The glory and horror of Lithium

Well, I was doing some more research on this, to check out what advances have been made since I stopped blogging on this.  Turns out that allot of research is being done in the area, and we may not have a long time to wait for production modals of electric vehicles, including motorcycles.  Now, there are quite a few electric cars on the road, and the technology is proven.

One thing most of the cars have in common is that they are expensive.  Another thing is that they use Lithium batteries.  Why? Well, the lithium batteries have a much lighter body for the same capacity.  On the order of 5Lbs per battery instead of 50-70 Lbs.  This translates to an amazing add to range for a specific bike.  The down side is that they have a HUGE price tag.  The other batteries we were looking at ran from $100-$250 dollars per battery.  They also run around 70Lbs.  The Lithium equivalent would be $899, and run 5.5 Lbs.

So, while more then tripling the price of the batteries, it does free up around 260Lbs, far more benefit for the money.  This added (or lowered depending on your outlook) weight advantage could translate to a much longer range for the bike, by just adding in more battery cells.

Current plans were for 5 - 6 batteries, giving us around a 100-150 mile range.  Of course, we could use the heavier batteries during development, and then switch to the lighter batteries further on.

I guess it just all depends on what kind of funds I can get allocated to the project.

My Dream Dashboard

I'm planning out what controls I want to build into the custom dial setup for the bike. 

1. Speed, rated in Miles Per Hour and Kilometers Per Hour
2. RPM rate of the drive motor
3. RPM rate of the charge motor
4. Discharge Current Rate
5. remaining Voltage on the battery bank
6. Charge rate for any charge type that is currently being used
7. Possibly a running "Remaining Time" on the batteries for the current use rate.
8. Possibly a "Remaining Time" based on average use of the trip.

Most of these types of sensors will be easy to come by, and fairly standard.  The last 2 would require me to create a small control computer for the bike to run the calculations.  Not really impossible, but definitely more work.

For the first bike I will probably go with the first 6 sensors, and just take lots of notes on usage for the bike.  Of course, I could always just have the control computer hooked into a real computer, and store data there.  I guess it all just depends on what my end price and time frame for construction look like.

Methods of Recovery

I have been doing research into how to extend the range on Electric Vehicles (EV).  I think I am leaning toward the way the EV cars go, in which you have more then one means of recharging the on board battery's.
As I see it there are 3 ways to do this.

1. External Charging at a station or wall socket
2. Internal Charging through a small generator
3. External Charging through Solar or other natural means.

So, to take these one at a time lets discuss the pros and cons.

External Charging at a station or wall socket.
Positives

1. Wall charging provides the exact right type of charge for longer battery life
2. Wall charging also provides the "Deep Charge" needed to keep Amp Hours at their potential maximum over the life of the battery.

Negatives

1. Ease of Use.
1. You have to park near a wall outlet, and have access to one on a regular basis
2. Length of charge time.
1. It takes a long time to charge up 100+ AH on a 48 Volt system from a 110 outlet, your looking at a maximum available amperage of about 15 amps per circuit used.  That means that your looking at near 8 hours charge time for a drained set of batteries.

Conclusion

While this option is nice in some ways, it has some serious problems if your looking for a "Daily Driver".

Internal Charging through a small Generator

Positives

1. Provide charging on the "go", so you have an unlimited range without having to find a wall to plug into
2. Provide charging while driving, to extend the useful drive time of the machine

Negatives

1. More weight on the machine, means less efficient use of the batteries 
2. Reliant once more on Fuel from Gasoline or other sources
3. More complexity means more that can break down, and more maintenance

Conclusion

This option has some serious issues on both sides of the fence, and depending on your end goal is definitely something to consider.

External Charging through Solar or other natural means.

Positives

1. Provide charging on the "Go", so you have an unlimited range without needing a wall charge, or fuel
2. Mobile
3. No continue'ed cost of operation

Negatives

1. More Expense, Solar cells are not cheap
2. Size Issue's, In order to generate enough power to recharge the batteries would require a very large solar array.
3. Charge Time, Depending on the size of the solar array, you are looking at anywhere from 8-80 hours charge time.

