VK3CKC's eLecTricks Trike Design and Build.

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Having come up with a suitable chain tensioner and idler/guide wheels, I commenced construction of the Hilgo transmission to replace the mid-drive setup that I had been going to use and had actually started.

The first task was the gear selector slider. It was made from a kitchen drawer slide fitted with a small chain tensioner wheel for moving the chain from side to side, across the sprockets. A bespoke bracket was made to hold it all under the main boom. An operational test resulted in featherlight gear selection as the selector was moved from side to side by hand.

Another hiatus in construction was to occur with the placing of an order for some LED lighting bits and pieces for a night ride event that was about four months away but, before it happened, I busied myself adding finer details to the gear selector, The whole mechanism was clamped in a position that was close to its final resting place leaving some room for final adjustments, meaning, the first cut might not be perfect.

The LED experimentation showed promise and I eventually came up with a usable indicator and taillight control running on an Arduino Nano with WS2812 tricolour LED modules. It was just a test configuration initially and would have to be finalised over the next few months for the night ride.

My focus was then directed, for a short while, at the front suspension. I made up something of a temporary mounting bracket to which I fitted the lower suspension arms so that I would have something to ponder over to help work out further design details. However, it was to be quite a while before I got back to the build as I felt a need to do some more Warrior modification in order to test a few things. It’s looking less like a Warrior every day.
 
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Hi there

Hilgo transmission

So had a quick peek at it and was a bit puzzled ?

I assume it has been designed to fit a inside a velomobile so in effect you have swapped the height of a standard rear mech [ which generally has to hang outside the velomobile ?] for a much longer set up which being inside can be hidden easily under a seat and out of the muck and dirty of the outside world ?

Can't see it being easy to implement on a warrior frame ?

Any pictures ?

How do you decided on the angle of the draw runner ?

have you seen this ? the Velotilt sliding cassette changer ?


and


Although it requires a specially made splined hub for the cassette to slide on ?
 
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Further time spent on the LED lighting resulted in being able to daisy-chain connect all LED modules, yet control them all with one drive pin. I decided that seeing there was to be more than a little bit of electronics associated with eLecTricks, I would benefit from using my Warrior for troubleshooting and testing. Doing things this way might result in just having to fit it to the new trike when I got to that point, a target that still seems a long way off.

Brake switch detection and operation was the next modification to be made for the lighting. This would be easy and I began wiring LEDs on the Warrior. A few tests showed that I needed to make a few hardware modifications as the smoke eventually escaped from a couple of Arduino Nanos when there was an almost invisible short to the trike chassis. This also resulted in a complete re-work of the software. Why? I saw that I could improve on it.

Another LED installation resulted in having a flashing tail light, left and right indicators, hazard flashers and not-yet-connected brake indication. However, testing revealed that the USB power connection too easily fell out, resulting in a surprise to find out that the lights were not working by the end of a ride. Being entirely out of sight, that fact could not be ascertained without getting off the trike to have a look. The operating switches were not ideally placed either. They required some mental imaging and tentative fumbling to operate them. They needed to be placed in plain view and easy reach with "dashboard" mounted repeater lights to provide a visible indication that the various functions were, in fact, functioning. Otherwise one would not know if one had lights at all – in the daylight. Night riding is not a problem and the LED glow is easily seen. These requirements meant another modification of the software code.

The modifications did not take long and the Warrior was sporting Left/Right turn indicators, Tail/Brake Light, Hazard Flashers, white Reversing Light (not installed but available), white Interior Light (not installed but available), and dashboard Repeater lights for all lights except for the white ones. More LEDs were ordered so that I could expand the system.
 
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Stormbird: So, somebody is looking at this stuff. I am just bringing my design/construction process up to the present day so I can then stay side-by-side with it. Had been thinking that it might give someone else some ideas on what they could do or definitely decide not to do. I have a way to go yet and more pictures will be coming.

I have seen the references you posted and decided that they would be more difficult for someone of meagre workshop means, like me, to duplicate.

I rode, off-road, behind a 20" rear Greenspeed trike once and, if I needed any extra convincing (I had made up my mind before that), decided never to entertain the idea of a 20" rear wheel. It had a conventional rear wheel derailleur that kissed the gravel, angrily throwing stones, etc., that got in its way, off to the side. Unfortunately, the stones had the last laugh as they slowly bent and misaligned the derailleur in the process. I pulled the rider up and informed her of the disagreement that the stones and her derailleur were having.

