SeizeTech

Hi Wasp. first off I like what you are doing with the lithium ion yardworks battery. At 109 bucks a pack that seems like excellent value.

The only reason I'm sticking to lead acid is I'm just getting started so I thought an extra battery pack casing would prove helpful in the long run. There's an industrial electronics supplier just down the street from where I work, so at the very least, I would rebuild my battery packs with more sla in the future, rather than buy more of the schwinn packs at close to twice the price of the internal batteries.

You are correct, 12Ah isn't very good. I was able to go 2 city blocks return trip last weekend ( 68ave to 32ave and back, NE Calgary) My guesstimate is that I have about 40 minutes of continuous battery use, which could typically provide me with about 1 hour of typical use. So, I'm hoping the second battery gives me a second hour, which would get me to work.

I still don't know how far it is to work, but I'll clock it tommorow. At 1.75 hours by bike ( 35-40 minutes by car) I haven't done the trip more than 4 times last year by bike, and each time my wrists and feets felt very stressed, so I only rode 1 way, then hitched a ride the other way. If I sound like a wimp, well yes, I'm 39 and have over 200lbs to lose. Its hard for me to ride a bike, yet it could be the answer to my health problems even if the electric motor is doing most of the work for me.

If I am to do this trip on a regular basis, I need to be able to do the trip exclusively on battery power otherwise I'm not fit enough to do it often. And, if I can do the trip often, I stand to gain the most healthwise.

I'm thinking that the bike hooked up to a bike trailer would be an interesting option, it would provide me with payload capacity off my already overloaded bicycle frame. I can understand how some or most people prefer the bike to feel like a bike, but nevertheless, the trailer might be a good idea for me that I can re-evaluate as I get healthier.

Hmm...actually what do you think of a second motor mounted on the trailer to make it a pusher trailer?

I looked at the RV batteries at Canadian tire, they are about 160Ahr so 2 of them would provide me with a large reservoir of 24V performance. Have you ever lifted an RV battery? I dont know what they weight, but they are nasty. Carrying them from the camper to the house each winter is about as far as I want to carry them. I'm worried that I won't be able to make it up short steep hills.

SeizeTech

BTW, I bought an electronic speedometer for it the other day, so I can monitor how fast and how far I'm going. But, I bought a cheap chinese model from Toys R us, and it was defective out of the box. It'll take some more time, but I will follow up on it.

wasp

i use a 10 ct one by ralaigh

wasp

Solar.110mb

You have to consider if you will use some streets that have no shoulder. Using a trailer can really take up a large part of the lane. I decided to put a huge hard trunk on both mine and my wifes Izip. I tried to make it look nicer by adding a little grey, and considering adding some silver pinstripping as shown below, not sure yet if I will add the silver pinstripes.
In my quest to try and do more errands with the ebikes, I decided we needed larger trunks. We can do some serious shopping with two of these trunks.
They can also fit 4 or 5 extra SLA batteries in them, if you need them.

SeizeTech

Nice setup. Thanks for sharing. It has inspired me not to paint myself into a corner on this one. I think I will experiement with both options rather that commit myself to just 1 system. This evening I took the aluminum rack off of my old Maruishi TourAce and started to mount it on my schwinn. I'm going to put my spare battery on the rack, and I'm going to dust off my old saddle bags. I'm also going to make motions toward building a pusher trailer for extended range, but it'll be nice just to start using the bike the way it is.

cheers!

Tyler

SeizeTech

Right now, I feel like a schmuck.

Last night I bought a spare Schwinn power pack from Canadian Tire. It cost me about $136 after taxes.

This evening I moved it to my cluttered work bench and it fell. It destroyed a milk crate that broke its fall. But I didn't get lucky, the casing is cracked and one corner is shattered.

So now,I am not a happy camper. I have spent 136 bucks on 2 batteries that could have costed me $60.

I wanted an extra casing, but not a cracked one.

SeizeTech

PS If someone tells me that I could've ordered the casing for $10 online, I'm going to shoot myself

;-)

toyfountain

I'm wondering if lithium or nicads packs can be added with sla batteries to boost the voltage. I'm running two Schwinn 24v sla 12 Ahr packs connected in parralel for a total of 24AHr. I wonder if I could use my two 18V pack from my drill to raise the volts from 24 to 42V. I assume the drill packs are probably just 1.7Ahr each. I just would like an extra boost on my commute back from work. The slas start to feel weaker in the last miles. If the two packs are too small I might add one 6Ahr 20V pack like wasp uses. Would I need to cool off the controller or motor some at 42V or 44V to prevent damage from overheating?

Solar.110mb

I used a Schwinn bike rack mounted on an extra seat post I bolted in. Then I removed the plastic part of the rack and replaced it with a flatbed. A 1/2"x7.25"x17.5" board, things tend to lay nice and flat and solid on it. I bolted the Stanley 19" box to the flatbed.
Good luck, hopefully you can mend the crack on your case with some caulk and chrome paint.

toyfountain

Ouch, that must hurt to break it right after getting the new pack.
You can try to fix the crack with automotive fibreglass with filaments and touch up grey paint. If it's any consolation, I've never seen an offering for just the empty case, even on eBay.

SeizeTech

It's important to keep all batteries about the same capacity, otherwise during a deep discharge, the lowest capacity battery will always drain the first, and will always drain to the extreme. Plus you will have problems charging them as a bank of batteries. The weakest battery will take most of the charge current leading to an overheating, etc.

