Cyclamatic: The Beastamatic is dead! Long live the Beastamatic

[evendine]

Thanks for the advice - will certainly insist on using Paypal, if I decide to go for it...

I have searched all over for a supplier of an alternative equivalent at anything near the price, but no luck. They have been courteous/professional during my dealings with them so far and their marketing dept understand English/tech well, which is seems a good sign...

They even supplied a CAD rendering of the custom pack, which suggests they really do have a tech dept.

 

[mxer125]

That's proberly one of the best read's iv'e had in a while, Makes me wish i see this thread before i bought my bike, My father inlaw has Cyclamatic, and has had it for a while now, If only he would let me take my hands to it ........

Love the cruise control, My infineon XPD program say's something about cruise but i don't think i have that option on my board, I have a three speed switch comming, I may see if i can use it for that ?..But thanks for sharing this thread, Awsome stuff!!!....

 

[evendine]

Welcome mxer125!

I'm a big fan of the thread too - lots of good Cyclamatic-beast-style advice here ;0)

Maybe just swap your dad's bike out for a while, do a few mods and then swap it back. He'll suddenly think he's much fitter for sure! :0)

 

[evendine]

DC to DC step up convertors...

Have been thinking about a cheaper alternative to buying a 36v battery based on the use of low-cost, high efficiency DC to DC converters...

There are some 24 to 36v devices around, but moderately priced examples are rather limited on power, e.g.:

Zahn Electronics, Inc. Products - DCDC24/36/280 step up DC/DC converters

(around £65, but not sure 280W is enough).

Apparently, it is possible to arrange such devices in series / parallel (comment appreciated on this point), so it may be possible to use 12v -> 36v devices: 2S on the input side and 2P on the output. The following units are 180W, waterproofed, heat-sinked and about £32 delivered:

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace

Does anyone know the max / peak sustained current delivery capacity of the standard 24v Cyclamatic battery?

 

[evendine]

Bearprint LiFePO4 Cyclamatic compatible batteries...

I've been in touch with Bearprint (Bearprint Electric Bikes - Folding, Step Through, City & Sport Electric Bikes) about their 36v 10Ah and 18Ah Cyclamatic compatible drop-in batteries - here's the pricing info:

36v 10amp LiFePO4 type: £325.00
36v 18amp LiFePO4 type: £449.00 (same form factor, but longer)

Both have a warranty of 18 months...

The prices include a charger but not delivery, which they will quote on according to location. New stock expected in early April.

So I suppose it's a toss-up between taking a chance on the £200 all-in Chinese supplier and waiting several weeks for delivery and the safer, if more expensive Bearprint option, who will deliver relatively quickly and provide a decent warranty...

Thanks to bazwaldo for the Bearprint tip.

 

[Scottyf]

Think i'd just opt for a 36v 10amp hour battery from a local UK supplier and then jam the cells into the old case. £200 all in and some tinkering.

 

[evendine]

@Scottyf:
Can you recommend a UK LiFePO4 battery supplier who'll provide a pack which will fit in the standard case?

 

[Scottyf]

There's a couple of suppliers on this very forum that do batteries around the £200 mark for Lifepo4.
Doubt it would fit directly in the case but would require some tinkering on your behalf.
Kudo's actually supplier 10ah 36v batteries...

 

[evendine]

Ah - so are the Kudos ones LiFePO4, do you know? Thought the 36v ones are Li-ion? (I see they do a 24v LiFePO4 drop-in)

 

[evendine]

Throttle settings and pedal boost...

I was experimenting with throttle settings today (thinking about d8veh's cruise control) and seem to have made an interesting discovery. If you hold the throttle open as well as peddle, it seems that max power is higher than on peddle assist alone

Not sure why that would be the case - suggests the throttle setting overrides the max peddling setting. Could this be something to do with the shunt mod (mine has it)? I'm tempted to add a boost switch that does the equivalent of opening the throttle fully - basically bypassing the throttle - but I guess that would have the same problems d8veh mentioned with the cruise control re, braking. Maybe better to just open the throttle when more power's needed...

