A Solar Powered Urban Shopper

[Joe Blake]

After about 20+ years of dreaming and doing, I've finally finished my top project.

A realistic urban shopper, powered by sunlight.

Here are a dozen or so piccies showing details. The small panels affixed to the rear are not sufficient to do more than "trickle" charge the batteries (in the blue box under the panel). The larger panel is capable of recharging the batteries to full capacity within 24 hours.

The voltage regulator is attached to the top of the battery box (just visible in one of the photos.) There is also a voltmeter on the top of the battery box as well as one for the rider to keep an eye on attached to the headlight mounting.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/trike/trike10.jpg

Some more photos

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/trike/

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

That's a neat bike joe!
How is it powered? Is that an electro motor in the rear axle? What speed/distance does it bring you (with/without paddling) on a charge?

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/trike/trike09.jpg

This is the Heinzemann hub motor. 200 watts. 24 v.

http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/the_motor.shtml

I've never actually tried to see how far I can go without paddling. But on the flat, with no wind and no trailer, it will get up to about 24 km/h. However, without the motor, I can reach 45 km/h on the flat. But it's great for getting up hills.

Here's a cut and paste from my local HPVA bulletin board.

Here are some piccies showing my solar electric set up.


To give an example of how useful it is, yesterday morning, I rode up to Kalamunda from Lesmurdie (a bit of hill here and there) with the BoB Trailer attached, did my shopping and rode back home.


I then plugged the larger solar array in (as in the photos) and by mid afternoon, the batteries were back to full power. I then went down Crystal Brook Road and came up Welshpool. To really try the system out, I had the motor working pretty much all the way up. My aim is to be able to ride "1 gear up" - ie if I ride up a hill in a particular gear, the motor should be able to get me up in the next higher gear. Normally I ride up Welshpool in bottom gear on the inner chain ring. Yesterday I rode up in second gear, and occasionally I got up to third. I only give it enough throttle to achieve this as trying to go too fast will either flatten the batteries or cause the motor to overheat and the thermistor cuts in and shuts it down. As I approached the Crystal Brook Road turnoff I gave it full throttle and got into third gear. However, after about 200 metres, the motor cut out, but by that time I was past the BP service station and the road started to flatten out. As I reached Lesmurdie Road, I was able to use the motor again and get home under power. (I didn't time myself because I thought I'd be either flattening the batteries or overheating the motor.)


Joe

[Joe Blake]

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/solar-trikey-ma.html

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Joe, congrats with the Wired article! :cool:
That bike has quite a bit of history to it; stolen, then found back five years later. You'd think that a reclining bike wouldn't be attractive to steal, since there are so few out there, and they stand out.

Happy pedaling! Actually, come to think of it, with your new motor you don't have to pedal much any more... :eek:

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

You'd think that a reclining bike wouldn't be attractive to steal, since there are so few out there, and they stand out.


-RoB-

That's exactly what I'd said to my mate when it got stolen. It'll take more than a coat of paint to disguise it. And the same guy saw it (very much the worse for wear) in the shop.

In very brief form, the story is:
Trike got stolen from the front verandah of my flat.
I reported it to police.
It was taken "down south" (Busselton? Bunbury?) and sold for $2400 (I'd paid $2500).
The bloke who bought it had it stolen.
The police found it, very badly abused.
The police went to the house of the guy who sold it.
Not only wasn't HE there, but the house had been demolished. (Talk about covering one's tracks).
The police returned it to the second bloke, and not to me.
It sat in his shed for about 3 years.
His mate bought it for $100.
He put it in the bike shop to get the thing repaired.
My mate saw and and said hey that's Joe's.
Guy in shop said I don't know his name, but he said it had been stolen and he wanted it repaired.
Mate sent me an email saying hey, great you got your trike back. I saw it down at Aldo's (the shop.)
?????????
This by the way on the exact date of my 50th birthday. (1990)
Rang Aldo.
Described a unique feature on the frame (the number plate had been removed - POP rivetted on. I'd had the frame re-welded previously.)
Yup.
That's mine.
Hopped on m/cycle.
Rode to shop.
Smothered it in kisses.
"Owner" contacted me.
Based on photos and video evidence, he agreed it was mine.
He only lost $100.
3 months and $800 later I rode it back home.
Yeehahhh.
And 8 years later we're still travelling through life, but with renewed vigour.

