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Fitting the new parts on the bike was a big job. The shaft on the new motor was too big for the frame and the new speedometer required some plastic cutting to be able to fit it in place.

To be able to install the motor I needed to grind some metal of the frame. I used a high speed rotation tool similar to "Dremel" and it worked well ! Now the motor fits in !

I can't fix the motor right now cause I don't have the drum brakes and the nuts. A guy at Extreme told me that everything needed to fix the motor on the bike is in the Rear Break Assembly kit(Extreme part number : XB600-160R)so I must order this soon. I was able to transfer the freewheel from my old motor to the new, but I lost a few bearings in the process(wich was a pain in the a**) so I will also order one of these because it is making strange sound. That's about it for the motor.

I asked my friend Pierre to help me with the speedo. Using the same high speed rotation tool, he was able to cut the plastic to make place for the new speedo. Now it fits right in, it's tight there, but I think it's going to be O.K., Thanks a lot Pierre !

***Next Post will be on the Electric rewiring***
Thanks a lot to milleym for giving us the wiring wiring Diagram of the XB-600 !

Dismantling the bike was an easy task. After getting the batteries off I Unscrewed everything. Now the bike looks like this !

There was a series of wires that were running from the back(where the controller is) to the front of the bike. I put an identification on every connector before disconnecting them.

After the almost everything was removed, the bike seemed so small ! I tried to put the new Extreme motor on the bike...haaaa deceptions, the new shaft is too big ! I will need to grind the frame a bit so that the shaft can fit. This also mean that my old nuts and washers used to fix the motor on the frame won't work ! The new instrumentation is also going to be a problem. The old speedometer was installed behind a plastic cover. I will try to cut that plastic cover to fit the new speedo.

Since the new parts I bought are not from the bike I just dismantled, the plugs on the new speedometer and controller are not the sames as the old one ! I will have to modify the plugs on the bike wiring so that everything connect easily and that every connection is secure.

The project is on his way, but it looks like I won't drive my Ebike Soon !

Yep, I think I'm about to switch over to the Dark side (less headaches, I'm sure).

My message to X-Treme:

Authority's Steal my Experimental EV Prototype,
The City has removed my 250w EV motorscooter and taken it to a landfill, without proper notice.

Does Big Oil, Plastic, Gambling, and Coal Fired Electric...have Absolute Power Over Alt. Renewable Energy Enthusists?
I have read about True Visionary's Tesla, Magnatron, Etc...Losing their Prototypes, and more...

I can imagine that any and all repression will be used to silence a person trying to follow renewable energy.

Collusion is the only term I can come up with, between Private Industry and the Municipality...

Sparky (new to blogging)

Let's see if inserting this Youtube code will work.... my friend Dave from the NEEAA giving my little Boxer a spin.

The writer of this blog accepts no responsibility or liability resulting from attempts to repeat or perform the procedures described in this blog. This information may be used at your own risk. Click for more details.

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As of today my scooter has done more Km's since I renamed it Vectux than as a Vectrix!
Click here for a higher resolution picture.
And there has been a lot less trouble since then.
That makes this penguin very happy !

4999km total. (Plus about 1400km on the first Vectrix.)

2511km as Vectux, since the warranty was voided by Vectrix Australia.

2176km since the second, proper repair to the motor controller board.

1894km since I installed a Bussman fuse to replace the third blown Littelfuse. That is the longest distance I have ever covered on a Vectrix with one fuse....
I do not believe that riding up steep hills with a low battery had anything to do with the fuse failures as suggested by Vectrix Australia. The RETAMPI knows better...

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The RETAMPI continues to work fine, no problems with water entry so far.
It still displays the percentage of max. amps going in and out of the battery, peaking at 100 if the battery is full and warm, between 65km/h and 75km/h.

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The ABCool 12V power supply works beautifully and is into it's sixth version of charging / cooling pattern:

This pattern is suitable for when ambient temperatures are fluctuating daily between 10°C- 25°C, which happens in winter on the Australian Gold Coast. It does get a bit colder, but by the time I ride off to work it's usually above 10°C again.
It covers demanding, hilly and fast commuting, 20km x 2, including always charging at work.
I would not be able to get to work and back without a deep cycle of a fully charged battery or charging at work.

Timer 1 = Vectux charger:
2000 to 2130 Mo - Su
0900 to 1000 Mo - Fri

Timer 2 = AuxiliaryBatteryCooling:
1630 to 2000 Mo - Su
2130 to 1000 Mo - Su
0750 to 0900 Mo - Fri
1000 to 1100 Mo - Fri

These settings are supposed to achieve this:

A) Charge level remains between 25% and 90% most of the time.
B) It avoids unnecessary battery aging (due to avoidance of heating up during the later parts of charging and due to avoidance of deep cycling.)
C) Aims at stopping charging when "CP" has just finished.
D) Battery is cooled to about 20°C to 24°C before charging begins.
E) Battery is cooled after the charger has been turned off.
F) Energy wastage due to the chargers standby current consumption of 0.5A is avoided.
G) It might also increase the life span of the charger because the charger heats up if left plugged in once charging is complete, particularly in countries with higher grid voltages.
H) It reduces overall power consumption and increases the "Km/kWh" rate, because the later parts of the charging cycle, which are less efficient and produce a lot of heat rather than a lot of usable battery charge levels, are avoided.

