2WD Semi-Recumbent Recycled-Parts Cargo eBike: "CrazyBike2"

[amberwolf]

I've been running the battery down halfway (about 15 miles of commutes) before recharging since the previous testing. Doing this gives an average wh/mile lower than recharging every day.

I get around 26-28wh/mile average, riding the same way, if I let it run down, vs the 29-31wh/mile average I get if I recharge every night.

I'm not sure I understand exactly why, except that perhaps I can get much higher startup currents at higher voltages for the many complete stops and starts I have to do on the commute, with it fully charged, than I do when it's run down as far as halfway.

If so, the wh/mile would be higher, becuase more total power is actuallly being used.

I expect that if I were to test this on longer trips with few stops and starts, with one version of the trip recharging every 5 miles (same as the commute), and one version letting it run down until 15 miles, I would get much closer to the same wh/mile.




Note about the tire wear--I straightned out the rear frame some weeks back, and changed the tire to the one with little wear (essentially new), and since that time have not noted any asymmetric wear ye




i'd dozed off typing the above and was just woke up by gunshots that sounded like they were right out in the front yard, with tny and yogi piling on top of me. i heard three shots as i woke, but there must've been more before that to get tiny and yogi started on their way to the bed cuz they'd been sleeping on the floor by the doorway to the hall.

called 911 to report the shots 18 minutes ago now and no sign of any patrol cars / etc even attempting to sweep the area.

a few minutes ago before i sat down to type this some of the neighbors from different houses came over to make sure i was ok, and one of them was awake and heard 5 or 6 shots in two groups, so i guess i heard the latter set as i woke. they all also had called it in, and all are also surprised there was no response.

right as they came up, a small white van drove slowly by west to east, and turned north, i don't know who or why. couldn't see much of it clearly as i didn't have my glasses on yet.

i saw no other activity in the neighborhood, and heard nothing except some screeching tires at least a few blocks away for just a couple of seconds, while they were checking on me.

i have since heard screeching tires thrice more even further away fpr shorter times, and once more closer and longer just a moment ago. no roaring engines though.


i also heard a saw or grinder running for several seconds to nearly half a minute, while i started typing this up, somewhere within this neighborhood block.


other than that, i can only hear my laptop fan, dog snoring, and general traffic sounds from the i17 freeway most likely, and various air conditioners on people's roofs.


i have had some of my windows open for ventilation with the nice night air, since before sunset, so i can hear pretty well with no other sounds in the house, though it is very difficult to tell directions of any outside sounds, so i don't know which way any of them came from.


it is now 27 minutes since the call, as i type this up, and no sign of any police at all. i guess it wasnt' very important in the list of calls they took tonite.

whenever they come by normally i can hear the tire noise as they slowly go thru the area without stopping or changing speed, unlike normal traffic, and their headlights woudl also shine thru the windows or on things i can see thru the windows from the bed. there have been no cars at all, no tire noise and no lights, since i was woke up.


i hope there is not anyone lying around the neighborhood bleeding from a gunshot wound, who could've been helped if they had come by.


ah, now as i typed the above, there were about 6 seconds of siren, though i cant remmeber if that siren is a police or ambulance/fire siren. there are still no lights flashing anywhere that reflect into the house, so it isn't anywhere in this local neighborhood.


48 minutes since the call and no patrol or any other vehicles. dogs are still on the bed with me, snoring away, but i'm not dozing een though i'm exhausted, still adrenaline pumped i ugess. can feel it like heartburn still.


just as i was about to click submit, some vehicle with a quiet engine drove thru at a fair clip, more like regular neighborhood traffic than police, west to east and turned north at my corner just like the van earlier, but i didn't get up in time to see more than the red of one taillight as it rounded the corner. couldn't even see vehicle shape.

doesn't really matter, just making notes here cuz i can't sleep now anyway.

too bad tomrrow is a much earlier day than usual, have to be there by 11am which is about 3 hours earlier than usual so less chance of naps to catch up on sleep i will not get because of this, boht now and whatever nightmares i have because of it in addition to allt he rest of the srrtress.


53 minutes and no patrol uneless that was them a couple of minutes ago, unlikely as it's totally unusual driveing pattern for them in a call response.

 

[amberwolf]

So not much new since the above, except that I made a mistake on the wh/mile usage. It's about 26-27wh/mile when it's fully charged, on my commute.

I forgot the other technical bit I was going to post, so here's something else.


Semi-bike-related is that at work yesterday I was a cashier, and becuase it was expected to (and did) rain off and on that day, I parked the bike under the awning in front of our store's windows, just to the east of the front door. That happens to also be in plain view of everyone in the front of the store, inside or out, and on-camera. Normally I can't park it there, but as I can no longer manage to walk it thru the store around all the aisles, floor stacks, customers, etc., to get it to and from teh breakroom, I can't park it inside either, and I am left with the only other option of parking it in a normal parking space across the lot from the store. But when it rains I park it under the awning there because it's no fun to ride a wet-seated bike home, and also cuz it's not waterproof enough to guarantee several hours of rain on it aren't going to get into things that can't handle it, and leave me stranded. It does fine with a few minutes of rain, like on a ride home, but a continous drenching isn't in it's best interest.


Anyway, in the afternoon when it had become partly sunny, a man drove up and parked (badly) in front of the doors in the no-parking area that is marked off by the diagonal yelllow stripes that I *thought* everyone knows mean "no parking here". In comparison to the rest of the parking lot, it should be pretty obvious, since that striped area extends into the roadway between the two sets of parking spaces in front of the store, to mark teh crosswalk area from one to the other.