End of story?

Nope.

;)
Joe

[Joe Blake]

Next chapter in the story.

Over the weekend just gone I re-configured my "small panel" array(s) using the flexible Uni-Solar. I doubled the area I carry on the trike now but without noticeably increasing the width. The overhang on the rear only causes problems when I try to pick up the rear wheel to turn the trike in a confined space.

I've got a BoB Yak trailer, and a Dahon fold-up 3 speed bicycle. I had to take the Dahon to the shop for some upgrading, and I managed to fit the Dahon into the BoB and tote it behind the trike to the shop.

When I started out the batteries were at full charge from my larger flexible array, and the voltmeter indicated that the regulator was cutting in quite frequently. I swapped over to the "on-board" array and for the first time I was seeing the regulator activated by this array.

The trip to the shop was 8 km, a lot of up-hill. I managed it at an average of about 15 km/h, and when I reached the bike shop the voltmeter was indicating a shade over 26 volts, showing that the panels had substantially replaced the power I'd consumed while using the motor.

I think I've got a truly viable system now, which just may remove the necessity to use a "big" array and a "small" array. I'm going to try using just the one and see how well it goes.

Here's a piccy of the entire caboose.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/trike/trikedahon.jpg

Pretty pleased with myself.

Joe

[Ralph Day]

Hi Joe
The trike looks even better now. With the sunlight available to you a great alternative to petrol motion...and good for the cardio-vascular system too.

Ralph

[Joe Blake]

Since I wrote the last post (11 days ago), I've not plugged the trike into any external power supply. Even though it's clouding over (hopefully more rain on the way) I went outside and checked the voltmeter about an hour ago, and the meter is "flicking" on full charge.

Joe:smile1::smile1:;)

[Joe Blake]

Been almost a year since I visited this thread. A bit of an update perhaps. The upgraded trike has proven to be very reliable and in the last 10 months has (at least in good weather) given sterling service.

But times move on. The basic trike I bought in 1993 or thereabouts so is approaching its 16th year. Designs have changed. So I've decided to upgrade seriously. It had been my intention for a couple of years to do this, and now has been as good a time as any.

I went back to Greenspeed, the manufacturer of my old faithful (which I've (finally) named, "Proud Mary", for reasons I'll explain) to get the latest.

GTIII. Nice machine. So different. As you can see.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/PA300012.jpg http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/PA300013.jpg

This time, rather than do it all myself, I asked Greenspeed to make me an electric trike based on the GTIII. The motor is a duplicate of the existing one, but importantly, it's pushing a 16" wheel, and not a 26" wheel ("Big wheel keep on turnin'"?) Built in frame to carry the batteries under the seat (same size, 2x12 volt 12 A/Hr) instead of up behind my back.

My main concern was getting poor old self up Welshpool Road, which is a real grind of a hill about 5 or so km in length. Proud Mary will make it up, but with many stops to recover, both me, the batteries and the motor. I took the new machine out for an assault on this hill on about 24 December. Talk about knock me down with a feather. Because of the smaller wheel driven, the motor has got oodles of torque, and will actually achieve maximum speed (16 km/h) going UP the hill without my needing to pedal. From a standing start on the steepest slope, it accelerates!!! (Proud Mary, on the flat will reach about 24 km/h with no pedal assist.)

When I got to the top, I put my hand on the electrics control box ... barely warm. On Proud Mary, I wouldn't be able to hold my hand on it for long it was so hot. (The motor, Heinzmann, has a built-in thermistor protection, so it will shut down before any permanent heat damage occurs.)

When I got home, I put the trike's batteries on a charger (which was running off the PV array on my roof), and in less than an hour, they were fully recharged (4000 mW charger).

After this monumental effort, I decided that, since it climbed like Spiderman, it should hereinafter be known as Spidertrike (or Spikey for short).

So, since I live in a predominantly hilly suburb, I think Spikey is going to be a very common sight around the central district, and I may now only ride my motorcycle when I go into Perth, about 25 km away.

