Modifying prebuilt junk, in stages, to be less junk like.

[SternWake]

I received the AwithZ P20B spot welder yesterday, but did not get a chance to play with it until now.

My first impressions was that it was smaller than expected, but the separate inline 15amp 9 volt power brick is bigger than expected.

It uses an XT-60 shape DC plug, orange, and there appears to be a third contact.

The unit has no visible fasteners. It looks like one would need to pry the plastic sides off, to get inside.

The welding pens are very comfortable to hold, the copper braid very flexible. The clear spiral insulation is strange, but presents little resistance to movement, has little memory and the very ends of the copper where it joins 8mm bullet style connector have an additional clear sleeve insulation as some strain relief.

They give two extra sets of welding tips, and it is some sort of harder copper alloy. They are secured to the Pens with a dremel style collet, but the collet does not come out like it does on a dremel.

The knurled threaded compressor finger screws to tighten collet makes for a nice tight connection, that i wish my old Weller soldering irons used, instead of a pinche grub screw, may they rest in pieces after meeting the business end of my sledgehammer.

I had no issues welding 0.1copper and 0.1 nickel plated steel. This thickness maxed out my cheapo welder. I forget the exact settings, they which were somewhere around gear 100 to achieve solid welds. I quickly switched to 0.15mm copper and 0.15 NPS and kept bumping up the gear until it proved solid.

0.15mm Copper, 0.15mm NPS required gear 690 of 999, preheating of 0.15ms double pulse with a 03ms pause between pulses.

This is on an old cell, dremeled free of most of its nickel plating on the bottom, when using a stone to remove the old copper welds.

It just felt, looked, and sounded right when i bumped it to gear 690 from 650 and it was a beetch to peel off, tearing the copper and steel as one wants to see when rolling it off with some needle nose pliers.

I next tried 0.15mm copper, with 0.15mm pure nickel sandwich.

This did not go nearly as well. The welding pen plugged into the negative would produce a solid weld, but the positive weld pen would barely weld at all.

I tried increasing the preheating to 50ms, bumping gear to 990, triple pulse with 2,3,4 ms intervals, and the negative would be a solid weld, the positive weld pen, just barely weld, if at all. I switched the welding pens in the ports, tried swapping hands in case i was using different pressure, tried using more and less pressure on positive pen, and only the negative side would produce a solid weld with 0.15mm copper, 0.15mm pure nickel.

I went back to 0.15 nickel plated steel and gear 700 and welds were nearly equal and very solid.

I dont have any 0.2mm copper but I can stack two layers of 0.1, and see if I can weld 0.1,0.1,0.1 nickel plated steel.

I sacrificed two old 1.5ah 22 amp LG cells pulled from a failed Ryobi for the test welds, and punched a hole through one. After multiple dremel runs.

I switched to a thick razor blade for a lot of the tests with the pure nickel sandwich. I know that a high carbon steel razor is not a great substitute for a real cell which is likely mild steel, nickel plated.

But I am pretty sure i found the upper limits of this specific welder, at least without using the copper welding flux.

[SternWake]

I took the junk 1200mah 18650 cell from my Dad’s flashlight and replaced with a Sofirn rewrapped 3000mah cell.

The completely removed strip on junk cell was 0.15mm copper, 0.15 nickel plated steel.
Gear 720(of 999) 15ms preheat, 3ms interval between double pulses.
solid, took a lot of force to roll it off.

The partially torn strip weld is double stacked 0.1mm copper, with 0.1nickel plated steel. Gear 990 of 999, 15ms preheat, 3ms pulse between double pulses.

Both welds equally strong.

So it looks like the AwithZ P20B can weld 0.2mm copper with 0.1 nickel plated steel sandwich.

It can weld 0.15mm copper with 0.15mm nickel plated steel sandwich.

It could not weld 0.15mm copper with 0.15mm pure nickel. Well one of the two welds was very solid, the other nothing or barely. 3 pairs of welds and it might never be an issue, but Id know 3 were weak or floating, so no go.

I know a high carbon steel razor is not a good substitute for a nickel plated mild steel cell can, but when I switched back to 0.15mm nickel plated steel on it, both welds were equally strong again.

My 40PL 10s1p should be a potent little battery.

[SternWake]

I almost always use the inner Teak handle. The outer one I mainly use when walking the chariot, and when braking I rest it up against my hip, and the inner handle allows me to more easily keep it there.

The chariot handle’s tongue weight is very little unless Fiona stands and moves forward. With her butt in the back against the padded backrest, I can make a loose ring with thumb and forefinger and the handle barely touches my hand at speed.

I do grab much harder when any uncertainty ahead arises.

The handle has never slipped sideways or out of my hand, but Yesterday I dremelled finger grooves into the handle, shallow ones on the thin inner handle I mostly use as i didn’t want to compromise strength.

The Teak Handle is also the most dense wood on the chariot, and i still want to remove as much excess weight as I can before returning it in the form of epoxy and fiberglass.

This weight removal via dremel and barrel sander can eat up the hours very easily.

We roll enough each day, that have developed a thick rough callous on the very edge of my palm.

[SternWake]

Seeking continuous curves where possible.

