V2.0: TTXGP @VIR and Battery testing

So a few of you know that after I quit working at EVComponents, I was contracted by both Manzanita Micro and Elithion to help them with technical questions, design, and some sales. About a month after I started, I went down to the TTXGP race at Infineon and met up with Gene and Stephen from Manzanita. I didn’t get to help much, but I know that the Manzanita chargers were everywhere. It seems like they were in every paddock. They both did a great job at helping the racers.

Well, the time has come for another TTXGP race, this time at the Virginia International Raceway, just a couple hours outside of where I spent nearly 12 years of my life (grew up in Roanoke, VA and went to Virginia Tech, and lived in Richmond, VA for a couple years). We thought it would be another great opportunity to get out and show people what these chargers and BMS can do, so I’ll be heading out there for the races (and spending a few days with my immediate family while I’m out there). Gene and I will be helping the racers with BMS and charging while we’re there and should also have a couple of the 10Ah and 16Ah Headway cells along with a discharge tester, so people can see firsthand how they perform. Manzanita is expecting their order of 800 38120S 10Ah cells and 200 40160S 16Ah cells due in their facility the first week of August.

Now what is tester? I’ve mentioned before a little about the CC400 Electronic Load before and how I plan to test my batteries under a 5-10C load to confirm each battery is going to handle the current required. Well I’ve been getting the parts I need to finish the test fixture. I’ve got the CC400, a servo driver to adjust the current level and a DI-148U Data Logger from DataQ to measure the voltage.

Here are the CC-400 Specifications:

• Current: 1A-150A for 2V-60V cells/packs, dropping to 100A max. at 0.9V.
• Voltage: 0.5V-60V
• Power: 400W continuous at 30C ambient, 500W for 15 seconds. Allows for 100A discharging of a Li cell.
• Basic Accuracy: From 1A-20A, +/-35mA, from 21A-150A, +/-1%, typically better than +/-0.6%.

The DI-148U is a USB data logger with 10 analog inputs and some digital I/O. I’ll be using only 2 of the channels (one for voltage, one for temperature). I don’t need anything with a high sample rate for what I’m doing because the tests are fairly long.

I attached it to my computer last night and configured the DataQ unit to show 0-5V on the Y axis, and time on the X axis. I hooked up a Headway 38120S cell and after calibrating, it showed the exact same voltage as my multimeter. I loaded the cell with a headlight bulb I had laying around, and could see the voltage drop a few mV. Its a pretty smooth curve. I’m just waiting on the servo driver to arrive so I can adjust the output current on the CC400 while I test. I’ll set discharger at a set current, and then the servo driver will adjust the discharge current between 0 and 100% of that setpoint. Most of the testing will be done at 100%, but this gives me the option to adjust while I’m testing.

Thats it for now! I’ll have more pictures from VIR in a few weekends. I can’t wait! I really hope Brammo makes it out there with the Empulse.

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V2.0: July Update

Its been a while huh? I’ve been enjoying my summer and taking a break from some of my projects. Its been fun camping, rafting, BBQ’ing and hanging out with my friends in the Portland area. I joined 2 kickball teams this summer and have met some great people so far. I started working for Manzanita Micro and Elithion as a consultant a couple months back, which has been going well. Manzanita Micro is now importing Headway Batteries and are waiting on a shipment of 800 38120S 10Ah cells and 200 40160 16Ah cells. Guess who their Technical sales guy is?

A couple months ago, a friend took my spare frame and came up with a motor mount, and it arrived about 3 weeks ago. The part looks like they were laser cut. He told me that this is a temporary design, meant to get it on the road. The front fits the motor perfectly, but we’ll have to enlarge the rear motor support a little before it gets fit onto the bike. His new design will replace both the front and rear motor endplates. He’s had a busy life lately, and I’m not really in a hurry. Here’s the motor mount pictures:

I spent a good chunk of my day on Sunday measuring the voltages of all of my batteries. They’ve been sitting in boxes for the last 3 months, and quess what? all but ONE battery are between 3.28V and 3.34V. The one that wasn’t, was 3.19V. All were just fine. I need to get the CC-400 from Camlight Systems online so I can do some quick load testing. I want to set up the load tester to do ~5C for a few minutes to verify that they’ll take a load. Then I’ll throw them on the single cell charge and charge them each to 3.7V to equalize before starting to build the pack. I’m still trying to figure out my plan of attach on the pack. I’ve seen some great designs out there and may be taking some lead from them. Here’s a few pictures of the batteries (32 of them are assembled into a pack right now and not shown) and the single cell charger:

So thats it so far. Need to get the motor fit on the bike first and foremost. Then start looking at where to mount the charger and controller. I’m being fairly flexible on how many batteries I put in the bike. I want at least 32S4P (40Ah and ~102V), but I’d like to see if I can fit all 192 batteries in for 32S6P (60Ah and ~102V). The controller, BMS and charger will even handle a few less batteries. I just want to see what I can fit. Will be spending some time on that this week.

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V2.0: Communications and motor mount

So its been a very busy Spring for me. I’m working with someone in Seattle on a side project that is proving to be very fun. I can’t talk much about it now, but it will be very exciting. Between that and moving, I haven’t had a ton of spare time to work on my actual bike, but I have worked on the electrical system.