He gets out of the car with a little kid that's probably 3 or 4 (I'm a terrible judge of kid's ages), and walks in teh store, and says "this isn't Rent-A-Center", walks out and (presumably) walks down to the next storefront, leaving his car parked in the no-parking area that is there partly for the handicapped spaces to have easier access to get out of their cars and into the store, as well as for other customers to get shopping carts full of stuff out into the rest of teh parking lot to get it to their cars.

After some time, he comes back with the kid from the direction of RAC, and they stop to look at CB2, which is a common occurence. The guy touches the bike here and there, which I don't like but that's also common. Then the kid starts to climb on the bike, and he makes no move to stop the kid at all. I begin hobbling over to the door to ask them not to do that, becuase I am very surprised that he would allow his kid to:

--climb onto something potentially dangerous, with wires hanging from it, etc., where the kid could get hurt because kids do dumb things cuz they don't know any better till you tell them

--climb onto someone else's property at all


I mean, really--would you let your little kid just climb up on someone else's "motorcycle" (that's what it looks like to a lot of people), and risk either tipping it over and falling off, injuring himself, or breaking it and having to pay for it, etc?


Anyway, I step just outside the store front door, stand there leaning on my cane, make no move towards them at all, and politely ask them "please don't get on the bike", and the guy just looks at me. So I say "this is my vehicle, please don't get on the bike", exactly the same way.

They guy just looks suddenly ilke he's gonna come rip my head off and shit down my neck, and yells out angrily "he's just a little kid!" and gets the kid off the bike, so I turn and go inside, and as the door begins to automaticlaly slide closed he yells in "you little shit!" and some other stuff I couldn't clearly hear becuase the door closed as he was walking away yelling.




So...the guy can't tell where he should park, and just parks wherever he feels like it.

He can't tell where he is going, and parks at the wrong store.

He can't tell where he is going, and goes into the wrong store.

He doesn't understand that other people's property isn't his (or his kid's) to play with as he pleases.

He doesn't care whether his kid gets hurt.

He doesn't care to show his kid that other people's property isn't his to play with as he pleases.

He doesn't care whether his kid learns not to climb on things without asking, cuz he could get hurt not knowing what it is.

He is offended and angered beyond reason by someone that owns property his kid is playing with, without any permission, politely asking them not to climb on it.

He appears to think that he and his kid can do anything they want anytime they want, just becuase they feel like it, no matter what anyone else thinks or feels or what consequences it might have.



I really hope his attitude doesn't end up getting his kid hurt or killed by something he allows him to do when he is right there and could prevent it before it even starts.



My bike *could* have been "live", without any safety or off switch, and the kid grabbing the throttle could've sent it speeding off to crash and hurt him. It isn't live, and has a safety switch the kid probably isn't strong enough to operate even if he knew it was there and where it was and how it worked, but the guy doesn't know that.

Or it could've been booby trapped. Or any of a thousand other ways it could be instantly dangerous to the child. It isn't, but the guy doesn't know that.

The guy knows NOTHING about it except one crucial fact--it does not belong to him or his child, and so neither of them has any business touching it or climbing up on it.

I could've been the type of person to be angry about it being touched, and could've been the kind of person (like the guy seems to be) that would've just gone over and began violence to stop it. I'm not...but the guy doesn't know that.




This is the sort of attitude that is getting more common with people nowadays, and it is why I have so many nightmares about people just walking into my yard and house and taking things or hurting the dogs or myself, and being unable to do a damn thing about it. And why I worry about things that might happen that I can do nothing about while I am away from home, and even while I am actually here.

Now I have more of them, at least I did last night, and probably will for at least days, probably weeks, to come.

 

[e-beach]

I really hope his attitude doesn't end up getting his kid hurt or killed by something he allows him to do when he is right there and could prevent it before it even starts.

Some people just don't get it. I know parenting is tiring but I also see parents teaching their children restraint in stores all the time...telling them not to grab this or that. So it is possible to discipline a child moving them towards eventual self-discipline.

I have also grew up with some kids who were raised wild where they could do whatever they pleased. Most of them ended up in trouble with the law somewhere down the line. Some got away from law breaking, one didn't and is still in jail today.

My kid climbing on my bike story is this: A little girl, who couldn't have been more the 35lbs pulled over my 80lbs e-bike once. I was having lunch and was sitting in a restaurant with a window and a clear view of my bike. A young mom and her 3 or 4 year old daughter came in the courtyard in front of the restaurant and the mom sat down while the very (hyper?) active girl was running around the benches. The mom looked tired. The little girl suddenly turned to look at my bike which I had leaned against the wall in front of the eatery because my kickstand was broken. The girl started pulling on the top tube like she wanted to climb on my bike. Somehow she pulled in a way the bike fell over and almost on top of her.

SMACK! It hit the ground hard!

Very luckily the little girl was somehow agile enough to keep the bike from falling on top of her but it gave all three of us a big scare. The girl started crying, the mom who watched the whole thing but didn't make a move to stop it, and me inside the restaurant, who stood up the moment the girl went for my bike but had to run through the place to get out the front doors.

It scared the little girl so much she was crying her eyes out.

I asked the mom if the girl was ok and the exasperated mom said she was and then the mom grabbed the girl by the hand and more-or-less dragged her away.

My bike was a bit scratched from the dropping, but a small price to pay for knowing that the little girl didn't get anything more then scared by the fall of it.

Now I always try to lock my bike so it can't fall over.

 

[amberwolf]

I guess I haven't had much news (good stuff anyway, rather than griping) about this bike in a while.

Midmarch thru end of march I worked on a new trike, the SB Cruiser, made out of the remains of Delta Tripper and a front end built by Dogman and me while he was here for a few days at the start of my longest vacation in years. ( 2 weeks).

I then rode the functional but of coruse far from finished SBC instead of CrazyBIke2 for all of April so far, until tonight.

