So it begins...... Battery spot welder

[rvpopeye]

Nice way to ring in the year.
Have many more just like it !
A Happy Poochicle Year to ya both !

[sternwake]

So I decided to commit to getting the new axles installed in the kayak trolley so I could use larger wheels with wider hubs, which required drilling out the welds of the older axles, aligning new axles, and JB welding them in place. 

Also hogging out the washer interiors to fit larger axle, and drilling some new holes in axleshaft for retention.

This took an amazing amount of time as stainless steel does not like to be drilled, or have mechanical tooth added to it.

When all was finished, I installed them in the kayak, put Fiona in the back of the Kayak, and took it out for a spin around the block.

It vibrated Horribly, developing these insane harmonics where the seat of the kayak was vibrating up and down 2 inches at a certain speed. It was so loud, it was ridiculous.

I figured it was the tread of the tires, and razored off the edges that showed signs of contact with asphalt, and test drove again, no improvement, then razored off the whole tread upto the center solid ring, no improvement, then sanded the remaining ridges off, and no improvement in noise vibration or harmonics.

but rolling resistance was way down and I was hitting the Erpm limit of the speed controller, which was impossible with the smaller wheels unless I had a good tailwind and was going downhill, as much as downhill can be in Coastal Florida.

So basically I was able to get going 16MPH, with Fiona barking up a storm and the kayak  sounding like a 2 stroke motorbike without a muffler.

I was so irritated, but the machete's cries for attention went unanswered.

If I had just bolstered the original wheels with washers on both sides of the plastic hub.....

Now we are landbound.  Can't use the old melted wheels on larger axleshafts, cant use new wheels unless I decide vibrating the kayak to destruction is desirable.

If the new wheels did not vibrate, we could get to kayak launch and back home significantly faster, using less battery power to do so.  

Using the new wheels on Axle as an abdominal roller, I can feel the wheels flexing under my weight, the round unsupported perimeter flattens slightly, then rolls onto the supported portion, which then flexes and releases and the next one absorbs then rebounds.

it would be barely obvious pulling the kayak at walking speed, totally noticeable at a fast walking speed, and right around 11mph is just insane.  gets a bit better at 15/16mph, but it will vary when and come and go when taking a small turn and the wheels get into and fall out of sync.

I want to get some pneumatic 8"  mountainboard wheels with true ballbearings under there. 
 In the future, when I make a larger higher capacity battery, I want to be able to paddle 7+ miles with wind and tide at my back, exit and ride the backroads the 7+ miles home. I also want to be able to remove Kayak trolley from kayak, and attach a low riding Fionasled to it, so I can quickly tow Fiona to her favorite distant sniff  tinkle and poo zones, without either of us overheating in insane Florida weather.

Wish I could hold a camera, the esk8 remote, and the Fyak handle at the same time. 
She is so obviously loving it.

[sternwake]

In anticipation of my 10s battery enclosure and ESC being done, I ordered a 42v AcDc power brick rated at 2 amps output, and also a 500 watt voltage bucker to reduce its voltage should it too prove to be several tenths of a volt too high, or if i just want to charge to 4.1vpc rather than 4.2.

The 10s battery is mostly done, just need to run the balance leads, but I can charge or discharge it through the XT90s connector which bypasses the BMS.

I hooked up some APPs to the bucker, and the 42vdc charger(42.03v), but the max voltage out of the bucker was 39.6, unloaded. Not unexpected, just forgotten when i ordered the 42v brick.

I was very disappointed that the current control potentiometer did nothing, and seemed stuck at 0.74 amps. I then disconnected the bucker, hooked battery directly to 2.0amp 42.03vdc brick, and it was only able to produce 0.84 amps. Rated for 84 watts, it could produce only 36.

I set up my 400 watt 60v capable booster, powered it from my deka gc-2s, dialed it to 42v, hooked it too my 10S battery and saw 9 amps. then zero. the 7.5 amp fuse blew. Dialed the current control pot CCW till it clicked, replaced fuse, and can dial up the charge current far higher than I should.

So that test confirmed the battery is not the bottle neck and the 84 watt power brick does indeed max out at 34 watts.

So then I powered the 500 watt bucker via the 10s battery, dialed it to 29.4v, hooked it to my 7s battery, and the current control potentiometer did respond, but would not throttle amperage below 0.74 amps.

I do sometimes limit charge current into the 7s battery to 0.25 amps, sometimes less, and the spec sheet of the bucker does spec a 0.2 to 18 amp range, so the 0.74a minimum is a bit disappointing, but not as dissappointing as the 84watt brick maxing out at 35.

