Vespa

Rode the Rezistor to work yesterday and today. I haven't been able to find any electrical outlets on the outside of the (very old) building I work in, so I had to improvise.

This weekend I rode the Rezistor to Spring Scoot, a scooter rally held annually each year here in Portland. It basically served as the initial test run and range tests. I started with a 6.6 mile ride on Friday night and rode progressively longer distances Saturday and Sunday. I finished with a 14.5 mile ride Sunday evening, much of it at full throttle. There seemed to be juice left when I got home, although my headlight (and presumably the rest of my accessories) seems to have given out a few blocks earlier. The controller, motor, and power cables were only a little warm.

The replacement controller from Team Delta arrived on Wednesday. Fantastic service from Dan, considering I just explained the problem to him on Sunday. I installed it and, at first, got the same "MOSFET short circuit" error message from the controller as before. I wondered if the contactor might be faulty, so I took that out, fiddled with it as much as I could (which wasn't much) then reinstalled it. But then it occured to me that the 12V converter might be faulty, so I left that disconnected. That must have been it, because the scooter worked after that.

Well, it's been an exciting week. I spent much of last Saturday getting the brakes working, installing the levers, cables, and switches. The brakelight switches install in-line in the brake cables within the headset, so I had to figure out where to cut the cable housings to get them in the right spot.

I haven't blogged in a while, but it's not because I haven't been making progress. It's just that when I get free time, I'd rather spend it building than typing and uploading photos. Here's a summary of what I've been doing:

I had to reconfigure LiFeP04 battery pack 1 so it fit better in the space below the seat. This involved cutting the tape that held it together, cutting and resoldering some of the links between the cells, and extending some of the wires to the BMS.

HUGE thanks to my friend Arden for helping me assemble the drivetrain. A fellow member of the Oregon Scooter Club, Arden has an amazing shop with machining and welding capabilities. He probably saved me over $100 in machine shop costs, as well as providing some of the raw materials.

The Vespa 50S Special originally had a 6V 15W headlamp. The old lens was partially obscured with overspray from past rattlecanning, but the previous owner gave me a brand new headlamp when I bought the scooter from him.

I've mostly been working on figuring out what parts to use in the drivetrain. I've settled on #35 chain, which I believe is commonly used in go-karts. The guys at McGuire Bearing said this chain would be appropriate for the RPMs and torque of my application.

At this point I have all the major electrical components for the drivetrain: motor, controller, batteries, contactor, and throttle. I also have two 12V voltage converters for lights, horn, and other stuff, and four LED bulbs (replacements for low-voltage halogen bulbs, actually) that I'm going to put behind the old headlight lens. Not DOT-certified, to be sure, but should be the equivalent of at least 40W to 60W incandescent. I think the original bulb was only 15W anyway.

The two 36V 20Ah battery packs arrived yesterday. Pretty fast shipping, considering they shipped from China on Thursday. (sunglasses in the photo are for scale) Sam at YESA was able to have them configured two different ways so I can fit one (barely) where the gas tank was and the flatter one in the left cowl. I think I'll separate the BMS circuit boards and put them in the gas tank area where they're better shielded from the weather.