DangerScooter

Because DangerScooter.

It hasn't snowed yet.

I was lucky enough to be called by my good friend Ted Dillard to go visit another EV enthusiast, Jeff Disinger aka Dice23 on the Elmoto.net board. I consider my motorcycle fast but it's simply not in the same league as Jeff's Predator. It's a sick and twisted machine of electromechanical mayhem.

The "Pred" in action!

The sleeping Predator with Jeff and I

If you want to go really really fast, flip this switch.

The new controller for the "sport bike". 

As you can see, I'm in love with the Soliton1.

Don't think I've ever had more power on tap.

Check out Ted's EV Grin!

So it hasn't snowed yet. I'll keep riding till it does. 

Photo credits to Ted on pretty much all of these. If interested, there are even more on his blog: www.evmc2.com.

V+I = Fun

E-Ninja is every bit the fear spawning machine I hoped it would be.

It's been a busy few days. My Floridian blood is not yet used to this frigid climate. Been learning how to play lots of Flight of the Conchords songs on guitar. Skyrim. TIG has been on my mind as well.

Time for assembly on the e-Ninja. It's nice when everything lines up on the first shot.

Motor mount and forward battery box test fit

Curtis, Vicor, Fuse and Kilovac

Rear clamp mount for added rigidity

= Torque

Loaded

In the excitement of finishing the bike I neglected to take any more pictures. I'll probably soon ask www.evmc2.com for a proper photoshoot. 

I have about 20 miles on the bike as of writing this and I couldn't be happier with the results. Practically no voltage sag at high amperage. High score right now for peak power is 45kw, with my sanity being the only limiting factor. There are still plenty of tweaks, additions, and maybes to address. BMS, controller settings, gearing, custom fairings, are all on my mind. Here's a sneak peak into the first item on that list:

             

Yup, it's happening.

Took a little trip down south and a visit to Taptic Toys.

Where I've been for a month

So I've effectively been beach bumming for a month and now have the urge to get productive again hence this post. I can't just play volleyball with girls in bikinis forever.

Ok, back to business. 

 Haas VF2-SS aka BeastMill

I want one. Badly. Luckily my great friends over at Taptic Toys have one and were willing to lend a hand with some parts for the eNinja.

Rear clamp mount for the AC-20 motor.

Facemount for the AC-20 motor

The maker in you may have noticed the smooth finish on these parts. Indeed they were sandblasted, something I had never done before and plan to do much more in the future. 

Where the magic happens

I'll be back in Boston shortly where I plan to continue my work at the newly opened Artisan's Asylum.

 

Makin Partz and announcing Project: Biktor

Freshly cut

This innocent looking pile of aluminum makes up the skeleton of the Ninja's new subframe which houses the battery pack and serves as a mount for the motor and controller. 

Pretty Brackets

Having not been behind a mill in a few months I realized how much I love manual machining. It really is therapeutic, especially when you don't derp yourself.  

subject-to-change

At MITERS last night, Charles and Shane had a talk on motor controllers. I'm building one now. My first foray into custom motor controllers is Biktor, a bidirectional single channel brushed DC controller spec'd for 48v and around 40 amps. Biktor's heritage comes from the omnipresent ESC known to the world as the Victor series. I always have a few on hand for whatever kind of remote control motor shenanigans come about. They're a solid and proven design although with some shortcomings like requiring an RX signal boosting cable, requiring an RX signal in the first place, fan reliant heat dissipation, screw terminals, unusual pwm connector, and cost. 

Lesson 1: History of my Electric Motorcycle.

The electric motorcycle has been my poster boy project for the last 2 years or so. Like all things it has changed over time. Drastically.

flintstonemode

The rolling chassis or "glider". It's a sans engine Kawasaki Ninja 250R. This platform was chosen due to it's relatively light weight, narrow low rolling resistance tires, parts ubiquity, and comfortable riding position. In the motorcycling world the Ninja 250R is often recommended as a first bike. Regardless source of torque, be it combustion or electric, this was my first motorcycle.

 Hey a picture of a motorcycle wheel....wait wut..

Above is a 30KW peak BLDC wheel or hubmotor. The wires (wrapped in the  white weatherproof sheath exiting downwards) included the three high current phase wires along with the hall effect sensor wires and a thermistor. I ran this motor for the first three revisions of the motorcycle. This motor was paired to a 120v 400a BLDC Kelly controller.  The additional unsprung weight had a negligible effect on handling. The obvious advantage of a hubmotor is the space it frees up inside the engine cavity of the motorcycle allowing a larger battery pack for the same motorcycle compared to a chain driven system.

FrankenRide

First test ride and first time I'd gone over 30mph on any EV.

Semi-legit 1.0

Ok,  first semi legit construction deserves some specs.

Top Speed: Controller limited to 60mph out of fear for my life.

Range: Alot, 70+ miles. This pig of a battery pack was my largest ever. 6.1kwh. EV people will immediately recognize the yellow cells as Thundersky. There are 32 of the 60ah flavor in series. I underestimated the weight of this pack (about 190lbs) which made my light little ninja ride like a pig. The considerable voltage drop of these cells was unsettling coming from the combat robotics world where I normally used higher C rated A123 M1 cells or cheap HK lipo which holds its own (more on that later).

 Finally, actually useful method of transportation.

Ended up selling my Thudersky cells and buying smaller, higher C cells. The pack pictured is a pretty small pack, 32s2p of Headway 10ah cells. Despite the low kwh number, this bike was a blast to ride being so light. I routinely went over 80mph on this setup. Again, I sold the Headway cells and bought something a little different, very uncommon at the time for highway going EVs....

Lithium Polymer or Lipo. 

This picture makes me happy.

It's a pile of 6s 5ah chinese lipo packs from hobbyking. Alone these are not very useful, they need to be wired together in a clean way, also mounting was a concern. I opted for making 6s8p (22.2v 40ah) modules.

Mmmm much better. 

I matched the packs based on their IR and made five of those modules. Want to make a shoutout here to www.bigbluesaw.com for being awesome. The cases are made from 1/4" thick polycarbonate. Balancing at the cell level is done through the panel mount 7pin powerpole connector on the front face of the module. To any RC charger, this is just one 6s pack.

To be continued....

  

Test

 

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