The R5e Gets a New Tank

This is a ripitoutoftheboxandrundownstairstotheshoptoseeitonthebike situation, and I just happened to have a photo of it, but thanks to Rick Merhar at Accu-Products I have a freakin AWESOME new tank.  It’s light as a feather, and for the first time I didn’t have to cut the bottom out of a gas tank or build one myself.  This is the top mold from a vintage 1972 Yamaha T3 tank.  No gas tank hole, no bottom…  just pure 1972 vintage roadracing deliciousness.

…stay tuned, when you see it in all it’s yellow goodness!

edit:  Got it outside today:

The Cafe Racers (pics) Thread on ADVrider

It started with a question from Steve Natt on Facebook – about this shot:

Steve McQueen in Taiwan, filming The Sand Pebbles in 1966.  On a Suzuki T20.  Another great shot at IMDB.com, here.  

…which led me down the rabbit hole to this thread on ADVrider- a great thread of over a gajillion shots of people’s bikes.

I’m just posting it here so I have something to look at while I’m at work today.

Fossils to Flux, Second Edition is LIVE!

Yep.  I have a Good Excuse for not posting in a while…  I’ve been updating …from Fossils to Flux, and I’m REALLY proud of the work that has gone into it – not just me, but all the great folks who’ve been a part of it.

The print version is here:  …from Fossils to Flux (Second Edition), on Lulu.  You can download a Lulu eBook here.

The “Author Spotlight” page on Lulu (with both versions) is here.

Here’s the Kindle version.

..

Here’s the Table of Contents:

The Parts

The Batteries, 15

• Lead, 16
• Mobility Batteries, 16
• Odyssey “Dry Cell” Batteries, 16
• “Orbital” Batteries, 17
• Lithium Batteries, 17
• Zachary Rubin and the Awesome Battery Roundup, 20
• The Peukert Effect, 21
• Battery Management Systems, 21

Controllers, Contactors and Converters (oh my!), 24

• The Controller, 24
• Sensorless Controllers, 28
• The Contactor, 29
• The Converter, 29

Random Thoughts and Observations, 30

• Random Thoughts: Regenerative Braking (from Brammo), 30
• Random Thoughts: Motors- Axial vs. Radial air gap motors, 31
• Random Thoughts: A Short Primer on the History of the Etek Motor, 32
• Random Thoughts: Hub Motors, 34
• Random Thoughts: Motor Cooling, 38
• Motor Cooling Questions ANSWERED, 39
• Random Thoughts:  Transmissions?, 40

The Plan

Understanding the System, Balance and Bottlenecks, 43

Picking the Parts and Pieces- (decisions, decisions…), 45

Battery Systems- Some Examples, 50

• Lead-Acid, 50
• Lithium “Prismatic”: GBS, Thundersky, 50
• Cylindrical Cells – Headway, 51
• Lipo, 52

The Motor Lineup- the Tried and True, 52

• Permanent Magnet DC, 53
• Series-wound DC, 53
• AC Induction, 54
• Sepex (Separately Excited) DC, 55

The Other Parts

• Figuring the Gear Ratio, 56
• Switches Made Simple, 56
• The Charger Choice, 57
• The On-Board Mounting Decision, 59
• Buying a Rolling Chassis, 60

Interlude: The Secrets of the Universe- KWh, 63

Interlude Part 2: Bigass Hub Motors, 63

• The Motor Mount, 64
• Mounting the Batteries, 66
• Mounting the Batteries- Part Two: Essentials, 69
• Battery Connections…  or, “24s4p? Huh?,  72
• The Wiring Diagram, 73
• Grounding and Fusing the System, 75

More Random Thoughts: The “Recycle” Angle, 76

 Cool Tools- Essentials for the Builder

• Making Connections, 77
• Cutting, 79
• Hand Tools, 80
• Air Tools, 81
• Meters, 82
• The BFH, 83
• The Co-op Shop / VocTech Angle, 83

The Ride

Ride Safe, 85

Epilogue: The Second Build, 87

Conclusion, 91

Appendix: The Shopping Lists, 92

• The Zombie Fembot, 93
• The GSX-E, 94
• The dirt bike, 94
• The Juiced Café, 95

Glossary, 97

Bibliography, Links and Resources, 113

Dept of HOLY CRAP: the ThinGap Brushless Ring Motor

Two words.  60kw.  10,000 RPM.

I have new motor prOn.  Read this:

ThinGap 14050 Ring Motor, the newest in a series of 14-inch diameter ring motors, was developed under DARPA contract using patented ThinGap technology. The dc motor produces up to 60 kW (80.4 hp), with smooth torque and speed because the design produces no rotor-to-stator magnetic forces, no cogging, no eddy current losses, and no hysteresis. The 13-4 PH stainless steel rotor and magnets mounted inside the outer face of the ring allows for high revolutions per minute operations, up to 10,000 rpm.