A week or so ago, I got a 48V pack built up so I could test the Curtis controller. I borrowed the 1314 PC Programmer from my friend Bob Simpson. I spent the last 2 days trying to get it to communicate only to find out that my RS232 dongle doesn’t support the comm setting I need. I tried a different one and it didn’t work either. Then I tried setting the comm in Device manager to 14400baud, tried connecting and it worked! The Curtis 1314 software is really nice and allows monitoring as well as modifcation of parameters. I have it running on an xTablet T8400 I got from a member of the elmoto.net forum, jwool. It’l be nice for Bob and I to have something portable like the Curtis 1311 but with the ability to save parameters and upload them quickly.

I also purchased an electronic load for testing lifepo4 cells. We got a CC-400 from Camlight Systems. This will allow us to test 10Ah 38120S cells up to 150A continuous (15C). We’re building a little board to monitor temperature, voltage, current as well as have the ability to control charge and discharge of the battery (cycle testing). I want to do some cycle testing of the 10Ah cells, and at least do a quick load test on my cells for 30seconds at 10C to verify that they are good and working before I put the pack together.

A friend of mine has some CNC equipment and has offered to help design a motor mount for my motorcycle. We plan on replacing the endplates of the AC15 motor with new plates that will bolt up to the frame. It should reduce length and provide ability to duct air into the motor either via an intake or blower motor. He’s taking my frame and a motor tonight so he can start designing the mounting plate. He’s going to try to design it so it will easily fit other frames with minor changes/additional hardware.

After that, we’ll start working on the battery pack design and controller/charger locations. It should be a fun month or so. I’ll update more once I’ve moved.

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V2.0: 72V 20Ah test pack

During the upgrade to Lithium, I started working with a friend of mine, Eric Cha. Eric and a couple other his colleagues are working on a 3-wheeled commuter vehicle. He aproached me last year and I started helping him with the electrical system. In the end, we ended up with the same DeltaQ, Headway, Elithion, Vicor, Curtis and Hi Performance Golf Cars system.

He also happens to be an iPhone developer. We started talking and both realized we wanted some sort of integrated display. We started looking at some hardware we could use to talk to the controller and BMS and settled on a design. We have the hardware that can talk to the iPhone in our hands, and he’s got some code started. He has released details about the product on his website.  

In order to begin on the iPhone display project, we had to get a pack with BMS running so we could start talking to it. We bought the crimper and connectors and assembled the 72V 20Ah pack  and installed the elithion BMS system. We plugged it in, wired up power and plugged it in. It immediately came up on the computer screen using a terminal program.

Here are some pictures of the 72V 20Ah test pack:

So now that the pack has been built, and the elithion system is communicating, Eric has started working more on the coding for the iPhone. He got the hardware talking to his computer the other night. Our intention is to integrate the BMS and Curtis Controller to the iPhone via their serial connections and a Wifi connection to the iPhone. The gauges will be very customizable depending on the users needs. After we get the initial development done, we’ll start to add features and other device support.

The BMS we’re using reports back the State of Charge, the voltages of all of the cells, current coming out (going into) the battery pack, the temperature of each cell board and status of the seystem components. The Curtis controller has a Speedometer output, Battery Discharge Indicator, Battery Amps, Battery Pack Voltage, Motor RPM and Motor temperature. We’ll be using the BMS for Voltage and Amperage measurements and the Controller for Temperature and RPM related information.

Other updates:

• Motor Mount/endplates were delayed a couple weeks.
• My 192 Headway cells had to be sold and my replacements have arrived. I will be picking them up this weekend.
• I got a Pelican iPhone enclosure that is waterproof and allows viewing of the phone inside the case. I’ll attach it to the gauge area on my bike and replace the gauges on the bike.

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Racing news: OMRRA adds Electric Motorcycle division

I just got this in an email today from someone. OMRRA is adding an Electric Motorcycle division at PIR here in Portland, Oregon. Its about a 20 minute drive from where I live. I’ll definitely be making my way out to some of these events.

Press Release, March 2, 2010

The Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association to hold races for electric motorcycles at Portland International Raceway. Due to the increased interest and availability of battery powered motorcycles, OMRRA has recently included an electric motorcycle class in all 6 events on the 2010 calendar at Portland International Raceway.

Race dates are:

• 5/22-5/23
• 6/26-6/27
• 7/24-7/25
• 8/21-8/22
• 9/25-9/26
• 10/23-10/24

Track entry is $10 at the gate. Children 12 and under are free. Military in uniform are free. See www.OMRRA.com for rules, information, and printable $2.00 coupons. Contact OMRRA at 503-221-1487 for more information.

What is OMRRA? For over three decades, the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association has run safe, exciting, and competitive events for motorcycle road racers and their fans. Racers range from club level to professionals with national and international experience. OMRRA operates at Portland International Raceway, a city park and world class racetrack.

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V2.0: Inside the AC15 motor

So I talked with my motor mount fabricator the other day, and we looked over the AC15 motor a little. It appears that the motor is quite a bit longer than it needs to be. He asked me to take apart (which I wanted to do anyway), so that we could see if things could be integrated more. We want to do some drawings of the main part of the motor and see how a motor mount/bearing holder could be built. Not sure if we’re doing it just yet, but it helps to have it apart to see how feasible it is. From first glance, it looks like there may be some room for a couple lengths of copper tube for cooling. Here are some pictures of the motor disassembly:

So hopefully this week I’ll have a better idea how the motor is going to be mounted. In the meantime, I can at least plan for the motor to be in a specific spot on the frame. I’m going to try and mock-up some battery stuff.

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