Experimental Electric Vehicles

The Grid Grows, and Overtakes E85

tonyhelms — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:43:15 +0000

I actually found this hard to believe, but This data was recently released by the department of energy. There are now more then double the EV Charge stations then E85 re-fueling stations. 2,515 E85 stations, compared to 5,430 electric charging stations!

I know what you’re thinking, “there probably all in California or New York”, well you’re wrong! If you check the Chargepoint network website they are covering the country, even in very small towns. See the list below of Michigan cities and how the charge stations have grown since June of 2011

–January 2012 Michigan charge point stations–
Grand Rapids- 20
Detroit- 95
Holland- 22
Muskegon- 10
Lowell- 2
Kalamazoo- 28
Lansing- 10

–June 2011 Michigan charge point stations–
Grand Rapids- 1
Detroit- 16
Holland- 9
Muskegon- 0
Lowell- 1
Kalamazoo- 3
Lansing 1

These charge point stations are growing rapidly because there incredibly easy to install, there are also many government incentives to install them. Not to mention that if someone is using the station near your business, they are apt to stay in the area and spend money at your restaurant, shop, hotel…

The ease of use has also improved with smart phones, now you can-

- Monitor your vehicle’s charge level
- Be alerted if your vehicle was un-plugged, or you’re charge is complete.
- Use the map to locate stations
- see if the station is currently charging another vehicle

The system is becoming very user friendly and if you are an early adopter, its FREE! yes, for now its free to use, but eventually will start charging a small fee for plugging in.

So if it only took this long to surpass the number of E85 stations, how long will it take to pass the number of gasoline stations? Guess we’ll wait and see.

visit: http://www.chargepoint.net/ and find a station near you!

Updated Dash for E*speed

tonyhelms — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:29:30 +0000

The old cycle analyst gauge worked well on the motorcycle, the speed was a little sluggish to respond sometimes, but all the data was quite informative. I actually wasn’t planning on doing this upgrade until one day the magnetic speed sensor for the cycle analyst came loose and was hitting my front wheel. from the time I heard the noise until I stopped the sensor was completely mangled.

I decided instead of purchasing a new cycle analyst I was going to shop around, that’s when I found the Koso line of gauges. I decided to use the smaller “dual-sport” style db-01r gauge, it had large back lit speed numbers, with a simple 2 button menu to navigate between trip, odo, and other functions. I also liked that it included the turn signal and high beam indicator (it also has a low oil pressure, and neutral light, but i didnt use them)

I started out by using the old sintra dash material as a template, I then cut out an exact outline of the previous piece without any holes or cut-outs.

After that I cut out the main outline for the Koso gauge, and drilled the 2 holes for the “machine active” light and low beam headlight switch.

Unfortunately the Koso does not have a high voltage gauge to read my battery volts, therefore I purchased a standalone voltage gauge from Ebay and mounted it into a small project enclosure from radio shack. I then mounted this at an angle by cutting out a slot in the Sintra and positioning it towards the drivers face.

After all this was done I wired the gauges to power, and ran the new sensor pickup to the lower fork. Mounted all 5 magnets on the brake rotor and programed the gauge for the proper wheel diameter.

Now I had to make the whole think look really nice, I decided to use some carbon fiber film to apply over the surface, this would cover any small errors and make it look appealing.

here is a photo with all the gauges activated.

Thanks for reading, I hope to fit a few more rides in this season if the weather holds!

What Happens if it Gets Wet?

tonyhelms — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:02:42 +0000

Its like dropping a toaster in the bath tub…right? Well actually that’s totally wrong. Unfortunately the general public’s view of electricity and water has been extremely skewed, due to many Hollywood movies and myths. The truth of the matter is that distilled water is actually completely NON-conductive! Yes pure water is actually an insulator, but when things are added to the water like salt, dirt, sand, or other chemicals, then the conductivity increases as the amount of impurities increase.

Therefore most rain water (since evaporated) is rather clean and contains little to no impurities and has a very poor conductivity. I decided to try an experiment and leave my motorcycle out in the rain for an entire day, it literally rained for almost 9 hours straight on the motorcycle.

Parked in the rain.

A close-up photo to show how wet the bike was.

I was a little nervous about what could possibly happen, but I was willing to take the risk for the sake of science!

The motorcycle worked great, there was literally not one problem after 9 hours of rain all over the vehicle. Also note that this motorcycle was not designed to be “water, or rain proof”, therefore if there are design improvements to make it even more water tight, there should never be a problem whatsoever with rain, puddles, or moisture.

