Supercapacitors replacing batteries…

[ThunderhorseMaker]

How would one go about building or buying a bank of supercapacitors to replace the traditional 48v lithium batteries that we all use on e-bikes?
Assume for a moment that money is no object.

Technically how would it be done?
I have seen a 160 Farad 48v bank from Maxwell http://www.maxwell.com/products/ultracapacitors/product.aspx?PID=48V-MODULES which seems like it would hold much potential.

But would hooking one of these up work? Or would one need something more sophisticated?

[Bingo]

I've used them on a transit bus project. Supercaps are not batteries. Not even close.

[frank]

I don't meen to invoke ire from posting a link to a bike that I realy don't want to mention, as this forum is and should be all about the GM Magic Pie 1,2,nice looking 3, and all the love and admiration that invokes, omg my toungue just got furry.

I have seen a german ebike/motorbike that is in full production, the name "sorry" don't think I should say it, but linked.
All that work to get a bike going and still has a bicycle seat, come on, german engineering and thats the best they could do with the seat,lol.
http://www.bikerumor.com/2009/07/13/e-rockit-electric-bicycle-hits-german-fast-lane-at-50mph/
oops,lol.

I'm thinking that this is the principle that your thinking about, to put it plainly, its all still your peddle power that counts in the end, and I don't think that can get patented, if its all put together from standard parts off the shelf,or from the local garbage dump.

Would consider that the wieght thats lost from battery is gained from all the other components, and the GM kits are still the simplest way to go for bang for your dollar per wieght and price range, "my opinion".

Was thinking that the bike the german made was on a similiar principle as all he was doing was peddling but getting a higher output from the rear wheel, and can say that this might be a better way to go if you or anyone has the money and time to tinker, to have input of power from the peddler as strieght generated power, for the people that still like to peddle, and have a battery for when your riding and eating icecream or picking bugs from your teeth.

1) could have the highest capacity capacitor like the 48v, and could possible have it to be switched as well from 48v, down to the 36v or 24v.
could also limit for offroad use, or for how much power to use as in town where it maybe considerd illegal by the police's eyes.

2) would consider that the range would only be effected by the input of the rider, (peddling your brains out), but the force of peddling isnt what it is against the normal peddling of peddle assist on hills, your peddling isnt related to torque=leg stress

Would need a lot of technical know how and possible gearing on generating to make ease of peddling/generation and would still be at the mercy of the capacity of capactors storage to output, to the GM Magic Pie or what ever type of ebike motor you wish to use.

Imho I would use the GM MP rear motor with an external controler, as the option of changing the power input value can be changed via computer, brilliant stuff,,can feel my tinker nerve twitching.

[frank]

I had a rethink on doing something with capacitors instead of a battery and came to the conclusion that all that would be needed would be in the range of 12v bank of capacitors, but with still the methode of peddling as main motor generated electrical power from a 12v generator, I was thinking that could use an AC motor with a invertor to invert 12v to 240v 220v AC, possibly would need recifiying out of capacitors, as im not an electrical engineer I would like some feedback on wether or not this priciple could be used, could also use smaller 12v battery just to power and generator to charge batteries to keep AC motor going via the invertor.

Think il sit back and watch Gilligans island reruns and see what the professor has to say about it, see about those coconut battery's.

[Morgen 3Eman]

Ultracaps are pretty cool devices, but they only store about 10% of the energy you can store in a battery.  The big difference is that energy in a cap is stored strictly by accumulating electrons, while in a battery energy is stored as a chemical change.  This is responsible for the huge storage difference.  Caps are probably better for recovering regen energy than a battery, 'cause they can be charged so quickly. 

But next year we'll have SuperDuperUltraCapacitors, and then they'll smoke batteries.   Or maybe the year after.  (When I started working in electronics, a 1 Farad cap was unimaginable. )


TTFN,
Dennis