My lil' Ebike

EV Small Talk
1

So I’m 22 and going to college. School is only 8 miles away and gas prices and maintence for my 1.6 elantra is making me even more broke. I ride my bike every night for the exercise and just to burn off energy and I got to thinking…

My plan: 1 rear wheel, 1 widend front fork, 1 1000w brush motor, 1 lead-acid car battery, a sprocket on the motor shaft with a chain to the rear wheel which is now a front wheel.

My hope: to get to and from school in one charge, or a least to school and charge it for a minimum of 4hours to get me home. minimum 20mph.

Iv’e done a ton of research into batteries, motors and potometers, but I don’t think I need a potometer. I imagine just a push button switch for acceleration. Peddal up to speed, push in the button and away you go.

12v is great for going uphill and there is a big one coming back home. But I want to be able to switch on the fly to 24v so I need a transformer, but I know nothing about them! What about 2 batteries you say, well if I do that I would still want 48v which is actually my long term ultimate goal.

So in conclusion if somone would give me some specs to look for when buying a transformer that idealy would be very effcient and just stout enough for 48v and 1000w I’d be very grateful.

 Soon to be EVing
         Ryan from SoCal.
2

first off, welcome to the site, second, sounds like you have a pretty firm grasp on what it is your looking for. I dont know of any specific transformers for you, but i’m sure others on here will know. hopefully they will post and help out a bit.

3

Noobster,

It is impossible to use a transformer to convert DC voltage. Transformers only works with AC. What you are looking for is probably a DC-DC converter. But I am quite sure that boosting the voltage will make the total efficiency of the system poor. The DC-DC converter will probably also be more expensive than it would be to buy more batteries.
I recommend that you would buy a kit with a motor, battery and controller for your bike, I have done a lot of electronic experiments in my days, and the DIY projects usually ends up more expensive than it would be to buy the thing… but on the other hand you learn more by trying to do stuff yourself :slight_smile:

Good luck with your project and keep us updated on your progress!

Andreas