I definitely still prefer CB2 for it's acceleration and it's leanign in turns, and it's familiarity. But the SBC does have some things it does easier and better, like hauling the dogs or big cargo (no trailer needed, unlike CB2).

I'd planned to wait till my birthday at the end of this month to re-start riding CB2, to sort of give myself a present , but tonite I had to use CB2 to go get Tiny some meds since SBC was down for controller/etc experimentation (cuz I'm now on another week's vacation, for the housefire anniversary on the 23rd), and the stores would've been closed by the time I got it back to rideable state.

CB2 was ready to go (just had to swap the headlight lighting pack battery over from SBC, cuz at present I only have one of them built, though I think I have four more cells to build another from so they each have their own).

Other thing I need a secnd one of is teh SMV sign on the back (presently it's ziptied to the kennel door on the back of SBC). And to fix the other CA so I can have a speedo/etc on the SBC (right now I'm considering a quick disconnect to be able to swap teh CA from one to the other easily...is probably easier than fixing the CA, for me)

 

[amberwolf]

partial crosspost from satiator thead:

it's been a while since I used CB2, but several days ago I went soemwhere with it (wish I could remember where :?) and used about 3Ah or so off the pack, and must've forgotten to recharge it (nromally I do that aver every ride).

So I used it as the first real test of teh Grin Tech Cycle Satiator from an anonymous donor. (whoever you are, THANK YOU very much!)

I'd already tested it basically on the EM3EV pack on the SB Cruiser, but it was already almsot fully charged so it didn't do much of a test.

The test charge of CB2's pack actually did significant charging, at the full 8A rate, for the first bit of the ~3Ah of charging it did. I couldn't stay and watch any of it due to the sonic assault in the neighborhood (see note at end) but checked on it at the beginning for a few seconds, and after a while checked it again to find it done. I don't remember the time it said it took to do the charge but it was very much shorter than with the 5A Modary charger I normally use.



The test charge of teh lighting pack also went very quick, profile created just for it's 16.4v fullcharge, but I did use 8A. This took very little time to finish, and since that pack isn't attached I did the charging in the bedroom, I think it took less than half an hour to do the 2Ah. Normally the "5A" RC charger I use for it, in fast charge mode, takes a couple of hours to get around to finishing that same charge.


Oh, also, I built a second lighting pack out of the 4 spare cells, and used it for the test ride Evoforce and I did around the neighborhoods when he came over around a month ago (I guess I forgot to post about that with all the stuff that has happened with Tiny since the last post above, in April).




I don't know if I will always use the fast charge rate on there, or create a slower charge profile too, as I expect slower charging would lengthen the life of the packs--but it certainly will be nice to be able to charge much faster when i need to.


it hasn't had any testing beyond it's use that single ride, and it wasnt' balanced or fully charged, but it still lasted teh whole ride on the trike even with the incandescent turn signals plsu teh car headlight.


I won't be moutnign the charger on the bikes but I may carry it with me at least sometimes (don't need to on the commute) just in case on longer trips.











(forgive my imprecision; the last 1/4 of this whole day, almost 6 hours now, there has been a party going on with a physical assault of incredibly loud and raucous live music in their backyard diagonally across the intersection from my house, and it is so loud that it frequently sounds like someone is knocking on my front door, and occasionally as if they were kicking it in. Many people have tried to get them to stop but they just tell them to frock off, and the police they've called have never shown up, despite continous calls from teh entire area about it, for blocks around. Even here in my bedroom, the farthest possible room from their assault on the neighborhood, with a blanket over the doorway and the door shut and a privacy screen holding up mroe blanets between me and the door, and the box fan and window AC unit going (cuz I can't open the windows to let the cool air in due ot the continued assault) I can still feel the thumping of their attack on us, and sometimes hear the "vocals" (not sure I would call them "singing" even if they werent' so loud you can't actually understand anything). So it's pretty damned hard to concentrate on anything, as I've had a severe headache from it since it started, and the dogs are still upset about it--though finally starting to nap now something like an hour and a half after dinnertime. I wish I could. )

 

[amberwolf]

Over in teh satiator thread I've documented an issue I did not notice last time, probably because of the other stuff going on that day, dunno. But the CA Ah reading is very different from the Satiator reading; I don't know if that means I have the CA shunt setting wrong at 1.300mohms, or if teh CS cable resistance setting of 0.087mohms is wrong because its' also got the CA shunt and some wiring between it and the pack, and causing the difference. Details and troubleshooting over in that thread here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=60169&p=1055377#p1055367



In the meantime I've gotten some new pics of CB2 as it is right now, along with the SB Cruiser.

 

[amberwolf]

Rode CB2 for the work commute today, first time in a while, since I've been riding the SBC trike instead for the last two months except for I think two occasions.

Been long enough that I had a bit of trouble balancing at some points, but I am going to be riding it the rest of this week at least, just cuz I don' tneed to ride the trike itself since I don't need to bring Tiny to work for now.

 

[amberwolf]

Today was interesting with the on-off-on-off rain. The usual idiot drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians that have no idea what water is when it falls out of the sky, or what happens to the streets when it does.

All the usual stupdi things happened, and I avoided all of them easily, by paying attention, though one came closer than usual.

On my way home, on the west half of Metro Parkway, at the Cheryl light, it was green as I approached, with one car turning left before I reached it, and a second car behind it in clear view for nearly 12-13 seconds, who "obviously" saw me coming, because they were waiting behind the crosswalk line despite the green light and the car that already went before them from teh same lane, but of course I couldn't see into the car and wouldn't have trusted them even if I could.