Think it’s just another vapor concept design?  OK, watch this.

.

Visit ThinGap’s site here.

The page with the most info on the technology is here.  They apparently have 7 motors in production…  And regarding my favorite motor issue, cooling:

ThinGap Embedded Motors are not well-suited to low-speed or “traction” applications, since at 0 rpm there is no air circulating around the coil. The Motors depend on convection cooling from the air circulating around the motor, as opposed to more traditional iron-core motors which use conduction to transfer heat from the copper to the iron core.

Active cooling of a ThinGap Embedded Motor increases available torque dramatically for the same reason – the motor will not saturate. Active cooling is facilitated through the open-frame construction, and simple ducting of a fresh-air supply, which can increase the allowable current (hence torque) significantly. ThinGap will be running quantitative experiments with Active cooling in the future.

.

Wanna see it go fast?

.

i can haz thingap plz?

.

The Battery Module Search Continues

This continues to drive me nuts.  There’s got to be an awesome battery module configuration that I can adapt for my lipo packs.  I just can’t seem to get the concept together.

In my endless google rampages, I found this:

…from this story on PopSci.  I hasten to add…  I don’t think MotoCzysz is still using this.

Here’s a sweet bit of work from Nissan:

Zachary Rubin and the Awesome Battery Roundup

I like when data is put together into a huge spreadsheet.  I like it even better when it’s made into an awesome graphic that even I can get my head around. The Best is when someone else does it.  ‘Cause most of the time I don’t even know how, but when I do, I don’t actually get off my ass and do it.

Here, my friends, is the Awesome Battery Roundup by Zach Rubin.  He posted it on ElMoto, here, and also on his blog, here.  (link to come)

That awesome graphic I mentioned?  …c’est ici:

From his blog (with his permissh):

You can download the source here. To use it you will need Processing. Download the spreadhseet (linked above) as a CSV, make sure it is named battData.csv and is located in the data folder. There is a “Compare in vis” column in which you select 6 batteries to compare.
 
There are two things that are potentially misleading.
1) every manafacturer seems to want to rate their batterie’s Ah capacity at different discharge rate. As 1c is closer to reality in an EV application, I’m considering editing the table to use approximated 1c capacities, as opposed to the advertised number. Such guestimations i think would still be more accurate than strictly following the advertised numbers.
2) As the batteries are directly contrasted with one another a value may seem low, while in reality it is quite adequate. For example Headway cells seem to have a rather low constant current and pulse discharge rate, however 5c/10c is plenty for most applications. It only seems low because it is on the same scale as the Turnigy and A123 monsters. I still think the data is relevant as it tells you how close to tolerance you would be operating.

if anyone here has any bright ideas, im all ears

Conclusion: As I suspected (and im sure many of you here already know) Turnigy Lipos pretty much clean up.
Very impressed with whats available now, compared to when i first did the conversion in ’09. I just need to figure out how to keep those RC batteries well balanced and make sure they don’t explode. you know, the details xD

Also does anyone know of a supplier for the 10s Hyperion cells; I couldn’t find one so they are not in the spreadsheet.

and, thanks Athlon for posting this link:
http://mabula.tangram.dnsalias.net/battcomp/cell_info

TTXGP NA Schedule Released: 4 Races, Daytona Finale

Here it is…  the official confirmed schedule for North America, 2012, from the TTXGP press site:

MAY 4th – MAY 6th
Infineon Raceway

Infineon has been home to the opening round of TTXGP since inception so we are very pleased to be kicking of the season at one of the greenest tracks in the US. The West Coast Moto Jam weekend is the ultimate 2 wheel fiesta;  As well as TTXGP fans will be treated to  six AMA Pro Road Racing main events on the road course, Supermoto USA on the karting track and FREE Demo rides in the expanded Motorsports Midway.

June 23rd – June 24th
Portland International Raceway 

The award winning City of Portland; often been referred to as one of the most environmentally friendly or “green” cities in the world and this summer adds to these credentials when it plays host to the region’s first zero carbon race series. The TTXGP race will be the highlight of an EV bonanza with displays, demos and making up the OMRRA EV Festival.

August 31st – September 2nd
Miller Motorsports Park

Returning to this prestigious track with AHRMA, TTXGP is excited to return the famous Miller Motorsports Park. Mixing the old with the new and showcasing the historic with the future; the TTXGP race will be hosted by  one of the biggest associations in the world. The association has grown steadily over the years, now with over 4,000 members;  the Miller round represents represents one of its largest and busiest weekends.

