly did once again on the way home IIRC, even with me being really careful about it). There just wasnt' enough dropout there to hold it, on that non-suspension fork off the Sierra.

Now it's on a suspension fork, at least, that has meaty enough dropouts to at least provide gripping surfaces for the washers/nuts, so they stay tight. It's a crappy fork but it will keep the wheel on.

If I am lucky enough to finish the next generation of CB2 (probably not) I will take that, either instead of or in addition to CB2. If there is room in whoever's truck/etc that I can get a ride from, I will bring DayGlo Avenger, too, but it isn't a racer, and can barely get 20-ish MPH out of the Fusin even at 48V, and it takes quite a while to even to get that speed.

i think its a good idea. i rather have the hubmotor spin in the forks than have it spin and fall out

No kidding. Part of why I want to try making the pinching dropouts kind of thing.


I became totally awake for a little bit, and decided I would try (again) to fix the first Cycle Analyst (from Dogman), but I lost my concentration and didn't get it working:

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/vi ... 14#p377314

[amberwolf]

Auraslip sent me his kickstand-nemesis, and today I tried it on DGA:

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Unfortunately as predicted, due to the single-side cargo pod, the bike doesnt' stand well on it. If I let the front fork settle so it's all the way right (with headlight pointing backwards), it'll stay as long as it isn't touched.

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The front wheel is actually off the ground, but it's hard to see, because the kickstand sinks into the carpet a bit, and the tire looks like it's touching the carpet but it's not, really. When the fork is actually pointing forward, the tire clears by maybe an inch, well off the ground even on carpet. I guess that's good in that it means I can test front wheels off ground just by using the kickstand, but bad in that my parking brake is on the front.




I am still working on a permanent solution to the dropout/torque-arm problem, but I really wanted to take advantage of the nice weather today and take Hachi out for a trip with the trailer. So for now, I took a 5lb sledgehammer and squished my dropouts back together a bit, and then did the same to the end of the 10mm wrench.

Then I used a block of wood and tapped the axle into the dropouts, and then secured the nuts *really* tight, using a hammer and a wood-padded wrench. Then I tapped on the 10mm wrench on the wire-exit side (left), secured it to the fork with hose clamp, and then fit and tightened the clamp-on ex-dropout assembly previously pictured here, on the right side.

Then I rode it as hard as I could around the block, starting from complete stops with the rear brake engaged to make a little more force against it, enough to break the front wheel traction and spin the tire sometimes, with peaks of 1200W in the tests. There was no sign of axle movement, so I continued with the tests and added the trailer, which worked ok, and then Hachi, and it was still ok.

All the way to work and back I didn't have any problems, except once the trailer somehow came unhitched, and I almost lost Hachi in it but the car behind me stopped to help. That was awfully scary.

I cant' figure out how, but the whole stem bolt and wedge nut was gone out of the headset/steerer I use as a horizontal hitch pivot. I didnt' see it anywhere in the road, and I never heard it hit the ground anywhere. As I didn't have a spare, I used a couple of hose clamps run down thru the steerer tube aroudn the whole hitch to guarantee it wouldn't pop off, and ran the bike lock cable thru the fork I use as the bike attachment for the hitch, and thru the kennel's vent holes on the trailer, to guarantee that even if the hitch came apart anyway, the trailer would still be attached to the bike. I'm a moron for not having done that always before.

I didn't think to take a picture of it before I undid it to get the whole thing inside the house, though; I was still pretty stressed out about the event. It's been a couple hours now and I feel better, but Hachi sure is worn out; she's sleeping and snoring next to me right now.


Also, just after I started the tests, the speedo stopped working, and I found that the reed I'd used for it somehow has broken glass. I must've damaged it when fixing the dropouts or the torque arms. I have at least two other old speedo sensors besides what's on CB2 (which I didn't want to take off to move to DGA), but I can't remember where they are right now, and I didn't want to waste the day looking for them isntead of riding, so I just went without speedo/odo this time.