Which was a good thing. As usual, as I approached the crosswalk, tehy began to inch forward and then just as I crossed the crosswalk's first line they began to accelerate and turn, so I braked, keeping a perfectly straight line and could feel the tires grip instead of slip (knowing that with the damp asphalt if I tried to turn I would probably skid and lose any chance of stopping or getting out of his way).

I'd been going 19.6MPH before approaching the intersection, but when I saw that car waiting I left off throttle and let it coast with fingers lightly pressing the brakes against the rims (enough to help scrape off any dampness but not to actively brake) so I was only at 18MPh by the time I reached the crosswalk and the car began to turn in front of me, and using all of my braking regen and mechanical I was able to slow without skidding enough that I would've been able to turn left to go around the car if it had continued into my path. At that point I was at least a car length into the intersection already.


But it stopped suddenly, as if they *hadn't* noticed me before but now did, so then since there was no way they could get into my path and cause a collision, I acclerated as hard as i could to keep going straight thru as normal to "get out of their way", and as I passed the front of their car (which I could ahve reached out to touch with my left hand, though I was in the center of the righthand of two lanes), the light turned from green to yellow, adn then I crossed the crosswalk's line clearing the intersection.

Just before I crossed that line, the car that had incorrectly turned in front of me and then stopped, honked his horn--then someone else in another car honked theirs (at the other car?) and then another horn, perhaps the first agian (couldn't tell), and then I could see as teh light turned red behind me, that car finished it's turn.


FWIW, I could've acclerated instead of braking and probably have made it out of their way, but they were in a small sporty car that was acclerating and I might not have been able to do ti as fast as they could, so ti was safer to brake and go around their left if they'd continued, even if I had had to go into the lane they came from (no other cars were on Metro Parkway north or south, only ones waiting to cross or turn from Cheryl whcih had the red light then).


I don't know why they would honk at me, especially after they stopped in the turn; maybe they were embarrased, whcih often cuases people to get angry at others instead of at themselves for whatever they did to embarass themselves, and I don't udnerstand that but it happens a lot.

To them, in the lighting conditions there, I would have looked like a small motorcycle just not going as fast as "normal" (but with the rain it's common for two wheelers to go a lot slower, while cars usually go *faster*.


So anyway, I did what I always do, and kept on the lookout and maneuvered as needed to prevent collisions/etc...except that really what I should have done, seeing that car and just having that funny feeling, was just come to a stop at the crosswalk despite teh green light, since there was no traffic behind me. It would have been much safer, especially since with the rain and damp road there was no guarantee I would be able to stop in time (though I was "certain" I could, conditions like that can have unexpected results).


So...just another day on the roads in Phoenix. :lol:

 

[Ykick]

@AW - yeah, right-of-way don’t mean much if/when you’re squashed by hurtling machinery.

Your recounting this situation can remind all of us to listen to that voice inside and to always trust our gut instincts. Enough years/miles out there on the roads you develop a sense for these type things.

Little rain in the SW is a crazy thing. May go for months without using windshield wipers or needing tire tread. All of a sudden, driving/riding on flooded surfaces with poor visibility and equipment made even worse by oils and other nasty vehicle pollution (tire/brake residue) - most drivers simply don’t realize how the dynamics change and/or they’re too self-centered to recognize the genuine consequences of operating cars/trucks?

Oscar Grope loves the feeling of “empowerment” and sense of entitlement because they can afford to own/drive the latest in murderous road weaponry. ‘don’t get the horn honking either. I mean WTF? Horns are a good and useful tool but most of the driving public thinks it can magically turn a wrong into a right? Or, it’s a vent for frustration…

This stuff is not that difficult to solve, or at least significantly improve motorist behavior. Start by requiring a motorcycle endorsement before anybody can ever dream of a license to drive a car/truck.

Why in the hell do we give our most inexperienced drivers a license to operate something that can be as deadly as a +2000lb hurtling vehicle? Motorcycles are unable to do nearly as much damage as cars/trucks - it’s simply ridiculous to hand out drivers license to operate a murderous weapon like handing out candy!

I also firmly believe front & rear view wide-angle drive cams w/black box recording should be standard equipment on all vehicles and particularly, motorcycles, bicycles and possibly even pedestrians. Shark Tank product anyone?

 

[amberwolf]

The one thing that you missed, I think:

We don't care.

"We" being the drivers, the licensors, the public at large.

That includes pedestrians, cyclists, etc., many of whom are also drivers of those hurtling monstrosities, and they walk and ride like they drive--unconcerned for the consequences, simply becuase they don't care about what happens around them (to, by, or for them) enough to think forward to teh consequences of each action.

That also includes actions totally outside of driving, walking, or riding, just everyday interactions with the rest of the world.

Until something really bad happens to them because of their own actions, that obviously even to themselves cannot be blamed on anyone or anything else, they have no thought whatsoever that what they do might have consequences.


And thus all the sue-happy people out there, putting legal blame upon others when really if they had put any teeny tiny thought into what they were doing before they did it, whatever problem they had would not have happened.

Just to start with the obvious: the mcdonald's-coffee-woman, the many people that hurt themselves with objects using them in ways they weren't meant to be, and then sue the makers of those objects, usually successfully (even if it's out of court settlement), people who crash into other people in the various ways there are to do that, and then win their cases against them becasue the other person did it "right" and didnt' get hurt but the person to blame that caused it did it "wrong" and was hurt badly, etc.

That doesn't even begin to start with all the ones that hurt *others* without getting hurt themselves (but do "know" that they did it) and thus learn no lesson at all from it and have no reason to learn.

Then there's the vast majority of such things, where they hurt others without any consequences to themselves, adn are not even aware that they did it (but woudln't care if they did), and most certainly don't learn any lessons.


Unless people are taught differently as children, they will continue to *be* children until something sufficiently bad happens to them to make them realize that maybe what they themselves do may be causing similar harm to others. And they will continue to inflict that harm on others, unthinkingly, whatever level that harm might be.


