New Fave Website: Google Patents

Hours of enjoyment.  Whether you’re trying to develop the next Flux Capacitor, trying to take something apart, or just killing time at work, doing some productive research, this site is an endless treasure trove of mechanical genius.

Google Patents, and John Fiorenza’s axial flux motor, here.

I’m only starting to check out the search parameters…  and it’s only in beta.  This is just the beginning!

Zero 2012 using Motenergy Motors

Gossip has been bouncing around for a while about the motors that are in the Zero 2012 lineup.  I think it’s pretty well confirmed now, they’re using a modified version of the Motoenergy ME0913. This is huge.

The start of this little journey was here:

…from the Zero spec page.

Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know a double-stator axial flux permanent magnet, brushless motor is pretty exciting.  First, the axial motors are the motors that give you great efficiency, like the Agni, Perm and ETEK designs, and they usually have that fairly remarkable laminated iron core with the copper windings that run in an armature between two magnets, that Cedric Lynch first cut out of tin cans for his very first motor.  This design was the center of a huge patent and licensing mess, and resulted in the Agni motors, still produced by Cedric in India, LEMCO making an almost identical design in the UK, and Perm still cranking out their axial designs.  It also left us with a legacy of Briggs and Stratton ETEKs floating around with very interesting provenances.

Now.  The guy who took the original Lynch design license and made the production version Briggs and Stratton ETEK is our good friend John Fiorenza.  Yes.  The guy who is Motoenergy.  John designed and produced the (radial flux) ME0709, and several retailers branded it as the ETEK RT (much against John’s wishes and intentions).  It always bothered me, though.  He had a great design, why didn’t he produce a motor like the ETEK or Lynch?  I think it pretty obviously was a licensing issue, and knowing John the bit that I do, I doubt he was willing to stomp all over Lynch’s design rights as Perm did.

That’s why the ME0913 is so exciting.  It’s a design that’s similar to the ETEK, but better.  Simply by putting the coils on the outside and the magnets on the rotating shaft, you’ve allowed yourself to cool the coils better.  You can even pump liquid around them.  And you can easily set it up as a brushless motor…  no, you really have to, since there’s no great way to run brushes on a configuration like that.

If you want to see the motor dissected, check out the Ripperton Electric Track Bike thread on DIY Electric Cars.  Great stuff.  Complete madman, that Ripperton guy.

Here are the specs of the motor, by the way:

The new Dual-stator motor from Motenergy, Inc (formerly Mars Electric) has an output power of 10.5 KW Continuous (at 48 volts), and 30 KW Peak (at 96 volts).

Designed for long life. No brush maintenance. The motor is 92% efficient at voltages between 24 to 96 VDC. Continuous current of 125 amps AC (180 Amps DC into the motor control). This is a 3-phase, Y-connected Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor with an axial air gap and 3 Hall sensors at 120 degrees electrical timing. It has two stators with a rotor in the center.

• This is a 4 pole motor (8 magnets).
• The Phase to Phase winding resistance is 0.013 Ohms.
• The maximum recommended rotor speed is 5000 RPM.
• Voltages from 0 to 96 VDC input to the control.
• Torque constant of 0.15 Nm per Amp
• The Inductance Phase to Phase is 0.20 Milli-Henry.
• Armature Inertia is 45 Kg Cm Squared. Continuous current of 125 Amps AC (180 Amps DC into the motor control).
• Peak current of 420 Amps AC for 1 minute (600 Amps DC into the motor control).
• Weight of 35 pounds. 11) Peak Stall Torque if 90 Nm.
• This is an Open Frame, Fan Cooled motor.

So, after reading that thread you almost get the feeling that John floated the motor out there to get a feel for the response, maybe even as a core design open for some modifications for his OEM clients, who are his main bread-and-butter.  That’s what’s so cool about the Zero motor.

From what I’ve been able to find out, (and it ain’t easy, what with Non-Disclosure and all), the Zero version is built by Motoenergy to Zero’s specs.  They’ve enhanced the air-cooling by improving the fan and air flow.  They’ve increased the amount of copper, improved the magnets, and are using a sine/cosign encoders and controller- the Sevcon Gen3 controller (with, reportedly, over $100K in programming development.

Cool.

Presumably the controller work was to give you better control over the throttle response and the regen capabilities.  Reportedly the throttle curve is smooth as silk – something Zero has struggled with, from a consumer product and liability standpoint, what with some early experiments with de-tuning low-throttle torque, that were, in my not-so-humble opinion, a really bad idea.  The motor had to have sine-cosign encoders for that to happen, so while they’re building a custom design, why not make some basic improvements?  I can’t help but believe a huge chunk of Zero’s direction came from Ripperton’s work with this motor.

Everything else aside, it’s very exciting to think about what the next generation of this motor design will be.  And no, John’s not talking.  It’s also great to see such a high-visibility and performance oriented contract going to such a great company, and a great guy.

Congrats, all around! John, Zero, the whole lot o’ ya.  It’s an inspiring way to start 2012!

(and a tip o’ the hat to liveforphysics for letting the cat out of the bag…)

Ford F150 – F250 Truck Manual (1997 – 2003)

Here’s my Merry Chrimmas present to anyone with a Ford Truck, and a shoutout to the Ford F150 Forum.  The factory shop manual.

After owning an F150 for since 1998, I finally broke down and got the manual, since now it had 198,000 miles on it and I couldn’t see my way clear to paying the shop to figure out why the EGR system was broken.

The thing of it is…  my truck got totaled a few weeks ago.  Worked out pretty well, actually – nobody got hurt, insurance paid out enough to buy a newer Dodge Neon that gets over 30mpg vs the 12mpg the truck got, and all things considered, it was easier and less painful than replacing the ball joints, the exhaust manifold and figuring out the EGR mystery.