Milwaukee Makerspace

tonyhelms — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:41:34 +0000

A few months ago while displaying the E*speed motorcycle at the Detroit Maker fair I had the pleasure of meeting Ben Nelson, a fellow EV motorcycle builder, EV car builder, expert camera operator and all around nice guy! He invited me to the first official EV meet at the Milwaukee makerspace. Many EV’s came and they were all quite impressive, but best of all we got to see many EV’s still in progress being built in the Makerspace.

everyone starring at the impressive Lithium powered EL Camino!

I really liked how he installed the entire drive-train under the hood, leaving the bed empty and ready to be used like a normal pick-up.

Ben Nelson’s 48v motorcycle, it is a kz440 that he did a great job converting. He has a website/blog and sells instructional DVD’s on how to convert your own motorcycle or car, I have watched both, there great videos. Check it out- http://300mpg.org/

Ben took my motorcycle out for a spin, I think the grin says it all!

A great photo of 2 electric motorcycles!

Ben also made a great quick video of us riding around the parking lot, check it out.

Thanks to all at the Milwaukee Makerspace, please visit their website, there may be a makerspace in your city too!

http://milwaukeemakerspace.org/

E*Speed Upgrade: Charge anywhere!

tonyhelms — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:28:10 +0000

I have always been annoyed that my charger for my motorcycle is so large and heavy that I couldn’t bring it anywhere, but finally the company that supplies my batteries came out with a very small (4.5lb) charger that I could fit on the bike!

Unfortunately I realized that I had nowhere to store a charge cord, so I had to make the seat hinge and add a storage spot for the cord.

I used a 6″x6″ electrical box from Home Depot for the cord storage under the seat, I also carpeted the inside of the box to prevent vibrations when riding.

I mounted the charger above the motor and attached it to the battery cradle by welding an “L” Channel and strapping it using 2 crossing velcro straps. The charger is held in very strong and will not vibrate or come loose.

The wiring was simple, I attached the 2 output ends to the battery, negative to the chassis of the motorcycle and positive to the protected side of the 400amp fuse.

The 110v input was a little short (only about 4′) so I extended it to 9′ using a power tool repair cord from Home Depot, there basically an extension cord with only the male plug end.

Now to charge I can plug into any 110v 15amp outlet (basically every household outlet in North America) and it will take me about 4.5 hours to re-charge!

P.S. sorry for the lack of good pictures, my camera SD card was corrupted and lost a lot of the pictures for this upgrade, got a new camera so this shouldn’t happen again.

Maker Faire

tonyhelms — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:58:52 +0000

A few weekends my brother and I attended one of the few Maker Faire’s presented by Maker Magazine in Detroit Michigan. The Fair was a huge success, the great weather brought out thousands of people throughout the 2 day event. I got to meet many fellow EV builders and enthusiasts, robot builders, and general “makers” of all sort, here are a few pictures of the event.

The E*speed attracted much attention at the fair, many motorcycle riders stopped by to take a look

There was an interview done by Ben Nelson, he himself built both an electric car and motorcycle, he also posts many EV videos on Youtube, I will post the link to the interview when I find it.

There was a small (and I mean small) race track setup for people who modified power wheel’s cars to race on, it was pure entertainment to watch them race. They let me take the motorcycle out there for a few laps.

eventually I took of the side faring to show people the batteries and it drew quite a crowd!

Hopefully I will have some great pictures and video of my next event, the 28th street Metro Cruise in Grand Rapids MI, Hope to see you there!

3rd Annual EV Meet and Rally

tonyhelms — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:12:53 +0000

This is one of my favorite EV events to attend, The Schoolcraft college event in Livonia Michigan, but there is one unique thing about this event, it keeps growing! The first year I attended it was a small gathering of home built EV’s and a few hybrids packed in a small parking lot, by the second year word spread and it seemed like we had many people come to browse through the show and ask questions. This year we had some major companies set up booths, the college had installed charging stations, we had over 65 electric or plug in hybrids show up!

Many people were asking questions about the E*speed, I even had a few people that had reservations for Brammo Empulse’s talk to me.

Chevy Volts were at the show in masses, in This picture the car is being charged for free off a small solar array. This is the cleanest and most simple method to charge an EV.

Bowling Green State University brought the A/C powered electric race kart, this thing was very fast and had quick change battery packs that could be changed in under 6 seconds! In early June there was an electric grand prix in the parking lot of the Indianapolis motor speedway where this kart along with many others competed in a race.

Bright Automotive was there presenting their prototype plug in electric hybrid work van, it is quite impressive and looks VERY functional.

The auto-x went off without a hitch, and was quite a bit of fun for everyone that participated!

I took home the Trophy for Michigan’s fastest 2 wheel EV, for the 3rd year running!

The event was a huge success, and I cant wait to see how big it will be next year! The EV crowd keeps getting larger each year and It is exciting to see how rapidly the technology is spreading.

