Thursday evening we commissioned the Tumanako control board for the first time on the test bench motor (check it out here). This gave us confidence to install and use it in the GS750V for the dyno run the next day...
This optimism proved to be slightly misplaced as we uncovered a couple of unexpected digital IO issues and a motor configuration and/or DC supply not up to establishing a baseline set of figures from the dyno. So not 100% happy, but given that our goals for the day included equipment familiarisation and commissioning the rectified DC supply, it was still a valuable exercise.
Big thanks to Ed, Mark, John and the Wintec team for making the day possible.
Next up, a test rig for the GS750V's WS28 Motor (1.1kW test rigs only go so far), a bikini pack (2 minute hill climbs) and more Open Source inverter progress (bring on the KiwiAC!).
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Nelson - The photos
Photos and video from Nelson (the Motueka Dragway). The Motueka Dragway is normally an airfield, so the place has real Kiwi feel about it. The NDRA has a great setup there and ran a top notch event. Check it out...
The KillaCycle team arrives, unpacking...
Tom and Bill getting things ready. Charge those batteries :)
Wet that tire
Scotty - Just warming it up
"Launch"
Caning it!
Killacycle. Standing 1/4 mile. 4th run. Motueka NZ. 6/2/10. from Paul Tuffery. The Video Guys on Vimeo.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Nelson drag racing association (Motueka)
Quick update (photos to come soon). Scotty and the KillaCycle managed a 8.81 sec without the series parallel shift working so this was a very good result!
Heaps of interest from local drag racers and EVers coming in from various parts of the mainland. It was a great day :)
More soon...
Heaps of interest from local drag racers and EVers coming in from various parts of the mainland. It was a great day :)
More soon...
Friday, February 5, 2010
Meremere (Sun 31st Jan)
The forecast was for rain :(
The rain radar looked good though, so we headed for the track with the KillaCycle safely tucked up inside Athol's Stud Racing rig.
Once the rain cleared Bill and the team bought the KillaCycle out for everyone to see. A few people who knew what the KillaCycle was came over to have a chat while the bike was prepared, but most of the big crowd wandered by.
Just before lunch the weather and the track had dried up enough for us to give the thumbs up to the track officials. Athol made sure Scotty was primed for the Meremere track and everything was ready to go.
Sadly just as Scotty was about to do the run the rain started again! Bill called the run off as it is not safe to run any bike even with the slightest amount of rain on the track. The bike was taken back to the gazebo to keep it dry.
Now that the crowd knew about the bike, we started to get a bit more interest. The message was out!
After lunch the weather cleared again and we planned to do a burnout at the very least and if the rain held out to do a run as well. Luck was on our side this time.
Being the first ever run for Scotty and the Bike at Meremere, Bill had setup the Zilla (the controller on the bike that feeds power to the motors) to provide a little over half what it is capable of. The end result a 12 sec run. Nothing world beating, but everything was still in one peace and Scotty had a feel for the track now (he wanted more power from Bill!).
Back to the pits to top things up and wind up the power a little more (Bill pushed it up to about 80%).
The 2nd run was faster out of the hole, but one of the motors gave up and spat out some plasma half track. Not a good sign, the run was clocked at 10 sec.
Back at the pits you could smell the dead motor. Bill had been running new high voltage motors for the first time so it was a bit of a learning experience here (not as good as he hoped for). The afternoon was getting late, so not enough time left in the day to change the motors so the decision was made to pack up.
The 4 and Rotary Nationals was fun and the young crowd seemed to appreciate what the KillaCycle is all about. Just a pity it didn't reach its potential on the day.
The good news is that the bike is now all fitted out with the good old tried and tested motors (the same style as used for the record setting 7.8 sec run in the US). We head to Nelson today, so expect to see the 10 sec time set at Meremere beaten by quite a margin on Saturday!
The rain radar looked good though, so we headed for the track with the KillaCycle safely tucked up inside Athol's Stud Racing rig.
Once the rain cleared Bill and the team bought the KillaCycle out for everyone to see. A few people who knew what the KillaCycle was came over to have a chat while the bike was prepared, but most of the big crowd wandered by.
Just before lunch the weather and the track had dried up enough for us to give the thumbs up to the track officials. Athol made sure Scotty was primed for the Meremere track and everything was ready to go.
Sadly just as Scotty was about to do the run the rain started again! Bill called the run off as it is not safe to run any bike even with the slightest amount of rain on the track. The bike was taken back to the gazebo to keep it dry.Now that the crowd knew about the bike, we started to get a bit more interest. The message was out!
After lunch the weather cleared again and we planned to do a burnout at the very least and if the rain held out to do a run as well. Luck was on our side this time.
Being the first ever run for Scotty and the Bike at Meremere, Bill had setup the Zilla (the controller on the bike that feeds power to the motors) to provide a little over half what it is capable of. The end result a 12 sec run. Nothing world beating, but everything was still in one peace and Scotty had a feel for the track now (he wanted more power from Bill!).
Back to the pits to top things up and wind up the power a little more (Bill pushed it up to about 80%).
The 2nd run was faster out of the hole, but one of the motors gave up and spat out some plasma half track. Not a good sign, the run was clocked at 10 sec.Back at the pits you could smell the dead motor. Bill had been running new high voltage motors for the first time so it was a bit of a learning experience here (not as good as he hoped for). The afternoon was getting late, so not enough time left in the day to change the motors so the decision was made to pack up.