I suppose it can still be done, but I'd recomend that you spend the time to understand how the batteries are being abused. I read a good article on this a few days ago, I'd be happy to post the link if I can still find it.

SeizeTech

IF the plastic case is made of ABS plastic, I should be able to do a fairly strong repair with ABS shavings from a plastic pipe. Apearantly you can melt the shavings into a paste by using acetone. Better yet, MEK is a solvent that you can buy at stores like Cloverdale paints. It's the correct solvent for ABS, if you have a bottle of ABS cement you'll notice the ingredients is MEK plus fillers. MEK is nasty stuff to work, its requires full safety measures for eyes, lungs, and skin.

I knew a guy that used a ketchup container to mix then apply the stuff to his dashboard. He was custom fittiing the plastic bezel for a touch screen into his dash. Some people use bondo, but his dash, and bezel was abs plastic so the paste was a perfect choice.

HEY! I'm actually getting excited about repairing the case LOL

You know, a custom fairing, container, or panel could be an interesting project, too.

SeizeTech

My rack is aluminum. I conected it to the stays near the axle, then when I lifted it into place, the aluminum stays on the motor side easily bent around the motor. I'l still not sure how I'll mount it to the stock mounting locations near the seat. The shape of the rack isn't good, so I'm going to have to bend it here and there until it either fits, or the need for a bracket becomes obvious.

I'll try to post pictures this weekend.

wasp

sorry about your luck...post a pic
i would superglue it
i'm thinking i can fit 6 more yw bats in my triangle for a total of 8
40+km easy no pedaling
i'm also toying with the ideal of running 2 of these motors
i know someone else is and running both at 48v
just throwing some thoughts out there
btw i just destroyed the others camera on a speed run
lost the bat memery card....probably 400+
roll with it i say
peace wasp

SeizeTech

Hi wasp, Thanks.

I have to admit that I like your yardworks solution, its seems very cost effective,too. I looked at doing it with AA lithium ion batteries, and it was more expensive. a 24V 6A was going to cost about $280 and I'd still have to build it into a power pack.

BTW, I like the strength of crazy glue, but it can be brittle. If I make an ABS paste, it'll make the two peices one peice again, much like welding steel. I'll post before and after pictures. I'm always stretched thin so I don't know if I'll get to it in the next month........thank god for duct tape!

SeizeTech

Wasp, I like the dual motors, too. Its a simple way to maintain stock reliability of the motors. Plus, I'm itching to step through the process of mounting a motor from scratch. I have a 2hp treadmill motor in storage, I thing it could make an interesting project if I could learn how to mount it.

BTW, I just realized that uploading pics from my cellphone camera is easier than I thought so I'll start posting pictures in the future.

wasp

I like the strength of crazy glue, but it can be brittle
i also like 2 part epoxy from the dollarstore...

wasp

wasp

I have a 2hp treadmill motor
i have been keeping my eyes open for some of these as well...for a winter project

wasp

wasp

hey what hub motor is that? a befang?
what volts
what kind of speed?

peace wasp

wasp

karma you do nice work...no doubt
couple more things since we share info on our bikes and help others
the more i look at your bike the more mods i notice
i also was going to throw a rear hub motor on it(over the winter)
was looking at 5304 or5305 is your motor a pig on the batteries?
your case is bulletproof lol...i wonder if that case was made like
a upsidedown L if it wouldn't be better...double size...bulletproof
strong...no other bracing would be needed...would act like a rear fender...ect
your front drive is moded...helps with pedaling
what did your motor and controller run you...what controller,what specs
i'm terrorfied of my front shock(junk) will you be updating yours?
sorry for all the questions i just noticed your bike...well i noticed but
didn't really notice as a example i first thought that was a car battery
and chuckled (something i got caught doing by the other) lol

peace wasp

SeizeTech

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I wired my batteries together today. I used some arctic cable( flexable in cold weather) to solder to the back of the power sockets. Each battery pack has a cable that is as long as the battery. I'm using 3 mar connectors to join the batteries into a 24V, 24Ah battery pack.

I considered wiring it for 48V. But, its the extra range that is important to me, my goal is to handle a 26 km commute to work. I think this is doable but I would like to actually do if a few times before making any claims.

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

BTW, I repaired my cracked battery case today. It was a rush job so I used the soldering iron to melt the two plastic edges together, then I duct taped the corner where the missing plastic was. It seems to be holding quite well, but what I liked about it is it only took me about 3 minutes since I already had the soldering iron out for the other work that I did.

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wasp

here's a update on my yardworks batteries
i'll add some of my findings with my 2 bat set up....
range is droping...latest ride today was 9.7 km
various loads and speeds
bat levels were 15.63 and 16.04v @ lvc
i think they are becoming unbalanced...100km of use
i am charging and discharging using ONLY + and -
i will(tonight) run 2 more wires from my bat box
using these additional wires for c- to see if they balance
so it might not be a good ideal to charge "everyday" with the main -
i will add wires and start charging with c- and report back

peace wasp

wasp

thx for the pix
decent fix
looking at your pix i realize you could have
taken the the handles off your cases and
ran the wires through the holes
oh well maybe it will help the next modder...

peace wasp

SeizeTech

I'm going to make my maiden voyage to work tommorow. 26km each way, and if I need rescuing I have a back up plan. I"ve down the trip before in 1.75 hours on a mountain bike with knobbies, so I know what to expect in terms of worse case scenario.

wasp

have you driven your bike with the switch off yet
it's way different than a regular mountain bike...

peace wasp