I contacted the brick seller,....34 watts no equal 84 mofo

reply:
"
This lithium battery charger is suitable for general household use. When designed to protect the battery, it does not have such a large current. If the current is too high, some batteries cannot withstand it, even accelerate battery aging, and even pose risks. This is from a safety perspective, and we hope you can understand.
If you have questions, please contact me frist
I will do MY best to help you
thanks"

So bad feedback is what they'll get as long as ebay allows me to keep smearing them over and over.

Seller on ebay is smarttree66, so feel free to avoid/ smear them too.

So I still need an AcDc solution to charging 10s batteries when away from my nominal 12vdc sources and boost converters. I'll likely order a 48vdc nominal source, so my 500 watt bucker has enough overhead to achieve 41.99v
Hopefully 10s with new ESC has enough top speed, as 7s, that once felt too fast, now is anything but.
.....

My smaller 250 watt 7s board, felt like it lost 1/3 of its already limited power.

First suspect was the battery, but when tezted, 29v dropping to 26.7v under load, was not enough, in my opinion, to cause such power loss.

I then swapped the hub motor from parts only 38$esk8, and it felt just as powerless.

Then I transferred the ESC from parts board and all its original power came back.

So I guess one of the ESC's mosfets driving one of the 3 motor phases released its magic smoke, although i cannot smell it, or see any evidence of its escape.

I do intend to build a 10s1p flexible baTtery from Molicel P42a and enclosure, and a dual drive esc, and use both single hub drive trucks. The mini board then will have at least 2x the torque, and much higher top speed and likely double its current range, or so.

Probably too much potential top speed for such a narrow wheelbase and track, but the board is so light and nimble it is really fun to ride and easier to take into grocery stores. It's just not quite powerful enough as is. It will gain some weight with 3 more larger cells and another hubmotor, but still be way lighter than my bigger board.

Also, I only used hot glue to hold the spare ESC in place. It likely already rattled loose.

[rvpopeye]

An 84w charger that only produces 34w !?
And so they wimped it down to protect you.
Calling it a 34w charger would be problematic in regards to sales no doubt.
I wonder how to say LIAR in Chinese....

[sternwake]

They messaged me to redescribe problem and send photos.
I replied that i cant be bothered, that their first reply was insulting, a d the negative feedback stays.
Now they offer a full refund if I remove the negative feedback.

[sternwake]

I've not accepted the refund, though could certainly use it.

We've been walking to the Kayak launch area, playing ball, walking back.

Fiona has never been the most confident swimmer, in calm deep water, until recently, and now she swims fast, into deep water to retrieve the ball, and will do so at least 87 times in a row, at which point I said enough, the gnats found me.

Somewhere around throw 53, she was swimming back, and a 8' porpoise surfaced about 5 feet behind her aimed right at her, in about 2' of water, and scared the shit out of me.

I'd like to think it was just curious, and not hunting, but I tried to throw into water 2' deep or less there after.

The kayak cart drama continues. I ordered a different model with 10" wheels whose hubs were solid and should not do the vibrato flex thing, but had no idea how hard the solid tires would be, nor the diameter of the bores.

The wheels have very little give, and will definitely transmit the most road irregularities to kayak scupper holes, but should have pretty low rolling resistance.

The new cart design, is a bit of a sloppy fit. The uprights in particular where they join the axle. Me no like. Desloppifying them is possible, but would be a lot.of work. The slop might overstress scupoerr hokles in kayak, and or add to instabilty while underway

The foam covered poles which slide into the scupper holes are a bit too thick for my kayak's scuppers, and the Pad/stops will not fit the shape of the hull, without major modification.

The new wheels do fit the new JB welded axles in my other cart, and they in fact fit with less slop than the axles they shipped with.

I do have stainless bolstering washers which fit the new axles, but need to be hogged out to fit old.

The new wheels themselves are rated at 250 lbs each, and the new cart itself is 280lbs,
30 more lbs than the old

I'll need to do some experimenting, but I think ill likely use new wheels on old cart.

I do have some SS 'crinkle' washers which can act like a spring, and keep wheel centered between bolstering washers and stops, which should help directional stability.

Overall , I am disappointed with all of the products purchased and modified.onto which the kayak is to reside. Id really like some 8" mountain board pneumatic wheels on real ball bearings, but don't have the money or tools to make that happen.