So all I have for data is from WU1, monitoring battery current:
(*Estimated)
~40m 0s trip time*
~5miles*
~15mph max*
~10mph avg*

~46Wh/mile*
4.429Ah
229.6Wh
23.14Amax
1199.8Wp

56Vstart (down to 54.1V after just one startup, stable from there)
52.72Vrest
50.38Vmin


All in all it was an "interesting" trip in ways I'd rather avoid. But it was fun at the destination, with Hachi seeing new things and meeting new people.

The one really bad thing is that now Hachi whimper-barks constantly whenever I am in motion. Never did anything like that before, so it was probably the separation that caused it. Probably pretty scary to have happen (it was bad enough for me!). But now she's so loud that it's piercing to me, and I can hear the echoes off stuff quite a ways away from us. She stops as soon as I stop the bike, usually, so I am not sure how to retrain her on this issue.



Regarding the dropout solution, I think I'm going to see about making some EMT tubing bits that will be wide enough to slip over the existing fork legs, and add new dropouts to the tubing that will be made from those thick BMX plates I showed previously, with a bolt across teh end of them to clamp down. Since they're not really as thick as I'd like, I'll probably either put two of them side by side on each leg, or find that stupid 1/4" plate chair piece I was going to use in the first place, and make the dropouts from that.

[auraslip]

This drop out problem is killing me!
I managed to deform the axle where the wires enter by holding it with a wrench while screwing a nut on to the other end.
god damn it!

[amberwolf]

That sucks. When I saw the wrench failed, I was REALLY tempted to just WELD the wrench to the axle end.

I almost did it; the only thing that stopped me was that by the time I got the welder, helmet, gloves, etc., out, reason and sanity had overcome frustration.

If I had done it, I would not have bothered with the clamping experiment. Now that I have tried that, and see how simple it would be to do that right, then I will end up making clamping dropouts for the fork itself, and probalby for the CB2 fork, and others.

[auraslip]

I almost did it; the only thing that stopped me was that by the time I got the welder, helmet, gloves, etc., out, reason and sanity had overcome frustration.

This is why the require waiting periods for guns

Btw we are making a torque arm here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26445

[amberwolf]

Ah, yeah, that too. Heck, when I first had the problem I was tempted for about 30 seconds to just weld the axle to the FORK, and not even try a torque arm!


I've been looking thru your torque arm thread, and I'll reply there if I think of anything useful.

[amberwolf]

In response to these posts in another thread:
viewtopic.php?p=396349#p396349
viewtopic.php?p=396354#p396354

I've just seen a pic in the post
by amberwolf » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:39 am
- it looks like a very large pannier holding the battery (with very little lean left for corners!). I've got a 36V 20Ah lump mounted above the rear wheel but it feels a bit top-heavy at times. Is the large pannier on one side a practical solution? Doesn't it unbalance the bike? Surely it must affect the handling and stability in turns?

Yes, it does affect the handling, but since I don't ride very fast on it (usually 15-18MPH) I don't have to lean too far in a turn. Righthand turns are much more common for me to make, especially at any speed, so there's no real issue with it on the left side. Almost all left turns are very wide anyway, across an intersection, for instance, so it doesnt' tend to get in the way much.

The pannier itself is actually for cargo; it just happens to now hold a battery, too, until I can put that in the triangle (it's too big right now; used to use 3 SLA in, above, and below the triangle).

The side pannier is FAR better than anything on the rack, for handling. I haul some hefty cargo (big bags of dogfood, etc.) not infrequently, and putting it in the side is always easier to handle than on the rear, even if all that weight is only on one side. It's easy and quick to learn (without even really trying) to compensate for the side-weight, but there are things the top-heaviness causes that I don't seem able to compensate for.

[alsmith]

Many thanks for the info.

Sorry about posting in an inappropriate thread- it's the first time I've seen a pannier capable of carrying so much weight on one side and got curious. It is something I'd dismissed quite quickly thinking it would be unstable. Splitting my 20Ah LiFePO4 into 2 parts looks a bit messy so I was thinking that I'd have to wait until the next battery purchase and maybe getting 2 flatter shaped 10Ah batteries to fit into panniers- one each side. Or possibly LiPo's.

Thanks
Alan

[amberwolf]

I've carried qutie a lot with these panniers; used to carry Hachi around in DGA's until she got to big to fit, around maybe 50lbs or something like that (can't remember for sure). I've had a lot more than that in and on the pannier and rack with dogfood bags and stuff. But it does get harder to deal with, the more weight that I put in and on there.