It's not going to change until each of us begins to change on our own, until we put thought into every action and it's possible consequences to ourselves *and others*, and learn to *care* about those consequences adn those others.


That's a long long way away, if it ever happens. I think if it does, we'll have become a different species by then.

 

[The fingers]

The government wants self-driving cars; to quote Jay Leno "How much fun is that?". So far Google will not release accident data for theirs. Solar-powered pnuematic tubeways (wind tunnels) for bicycles are the answer.

 

[docnjoj]

I would just settle for real bikelanes. We have painted lines that narrow the existing road and make either driving or bikeriding more dangerous.
otherDoc

 

[ax57ax57]

AW,

I can tell you with all certainty that they see you. In the last 14 years, I've transported around 6 to 8 bicyclists to trauma centers after they were struck by a car, and all of them were adults. When these wonderful Arizona motorists see a kid on a bike they seem to exercise extreme caution, perhaps even allowing them the right-of-way they're entitled to, but when they see an adult on a bicycle it's a completely different story. It's as if they just can't be bothered to wait a few seconds to yield to some silly adult on a bicycle who doesn't realize that the roads are there for cars. The most recent bicycle vs. motor vehicle here involved a very elderly driver who placed all blame on the bicyclist and didn't even seem to be too bothered by the mishap. (She later died in the E.D.) The driver wasn't cited and he didn't lose his license either.

I really wish that the licensing procedure here was similar to that in Germany. Over there, you're not simply rewarded for waiting all day at the Motor Vehicle Division by them issuing you a driver's license. You have to pay a professional driving school for a rigorous course of instruction, followed by a difficult hands-on evaluation. It's not simply given to you, you have to demonstrate that you not only know the rules-of-the-road, but that you have the skills and judgement to be a safe, skilled driver on German roads. When I was there in the nineties, it cost a typical German the equivalent of around $2500 to obtain a driver's license. Having been trained, and having invested that much money in their driver's license, the typical German driver not only valued his driver's license, but it caused him to take driving much more seriously than the typical American. Driving over there was an absolute pleasure, and it was a major adjustment after I got back to the states and was reminded just how bad the drivers are here.

 

[amberwolf]

Yes, that would help...see below my replies to others for more. As for seeing or not seeing...people "see" a lot of things without actually *noticing* them, because tehy are not paying attention. Their minds are on other things, because they are *allowing themselves* to be distracted from the task at hand, whcih might be piloting a huge mass of metal and plastic, or just walking down the sidewalk, or riding a little bicycle type transport, etc.

I've ranted about the issues involved before, but there is virtually nothing to be done about any of them, without teaching people situational awareness from childhood, to learn to pay attention to surroundings and react to them to prevent problems, instead of reacting to the problem after it happens.

Unfortuantely that probably isn't ever going to happen either, but it is teh best solution to many problems, nto just that of traffic integration.

 

[amberwolf]

I would just settle for real bikelanes. We have painted lines that narrow the existing road and make either driving or bikeriding more dangerous.
otherDoc

That's true...but "real" bike lanes taht are physically separated from traffic would be useless to me, because they would almost certainly not be a part of the road system and be done as separate trails that might be fun for pure exercise or sight seeing, but useless for most commuting and other trips.

There are a lot of us that choose to use bicycles rather than larger vehicles for one reason or another, that *have* to use the roads to get where we need to go, and most of the time that also means being unable to use much in the way of bike lanes as those dont' normally exist on major roads here in Phoenix and the rest of the Valley.

The few that do exist are for the most part, as you say, unsafe to use, but they are all that we have.

Here in this city, it would be pretty much impossible to add a separated lane for bicycles on even just every other major road, rather than every major road. Even if they could do it, it'd still be unhelpful for most commuting and whatnot, because it means up to a mile or more of "unsafe" riding to get to a place not on that "safe" road, and then also teh same distance back to the 'safe" road.

Then you have the issue of either cars or bicycles having to cross each other's separated lanes every dozen feet or two, to get into businesses, side streets, homes, etc. Thus, the *only* thing the separated lane prevents is someone just changing lanes into you, and *maybe* from running you over from behind. It doesn't stop them from right or left crossing you.

It also guarantees that they are not going to pay *any* attention to you at all, because you are not on the road with them, and you are not part of traffic, so they have absolutely no need to even know you exist. Exactly like someone on the sidewalk (pedestrian or cyclist)--those don't get any attention either, becuase they're not on the road. Drivers just turn and do whatever they do, without looking first, because there is no need to as far as they are concerned. (this also causes drivers to collide head-on in such turns, becuase one was turning left out of such a side-turn and was too far to the left, and the one turning right into such a side turn was too far to their left, and they meet in the middle with teh corners of their cars, or the full front).

Drivers, especially of trucks and SUVs, also commonly turn *before* teh actual side-turn, and go *over* the medians, sidewalks, etc., crushing whoever or whatever happens to be there.

The same would be true if the cyclists were in the center lanes, because drivers turning left do all the same things as those turning right, just not quite as often or suddenly becuase there might be cars on the oppposing traffic lanes (though that actually exacerbates the problem in some cases, becuase they see a gap in traffic and just make the turn without looking any further than that).


The only way to prevent the cars from turning into the cyclists would be for one of them to be on a totally separate roadway, above or below the other one...andthen you have the problem of how to get from that roadway to the busineses, homes, side streets, etc.

I can guarantee you that if they went with that solution here, elevated cycleways, they would make only one per major street (at best), and both directions of traffic would have to use it, and ti would be too narrow for anyone except skinny cyclists with drop bars to pass each other. It would also be used by pedestrians (legal or not), who would crowd it and make it useless for cyclists trying to actually get anywhere, same as most multi-use-paths already are at some times of day, at least.

