Recent content by nasukaren

Sounds great! If they don't bloat when over discharged or explode when over charged -- and are available to us tinkerers for less than < $5 a cell, I'm all for them! One can wish. :) Karen

So any updates on this thread? I'd also like to needle EagleTree a bit more into making their product open source and expandable. They really need to open up the data tx protocol -- as well as let us know what the sensor values are so we can hack them ourselves. K

Damage so far: * One Doc Wattson power monitor * One ESC (rc motor speed controller) * One servo tester * One burned finger * One soldering iron * some other stuff... mumble... mumble....

How much magic smoke from parts have you released or otherwise destroyed in the making of your e-bike? Include motors and controllers burned out, welders welded to themselves, visits to the ER, frames bent in half, wheels tacoed, holes punched in walls, grandma's washing machine all scratched...

diet cola all the way! k

Congrats! I love my little hobby city motor in my moped-EV. It just keeps whirring along like a dream. You've most probably read my whole saga on how I burnt out my first el-cheapo ESC in the first test run and ended up getting a Castle Creations Phoenix. I'd love for their to be a good...

My moped-EV goes 45 kph @ 36 volts right now, 30 kph if I only hook up two of the SLAs. I could go to 48 volts and I guess it would be 60 kph but that's a bit fast for a little old Italian moped. Right now, I'd rather go for range and am trying to figure out what I should do -- go NiMH or go...

The switching ones are the best since they're essentially a rectifier (to get DC) and then a switching power supply like a buck converter. So they don't care what type of dirty power or AC/DC they get. Lots of the automobile EV folks use 120 VAC --> 14 VDC laptop switching power supplies for...

Those are just regular bullet connectors. RadioShack stocks them, so do most auto parts stores. They are usually prewired, so you'll need to splice them in. Try to get ones that are 10Ga wire if possible. I personally would use the opportunity to replace them with a better type of connector...

p.s. Have you thought of getting a high-voltage bulb for your headlight and just running it straight off your high-voltage line? That way you don't have to fool with DC-DC converters. You can get 100VAC halogens and just run them a little cool.

After bad luck with an ebay special, I made my own DC-DC converter using a National Semiconductor LM2576HVT-12-ND buck-converter from Digikey. It's rated to 3A passive and 5A active cooling. You could easily hook 3-4 of them up in parallel to give you 10-20A of 12VDC. The schematic I used is...

The crowd over at the 'V' is definitely different than here. The 'V' is like an enthusiasts' picnic at a state park, while E-S is more like a biker bar. :-P K

1) That 100A controller is most probably only for peak current draw and might blow with the kind of sustained current draw we use in our bikes. My first cheapo "100A" controller blew because it couldn't handle the back-EMF from when my bike was slowing down against the motor... 2) That little...

What a fantastic ride! This is one thread that I'm definitely glued to. Good on ya! Perth is at UTC +8 and California is UTC -7 so there's a 15 hour time difference. When it's 10 pm at night in Perth, it's 7am in California, so if you want to reach them during business hours, business...

John - No, it's part of the Piaggio's original gearing. I don't know if all mopeds have this or if it's unique to the Piaggio, either, as this is the only moped that I've worked with. It is very handy though and has made my conversion incredibly easier! In fact, right now I have a taller...