Part #4
was the intense Motor re-wind section... This is a bit more mundane, largely
dealing with a bit of adjustment to the chain tensioner, the air manifold for
the cooling slot on the motor, basic instrumentation and it's housing.
The tensioner had to be
lengthened to ride higher-up toward the drive sprocket.
(Ultimately it was a lost cause
on the latest ground test)
I have resolved to live with the
inefficiency of a belt drive in favour of it's more forgiving alignment.
Dual Blower
Manifold
This is what I started with...
Some PVC 4" sewer pipe,
resin, fiber glass cloth, 1/8" hobby plywood, steel strapping, a pair of
matching 12Vdc fans, and some cardboard (pop cases) to make templates.
If at the end of reading this
process it comes across as being long, drawn out and very boring... good,
because that is what working with fiber glass is like.
The PVC Pipe is cut into
numerous pieces, none of which fit together at the angle that I needed.
After using close to 4 ft of the
stuff I ended up with this fixture.
Early on in the fabrication
stage I realized that I'd never be able to make the custom scoops to boost the
fans at higher speeds AND finish this project before the spring.
It was tricky to mold the
manifold against the motor to approximate the angle of air-flow relative to the
slot.
It had to be done twice, because
I used engine oil on the surface of the motor to act as a releasing agent. But
the end result was that the resin couldn't harden, as if the oil was a
neutralizer on the catalyst.
The second attempt was
successful by masking the CLEAN motor surface with Duct Tape.
The 1" square tube pictured
below acts as a support for the blower assembly and hopefully helps brace the
spine of the frame (part running under the gas tank and seat).
Unfortunately I had to drop the
heavy duty fans pictured at the start of this post, as the tapered flange that
would have had to have been formed to accommodate the 4" pipe looked too
complex for what was supposed to be a simple project.
I
would guess about a week has passed to get to this point.
In total there are up to 5
layers of glass in certain areas, which unfortunately required grunt work
between layers and having to wait for it to fully cure.
One option that was dismissed,
was to use corrugated air hose from and Automotive Air Breather of Heating duct
work.
The rational that nixed that
idea was the turbulence of the internal ribbing, while the image to the right
DOES have smooth internal passage ways and tapers to the motor slot.
A simple harness ties the fans
in parallel to a common line that will lead up to the instrument panel to a
switch.
A temp sensor is affixed to the
surface of the motor housing and also follows the fan power lines to the
instrument panel.
At this point very basic and
analog for simplicity.
Red switch left - LED Head light
Red switch right - motor fans
Silver toggle right - switches
the analog meter between Volts and Amps (yet to wired, so things may change).
Analog 1ma meter - possibilities
endless...
This was when I thought I'd be ambitious
and run a dual lamp system...
The lamps were cannibalized from
a pair of LED Desk lamps that I picked up for $4.99 each at Princess Auto before
the global economy began to contract.
Each lamp has 20 LEDs.
The images below are of a
variety of Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPS), these were scavenged from a
variety of sources, and are very efficient at converting either an AC or DC
Voltage to a variety of lower DC outputs.
The image to the right gives you
an idea why it would be handy to incorporate such a device.
Although many folks have had
success with these type of units with higher voltage Bat Packs, none of the
units I had on hand could power both the LED's AND the fans at the same time.
My guess is that since my
bat-pack is 48V nominal (52 to 54V fully charged) it was too low a source
voltage for the SMPS to handle the minimal loads of 1A on the 5V line and 1 amp
on the 12V line.
I didn't want to tap the 12V for
the fans off one of the batteries in the pack, so ended-up adding a small 5Ahr
12V Auxiliary battery.
Now that there was a battery,
lights switches and the like, some type of enclosure was needed.
Lid for the Auxiliary Bat box.
The steel framing under the box
is 1/8th" by 1/2" strapping bent & welded.
The wood work is 1/8th"
plywood, riveted to the steel, hot glued into shape and fiber glassed.
First layers of glass...
The bat-box and electronics
storage doesn't have any of the style that I still see inside my head, but
rather reminds my of a bird house, regardless it's starting to get some
structural strength as additional layers of glass are added.
There is a lull in the minus
double digit temps that have been the norm for the last month, and I'm in a
panic to get in a quick test ride before the next blast of winter hits.
The only electrical connections
are the switch to engage the fans on the motor, the rest can wait till spring.
The box is painted a shade of
yellow that only resembles the rest of the bike in spelling and pronunciation.
Added at the last minute was a
wooden rest to mount the GPS and the temp sensor for the motor.
The final touch is a killer
camera mount for bush tours or "Black-box" in the case of some mishap.
In the end I chickened out and
removed the Canon camera and installed an old Digital cam that had passable
video capture properties because of the icy conditions outside. (and then forgot
to turn it on during testing - 15 minutes of riding through snow and ice
lost...)
The idea of a camera mount may
seem frivolous, but I've driven through a flock of 20 wild turkey's and right up
to a pair of new born fawns on the original Electric bike and the Dirt-E, so to
capture that on film would be the ultimate.
In closing this section there
isn't a single patch of exposed ground to be able to properly test the upgraded
drive components, and the Sprocket/Chain drive will have to be swapped out for
the less efficient, but more reliable belt drive option.
The minimalist Instrument Panel
looks fine to me, while the execution of the Auxiliary Battery Box/Head-light
assembly leaves something to be desired, though is functional for now.
Regardless of it's looks the exercise in plywood & fiber glass construction
is yet another skill that will only improve with practice.
When I started "Part
5" on this build I thought that the project would be wrapped-up, less some
real minor touch-ups and adjustments that could wait till the spring, so I could
move onto another project...
Unfortunately for the Suzuk-E, a
late 1980's Quad runner just rolled into the yard and it has captured my heart
like the lusty slut that she is, and the Suzuk-E is now the nagging harpy that
makes hours drag into days.
I
would guess about a week has passed to get to this point.