Plus, it would only have exits every mile or maybe half mile, so you'd still have the whole issue of having to ride on surface streets with traffic, for mroe than enough distnace to be unsafe enough to make it of little import to have the cycleways to begin with, especially since the worst places for traffic mixing are those places that are destinations for all teh types of traffic.



The best solution is to get everyone to learn to share the road safely, and to change things so that everyone has to pay attention, which alone would stop most collisions.

People often talk about "blind spots" but those are irrelevant in many cases if they had been paying attention before someone entered that spot, they would have seen them and remembered they were there, and changed speeds or positions themselves (even just leaning forward in their seat or turning their head!) to verify if they were still there, and if they can't tell, then just simply know to not go there until they are absolutely sure it's clear...instead of assuming that since they don't see anything, there must be nothing there to see.

 

[amberwolf]

The government wants self-driving cars; to quote Jay Leno "How much fun is that?". So far Google will not release accident data for theirs. Solar-powered pnuematic tubeways (wind tunnels) for bicycles are the answer.

I don't think either one is the answer. Automated systems can't react to unpredicted and unprogrammed situations, though they may work well in "pure" traffic, there really isn't such a thing anywhere I've been. Humans that have been trained to do it can be better at that, though not all are.

I think Ax57ax57's referenced method is probably the best single thing we could do, if we have to have huge vehicles in our cities, and not just for interstate/city goods transport.

The only thing I would change about it is to allow the test once without having to go thru the expensive training, in case the testee does actually know what they are doing already, especially for those too poor to afford the training (because I don't think it's just car/truck drivers that need to prove abilities).

We might have to get the cost down at first to get it accepted, but I think it would help a lot if at the next renewal it couldn't be just renewed, but had to be proven you knew what you were doing, for those existing drivers. New ones would start out with that. No grandfathering in of anyone, no matter what.


Something similar for pedestrians before they are allowed to venture outside their homes would be nice, too, but probably never gonna happen.


And something similar for cyclists, skaters, skateboarders, etc., because at least here in Phoenix, they're just as bad as the drivers (even if they aren't in charge of a half-ton or more at a time of hurtling metal and plastic).


I couldn't afford the training for that (it's more than 25% of my annual income, if it were around $2500, and I have zero to spare most of the time), so if the training were required first, I'd be stuck at home. But if I could just do the test, with my own vehicle, then I could probably do it, presuming it was not too expensive for the bicycle-class license and it did nto have to be tested and renewed very often (cuz I'd have to save up for it by skimping on food or electricity or water usage, unless I found side-work to cover it, which is rare).


But i'd rather have to deal with that than have the city be as unsafe as it is now, where the only safe way to ride around is to assume everyone around me, truck, car, pedestrian, or cyclist, is out to kill me, whcih makes most rides fairly unenjoyable.

 

[Chalo]

The government wants self-driving cars; to quote Jay Leno "How much fun is that?". So far Google will not release accident data for theirs. Solar-powered pnuematic tubeways (wind tunnels) for bicycles are the answer.

I don't think either one is the answer. Automated systems can't react to unpredicted and unprogrammed situations, though they may work well in "pure" traffic, there really isn't such a thing anywhere I've been. Humans that have been trained to do it can be better at that, though not all are.

I reckon self-driving cars don't ever have to be perfect. Human-operated cars have been such a disaster, automated cars only have to be better than the drooling retards operating them now.

Once self-driving cars are demonstrated to be categorically less dangerous than cars with traditionally faulty guidance systems, I believe they should be mandatory for those who choose to use cars. We've given drivers a hundred years to prove their merits, and they've proved only that they can kill millions of us, ruin cities, squander resources, and sever ties of community. Enough is enough.

 

[amberwolf]

Well, if it was a choice between automated cars and the present USA "system" and "skill" level, then yeah, I'd pick even beta testing the automation live right now in every car, over what we have.




On the subject of the CA vs the CS current measurement, on the assumption that it's likely the CS current measurement on recharge is accurate, and the CA shunt setting could be wrong and thus measurement wrong,

I did a bit of math, hopefully correctly, that shows my shunt setting in the CA should be either 1.645mohm, or 1.027mohm.

I suspect it's supposed to be the latter, and I also suspect that my measurements of *almost EVERYTHING* on the CA for the last year has been wrong.

Where I think this has gone wrong is that a long time back I used the CAv2.23 as a direct-connect to a controller (don't remmeber which one), and at that time it was a 1.3mohm shunt in there. Then, later, when i switched to using an external CA shunt with it, I didn't change it.

Later on, I moved the CAv2.23 off of CB2 and started using the CAv3, and that one I am pretty sure was setup using the correct external CA shunt value.

Then, sometime in 2013, I blew up the CAv3 with a short at teh shunt itself between battery + and the speed sensor wire (whcih also blew the assosciated hall in the motor.

So the CAv2.23 went back on there...and I must've never reset it's shunt setting, having assumed that i had already had it set for the shunt correctly.



So, assuming that it's been wrong since that changeover, it should show suddenly much lower power usage after that point. Except that since the hall was blown in the rear motor, I'd gone back to just the front motor, so no direct comparison can be made...and I think at some point shortly afterward I switched from the 6FET on the front to the 12FEt that had run the rear before that, and when I put it all back together with both motors, I used a *different* 12FET on the rear motor than previously.


So (again), I don't know that I can say for certain exactly when the wrong readings started, based on previous data, but I think my above list of events probably pinpoints it (without actually going thru this thread's post for the last few years).


