Gisborne SC & AAEV - RACV Energy Breakthrough

New Pedal Generator Works Great ! New Livery

2009-11-12T18:11:00.002+11:00

Sunday the 11 of October training session.

Sunday was still more training in the bike ... we are all getting good at riding the bike :)

We did real-world testing of our new pedal generator, and it works great !!!

Now we just need to do some minor adjustments to improve it (gear ratios, permanent wiring etc…) and then it’s done.

Now we have to build another one in case this one fails.

So the next training session we will be doing more tests on our pedal generator. In case you haven’t already noticed from the pictures our bike has changed colour, Yes it has been painted ready for the race !

The bike is finally returning to “Blue Thunder”, the stickers with our sponsor’s names and the bike’s name will hopefully be placed on it this week.

Now (once the second of the two pedal generators is built and properly tested) we shall be working on the presentation of our bike (which is worth 50 % of our mark), so we have a lot of work ahead of us yet ...

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

Emergency Stop Switch, 7hr+ Non-Stop runs, Redesigning the Pedal Generator

2009-11-12T08:47:00.004+11:00

Saturday the 19 of September training session.

During the preceding fortnight we modified our frame, wiring and aerodynamic shell to fit an externally accessable High Voltage, High DC Current, Emergency Stop switch ... thanks again to our sponsor, AAEV for the key parts, guidance and assistance.

Saturday was an all day race scenario, 7 hours+, non stop. The bike’s performance was simply faultless throughout the day :)

The only down side to the day is we ate far too many doughnuts between us ... An example of too much of a good thing ...

Work on the project continued over the school holidays, the battery pack’s wiring was reviewed, redesigned, finalised and made permanent.

The bike’s aerodynamic shell was also re-conditioned and painted blue.

The pedal generator’s re-design and rebuild was finally completed and retested. Much better than sitting on the couch watching movies for two weeks :)

Ahem, Um, consumptio of large quantities of doughnuts as a form of 'meal', are no longer encouraged by our team ...

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

Racetrack Routines & Procedures, minor Trouble-shooting, Yummy Sausages

2009-11-11T18:47:00.003+11:00

Saturday the 5th of September training session.

Saturday was another day of testing the bike and refining our techniques.

We unfortunately had one fault involving an electrical short in one of the battery packs.

Fortunately we were able to trace and eradicate the fault in a matter of a few minutes. Our fault-finding and trouble-shooting is getting much better, as is our detailed knowledge of our design.

Other than that it wasn’t an incredibly eventful day ;)

We also focused on our pit stops, routines, procedures, safety and maintained track speed ... and a little less on the sausages (Thank you Tim !) :))

Also we plan to soon have have the bike running almost all of the day (approximately 8-9 hours, with only pit stops). Our job for the next two weeks is to fit the external Emergency Stop button.

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

Batteries, Rider Technique & Start again with our Pedal Generator ...

2009-11-10T03:53:00.006+11:00

Sunday 23rd of August Training session.

Sunday we finished wiring the last of our proposed battery packs which means we are almost ready to do some serious performance testing and getting use to handling the bike and improving our riding technique on longer duration runs.

Besides that, we also tested our home made pedal generator during the week. We have discovered that it is, um, 'close to useless' ... it seems like the only thing we achieved was the spectacular destruction of electrical equipment.

We did learn some valuable safety lessons re proper testing procedures though ...

So with some more, targeted, guidance from AAEV, we've started again from scratch with the Pedal Generator design ...

We also fitted an internal, key operated, DC Electric Ignition switch to the bike and further modified our wiring loom to improve electrical safety. Thanks to our sponsor, AAEV, for the key parts, guidance and assistance.

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

More trouble-shooting, Nathan and learning to take 'the Line'

2009-11-09T23:03:00.009+11:00

Sunday 2nd of August Training session.

Another bad start to the day ...

After having rebuilt the electrics of the bike last Tuesday, we accidentally wired our battery leads incorrectly leaving us with the wrong voltage !

