I forgot to post that while thinking about options for padding on that pack, after finding it too tight to get in there with foam on all sides, I mounted that side-looking mirror thing on the front of hte bike, so I can finally look around cars/etc at intersections so I can see if things are coming that I should wait for. It's not perfect but it does work. I need to raise it's rear point about an inch, though, for the right angle on the line of sight.
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Was getting dark when we got back, so I didn't have enough light for some of the things I wanted to do (including welding up the broken seat frame), but the shopping was worth it, since at Goodwill I finally found some sweatpants and flannel pajamas that fit me and that I liked the feel of, for cheap enough to be worth it (been looking since shortly after the fire, since all of mine were lost in the fire itself, early last year). Also found a BBQ thermometer that will do what I need for motor and/or controller or batteyr temperature monitoring.
Was only $3, by Polder, and has a detachable fork with the sensors in it. It turns on as soon as you put batteries in it, and begins measuring the temperature, so that means if I run it off a DC-DC it'll turn on as soon as the bike does. No extra switches or buttons to deal with. Also has a backlight that comes on at any button press (and of course I could wire it up to always be on or be swtiched separately).
Plan is to detach the connector from the fork, split the sensors off the fork to use separately (if it's possible, depends on how they're wired and what kind they are--may have to stay in parallel to be able to read correctly, am hoping I can switch between them at a new switch on the dash) mount the handle on the "dashboard" in a way that allows it to be read easily. It'll be a while before I can do anything with it, maybe months. But at least I've got it to start pondering about.
Back to the battery pack:
I opened up the "fairing" on the center of hte bike to take out the RC LiPo ammocan pack an dput this one in ther einstead, but I miscalculated when I made the new support rails on the bike several months ago when I did those frame repairs, and there is not enough space for the pack *and* the chain. I can put hte pack in but hte chain cannot move past it; it's pinned between the pack and the frame.
So since i need the chain as backup in case of complete power failure (not htat I could pedal far, but I might be able to go in short bursts and still get home on a short trip---be much easier than walking it home; I can't really do that anymore; stuff just hurts too much), I pulled the pack back out nad put the RC pack back in (for the extra range just in case), htough I moved it as far forward as it would go, moving it's weight more onto the front and less onto the back wheel, by a few inches.
While doing this I did also move the speedo from rear to front, so now I can test the off-ground wheel test of the controller surge/rollback issue. Have to set up the bike on something to hold the wheel offground though, cuz I can barely lift the front end by hand and can't really hold it there whle testing--I kept having it hit the ground and dig a hole every time I tried more than a second or two. Just not capable of it anymore.
Anyway, after all that, I got out on a test ride. The pack isn't fully charged, just whatever charge it had when it arrived, minus whatever tiny amount I used that night on the round-the-block quickie check of it.
Pics of the CA screens below. The Vmin is cuz the pack came unplugged when I hit a pothole, and it got jostled in the rear left cargo pod; the only place I had for it without undoing and redoing other things on the bike, which I dind't have time for last night; was already well after 9pm when I started the ride, and I was pretty tired.
This is the new mounting point for the battery connectors for now, so I can swap them out without undoing the fairing. (can't add this pack direclty in parallel, cuz it's lower nominal voltage than the others). SB50 main input is tied to the frame behind the coroplast, so I can jus tpull off the SB50 for either the built-in packs or the A123 pack, and plug in the other one.
Charging port for the bike itself is just in front of that, tied to the frame PP45s, cuz it kept ripping off the coroplast I had it on after a few charging cycles. Pretty hard to see in the pics, though, at the end after teh CA pics.
Charging screen of CA, about a minute after plugging in charger. To do the charging thru the CA, since this pack has a separate charge port, I had to unplug it's discharge port from the bike, plug in thru the charge port instead, and then plug in it's charger into the bike's charge port, so the CA can monitor. That'd be a PITA to do every time if I had this pack mounted on teh bike, so I would probably just put a plain wattmeter on the charger itself and plug right into the packs' charge port, rather than monitor iwth the CA. I sitll have the old WattsUp from AussieJester, here with me at Bills, so I know I still ahve that one. I don't know if I still have either of the Turnigy watt meters, cuz I don't rememeber where they were before the fire, and have no idea where they are now (assuming they weren't stolen by looters). So I'd probably use the Watts Up, since the charging voltage doesn't go high enough to worry about it.
And of course, Tiny was bored by the whole thing, though she followed me around wherever I went (except on the test ride), and usually dozed off somewhere nearby. (she's asleep next to me right now while I type this up).
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