New e-board - should I chage the motor?

[zogthegreat]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine just gave me a Pulse Charger Revolution e-board that he had sitting around for awhile.

The lead-acid batteries were shot and he didn't have a charger for it. I am new to this, but don't mind getting my hands dirty or skinning my knuckles. I understand that I will have to drop a bit of coin to get something respectable, but I am a old school hacker/modder and tend to drool at the opportunity to start a new project, (much to the dismay of my girlfriend).

The people over in the battery section have been helping me choose a battery pack to replace the 2 x 12v 4.5ah lead-acid batteries that came with the board, but before I buy the battery pack, I was wondering about the motor. It comes with the following stock motor:

Dexun micro motor
ZXT6832-24
24v/DC 100W
NO: 20110813-29229
www.dexun.cn

Is this "good" or should I look at an upgrade? I am not so much interested in speed as in torque/power as the part of town that I live in has a lot of hilly terrain. I have a pretty good understanding of electronics and my son has a degree in electronics, so if modding the existing setup is necessary, that's not a problem.

Thanks

zog

 

[Wheazel]

Simply put, there are alot better motors around, but it could also be alot of work until you have a functional system again if you start to replace stuff.
If you replace the motor you probably have to replace the controller aswell. It looks like a beltdrive, and maybe that one fails if you increase power. (starts to skip etc)

I just think the product itself is an inferior candidate for any real upgrades. Better to either start with something better or build something better all together.

 

[ARod1993]

24VDC/100 watts is basically nothing. You can get a power system (motor and controller) about that size that will run at 10-20 times that rating fairly easily for about $200-250 USD plus shipping and tax; the Turnigy SK3 6374-149 motor is capable of running at 2-3KW for decently long peaks (maybe even continuously), and costs $80.08 USD from Hobbyking. Similarly, a Kelly KBS48101X (48 volt sensored brushless controller, 110 amps peak/40 amps continuous, and actually good for those ratings) will run you $119 USD plus shipping; a Hall sensor board specifically designed to mate with those motors can be had from Equals Zero Designs for about $30 USD. All told, the electrical side of the powertrain (excluding batteries) should run you at most $300 (including budget for misc. electronic parts, solder, a 50-100 amp main switch.

On the mechanical side, you'd probably be looking at a new drivetrain and rear wheel; you can get an 8" scooter rear wheel assembly from Monster Scooter Parts for something like $25 USD, but you might need to replace the rear sprocket with something a bit larger (more teeth) so you can use a decently sized motor sprocket (12+ teeth) on the front to avoid chain damage. You can probably get away with using #25 chain for this because you're not going to be slamming 5kW through it, so if you get the sprockets through McMaster or Surplus Center, expect about $50-$60 USD for that and the chain.

All told, excluding the batteries you could turn this into a Ludicrously Overpowered Tiny Vehicle for about $350-400 USD and a fair amount of reasonably skilled labor. The question, as Wheazel mentioned, is whether you want to expend that time and money on a 100W toy frame.