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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
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ecm
Apprentice
Canada
89 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 13 2004 : 10:11:52 PM
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Very good i like your description of your scooter for instrumentation (Speed judged by amount of hair in wind). do you like the honda EV or its ok .
to do or not to do |
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Kale
Nobel Prize Winner
Canada
795 Posts |
Posted - Mar 14 2004 : 6:41:49 PM
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"No brakes -stopping is pre-meditated"
Oh dear. You should put some kind of brakes on the thing Aaron...
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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2004 : 09:42:59 AM
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The Honda is a great car, but unfortunately it is not an EV. It's a "mild hybrid". Not a true hybrid because it can't be plugged in. But I have to say that even so, the system works very well. In the summer, around town I can get about 70-72MPG. On the highway, I'm looking at 95MPG +. The only way the car could possibly be improved would be to remove the power steering and A/C....and of course offer a pure electric option. 
As for the scooter, no brakes isn't as crazy as it sounds. If you take your finger off the "fast" switch, the controller switches to 12V, which is lower then the voltage the motor will generate. Consequently, the motor regens into the batteries and the scooter slows down dramatically in about 10 feet.
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Kale
Nobel Prize Winner
Canada
795 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2004 : 12:25:24 PM
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Nifty! I suppose engine braking is a simple way to go about it.
It would be really nifty if you could find some lighter batteries without having to sacrifice A-hrs.
A lighter version of the scooter could be handy.
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cirvin
Nobel Prize Winner
USA
1542 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2004 : 3:36:29 PM
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What I don't understan about hybrids in the first place is why they are still using souch an inneficent engine in the design. They coud easily make it a deisel model and get a substantial increase in overall fuel economy.
I know why. They have deals with oil companies that makes them make cars that use the more expensive fuel.
http://daxter12.topcities.com |
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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2004 : 09:06:58 AM
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quote:
It would be really nifty if you could find some lighter batteries without having to sacrifice A-hrs.
A lighter version of the scooter could be handy.
The original design was for a light scooter, with a short range. However, as soon as I found out how fun it was to ride, I needed more lead. Li-Ion batteries would be ideal, but expensive and difficult to manage...I keep toying with this idea of building a 48V scooter, and making the batteries part of the deck. It would be based on a larger scooter with pneumatic tires.
quote:
What I don't understan about hybrids in the first place is why they are still using souch an inneficent engine in the design. They coud easily make it a deisel model and get a substantial increase in overall fuel economy
I think the simple answer is that people don't like diesels. Many of the "old timers" remember the horrible diesels released by GM in the 70s, and can't get past that.
The only problem with a diesel is that it's much more difficult to start and stop constantly, and is much heavier then an equivelant gas engine. Also, we have diesel with a high sulfur content, so there's the smell as well...
Really, what I want to see is a real hybrid. One that I can plug in, has a good 20-30KM range on electric only, and a much smaller gas engine.
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cirvin
Nobel Prize Winner
USA
1542 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2004 : 5:44:53 PM
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Still, today's diesel engines have come a long way. they are as quite now as small gas engines (the small ones at least).
The fuel thing too, but if they where made to run on waste vegtablew oil or biodiesel then you have a very efficient car that only has NO2 as a major pollutiant and they are working on catalytic converters to fix that.
Heheh, it woud bee cool to get one of those neuclear power packs that they used on the Voyager space probes and use it in an electric car. Those things last for like decades.
http://daxter12.topcities.com |
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Chamkeeper
Mad Scientist
278 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2004 : 02:16:49 AM
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Personally, I like diesels. I own an '83 Suburban with a big diesel. It has never done any worse than 27mpg. Pulling a car on a trailer, it got 27mpg. Typical is about 30-31, and a little better on the highway. 225,000 miles and still going strong. Because it is older tech, it is heavy. I would LOVE to see/own a diesel-electric hybrid. Finding a suitable small diesel is tough, perhaps from some European or Brazilian manufacturer, only VW comes to mind as a North American option. That is still a large diesel. Perhaps some of the smaller utility vehicles have an engine adaptable to a small personal vehicle.
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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2004 : 3:08:50 PM
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Oh, don't get me wrong. I love diesels. But the public views them much the same as they do pure EVs...
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Kale
Nobel Prize Winner
Canada
795 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2004 : 6:31:19 PM
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Actually I've seen a fair number of Mercedes Diesels floating around, especially with turbos. They're mostly older, but they seem to last forever and I see them fairly regularly.
Regarding hybrids, the big problem is that you need two 'motors' if you go with gas/diesel-electric. One solution is a gas-pressure hybrid. Instead of charging a battery, the gas engine builds up pressure in a pnumatic tank. When you are pulling away from a stoplight, or accelerate quickly the pressure is dumped back through the engine, giving you a terrific boost in power. You then use the lower-powered gas engine to cruise and maintain your speed, while pumping the tank back up. Apparently this combination is much more efficient (and cheaper!) then an electric hybrid because you only need one extra system compared to a regular car.
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n/a
DELETED (Inactive)
1 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2004 : 8:21:05 PM
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Hey buddy, check this company out, they are down the road from you. They have the batteries your looking for....if you won the lottery. They will be selling their electric SUV in the next year or so. It's called the Maya 100.
http://www.electrofuel.com/
Cheers from Barrie.
Auden |
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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
Posted - Mar 18 2004 : 09:22:59 AM
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I've been paying attention to ElectroVaya for a while now...Still vapourware, but hopefully soon they will be releasing their new batteries...
Gas pressure hybrid...that's an interesting concept. But what about the horrible losses when compressing a gas? Much energy is lost as heat. Also, there's the mechanical losses in the compressor (presumably there's something more efficient then reciprocating, but as far as I know, that's the only way to get very high pressures required). And the massive size of the tank to hold the compressed gas.
I know they've tried "air cars" that run on compressed air before, but overall efficiency was pitiful.
I'm not sure I can believe it's more efficient then gas/electric. Even though the system has it's downfalls, it just works very well. A few tweaks for longer electric-only and plug in, and we're basically 100% there as far as what I want to see....With the compressed gas vehicle, what about long hills? I would imagine that without carrying a huge compressed gas tank, the speed boost will only last a few seconds...The Insight, on the other hand, will maintain electric assist up some truly crazy hills, for quite a while (1KM or more). But if the battery drains...well, then you're basically driving a Geo Metro on one cylinder.
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