A week’s trial & it’s looking good.

Well, I’ve been using it for a week now & it all seems pretty good. I have been checking the cable & motor temp’s after riding & they are comparable to the pre-mod temp’s, so I’m very happy with that.

As for speed & acceleration; It has been off the clock (but only just) on a long flat road, which equates to approx 52mph. That was the extremely over exaggerated ‘Ego’ speedo reading, so in reality my sat-nav reading was 34mph. I’m not entirely sure that the sat-nav reading is that accurate, as most of the roads I used to test on were quite short so it never really got chance to fully catch-up with the Scoota’s movements before it slows again. More tests to come soon. The initial acceleration does not seem much different from the 60 volt version, but it does climb through the speed range alot quicker once it gets going. I compare to the rate at which the 48 volt model does it’s 0 to 15 mph; it now accelerates like that all the way to 35 (ish) on the clock & then slowly gets up to full speed (normally 47mph). It also accelerates up hill a LOT better!

The re-generative breaking system works fine whilst on the stand but is over powering the controller during cruse, so Mike has re-designed & the changes (if all goes to plan) will be put into place over the weekend. Again, more info later.

Charging all the batteries posed a bit of a problem as we could not find a 72 volt charger, but I’ve got over this problem by charging 5 batteries with the 60 volt charger & 1 with my 12 volt charger. This involves disconnecting the 6th battery from the others whilst charging, but they all stay in situ with no need to remove, just disconnection. I bought an enclosure & fitted the 2 chargers in with a cooling fan. It’s nice & simple to use & keeps everything neat & out of the way. Mike had his own plan to charge the batteries, which involved combining the 2 chargers & connecting them in different places. Mike, please explain how………

All in all a damn good result. The Scoota finally feels like it should & how it should of felt like coming out of the factory. Lets face it, it only really cost about £200 extra to get it to this state & I’m sure (in fact I know) I would have paid the extra to have it like this from the start.

I fitted the re-gen switch just above the battery charge point, so when I want to use it I reach down & switch it on. If you let go of the throttle whilst doing this, the Scoota will slow down like you were lightly applying the rear break. If you continue to hold the throttle open, it will simply keep going. Both ways will be putting power back in the batteries.

72 volt conversion. Update 7.2

Well I’ve done it. My Scoota is now running at 72 volts (6 batteries). I have to say, it was a lot harder work then just going to 5 batteries. Now fitted with a new & re-programmed speed controller, up-rated isolator switch, 6 batteries, re-gen breaking & extra cabling. The speed controller needed a an extra resistor & a few wires soldered in (this, for me, was the real tricky bit), I actually got a migraine whilst doing this & had to leave it for a day 😦

I have not fitted the switch for the re-generative breaking yet, but the wire’s are there. I shall be doing this on Saturday (weather permitting). I’ll post with news….

As yet, I have not taken it for a ride. I’ve just tried it up & down my garden path. The acceleration seems better than the 60v version. I plan to take it all apart again tomorrow & check all my handy work (make sure I’ve tightened every thing up) & tidy-up all the new cable lay outs.

Again, none of this 72v malarkey would have been possible for me without all the information, help & advice from Mike. Mucho appreciation. I would not of known where to have started on re-programming a chip!

More news to come soon. Fingers crossed, it will all be working fine by the weekend 🙂

Nick.

De-Restriction update (version……)

Hi peeps.
It’s only been a week or so since my last update, but there has been a truck load of stuff going on, that will hopefully make those of you that were apprehensive about doing a conversion change your mind.
As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I have been having lots of communications with a guy named Mike, who is ( without me over inflating his EGO 🙂 ) a complete genius when it comes to electronics. We had been happily running along the lines of using the Scoota with 60 volts & had cured all the problems, i.e. getting the right charger & a new speed controller. This is all good if you want/are happy with a straight 60v conversion. By the way, the new controller I posted info about, is actually a straight fit with no requirement to change any connectors, so you could convert without EGO ever knowing (in case of a warranty claim) 🙂

Now Mike has thrown a 72volt (with onboard battery regen) conversion into the arena! I am really interested in going this way, as it seems pretty simple. I would be able to use my new controller as it is already capable of running 72v, all it needs is a re-programming of the chip (but if you buy a standard one from e-crazyman you would not need to do this.
You can easily fit 2 batteries under the seat (making 72 volts total), the only drawback at this stage, is that we are yet to source a 72v charger (although we are looking). It would be a case of taking out the 6th battery & charging separately every day.
There would be a requirement to uprate the battery cabling & a simple circuit to reduce the voltage to the voltage converter, but this is all simple stuff.

I will post more later, as & when I have news worthy 🙂

Nick.

De-restriction update.

I was kindly informed about a battery charger that was available to charge all 5 batteries (60 volts). There is a guy in Hong Kong that deals in a load of electric scooter stuff. The charger is 60 volt, 2.5 amp. This remove’s the need to charge the extra battery seperately. Here’s the link for e-crazyman’s ebay site: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/HuaQiang-North-Road
I have cut off the electrical flex from my old charger & fixed it to the new charger, as the new one only had about 2′ of flex.

