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Scooter Dreams

Posted: Wed, 31 Oct 2012, 21:05
by PlanB
After a couple of years on the EV threads & a $1k false start with a bad choice of IPM motor I was desperate to electrify something, anything! So we picked up one of these and fitted it to one of those & bingo instant gratification.
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Top speed 18kph, need to replace the lead acids with lithiums & do something about the super savage regen out of the in-motor controller. But so far a promising start.

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Wed, 14 Nov 2012, 15:00
by PlanB
Lithiums on board, 10Ah Vs 7Ah & about half the weight of the 4 x 12v gel cells. Scooter owner says he would like the battery pack disguised under the deck but I've already spent more time on the end of a file & an angle grinder than I thought I would. So much for plug & play.
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Scooter Dreams

Posted: Wed, 14 Nov 2012, 15:18
by Johny
Very nice. I would have thought that battery pack damage would be to easy if under the board. Once wrongly navigated gutter...

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Wed, 14 Nov 2012, 16:40
by PlanB
yeah, we'd have to keep anything down there above the bottom of the 45mm spine tube. I've also got reservation about dismantling five hundred bucks worth of battery/BMS pack. In the meantime I need a cape, something light & gossamery that can flutter in the 18 kph breeze.

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Sat, 17 Nov 2012, 16:55
by PlanB

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 15:51
by PlanB
Scooter MkII with the home brew 48v 10Ah battery pack, 39 x NCR18650Bs (6s3p hidden in the scooter frame tube & 7s3p in the little battery box). I bought an off-the-shelf BMS to run this lot but having 2nd thoughts about it because the Panasonics are all holding within a few millivolts of each other & a couple of commercial battery push bike type packs I've dismantled are all BMS less.

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Scooter Dreams

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 16:00
by Johny
Don't have too many second thoughts. Once those 18650's do get slightly out of balance (age, heat) the problem would quickly escalate (IMO) and once morning you might find a pile of melted ash where your battery packs used to be.

Edit: Sorry - nice job Image

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 16:58
by woody
Looks like a great way to get around town or to/from the train. Silly that NSW laws don't allow this kind of thing...

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 18:35
by PlanB
So how is it that the commercial push bike battery packs are able to get away with not having a BMS John? There must be millions of them in the market. As for the law, they don't seem to worry too much, the user tells me he uses his foot from time to time to keep up appearances of it being a regular scooter whenever he scoots past the cops booking some push bike ready for not wearing a helmet.

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 20:42
by Richo
WA laws don't allow for quad bikes screaming down the foot path for 4 hours straight but it happens anyway.
The cop would have to have a tiny weeny thingo to bother with a scooter.

The commercial packs are either from China and they don't care about it or it may have one built in you don't see.

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Wed, 24 Apr 2013, 04:58
by Canberra32
Well I shoehorned a bunch of 6ah cells into my 18v cordless drill battery case and it has no bms :) uses a thin strip of metal against one of the cells to tell when charged in what I assume is magic :)
Now I have a cordless that takes an hour to charge and lasts longer than I do for a day so those 18650s might not be that much trouble without bms :)
Was actually considering using the same cells for a scooter for the childrens :)

Scooter Dreams

Posted: Sat, 24 Aug 2013, 16:25
by PlanB
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Scooter Mk3. Kelly external controller this time so I can have variable regenerative braking. Of course the 3 wire colour codes on the motor & controller didn't match. On 3 of the 6 possible combinations the motor just sat there & vibrated which is what I more or less expected with the coils firing out of sequence. But on 2 of the other combos the motor actually ran (one of them at about twice the normal speed), making the most dreadful growling noise. So glad I'm tinkering at my confidence level (500w) and not something serious (like 50kw).