All except for the thing about the car that totaled me out was a Toyota Prius.  (“I can’t believe you killed a Prius” sez my wife.  The truth is, the Prius flung itself to it’s own death into the maw of the oncoming F150, but still.) I’m still trying to figure out the carbon offset.  Is it better to retire a gas hog F150 and pull a Neon into service for many more of the last miles than the Great Spirit of the Detroit Automakers  ever intended it to go, or should I have lined up for a New Car that was electric, or a hybrid?   I tend to think driving some hoopty Neon into the ground is the responsible thing to do…

So, if you need a Ford truck shop manual, click this linky.  It’s about 270mb, so get yourself a nice cuppa coffee.  It cost me $10.  If you want to show some love and chip into my beer fund, then by all means, click here:

And here’s to a great New Year!  Thanks for all the support…

Oh.  And if you’re interested, this is what a Toyota Prius looks like after kissing a Ford F150:

Electric Ice Racing: Trophée Andros Electrique (Dept of WUUUTTT???)

So, yeah.  in the middle of trying to look like I’m working at my day job, Domenick posts this.

Now just  how the hell am I supposed to get any work done.  Well, I mean, day job work.

Take a look.  Domenick has been posting about this for the last three years that the Trophée Andros Electrique has been running.  Where the hell was I?  Ice racing?  Electric vehicles?  What’s not to love?  I guess Quantya was there doing a few show runs in the first year too.  Here’s some of their warm-season racing too.

 

Adjusting PMDC Motor Timing

The ETEK (Manta) motor I have has the timing set to neutral- that is, the magnets can be rotated a few degrees in either direction.  Supposedly, it’s set up neutral so it can be run adequately in both directions, but if you’re planning to run it on only one direction, you may be able to take full advantage of it by advancing or retarding the magnets- AKA timing the motor.

Here’s an easy to understand explanation of that procedure, from a model aircraft site:

As the motor rpm increases it requires the rotor coils to be energised sooner so that they get the full magnetic field strength in time to react with the stator’s
magnetic field. Also when the load increases, the magnetic field in the rotor coils increases, which interacts with the stator’s magnetic field, producing a rotated resultant magnetic field.

Some motors allow the brushes’ angle to be changed by the same amount as the field rotation, thereby increasing the motor’s efficiency under a given load.
That’s called for motor “timing”.

An electric motor may be timed under load by slowly changing the brush holder’s angle while measuring the current. The ideal brush angle is when the motor draws less current. There is no fixed ideal timing angle, since the best timing angle changes as the motor load and speed changes.

So, there’s the problem.  To time it properly, you have to be able to load it and spin it up to a similar speed as your riding speed – probably something best done with a dynomometer.

Partz is Partz- JW Winco, Inc

Looking for bitty parts, nuts and bolts?  McMaster Carr is my go-to place for almost everything, but they kind of suck for metric stuff.  This place looks awesome, and had ezzactly what I needed: J. W. Winco, Inc.  …going to have to take a better look once I get to work.

They have an awesome technical reference page, here.

Thanks to remotecontact, once again!

 

Genuine A123 Cells Available to TTXGP and Formula Student Teams

i can haz a123z?

Just saw this notice on the Mavizen site, here.

“Mavizen Ltd is making A123 Lithium Ion Nanophosphate cells available at a discounted rate to teams entering the TTXGP World Championship and Formula Student EV racing series.

It has come to our attention that some of the teams have been buying counterfeit and factory reject cells from non-authorised distributors. These cells do not offer the performance advantages of genuine cells and in some cases can be dangerous. To encourage the next generation of engineering talent and grow electric motorsports, Mavizen is offering discounts for the 20Ah Prismatic and the new ANR26650M1B cylindrical cells. These cells, previously only available to OEMS,  are best in class for energy density, safety and quality.”

Um. damn.  Does this mean I gotta go back to school? I mean, jeeze, last time I was there was before the interwebs, hell, it was before personal computers…  but it that’s what it’s gonna take, well, sign me up.

ETEK Video- (Lemco)

Continuing my ETEK anatomy thread, just found this video showing the Lemco motor:

Skip to 4:38 to see the inside bits.

The ETEK Exploded

Well, view.  The exploded view.

Them are the partz.  This is how they go together:

The two collars are what holds the rotor.

So, yeah, in the process of discovering how to take the thing apart, I broke a 12-ton press and damn near busted my thumb with a sledge.  Broke my BFH too.  Had to cut the collar nut off, then realized it was coming off the wrong direction, over a collar that was just a wee big too big.  If brute force doesn’t work, you’re not using enough.

Will Ted be able to put it back together?  Will the ETEK ever run again?  Don’t change that channel…

(Sorry about the abbreviated posts, I’ve got two story deadlines this week…  had to get these posts up though to keep me honest.  I’ll be back and flesh them out a bit after the stories are done.)

Here’s how the collars go together:

Juicer 48 (Dept of Awesome Awesomness)

Unbelievable.  Look.

More to come, I just woke up to this email and HAD to get it posted before the day hit me:

Ted,

… So what I’m leading up to is that I got Juicer II, the Etek (Manta actually) in a loopframe project, off the ground.  Check out my thread on motorbicycling.com: http://motorbicycling.com/f9/juicer-48-etek-build-30233-3.html

…still debating whether to paint it or not.  I don’t know how many people share my love of “barn-fresh” bikes.  Anyway, I’m handing it over to Hollywood Electrics this week to keep over the holidays.  Harlan showed me your book.  It looked very comprehensive- I wish I knew about it before I started Juicer I.  Anyway, I hope you get a kick out of Juicer II. 

Best,
Dave
emotorbicycle.com