Dashboard for Lectra

The question I've been working with the last couple weeks - other than Holiday activities that is - has been what to do for the dashboard on the Lectra. The Lectra design has a piece of molded plastic which kinda sorta maybe resembles in an odd way the gas tank in a gas motorcycle. If you squint your eyes just the right way, that is. It woulda been obvious to reuse that piece to cover that section of the bike, but I've been looking at a different idea.

Because I've chosen to use a manual disconnect (a big red switch) as the main contactor (manual contactor) I've also been pondering where to mount that big red switch. It doesn't really fit in anywhere else but that area where a gas tank would normally be. And to reuse this molded plastic thingy I'd have to make the big red switch compatible with this molded plastic thingy. And they didn't look terribly compatible which is why ...

The other idea I've been working on is... a) an aluminum plate (diamond plate), b) drill holes for mounting any switches or gauges, c) somehow mount this aluminum plate to the bike. I worked up a method for mounting it involving angle brackets bolted to the plate and bolted to the bike. It looks to be very solid etc. ..but.. I've not been satisfied with the final look of it.

Yesterday I took a look at the plastic thingy again and it appears to be sturdier than I thought. There was a metal plate screwed to the plastic thingy, this plate held the instruments originally meant for the Lectra. Last night I detached that metal plate and started looking at it. It fits the bike very well, duh.. it was designed for this bike so of course its going to fit. And I could take the aluminum plate I'd already done and trim it down to fit this plastic thingy.

The other issue I've been pondering is weatherising the battery pack. You may have seen some news reports of storms pounding northern california. Well, yeah, it's been helping me consider how to make this thing ridable in rain. On the bike as it is the parts are all exposed, especially this dashboard area. I just ordered some rubber booties for the battery cables. These fit over the cables and form a cover around the battery connection. They don't look like they're perfect but they should help (some) to prevent water from getting to the pack. That means this weekend I'll be rewiring the pack (again) to install the booties ... and I might as well rewire the way the paktrakr is installed similarly to how usatracy has done it.