July 30 – Everything coming together

Once again, a long overdue update. Things are really starting to pick up; I finished my wiring, minus the lights, the batteries have been charged, the motor is running nicely, and the windshield is in. Every day, this project gets closer to completion, and although I will be sad to not have something to work on every day, I am ready to do some test-driving. I still need to purchase some final parts: front wheels and tires, steering bearings, a steering wheel, and the fiberglass for the body, as well as a few smaller things I am surely forgetting, but most everything I need is sitting in my house. A friend is taking care of getting a rear tire for me, which I hope to have back, mounted, suspended, and spinning by the end of next week. In the coming days, I need to weld in some mounting tabs for the suspension bearings, finish cutting and welding my battery cages, hard-wire the chargers to the battery cables, install my side windows, and finish hinging and sealing my door.

In other news, I have made some discoveries regarding my motor. It is a Separately excited DC motor, or Sepex motor, which is said to be the most efficient and tunable of the brushed DC motors (the others being Shunt, Series, Permanent magnet, and Compound), and it has very nice regenerative braking. I also measured the motor speed (using a microphone and sound editing software) to peak at 3200 RPM, which I hope to increase once I am able to edit the programming. Lastly, I have discovered that my controller can give up to 16 horsepower in short bursts, for which the only danger is overheating my motor, so I might have to install a cooling system if I want to run at such high powers.

Disclosure: I am no expert, nor am I liable for any injuries or death that may come about should you try to replicate my project. Do not mistake my writings for expert advice or for facts. I often get things wrong.