Help..creating ebike from an e scooter

[scratchbuilder]

Traded labor for this Baja be500. Sat for 7 yrs. The batts took a charge, it runs, but if I keep the power indicator needle in the red it shuts off, then will come back on and run. Is that normal? I have a razor 500 watt motor that I'm thinking of using along with the 48 batts on a bike with shift freewheel setup. Anyone with razor motor experience...

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Some one else may know. I do know alkaline and carbon non-rechargeable batteries get extra life if you leave them after running them down, but do not continue, just letting them rest gives a little more life. Oh actually my Absorbed Glass Mat Lead Acid Rechargeable batteries I used did get extra life when left after a while. Letting them discharge too much is not supposed to be good though. Sometime a cell reversal in a battery can happen if the cells do not reflect the same amount of discharge and then are charged again.

 

[cannonball2]

Hey Scratch
Explain the power indicator. Is it giving battery voltage or the loading (amperage being pulled from the batteries). If it's loading there is probably a circuit breaker kicking it out for what ever reason.

I am assuming that is a brushed motor? Chain drive is strange, most scoots are brushless hub.
Make sure nothing is causing a heavy load like bad wheel wheel bearings, bearings in the motor, brakes dragging etc.

 

[scratchbuilder]

Some one else may know. I do know alkaline and carbon non-rechargeable batteries get extra life if you leave them after running them down, but do not continue, just letting them rest gives a little more life. Oh actually my Absorbed Glass Mat Lead Acid Rechargeable batteries I used did get extra life when left after a while. Letting them discharge too much is not supposed to be good though. Sometime a cell reversal in a battery can happen if the cells do not reflect the same amount of discharge and then are charged again.

Yeah MT, I took the battery's out and charged them separately (4 12volt 18ah to see if they charged up and they did.

 

[scratchbuilder]

Hey Scratch
Explain the power indicator. Is it giving battery voltage or the loading (amperage being pulled from the batteries). If it's loading there is probably a circuit breaker kicking it out for what ever reason.

I am assuming that is a brushed motor? Chain drive is strange, most scoots are brushless hub.
Make sure nothing is causing a heavy load like bad wheel wheel bearings, bearings in the motor, brakes dragging etc.

Hey CB2, it is voltage. The razor motor is brushed. MX500 razor 'dirt bike' 36volt. It's just I have this 'stuff' and want to do something with it! lol...

 

[cannonball2]

If the batteries charged up then the scoot should work. I would get it working well before you use the components.
Brushed motors aren't as efficient as brushless but they are cheaper.
If you are going to motorize a bike you will have to extrapolate the same ratio the scoot uses. I can help you with that if you need it.
Do you know the wattage of the system?

 

[wheelbender6]

A member of another forum would mount the e-scoot swing arm and hub motor with tire onto the back of a bicycle to create an electric friction drive bicycle. He would mount the swing arm and wheel on the bike much like you would mount a gas friction drive kit above the rear tire.

 

[cannonball2]

I think Deacon did similar. The thread is in the diy section in his sticky section( I think). Was pretty efficient as I remember. He was quite a character!
Hope he is still with us somewhere.

 

[scratchbuilder]

I think Deacon did similar. The thread is in the diy section in his sticky section( I think). Was pretty efficient as I remember. He was quite a character!
Hope he is still with us somewhere.

Yeah guys...i backed up a 26" bike to the back of the scooter and it turns alot faster than the scoot....but have you ever felt the weight of 4-12v-18ah batteries!!!! I've envisioned doing as you mention wheel6...even a long frame where both batts and hub sit between seatpost and downtube. A front box cargo bike. I'm going to see if I can find the thread.

 

[scratchbuilder]

Yeah guys...i backed up a 26" bike to the back of the scooter and it turns alot faster than the scoot....but have you ever felt the weight of 4-12v-18ah batteries!!!! I've envisioned doing as you mention wheel6...even a long frame where both batts and hub sit between seatpost and downtube. A front box cargo bike. I'm going to see if I can find the thread. View attachment 97686

Here is the way I will do it. This was the build that got me into this addiction...i mean hobby! The hub wheel will sit under top tube(no seat post just gussets'. I'll not make the box so long this time, and the batts will sit in the box. Umm..