Before I moved the Vpower to CB2, it was in DGA's left pod.

Even on CrazyBike2, I tend to only run with the left cargo pod, because right turns are so much easier without the one there (unless I'm doing a grocery or cargo run that I need that one on).

At the moment, I'm running the rightside pod only on CB2, because I still have my Vpower 48V 20Ah (really ~11Ah now) pack on the left side, which is definitely noticeable in balance when sitting on the bike, but not really when riding it. Even in the DeathRace a couple weeks ago, without the rightsiide pod but with the Vpower pack on the left, there wasnt' really much of a noticeable difference vs having everything centered, since the box it is in sits a lot higher than the bottom of the pod would.

It'd probably be better to center it all, and that's the plan on the new bike, but there isnt' room in teh frame on DGA or CB2 for it as it is.

If I wasnt' keeping the NiMH on CB2 as well, for a backup battery during testing of the Vpower, I'd put the halves of the Vpower where the halves of the NiMH are, after enclosing the Vpower halves in solid protective boxes.

[amberwolf]

Regarding unbalanced loads and riding, see this post
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=399418#p399418
about CB2.

[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]

DayGlo Avenger rides again, using the two 24V NiMH packs in series, and the configuration fo the rest of it just as it was previously. Had to, as CrazyBike2 is temporarily out of commission, following the events in this post:
viewtopic.php?p=442014#p442014

Since I havent' pedalled in months due to the ankle and ankle/leg injuries, which are nearly healed but not quite, I almost couldn't get CB2 home evne partly stripped down, and I know I couldn't pedal it with all the regular weight on there, shoudl it fail again like that, for whatever reason.

So I got DGA going, as I know I can pedal it to/from work if I have to, even fully loaded, but hopefully won't have to.

Took a few repairs including replacing the rear wheel/tire with one of my airless solid tires off an old Freecycled bike from a year or two ago. The valve stem on the one that had been on it somehow failed, with a ruptured hernia of the rubber on the stem itself. Can't fix that with a patch. (well, I maybe could, but then I couldn't put the valve thru the hole in the rim, because of the ties I'd have to keep over the patch to prevent air pressure from rupturing it).





I dont' have another 26" tube that's in any better shape at the moment, except for what's on The Velcro Eclipse, currently buried under other bike stuff that might take hours to dig thru to get it out. So...the airless tire won out simply because I had it fairly accessible in a closet of tires and wheels kept around for parts. (I never expected to *use* the airless tires, as they don't make for good riding on a heavy bike, *and* they are MTB knobby tires on there, which I dislike the feel of on the roads, especially in turns).


Anyhow, 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.

No watt meter or speedo, so no ride data. Was going to move the CA over but I was so tired I thought I'd screw it up, maybe break something. Easier to leave it, and worry about that later. I know the NiMH can do my work commute easy, so as long as I just use it for that and recharge every night I'll be ok till I fix the Vpower pack and CrazyBike2.

[amberwolf]

Been riding DGA to work/etc since the above, with no problems so far, though I don't like the feel of the "airless" rear tire. Not sure if it's just the squishierness of it, or the vibration from the MTB knobbies, too. I'll get used to it eventually; I think for safety's sake of having a working backup everytime I want to ride it, or need it, I'll just leave that one on there.


Today I picked up a complete trailer full, stuffed to the top, of dog food donations, various brands and stuff, some open and partly used, some just open (doesn't look like any was used), but all of which will help feed these fuzzy monsters.

See here for more trailer details:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewto ... 26#p447026

But in the process I thought I had destroyed the Fusin gearmotor hub.

Fortunately it revived after cooling down, with some ice packs and icewater I carry with me (for me, but in a pinch....)

DSC04667.JPG

Re-creation of cooling off the hub motor, didn't have camera with me at the original event.

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so it's probably at the limit of what the hall sensors could take, perhaps; or else the controller was a part of the problem. It was so hot on the outer casing that I couldn't have kept the back of my hand on it for long, when it first cut out.