Come See All the EV’S

tonyhelms — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:13:45 +0000

Many EV’s and speakers will be at the event this year, it should be very exciting!

I will be there with one, if not both of my motorcycles and there will be a auto-x style race to show off the power of our EV’s

E*Speed Durability update

tonyhelms — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:48:11 +0000

Its been a while since the last E*Speed update, but that means that I have been busy logging many electric miles during that time. The durability of the motorcycle has been amazing, epically considering this machine was completely hand built as a one of a kind “test mule” electric motorcycle.

At 75 miles-
I had a set-screw come loose on the shaft coupler that connected the twin motor shafts together, luckily it was easily remedied with some shaft re-surfacing and using “loctite” thread adhesive to prevent it from coming loose again.

At 92 miles-
I decided to experiment with a new (single) Mars motor, the “1003 double brush” 500A motor, this was not because of any problem with the twin motor setup, but because the 1003 motor was not available before. The upgrade made the motorcycle slightly lighter and provided more low end torque, I decided to keep it this way because of the improved weight, aerodynamics, and simplicity.

At 483 miles- Current total mileage, with no problems to report!

The cycle analyst also records how many times you have charged the battery, I have 24 charge cycles on my Batteries. This can be rounded to the figure of 50 charge cycles per 1000 miles.

The expected life of the Thunder Sky Lithium batteries is 4,000 cycles @ 70% dod (depth of discharge) Meaning the batteries will be 70% as effective as when they were new.

If I calculate my real world results of 50 cycles per 1000 miles, this would give the battery pack a calculated 80,000 mile life! Even if it was 3/4 of this figure (60,000 miles) that would be more miles then I have ever seen on a motorcycle.

Thanks to My Brother who has accesses to a very nice (and expensive) thermal camera, we were able to look at the thermal images to ensure proper cooling of the battery, motor, and controller. This information is very helpful to prevent hot spots on the large battery pack. Unknown hot spots on any of the parts could cause pre-mature failure or wear.

-Side view of Motor (brush side) and battery (terminal side)

-Close up of previous picture

-Close up of ME1003 mars motor

The Motorcycle has been a blast to drive, and I am always excited to see where I take it next! The only “on-going” issue I would like to work out is better thermal management of the batteries in cold weather. I have noticed in very cold weather (30~45 degrees F) the battery does not push as many amps in the first 10 minutes of driving, but once the battery has operated for 10 minutes, it is warmed up and operates like normal.

I am thinking of adding thin resistance heaters (similar to the heat pads used to help sore muscles) between the cells that would be wired to the charger therefore keeping the batteries at their optimal temperature. A circuit would activate this heater below a certain ambient temperature threshold to conserve energy, and they would only operate when the motorcycle is plugged in, since cold temperatures only effect it during the first minutes of driving.

Otherwise in temps above 45 degrees they have performed fantastic!

Expanding the Grid, one Charge point at a time

tonyhelms — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:27:24 +0000

So often I hear that there is no “grid” or “network” for charging electric vehicles, which is a complete falsity. The reality of it is that where ever there is a building, house, garage, gas station, or telephone pole with electricity we have the ability to charge an electric vehicle. Fortunately for everyone reading this I know you have electricity therefore you have the capability of charging at your residence!

-Lowell MI charge point, ironically behiend the shell gas station

The problem arises when we want to drive an electric vehicle long distance, which will be close to, or further then the battery range allows. Currently people plan their routes to go near family or friends houses where they can charge. But as the EV market grows this will not be possible for all people.

-charge point supplies you with bar code cards, and a complete operation manual

Fortunately a company called “Charge Point” by Coulumb Technology has emerged and is providing the world with public access charging. This will help to revolutionize the electric vehicle by giving EV owners a guaranteed known spot to charge if needed. Most all of the charge points will have both level 1 (120v 16amp) using a standard household outlet, and level 2 (240v 30amp) using the J1772 government standard EV plug. Some of the stations will utilize a “fast DC” charge ability which will apply 240-500 VDC at 125 amps! Although this may charge some EV’s very quickly it may not be possible with all applications.

I was surprised to see that even in West Michigan (where EV’s are very scarce) there are many charge points already installed! I had the ability to drive to the Lowell Michigan, and downtown Grand Rapids charge point stations. I used my key chain bar-code card to open the level 1 charge door and plug in my charger.

The Charge point grid will send you text messages and emails to tell you if the GFI (ground fault interrupter) trips, if you are un-plugged, or if the charge is complete. This helps keep your charging worry free while you’re away. The charge point locations can be found on their website (using a computer or mobile phone app) using the google powered map, it will show whether the station is being used by someone else, and what level charging they are using.

The number of stations keeps growing rapidly, therefore you should keep an eye on the website to see if there’s one in your area!