[sternwake]

So, I spent too much time getting new wheels secured on old  kayak cart, and took it for a test ride around the block with Fiona on a cool day. Rolked nice and smooth, low rolling resistance, board easiky attained too speed

Stopped after onelapp, checked hub temp, awarm, not hot.
Lap two felt a bit draggier, lap three, more so, top speed way down.

Stopped,  put board on fast charge, played ball with a wound up Fikna noticed wheels looked q bit flat, went for another lap, thump thump thump flatspots on new wheels.
Balls.

Hair drier, no effect.
Hot water, no effect.
Cursing , no effect.
2 days rest, slight rebound.
Place in sunlight for an hour, flat spots gone.

Tow Fyak to launch. wheels soft slow and draggy..
Paddle 5.2 miles
throw ball 100 times
Fiona swims a mile, masters swimming with ball in mouth, while barking at pelicans turkey buzzards and cormorants.

Ride back was slow.  
Battery barely had enough juice.

One wheel heated and sfuffed nside the other's  hubkess perimeter  might work.
Might be a waste of time effort and Japanese flush  cut saw teeth.

10s battery is at 41.92v.
dumb  Daly BMS  passive balance function not impressive, perhaps  not even functioning.

I injected the 2  low groups with 4.2v via a bucker, to top balance.


I added JST plug to first 3s1p  0.15 nickel spot welded pack. 
22mv deviation.
 Better than expected.

[sternwake]

I did throw away more time and effort trying to comoress the too soft previkusky flatspotted wheels inside the vibrato wheel's rims, and broke the rim.

I got to find a real solution, sooner than later.  I want pneumatic mountainboard 8" tires and ball bearings.  I have some ideas to achieve this, and it looks to be about a 130$ solution minimum.

Not really in the budget, but then again mental health is priceless, and eSk8ing with Fiknayak and  paddling 5 miles, hunting cormorants a d throwing the balk a hundred times is my  wispy tether to potential sanity.


My 10 groups of parallel cells in my 10s2p battery , the day after top balancing was within 10mv.of each other. 4.19v, but two grojos briefly said 4.18 for a second before going back to 4.19 for 5.

I discharged it to 35.85v, via a buck converter, charging my 7s Esk8 batteries at a hjgh charge rate, checking  P group voltage often. 

Ths largest VDelta  I saw was 0.004, and only once, the every other probing showed 0.002 v or less, much to my surprise.

I  checked them again an hour ago, and all 10 parallel groups read the same at 3.592v.
No deviation whatsoever.

I'm amazed.  The daly BMS is supposed to start bleeding  voktage off the highest cells  at upto 0.03amps once they surpass 4.18v, and stop once voltage falls below 4.18, but it seems like it balances them whenever there is no current flowing into or out of BMS at all, regardless of voltage.

I cant measure 0.03 amps reliably to test when or how it actually balances, or if it balances at all.

I saw  no change when I expected to, and achieved adequate top balance by injecting amperage into the 2 low groups.

The fact that they are now perfectly balanced is either engineering genius on the part of Daly BMS, my amazingly skillful first attempt ever at manual top balancing , or just luck and amazingly consistent manufacturing of these inexpensive DMEGC 18650 cells....
....


My last Kayak outing, I saw my new large as possibke fiberglass  battery and ESC enclosure might prevent stuffing the esk8 into kayak hatch. so I tested it today.
  Indeed it would.

Nothing a saw could not remedy though.

I am  not displeased with the new shape of the tail, and it is easier to carry by the front truck.

   
   

[Scott7022]

100 times ball tossing. Babysitting the tree climbing coon hound and the Mexican street dog. Coon hound loves to fetch and will do this long past the point of pain on my part.
He bounds all gangly leg,leaping like a deer. While the Mexican goes low and slow looking for the rebound. Because the Canadian will hit the Coon hound one out seven times in the head. The flop bounce rebound snatch by the Mexican dog is very good. The coon hound seems totally unfazed by this or bothered by the impact of the drool soaked tennis ball. i am not trying to hit him in fact video replay has the deer legged pointy head usually all four off the floor turning jump and splotch right to the head. Sorry hound its a gift.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sternwake]

Dogs are awesome.

I decided the non electric mountainboard with 8" pneumatic tires was the easiest chePest solution to improving Kayak cart, at 125$.

I'll have to cut the truck into thirds and grind it to fit a d JB weld it, but should have much better rolling resistance, traction, comfort, reliability.
Also will have a MTB deck, spare truck, two extra wheels, and it comes with some PPE as well, which is amusing, since i skateboard barefoot and have not even owned a pair of shoes since leaving California 13 months ago.

Perhaps i will even resist the urge to electrify the mountainboard, but no promises.