I thought it might be a connection at first, so stopped, got off the bike, and started checking wires, and when I touched the fork leg the controller is bolted to, it was awfully warm, and I brushed the motor with the back of a finger while finding the cables and that told me exactly what the problem was.

The controller was hot, too, but no more so than it often gets in this heat, whcih was still over 95F, after dark sometime, and very humid (helpful for coolign the motor/controller but not me). I'm just REALLY glad it was nighttime, and not midday.


After cooling it down to a bearable temperature, probably no more than 120-130F on the outside, and not appearing to get warmer while I waited, so probably at equilibrium finally, it worked. I still didn't trust that I wouldn't burn it out, though, so I decided I'd try riding home pedal only, but I coudln't do it, not with the load.

So I had to walk the bike and trailer full of food home the last mile and a half, limping on my not-yet-healed right ankle and my no-longer-getting-better left knee. That took a while; I'm guessing around an hour, with all the stops for rest and water. I felt the motor at each stop, but it never seemed warmer, or cooler, just about the same.


I couldn't ride without the motor, because pedalling even in the very lowest gear would still cause side-to-side sway of the whole bike/trailer setup, as I couldn't get going without cranking down really hard, standing on the pedals, and that immediately started the sway that I couldn't balance the bike with.


I did finally for this ride have the turnigy meter on the bike, but somewhere in shuffling stuff around in the cargo pod, probably when cooling off the motor, I lost the paper I'd written the journey so far down on. So all I have is the data for the mile or so from the last pickup point to the overheating cutout point, plus an hour or so's walking with the headlight and bike/trailer taillights on, which take about 75W or so, IIRC.

I can't remember what the Wh or Ah reading was at the cutout point; I just remember the voltage was still 48.something volts, with just the lights as load, because I checked that first in case I'd hit LVC.

4.212Ah
186.1Wh
937.4Wpeak
22.53Apeak
48.55Vrest
38.36Vmin

I don't have actual trip distance because I haven't yet remembered to load the Veloace on the PDA Bigmoose sent me, and it always gets lost after the battery runs down on my other PDA, which I keep forgetting to charge after riding.


As soon as I got home, I stuck the front yard garden hose into the spokes to hold it and turned it on a bit, to flow cool water over the hub to get the temperature down faster internally, though any damage it has is probably already done.


Then after feeding the dogs, I spent the last hour or so securing the dog food into various bug-resistant containers, and storing it in places the dogs generally cant' get into. Then they got to lick all the bags, and do their shredding thing with them that they so enjoy (Bonnie likes to do it from the inside of the bag, walking right into the big bags and just tearing it to bits from inside out).

[amberwolf]

I forgot to note that this is the 36V Fusin gearmotor core, the first one I got from Dogman, but I am currently running it on a 48V NiMH pack. I don't use full throttle on it, only about 1/2, most of the time, and even less with the trailer loaded up, even when pedalling.

But doing that is probably overheating the controller more than usual, with that kind of load. I'm not sure why it is heating up the motor that much, but it is probably just that I had to keep the speed down pretty far for trailer stability, and that didn't help the motor run in it's efficient speed zone for lower currents.

I guess the lesson is that I need to reconfigure the 48V battery down to 36V when using it on the Fusin with cargo, or I need to drill out the Fusin covers and such, adding fins to stir the air inside on the stator or really the rotor/magnet ring can itself.

And that I need to fix the trailer stability issues so I can just run it faster and so I can pedal with it for helping the motor out more.

Or another interpretation might be that I need to get the other new bike finished so *it* can haul the trailer with the thru-the-gears middrive setup.

[amberwolf]

Wee little accident on the way to work this morning...I obviously didn't get enough sleep, and I don't actually remember either dozing off or crashing into the bushes and gravel, but I obviously did.

I forgot to take a pic of the pants, which have shredded knees, before i laid down to type this up, so i'll have to do that later. The helmet just has some scuffs, but i know i must've hit it fairly hard on the side, as there is a sore spot taht will probably bruise just above and behind my right ear, including he cartliage of the ear itself.

My glasses and sunglasses are broken, right at the corner of the frame of both, but I should be able to fix them. I think it is just the hinge pin on the glasses, and it is the plastic around the hinge pin on the sunglasses.

