For various reasons the seat has been slow to develop. However, I’m enthusiastic to get this finished so it can be ticked off the list of things to do. Being the kinda guy who is always happy to learn new things, I I’m going to have a go myself. Because I’m new to the upholstery…
Category: Fabrication
Panel dry-fit
K — Think I’m getting close now. Still needs electronic mods but this is the first time i have been able to see the whole bikes form. To be honest I have seen in in VR and on screen a million times but it was good to see it in the flesh. Noticed that I…
Lower front covers
Think I have finally finished a mock set of the covers with the last assembly for the lower front of the motorcycle. Excluding the cable collar the the set has 5 pieces. There are some minor modifications to the front duct set that feeds the charger with fresh air to displace heat build-up. This is…
… colours?
I think my obsession with detail and fiddly bits is getting out of control. Out of all the bits printed for my electric motorcycle so far, this is my favourite design & part. Just a plain old cable collar (about 150mm in length) that holds the front and rear panels together, keeps them on the…
Battery cover panels
Managed to find some time to do some B-surface CAD and knock out some more panels to test fit. I suffered some issues with the printer which was eventually fixed after I had printed most of the job. I’d used the z-hop to make the printing more reliable but this cause ringing which is why…
B-Surfacing
#Garagelife – I have an all new respect for modellers that do B-Surface work. I have to admit that I have learnt so much about surfacing plastics working on the draft panels of my xj600e case study build in Alias. No draft angles because it is about low volume rapid production but working to tolerances when…
300mm limit?
Have just printed the first 300mm part. The mid top panel of the controller cover hit the supposed limit. However, the Ender 3 Max performed admirably. In fact looking at the gantry after completion, the printer could complete larger with ease. To speak of the fit… Excellent. Once the parts were pinned together on the…
Seat mock-up for upholstery
Originally I was going to make a foam mock-up of the seat as in CAD. However, I thought it would be a bit more accurate as an RP mock-up that matched the CAD model as a hard reference for the upholsterers foam. There was a strange 30mm correction to make. Which leads me to think…
Wheel covers (v2 angled) installed
Over the Christmas hols I managed to print out the angled v2 wheel covers. spent a bit of time prepping the surfaces so they match the wheel. Think the look okay. I have a couple of fitment issues but nothing that effects the performance, just tweaks. Oh well, on to the next thing! Maybe try…
Wheel covers (v1 flat)
Have spend a bit of time practicing the split part thing on the wheel covers. The first version is flat but I’ll aim to angle the surfaces on future designs so that they match the angle of the bevel on the hub motor. On the QS hub motor 35mm M4 screws are perfect to attach…
Back-top panel fitment
The print of the first part went surprisingly well. Fitment was good on the frame to my relief. I had to make pre-planned cuts to the controller cover. Plus, I needed to make changes to the seat pan to pull the surface that interacts with the panels back to give some clearance for the upholstery…
Control panel v2 installed
Long time no post. Have recently replaced the brake cables, one was too short and was twisted, think it effected brakes. Also managed to change the handlebars to the white set pictured in renderings. I have installed the v2 control panel that will accommodate the covering covers for the bike and now holds the contactor….
Switch panel v2 & cover
Have finally printed out a solid version of the switch panel and cover. Looks okay for a first bash but would like to make some amendments to some parts to increase the quality. All new part fi together perfectly. Need to find a rubber strip about 1-2mm thick to place in the channel where the…
New 48v contactor
I have decided to consider using a new 48v contactor. The current coil in the contactor is rate 12-36v… so it is being stressed because the Kelly Controller asks that the contactor be connected through the 48v battery. So to amend this moving forward I have a more appropriate 48v connector that will take 200amps….
CT22 Brackets
Managed to source a cheap laser cutter so I thought I’d test them out with some simple stuff. I have been wanting to increase the height of the CT22 for a while to make cable management easier, so this seemed like e perfect opportunity to put together some new line work that increase the height…
Seat Pan
Have been working on the Seat pan. Originally I was going to RP the pan, but after a bit of experimentation I decided that it wasn’t strong enough to take a serious amount of abuse from my buttocks. Instead I cut and shaped some 2mm aluminium then redesigned the holder to fix onto the plate….
