Solar PV Powered Electric Tricycle

[CharlesM99]

HI all,

I'm wondering if anyone has built a solar powered e bike on here?

My girlfriend just bought an electric coffee cart tricycle, and its my job to solar power it. Mainly looking to just keep the battery charged up while shes out riding it around all day.

I need to figure out from the people that built the trike what the specs are on the battery are to design it properly. All I know is its Li Ion and 36v. NO idea what the chemistry or amperage is.

I'll let folks know when I start ordering parts and building it, just trying to see if anyone has made one yet!

Thanks

[Bikemad]

Hi Charles andto the forum.

Unfortunately I could not find any solar powered bikes on this forum apart from this trike:



Unfortunately the link to the specifications is no longer working.

The following photos are from solartrike.com/:





Check out this instructable showing how to make a solar powered trike.

A charge controller was purchased from www.solarsellers.com, where Mr John Drake was very helpful in assisting me and ordering a custom charge controller for my application. The controller basically takes the varying voltage / amperage input from the solar panel array and converts it into a constant voltage (42V) or current, to optimize charging the 36 volt source. Maximum input voltage to the controller is 100 Volts, so the peak of 66 Volts will not harm the controller. The controller is a Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) type, which charges faster as more sun is available, rather than at a set rate as most controllers do.

You can also search on Google for "solar powered bike" and see what else you can find.

Hope this helps.

Alan
 

[StadsImker]

I have one!   

It is antique and made in the Netherlands in the 30, 40 or 50. It is called a bakfiets. Many bikes are nowadays called bakfiets, but this is the real deal.

I drive it with a MP5 on 16 x Headway 40152 15A cells lifepo4 24volt. A so called S8P2 LiFePO4 setup. Sadly the weight slowed my bike a bit down. from 22 km/h to 15 km/h. So I am thinking to upgrade to 32x Headway 40152 S16P2 48 volt / 30A. I can also re-arrange my 16 cells in 1x16 instead of 2x8, but then I loose half my Amps..... SO I am very interested in someone who can tell how many "hard and though" kilometers go out of a 40152 48volt/15A pack. So not the economical tour but the max power discharge curve/experience in KM or something.

Recently I put two Suntech 72 mono-cell, 195 WP panels on the bike as a sort of roof.
It's winter time now and it's totally overcast and grey. How much it will load the battery I do not know, but it charges....... even in these bad conditions with a bit disappointing 0,3 0,4 amps...    Still wondering why SO slow. Each panel can give 6A at 36 volt. To connect the panels to the battery I use a small solar charger, with the correct characteristics. Full, Float, Empty and cutt-off values. I put them at: 28,2v (Full, 3,525volt/cell), 27,8 (Float, 3,475volt/cell ), 23,5 volt (empty 2,937volt/cell ), 23 volt (cut-off 2,875volt/cell). This is in my opinion a very save operational setting.

Do you have plans to build one?


Greetings,
Philip - the Netherlands