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| S. Heslop:
Got the contact rollers on the arms. All I need to do to test it is to mount a spring and hook up the electronics. Hopefully that fuse box will arrive tomorrow. I also borrowed this brake lever from one of the old bikes rotting in the back yard. I was worried i'd have to make some sort of mechanism to do exactly what this does. I'm also glad this bike came with those little extensions on the handle bars for mounting stuff like this! The idea is that the arms can be released from the wheel like a brake caliper in reverse so I can pedal without working against the motor. Forseeable problems are the heavier motor side not wanting to lift as much as the lighter idler, away from the wheel. |
| S. Heslop:
Thank god the suns setting and it's getting cooler. Today was too hot! I went shopping for various electronics bits and made a box. It's not very discreet but should do for testing! Fuses should be enough to 'monitor' the amperage normally, but i'd like to be able to see what the current draws are when going up hills and stuff at first. I'm not sure if the analog volt meter will be accurate enough to gauge how much power is left. I'm also not sure how well these meters will handle the vibrations from riding. I've found that one of the pins on the servo tester had melted off, which must've been what caused that spark. Hopefully everything still works since a short like that could have wrecked the speed controller. But that short made me think twice about just taping a big mess of wires onto the handlebars for the sake of testing, and I may as well try and do it properly the first time. I like having a table saw though. I've tried making a box with full miter joints like this in the past with just a circular saw, and it was practically impossible to make it accurate enough. It's rounded over since i'm probably going to paint it all black. The visible gaps are from the poor quality plywood! |
| vtsteam:
Still following Simon and it's impressive how much you've progressed these last few days. The motor rig looks great on the bike. Does that ammeter have a shunt in it already? Seems like it might if it is calibrated on the front in amps -- unless the shunt you showed earlier is packaged with it, Or it's spec sheet calls for an external shunt. Those meters look like the sensitive type rather than the automotive type. I hope they will handle the vibration levels of a bike. The cause of your short isn't explained but must have hit the servo tester hard to melt a pin. I would guess it is dead. Do you have an R/C servo to test it with as just a servo tester? I believe you were into R/C cars? Do you know anybody locally who is into R/C who could check your wiring out? Is there an R/C club nearby? |
| S. Heslop:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on July 10, 2014, 09:24:17 PM ---Still following Simon and it's impressive how much you've progressed these last few days. The motor rig looks great on the bike. Does that ammeter have a shunt in it already? Seems like it might if it is calibrated on the front in amps -- unless the shunt you showed earlier is packaged with it, Or it's spec sheet calls for an external shunt. Those meters look like the sensitive type rather than the automotive type. I hope they will handle the vibration levels of a bike. The cause of your short isn't explained but must have hit the servo tester hard to melt a pin. I would guess it is dead. Do you have an R/C servo to test it with as just a servo tester? I believe you were into R/C cars? Do you know anybody locally who is into R/C who could check your wiring out? Is there an R/C club nearby? --- End quote --- Yeah the ammeter came with a matching 75mv shunt. I think my wiring should be fine. I'm no electrical engineer but i've checked the specs of all the cabling and connectors i'm using to make sure it capable of carrying the current and has appropriate insulation. As for the wires going to the right place, I've made a very professional diagram to help keep things organised. I do have some servos but they're buried in my 'big box of useful looking stuff', which itself is currently buried. |
| vtsteam:
Simon, question -- the battery on the servo tester in your circuit diagram -- does the ESC you purchased have an onboard BEC, and isn't the servo tester powered by that through the ESC connector? Could that be the cause of your short? If you use a separate battery for the servo tester, you may need to break the RCVR power connection from the ESC if it has an onboard BEC. Generally receiver power (~5V) is supplied through the red central wire in the ESC connector, and the central pin. The white or orange wire is usually the control signal, and the brown or black wire is generally the ground. |
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