Today I cut the truck hangers in half and drilled holes in them to mount the rear wheels onto the test kart. A new titanium drill bit drilled through the aluminum and the steel like butter!
I ordered the appropriate wires and 6 pin connectors to make extensions for the sensor wires and motors.
Tomorrow I go to Home Depot for more more hardware to try and piece together the front and make it steer. It won’t be pretty but it’s a prototype.
I think that I will make the final enclosure out of fiberglass after seeing this awesome DIY with great results.
Goal is to have a powered and steering DIY E-kart by the end of this week.
Idk why I didn’t name this build thread AWD E-kart blah blah blah.
I drove the kart even if it was just around the studio and the steering wheel was vice grips.
I built an all wheel drive electric kart and drove it.
The motor with the sensor issues may not be repairable again… I replaced the sensor and it didn’t fix the problem. I’ll look into it Wednesday perhaps.
Next up, a steering wheel so I can get the user testing started.
Honestly, easier than I thought it would be with the friction of wood on wood and 200lbs on top of it, it should have had a way bigger effect than it actually does. The final will have delrin washers and shims or some sort of bearing.
This whole project is because I hate Tesla design and I think they are sucking the fun of driving out of the vehicle.
At speed it is very twitchy… realized I need to integrate CASTER into the steering geometry. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have some bearings too to reduce friction Hahahaha.
Class requirement is a 1 minute process video so that will be coming in the next month.
Next quarter will consist of building the final and getting ready to show it off at our senior show.
Ordered some shaft collars and bearing assemblies to weld up a metal frame for the steering to run through. (This will be where all the electronics are enclosed as well.)
I will be 3D rendering this thing by the end of the week for a grant I am applying for so stay tuned for that!!!
It’s a start. Gosh bent plywood surfacing is a pain! Big shout out to YouTube!
Tomorrow I hope to have a majority of it modeled. Now that the deck is started the only other real important stuff is the bent plywood back rest and the steering “knuckles” that I need to design.
I am hoping washers of a material like delrin will be “self-lubricating” enough to all for the steering to move smoothly and without any sort of slop.
Thanks for the review. I hoped it would go well over 30mph, but apparently it needs a 12S for it. So even with 100KV 5P and VESCs it’s slower than a stock 10S2P Meepo AWD.
One more thing though, how thick are the PU sleeves?
This is my first build and first experimentation with electric motors. I have used an online calculator and its fast enough for this purpose… I’m not taking it to Bonneville to set land speed records, if anything, this project is about control and the experience of driving vs. the current trend of cars being computerized and boring.