 

[cannonball2]

Your going to have to work out the roller/drive ratios. I mean for the motor. I had a 2.5hp Lifan powered bike that ran a 3.5" roller. It hit 45mph. Had to pedal it to 15mph before you could drop the roller.Accelerated slowly to around 25 then it took off. That bike was fun.

If your motor is 500w that's 2/3hp though it's got good torque. Work out the figures before you cut metal. I still have a hub motor with out the wheel that I want to use in a FD. Hubs have enough torque to handle it.

 

[scratchbuilder]

Your going to have to work out the roller/drive ratios. I mean for the motor. I had a 2.5hp Lifan powered bike that ran a 3.5" roller. It hit 45mph. Had to pedal it to 15mph before you could drop the roller.Accelerated slowly to around 25 then it took off. That bike was fun.

If your motor is 500w that's 2/3hp though it's got good torque. Work out the figures before you cut metal. I still have a hub motor with out the wheel that I want to use in a FD. Hubs have enough torque to handle it.

After thinking about it...im not sure I wanna risk mess'n the scooter up. It's has a ga'zillyon wires.

 

[cannonball2]

Yeah, the scooter is pretty cool. If it was brushless I would dump the sla batteries drop in some 16ah 6s lipos and ride. You would loose 30+ lbs and have better range.

 

[kevyleven007]

You need new batteries man. it shuts off because of voltage sag. its normal for it to come back on if it rests for awile but your going to damage the battery by using it you should be charging it instead but those are shot get new ones preferably lithium ion polymer. cheap SLA are not going to work good long and cost more in the long run.( car batteries are not an option)

 

[scratchbuilder]

Hey CB2, the scooter is a hub brushless. The brushed motor I mentioned is off a Razor mx500. It's a Unite motor. My goof. And if I ever entertain the $$$ for lipo's, it'll be with the SBP mid drive set up. The scoot is not worth it. The scooter needs a 212 engine!!!

 

[cannonball2]

Yeah a 212 would be cool. Check out the scooters on YouTube with M/C engines. Crazy!

If that's the scooter wheel in the pic what's the chain for? If it's brushless you could go to say a 72v controller and that thing would rock. For fun you could series 5 4s 5000ah for 84v off the charger. That's around a hundred bucks worth of lipos. Would only have an 8 to 10mi range but it would be a fun ride.

 

[scratchbuilder]

It's a legal thing. It has pedals. Are the 4s 5000ah RC pacs??

 

[cannonball2]

Wow never thought a scooter would have pedals. Our state dropped all the pedal requirements some years back. Guess that's not universal across the states.

Yeah the packs are RC from Hobby King. The ones I bought are hard shell packs. With the right connectors (parallel/series) you can add or subtract packs to either get higher voltage or amp hours. Makes the packs modular. I have 6, 4s packs. I can series 3 for 12s (50.4v off charge) 5000mah then series the other 3 for the same voltage and parallel them together for 10,000mah. There are lots of combinations. I also have two 6s 10,000 packs I run in parallel. I suppose I could parallel them all for 20,000mah @ 50.4v. The 6s 10,000s run my small e bike over 30mi cruising at a pretty good clip.

 

[scratchbuilder]

And so it begins. If anyone stop'n by has seen this work, I'd sure like to know before all the work goes in. I'm thinking the drive off the dead stop will be worth it. It'll be a front short box cargo frame.

 

[cannonball2]

I dunno scratch
That's a really tall ratio. As I remember Deacon might have used a Razor scooter or similar on a build(much smaller wheel). Might want to search his sticky thread in diy.

I'm a real fan of FD. When directly driven it is the simplest and most reliable transmission there is not to mention smoothest and quietest. Most times it's used to interface a motor to a wheel. In this case you already have a driven wheel. Why not just use it? It might look pretty cool mounted in the rear with the cargo box over it and your frame mounted to the front half of a bike. Kinda like my trailer trike.
Do you have any idea of the speed of the scooter or the max rpm of the wheel? I could figure speeds with that and the circumference both wheels. My guess is mighty fast!