This time we identified the fault and fixed in under an hour! (better than two weeks ago).

We have also decided to stop Nathan from testing the bike as it seems to break every time we let him test it ;)

Other than that we spent the day learning how to take the corners (the 'line') around the track (from the experienced riders) and getting used to riding the bike at high speed.

According to the rest of the team (they had nothing better to do than to watch me go round the track) I was the closest to rolling the bike (I thought it seemed a bit rough there).

This week we started building our pedal generator to help re-charge our batteries during the race. Our generous sponsor, AAEV, supports us with material resources and their direct assistance and guidance throughout these training sessions and has also provided us with the key parts needed (free), to build a Pedal Generator, but also explaining how to design and put it all together.

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

Some fault-finding & trouble-shooting ...

2009-11-09T00:12:00.007+11:00

19th July Training session.

The Sunday training & development session started with some minor, however, very disruptive electrical repairs (one and a half hours) that was found to be poor wire joining technique at the Pedalec sensor. This was found after someone who didn’t realise that the electric motor actually makes a big difference ! ... did 5 laps and then complained it was hard (???) (and the motor was apparently, verry ... verry ... quiet ...)

After working through logical trouble-shooting and fault-finding under AAEV's guidance, we managed to identify and resolve the fault. We continued conditioning our test & evaluation battery sets, which we started 3 weeks ago, late June.

While that was happening some of the other team members got to get some practice on two of the other recumbent bikes (HPV) that the school has. The day ended with two races, and I won one of them!!! , admittedly that’s because I was in the quicker of the two bikes and it is very hard to overtake anyone once they are in front of you :)

On Wednesday the 29th of July we had an Electrician (Tim, Liam's dad) come in to supervise us in going through to re-do, clean up and (permanently) fix up our wiring loom in the bike ... so that should hopefully stop any intermittent electrical issues from happening again.

Now that we've professionally and thoroughly installed a permanent, secured, insulated bike 'loom' (wiring) we've also now fitted our E-ABS Brake Levers, with inbuilt micro-switches.

We also finished the re-manufacturing of our battery boxes primarily for safety-handling, 'hot-swap' and for securely fitting into our frame ... we also installed our inline 'fast-blow' fuses and power-charge plugs, ready for the final battery fit-out.

Team member 'Brains'(James)(Blue Thunder pilot)

'Racetrack', ongoing fortnightly training & development sessions

2009-11-08T19:44:00.014+11:00

June 28th training session.

The team started doing fortnightly (roughly), ongoing training and development sessions on a training racetrack, to simulate race conditions as closely as possible, under AAEV's detailed guidance, tuition and assistance. Each session would be either a Saturday or Sunday event, running typically from 9AM through to 4-5PM.

The 'pit', battery quarantine and charging area, and all equipment would be setup, including spares and maintenance-service equipment, as well as Solar Panels, Solar Regulator-Chargers, high end DC-AC Inverters, various Battery Chargers and test-testing equipment provided by AAEV, with the aim of progressively working out all procedural and operational issues, improving team efficiency and safety awareness under simulated ongoing race conditions, as well as realistic rider training and ongoing development and operation of the largely finalised design.

These sessions have been invaluable in skills, knowledge, procedural and safety, experiential development. In addition team members have continued with lunchtime, after hours and school holidays work between these key sessions.

This session was about primarily testing and evaluating various possible battery configurations and performance 'on the track'.

Race Ready :))

2009-11-08T19:16:00.005+11:00

Well, um, there haven't been updates for a while ... but that doesn't mean the team hasn't been busy ... actually, very much, quite the opposite !

'Blue Thunder' is sporting spiffy new livery and is now deemed by the team to be, 'Race Ready' !

The Team has done over 1400Km+ of Human-Electric, testing and development, on the Racetrack, since June ... without a hitch, with progressive development and improvement throughout ... not counting the literally hundreds of additional hours in ongoing design work on the bike and sub-projects, as well as in the workshop ...

Stay tuned, we'll be doing some rapid posts to catch-up and fill everyone in on the events of the last few months ...