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I don't think that it's anything to do with the shunt mod. I've had a couple of bikes where the throttle gives more power than the pedal sensor.

 

[NRG]

Yes, just fitted a new thumb throttle to my Peugeot bike replacing a half grip one and it now gives a bit more speed if used over the pedelec... about ~1mph...its must be outputting a slightly higher voltage.

 

[evendine]

That's interesting!

@d8veh: when constructing the cruise control, i guess you measured the voltage the throttle presents to the motor controller - is it in the range 0->batt voltage, or is the higher end voltage lower than batt voltage? Just thinking it might be possible to boost the throttle output voltage and up the top speed that way?

 

[evendine]

New low cost 'drop-in' battery supplier...

Some good news on the 'drop-in' battery front. After months of searching, I've finally found a major European supplier who'll provide a 6 month warranty with very competitive pricing

Here are the one-off prices, including charger and delivery:

LiMnO2 - 36v - 10Ah: £169
LiMnO2 - 36v - 14Ah: £240

LiFePO4 - 36v - 10Ah: £203
LiFePO4 - 36v - 12Ah: £247

Think I'll be ordering a 36v/10Ah LiFePO4 in the near future!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Some good news on the 'drop-in' battery front. After months of searching, I've finally found a major European supplier who'll provide a 6 month warranty with very competitive pricing

Here are the one-off prices, including charger and delivery:

LiMnO2 - 36v - 10Ah: £169
LiMnO2 - 36v - 14Ah: £240

LiFePO4 - 36v - 10Ah: £203
LiFePO4 - 36v - 12Ah: £247

Think I'll be ordering a 36v/10Ah LiFePO4 in the near future!

Tell us the secret! Who is he?

@Evendine. The cruise control takes the throttle supply, which is about 4.5v and splits it to anything from 0 to 4.5v. Throttles that I've measures are closer to 4v max, so it might give a boost, but it would be easier to solder the shunt and get a significant boost if that;s what you want.

 

[NRG]

+1... who is is this 'major European Supplier'?

 

[evendine]

Not 'he', but the biggest battery supplier in Belgium (where else ) 'Battery Supplies' - no VAT, quite handy delivery-wise. Only £15 per unit...

If you guys are interested, maybe we can make a multiple order and drop the price even lower - I seem to have made a good contact, so would appreciate it if you could give me a bit of time/space to finish initial negotiations.

I'm talking to my contact about custom packs and empty 'Silver Fish' cases, so could be just what we need for Beast purposes. They deal in pretty much every imaginable type of battery...

@d8veh: Might be interesting to add a few volts to the throttle signal and see what happens!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

@d8veh: Might be interesting to add a few volts to the throttle signal and see what happens!

No point. There'll be an A/D converter somewhere that converts o to 5v to a number between 0 and 255. As soon as you go over 5v it'll revert back to zero, so 6v will be the same as 1v.

 

[evendine]

There'll be an A/D converter somewhere that converts o to 5v to a number between 0 and 255.

Well, I suppose that would depend on the A2D chip power rail / voltage reference? More likely to be CMOS chips in a battery powered circuit with up to 15v rails, so if they happened to have used the rail as reference (the lower cost approach), it might be that the input voltage range is wider than 0 - 5v...

If it is 0 to 5v range and standard input range is 0-4.5v, there is still 0.5v to play with, so 10% if it's a linear converter.

Can't help thinking that the design is generally over-engineered, probably because it's aimed at a range of markets with different regulations on power output, so it may be that the option of higher power output is a possibility within the existing design. Perhaps there are other configurations of the electronics for other markets with higher top-speeds, for example?

BTW - re: Battery Supplies - happy to give anyone who's interested my direct contact info (might save some time - took a while for me to find the right person / department and the person I'm talking to is very helpful) - just waiting for a final quote on custom packs to come through...

 

[evendine]

Battery Supplies spec sheet...

Here's the Battery Supplies e-bike battery range spec sheet in English:

http://www.notjustmetal.com/docs/110315BS_fietsbatterijenLR_ENG.pdf