Electric Bikes - My Geek Bike

Here's the makings of what I like to affectionately call my GEEK BIKE.

I started with a Schwinn Izip electric bike from Canadian tire.

http://i38.tinypic.com/waq5mt.jpg



I bought the woman's frame because I wanted my wife to be able to ride it, too.

I have 2 of the 1 Watt blaze LED headlights. I thought 1 was pretty good so I went back and got the second to be even better lol

http://i38.tinypic.com/2lxglf8.jpg

and ofcourse, 2 headlights aren't enough so I bought a helmet mounted 1Watt headlamp, too. This is the one at Superstore.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2a6qt8o.jpg

the ebike comes with sealed lead acid batteries that need replacing every 3 months (under heavy use) I found a lithium ion battery at canadian tire that is half the price of any ebike store.

http://i38.tinypic.com/28a6noz.jpg

I bought 4 of them, which is the equivalent to 2 Schwinn power packs.

Ofcourse, I needed some winter tires so I bought some Schwalbe Winter Marathon tires...cost me $150 out of the schwalbetires website which is Vancouver based.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2eezpeg.jpg

Ok, this is where it starts to become obvious that I'm building a geek bike...

I just ordered a Basic Stamp Developer's kit for my next project on the bike...

http://i37.tinypic.com/2199w75.jpg

This is a microcontroller that is marketed mostly to hobbyists, so its fairly easy to work with. All of the various instruction manuals are available free for download.

My plans for it, so far:
1) build up my confidence by creating my own speedo/odometer. It's a fairly simple challenge. You monitor the magnet on the wheel, and the rest is putting the data through an equation that knows your wheel circumference.

2) I want to build my own battery management system for the lithium ion batteries. Without a BMS, lithium ion batteries would be catching on fire, and/or blowing up.

The canadian tire batteries have this board, but they don't balance the internal cells at the end of the charge cycle.

Balancing the cells can extend the life of the batteries, as well as improve their performance......anyway, my next plan is to tie into all of the individual lithium cells, and by using a fet, and a multiplexer I want to connect them to a microcontroller. Then the method of balancing the individual cells becomes a programming issue.

3) I want to either tap into my motor controller or create my own motor controller. Once I have a microcontroller monitoring and running the show, it is a lot easier and more accurate to estimate the amount of battery life that you have based on how much power has been consumed.....also, I'll have excellent troubleshooting capabilities whenever there are problems.

Well is that geek enough for you?

I'm considering a propeller on the top of my bike helmet ( j/k)

heh funny quality kits is a good source for kits also have fun.

http://store.qkits.com/

the propeller on the helmet may be a touch much ;)

If you're REALLY a geek, that propeller will somehow hook up to a micro wind turbine! Otherwise, you're just a poser! (No diss implied or meant - it's the long way of saying LOL!)

Oh, and invest in a Cycle Analyst, you'll enjoy all the info.

Oh #2, keep us informed on your progress!

hehehe

A couple hockey cards attached to the forks?

If you're REALLY a geek, that propeller will somehow hook up to a micro wind turbine! Otherwise, you're just a poser! (No diss implied or meant - it's the long way of saying LOL!)

Oh, and invest in a Cycle Analyst, you'll enjoy all the info.

Oh #2, keep us informed on your progress!

I think you are onto something...A propeller to a microturbine to light up my face like the helmets on Battestar Galactica

Or, have you seen the video of the bike with an engine driven propeller? Probably wouldn't work on a helmet unless you have a gorilla neck. Better stick to your idea, blue-white light, right?

I think it's fantastic that you want to design your own ecu controller. Electrical work is no easy task, especially when you're dealing with high voltage systems that these bikes carry. Whats great about your plan is that you KNOW your bike, down to the knitty gritty electronics, so if anything goes wrong you know what to do. Anyways props to you for pursuing your idea.

First post! w00t