Scooter Dreams

From go-karts and bicycles to electric eskies and kids scooters.
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PlanB
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Post 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.
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PlanB
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Post 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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Johny
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Post by Johny »

Very nice. I would have thought that battery pack damage would be to easy if under the board. Once wrongly navigated gutter...
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PlanB
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Post 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.
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PlanB
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PlanB
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Post 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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Johny
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Post 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
Last edited by Johny on Mon, 22 Apr 2013, 06:00, edited 1 time in total.
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woody
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Post 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...
Planned EV: '63 Cortina using AC and LiFePO4 Battery Pack
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PlanB
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Post 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.
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Richo
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Post 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.
So the short answer is NO but the long answer is YES.
Help prevent road rage - get outta my way!
Canberra32
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Post 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 :)
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PlanB
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Post by PlanB »

Image

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).
Last edited by PlanB on Sat, 24 Aug 2013, 06:27, edited 1 time in total.
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