The 4 and Rotary Nationals was fun and the young crowd seemed to appreciate what the KillaCycle is all about. Just a pity it didn't reach its potential on the day.
The good news is that the bike is now all fitted out with the good old tried and tested motors (the same style as used for the record setting 7.8 sec run in the US). We head to Nelson today, so expect to see the 10 sec time set at Meremere beaten by quite a margin on Saturday!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Show and Shine
OK, missed a few days in the blog. Here is the summary (check out Eva's blog for more details).
Taupo:
Great weather, great people, awesome fun!
Wintec Hamilton:
These guys have great facilities and the people that turned out were very tunned in to the technology. Plenty of interest here in Hamilton.
Day one 4 and Rotary Nationals (Show and Shine):
Wicked event, people and cars everywhere and some amazingly well presented cars! We were presenting from one of the center stages so we got lots of traffic and attention. Plenty of people already keen on electric vehicles and those new to the technology seemed to be either confused, stunned or worried when they heard about the performance potential!
Tomorrow is the big day though. The rubber hits the road as the KillaCycle is given a chance to do the business in its first outing in NZ.
Scotty (who arrived in NZ this morning) will be charged with driving the KillaCycle to find out. Can he beat Ian Wilkin's and Afterburner, his high octane nitrous injected bike?
Come and see it all at Meremere tomorrow (the KillaCycle is racing at about noon)!
Taupo:
Great weather, great people, awesome fun!
Wintec Hamilton:These guys have great facilities and the people that turned out were very tunned in to the technology. Plenty of interest here in Hamilton.
Day one 4 and Rotary Nationals (Show and Shine):
Wicked event, people and cars everywhere and some amazingly well presented cars! We were presenting from one of the center stages so we got lots of traffic and attention. Plenty of people already keen on electric vehicles and those new to the technology seemed to be either confused, stunned or worried when they heard about the performance potential!
Tomorrow is the big day though. The rubber hits the road as the KillaCycle is given a chance to do the business in its first outing in NZ.
Scotty (who arrived in NZ this morning) will be charged with driving the KillaCycle to find out. Can he beat Ian Wilkin's and Afterburner, his high octane nitrous injected bike?
Come and see it all at Meremere tomorrow (the KillaCycle is racing at about noon)!
Monday, January 25, 2010
ZeroNow
We have had a brilliant day here today in Palmerston North.
To start with, Eva arrived safely just before the start of the ZeroNow event, Bill is much happier now :)
After being introduced to everyone Eva was happy to be in NZ and quickly emersed herself in the event and everything that was going on.
The ZeroNow event was situated in the open area in front of Te Manawa and it included a diverse collection of technologies many demonstrating high efficiency and high performance in the same package. Of course Eva, Bill and the KillaCycle fitted right in.
Here Eva is attaching a couple of the NZ tour sponsors logos (ZeroNow and ECONZ Timecard) to the KillaCycle.
With all the energy efficiency being demonstrated, Athol felt he needed to take up a bit of the slack. He fired up his nitro methane powered bike to check that no one was asleep and to ensure that as a group we were contributing our fare share of emissions. That cleared out the ears!
The KillaCycle was not the only high performance electric bike, Iain Jerrett had his electric road bike on display as well. What an amazing job he has done! This is a very professional conversion.
Check out the details on his website here.
Big ups to Athol, Bill, Eva, Tom, Tabitha, Ed, Craig, Andrew and Jon (and everyone else in this extended team). These guys are all committed to making a difference, they are amazing people!
Thanks also to everyone displaying products or who came along to see what was happening. It was a big turn out and I know we all had a lot of fun.
The KillaCycle Tour just keeps getting better!
Stay tuned...
To start with, Eva arrived safely just before the start of the ZeroNow event, Bill is much happier now :)
After being introduced to everyone Eva was happy to be in NZ and quickly emersed herself in the event and everything that was going on.
The ZeroNow event was situated in the open area in front of Te Manawa and it included a diverse collection of technologies many demonstrating high efficiency and high performance in the same package. Of course Eva, Bill and the KillaCycle fitted right in.
Here Eva is attaching a couple of the NZ tour sponsors logos (ZeroNow and ECONZ Timecard) to the KillaCycle.
With all the energy efficiency being demonstrated, Athol felt he needed to take up a bit of the slack. He fired up his nitro methane powered bike to check that no one was asleep and to ensure that as a group we were contributing our fare share of emissions. That cleared out the ears!
The KillaCycle was not the only high performance electric bike, Iain Jerrett had his electric road bike on display as well. What an amazing job he has done! This is a very professional conversion.
Check out the details on his website here.Big ups to Athol, Bill, Eva, Tom, Tabitha, Ed, Craig, Andrew and Jon (and everyone else in this extended team). These guys are all committed to making a difference, they are amazing people!
Thanks also to everyone displaying products or who came along to see what was happening. It was a big turn out and I know we all had a lot of fun.
The KillaCycle Tour just keeps getting better!
Stay tuned...
Leaving Te Papa
Just a parting shot as we left Te Papa on Sunday evening. Athol's bike in the foreground and the KillaCycle at the back.
Good bye Te Papa! Thanks to all the wonderful Te Papa staff and all the people that came to see us, we had a lot of fun.
Good bye Te Papa! Thanks to all the wonderful Te Papa staff and all the people that came to see us, we had a lot of fun.
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