Conclusion

While it would be nice to have the freedom from any other source for energy, solar just isn't efficient enough at this point to consider it as the "Main" way to keep batteries recharged. Now as a supplement to other charging ways, it could definitely be a possibility.

Final Conclusion

At this time I believe I am going to keep doing research into what I need.  I will probably end up using all 3 ways, even if it is just to test and make sure of what way works best for me.  In the end, without true testing, its impossible to say which way will be best.

I found the light

I found what looks like a great source of lights for the motorcycle project.  They carry LED lites for all area's of the bike, including headlight, brake, turn signals, and running lights.  Overall it looks like they could save us up to 90% of the normal operating wattage of the standard light setup.

A standard headlight pulls from 20-30 watts on high beam, a constant drain on the battery.  Add into that the 5-10 watts for each running light, and up to 15 watts for the brake, and you can see up to 75 watts of drain on the battery at any time.

Now, this may not sound like much, but you can get the same, or even more lighting by using LED's.  The same system running LED will pull 2-3 Watts for the headlight, and a total of a possible 8 watts for the entire system.  That is a serious gain in time on the battery.  Check out the site if your interested, they have some comparisons on there as well.

http://www.customdynamics.com/

Power Saving for where it is needed.

I am looking to extend the range of my bike by any means we can, so I want to save as much energy for the motor as possible.
Allot of electricity is used by the normal lighting / gauge system on a standard motorcycle.  I will be replacing the electrical system of the bike with a very low amperage system of LED's.

For the headlight I am looking at something similar to this link below.
http://www.bikebandit.com/acerbis-l-e-d-vision-motorcycle-headlight?WT.mc_id=1484958&CAWELAID=526760555
The drawback to this setup is the lack of DOT approval, which could lead to tickets.

My plan calls for replacing all lighting with LED's.  This should save a great amount of current over the standard lighting of a normal bike.

One alternative would be to use
http://www.extremestyling.com/SUZUKI-MOTORCYCLE-GSX-R600-headlight-bulbs/M/B000LOS55W.htm?traffic_src=froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle
More research needs to be done to find a DOT approved version for my needs.

Basic Frame

I am currently looking into different ways to get a basic rolling frame to build from.  I did find a couple of local motorcycle salvage sites,

http://www.midscyclesalvage.com/

http://www.motorcycle-recycle-center.com/

I am not really sure that is what I want to do though.  I may end up buying a bike from 

http://www.ebay.com 

Rolling frames go there for anywhere from $300+.

Another option that I am experimenting with is just purchasing one local from someone who has a bike with a blown motor. 

I am not sure which route I will go at this point, but my goal is to get a frame with from a 700cc to a 1200cc motor to use as a rolling frame.

Amp Hour Test

There seems to be allot of confusion about how to rate batteries, and what each battery can do.  The following link is to an "Amp Hour Test" you can run on a battery in order to get the true specs.
http://www.instructables.com/id/AmpHourTest/

Amp Hour is the amount of amps each battery can output for 1 hour before it is exhausted.  So, if a battery is rated at 55 AH (Amp Hours) it can output 55 amps for 1 hour.

One thing to keep in mind is that for any kind of EV (Electric Vehicle) you need a deep cycle battery, that way you don't damage the battery by excessive discharge, or draining the battery below a set voltage.  They also maintain their voltage for a longer period of time.

Many are using Deep Cycle Auto Batteries, such as
http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/#deepyellowspecs
You see here that each one has a rated Amp Hour, and a size/weight.  Compare that to
http://www.sunxtender.com/xtender_main.php

These batteries are rated for solar, wind, or hydro generation.  They are Deep Cycle, but have a higher rating in AH then is available in a normal Deep Cycle Auto or Marine application.

We are looking at 2 batteries, 1
http://www.sunxtender.com/solarbattery.php?id=7
it has 108 AH and weighs in at 70Lbs, for a total weight of 280 Lbs.
The other is the D31T From 1st Optima.
it has 75 AH and weighs in at 59.8 Lbs, for a total weight of 239.4 Lbs


So for a weight difference of 40.6 Lbs we can pickup an additional 33 AH, an extra 44% on our range.


I think the sunxtender is our battery of choice.