Reid's Stealth Cruiser: Float your eBOAT? Ideas, anyone? p22

[Reid Welch]

sackman and Ypedal, thank you for helping me along.
I've never done any of this before. My eyes, even with strong artificial light, have a hard time
threading the soft, iron, galvanized wire.

S, your suggestion to spiral-loop the wire through the mesh and around the basket, will be taken-up,
as a conjunction to the discrete-ties I'm in process of making. Now that it is nine AM, I can work outside,
and see a great deal better.

The following pictures are mostly from last night.

Ypedal! The wide velcro sounds like an excellent final-insurance against the pack ever moving.
But I reckon too, that the super tape, will be a fine adheasive. I will get some wide velcro today
and place that under the battery, fit between cut-out sections of that super-gluey perimeter tape.
It can't hurt...

----
Pictures of last night, before I gave up in frustration with the eyesight, and two of this morning, in the light:

(pictures in a few minutes...)

Thank you BOTH for excellent ideas that WILL be incorporated.
PS: the dulled fender: I can repolish that if I desire. I'm not sure that I will polish the fender,
but may "satin finish the entire thing instead. Shiny black always needs "cleaning" and the fenders
better "disappear" into the Bontrangers (I like the look of the fat slicks so much more than shiny black fenders).

Pictures coming....and I've done no cable splicing yet. Procrastination socks yucks.

 

[Reid Welch]

thin, soft, galvanized wire

\
just tacked for the moment

beginning the tie-ons. There will be dozens of ties.

pushing the cut-ends flush or below the mesh that it not snag on the finger or battery from either above or below.

many more ties to make, but I quit last night: eyes and back hurting. Now it is daylight and I've had some sleep. Time to finish this
and why not? LOOP and pull through a long length of wire, sewing the box to the rack, per suggestion above.

As it looks right now. Oye, I must splice the power cable today and...I've been putting off that job. The rack will be leveled after the battery
gets installed, glued, velcro'd, etc. This is done by sliding the horizontal mount of the rack; it is slotted.

Yes, I think the basket in black is much better than the former silver.

 

[vanilla ice]

Wow. Simple. I would have got the drill out and brackets and machine screws and made a mess. I think I even have a can of wire and a tool for safety wiring stuff. And I still wouldn't have thunk it. On my planet bike fender I just got Sir Marks A Lot and jotted it out.. btw don't they donate a portion of their profits to bicycle advocacy? I seen that on the packagings.

 

[Reid Welch]

The Planet Bike people are very good people. They donate profits to charity.
I just don't want a logo on my bike, other than...something custom, like Dom Harvey's name,
or maybe in vinyl letters, "Don't Treadle On Me" :lol:

Did not have safety wire on hand, VI....that'd be so much better than weak, soft, galvanized wire.
At least this gauge of galvanized iron wire was easy to work with by hand. Still: safety wire is superior.
Clamps would be better yet and just as invisible. Thank you, Vanilla Ice.
________________

Battery has just been mounted. The pictures are mostly self explanatory.
About sixteen points of wire-attachment, clipped ends tucked flush, then epoxy puttied over.

There are so many other, possibly better ways to have done this job.
I'm working this out for the first time ever, for me. A dozen other people would do it any of dozens of other ways.
And if this security proves insufficient to withstand up-throws of the bike, like several G forces, then I can strap around the entire affair.
But I would hope to keep it looking like a widdle bike basket with a lump inside, covert-ed with tucked-round piece of black woolen billiard (piano) cloth; uninteresting to the curious.
It must be STEALTH.

Pictures in the next form. The lead weights, for pressing home the thick adhesive, total 35 pounds. That's only 2G of the battery's weight on its bottom-most cells.
This weight, left in place overnight (and I will use a hot air gun to "sink" the double-thickness super adhesive) cannot possibly harm the battery;
if it did, well, then a Ping battery could not be called suitable for basket mount on a hard tail bike. But it will be quite all right, am intuitively sure of that.

Now, wire the motor cable to the controller cable and... will do this final "ugh" job (my eyesight) tonight.

