EV conversion

My day job is involved with open source software advocacy. While many think the company I work for (Sun Microsystems) doesn't "get" open source software there are many of us working here who do, and many of us work on open source software full time (as I do). Sooo....

This morning I had this inspired thought of a gizmo for an EV .. it looks like a really cool idea and I want to do a bit more thinking about this before I reveal anything. Anyway my first thinking was "hmm... what kind of patent or intellectual property protections do I need ..etc" to make a company to sell this gizmo. And then I remembered "oh, wait, open source" ...

So here's a conundrum of a couple ways to develop this idea.

The traditional method is what we call "closed source". You get all secretive, don't tell anybody, have a secret hideout where you develop the product, you post tantalizing snippets on youtube that don't reveal anything important but builds buzz, etc.. that kinda thing. You file for patents, trademarks, etc. You make suppliers sign NDA agreements, etc. Maybe in the end someone will reverse engineer your gizmo and undercut you (because they didn't have to pay out all the R&D cost because you did it for them).

Whatever it's flaws the traditional closed source method is a tried and true way of running a business. In business school they tell the MBA's to look for proprietary advantages etc that lock in customers etc.

In the open source way the design is revealed and published and everybody is free to duplicate the design. Not only that, they're free to modify the design and redistribute modified versions. It's kind of a puzzle how to make money when your customers can build their very own instance of the gizmo.

However one result in open source software is the nature of it leads to a community project. In my case I could publish the outline of the gizmo I have in mind and then work with some of y'all to improve and refine this gizmo. We would together develop it.

At the end there is a question of who gets to build a business selling the gizmo once we get it designed.

An advantage of open source for electric vehicles is that the customer base becomes more empowered to maintain their machines. Why, look at Mik's saga of his Vectrix that he now is calling Vectux. If the Vectrix corporation were more open about their implementation then perhaps Mik would not have had so much trouble. On the other hand the Vectrix corporation clearly wants their customers to see the price as payment for a high level of service. And not everybody who wants to buy an EV is willing or able to do the mechanical or electrical work to do their own maintenance.

Finally, I've been thinking for awhile that open source development of electric vehicle gizmos might speed up development and adoption of electric vehicles.

(BTW, there are some Drupal features which could be installed on VisForVoltage which could enable open source projects to be hosted on this site)

I finally got around to downloading the photos of the first half of my scooter's EV conversion from my digital camera. Here we go:

This is the Piaggio Boxer mo-ped that I'm converting:

This is the donor Razor for the motor, batteries, and controller:

The right side is the bicycle pedal and chain section, don't want to mess with that side:

The left side has the gasoline ICE and you can see the CVT drive belt:

Front of the CVT spindle up close:

Front of the CVT spindle dismantled:

Dang. The Lectra is still so close I can taste it.. but... The two major pieces left before it could be taken on the street is a) wiring the manual on-off switch I mentioned before, and b) getting the lights to work. I got the switch and am pondering choices on mounting it on the bike. But today I wanted to get into the lighting system.

The lighting system is a mess of wires in a wiring harness, and include in-line fuses and turn signal relays etc. Probably the existing wiring harness works but it looks like a mess and I keep thinking I want to cut it all out and start over. In any case I need to work out which parts of the harness go where etc.. at the end it might be a simple enough matter to find two wires for a 12v connection and the whole thing lights up. But so far it hasn't been that simple.

Anyway I tried connecting the lights directly to the DC-DC converter just now to make sure they're all working... and it gave me a chance to measure the amp load.

Wiring the lights directly was successful and the lights do indeed light. However....

The headlamp (a normal incandescent headlight) draws 4.6A @ 12v (or about 45 watts). The turn signal I hooked up (an LED unit) draws 0.6A in normal mode, and 1.5A in turn signal mode.

The DC-DC I have is home built from two individual DC-DC units. Each are 2.5A so the total capacity of the DC-DC is 5A. If you add up the amperages above it's well above 5A, powering the headlight and running lights will draw over 8A and close to 10A if a turn signal is on. Doesn't sound like I'll be able to put a stereo system on this bike...

Bleah.. my DC-DC doesn't have enough amps.

The options I can think of are:

1. Find an LED headlight that requires fewer A's and is still DOT approved
2. I have two more of the DC-DC units, so I could wire them in and make the total be 10A
3. Find a bigger capacity DC-DC unit.. EVPARTS has some which might work

The project has begun! Might as well blog as much as I can.

A friend brought over the Vespa 50S frame last weekend. The purchase also a new front fender (nice!), a new horncast (plus the old one), a new headlight, the seat, rear shock, engine access door, and both 10" wheels, including hubs, brakes, rims, and fairly worn tires. He also gave me the gas tank. Maybe I'll turn it into a trophy for one of my club's future rallies.

The frame is at least 35 years old and has acquired quite a few coats of paint as well as some rust and not a small amount of dirt. I spent some time today just scraping chunks of clay/road grime/2-stroke exhaust off the engine compartment and the underside. I bought the basic Vespa repair manual, although half of it I won't need since it deals with the engine.

I bought the brushless 3-phase Mars motor on ebay from Team Delta, and also bought a Sevcon controller. They both arrived Thursday. I also got a contactor from them, since it seems like a good idea, and that arrived today.

I ordered two 36V 20Ah LiFePO4 batteries from Sam at Yesa. I asked him to reconfigure one of them so it would fit in the frame better, and he said it would be no problem. He let me know on Thursday that they shipped from China. I plan to hook them up in parallel.

I ordered the Secrets of El Ninja, since I haven't built anything like this before, and I want to make sure I don't miss any important details. It hasn't arrived yet.

So far it looks like everything will fit, although I don't think the engine is going to fit completely within the engine compartment. I think I'll have to leave the engine access door on the right side off and let the motor hang out. Probably better for ventilation anyway.

The major task ahead is building the swingarm (still might try to use a dead smallframe engine case if I can find one). Once that's in and I get the drive system working, I'll have to spend some time working on the suspension, brakes, and other bits. Then I'll take everything off again and have the frame sandblasted and painted. It's going to be a long project.