Is anyone trying to solve charging on the road?

[webcurl]

This is the best implementation i've seen so far:

SOLAR ebike

Fueled by burritos and solar power.

solare.bike

 

[mojoe]

That's very impressive. Lots of design and craftsmanship went into that build.

I'm using off the shelf components for ease of assembly, cost, and time reasons. Like I said in the first post, I wanted a higher wattage panel, but not the larger size. Just like the guy with the custom build said, it's all about trade offs.

One of the big tradeoffs is his use of sun tracking. For me, the weight, complexity, and power drain isn't worth it. His trailer weighs 30 lbs, but has no ability to carry cargo, according to the pictures. I'm using a 15 lb trailer (empty) that will allow me to carry quite a bit of cargo. Adding the solar panel may add another 5-6 lbs. I also don't intend to charge the battery while using it to power the motor. I have two batteries, so there is no need for me to do this.

I live in a sunny region, so during the peak solar time of the day, I should get whatever the maximum is that this particular panel will produce. As I said, real world testing needs to be done. Worst case, this should extend the times between needing to find an AC outlet. I'm not obsessed with racking up the miles, so if I have to stop for a while to enjoy the scenery while charging, I won't mind. Similarly, if I want to camp in a area with no AC outlets for a few days, I can be assured of a full charge on both batteries.

I would have bought the trailer anyway, even if I didn't add a solar panel. The solar panel is somewhat of an experiment, and appeals to the techie part of me.

 

[K PierreR]

I'm using off the shelf components for ease of assembly, cost, and time reasons. Like I said in the first post, I wanted a higher wattage panel, but not the larger size. Just like the guy with the custom build said, it's all about trade offs.



I would have bought the trailer anyway, even if I didn't add a solar panel. The solar panel is somewhat of an experiment, and appeals to the techie part of me.

I would expect you to get 300 Wh on average from charging all day while traveling. I decided against it even though I could extend my range some with it. It's a pain in the ass, hinders getting anything out of the trailer, is fragile and I will stop anyway for breaks so I can charge. I have an 800 watt charger so I can charge about a mile a minute.

 

[webcurl]

I wanted a higher wattage panel, but not the larger size.

Ahhh, the Holy Grail !

 

[BeltzerNYC]

I would expect you to get 300 Wh on average from charging all day while traveling. I decided against it even though I could extend my range some with it. It's a pain in the ass, hinders getting anything out of the trailer, is fragile and I will stop anyway for breaks so I can charge. I have an 800 watt charger so I can charge about a mile a minute.

what size battery are you charging a mile a minute?

 

[K PierreR]

what size battery are you charging a mile a minute?

2,540 Wh

 

[PedalUma]

As it would be for electric cars it would be nice if there were standardization. Imagine driving into a station that robotically drops the battery and installs a fresh one, and off you go, no matter what car you are driving? The battery's stats and value would be in a chip. If you had a island resort all the bikes could have a standard connector and receiver. You could then put your spent battery into a vending machine and it would issue you a fresh one. This would also work on a long multi-state bike route with stations spaced along the way. What if every gas car model took a specific formula of proprietary fuel? The interstate system could not operate. Most of my bikes can take four different sizes of batteries depending on the trip's requirements. An island bike rental network would be the best place to start this idea.

 

[charlieboom-boom]

If you use their PhaseRunner controller the Throttle & ebrake signals are tied together for bi-directional throttles.
You can separate these and setup a separate 'dial' for forced re-gen for when a combustion engine is powering the rig.
And of course you get much more re-gen with the Gmac than a normal direct drive motor because re-gen on the Gmac is geared re-gen.

I have the Grin 8T GMAC installed on the rear rear wheel of a TriSled RV-2 velomobile. It shipped from Melbourne, Austrailia 15 Feb. 2023 and arrived in Chicago, USA May 15. I am mentioning the shipping time because Grin was also having shipping delays getting their products from the Far East. For a few months the 8T GMAC motor out of stock. When they had it back in stock. The Phase Runner was then out of stock. But they did have a controller that was equilivent and compatible with the motor and V3 Cycle analyst so I ordered the kit w/o the battery before the velomobile even got here. As soon as I installed it w/ 2-52v-24ah triangle batteries velcroed inside the fairing just behind the front wheels to keep some of the weight off the rear wheel. I went on a 1 day there & back trip of 137 miles. For a moment I had a little panic attack when I realised I forgot to bring a battery charger. Not a problem because I stopped at about 15 miles for lunch and changed to the second battery. The result was the V3 CA display showed that after 80 miles at a average speed of 17.5 mph I had only used 1,000 watt hours at 12.5wh per mile. I think I still had 15-20% left in the battery because it showed 6.?% of REGEN. Around town the REGEN can go as high as 14% because of stop & go.
I am planning on a long road trip this June of about 232 miles for the first day. I have bought a extra 52v28.8ah battery for the trip. I have noticed that Grin's Satiator charges at a higher watt hr. rate when the battery voltage is higher. (52v charges@ 208whrs- 57.5v =230whrs/hour) There is a truck that I will be passing at 107 miles which I have allready called to see if I could charge the batteries. "No Problem if I can carry them into the drivers lounge." Was the answer I got when I called. I used Google maps to plan the route to check and call resterants or taverns or bike shop ask about charging. Then using the street view of Google maps I was able to check the road conditions. Width of pavement to the right of the white line, if there are rumble strips cut into the pavement, and the general condition of the road. I hate rumble strips they are very hard to stradle with the 3 wheels of a velomobile. 2 hrs.and 15 minutes will bring my batteries back up to over 85%. I will try to use the batteries equally so there is alway about the same charge in each one when I stop to charge. I think that I will have to plan on a second stop maybe 75 miles down the road because of the extra weight of the batteries, chargers, and camping gear I will have to use a trailer. I don't know yet, how many watt hours per mile pulling the trailer will cost at the 19-20 mph average speed I'm hoping to travel at. Plus what the wind and terrain will do to the watt hours per mile. There are a few tricks that can be used to increase the % of REGEN developed when out in the country where there few stop signs. like anytime there is a longer mild down hill to pedal up to 25-27 mph and REGEN brake down to 19 mph; and do it again. near the bottom of the hill build the speed up and then just coast along til down to the 19-20 mph that I want to average. The velomobile coasts very well because of the areodynamics. I am still looking for a plastic bin that is lower than the one I currently use so that there is less drag.

 

[charlieboom-boom]

If you're riding towards the sun then it's going to take a lot longer than 5 hours!

I tried using a Renology 175 watt flexable panel on a light weight aluminum frame that was strapped onto the top of the cargo bin in the flat bed (Wike) cargo trailer that I pulled with a 500watt geared hub motor on a Sun T3CX trike.. The most power it developed was 1.4 amp hours per hour, on a very clear sunny day according to the display on the MPPT solar charge controller that was hooked up to a 48v20 ah battery. Which might of added 25 to 30 miles of range. Because of the extra wind drag and shade from trees and buildings along the road I doubt there was even much real range added. I think that using 2 panels in series would work better because of doubling the voltage to the controller would reduce the amps lost by not having to boost the voltage as much. Even with the lower amps produced by the smaller panels there might have been some net gain to the amp hours produced.