Another semester finished. Balance time and my first paper.
We finally wrapped up our group works. Yes, we dragged our feet like sloths on this one (school ended almost two months ago). Or rather, we definitely bit off more than our part-time researcher lives allow us to chew.
Anyway, if you’d like to read the more or less full account of our work in the past 4 months, here’s the “scientific article” that our teachers had us write. It’s not a real paper, it isn’t going to be published anywhere; it’s just their way of getting us to wet our toes in the vast ocean of academic research.
Personally, I liked the experience of writing the paper; but it is a hell of a lot more work than I expected (consistency is a pain in the butt). The most difficult part for me is to fit everything into just 6 pages… for a project without much to say, it sure was hard to cram everything in there!!! 
As to the status of the project:
- I kind of gave up on converting a vehicle for myself – I lack the time, space, and money; I’ll probably wait a couple of years and get some factory-made electric vehicle (a Portuguese-made Nissan perhaps?); I had a guy verbally contracted to make the conversion under my supervision, but the benefits were just too small for such an investment; I’d rather do the conversion _after_ I have my own “super” motor available.
- I’ll keep working on my wheel-motor development; things are gearing up for a nice prototyping project in ISEL; I’d really like to mess around with cheap composite materials and see what kind of efficiencies I can come up with; there will always be demand for wheel motors, especially if they can be quickly customized… I think this is my best bet in eventually spending my entire time working on EV technology and propagating it freely to spike European competition in this industry (hey, big dreams power progress
).
As to the code in the repository, I intend to make a comemorative file release for people to play with, but first I have to clean up a little bit… these last few weeks have been, how should I say… intense.
August 13, 2009 at 10:55 am
In case you’re wondering why my models in this blog easily reached the mark of 1000Nm @ 100A, and in the paper our results are much lower (200Nm @ 80A), the reason is that the framework was updated with a realistic copper conductor table supplied by a motor maker.
A better machine design is the whole point.
This has 2 effects on the outcome:
– the same volume of copper now carries much less current than it used to;
– the maximum conductor gauge is limited to AWG1 which has a maximum current of 86A, and this limited the ceiling of the motor current.
To counter this, I intend to compensate with multiple-thread windings: split a large gauge wire into several smaller ones in parallel within the same coil.
Another approach would be paralleling the windings themselves… I don’t know, I’ll have to see. But in the end, more current will be allowed.
Of course this isn’t enough for the previously obtained unrealistic torque/current values, but it get’s us closer. Anyway, the intention is to aim for high energy efficiency, so higher currents are only a desperate recourse.
August 21, 2009 at 11:00 am
Sorry to hear you are tossing in the towel on this project
There are always smaller EV projects (AKA electric bicycles and trikes) to apply your learning to, get hands on experience, and actually see progress. Plus Smaller forces, smaller currents, smaller storage space and smaller budgets
August 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
Well… I don’t know about that. For example, I’ve got 2 electric scooters lying in parts in my microscopic workshop, and I’d like to turn that into a personalized segway clone (and my mechanical-minded engineer nephew would like to make that a hybrid). But that’s just one more crazy idea in the middle of a big pool of them.
The reality is that, as a guy with small kids and a full-time job and night school, there just isn’t time to do it. Add that to living in a crammed city where space is very expensive, and having a low budget…
When I do finish the school part, the commercial EVs will (hopefully) be on the shops with prices that easily beat the conversion cost, and (at most) I will have a basic motor prototype.
But economy is a fickle lover, so I dare not predict anything. I’m just saying that, for the time being, I’m not cracking my car open.
I haven’t totally dumped the idea, but the sufficient conditions are not here yet.
August 21, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I was also interested in doing a segway clone, up until the Colorado legislature got stupid after all the bicycle lobbiests had a fit about “motorized” vechicles using their lane space. This specifically forced Segways off the sidewalks, and they are only legal now in the streets.
So the die hard cyclists, poisoned everything, and it’s now required to have registration and commercial liability insurance on anything that is motorized, and not a pure HPV. Total Crap.
December 16, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Hi really nice work you done, lots of effort, I just started were you were years ago, but new progress to use AxialFlux motor, coreless. I will try to learn your script and hopefully adopt some to start simulating
check this link to forum
BR Conny
August 21, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Geees… that’s especially stupid, given all that space you got there…
I could eventually understand that in highly populated cities like NY or over here in Europe, where sidewalks are either narrow, inexistent, or covered with parked cars, and bike lanes are a luxury… but I’d still fight it! 
August 21, 2009 at 3:47 pm
There was a lot of whining about this in the paper and on TV news back in the spring. The Segway tour operators are out of business, unless they can get the city to pass an exception, or litigate changes.
I just pulled up the final bill, and it seems some changes occurred from what was reported and what finally passed. Coined as a “Personal Mobility Device” or EPAMD, they are not allowed on a bike or pedestrian path, or at a speed higher than 12.5mph per section 37 42-4-117.
It looks like they punted, and allow individual cities to allow use on sidewalks, but are otherwise banned unless explicitly allowed, by Section 36 42-4-111 (cc). The posted ban on streets with 35mph or higher speed limit seems gone, which had the Segway owners and tour operators upset as well.
The EPAMD has lighting requirements, stopping, and other limits similar to bikes. The insurance outrage seems to have gotten that provision dropped for EPAMD’s.