 

[Reid Welch]

There are TWO layers of the thick, super-grip double-stick Power Grab tape:
for extra conformation over the lumpy areas of the wire-ties and epoxy daubs.

one clipped and tucked (on the right); the left one, only twisted, not yet cut and tamped flush.

Epoxy putty daubs, wet finger-smoothed.

Trial fit, cardboard spacers.

First layer of thick Power Grab tape.

Second layer of thick Power Grap tape.

There's no "repositioning' possible with GRAB tape; hence the cardboard auto-spacers.

An empty 1960 USA ammo box... not empty for long, though.

Thirty five pounds total, of old piano keyleads.
Will let this settle for hours and then use a hot air gun to "sink" the gluey tape fully. It's "in there" now.

 

[Reid Welch]

Whilst two videos upload, I am thinking (instead of splicing wires)

I HAVE A PLAN

Malcolm, I =am= daft. (No, I'm not; just a free thinker and wanna-be comedian).

This bike is going to be made so waterproof in every way: the tubing cannot take in water,
the bearings cannot take in water. The Ping will be so well-sealed in its duct tape, wire-exits sealed,
and the BMS is to be epoxy-painted (it is out of its shrink wrap at the moment).....

___________________

Next door are my friendly neighbors.
They have a 20 by 40 foot swimming pool.
it has some steep steps leading into the pool.
I wear a helmet.

I plan to ride the bike (I always wear a helmet!) into the pool.
The bike weights something less than sixty pounds.
The thumb throttle and the kill switch are both wax-lube sealed.
The Cycle Analyst will be super-sealed too, for this World's First Electric Bike Sub-Aqueous-Riding Stunt.

Big Sig will operate the camera. Or maybe...the local TV station will pro-film the fun for local broadcast?
Maybe take it national? Is this ego, or what?

Stufu Reid will ride, electrically, INTO THE FRIGGIN POOL, underwater, mit goggles,
and if he don't fall over, he will hold his breath and CIRCUIT the bottom of the pool.

Then the bike will be taken out of the pool, and raced around Big Sig's huge back yard (it is over an acre in size).

And this will be on video, and put to YouTube. And I will be the most famous fool, whether this works out, or not,
ever seen in the e-bike world.

Pre-disclosure. Expect the unexpected. I AM THE REID.

Bow-wow to the man who will do something, by god he will, that even Evil Knievel cannot do,

he, being dead, anyway, and an IC engine biker, anyway, whatever.



Aside from the comedy speech above, I am SERIOUS about this aim.
It may be done a month or so from now after the bike is completely trialed and known-good in pouring rain.
If it can take the rain (and it will), then what's a dunk in the water, duckies? :wink:

 

[vanilla ice]

Isn't Reid supposed to be a last name?

 

[Reid Welch]

Isn't Reid supposed to be a last name?

You can call me Welch Reid if you prefer.

 

[Reid Welch]

Video of today, part A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArkZ94uz-a0&fmt=18


Part B of today's plans...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtDJ3bPgTI8


New images made since this morning.

Drilling holes for hiding cables.
Note: steel bike tubing always rusts from the inside out.
This bike has NEVER been in water, nor washed.
Yet, even the main, curved, up-tube contained droplets of rusty, China water,
no doubt there since the bike frame was prepped for painting.

Our goal (you are in this project) is to SEAL the bike tubing against water ingress,
and where feasible, use "Rust Reformer), such as in the main tube, which converts steel with a vinyl-borne chemical
"change", blackening the steel to a passive form that, even in open weather, remains un-rustable for ten years.

The chainstay tubes will remain unsealed for now. "Par-Al-Ketone".
I've a partial quart can of that stuff that must be older than myself.

The pictures to follow show a roughing-in, hole-making process, to finish later with a fill-and-dump of white-water-borne "Rust Reformer".

The holes will be grometted eventually. The big holes are for fishing through the cabling.
The holes are large to ease the fishing of the cables and to leave room for "caterpillar" grommet yet to be obtained,
grommetting can be installed on some future day. Dum-dum putty, mixed with silver powder, can seal the actual wires pretty well, I hope.