Off-road does throw up a lot of undesirable stuff and is dependent on how fast you go. It's the same with insects on the front of your car in the summer, although they don't occur much below 100kmh. See a bug spattered car and there is someone who has been pushing it. Here's a tip. If you need to get dried grasshoppers, etc., off your car, put it on the lawn and let a sprinkler have a go at it overnight - if you have access to the water.

I decided on using the Hilgo transmission as I have a dislike for the standard derailleur. Maybe it was because I have been using used ones or was it because a new one surprisingly broke in half one day. I came across Harry Leiben's design and notes and decided I had to see if it was worth the trouble. Whether it is inside or outside a velomobile's (I wish there was a better name) body would depend on mounting, etc., and the width of the system depends on the slide mechanism you use. I just used what was convenient. My slide is really too long but I didn't see a shorter one. I used what I used because it was convenient. I haven't got it finalised for eLecTricks yet but there is much more freedom and space in fitting it. More detail will come out in later posts where I will describe how I incorporated it into the Warrior.

A no-suspension velomobile could have almost everything inside the body but a suspended rear end has to allow for exposure of some of the chain length. Most of my setup will be inside but exactly how much has still to be determined.

My Warrior really needs a new name as it is now heavily modified. The original rear was cut off after only a few off-road rides and replaced with a suspended rear. This is at the top of my recommendations for anyone wishing to take it off-road. I agree, Hilgo-fitting would not be easy to do with a standard Warrior frame.

The angle of the slide was a suck-it-and-see situation. That which doesn't work is obviously not right. Rightly or wrongly, my slide angle is roughly the same as you would get by applying a straight edge to the front edge of the cassette sprockets. This puts the little derailing wheel at the same distance from each sprocket. I have so far found that it works fine. The other thing to decide is the height of the chain at this point. My chain height, dictated by the derailing wheel is very close to centre of the cassette axle.

The preceding comments specifically relate to my Warrior experiments that have now done quite a few kilometres. I can honestly say that I do not regret any of the mods. I generally leave its rear cassette set on a middle sprocket and all gear changing, except when I have to climb a very steep grade is carried out by the Hilgo. It is a pleasure having what amounts to a stick shift and just having to move it forward or back without thinking about shifting one gear at a time or pushing the actuator a specific number of time knowing that you need to go down a number of gears to get the one you want. Basically, it is just a matter of faster or slower.

Stay tuned, and ask whatever questions and for whatever images you want.
 
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I should add that my comments regarding Hilgo are only releveant to my implementation on my Warrior. In other words, trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. eLecTricks is designed around the need to include the Hilgo in the build.
 
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Having left an indicator on a few times, yet another modification resulted in a small, unobtrusive, buzzer, extracted from an old VCR board, to alert me to the fact that I hadn’t cancelled an indicator – very handy. Now you know why I persevered with driving as much as I could from only one Arduino pin – to cater for more and more things that were being hung on.

As I was having so much fun with my coloured lights, I decided to experiment with what I call display or decoration lighting – mainly for that approaching night ride event mentioned earlier. This lighting was to have a multitude of different cycling (no pun intended) patterns and colours. This would be controlled by a separate Arduino and power supply so that it would not stop more essential operations when it went flat.

The rear LEDs were installed inside a clear silicon tube for some weather protection. They were tested on a ride with a USB power bank used for the 5V power source. They tested fine but I may need to double up on the modules for greater visibility.

The testing/modifying process was going from strength to strength and I fitted a control switch module, with the buzzer, inside a small diecast box to install within easy reach on the Warrior. It wasn’t long before everything was in place and easy to use.

A 5V regulator was the next item to make up and fit to supply power for running a 3m string containing 90 tricolour LEDs for the display lighting from the on-board 12V SLA battery. This resulted in a successful trial for the previously-mentioned night ride on the Warrior.
 
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Messages
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axerail.coffeecup.com
Having left an indicator on a few times, yet another modification resulted in a small, unobtrusive, buzzer, extracted from an old VCR board, to alert me to the fact that I hadn’t cancelled an indicator – very handy. Now you know why I persevered with driving as much as I could from only one Arduino pin – to cater for more and more things that were being hung on.