Assuming my math is right, approximately, then I just need to determine the ratio of what my measurments showed since the mis-setting vs what they actually should show


So...what my CA shunt is presently is 1.300mohm, and what it probably should be is 1.027mohm. That means the ratio between them is 1:1.266. (I think. Maybe it's really 1:0.790? I'm pretty sure I've said that me and math don't get along very well. ).

Assuming it's 1:1.266, then:

If my average wh/mile had been 28-30, it's actually more like 35.45-37.98wh/mile.

If my average peak power had been 3500w, it's actually more like 4431w.

If my average watts at speed (20MPH) had been around 450-550W, then it's actually more like 570-696W.

That last really sounds terribly wrong, cuz it shouldn't take nearly taht much power for a bike like mine to move at that speed.


So...if instead the ratio should be 1:0.790, then that means:

If my average wh/mile had been 28-30, it's actually more like 22.12-23.7 wh/mile.

If my average peak power had been 3500w, it's actually more like 2765w.

If my average watts at speed (20MPH) had been around 450-550W, then it's actually more like 355-435W.


Those sound relatively plausible, too, but the power at speed sounds low, given that my bike while low and rider angled back a little is not that aero.



The numbers I actually already get, with the shunt setting in teh CA of 1.300, seem more realistic than either of the above sets of numbers.

So...I am curious now as to what the *actual* reason is for the current reading difference.....

 

[amberwolf]

Alrighty, so I did the simplest two tests:

Inserted Turnigy Watt Meter in series with the CS to the charge port of the bike, and it shows the same current as the CS, within tolerances, vs what the CA shows.

Then I removed the TWM and tried a couple of DMMs and get teh same thing as teh CS.


So the CA *is* incorrectly calibrated.

FWIW, at this point it's charged up ~12Ah, where the CA says it's ~9.5Ah.


I changed it's shunt value to the calculated 1.027mohms, and it was still off.

Experimenting wiht the shunt setting finds that 0.9mohms yields a close enough reading to the CS and the other measuring devices to call them the same. This seems odd, as I would expect closer to 1.0mohm for a Grin CA external shunt, and I am pretty sure that's what this one was at one time when I did the measurements on it (in fact, 1.02xmohm "sounds" right for it), but that was a long time ago and my brain has lost capacity since then. :/

Since my shunt is soldered into the wire harness I can't just swap it out for another (I think I have 3 or 4 other shunts), but I should be able to measure the millivolts across it using the fluke DMM and math (grr) should tell me what it *actually* is, based on the current thru it at the time.

 

[amberwolf]

Well, I can't corectly measure the voltage across teh shunt with any of the meters I have; the connection simply isn't good enough. It changes greatly with pressure on tips, etc (though it doesn't alter the CA reading at that instant so it's not changing the connection).

So for instance I get (with the most tip pressure) 0.02V across it when current thru it is 1.1A, which comes out to 18.18_ mohms, which is definitely wrong.

At no point do I get a measurement that could come out to a value that could give me the measurements I actually see on any of the measuring devices.


A lot of fiddling around with values in the CA screen gives me about 0.950mohms to match the current on the fluke in series with the charger.


Unfortunately I can't measure the *discharge currents* which would be higher and more likely to yield an accurately-readable voltage drop across teh shunt, because the shunt is soldered to the controllers and battery.


Um...no, wait--I *can* measure it between the battery and bike. I'll make up a connector to do that so I don't have to hold everything in place at the same time on opposite sides of teh bike.

 

[amberwolf]

Didnt' have time to make the connector stuff up and setup the meters on the bars so I can watch them as I ride to test under higher currents.

But I did watch the CA readouts with the "corrected" shunt value, and saw readings that don't match with my predictions, but rather do still seem "normal" enough (though higher than before, of course).

So I saw peaks of around 80A during acceleration, and 450-600W during 20MPH cruise, but it was also windy and my path curves around from away from the wind back to into it, thanks to the oval road around metrocenter.

Unfortunately the CA data itself is corrupt somehow, with Amin at -256A and Amax 255.8A, and Vmin at 38.7V. :? None of these make sense, so they must be corrupt data. I'll have to check teh connection between the shunt and the CA--it is the only point that still uses a JST connector and I suspect a connection problem since I was messing with that by probing the shunt pins yesterday. I'll probably just eliminate the connector.

So the data it does have is this:
Vstart = 58.4V
Vmin = 38.7V ?
Vend = 56.0V

Ah used = 3.057
Wh used = 172.46
Wh/mile = 38.0

Regen % =1.8
Fwd Ah = 3.1165
Reg Ah = 0.0554

Amin = -256.
Amax = 255.8

4.466miles
20.6MPH peak
15.7MPH avg

trip time 16m 59s

10871 miles total.



Now recharging with teh Satiator; CS reads 6.4A while CA reads -6.23A, with some 0.07A forward current powering the controllers so really -6.3A. We'll see what it is later on in charge if I don't doze off.

 

[amberwolf]

I dozed off....so didn't see what it was. Tried again today after a trip and dozed off again.

I should just get the bike into the back room near enough the utility room to get leads from the big Sorenson onto the shunt, then set it for high current, low voltage, and measure the actual voltage drop across the shunt, to calculate it's actual resistance. Or something. (it's difficult to get the bike in there cuz the back door is very narrow, making it sort of easier to take it thru the whole house...whcih isn't much easier.



Teh trip itself was to pick up a BikeBarn found via Freecycle. It's cover is gone long ago, sunrotted away, but the frame is good, and it's made to ride a motorcycle into and then pull the top down over the bike and then to get out yourself, for sun or rain.

It's big enough I should be able to park the SB Cruiser in there, and the way it is made I can easily make it wider, so it can be used for the yet-to-be-made wide version of the trike that may not fit thru the shed doors to park inside one of those. (or I may just never have teh empty space inside to fit it).

I have a roll of cloth that can be used to make a sun cover for it (though it isn't rain proof, that doesn't matter much for our weather here most of the time).


But there's one more thing it can be used for: A nighttime and cold-weather cover for the solar water heater project.


Right now it's still a partly disassembled set of tubes, and will probably be so for a little while, but I couldn't pass up the chance to pick it up for just the time of the trip to get it. If I can't use it I can always put it back on freecycle.

 

[amberwolf]

I forgot the pics:





Also, been doing a "rundown test" on the pack, with the new "corrected" settings, tos ee what Ah it tells me I finally get out of it. It will probably show a lot more than it did last time, which would mean that the pack hasn't actually lost the capacity I though it had....

Was at 7Ah used up as of last night, over two days' commuting. Today is last day of work this week, shoudl be off tomorrow so will need to ride around a while and use up enough to reach "empty".

Then recharge it and see what the Satiator comes up with vs the CA.

 

[amberwolf]

Stuff came up and I didn't get ot finish that discharge test, having to recharge wtih several Ah left, but I did most of one the last week, finishing yesterday.

Unfortunately I'd meant to finish it on my day off, but again stuff came up, and then I forgot to do it *or* to recharge it, and had enough to make it to work, but probably not to make it even partway home. I'd already gone 24.75 miles without recharging by the time I reached work.

According to the CA, when I got to work, I had used 19.93Ah (out of a few-year-old 14s 20Ah pack), with it at 47.2V resting, which should be about 3.37V / cell. I don't know what the actual cell voltages were, because I apparently had taken my multimeter out of the toolbox and not put it back, and the batterymedic I'd used to do multicell checks was sitting at home too.

Since the pack was still behaving normally, even under max acceleration load at the intersection less than 1/8 mile from work, most likely none of the cells were really very low, and it is probably fairly well balanced at the level it was at.

According to the EIG chart for this cell


and some notes I made on it, 3.37V / cell is rigth about at the 90%-of-discharge knee for 2C (40A). Typical discharge is much less than that, just a few amps, but peak discharge is up to twice that (or a little more) for a few seconds at a time.

Vmin was 40.1V, so the lowest any cell went to (probably at that intersection) would've been about 2.86V. Not disastrous, but that's pretty low. :/


Since I knew I wouldn't liekly have enough to get home I brougth teh Satiator with me, and with the bike parked in the breakroom, left it charging during my shift.

The Satiator showed 8A for the first few seconds, dropping to 7.4A within a minute (presumably as it heated up, cuz it was already kinda warm from the trip to work in the uninsulated pod that basically faced the slightly-past-midday sun on it's top and side for most of the 2.4 mile ride).

But...the CA showed a slow cycling of current, of about half an amp above and below what the steady Satiator readout showed. I didn't time it but it seemed like around half a minute or so for each half of the swing. So ti would go up to almost 8A, then back down to under 7A, in a slow cycle that might be a triangle or sine wave pattern. (not enough data points to tell, only had about 5 minutes to watch it do this before starting my shift).

So what the Satiator shows is definitely not what it is actually doing, even if what it shows might be an average of it's current. I wish it would show the *actual* current at any instant. :/

(EDIT: the above is wrong: the Satiator *does* show the actual reading, but my old CA2.3-something has a "sync" issue noted by Justin because of sampling frequency vs line frequency)


Anyway, when the day was over and time to go home, the Satiator showed 21.4Ah recharged, while the CA showed 20.96Ah recharged. So both show higher recharge than actual usage of the CA showed, and the difference between them means there is still a calibration issue with the CA shunt, *and* with the Satiator vs CrazyBike2's cabling, connectors, and breaker, between charge port and battery itself.

So at present I still don't know what the actual correct capacity of the EIG pack is, though it appears to be significantly higher than what I'd tested it before as (though of course, not any further distance).

I need to actually do a calibration test on teh wiring including the shunt and see what that comes out to, so I can include that in teh Satiator's settings, and retest.

Also to put the correct shunt setting into the CA, once I know for sure what that is.

Other trip data:
Total Wh used shows 1029.2, with Wh/mile being 41.1.

Regen% was 1.6, with regen Ah of 0.3314, Fwd Ah of 20.264.

Max regen current shows 25.7A, with max fwd current of 101.0.

Max speed was 20.2MPH, average 15.3, total time in motion of 1h 36m 44s. Total mileage is now 10927 miles.

 

[amberwolf]

(sort of crossposted to CB2 and SBC threads but not quite cuz isn't exactly the same on each)

Got a new cane holder on the bike (and trike) now, thanks to the new poopy-cleanup-stations at work.

The unused wallmount holders for the popup "wet area caution" signs were being tossed out, so I saved them and added them to CB2 and SBC, with one spare for later.


CB2's is just stuck down into the seat webbing ties, and ziptied up at the top end, which is a better placement than I usually have to use for the cane bungeed to the back of the seat along the left edge.





With the holder and in that spot, I can still strap down other cargo (usually styrofoam boxes empty or full of groceries), but now I can do it tightly to the back of the seat without worries about getting the cane off to get off the bike (sometimes i need it just to get off the bike, sometimes I don't), without first having to unstrap the cargo to let me work the cane up thru the seatback's frame.


The only issue so far with it is that since the cane isn't strapped down, it rattles around, so rather than just strap it into it, I wrapped a rag around the middle of it, ziptied in place, to act as a "cork" to friction-fit it into the tube. Works fine so far.


I coudl also probably make a cut-away rubber sheet or soemthing at the top of the holder instead, but then it will grab at teh cane's footpad going in and out, making it harder to pull out especially, and I'd rather not have that. I drop it enough as it is, and have to get down on the ground to pick it up sometimes, meaning prying myself up off the ground with it afterward. :/