 

[Reid Welch]

.




What's up wit da'

Out comes the old-school crank and chainwheel assembly. We are going to "zerk" the bottom bracket and later fill chainstay tubes and other tubes
aside from the main, forward-up tube, with "par-al-ketone", then seal the entry and exit points with putty later on.
The LBS has ordered a 52T chainwheel to fit this crank. Will have that next week.

The chainstay holes on all bikes like this bring water into the bottom bracket every time we wash the bike or ride in the rain
because there are vent holes at the dropout ends and other tubing-ends.

Crude beginnings for cabling holes. Note that rust on a never-wetted-yet bike would weaken the frame eventually.
This will not happen to this bike. Steps are going to be taken to make the bike POOL PROOF. It actually will survive total immersion,
no harm....

A blob of Blue Tack covering a vent hole to the head bracket; to contain the slosh-compound about to be installed.

Where the cables exit, to lead up to the controller right above.

Ready to fill with a few ounces of Rust Reformer, to slosh around, and then dump out the excess, leaving
a converted-steel surface that cannot rust, even if water were to fill the tube. The black tape will hold the
solution whilst I invert and twist and turn the bike frame. The Ping Battery (glued in place) is holding very well, btw.

 

[Reid Welch]

See notes at the bottom?

Clearing out the drainage hole as the Rust Reformer finishes dripping and is thickening. I will leave this hole "open"
except for when I ride into swimming pools

A heating pad wrapped around the tube makes it warm and speeds the drying of the water-borne Rust Reformer.
The heating pad does not overheat itself (no fire risk). I can pull the wires tomorrow.

These steps of action, and steps to follow for the other tubes, protect the tube interiors from otherwise inevitable slow rusting
from water that will get into any untreated, vent-holed tube.
_______________
Procedure of the above steps: the bike was suspended. The oval hole at the top of the tube was duct taped securely closed.
The Rust Reformer was poured liberally into the BB-area round hole drilled at the bottom bracket end of the tube.
Then that hole was duct taped closed.
Then the bike was taken and turned and twisted every which-way to distribute the milky, water-borne, vinyl-sort of quick-dry coating.
Then the bike was inverted on its bars.
A small hole drilled at the bottom of the tube, through the duct tape to, and the re-taped temporarilly;
to allow drainage of the many superfluous ounces of Rust Reformer. Finally, thee bike stood up on its stand.

Now to drain the excess. I could have saved it all for re-use; put a pan underneath;
but elected, instead, to wet the pavers with the garden hose so the Rust Reformer would not stick there,
and make "dramatic" flash pictures of the drainage. This step was accomplished by pulling off the temporary duct tape bottom-hole patch.
Hours from now the last of the liquid will stop dripping out.


I'll bring the bike inside. All this while, the Rust Reformer is chemically converting the surface of the steel inside the tube, into a blackened state,
and forming when it fully air dries, a tough, plastic-like barrier, which could be painted, but there is no need to paint the stuff.
I've treated outdoors steel and not painted...ten years later: no new rust. Rust Reformer is great.

------
I make things seen so complicated. It's why I only slowly finish a project that really is VERY SIMPLE; really, it is simple.

 

[Reid Welch]

Whilst two videos upload, I am thinking (instead of splicing wires)

I HAVE A PLAN

Malcolm, I =am= daft. (No, I'm not; just a free thinker and wanna-be comedian).

This bike is going to be made so waterproof in every way: the tubing cannot take in water,
the bearings cannot take in water. The Ping will be so well-sealed in its duct tape, wire-exits sealed,
and the BMS is to be epoxy-painted (it is out of its shrink wrap at the moment).....

___________________

Next door are my friendly neighbors.
They have a 20 by 40 foot swimming pool.
it has some steep steps leading into the pool.
I wear a helmet.

I plan to ride the bike (I always wear a helmet!) into the pool.
The bike weights something less than sixty pounds.
The thumb throttle and the kill switch are both wax-lube sealed.
The Cycle Analyst will be super-sealed too, for this World's First Electric Bike Sub-Aqueous-Riding Stunt.