As I was having so much fun with my coloured lights, I decided to experiment with what I call display or decoration lighting – mainly for that approaching night ride event mentioned earlier. This lighting was to have a multitude of different cycling (no pun intended) patterns and colours. This would be controlled by a separate Arduino and power supply so that it would not stop more essential operations when it went flat.

The rear LEDs were installed inside a clear silicon tube for some weather protection. They were tested on a ride with a USB power bank used for the 5V power source. They tested fine but I may need to double up on the modules for greater visibility.

The testing/modifying process was going from strength to strength and I fitted a control switch module, with the buzzer, inside a small diecast box to install within easy reach on the Warrior. It wasn’t long before everything was in place and easy to use.

A 5V regulator was the next item to make up and fit to supply power for running a 3m string containing 90 tricolour LEDs for the display lighting from the on-board 12V SLA battery. This resulted in a successful trial for the previously-mentioned night ride on the Warrior.
 
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The 2019 O'Keefe Marathon Light The Trail night ride, with 205 participants, included rear lights powered by a USB power bank, running flashing tail light, indicators, hazard lights (at one stage), and dashboard repeaters, from Axedale to Heathcote and back - about 66km – 99% off-road and all in pitch blackness. There was no slowly dropping light output and no interruption to the lights with the USB power cable firmly tethered to the battery pack to prevent it vibrating out. The power bank indication was that it would have lasted 3 or 4 times that distance/time. A great result and well worth the time spent on testing and development

In addition to the rear lights, I ran the 90-LED display lighting strip from one side, up towards the front and down the other side with 20 or so different sequential display patterns. This lit up both sides of the riding trail and is an indication of what white side lighting and reverse lighting could do. This was powered from the on-board 9AH, 12V, SLA battery via a simple 7805 (1.5A) regulator. It ran all the way to Heathcote and back without any problems despite a relatively hefty current requirement for some of the patterns.

Two days later I again used the Warrior to provide the Tail End Charlie function for the daylight O’Keefe Marathon foot race for some 42km from Junortoun (near Bendigo) to Heathcote only requiring the rear lighting. Although not a great distance, it ran the taillight for the 7 or so hours duration and indicators/hazard flashers for 3/4hr less than that. This only depleted the battery pack by an indicated 25%-50%.

I have provided the Tail End Charlie function for four years now. I create the radio communications plan with amateur radio field stations at strategic points along the way, and provide progress reports and course clearing via amateur radio installed on the trike. There has been a walker in every event so far and I cannot go past the last competitor. Riding so slowly and for so long causes one to do a lot of thinking. Improvements? Front running lights, change colours of dashboard display to mimic those of the rear lights, a couple more 5V regulators to power all from the 12V battery, power distribution panel from the battery, music, a proper dashboard, etc. It now should be done properly, with fuses, etc. I am about to go “over the top”.
 
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Further developments/improvements required tidying up things a little so I had to make a wiring loom or two. First was the addition of three 8LED modules for a front running light (white, but mimics the flash rate of the tail light) and indicators. These modules were daisy-chained to those that had been previously installed on the rear. Controlling all from the same Arduino pin has paid dividends.

Retrofitting creates its own problems and I needed to fit a proper dashboard to the Warrior to control and display things.

I attempted to power things from the USB outlet on the trike e-Assist battery and, after a number of problem-plagued test rides, found that the Arduino kept re-booting, resulting in being without lights and other things for short times while things re-started. For some reason, and I still haven’t got to the bottom of it, that output has a very short cyclic interruption. It is OK for charging things but not for microprocessor type functions. I resorted to running things off power banks for a while and was able to make a successful 50km plus test ride with "solid" USB supplies to all lights and the SONY camera. All was not well, however, and the SONY camera was not reliably powering from the USB supply with each ride, intermittently reverting to using its internal battery, shutting off once it was depleted. Not much good when you expect to get a four hours plus video and only end up with two. It seems that I had found the cause of the re-booting but that camera problem stayed with me for some time, chewing up much time checking/swapping USB cables only to find that the problem appeared to be fixed but it actually wasn’t.

A 50km plus ride through the bush from Heathcote to Rushworth over pretty rough bush tracks proved that a proper dashboard is essential for camera, etc., operation, and full suspension is an absolute necessity. Weight conservation has now moved to a higher priority level.
 
