Toby Ricco's nice project

Dear readers (maybe I should write reader), I thought I would share with you a very nice project I came across during the weekend while browsing around on the fun site EV Album. On this site I found Toby Ricco’s amazing shifter kart project. The kart is based of an 2004 Italkart Rapido Shifter chassis. On the chassis Toby has mounted a Advacnce DC K91-4003 Series Wound DC motor connected to a Kelly controller. All this powered by 8 batteries from Panasonic at 12 V each amounting to a 96 V system (all in series as far as I understood).

I was really impressed with what I saw and decided to mail Toby and introduce my project and aspirations as well as ask for premisision to post his images on this blog as well.

It turned out Toby was just as friendly as could be and gave me full rights to publish this post. He also filled me in on the project and with no furter ado I will qoute him straight down here:

I would be honored if you wrote about my kart as an inspiration to you. However, I must admit that my project it still not finished…I had it running but the controller or motor was not performing at its rated power. I was doing some tests (to check voltages) with my wheels off the ground and over-spun my motor. (I learned the hard way that series wound motors need a significant load applied to them otherwise they spin too fast and tear themselves apart). I am still trying to get my motor fixed, but feel free to use any pictures of my EV’s.

Well needless to say even though Toby claims his project is not yet finished he is still somewhere around a year (at least) ahead of me and I can only take my hat off to him and hope that he is as willing to continue a discussion about Electric Karts and other EV’s in the future. Below you can find some additional pictures.

When I looked at the karts being built by many people around the globe most where using the famous Lead-Acid batteries we know from our gas guzzling automobiles. Still with pretty decent performance these batteries suffer from one problem when it comes to putting them on a kart though: Weight!!. If I would like to get a 96 V system on my kart I would have to put 8 of these 12 V beasts on the kart and they would amount to a total of approximately 120 kg* (~265 lbs)!!! Ouch! that is not acceptable for me. So what option do I then have?

Well the answer would be Lithium Ion batteries, that are by far the most used batteries at this moment for high power long running hour gadgets and vehicles. There are however a few issues with them. First issue is that they are quite unstable and some have even been known to explode. Not a desired effect when your sitting next to a quite big bunch of them. Fortunate enough for me the scientists and R&D people around the world agree with this and are working full force to solve this problem and some have already. Problem is that so far none of them are really commercially available and my attempts to approach the companies directly has ended all with a nice and firm “no thanks”:

• AltairNaono: Very interesting nano materials as electrode in the Lithium Ion cells that allow for more secure power, higher power, more charge/discharge cycles. Very promising but unfortunatly no interest from their side to even sell batteries for a test :/. Worth mentioning is that they are sponsoring the current record holder in Electric dragracing, Current Eliminator.
• A123Systems: Very known in the EV business as a supplyer for among other the much anticipated Chevy Volt. Same story here though that they are uninterested in supplying the amount of cells needed for such a small project as this :(. Positive here is that I can get 10 Cells from a Devalt 36 V battery pack. So they are available on e.g. ebay.
• ActaCell: This startup who recently accuired funding from (among others) google.org to ramp up their research and manufacturing. Not yet been in contact with them, also not much info on website yet. Will return with more info.
• Alelion Batteries: An interesting company specialized in custom made Li-Ion packs, chargers, controllers for wheelchairs and applications up to 3500W. Most interesting with this company is that they are based very close to where I was born in Sweden, which also happens to be home to one of the best karting tracks in Sweden. No contact made yet.

Of course I am not as you know by now either loaded or made from money which does not allow me to omit the fact that buying a 96V cell pack with descent running time would cost an arm and a leg, but for now I will look calmly the other way and keep on dreaming

*based on technical specs of the Optima Red Top RT R 3.7 battery.  More lightweight versions are available but not investigated.

Stay tuned.

As far as the EGO goes I now have several inquiries out at some DC motor manufacturers and I hope for replies before this week is over. I am also currently investigating the jungle of Lithium-Polymer battery cell manufacturers out there to see which are interesting and get some quotes.

Keep your eyes open and more will come.

The new logo of Tellgren Karting

You are all free to speak your mind about it, I know it is far from perfect but it was quickly done and I was not completly ashamed of it. Update will probably come though.

All comments on the site of companies to add or remove are welcome.

The search is still ongoing, a chassis is definetly my first priority. The EGO (Electric Go-Kart) need a good one.

Falco 4-cycle chassis from Corsa

When you want to build a kart the first thing you need will be a chassis. After several hours of internet poking to find a suitable one I must admit I’m overwhelmed by the sheer number of manufacturers out there. Positive side to this is that the selection is huge and the chance of getting a chassis sponsor looks brighter. I am not looking for sponsors not only to keep my own cost down but also to get the expertise if modification to the chassis would be needed. I do posses some welding and machining skills but what impact the modifications would have is something the manufacturers are much better at determining than me.

However, after pointing my browser to numerous manufacturers websites and reading up on there things I have come to some interesting conclusions when it comes to the chassis.

• I should probably go for a chassis built for a 4-stroke since these have higher torque than the average 2-stroke and this corresponds better to a electrical engine.
• Weight should be kept to a minimal at the same time as the chassis need to be rigid enough.
• Ø 30-32 mm CR-MO tubing is the standard frame material
• Ø 40 or 50 mm rear axle is also the standard

So with this in mind and also realizing that in order to have a competitive kart to race with I need the best chassis I can find I have listed below a set of chassis that I find interesting and whose manufacturers I will contact to see if I can close a deal. wish me luck.

• Corsa Racing Karts Haase manufactured kart with me interested in the Falco 4-stroke runner (picture at top of post).
  
• Arrow Karts, From Arrow I really like the top of the line AX9 4S which successfully has been running with the Aixro XR50 engine which I am afraid might be the new yardstick, but more on that in a later post
• 7kart, Not to sure how these karts are and they do seem a bit heavy due to the fact that they are mainly designed to run with 2 engines. 55kg (121.3 lbs) for a rolling chassis is a bit steep but I still think that the build quality of this chassis is outstanding.

The above list is far from exhaustive or even close to even represent the amount of manufacturers I have looked at. But for your sake I have decided to keep it short and I will instead create a new page later on where I will post links to the manufacturers I find.

the chase has just begun.

Today I decided that this is the day when this project really starts. As you should know by know the idea is to build a go-kart that runs purly on electricity but still beat a standard 28 hp (21 kW) 2-stroke ICE kart under any circumstances. I do this partly for myself and partly for the world. Yes and I know it can be done for anyone who doubts please just look at this video (in Italian, I would love a translation).

So what will be my first step in this venture?. Well as I know quite a bit about karting but have a limited network of people with whom I can collaborate I have decided to start looking for companies who are willing to sponsor or assist me. In the comming weeks I will report here on the progress and especially on parts I have aquired or investiage for the moment.

Stay tuned for more… Peter