Big Sig will operate the camera. Or maybe...the local TV station will pro-film the fun for local broadcast?
Maybe take it national? Is this ego, or what?

Stufu Reid will ride, electrically, INTO THE FRIGGIN POOL, underwater, mit goggles,
and if he don't fall over, he will hold his breath and CIRCUIT the bottom of the pool.

Then the bike will be taken out of the pool, and raced around Big Sig's huge back yard (it is over an acre in size).

And this will be on video, and put to YouTube. And I will be the most famous fool, whether this works out, or not,
ever seen in the e-bike world.

Pre-disclosure. Expect the unexpected. I AM THE REID.

Bow-wow to the man who will do something, by god he will, that even Evil Knievel cannot do,

he, being dead, anyway, and an IC engine biker, anyway, whatever.



Aside from the comedy speech above, I am SERIOUS about this aim.
It may be done a month or so from now after the bike is completely trialed and known-good in pouring rain.
If it can take the rain (and it will), then what's a dunk in the water, duckies? :wink:

IT WILL BE DONE, and without aqua lung
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhT_caje0GI

 

[Reid Welch]

Email addresses altered to foil spambots

From: Reid Welch [mailto:ReidWelch@netscrape.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 7:33 PM
To: Li Ping
Subject: Reid's ERROR: ruined BMS?

http://s366.photobucket.com/albums/oo108/pandolinimages/

Dear Ping,

The first four images show the short-circuit accident to the BMS.
I had cut off the blue cover to see the BMS.
The pictures can be enlarged to FULL size by mousing to the upper left corner.

Question: can you tell by the pictures if the BMS is ruined?
I have not yet made any electrical continuity checks, but it looks like traces and a SMD were fried.

The accident happened this way: The BMS was removed from its blue cover.

I was rust-proofing the bike's tubing, see the thread for process images?
The bike was hung on light chain from the ceiling.
When I tilted the bike, to fill the tube with the rust prevention solution,
a momentary contact of the chain to the exposed BMS made "big spark".

Question: Tell me if you think I can "learn" if the BMS is OK by electrical continuity tests?
IF you think the BMS is ruined, may I buy a new one quickly?
Ship air mail. I can install a new BMS without shorting accidents, I promise.
I am stupid, sometimes, but I have learned my lesson.

Charge cost, if new BMS is needed, to paypal same as for the battery purchase:
xxxxx@aol.com. and send as soon as possible? Perhaps I can repair this one?
Or its calibration is probably ruined, at best?

I have yet to fish the power cable of the hub motor through the bike frame, to the controller.
the connections all have to be soldered up before I know much more about this trouble.
Am sure the bike will run, but, question: Will this damaged BMS balance the affected cells?

Stupid me, I am sorry to make trouble for you with this matter.

Reid

From: "Li Ping" <pingping227@hotmail.cam>

To: <ReidWelch@netscrape.com>

Subject: RE: Reid's ERROR: ruined BMS?

Date: Sat 12/20/08 12:13 PM

Hi Reid,

It seems the board was burned. My recommendation is to replace it. Even if we test and verify it's open circuit between the two pins now, there could be current leak in the near future that will cause short circuit again.

Please don't worry and don't blame yourself.

Anyway, I will ship a new BMS to you tomorrow, no matter your fund is cleared or not. If you're urgent, I think UPS is a better choice for now. Because USPS will delay packages during next week. Actually, some packages of ours shipped two weeks ago to the US have not been delivered so far. But shipping cost of UPS is high.

Price of a new 36v BMS is 36usd. Shipping cost by EMS/USPS is 15usd. Shipping cost by UPS is 23usd. The package will be shipped to the agent of UPS or EMS tomorrow and shipped by either carrier on Monday local time (Sunday of your time). Please reply asap which carrier you choose.

Mostly, the cells will be fine if the BMS is short circuit. But the balance functions could be damaged because the burned part is of balance part. Please don't deeply discharge the pack before new BMS is installed.