A full recharge including "CC" and "tr" parts of charging to equalize cells will probably be done once every week or second week, when the full range is needed for some reason. I simply plug the Vectux "straight" into the grid instead of through the ABCool timers.

A BaLPoR will probably happen every few months, more or less when it is unavoidable.

I have only been testing this charging pattern for a few days so far, it might hold unexpected surprises....
Small changes to the charging times, to keep the battery levels within the wanted range, will probably be needed.
And the cooling times will need to go up once the weather gets warmer again.

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The Vectux had new tyres fitted today.

The rear tyre could have gone for another 500-1000km before it would have become illegal, the front tyre a little longer, maybe 2000km. So I kept them, good spares for emergencies.
Whilst they wait for their comeback I'll grow fruit trees in them!

I replaced them with the same Pirelly tyres as the originals, about AU$140.- fitted.

This is how the Vectux was supported to get the front wheel out:
Click here for a higher resolution picture.
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Click here for a higher resolution picture.

The front wheel is fixed to the fork in a standard way. It required 10g lead to balance, the same amount in the same spot as originally. That's good according to the tyre fitter.

The rear wheel, however, is a problem insofar that it does not fit onto a wheel balancing machine.
A custom Vectrix part would be needed to balance the wheel. This part would need to be perfectly balanced itself, and needs to attach perfectly centered to some or all of the six holes in the inner rim of the wheel. Not an easy feat to make that yourself!
So far I have not noticed any undue vibrations or wobble.
I made sure that the tyre fitter installed the wheel in the exact same position on the gearbox as before, by marking them. I was a bit worried that any small change could worsen the gearbox noise again, but so far it remained acceptable.

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So far unsolved problems:

It remains to be seen what causes the "Disappearing 5 bars Syndrome".

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The static thrust is limited too severely, much better acceleration should be possible.

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A higher top speed could increase safety in some situations.
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Software changes might be "all" that is needed to achieve these last two improvements.

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Mr. Mik

test run ev ,, www.youtube.com/lcalarea47 -- -ac dc ev first test run amen--- ,, all seems fine so far , had a clinkety clankety hub cap , she didnt like taking off in 2nd gear from dead stop though , .. zoom zoom zoom ,,lonnie

Here are some pics of the low-voltage converter that I created using the National Semiconductor LM2576HVT-12-ND buck-converter. The chip pretty much did everything for me -- all I had to do was to add two power-smoothing caps, a blocking diode, and a RF choke (which I mistaking undersized; promptly blew up and which I jerry rigged a loop of wire).

In the top left of the photo above, you will also note my premade, off the shelf 12VDC to 5VDC converter. This powers my LED headlights.

The following photo is the back side. Please note that I am a really lousy solderer. The LM2576HVT-12-ND will take any input from 16-75VDC and output a steady 12VDC @ 3A continuous but they mention that with active cooling it could do 5A continuous. That's 36-60 watts, plenty for me.

This is the wiring schematic that I used:

Top side again. The setup is small enough that my ESC and UBEC still fit in the project case with plenty of space for airflow -- and for another DC-DC converter to fit in there in case 3~5A is not enough.

The resulting low-voltage converter and ESC "mounted" on my bike with duct tape. This is an older photo, I've reduced some of the wiring and since changed the SB50 connector to a PowerPole 45.

On Sunday, I finished making the bearing mount on the right side of the motor spindle. This will help take a lot of strain off the bearings on the motor and prevent it twisting out from the torque. Also, I shimmed the front pulley with the thin metal from an aluminium can -- it was just perfect to close the gap between 12.5 mm and 12.0 mm. As a result, the motor is working much quieter now -- I just love the sound it makes when it accelerates -- gotta post a video.

(And yes, it's made of wood, I'm a woodworker not a metalworker and don't have access to a mill. The 12mm flanged bearing itself is hidden underneath the wood, it has quality roller bearings to support the spindle.).

I got a new V-belt at the local autoparts store to try to make the gearing taller by forcing the rear CVT smaller, but the V-belt was too small. I'll have to split the difference and get a new V-belt later this week.

Instead of depending on my unreliable low-voltage system for fan power (not good that it cuts out at full throttle), I instead wired two of the fans in serial. That means each fan is being driven by 19 volts -- a bit fast but not something they can't handle. One fan is on the ESC controller, the other I mounted in front of the motor. Unfortunately I found out that the mount I used blocked some of the natural airflow, so the motor ended up running hotter with the fan than it did "naked." I'll have to make another mount that diverts more natural and blown air to the motor.

I've ordered more batteries for the scoot, so now I just have to wait.