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Stormbird: So, somebody is looking at this stuff. I am just bringing my design/construction process up to the present day so I can then stay side-by-side with it. Had been thinking that it might give someone else some ideas on what they could do or definitely decide not to do. I have a way to go yet and more pictures will be coming.

I have seen the references you posted and decided that they would be more difficult for someone of meagre workshop means, like me, to duplicate.
Yep meagre here as well !

I rode, off-road, behind a 20" rear Greenspeed trike once and, if I needed any extra convincing (I had made up my mind before that), decided never to entertain the idea of a 20" rear wheel. It had a conventional rear wheel derailleur that kissed the gravel, angrily throwing stones, etc., that got in its way, off to the side. Unfortunately, the stones had the last laugh as they slowly bent and misaligned the derailleur in the process. I pulled the rider up and informed her of the disagreement that the stones and her derailleur were having.
Well I do use exclusively 20" wheels and have also travelled with someone with a rear mech brushing the ground , it was so low it filled with grass when on the campsites , for some reason manufactures seem to want to mount a long cage mech to a trike with a huge flapping chain where there is always some slack chain ;) mine runs the cheapest SIS changer from a kids bike.
I have never bent or broke one , however I have worn the teeth off the jockey wheels !


I decided on using the Hilgo transmission as I have a dislike for the standard derailleur. Maybe it was ecause I have been using used ones or was it because a new one surprisingly broke in half one day. I came across Harry Leiben's design and notes and decided I had to see if it was worth the trouble. Whether it is inside or outside a velomobile's (I wish there was a better name) body would depend on mounting, etc., and the width of the system depends on the slide mechanism you use. I just used what was convenient. My slide is really too long but I didn't see a shorter one. I used what I used because it was convenient. I haven't got it finalised for eLecTricks yet but there is much more freedom and space in fitting it. More detail will come out in later posts where I will describe how I incorporated it into the Warrior.
I am leaning towards a IGH for my next build.
The Python front end does not lend itself to the Hilgo changer as the chain line is as short as you can go and still get the rear mech to work [ it is very hard on the chains anyway ] the angles are extreme but the chains are cheap enough ..

The angle of the slide was a suck-it-and-see situation. That which doesn't work is obviously not right. Rightly or wrongly, my slide angle is roughly the same as you would get by applying a straight edge to the front edge of the cassette sprockets. This puts the little derailing wheel at the same distance from each sprocket. I have so far found that it works fine. The other thing to decide is the height of the chain at this point. My chain height, dictated by the derailing wheel is very close to centre of the cassette axle.
It is a pleasure having what amounts to a stick shift and just having to move it forward or back without thinking about shifting one gear at a time or pushing the actuator a specific number of time knowing that you need to go down a number of gears to get the one you want. Basically, it is just a matter of faster or slower.
I assume you change by ear , as in the old 10 speed days ?
 
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Change by ear? I don't think I do. I just move the lever what I think is a sufficient amount in the right direction - higher or lower. If it doesn't change enough, I move it a bit further. It doesn't need indexing. An Arduino controlled servo-motor would be a way of providing push-button gear changing, and, with the right sort of strain detection, could lead to an automatic change - more strain means go to a lower gear, less strain means go to a higher gear. The effort to make the chain change gears is very low and should be easily accomplished with some simple electromechanics. It would be an interesting feeling I would imagine and it sits at the back of my mind.

LED detection of chain position could be used to provide a digital display of the current gear if needed. Now, that's getting a bit fancy but would provide positive gear position if required. Fitting a rocket could also take me to the moon but I won't be going that far.
 
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While I was preparing to construct a dashboard, I purchased a nice 10.5” Samsung tablet to replace my existing 7" Lenovo tablet that I had decided to relegate to trike dashboard use. I then discovered that this would not run the new SONY Imaging Edge Mobile app. This app was an automatic SONY upgrade and I only discovered this problem when I could no longer find the app I had previously been using. It had been automatically upgraded and no longer existed. I had to find a new tablet, one with a proper GPS for another app that I intended to use - and it took a while to find one. The first one, a 7”, turned out to be unsuitable but it will be used for something else that I have in mind. I eventually purchased a 10.1" Lenovo tablet for trike purposes and now have more tablets than I can poke a stick at. My wife, Monica, likes the one I gave to her.

I was now able to start construction of the dashboard and fitting it to the Warrior. First came the mounting frame. It was/is an upside-down “U” shape, bolted to the chassis just inboard of the front wheel kingpins. Bolting it turned out to be a headache due to the differing angles of the frame and the front wheel mounting arms. Perseverance produced a satisfactory result.



Another diversion arrived in the form of creating a simple app that might be used to replace the mechanical switches used for the lighting, a camera rotator and things that I have not thought of yet. Cars have such things so why shouldn’t I look into it? It would be fun.

I downloaded MIT App Inventor and its phone companion and spent a little time fiddling with a make-believe app that might save a lot of wiring and switches. It didn’t do anything but detect button presses and provide a suitable response like playing different audio recordings of warning horns and various voice announcements such as “Get out of the .... way!”. More on this app to come somewhere down the track.
 
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The dashboard was made from some discarded 3-ply and fitted with various switches, two digital meters for monitoring the 12V and 36V batteries, the previously-mounted light repeaters and control switches, and a metal frame to securely hold the tablet. The tablet frame is to ensure that the tablet is not casually removable. The angle of the dashboard had to be adjusted to be perpendicular to my line of sight.

I made up a USB x 5 power module that was powered by the on-board 12V battery and fitted it behind the dashboard. This was to power most of the gadgets..

I joined the Bendigo and District Returned Services League as an Affiliate Member. Not only does this provide discounted services, it also provides membership of their MensShed, providing access to machine shop facilities. And I can now consider what I can improve on eLecTricks while I have the chance. Using the Warrior for testing has been invaluable.



Following a long period of frustrating, random connectivity/powering/charging problems, the SONY camera decided to not cooperate at all. As it was still under warranty, arrangements were made to hand it over to the SONY repair people so that they could give it an attitude adjustment. It was returned in around ten days after a main board replacement due to the micro-USB connection having parted company at some time. Like most SMD things these days, this connection is the weakest link with portable devices. Don’t get me wrong, This camera is something that I would recommend to anybody without hesitation. I love it and I was glad to welcome it back home where it has done sterling service ever since. One day I will create a YouTube channel and share some videos.
 
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I came across a cheap 12V, 10W solar panel with MPPT charger and decided to mount it on the Warrior to keep the on-board 12V battery charged. Suitable switching allows me to disconnect it or switch its output to the battery or to the load side of the digital meter. Unfortunately, the meter does not show the direction of current, only showing that going to the load. I fixed the problem so that the meter shows either the current from the battery or the current to the load. The solar panel changes the nett current from the battery – the more panel current to the load, the less required from the battery. I haven’t done any tests to see if there is actually charge current going to the in all configurations but I would expect that there would be. Something for another day. A bonus is that the battery can be charging during trailering as well as riding.

The first live dashboard testing showed that a couple of things could be improved slightly. The Bafang battery ran the dashboard tablet at the same time as it was operating and it automatically turns on when the Bafang battery is turned on. Lovely. The dashboard displays the usual bicycle computer stuff except cadence through the Ulysse Speedo app, navigation through the Maps.me app, whatever the camera is pointing at through the SONY Imaging Edge app – and I can have videos, music, phone if I had a simm card installed and whatever else tablets are capable of, all without having to design or create anything. More lovely.

Another offshoot was to come up with an easy way of loading/unloading the trike on/off my trailer. This was easy through the fitting of a few channel items – see image elsewhere on this thread. Interestingly, I live 21km and 33km from a city and a town either side of the small one near which I live. Consequently, that distance needs to be added (x2) to any ride that I do. Having an easy load/unload capability means I can now trailer the trike to anywhere that can be used as a launch site. That can make the difference between going and not going. The same thing goes with having a trike or only having a two-wheeler for some people.
 
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My 12V batteries, like me, are running out of energy and I will soon have to decide whether I replace them or opt for something else. In the meantime, the 12V solar panel is enough to keep the running lights functioning. It seems the batteries are well past their use by date though and they did spend quite a bit of time unused. Rejuvenating them with a refill of distilled water put some life back into them but they still fall short of new capacity. Maybe they will improve with time. My thoughts have been turning to whether I will get some new ones or try making up a couple of 18650 packs. I am leaning towards going with the 18650s.

I managed to pick up a discarded trike for free, chassis more than a little bit rough. It appears to have been specifically built for racing as it is too close to the ground and too high geared to be anything else. Two front chainrings of 54t and 44t, driving an old internal geared, 3-speed, Shimano mid-drive of 24t, driving via 24t to a 9-speed cassette on the rear wheel with an 11t highest gear sprocket and a 26" rear wheel. I discovered that the front wheels were only 16" with Sturmey-Archer drum brakes. The seat is nice, unusual, 3-part Velcro-attached affair with two side backrest straps for adjusting the backrest tension, and a single pad forming the backrest and seat that is Velcro attached to the rear parts.

I decided that there were no usable parts for me on the trike and hung it up. As it turns out the owner, who was in hospital having his second heart valve replacement at the time I picked it up, got a new lease on life after seeing my Warrior and now has serious thoughts about retrieving his from me, finishing his modifications and going riding again. He said that if I can do it, so can he. I am not sure aht he really meant by that comment. He is welcome to his trike but I suggested a few modifications and offered him some help if he wished to go that way.

Before deciding not to use it, I commenced modifying the Warrior so that it could use the Shimano 3-speed hub. What I started with was going to create too much chain angle so I ditched the idea. The Warrior was now out of commission for a while. As I wasn’t completely happy with its former mid-drive, I decided it was time to try and replace it with the Hilgo transmission under construction for eLecTricks as it would provide valuable testing for later.
 
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Mounting the Hilgo mid drive in the Warrior bottom bracket was just too difficult due to clearance limitations so I tried making a bolt on bracket to hold everything. If it was to prove successful, eLecTricks might follow a similar route. I had to ride a two-wheeler that weekend – ugh!

The mounting bracket was eventually finished, the mid-drive and selector slide were attached and tested in-situ. Both chain lengths had to be altered.



The somewhat cumbersome bracket holds the mid-drive hub and the gear selector slide. It bolts to what is left of the original Warrior build after replacing the rear end with an MTB suspension rear end.



The above image is a shot from the left hand side of the mid-drive, showing the removal of the no-longer-needed spoke flange that hade to be removed in order to fit the smaller sprocket to provide drive to the rear wheel. The left side of the image is toward the front, the right, towards the rear. It took a bit of surgery to fit everything.

A rough and ready gear lever was made up. As it turned out, it was a little too rough and ready and was to be replaced – with two generations of subsequent improvement. Before that happened limit and adjustment fittings were attached to the slider and initial tests were fine.

The eLecTricks front chain tensioner was removed, altered, and re-fitted to sort the tension requirement. The first road test after mid-drive modifications showed that the rear suspension was too soft, causing the rear tyre to rub on the rear carrier. This was something that had been annoying me for some time and would have to fixed one day in any case. The lighting also failed due to disturbed wiring. The mid-drive worked as expected but the gear selector operation felt more than a little vague due to its positioning. It had been mounted completely out of sight until it was proven to operate properly. Everything was shaping up well for ride in a week's time but the two wheeler was again put in use for a ride the next day.

The next modification was to raise the height of the seat front to provide a little more chain clearance. I also unwrapped the lighting wiring for testing and repair and adjusted selector lever cabling and travel.
 
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The opportunity was then taken to connect the e-Assist battery meter so that I could get accustomed to the voltage and current variations. There is only a rough remaining capacity shown on the companion Bafang-Assist controller. The wiring was tidied and covered, and I re-programmed the Arduino lighting microcontroller, followed by modifying the rear shock mount angle to overcome bottoming against the rear carrier, something that I had been meaning to do for some time.

More testing took place at the Bike Bendigo Bike Palooza display. A "keeper" is required to prevent the rear chain from jumping off the mid drive when Flintstoneing backwards – either that or don’t move backwards. A young fellow who took it for a spin was moved, no pun intended, by the power assist until he moved backwards to make a tight turn. The chain came off and jammed. It really runs too short a distance for the angle required but this is only a problem when using the largest sprocket on the rear wheel. The trike and me have an understanding and it is not usually a problem.

