|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DavidM
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 41
Location: Victoria, Australia, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
|
I was involved in building a solar car for Sunrace 97, it was a hybrid (solar and human power), after the event I was fired for electric transport, I wanted to build a scooter like you suggested and did!
But it was terribly underpowered, but thats because I spent about $30 on it. I used a fan motor (Ford Laser), on the motor shaft I had an aluminium rod (30mm) and squeezed on the rod was some rubber - the idea being to use friction drive from this to the rear wheel. The motor was mounted on a spring loaded pedal (half a poly chopping board), when you pushed down with your foot it engaged the motor/rod/rubber to the rear wheel. This is important for electric vehicles as free wheeling/coasting is a part of efficient traveling. The scooter I built out of aluminium tube sections and the steering believe it or not was a gate hinge, the whole scooter was built from scratch - with no welding but about 300 pop rivets, it had an aviation look to it. The electrical part was simple - an on/off switch, ammeter (essential to regulate power usage and pressure to the motor pedal), voltmeter, fuse and 7.5 Ah battery slung underneath the foot plate (the other half of the poly chopping board).
Still lots of fun, still have it.
At the time electric scooters were not the common, so it took me more half an hour to go to the 7-11, as it was 3 minutes to go the 7-11 and 30 minutes to explain the scooter to people going in and out of the store, everybody wanted to ride it, and 3 minutes to go back home after I finally got inside to by the milk.
I built mine in two weeks by keeping it simple, make it complex and you probably wont finish it (like 3 others I know of). _________________ "Limitation shows the Master."
|
Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:49 pm |
|
|
Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
Thats a very similair design to the infamous "EV Warrior" electric bike. yes, where the well-loved robot motor came from. They ran 2 motors for drive (one clockwise, one counter clockwise) facing opposite directions, but coupled to a single rubber roller that pressed on the back wheel for friction drive.
I wonder if regenerative braking would be worthwhile doing, you would have to figure in a fair few stops and starts and why not put at least some of the energy back into the battery ?
7Ah doesnt sound like much for an EV though. a 7ah battery only drives your average combat robot for 5-10 minutes, although multiple drill motors are a lot less efficient than a good scooter motor would be. It might be interesting to make up some monster-sized nicad packs out of drill batteries since they're cheap and seem to cope with 5 minute discharges better.
One of my techno-dreams has been to make a *serious* wheelchair for some disabled rev-head. Electric Wheel chairs always seem like such wussy things to me.. why doesnt someone make one with a few horsepower for drive, a nice comfy car-style reclining seat with a steering-wheel, and a little petrol engine that you can fire up once out of the shopping center so you can give the guys on petrol scooters a run for their money ? If you are going to spend a major part of your life in the thing, I would have expected people would at least make them as funky as the shopping karts the grannies get around in. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
Last edited by Spockie-Tech on Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
|
Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:10 pm |
|
|
|
|