I felt mostly ok, but kinda...distant from everything, at first. the motor didn't work so I pedalled slowly home in low low gear, and changed clothes to go back to work.

Motor problem was just a connector loose; I forget which one now. A few other scratches and dings, but nothing serious enough to keep it from working. A closer inspection will be needed later.

By taht time I was starting to hurt a fair bit, but mostly it seems to be bruises and only a couple of cuts; a fair deep one on my left shin and a couple nicks on my hands/fingers.

I got to work (very late) and really wasn't feeling so hot, which must've showed because the manager at the time and one that came in a few minutes later both said i didn't look very good, and asked if i would rather go back home. I did some of the animal care stuff that I could manage, and then took them up on that.

Had to sit there for a few minutes before i could ride off; and wasnt' sure that I could ride. Tried to think of anyone I could call to take me and the bike home, but couldn't remember any names or numbers, so I had to risk it and ride anyway. Either that or walk, and it was already too hot to walk far; I needed the motor to get home.

I rode and rested and rode and rested and got home ok, mostly empty roads this time of day (around 930am) and no idiots.

I still don't feel well, and the aches are getting worse, but I think I'm mostly ok.

[amberwolf]

Not much visible injury shown up yet, but I can feel the bruises all over, and my knees are stiffer than usual by a lot. I somehow avoided getting any cuts on them, which is amazing when you see the pants:

DSC04687.JPG

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Scratches on my hands:

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I assume they're from the bush, as there is no gravel rash and my hands don't feel bruised like they would if I had stopped a ground fall with them.

One good bruise on my right elbow, which is pretty sore all along my arm. Maybe that one did stop a ground fall.

DSC04678.JPG

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I can't really see any bruising on my head yet, but I sure can feel it, including some swelling of the skin above my ear. Feels like somebody whacked me with a stick.

DSC04679.JPG

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It does bother me that I can't remember the crash or most of the ride leading up to it, and I also can't recall clearly most of what else happened today afterwards. Must've been a harder noggin-knock than I thought. But I'm still awake and alive, so it can't be too bad.

Helmet scrape that maybe shows what caused the head whack:

DSC04681.JPG

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Definitely gravel or asphalt marks. Really makes me glad (again) that I wear a helmet, cuz without it that would have been some serious scalp removal, at minimum, with possible much worse skull trauma based on the injury I got *with* the helmet.


One near-gash on my left leg, not really deep but it's bruised around it. Not sure of it's source. I also have scrapes on my ankles feet that I can't figure out how they happened, because my shoes are "high tops" that cover those areas.

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I don't really remember how the bike was laying post-crash, as I was already standing in my first memory afterwards. But based on teh damage, I'd guess it must've fallen on the right side, with the fork/bars flipped around backwards, as the bar stuff damage is all on the right side, whcih woudln't make sense otherwise.

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But the only damage on the back is the right turn signal, which is bent backwards a bit and gravel-marked.

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I was trying to make the marks show up better with the paper reflection, but it didn't really help. You can see the bentness better though.

DSC04686.JPG

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I was going to get pics of my glasses and sunglasses too but I can't find them. I am sort of sure I had them with me when I came back home after the crash, before i left ofr work the second time, but it's hazy and I am not totally sure now. I don't actually remember what was wrong with them, either, but my post above tells me. (I don't remember making the post, either).


Trying to figure out exactly what happened, I am guessing that I rode past the driveway I would exit back to the road from, and rode at an angle into the bushes here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.56981 ... 21&vpsrc=6

The green arrow is the path I probably took, and the red is what I normally take.

crash site.JPG

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I do not know exactly where I crashed, because I cannot remember, other than vaguely that it was in that area. I might go back to that spot tomorrow on the way to or from work to see if I can find the actual site; maybe it will spark a memory, too.

[amberwolf]

Well, I'm glad I posted the above stuff, cuz I don't actually remember most of it, or really most of yesterday. It's...vaguely disturbing, to say the least.

Anyhow, I was having some trouble getting home tonite with the gusty winds from the incoming storm, with a few tiny sprinkles here and there that didn't help much, turning the dust into mud in my eyes (since I don't currently have my glasses to keep it out of them) whenever they hit my eyes or enough of them hit my forehead and ran down with the sweat and dirt.

