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Help FZR250 conversion to electric

Discussion in 'Yamaha 250cc In-Line 4's' started by soyachips, Jan 4, 2019.

  1. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    One problem I've run into is the gap between the brake rotor and the motor is pretty small so the original brake caliper doesn't fit!

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    I contacted QS Motor and they recommended a few from their catalog that would work. Ended up getting this one in grey. I'll need to get a new mounting bracket made based on the original design and this new caliper.

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  2. my67xr

    my67xr Bike Enthusiast Staff Member Premium Member Contributing Member

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  3. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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  4. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    Had some awesome help from Danny Ripperton (AEVA member) machining the swingarm blocks that hold the hub motor axle.



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  5. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    Put the new blocks into the existing swingarm, swapped the tyre over and got it all into the bike. Next step is to work out how to mount the batteries and controller inside the frame. Decided to push the bike home from the workshop and got some interesting shots on the way icon_e_biggrin.gif

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  6. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    thats gonna be awesome

    if you want a matching 6 spoke wheel for the front to match the rear, you could look at the hyosung gt250r/650r front wheels. would be very similar.
     
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  7. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    Thanks for that, I was thinking it would be easier to register if I didn't change the front wheel and brake setup so hadn't even thought about doing that but would be nice to match the wheels. I was thinking I would paint the front wheel black to get me part way there
     
  8. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    OK so it's been way too long again! Quite a lot has happened but not nearly as much as I would have liked icon_e_smile.gif

    I decided to build the battery box using V-slot aluminium extrusion which is used on 3D printers as this would allow me to play around and adjust the size of the box easily with basic tools and no welding. It's a modular system with lots of options for brackets, etc. that just screw together. I'm also using polycarbonate sheet which slots into the extrusion as the panels to keep the water out and allows inspection of everything.

    I'm using 24 x 15ah and 24 x 10ah Headways cells to make up a pack. The 15ah and 10ah cells are paired up in parallel first then put together in series to make a 76.8V pack. The lengths of the cells are different so I ended up using aluminium spacers to make up the difference. Lots of cutting, drilling and filing to make the battery connectors but it's all together now and seems like it will work. At some point I will take it all apart, label everything so I know where everything goes and reassemble using carbon grease to get good contacts between all the critical surfaces. Also still need to attach the BMS wires to each cell somehow.

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  9. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    The other major update is on the rear brake caliper. Early on I did a lot of research to find a donor bike that I could reuse the original rear brake setup with the new hub motor. Doing lots of prototyping to make sure make sure if would all line up and fit ... so everything was going really well until I tried to put the original brake caliper over the brake rotor and it didn't fit because of the size of the hub motor!!! I contacted the QS Motor and they recommended an alternative that just fits. So the next step was to work out a new bracket.

    I started off with timber to get a rough design then made some 3D printed prototypes. The final design had a slot that wasn't easy to make without having the right tools (e.g. a milling machine) so I've just sent it off to get machined through 3DHubs. You can upload a 3D model to their site and get an instant quote in different materials and finishes which is very cool. I'm using Aluminum 7075-T6 which is a bit stronger and will be bead blasted then anodized black. The great thing about CNC machining and 3D printing is that complexity comes for free, the machine doesn't care what crazy design you come up with. It just has to move around a bit more! Anyway very excited to see what the final part looks like and will post some pics when it arrives.

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  10. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    This was the final design:
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  11. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    Made some more progress over the last week or two
    • Added BMS leads
    • Installed rear brake caliper bracket
    • Finished the bracket on the back of the battery pack and installed it
    • Temporary plate to hold the controller. Still working out where this will go and how to keep it cool.
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  12. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    I'm trying to get the bike ready to show at EV Expo in Sydney this weekend so got some more work done yesterday. Made a plate to mount a waterproof box to hold things like 12V battery, contactor, fuse and other bits and pieces. Most of the high voltage stuff is in and wired up so its mostly the 12V bits to get it running. I've had trouble finding a wiring diagram for the bike so it may take some time to work out. After the expo I'll take it all apart again and do things properly before it's really done so this is kind of a practice run putting it all together!

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  13. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    very nice, love seeing progress on this, bikes and technology = awesome
     
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  14. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    OK it’s been a while again so there are a few updates. The EV Expo was great to be part of. Lots of interesting conversations with people and great to see all the other conversions people have done. I didn’t quite manage to get it running for the show but it was all together at least. It didn’t take too long after the show to get it running but like everything on this project there’s been a lot of two steps forward one step back! I killed a relay I was using to turn on the controller, also damaged a relay in one of the BMS modules I’m using so had to send that off to get repaired. Also spent quite a bit of time getting the 12V system working and cleaning up the wiring harness to only have the wires still being used. Last weekend went for my first ride on the bike and adjusted some of the controller settings. Overall the testing went really well so I’m pretty close to getting the certifying engineer to do brake testing except that one of the cell groups died and I now have to get some replacement cells icon_eek.gif so probably a couple of weeks before they arrive. Here are some videos from the testing:

     
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  15. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    Thanks, I've been keeping a build blog on another forum and forgot to update this one so there are a lot of posts today but they're from the last 3 months! Just have a couple of things left to do then will book in to do brake testing and hopefully get the conversion certified.
     
  16. Murdo

    Murdo The Good Doctor Staff Member Contributing Member Ride and Events Crew

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    Very impressed with what you have done. How is the acceleration with the hub motor?
     
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  17. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    When we did the testing it wasn't as impressive as you would think. I contacted the company that make the controller and have some new settings to try so hopefully that gets better.
     
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  18. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    what sort of range you hoping to get ?
     
  19. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    The battery pack is relatively small so I think it will do around 30km which is pretty low but fine as a commuter as my ride to work is around 11km. My plan is to get it registered and ride it for a while to see how it performs then work out what to upgrade. A larger battery pack will give me more range and better acceleration as it will be able to deliver more current. I could also increase the voltage to get higher speed. The current pack was done pretty cheaply so I will have to save up for v2 of the battery pack. A good battery pack is essential to get good performance.
     
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  20. soyachips

    soyachips Active Member

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    After the last lot of testing there was a fair bit of work to do to get it ready for brake testing and inspection. Replace dead battery cells, wire in the emergency cutoff switch, replace oil in forks and add spacers, etc so after all that the bike pretty much looks the same but a lot has happened! Last Thursday took the bike out to the drag strip at Eastern Creek where an engineer put some instrumentation on the bike and did a series of brake tests. Everything went well so I just need to provide some documentation on the conversion and get it officially weighed then it should be good to get certified. Looking forward to getting it on the road so I can play around with the speed controller settings to get it dialled in.

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