He also makes a 72 volt speed controller which he will convert to a 60 volt controller. I have asked him to produce a 60 volt, 1400 watt, 50 amp controller, which he has & I am awaiting delivery…..

1k & going strong.

Today my Scoota reached the 1000 mile mark. So that’s probably about 715 real miles.
It’s still going strong & the batteries still seem to be holding up.
I think that it has also done about 500 miles of those with 60volts. No side effects yet.
Has anyone else’s clocked the 1st ‘K’ yet? I’d be intersted to know if there has been any problems yet.

To shunt or not to shunt?

Well…. I modified my replacement controller. When I took it apart I found that it had 2 shunt wires & pre-drilled holes for another. So I added the extra cable & got ready to install it, but when it came to fitting the controller I found that two of the connectors were different to my original controllers.
Also, I noticed that my original controller has a label that says: ‘Break : High Level’ & ‘Current Limit: 35A 1400W’.
But my replacement controller has a label that says: ‘Break : Low Level’ & ‘Current Limit: 34A 1400W’.
And the new controller is a bit bigger.
I thought I’d remove the back-plate from my original controller & find out where the wires all go. When I removed the back, the first thing I saw were the shunt wires. 3 of them!
MMM I thought. It seems that the controllers were actually designed to have 3 shunts in place as standard. What a waste of time that was…….
So I had a quick think & decided to remove the extra shunt I had previously installed.
I tried the the scoota with the ‘2 shunt’ controller & it worked fine, but I noticed that it was a bit slower on acceleration, but the top speed was about 3MPH higher.
I put my orginal back in & the acceleration increased again & the top speed was back to normal.

My conclusion from this is that if you need a scoota to handle hills, you should keep with the ‘3 shunt’ controller. If you would prefer top speed, you can remove a shunt to gain speed but lose power.

I am going to try out the contoller again & remove another shunt (so it only has 1) & see what the top speed is & how slow the acceleration is. I’ll let you know in due course….

If you want to remove a shunt, it can be done by simply removing the back plate from the controller & snipping the nearest wire. You don’t even need to remove the circuit board from the box.

Don’t believe the speedo!

Hello.

I have had my doubts about the speedo reading for a while now & (as far as I am concerned) have concluded that the mph & odometer readings are extremely over complimentary to the Scoota.

When I first bought my Scoota, I took it for a ride with my sat-nav in my pocket to record speed & distance. I rode for 7.3 miles (according to the clock) & topped 33mph. When I pulled out my sat-nav it was telling me that my best speed was 22.5mph & I had travelled 5.2 miles. At the time I thought it must have been a mistake on the sat-nav’s behalf. I have tried a few times since with the same sort of results.

On Monday whilst on my way to work, I saw a new speed check radar that tells you your speed (it’s a 20 zone). I thought it would be a good chance to check my speed, so I twisted the throttle open & headed for it. It bounced back a top speed of (wait for it…..) 24mph. Bare-in-mind it was located at the bottom of a slight hill. My speedo was lying (I mean reading) 32mph (5th battery not connected at that time). If you can’t trust a radar, what do you trust?

On Tuesday I decided to go through with the 60 volts working (top speed on the clock of 45mph down hill). When I got to the radar it bounced back a speed of 32mph! Bugger! Lying clock!

I have to say now that I am sorry that I tried to do 45mph in a 20 zone. It is silly & dangerous. Not my usual road riding practice & I won’t be repeating it.  But this does, I believe, conclude that you can’t trust the Ego’s speedo or odometer.

I must therefore conclude that the Ego Scoota is not actually capable of doing the advertised speed of 30mph or a capable of travelling a range of “upto” 40 miles. It is more likely capable of doing approx 20mph (on a flat) & travelling about 28 miles.

Sorry to anyone that has a standard Scoota. I suggest that we all contact Ego & complain about the false advertisements. You never know, they might actually supply us all with upgraded speed controllers.  If you wanna complain, just go to their web site  & contact them via the ‘technical help’ link.

I am now looking into the possibility of doing a thing called the ‘Shunt mod’ (thanx Mike). It uses a bit of wire to reduce the resistance in the speed controller (check out visforvoltage.org). I will post news as & when I have it.

Nick.

How much am I saving?

Hello.

I have just bought a cool little device that tells you how much electricity you are using & how much it is costing. I set this device up with my KWH price (15p) plugged it in, put all 5 batteries on charge left it to do its thing. When they were all charged-up I checked it & found that it had cost me 11 pence! So my commute to work & back is costing me 11p per day, that’s amazing. EGO sure weren’t lying when they said it would be cheap to run. My commute is a 15 mile round trip. I recon I save about £50 a month compered to my old car’s fuel & tax bill. If you want to see the gadget, try here:

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Ecosaver_Energy_Meter.html

Nick.

A change of name.

Hi.

I have just noticed that Castleton car sales have a new name for their scoota business. They are now called Northwest scooters. See their web site: http://www.northwestecoscooters.co.uk

Still the best people to deal with (in my humble opinion).

Rush hour blues?

I had my first real rush-hour run today since I bought my scoota. It used to take me about 40 min’s to get home in the rush hour when using my car, but today, on my scooter it only took 25 min’s. Actually overtaking cars! Quicker journey home & saving money, that’s what it’s all about.