It didn't really rain at all, not even a good drizzle, just heavy sprinkles intermittently, so it only got humid and not cooled down. It's still 91F out there right now, and 95F in the house, falling slowly with everything open.

Also had intermittent cutout problems with the motor, which at first I thought might be overheating or a damaged hall from the dogfood expedition a few days ago, but neither motor nor controller was even warm yet, despite the 95F temperature at 945pm when I headed out.

I looked at what I could and didnt' see a problem, unplugged and replugged phases and halls, no change. I just tolerated it and made my way home, and now that I'm on here posting I see that I had damaged something in the wiring or connector in the crash, but can't remember exactly what it was (apparently couldn't remember even when I posted it, and what I fixed on it). So I'll have to closely examine the whole harness from battery to motor, including controls liek throttle and brake.

Tomorrow is a day off, so I will hopefully have time to do that, after I get cracking on RTLSHIP's pack repair:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30864

Then I will use DGA to test my own repaired pack:
viewtopic.php?p=447768#p447768
before I put it back on CrazyBike2, since at least with DGA I can pedal the whole bike around if it comes to that, without killing myself doing it.

[Solcar]

I look forward to things settling down out there with all the inspection pressure and such so as to free up so time for shut-eye. I was really tired once when I was allowed to use the neighbor's car ten years or so ago and scraped the rocker panel against a rock at the corner of the driveway that I had forgot was there.

[amberwolf]

Apparently they picked up the bulk trash this morning, while I was doing this repair:
viewtopic.php?p=449132#p449132
and the dogs didn't notice either. Not sure how we could miss it as they usually make LOTS of noise, but it was still there before it got light outside, and it wasnt' there when I made sure the dogs went out before shutting the doors/windows just before dawn itself.

Now I just have to cleanup all the little bits of debris left in the yard, and trim all the grass in the alley that was buried under the stuff already out there for so long (the stuff dumped by other people months ago).

But right now, a nap.

[amberwolf]

After a bunch of cleanup above, and processing a new arrival
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16920&p=449421#p449421
and then more household chores, I got a chance to do a short two mile test run of DGA with the Vpower/CammyCC pack on there. First a quick check of all the cells via balance connectors showed they haven't changed since I took it off the single-cell charger (Sorenson) for the recently-fixed group, so that's good.

I didnt' have any problems with it, and I tried abusing it as much as the Fusin and 6FET could tolerate (which is nowhere near what CrazyBike2 puts it thru), including a grocery run hauling about 60lbs of stuff, mostly lashed down on the rear rack in a backpack, and some lashed into the top portion of the pod.

The battery pack (still in the big black box) takes up almost all the space in the pod, so I can't fit much else in there. I'd like to test the pack for my work commutes, too, but unless I take it out of the box, I can't, because otherwise there isn't room for my work uniform and leaving my lunch and cold water/ice/etc. in the insulated pod (I don't have anywhere else to keep it at work, since I can no longer take an insulated cooler or backpack in, and there isn't space in the little refrigerator for my stuff).

I *might* be able to put the box vertically and still have my stuff fit, but I don't think it will work. Have to test the theory; the pack may shift around in the box that way, while it doesn't if it's horizontal.

Anyway, the numbers from the run (both legs as one set), using the Turnigy Watt Meter:
55.6Vstart
53.44Vrest
50.93Vmin

1.063Ah
55.9Wh

1225.7Wpeak
23.73Ap

The Fusin got pretty warm, as I was running it as close to full throttle as I could, every chance I could, but I still pedalled because I don't want to cook it. I did let it take all the startups by itself, though, to see if the battery would be ok with that, and it is. But i do have the 6FET set to limit current at 19A, IIRC, so even the 23.73A peak current must not be very long.

The controller was kinda warm, but it is fully open and gets plenty of airflow at speed, so I'm sure it would be a lot hotter if it were enclosed and/or out of the airflow. I think it really needs more caps, not just the big ones but some little ones, too.


Anyhow, the battery appears to be behaving, as the cells are still just about all in balance with each other, except for that one low one at the end is almost 0.2V less than the others.