TTXGP WORLD FINAL 2012: October 19th – October 21st
Daytona International Raceway

For the first time in TTXGP History, we bring our World Final to the USA. Daytona International Speedway is the home to nine major weekends of racing activity, featuring everything from NASCAR to the Rolex Sports Car Series to the American Motorcyclist Association and the World Karting Association, as well as the booked for more than two solid months each year for testing and development of various race vehicles. As such offers racers and fans a world class venue and the perfect choice for the TTXGP WORLD FINAL 2012.

“The Speedway is a venue that is known throughout the world as a top-line race track – a place where everyone in motorsports wants to claim a victory,” said Speedway President Joie Chitwood III.

..

Guess that’s (Daytona) some sort of big deal.  Awesome.  I wonder how the European teams feel about it…  not to mention the Australian guys – they all had more races on their continent last year, to the NA schedule of 3 with a fairly small field to boot.

Just 3 races and a World Final seems like, well, not growth particularly, but at least there’s a season, which better minds than I were starting to wonder…  Nothing in NH, I guess, at least at this point, so pretty much another year of me not going.  booooo.

…yeah.  I’m just a bitch.

Well, OK, let’s be constructive, and say, if I’m going to be a bitch, what would I do different?  Well, first off, it seems like Europe is the big show.  Not the UK, not the US, but Europe.  So how about nodding to them, and having the World Final where most of the World is racing?

Now if it were me, I’d present it as the Biggest, Most Awesome Evolution of Europe’s Grand History of Electric Motorcycle Racing, giving a great tribute to the EVN Cup and all that, and showing how much more AWESOME the races are now.  But, I guess there appears to be more bang by (falsely) claiming to be “The First”, as evidenced by that 1000 days video they also posted on the site.

…yeah, if it were me.  Which it ain’t.  Everybody has an opinion…  ‘course mine is always, well, right.  HA!  But what I don’t understand about racing could fill a book…

Ripperton, the ME0913, and the Dyno

Two words.  61 HP, 70Nm.

Wait.  Are those words?

Ripperton’s build thread is here, skipping right to the ME0913 part.

Here’s the graph.

From this post on Endless Sphere.

Thanks for the tipoff, SplinterOz!

Wiring Diagram Updated

Here’s the latest.  The R5e Wiring with the Tyco and the Vicor DC/DC.  I’ve made some modifications and layout changes based on how I have the hardware on my bike laid out.

Note, the two major changes are that the Tyco contactor uses a 12V coil, so instead of running off pack voltage, it’s now running from the DC/DC converter to the bar switch.  The DC/DC converter is just getting switched on with the main cutoff switch, which is fine because I have no running lights or anything.  Note the fusing on the input and output of the DC/DC converter, too.  Those have to be sized to your 12V DC load.

There was much debate over the diode in the contactor coil circuit, but it’s simple enough and small, so I am putting it in.  When the current cuts off from the coils, the field collapses which makes current.  You need the diode there to keep the current from damaging the device up the stream from it, in this case the switch, or the DC/DC converter.  In the Allbright configuration it was coming right from the controller, so it was a definite requirement.

Also, note the Alltrax needs + pack voltage going direct to pin 1.  I don’t know why.  But it does.  So it goes right to the big fuse.

Use at your own risk.

Note:  This reflects how the bike is actually wired, more for my reference than anything else.  Although the circuits are correct, some of the connections are more for the convenience of wiring (locations, connections, like that) than anything else.

TTXGP Celebrates 1000th Day, Ignores History

This is a really awesome video, paying tribute to all the teams, riders and other people who made the TTXGP possible.  It’s great.  Except for this one thing:

Now why the hell did they have to go say that? Is it part and parcel of the electric motorcycle community that everyone has to claim they’re the first?  It’s not doing anyone any favors…

Sorry, folks.  Especially after all the great stuff that Team Betti gave me on the amazing work done back in the ’90′s and early ’00s, this just sticks in my craw.  Maybe in the racing community it’s not really considered cool to nod to the guys who laid the foundation for what you’ve accomplished, but in my world it’s at the very least polite to nod to the people whose shoulders you’re standing on.  Whatever.  Not to be a bitch, but according to my calculations, they are beat by about 3000 days.

The Betti team and the EVN Cup was an F.I.A. (International Automobile Federation) sanctioned championship. The series ran for several years, at least until 2006 (the last year Team Betti participated as far as he told me).

Here’s the video.  Just skip past to 0:30 if it pisses you off too.  Maybe you can enjoy it more than I was able to.

If you want to read up on the actual history of the sport check out my posts on Team Betti and the EVN Cup, here.