There's now less than a fortnight to Race Day ! Woo-Hoo !!! :))

Further Functionality Runs:- Optimising for 'SPEED' ! Smiles all round :))

2009-06-16T11:15:00.020+10:00

(Photos: Top- Adrian receiving final instructions re GPS Telemetry immediately prior to a Speed Performance run. Below- Adrian at Full Speed on the fastest run - can you see the HUGE Smile ?)

Over each of the last two Saturdays (06th & 13th June) the Team, with AAEV's assistance, support and guidance, despite the cold and blustery winter conditions, fitted and tuned various Custom Electric Motor, Custom Brushless Motor Controller and Battery Set combinations & configurations.

During each preceding week, whilst Team members, under Paul C's direction and supervision, continued with bike frame and mount preparations and updating design documentation, AAEV did preliminary performance testing of various system combinations so the Team members could implement, test and verify the performance of thier design, on each weekend, 'on the bitumen' ...

Numerous speed & performance trial runs 'on the bitumen', have been done over a total of 13 hours for the last two weekends. The conduct of these runs were split between Gisborne & at AAEV's workshop.

Not everything always goes to plan, so some runs were not quite as expected or even, on two occassions, successful ... all a part of the learning experience ... new battery sets, and new system components, notwithstanding ...

However, after more than seven (7) seperate, carefully planned, unique configuration, performance runs, the team has now successfully settled on a design configuration with more than acceptable speed performance ...

You could have heard a 'pin drop' when the best straight line speed was announced ... then huge *Grins* all round ... some think the bike might now be too fast ?! ;)

Once the Teams' Electric Vehicle Motor system proposed design was proven & finalised, almost everyone present took a turn taking the bike for a short 'spin' ... including Team members Liam, Nathan, James, Adrian and Team Manager, Paul C ... parents and students alighting from the bike displaying cheshire grins.

The Team has now finalized thier base design for the EV Motor configuration for functionality & Speed, and is currently permanently fitting it to the 'Blue Thunder', Human-Electric Hybrid Race Tricycle !

Framework elements are being reworked and re-welded along with preliminary temporary enhancements to the aerodynamic shell, in preparation of further performance testing & optimisation. The bicycle pedal system and new cog set are also being re-fitted, so as to move on to the Human-Electric Hybrid phase.

The next stage will be rider technique training and fine-tuning the symbiosis of Human and Electric power sources to optimise and achieve maximum sustained speed and endurance. This will be done under progressively more realistic, simulated race conditions, culminating in a 30 minute simulated race. This will lead to capturing data for the next optimisation effort, simulated race conditions over 2.5 hours ... to optimise for best Endurance (distance) over 24 hours ...

A big callout THANK YOU from all involved to Tim for the munchies, drinks and the BBQ snags !

Brushless Electric Motor Initial Installation & first 'functionality' test run - as an EV

2009-06-03T14:34:00.015+10:00

The Team did an initial fitting of the basic Electric Motor System, a Brushless Electric Motor, a Brushless Motor Controller, wiring harnesses & loom, an Electric Twist Grip Throttle and a temporary set of batteries for testing purposes (Last Saturday 30th May) ... (Bottom Photo: Connecting wiring loom to the Brushless Motor Controller).

Objective was to go through the basic installation process & perform a basic functionality test on an Electric Motor alone (No pedalling). Once setup, the bike was given two test runs of approximately 350m each way, twice ... whilst using a tuned GPS reciever for accuracy, lads discovered the bicycle computer on the bike was just a little bit inaccurate ... by more than 10Kmh ... ;)

Though just a function test, speed on motor alone was enough to bring a smile to the faces of last years HPV riders ... and that was with what was immediately identified as a couple of bad cells in the test battery strings ... this caused intermittent low voltage status and motor cut-out for a couple of seconds at a time during the runs ...

'Blue Thunder' has now technically, formally transformed from a HPV into a Human-Electric Hybrid ...

