Electric Horse

[OoPEZoO 27]

Yup…..what he said.  I develop brushless DC motor controllers for a living.  I was trying to understand if the motor was straight DC, or if it was brushless, and then if it needed a separate motor controller or had one built in. I did not realize you could source such large brushed DC motors like that so easily.  Certainly makes things easier. 

 

What is the plan for batteries?  

[Evguy 94]

While waiting on my thrust bearing I fabricated a plate to mount the motor.

I still need to install more support, put motor on plate and finalize location before drilling and bolting to frame.

 

Charginghorse.blogspot.com

Edited May 1 by Evguy

[Evguy 94]

21 minutes ago, OoPEZoO said:

Yup…..what he said.  I develop brushless DC motor controllers for a living.  I was trying to understand if the motor was straight DC, or if it was brushless, and then if it needed a separate motor controller or had one built in. I did not realize you could source such large brushed DC motors like that so easily.  Certainly makes things easier. 

 

What is the plan for batteries?  

I’m using lithium batteries from one of the electric cars I took out of service, 16 100ah on the bottom. Plan is to add another 32 40 ah to top from electric motorcycle build. Smaller batteries in parallel for 80ah. I’m going to use a/b switch rather than connect dissimilar batteries.

[Jeff-C175 5,046]

10 hours ago, Evguy said:

pulse width modulated

 

Which, in my opinion, and in the strictest sense of the definition of "direct current" is no longer DC.  

 

Throw a PWM into the soup and you need a new name for it.

 

If you look at PWM DC without a ground reference it could be thought of as "alternating".

 

Also, if you view with reference to ground, PWM DC does in fact "alternate", between zero and full with the pulse width (duty cycle) varying.

 

@OoPEZoO

Edited May 2 by Jeff-C175

[Evguy 94]

 

I got knocked in the dirt with Covid? Or something so little progress. Didn’t feel like doing much. I did order a variety of safety switches to keep things safe, at least in neutral and blades off, possibly a seat occupied switch.

 I got some bearings in for PTO axial loads, the one I preferred was too thick, I made some others work but fear they won’t last. They are inexpensive so swapping them out won’t be bad. 
 

[Jeff-C175 5,046]

2 hours ago, Evguy said:

got knocked in the dirt

 

Sorry to hear that!  Hope you are feeling better!

 

I still wear my mask everywhere.  It ain't over yet.  Even if the fat lady has sung !

[Handy Don 5,286]

15 hours ago, Jeff-C175 said:

I still wear my mask everywhere

 Except outdoors when no-one is nearby--like when mowing!

[Jeff-C175 5,046]

5 hours ago, Handy Don said:

 Except outdoors when no-one is nearby--like when mowing!

 

Ack Shirley, that's when I make SURE I'm wearing one!  I don't deal with allergens very well!

[Snoopy11 3,473]

17 hours ago, Jeff-C175 said:

I don't deal with allergens very well!

Allergies turn me on...

 

NO... I mean... they turn on the mucus, tears, scratchy throat, burning eyes, and overall grumpiness...

 

Don

[Wheelhorse#1 656]

Interesting project.I know zero about all this.How much run time can you expect to get out of the batts ?

[Evguy 94]

2 hours ago, Wheelhorse#1 said:

Interesting project.I know zero about all this.How much run time can you expect to get out of the batts ?

The plan is using some used batteries, two different sizes with selection switch. I’m uncertain how much time due to many variables but I’m shooting for 1 hour run time, 3/4 hours on main and .6 on secondary.

My milage may vary.

 

Edited Saturday at 02:28 PM by Evguy
Correction

[SylvanLakeWH 15,961]

Just for reference, I’ve driven my E 141 around pulling my 4 trailer train for about 20 minutes and used about 20% of the 3 marine deep cell batteries I have hooked up… certainly not a scientific study but I’m guessing I’d get about 45-60 minutes…

 

36 volt stock motor, running three 12 volt batteries in series. Stock was 6 batteries, 3+3 in series then connected parallel.

[Evguy 94]

I’m going to run 48 volts at 180 amp hours, de rated to about 150 due to age of batteries. Probably run a long time driving, but mowing is going to use a lot of power.

Edited Saturday at 03:50 PM by Evguy

[Handy Don 5,286]

58 minutes ago, Evguy said:

I’m going to run 48 volts at 180 amp hours, de rated to about 150 due to age of batteries. Probably run a long time driving, but mowing is going to use a lit of power.

I'm hoping you'll instrument this rig so you can share info about capacity, load, and performance under load.

Once good batteries are more available, there will be an explosion of electric lawn mower etc. -- to me that will be in about two years. Right now, the car manufacturers are hoovering up practically everything.

[Evguy 94]

I’m going to have a watt hour, volt meter amp combo meter. 
Electric mowers and tools are moving forward pretty well. I just couldn’t justify the cost so I’m building a low budget machine.

[SylvanLakeWH 15,961]

I have Dewalt’s 20 v outdoor line - mower, weed whip, chain saw, blower and hedge trimmer. Very impressed. Same batteries as my hand tools just higher amp…

 

I mow three lawns weekly and use only 25-35% of batteries…

 

Don’t miss pulling or filling or noise…

 

[Evguy 94]

6 minutes ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

I have Dewalt’s 20 v outdoor line - mower, weed whip, chain saw, blower and hedge trimmer. Very impressed. Same batteries as my hand tools just higher amp…

 

I mow three lawns weekly and use only 25-35% of batteries…

 

Don’t miss pulling or filling or noise…

 

I don’t miss starting my chainsaw and mixology of fuel and oil. 

[Handy Don 5,286]

Trying to time putting my gas stuff on CL or FB and going electric 

 

Big debate in NY right now over school buses and it's gonna get hotter. All must be electric by 2030-something. Average life of a bus is 12-15 years. Buying gas/diesel now means having to depreciate to zero by the cutoff date--no residual value!--NOT making budget voters happy.  An electric is $400k-plus and the same capacity in diesel is $150k (the debate on lifecycle cost is noisy and largely uninformed since there is so little hard experiential data available).