Best regards,

Ping

 

[Reid Welch]

Quote Mr. Ching himself from ezee bikes " the grease we use is Dow
Corning Molykote PG 21 which is recommended for plastics gears "

from 'way back, page seven:

Quote Mr. Ching himself from ezee bikes " the grease we use is Dow
Corning Molykote PG 21 which is recommended for plastics gears "

This I cannot dispute. Grease with moly, though, is always blackish or grey-black in colour.
There is no "molybednum" in the honey-colored oil flushes I've drained from the motor.

.

Indisputably, Mr. Ching is making a wonderful, high quality motor.
This is all new "design" based on old principles.
The quality of the machining as shown in your cited page's images looks superb.
How DO they do it for this price? The Chinese are energetic and smart and work out bugs as quickly as found.
The planets, plated either side with steel, appear indeed to be plain nylon. I don't know.
We have not heard of nylon "peanut buttering" in an eZee yet. In which case, it is an adequate choice.

Slippage of the big ring gear (soft steel, OK for that) against the ID of the alloy housing: that is a bug-weakness Mr. Ching will sort out soon if not already.
I have to respect these people who are making new motors so very well at such a reasonable cost. The accuracy of machine work for this sort of device must be nearly perfect,
or we will get a coffee mill grinding noise, harmless, but annoying.

Be it known, though that specialized, tough plastics are available for gearmaking: machinable, or, for what little I know, moldable.
They are totally oil resistant (nylon is oil proof but not high-heat proof).
And so, if ever eZee planets prove to be not quite up to the task, Mr. Ching will certainly look for better gear plastics.

But, and here is the point: if oil (which is a component of any conventional grease) degrades hall sensor, etc, adhesives in the motor,
my motor is in for big trouble.

Finally, the slippage of the ring gear in your motor was correctly and intelligently fixed by yourself.
will do the same thing if slippage occurs in my eZee, ever.

Alloy and steel have such vastly different expansion rates re: temperature.
Mr. Ching knows his onions. A cement, a "toothing" might serve. Dimple-pinning as you did,
is a sure preventive to the problem. I like your fix as shown at your link on page seven.
I will watch out for ring gear slippage. And I darned well had better not lose Hall sensor anchorage due to my
insistance to have had OIL in this motor.

-----
Deglossing fenders tonight, adjusting height of U kickstand. Thinking. Realizing: I don't know much.
I only have op-onions!

Thanks for your documentary pictures and fix-description of the eZee's birthing pains. Oh, next year and so forth,
batteries and motors will improve even more, by leaps and pounds!

 

[Reid Welch]

Video log #23 in HD

YT now offers us video in 848 x 480 HD.

This (boring) video log can be seen in "standard quality", for the ease of those with lower-speed broadband,
or it can be seen in "HD", at over-1.6mbs broadband, without pause-hiccups.

Vimeo, the FORMER, sole, once-free, competitor of YT,
offered only limited, "free" 720P, 24fps, "HD". They ran their business badly for artists.
So, now, with the help of GORT, Vimeo shall proceed to go out of business:
a good thing, in this reporter's opinion!

Facts regarding terribly-moderated Vimeo, documented in my VimeoiSin YT account.

Youtube is totally free, and, unlike Vimeo, now allows unlimited uploads of up to 1 gig file size,
as many uploads per week as you like.

ALSO, Youtube allows multiple accounts, and so I have this "ampdavolts" account segregating e-bike vids from
HartfordTommy, VimeoiSin, and a host of other, legal, Reid-owned Youtube accounts. Vimeo, by contrast, allows only one user account,
which can and will be destroyed irrevocably on a whim by Vimeo "moderators" when they are on one of their infamous PMS days.
_____________________
Tech data:
Canon HV30 in auto mode, set to "TV30", "Vivid" colour setting (not needed here for sure),
"848 x 480", hand held, no edits. Windows Movie Maker for processing the raw file.
File size of the WMM "best playback for your computer" upload: a whopping 987mb for the nine minute video.
THe aspect ratio is still not recognized by Youtube as being 16:9, but that can be worked-around, simply by pre-compressing
the wmv in WMM somewhat in the "publish movie" stage of Windows Movie Maker.
________________________

Contents of the video, listed for those without access to broadband or video:
"exciting" :wink: highlights of the
-ruined-by-reid-Ping BMS. a new BMS was sent by Ping yesterday.
-superior attachment of the Wald steel rack to the dropouts,
employing socket-head grade 8, 1/4" x 28tpi screws, retapping the dropout screw holes to suit.
-the greasing system: no grease gun needed. no grease "drag" in the rear hub;
no x-pensive "Phil Woods" grease needed: just a tub of soft, white, lithium grease,
pre-heated in the microwave to make it easy to fill the "grease gun" (a glue syringe).
-how easy the bike is to pedal manually, how silent (no freewheel ratchet clicks, no knobby tread thrums)
-how the Ping battery can be easily removed from the tied-on wire mesh basket, and how it will be super-secured for curb jumping.
-how much better the Planet Bike fender looks, rubbed to a satin finish instead of standard gloss black: it visually disappears
-adding soon a 52T front chainwheel for easier pedaling at e-assisted 20mph and more;
can change the rear sprocket smaller too, if desired. Such high gearing will make the turned-off e-bike really hard for
a thief to ride away fast upon! "Ugh, I don't want this p.o.s.!"

-how much does the bike weight?
-how strong will it be in service, how simple, after all?

-can the front wheel be removed and laid alongside the bike for tire changing?
(yes, by pulling the needed, excess wire from its stuffing-place in the downtube)

-how many wire ties will be visible? A: only a few at most: at the Cycle Analyst.

-the front rim, the eZee rim is very narrow.
This is good for the front hub motor's "speed": the Big Hank is fully 27" diameter there
due to the pinched-close sidewalls.

-the rear rim: OEM, about an inch and a quarter wide, will someday be swapped for the widest 26" rim made: about 2.2" wide. why?
to "widen" the footprint of the rear (braking) Big Hank, for better braking traction.

this bike is to have no front brake if at all possible, to keep it uber-simple, clean. And if care is used,
a front brake is not really needed here in flat florida at sub-20mph speeds, and can be "safer" at times than a front braked bike
(no launch over the handlebars, no loss of steering control).

_________
Later, much later, after all the frame butchery is finished,
I'll strip the bike down of its parts and paint the silver frame in sunshine Krylon Fusion yellow.
It will be a black and yellow stealth e-bike; but a bike that can be seen from a great distance by the SUV traffic.
____________

Youtube can now give us HD....imagine the possibilities.

 

[Reid Welch]

On Friday I ruined by accidental shorting, the original BMS,
ordered on Saturday, from Ping in Shanghai; received tonight, Tuesday:

Thank you, PING!

The ugly holes I made in the tube must all be neatened up and sized, just so.

More captions will be added later, and more pictures too.

Am going to do away with those convenient but bulky snap connectors.
They will be replaced by soldered, insulated, splices.
_____
Here, verifying the color codes match between the controller and eZee, etc.
The thumb throttle, its middle lead is not the same color; the only non-colour-match of all the wiring.
But the photo will remind me of the proper re-connection:

Then... SNIP!

The curved uptube was already rustproofed with Rust reformer.
Let's wash it out of the fresh grinding dust? It has a drip-drain pinhole on the bottom side.

Next, more grinding away of needless metal:

Stealth holes for entry and exit of the thumb throttle wires...
Do the images make sense yet? A two hour installation of an eZee kit:
executed over weeks spent in thought: how to make the bike look like a non-ebike.
What a waste of cycling time, though!

PS: No worries about these various holes in the steel tubing.
They are placed at compression, not flexure areas; and cannot weaken the frame
nor weaken the very strong handle bars...anyway, it's my life,
and I've never made a fatal accident

yet.

:lol:

PS: Here is a first coat of epoxy encapsulation for the new BMS,
lest water or salt or anything (like me and hanging-chain) ever short something out again.
This is the first coat (thick) on the first side. Another coat atop this in an hour or two,
then flip and do the other side. The power resistors will be basically left un-epoxied.

The reason for doing this, is that this bike is to be made fit for total immersion: several PSI of water pressure.
Therefore, the duct taped pack must be super-well sealed as well. I have plans.... (always dangerous in my hands )


-------------

edits: puntuation kerrections to the opening line.... it's all true.
PO could not ship the item for $15 instead of UPS's 23 bucks, for five full days,
due to the Xmas swamp. So for paying $8 more, I got the small item in just two days...from around the world!

 

[Reid Welch]

Replacement BMS quick-sent by Ping: replacement for the original BMS that I fried last week in a shorting accident in naked contact with bike-hanging chain.

Battery burning at low voltage (39V), a 110V/250W caged tungsten wire streetlamp or gymnasium bulb of ca. 1912, gigantic as the Titanic, burning it,
just to beat the band, whilst other problems of the hard-wiring and tucking-of-the-excess-away are getting sorted out....

....and I do have a problem, possibly. Will know later on today and be asking assistance.

The lab power supply lit the CA per normal, just as it did last week before I cut off all the quick connectors and ran in the hub motor.
But, as of late last night: lab power supply, yes, but no spin of the unloaded front wheel: only an eight watt power draw at "full throttle".
No action otherwise. All wires correctly re-connected, good joints, shrink wrapped at the bottom bracket end (controller to motor and CA and throttle),
all well-done, or so I think...... I should qualify:

I did CLIP out the controller's indicator LED completely. I thought it was merely a pilot light;
Q: is that tiny red indicator (which I now understand is a diagnostic tool, as well) vital to the operation of the small eZee controller?
Or did my application of wax-lube to the new and untested thumb throttle inactivate the thumb throttle? If that is a question mark, I can go back
to the twist throttle, or solvent-wash with naphtha the thumb throttle.

Hmmm....more later. The stuff I don't know can kill a project dead. :|

 

[AussieJester]

Wish i could help you Reid i have trouble changing batteries in a digital camera sometimes why i
even thought i could build an electric bike i don't know :-|

Hope someone can chip in with an easy fix (which im sure it will be)

Kim

p.s i see a 'spy' stealinz your ideaz in the second last pic, peering under the garage door...

 

[Lenk42602]

My guess is the oiled hub motor..........

 

[nicobie]

Due to the lack of shrink wrap on the motor and hall sensor wire joints I'd say it's a short between the load and hall wires that burnt up the hall sensors.

But who knows?.....

Nick

 

[marty]

Marty says "test don't guess" Go here to see my throttle testing experiments
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6145
Reid please go fire up your multimeter and give us some Reidings. Lets start form the beginning. What is voltage coming out of battery?

 

[Reid Welch]

Hi Marty. No meter readings yet, except of the Ping battery.
It runs about 44v fully charged, and gradually coasts down to...I had it go as low as 29V
and it had not cut off (a light bulb as a tiny load, 24 hours run time or so.

===
Side bar: a parallel conversation is found at
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8028&start=15
because at present the bike motor is "dead".

Ypedal there and Tiberious have given me enough info to go on and truly find the problem:
it is either in the controller, because I clipped out its diagnostic LED, not knowing any better,

OR, the trouble is in the oil-treated eZee motor (my experiment may have swollen Hall RTV adhesive,
rubbing the halls on the planetary back plate, wiping them out.

Whatever, it is that is making the bike a no-go for now, it will be fixed.
I'm not in a hurry. Tomorrow, maybe, I'll put a small LED onto the controller to replace the snipped-out LED.
If that does not make a fix, then I quadruple-check all the wiring, and then if that fails: I measure halls using Tiberious' method,
and if they don't do what he says they should do: apart comes the ezee, new halls (if needed) and a non-swelling adhesive such as JB Weld
instead of silicone rubber glue.

It's gonna work.

Too, I am changing, perhaps they'll have it tomorrow: the 44T front chainwheel becomes a 52T chainwheel for nice spinning at 20 mph, e-assist.
It will make the bike a high-geared single speed for manual pedaling, sure---but it's flat here and my legs can use the workout.
And I'll be passing Sunday morning Lycras 'ere long! ding ding! And they'll not know what the hell just passed them: a middle aged guy on a silent,
no-clickety click coaster brake bike, ha ha!



And wait till you all see the Ping Battery, totally waterproofed, burning a light bulb, ALL of it submerged in a pail of highly-salted water:
no shorting, no electrical leaks.

You know, that waterproofing kick I have now is not truly overkill.
But it must be done for this, the first ebike that will ever have been run UNDER WATER,
fully submerged, round the bottom of a swimming pool; and no shorting, no damage, no degradation of anything.

I love a challenge. So did my grandpappy I never knew. He invented....something; a concept, a device, a better-living machine that people today around the world take for granted.

Concept, failure, persistence, success, and all for the challenge of going where no man has gone before...
for no good reason at all, in this case! :lol: GLUB!

 

[Reid Welch]

Disclaimer (this post will be edited tonight when I get time).
I don't normally reprint private emails without prior permission.
Here below I make exception because time is of my essence at this moment of writing this post.
It is a rush here. And then I just thought to check my webmail.....oh! what's this? Justin or his company has finally,
somehow, caught up with the rush of endless "help me" fools-who-have-gummed-their-kit-bike-pleas.

NB: neither Ping nor Justin is any "sponsor" of my maladroit ebike adventures.
I pay full retail for my goods, just the same as any of you.

I PREDICT [/b]that Justin will have no objection to the liberty-taken, quote-boxed below.
I want YOU guys to see what super people we are here. There are so many...Ypedal, fechter...more than I can name off the bat,
as this posting was just made on the spot; I have other obligations to meet today; things to do... I will talk back later.
Errands and stuff to do for now.
So for now: Justin/Renaissance/ebike.ca letter below.
I will be back here soon, tonight. Quote follows, addys altered to foil spambots.

From: "Ebikes Information"

To: ReidWelch@netscrape.com

Subject: Re: Tech help may be needed...

Date: Tue 12/30/08 02:36 AM


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Hi Reid, oh dear. I was following your build thread a bit earlier on
and was going to commend the video footage and pretty meticulous
installation job underway, but now soaking the hub motor in oil, .that
is quite unnecessary! Although, I don't think the source of the
problem.

I'm not sure exactly what tests you have already done or had suggested
by others, but the usual pattern of investigation I would follow in
this kind of situation is:

A) verify that the full Vbatt is making it to the controller (seems
this you have already done)
B) Verify that you get a 1-4V signal on the throttle line as you
engage and release the throttle.
C) Verify that it isn't the CA throttle override causing the lack of
function by unplugging the CA
D) Verify that all 3 of the hall signals toggle between 0V and 5V as
the wheel is slowly turned. To do this with a geared hub, you need to
rotate the wheel backwards of course. At any point, you should have
either 2 high and 1 low, or 2 low and 1 high, for the hall lines. If
all 3 are high then usually that's because there is a break in the 5V
or Gnd lines. If some of the hall signals don't toggle (either stuck
at 0V or 5V) then that can be either a break or discontinuity in the
wire, or a failed hall that has shorted to one of the two rails.
E) Wire up that LED again and see what it gives you for a single
pattern. There is a blinking code that it will show indicating the
source of the fault condition, so you'll want it there. I wouldn't
have expected that the controller would cease to work without the LED
present, although it is possible.

Last thing, I see that you did a lot of work filing/grinding the
heatsink on the controller. When you do this, you have to be really
careful not to let any stray slivers or shavings of metal stay on the
circuitboard, since inadvertent shorts can easily crop up. Metalwork +
circuitboards don't usually mix too well!

Let me know where you have come along these lines. Nothing is
unsolvable, and so by doing the above suggestions we'll at least be
able to hone in on the source of the malfunction.

Probably not the kind of troubleshooting you planned to do over the
holidays, but have fun none the less!

Justin

More later.. BTW: no metal shavings here.
I blow with a compressed air gun...or my mouth

 

[Ypedal]

sounds like a plan.. starting with the LED..

The belt sander to grind down the heat sink might have caused a problem ( high heat from the friction, possible static discharges... etc.. )

 

[Reid Welch]

double posted by typical

idiot-in-a-hurry error.


please do not forgive.