Spikey had its shopping debut on Boxing Day, towing the BoB trailer up to the shops.

One day, when I'm bored, I'll see if I can take Spikey right up the hill and not pedal at all.:smile1::smile1:

Spikey also has mudguards all the way round, and I'm working on fitting a PV array, but I think I'll only need 6 of the Uni Solar flexibles rather than the 8 on Proud Mary. I think an all season machine has arrived.

Will keep you informed.

Joe:bigsmile:

[Ralph Day]

Hi Joe

Wow, a new trike, the new solar system on the house, the house...did we miss something like you won the lotto?

I know the feeling, in the midst of installing a 10kw feed in tariff system and I decided my wood stove needed replacing...what the heck, money is there to be spent. What I don't spend my kid will eventually spend. Around here our motto is ''It's all her's, we're just using it until we die (money, tools, tractor, cars etc)" When that comes back at us it's funny too.

Sounds like the new ride will do you well for years, but how will you get your required exercise if it can do all the work?:nuts:

Ralph

[Rob Beckers]

Santa was good to you this year Joe! I'm just surprised you even made off the 'naughty' list... :wink:

Very nice bike, congratulations!
How popular is biking over there? I just wonder, since in a way the Australian culture strikes me as similar to that of North America; lots of suburbs, long distance from shops, work, and urban centers. My own move from The Netherlands to the US, and now Canada has not done my biking any good. During my high school days I had a daily ride of 6km each way, and a 25 km ride to go some place was nothing special. Now I use my bike to visit my friends in the neighborhood, a 1km ride at most. There actually are lots of bikers in Ottawa, certainly more than is the average for a city on this continent, it's when you get outside of the urban core where things get dicey on a bike. Some of the roads, including the one from where I live towards town, are downright suicidal; narrow, high-speed, very busy. Of course, there's no biking here in winter (though a trike like yours might work :wacko1: ).

I do save some gas, by taking my motorbike whenever I can. It does around 45 mpg. Doesn't quite have the cardio benefits of a regular bike, though it is fun!

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Well, I didn't (quite) win the Lottery, but after a humungous battle with the Department of Veterans Affairs, who said I had too many assets (thanks to an idiot in another department who overestimated the value of my 5 acre block of bush land by about $200,000) to get a pension, I was forced to sell said block ... and in doing so made a massive (if unlooked for) profit sufficient to buy myself everything I ever wanted. And then some.

But I have to say that the new trike had been on my "must have list" for quite a while (probably about 5-6 years) so it wasn't unexpected.

The rest of the stuff (eg PV array etc) had been an almost lifelong ambition. So I guess I can rest a bit now.

(Oh, sure, I can see that :eek: :laugh:)

Next on my list is trying to find a way to cool my house on less that 150 watts/$1000 when the outside daytime air temperature is 41 degrees C. (Or perhaps just my work station and computers.)

:blink1:
Joe

PS I still get my exercise. I really only need the motor if I'm (a) in a hurry (when I'll pedal anyway) or (b) climbing a hill, and I pedal anyway. The rest of the time, I just pedal anyway.

[Joe Blake]

One of the other things on the list is an enclosed patio on the back of the house. Here it's not quite finished (hopefully this week to put up the walls and windows). But notice the rectangular patch of sunlight. The idea is I'll ride my trike in through a set of sliding doors and park it in the sunlight so the batteries will be charged automatically.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/stage4b.jpg

So it's indoors and outdoors at the same time.

:D

Am I clever or what?

PS My next door neighbour is having his PV array and inverter installed this coming week, having had to move his solar hot water system so he could get his 3.5 kW(!!!) system together. I can see "keeping up with the Joneses" happening here.

Joe:toung:

[Joe Blake]

Of course, there's no biking here in winter (though a trike like yours might work :wacko1: ).

-RoB-


Well, you COULD try one of these.

http://www.greenspeed.com.au/Glyde.htm
http://www.greenspeed.com.au/gs_glyde_sm.png
Joe

[Paul Bailey]

Hey Joe : Your setup is Looking good ,Nice to see the Solar portion of your dream come true.Nothing like clean silent power as the sun comes up. Your neighbor Has caught the solar BUG from you.Enjoy your summer... Paul:oh: