Battery Vehicle Society

I've seen more than one Series motor blown up due to popping out of gear, which is more likely when changing gear without a clutch. The added roatational inertia of a flywheel/clutch helps if this happens giving you just enough time to get off the throttle. A rev limiter would help protect the motor...

And I will stick with my variac and bridge rectifier as I have for the last 6 years without toasting any batteries. If you are fully aware of how easy it is for things to go wrong and are happy that you can operate it sucessfully, then go ahead. I wouldn't recommend one to a novice. I could not in ...

Whilst I'm sure that the analogue system would work as you describe, it would be challenging to get linearity over the normal operating temperature range. Optocouplers normally have a pretty horrible spread of both transfer gain and dark current with temperature. To start with the low cell signal i...

Hear's a really simply trick for checking wheel alignment, but it requires a fairly smooth surface. Lay a length of paper down on the floor in front of the car. It needs to be a coupe of feet longer that the width of the car. Secure it with a couple of bits of tape at the ends. Newspaper (unprinted ...

Even lead chemistry cells can be killed by abuse, it's just that they tend to give a fair warning of depletion by running out of puff. Optimas, along with many AGM Lead acids, don't give much warning. They have quite a flat curve and a sharp knee. When use in a high voltage system like my Scirocco,...

I'd be very interested to see results, certainly. Synchronising the controllers might be a bit of a challenge. One more thing to consider is torque at zero rpm. Some controllers, particularly the sensorless designs generate almost zero torque at stall. The Corbin Sparrow prototye had that problem (a...

In my own case, this is for my own vehicle which will be carefully operated to avoid cell damage. If I had a pound for every time I'd heard that........ :lol: The problem is that people say, 'well so and so's been getting away with it, so can I' and it's not true for them. I've been told I was exag...

You can pick up ex MOT four gas analysers for less than £200 or even £100 sometimes.

An alternaive is http://wbo2.com/ and they sell on ebay in the UK. They don't have to be used in an exhaust system, it's possible to build an off-board setup.

I presume we're talking about a series wound motor. is there any simple way of estimating amps/torque at different rpm from a single operating point? No. Looking at performance curves for a motor of similar size and weight the torque values at various currents are: 130A = 13 ft lbs 260A = 33 ft lbs ...

It a mistake to think that the propeller of a model aircraft provides effective cooling for these motors - it doesn't. I was thinking more of forward motion. but then these motors are so light that it would be possible to fit several, only using them all at full power for acceleration. Isn't this g...