Voltron II - I shall call her... Voltron Evo!

[jonescg]

G'day guys!

My first post on El Moto! I've been lurking for some time but couldn't post cause I think my confirmation email got spam-boxed. Anyway, it's good to be in and maybe I'll get more updates on Tony's build this way

I guess I have made Endless-Sphere my home, and you know how it is when you get settled.

So for those who have been following I built a twin-Agni beast called Voltron. It goes great in a straight line and wobbles around corners, mainly because I'm using a 1895 Suzuki RG250 chassis. I burned out a bunch of expensive motors, won a couple of races and smashed a couple more motors. The whole build thread is here: http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums...p?f=10&t=12480

After realising that building and racing electric motorbikes is a highly addictive and highly expensive sport, I decided that I should start work on a better race bike. I recently bought myself a 2005 GSXR1000 which is already kitted out for the track and was last dyno-tuned at 170 hp. I plan on racing this thing in the local series at Wanneroo Raceway here in Perth to home my racing skills. Once I have enough money to convert it, I will, but that's not likely to be until late this year.

I have been building batteries from individual 40 C Turnigy cells and the results are very promising. My experimental efforts are listed in my build thread over as ES. http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums...9916&start=180

I had planned on a stack of cells 6 columns wide, two deep and about 45 high, resulting in a 108s5p LiPo pack. I measured up a 2004 GSXR1000 and a 2007 GXSR frame and my pack would easily fit - 320 mm by 320 mm. I couldn't afford a 2007 bike so I bought a 2005 model.

Which just happened to be the only model that Suzuki substantially reduced the size of the frame! Now I think the biggest pack I can fit would be 300 x 250 mm. Sigh. So I'm looking at getting a new PCB made up for 4P, and going for a 110s4p pack which should fit in this space. I hope 8 kWh is enough.

It might not be enough because the motor I plan on running is an Evo AFM-140. The biggest controller you can get to run it is probably a Wavesculptor200 but even then I doubt I could get more than 100 kW peak. Assuming 60 kW average for a race, that's at least 14 kWh needed to run the race. I might well be coming in on empty.

Anywho, great to be here finally and I'll start a build thread soon. Maybe this can be it?

Cheers,
Chris

[DaveAK]

Wow!! An 1895 chassis!!!

Welcome to elMoto!

[jonescg]

Sure feels like a 100+ year old frame...

[Biff]

If all the races in Australia are like the one last weekend, you should be fine with about 5kWh of pack if you can average 60kW. averaging 60kW is a very difficult thing to do. I think it is actually pretty difficult to average 40kW, realistically around a race track with tight sections 20kW might be a reasonable average power.

Worst case, look at Isle of Man. 37 miles, 22minutes, teams are going through about 15kWh, that is averaging 41kW from the battery with an average speed of 100mph. Not many tracks have an average speed that high so likely less power is going to be used.

I did some calculations for Infineon (sears point) track. And a 2:16 laptime you could do about 10 laps on 5kWh, that is averaging about 13kW battery consumption. Last year Steve Atlas set the electric record of 1:55, I bet he averaged about 20kW. This year I would think that the fastest bikes in the TTXGP can average 30kW power consumption at infineon and do 1:40 - 1:45 lap times.

The Season Finale TTXGP is going to be at Daytona this year, I think that track is going to be particularly hard on batteries because there is such a long high speed section. I bet if they wanted to the top teams could average 40kW power draw.

Most of my numbers are pure speculation, I would really like to know how many kWh Mission used up at Laguna Seca last year.

-ryan

[jonescg]

If I recall they had 14 kWh on board and they used about half (according to an unofficial TTXGP official)

[Hugues]

Hi Chris,

Glad to find you here, I've read all your build posts on ES forum. You're one of the guys who answered my questions over there, thanks a lot, my build thread is here on elmoto, see my signature ,

Good to have you around !

[SplinterOz]

Chris, I am looking forward to how this bike turns out. I am aiming to be at Queensland for the next race... see you there.

[jonescg]

Yeah, I'll be there but only as a spectator.

I have been looking at this bike and I really doubt I can get a pack bugger than 7 kWh to work. In fact, I have my doubts if I can even get the AFM140 to fit in the frame. So I have been scratching my head hoping I don't have to come up with a completely bespoke frame cause that's about the only way I'll get a big motor and a big battery pack to fit

[Hugues]

damn, this motor is a beast
Launch Torque (for up to 18s) 600 Nm
Peak Output Power (for up to 60s) 167.5kW

agreed the shape is a little akward to fit in but....

which controller you can use to drive it ? and any idea of the price of the motor ?

[jonescg]

The controller is the biggest problem with this motor. In that, the motor is more demanding of most controllers. It will take either a Tritium Wavesculptor 200 http://www.tritium.com.au/products/TRI74/index.html which will only get about 100 kW to the motor (the 165 kW they quote is the product of maximum DC bus and current). Rhineheart make a PM150 DZ which will deliver 250 amps at 720 volts http://www.rinehartmotion.com/products.html so probably more like 130 kW to the motor. I'm not afraid of a big DC bus but it will need lots of failsafes and insulation. Then, even if you could make use of this power, you need the batteries to provide the power. And my new ride just doesn't have the room for it

Maybe a K4 GSXR would have room for it, but even still, the motor is just so big it wouldn't leave enough room for batteries.

I was quoted about AUD$9000