WIP lights
Finally got lights connected to the handlebar switches… after having to acquire an homologated headlight. Still a query on the rear amber lights might need to move them further back. TBH, I mainly made this post because I like making GIFs
CT-22 display on XJ600e
CT-22 display is working… Great. There are still issues with the battery indicator. I fear that this might be due to the negative running though the BMS not directly to the battery. will eventually get this sorted out, and if that doesn’t work crying for five minutes before further diagnostics will be my a viable…
Not pretty, but she’s a running
So, the basic powertrain of the battery, BMS, controller and the motor have been completed, or as much as they can be for now, and….. xj600e is alive and running under at full power of 100ah (charge socket works too). I am happy to see it finally work TBH. I had a couple of issues…
Insulation
Feeling paranoid that I am placing batteries in metal cases I have decided to insulate the inside of all the metal boxes. Even though the voltage cable connection points are covered with rubber boots and no metal is exposed the inside of the controller (pictured) has been coated with heat resistant high temperature polyimide tape…
Power cable–ing
Spent some time power cable–ing. I have managed to route the 12v, hall sensor cables, and power cables after making a new gland bracket to hold the V/W/U motor cables. Need to do some tests before firing it up. The last test used 48v on the connector. It should use 12v, technically, so I will…
Wiring (interim)
Have finally started the wiring and installation. Realistically I need to make sure all is working in situe before going for a final installation and metalwork treatment. Progress is slow due to time restraints, but happening. My main concern is ensuring I make the correct connections first time to avoid damage to components and to…
1st charge
Uprated the cables to 35mm2 to start testing the battery. In this first charge I pushed the state of charge (SOC) from 25% to 50%, took about 1hrs 13mins. Indicates that a full charge may be just under 5hrs. Also using this 25% charge suggests a 100AH full capacity. In general, happy charging is working….
282 LEDs
After experimenting with a regular domestic light to check out the effect of back lighting the translucent red filament I managed to get my hands on some 12v LED strips to see what they look like. I worried that the light might either be too bright or dull, but this was not an issue. The…
Switch panel
Need to start mounting some of the components that are just hanging around at the moment. I have put something together in CAD quickly and spent a bit of time with the printer. Have tried a new material rPETG that has a substantially higher temperature and water resistance and has excellent ductile strength making it…
ANT BMS configuration
Plans for BMS installation below. B-, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, B10, B11, B12, B+ 12+2=14 wire ANT documentation was complete or easy to find but found a manual that seems consitant and aligns with a previous post on nissan leaf and wiring here. Below a quick reminder why a Battery…
Contactor
1Kohm/10W resistor that straddles the main contact to pre-charge and protect the controller on voltage in-rush is needed on this contactor, without this the contactor poles would spark & arc. A 200V/3A diode is also needed across the coil to suppress the high voltage spike that will happen when disconnecting the power. Both these components…
Battery BMS stuff
I have quickly realised that the triumph of 1st wheel motion is momentary. Next on the list of things to complete is the battery BMS so I can charge the battery. I have no mains power supply so this is important to do quiickley so I can keep the wheel spinning. The Nissan leaf busbar…
Tuning #1
Have spent the evening calibrating the 8kw QS V3 motor. Out of the box the motor was a but rough because the controller and the motor are not from the same supplier this is normal apparently. Watching the hub motor robotically rotate with beeps and jerks as it Identifies the angles of motor using the…
1st motion
Finally got the QS hub motor moving with temporary wiring. I encountered a couple of issues here and there but luckily I managed to reach out to a Mr. Powell in the US that has a leaf cell / Kelly controller set-up that is similar to my own and hey presto, the hub finally lives….
Wiring…
Okay, time to make a start on the cable loom for XJ600e, finally. Bit of a boring post but an important one because once all is sound with the wiring then finally the panel design can start with the assurement that the packaging for the powertrain is concrete. This means less changes to the final…
r/e PLA (recycled/eco PolyLactic Acid)
To help guide the project along the lines of sustainability and ethics circular design I have been on the hunt for recycled/eco filaments. Ultimately I would like to find a reclaim company that can take my waste prototype material and offer maybe a discount towards future material, etc. This is hard to find as often…
Isolator carriage v2 printed
I know I should be used to it by now (after all I see it happens all the time in University and in the design industry) but it still amazes me that I can print designs into reality that only exist on a computer. Anyway, I managed to push out a rough print overnight to…
Isolator carriage v1
Having had some small issues with dimensional accuracy I have finally started to get some results on the bigger prints and I am finding new uses for the printer. Originally I planned to stick the BMS, charger, and precharger components onto a thin board with 3M double sided tape to isolate it from the batteries….
First 3D print
After 23 hrs (I sped up the printer) the rear battery panel is complete. it fits the main case like a glove. However the top case cover needs some amendment. As the print is probably more accurate than the metal bend. I will use it to finally shape the metal cover. As for my virgin…
3D additive prototyping
To help the prototyping phase move along more fluently I have acquired a 3D printer. It was useful to use a print shop but costly. Working sheerly on cost and the fact that 3D printers are so cheap nowadays it is more economical to make plastic parts myself. I have more control concerning quick changes…
Rear battery box cover v2
I have spent an evening making some changes to the design of the original battery box to give better clearance for the cables I originally planned to through the bottom of the box because that is where the BMS used to be but now that it is better placed above the battery amendments need to…
An electrifying life on two wheels... 