Next, controlled test runs in order to capture speed performance under various proposed configurations scheduled for Saturday 06th June.

Speed & most importantly, endurance (distance) optimisations to come once the Team has hard performance data (Hybrid) under simulated race conditions ... November is getting closer :)

Preparations for mounting the Electric Motor

2009-05-28T12:01:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday (23rd May), after a few weeks of theory, we have now started work on the Electric Hybrid conversion of our bike !

First we removed the aerodynamic shell and the rear wheel.

After taking measurements and inspecting the existing mount-frame, we identified some modifications needed to fit a brand new Electric Hub motor (Custom built & supplied at low cost, thanks to our sponsor, AAEV).

To do so we had to spread the rear forks of the bike slightly with a worm drive car jack. We also had to carefully file out the slots for the motor axle to fit in precisely.

During the week we fabricated plates to strengthen up the rear end of the bike to handle the extra torque the Electric Motor will be applying to the mount and frame.

We have also temporarily mounted the batteries to be ready for the first performance tests next Saturday ... using the Electric Motor (only) ...

After a discussion we also identified some minor improvements that we can possibly make to the aerodynamic shell and we also identified some strengthening and weight reduction changes we can make to the basic framework.

James ('Brains') (GSC Team Member - 'Blue Thunder Pilot')

Morgan's Supa IGA Gisborne - Sponsor - Thank You

2009-05-20T20:37:00.000+10:00

Gisborne Secondary College has been the very grateful recipient of the local IGA E.S.P community rewards scheme. Jay Morgan from IGA happily presented the College with a cheque for $679.00 on Thursday 14th May 2009.

The funds will go towards the College team involved in this year’s RACV Energy Breakthrough.

This is great news for teacher Paul Calleja and the team of students who will be taking part in the 24 hour race in Maryborough in November. They have put in a lot of hard work on their vehicle and it will be in tip top shape in time for the race.

The RACV Energy Breakthrough is a competition that brings students from all over Australia together to compete in Human Powered and Energy Efficient Hybrid vehicles in a twenty four hour non-stop race.

We look forward to following their progress leading up to the big day.

2009-05-17T13:09:00.000+10:00

Watch Out World ;)

Over the past few weeks, AAEV and associates have had the priveledge of educating 3 very bright young men being James, Liam and Nathan.

These 3 young lads have absolutely soaked up every morsel of information we have transferred to them ... and had a lot of fun doing so :)

The detailed training, knowledge transfer and topics we have discussed so far are:

Batteries - types, characteristics and capabilities
Watt ?
Ohms law
Peukerts Law
Electric vehicle components - DC Brushless Motors, DC Brushless Motor Controllers, Throttles & Pedalec-PAS.
Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) Design and Design Optimisation Fundamentals.
The 'Design Outcome' - balancing Velocity (Speed), Thrust(Acceleration) and Endurance(Distance) given a finite energy source ... traction batteries (a battery motive pack).
Energy Management - utilisation and conservation.

They have also completed personal research and homework in relation to the above topics.

So far they have also given formal and public speaking presentations to the Gisborne SC school council and to parents and prospective students at the College's open day on 14th May (comprising an exhibition stand with Electric Bicycles and an 'on the road' 'real world', 100% Electric Car !)

These Young Gentlemen, we are proud to say, are almost ready to start fitting components to their trike to turn it into a high performance, high endurance, Racing Light Electric Vehicle (LEV)(Human-Electric Hybrid).

Then its time for the team to carry out ongoing "Real world performance testing" and design optimisation.

The racing tricycle being converted is the much feared and race proven "SPEEDY GONZALES".

It will be restored to its original name of "BLUE THUNDER", under a swag of old and new sponsors, including "AAEV".

On the way to the culmination of Three Days in November ...

If you can help these Fine Young Gentlemen in their quest to achieve the maximum distance over 24hrs in a LEV hybrid vehicle (Hybrid, Human-Electric), in the RACV Energy Breakthrough Challenge, please contact us by email:- gsc.aaev@aaev.com.au