My solar-assisted custom tricycle FOLLIES

[amberwolf]

V-brakes, on the other hand are my most-favored rim brake. The front forks on both RATT trike and Trike 3 are too w i d e to support v-brake use, hence, old-school side-pulls.

Just curious: why are they too wide? I've been trying to think of something that would prevent a longer bit of cable across the top of the wheel from pulling correctly, but haven't been able to.

Assuming we're talking about the same kind of V-brakes:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_u-v.html#vbrake
and that the problem isn't that there is too much space between the fork legs and the rim, such that the pads can't reach.

 

[ddk]

V-brakes, on the other hand are my most-favored rim brake. The front forks on both RATT trike and Trike 3 are too w i d e to support v-brake use, hence, old-school side-pulls.

Just curious: why are they too wide? I've been trying to think of something that would prevent a longer bit of cable across the top of the wheel from pulling correctly, but haven't been able to.

Assuming we're talking about the same kind of V-brakes:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_u-v.html#vbrake
and that the problem isn't that there is too much space between the fork legs and the rim, such that the pads can't reach.

center-to-center on the down tubes is +170mm.
I could make them work if I fashioned my own custom cable-routing tube. Or I could use a center-pull system. Or use the simplest-to-install single bolt-hole side-pull.
Well, I'm a simplest-minded guy
-a simpleton if you prefer.
...and really, the rim brake only for that final 1%, when the regen brake stops being effective (or those rare emergency stops where all brakes are engaged)

I don't live in Phoenix... There's six stop lights in the whole area that consists of a 10-mile stretch of HWY 101 with 10' wide bike ways
My brakes are mainly for slowing me down steep hills and of course, providing quick complete stops.
Regen, or EBS brakes are imo best-est for the steep hills.
My opinion is based on my experience with local terrain.
and
As always
YMMV.

 

[ddk]

Thanks everyone 11!1
Sheldon Brown is my patron saint RIP Sheldon.

I need to take more drugs...
no, really!
at least the drugs I'm supposed to take...
Please disregard my earlier false statements about v-brakes on my trikes.
gonna leave that idiocy up to remind me what happens when I forget. to. take. my. medications.
(sounds so mental, but mental confusion is an unfortunate side-effect of a health-issue that isn't diabetes. However, diabetes or stuff that resembles it raises all sorts of mental mayhem if left uncontrolled) (my issues are allergic responses)

***********************************************************************
\Remeber this, I one of those few on this forum NOT building high-power quasi-motorcycles.
My trikes are speed and power legal for my local as I'm only interested in safely getting from point a to d mitout infractions/accidents. (experience is a bitch)
The ONLY reason I use side-pull brakes is because they're the simplest to install and for my situation, usually adequate.
If proven to be inadequate then I'll use something else.

-Pics above show the hoary details -
Because of the dropout extensions I put on trike3, v-brakes are problematic... but I could make them work by moving stuff around (my foresight-foo was weak, grasshopper)
It's rear coaster brake works fine along with it's (new) front rim/regen brake systems.
Trike3 formerly used an old-style drum brake up front, which is why it's fork dropouts are exceptionally 123mm huge.
Un-squished parts of the tubes are about 170mm edge-to-edge (not center to center, which is actually some 140-ish mm)

RATT trike includes a band brake in the rear because I accidentally (almost)(sic) found out it works GREAT when wet. Not so great when dry but I suspect water swells the band helping this matter, because after the band gets wet it continues to work good for months on end (until it drys out again) Magic Pie on the front wheel provides most the braking.
Side-pull rim brake with koolstop pads works in conjunction with the Pie. Pull the brake handle and the motor regen brake immediately reacts. Pull the brake handle a little tighter and the rim brake starts to engage.
Stops about the same as, or a little quicker than -

MPPM velo. It uses disc brakes in the rear where I'm regularly adjusting and/or replacing their respective pads. Did I mention I didn't care for disc brakes?
V-brakes on the front. They work GREAT ( say it using tigerish voice)
MPPM lacks the benefits of an electric brake system because, geared hub motors front and rear.

Trike 3 is still being setup/tested and has yet to travel over 30 meters> during testing I destroyed its' 45-year old original 3-speed hub with coaster brake. 45-year-old.
Did I say 45-year old because I meant to say 45-years old parts on a 45-year old heavy steel frame that at least had never been left out in the rain. Until recently it spent most of it's 45 years in the middle of Oregon. Consequently, RUST didn't completely consume it. (would not have survived locally)
It was the 45-year old gears (or bands) of the 3-speed hub that failed (and I'd just finally gotten them adjusted right! dimmit!) (said with cranky old guy voice) with the 45-year old coaster brake being kinda weak.

Who coulda guessed?

It's likely I'll never really use Trike 3 and am actually building it just to test controllers and hub motors

 

[ddk]

recent acquisition includes a couple of: starts up *new* *improved* MPPM door project

*Now with WINDOW that OPENS*

 

[docnjoj]

A window that opens? What will they think of next? :?
otherDoc

 

[ddk]

A window that opens? What will they think of next? :?
otherDoc

MPPM IS nothing less than a non-operational window.
While this hasn't proven to be much of a problem in the past, who knows what the future involves?
So, future proofing.

...but mainly I wanted an excuse to post a photo I'd spent more than 2 seconds producing, in remembrance of the time I was first exposed to product photography over three and a half decades ago.
-first exposure
(I meant to say that lol)
being redundant is the only joy(k) I gets

 

[ddk]

of course, during the dry season I take the door off and leave it off until the rainy season, which starts in a few more months (we hope) Part of my decision to glass in the body has to do with my hobby, taking snaps of stuff along the way...
all my kids are coming to visit me in a few weeks. It's hard to call them kids, since they're all growed up adults
(unlike me)

 

[doctorGONZO]

View attachment 3View attachment 2View attachment 1

Boss.

If some is good, more is better.

Enough is not enough.

Too much, now, that IS enough.

My kind of engineering. Thanks for showing it. I always felt like it would be bad luck if my building fell down. So I tried to avoid that possibility.


Best
GONZO

 

[docnjoj]

Those are some pretty fruits/veggies? Looking forward to see the hinge in operation. Ya want rain come to LA (Lower Alabama).
otherDoc

 

[ddk]

Those are some pretty fruits/veggies? Looking forward to see the hinge in operation. Ya want rain come to LA (Lower Alabama).
otherDoc

those are limes
growing outdoors
at the 42L of the continental states... this ain't florida! But attempts to act like it.
(seen other healthy citrus trees locally)
when I went to work on the door on the pic-a-nic table, it was raining
...so it goes
we get an average of 150" of wet per year hereabouts. Just not lately.

Boss.

If some is good, more is better.

Enough is not enough.

Too much, now, that IS enough.

My kind of engineering. Thanks for showing it. I always felt like it would be bad luck if my building fell down. So I tried to avoid that possibility.


Best
GONZO

LOL
I used to build actual bicycles/tricycles, sometimes with motor-assistance. Now I build BSO e-vehicles
There's some dramatic forces in regen braking that caused me to re-evaluate motor containment.
oh, gotta have pics... ...

 

[ddk]

DRAMA OF THE WEEK
Someone in the front office calls to say I have mail.
I never have mail sent to the office, just packages. I use a remotely-located mail service for actual "mail".
The mail consisted of one of those USPS notes saying I need to go to the main office to sign for an over-sized envelope.
lol-wut?
eventually get to the main office. Sign for envelope
-it's the 3-speed hub "kit" 'packed' in an envelope, sent as registered mail.

...although purchased thru amazon, I doubt I'll use this particular sellers' store again.

******************************************************************************************************
elsewhere on this forum, threads about LiCo fires.
as done by users lacking knowledge.
the end

A few pages earlier I did a piece about recovering over-discharged LiCo batteries.
Upon review I notice I didn't provide any 'real' details of how to go about it safely.
Is there instructions for that on this board?
Yes I know how and why. But then I have 4 decades experience with larger rechargeable chemistry from various eras
too much typing for me so here's another picture of completely unrelated stuff:

 

[ddk]

foggy fourthMPPM velo got more applause than the fireworks did-lol

 

[ddk]

TRIKES WIN!

 

[ddk]

View attachment 5while I was out shooting my, what's becoming a norm, reputare of ocean stuff I kept seeing in the corners of my viewfinder, what I assumed was a bird or kite (or both)


It was neither...

Using my vast array of photo manipulation softwares (all free stuff- LOL)
I managed to get a good glimpse of what the "bird" was.

 

[ddk]

After bragging somewhat about my LiCo packs my first pack is finally showing it's age. My super-accurate butt-dynometer kept informing me that this pack was "off" but checking ballance didn't show any significant differences.
Well, until today where I cycled the batteries 3 times and during the final charge I chose to set the finished voltage to 4.17V.
Cell 5 Of the first bank and cell 3 of the second bank were both low by a few 10ths of a volt.

Still investigating, but I suspect these cells have increased internal resistance.
I rode most the day at 11kph, stopping to take pics.
While some folks like the looks of prepared gardens, I happen to prefer wildstuffs.View attachment 3

 

[ddk]

I'm looking forward to the day I go on the HK site and see the multistar batteries " in stock"

remember the battery pack I accidentalied over-discharged?
really? (seerevious page of posting)
Suddenly... Significantly reduced capacity.

I falsely remembered the size of my battery cases (yup, old guy memory) and can only fit four of the 16Ah 6S packs.
off by a lousy 0.25" -which also happens to be my tolerance for cutting wood.

...and pictures

 

[ddk]

battery stuff:
I had to repack some battery cases because I have TWO (yep, only 2) 5S batteries with failing cells.
One 10S case is now 15Ah.

Silly me, the reason I thought my recovered-from-overdischarge battery had significant capacity loss was because I FAILED! ... to fully charge the first 5S section before use.
I'm such a dolt sometimes . :brain-dead: (needs this smiley)

While the community I live in is mainly bike-friendly we do have one road with these things:


The painted bike lane does consider this but the (in)grates are still likely to catch the unwary.

 

[amberwolf]

Around here they don't make any changes in the bike lane for road hazards like those...and the grates are wider-spaced, as if designed to catch bicycle tires and wheels in them.

Not only that but when they redo asphalt on roads with those, they just build it up around them, so the concrete and grate can be *inches* below the asphalt, and under many lighting conditions even in daytime you can't see that till too late, because you *can't* swerve around them even on a 2-wheel bike, as the lane is too narrow and cars are whizzing past you with 30-40mph *difference* in speeds on some of these roads (like down the hill on Cave Creek Road).


It's nice to know that some places planners aren't as thoughtless as they are here.

 

[ddk]

oh, they're wide enough to perfectly fit a hookworm tire
(ask me how I know... LOL)

 

[ddk]

After an incident with paralleled batteries at the cell level a few years ago, I put together one pack of 10S 5P that was paralleled at the pack level only.
That particular pack has never needed balancing and in fact have always shown exactly the same cell voltages. Go figure.

However, due to the age of the batteries today I hooked them up in parallel at the cell-level. :|

 

[ddk]

The only reason I'm futzing around, extending the life of my admittedly old and heavily cycled battery packs is because of:
A -lack of stock of my preferred battery choice (Turnigy Multistar 16Ah in 6S and 4S configurations)
B -Oh sure, I could order stuff from that 'other' coast, but I'm dropping a large-ish chunk of change on stuff unrelated to e-bikes ('tis a family thang) so I can just wait a bit longer plus the other coast lacks the amount of cells I require for just two battery packs where...
I have 8 battery packs each requiring about $500 to re-cell (that's $4k to the math-weary)
...yet it's still far less expensive than operating one automobile
which is what all this is about: Building and Living in My Own Personal Alternative Universe

HAHA
no pics

 

[ddk]

Another day...
Once I stop focusing on the obstacle

I discover the simpler solution

ddk-isms

 

[ddk]

My First Puffy Battery... the book. spoiler: cold ending

 

[ddk]

...so I picked up these "chasing led lights" to use as nighttime turn signals, when all of a sudden I discover my 3S 12V battery pack, fashioned from recovered zippy 5Ah cells also didn't survive the heatwave from the other day.
They failed exactly the same way Their Brethren did. Cells went to almost 0 Volts.
...again without any indication of damage.

High temperatures are so unusual here; possibly the reason my experiences with R/C battery packs has been pretty good.

 

[docnjoj]

I'm interested to see how you activate your turn/brake lights.
otherDoc