Another test ride showed the problem again. A "keeper" is definitely required for the drive sprocket that drives the chain to the rear wheel. It only needs something to ensure that the chain cannot run off the drive sprocket. Both front and rear fell off under power when going up a short, but very steep, grade. Due to the lower front chain tension, the front chain tensioner bounced at speed, eventually losing control of the chain, possibly caused by slight rubbing under the seat mount. Some careful angle grinder adjustment increased clearance. The shift lever definitely needed to be moved to a central position in front of the rider to provide visual position feedback. The tablet holder also needs finalising.




I made up a nice T-bar shifter preparatory to relocating it ahead of the seat. This necessitated replacing the cables and their termination and changing their routing. Added a cable holding bracket to keep the cables aligned straight, modified the front chain tensioner, and re-fitted the video camera bracket.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to lift the trike into position onto the trailer due to having to stand in an impeding position in order to lift and balance it. I purchased some more steel to make ramps so that I could just push it on. A removable spreader at the bottom ensures correct spacing for unloading. Great.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
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869
Location
Axedale, Victoria, Australia
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If I wasn’t building eLecTricks, I would continue with finessing the Warrior mods. The indicator switch needs to be mounted on the steering bat where it can be operated without removing a steering hand from the steering. Might be thought of as unnecessary but if the other hand is holding a microphone, it is more than a little awkward. Aslo the current position requires a lean forward in order to reach it and you have to make sure the operating hand is lined up in order to operate it. In such a position it is all too easy to move it past the Off position to activating the opposite indicator. There are a couple of other minor things not worth mentioning.

I can now return to the eLecTricks build.

The few months of side issues and Warrior testing brought about a few changes to what I was thinking for the eLecTricks build. The first change was to ditch the MTB rear end, only used because it already existed and had been proved earlier, and replace it with my own build as the trike no longer required a conventional rear wheel. I gathered up a disc brake front wheel to be used for the rear wheel and a disc brake rear wheel hub to be used for the mid-drive hub. The reason for selecting disc brake hubs was for the fitting of drive sprockets in the disc rotor position.

I decided to keep the new rear section simple and came up with a suitable design for the suspended rear along with a suitable fitting to connect it to the front section. Design changes brought about by playing around with the Warrior’s Hilgo conversion enticed me to consider incorporating the rear end suspension pivot within the eLecTricks Hilgo mid-drive mounting. This would remove any rear chain length variations due to suspension operation. How difficult could it be?



The new build started with making the rear dropouts and welding them to two chainstays. I tried a process that was mentioned on Atomic Zombie and that was to cut the ends of the tube so that it left a flap that could be folded over and used to fill up the end of the tube, saving messing around cutting small square pieces to weld in their place. The trick is to allow for that little extra length before cutting the tube too short. So far, it was a doddle.



In order to incorporate the rear frame with the mid-drive, it had to pivot on the axis of the mid-drive’s axle. I planned to use pillowblock bearings but they had to be somehow mounted on the outside of the mid-drive, secured with the same quick release as the mid-drive. I had to make up a couple of machined spacers that would fit on the ends of the mid-drive axle, fit inside the pillowblock bearings, and all had to fit within a bracket to be fitted to the trike’s central boom – when that was ready to accept it. It took a while with some finessing, but I eventually had a workable solution. Only time will tell if it works and a screwdriver takes the place of a QR skewer until I can make one long enough.

The eagle-eyed observers might notice that the double front boom I have here is not going to allow proper front chain action. I have since reverted to a single tube.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
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axerail.coffeecup.com
A small design error became noticeable when I came to fitting a parking brake that I had removed from the front of an MTB. This was a nice solid one and when placed in position on the wheel, I noticed that the brake was not in the centre of the rear frame. I had overlooked the fact that a conventional rear wheel has a cassette stuck on the right hand side of it, bringing about an offset in the chainstays. My rear wheel was a front wheel in its former life and didn’t have a cassette. In any case, the left hand side of the wheel had to line up with its drive from the mid-drive (not yet in place, but aligned), and I had made the rear with parallel chainstays. They were nice and square with the wheel, etc., but the wheel itself was offset slightly with respect to the left hand side chainstay, resulting in the brake having to be offset the same amount to align correctly with the wheel. No problem as it will all be eventually hidden with the body. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. I don’t think it is worth the trouble of doing it all again.

The earlier-mentioned modified exercise stand was working well to hold just the back end of the trike upright . The front wheels would not be fitted for some time as another Warrior sub-project was to get preference.
 
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