Been hunting flatspots and lower grit scratches on Chariot base with increasingly fine sandpaper.

Busted out propane torch on base plywood.

The dark spots are the less dense wood grain that burns easier and would soak up a lot more epoxy, than the lighter spots, and add more weight for no benefit.

I need new fine bristle brass brushes to blend the darker spots.

I very much like this method better than using an epoxy repelling stinky ass oil or water based Stain, that takes forever before it can be topcoated, and still compromises the too coat bond strength.

The roadside of base was almost as wind slippery as I can realistically make it when I took this photo. Darker spots this side somewhat show where some more sanding would be aerodynamically beneficial.

Ways to go. Might have to return the 3 pieces and 8 bolts and screws to return it to function, before busting out the 220 grit.

I’d do it differently regarding visible fasteners, if I were to start over, but this chariot has accrued 2000+ miles already, and design compromises were made in order to be able to roll that evening.

Fiona is on day 3 without her rolling in her chariot, and visibly upset.

Garage is so hot, can’t work at night in it after sweating all day in 35C heat and 72% humidity

I feel guilty cruising solo.
Hit 30mph with a good tailwind, and was still accelerating.

Too fast, but it didn’t feel like 30 either.

[SternWake]

I reassembled Fiona’s chariot before i was done sanding, much less applying epoxy and fiberglass to it.

We needed to roll again, for our sanity.

The JunkKing HB2 7S2P enclosure has been in the way on my workbench for the last few months.

The plan has been to attach a 10amp Voltage booster to the ESC heatsink, and have a portable ~100wh 420 watt capable charging source, and then be able to safely explore further away from home base. The 105mm hub motor sleeves are much more comfortable on sidewalks than the 90mm, so places i didn’t want to ride before, are now tolerable.

So 7s2p charging 10s2p.

I had used the Jking 7s2p to charge my previous 10s2p, on a 150watt V booster plenty in the park, but the high mileage DMEGC 10s2p would, far too easily, get way too hot with the added range it provided after park charging.

The BAK45D 10s2p hasn’t needed the range boost, and does not get hot, but I have, once.or thrice, wanted more than 150 watts charging, on the bench.

I boost from ~13.6v to 41v on the bench.
I have 2 old but healthy 6v GC-2 AGMs on workshop floor in series.
I use a 100amp adjustable.voltage power supply to get and keep them full and happy.

Recently, I decided to try the 420watt booster on the bench, at about 250 watts, and decided I want more heatsink for it, even though boosting from 25.2v nominal it does not get as hot.

I cut a new thick flat plate aluminum base for this booster, and cut and filed out the enclosure for a deep finned heatsink.

Still need to fasten finned heatsink to aluminum plate, drill and tap the plate for fasteners to attach booster.

The original thin ESC heatsink is on the right. I’d JBWelded 6 mosfet heatsinks to it long ago.

I’ll be using an antispark switch to connect battery to Booster. There is a Pretty big POP when hooking it to a 13.6v or 29v source without it.

The 4000mah, 103.7wh 7s2p which came with my Junk still seems to have good capacity. It did not get hot discharging from 29.4v to 21v at 150 watts, stuffed in a bubble wrap envelope. I did test it a ~380 watts too in open air once too and dont recall being alarmed with its temperature.

When it wears out I can get 75% more capacity inside the enclosure making another 7s2p from EVE 35V’s.

I used to plug a separate 7s1p at 29.4v to the 29.4v 7s2p through the charge port back when the diagonal mini was still running. Can probably do the same.for another 50 watt hours of portable charger range.

Not sure if Im gonna ever try to ride and charge with enclosure strapped to deck between feet. I think I’d just parallel my dmegc 10s2p through charge port instead.

I need to attach finned heatsink to aluminum plate sink, and shorten the antispark switch leads.

Probably take me months to get around to it.

[b264]

Do you have a link for that 420 Watt booster?

[SternWake]

It is rated at 10amps output, and 60v max.

Aobao 3pcs 600W Constant Current Boost Converter DC-DC 10V-60V to 12-60V 10A...

Please note both potentiometers are clockwise to decrease, CCW to increase.

Opposite

[SternWake]

Last thing I should be working on, but so it goes.

New heatsink 172.64 grams, old 72.06.

It is kind of a similar method as to how my Puaida/Lingyi ESC heatsink is attached to my fiberglass enclosure.

[SternWake]

I haven’t been monitoring my odometer closely, but I have to have 100 or more miles on Meepo 540 watt motors and 105mm donut sleeves by this point…

The speedometer is dead nuts accurate with 3 different radar signs at 6, 16, and 22mph. When it changes from 16 to 17, remote and radar sign do so in the time it takes me to look at remote.

Towing Fiona on long smooth level straight, little wind, 25mph max.
Solo, I got scared at 30 mph with a minor road warble flexing my deck, and it had a little bit more to give. I think 31/32 mph would be possible.

There are some grassy, sandy, and big mulchy and crushed shell sections i regularly traverse, and have traversed with 83mm hub motors worn to 76mm Puaida hub motors with 90mm and 105mm sleeves, and these Meepo motors with 105mm sleeves.

How far I can get on any of the above surfaces, and how fast I can go are noticeably improved with the Meepo 540 motors.

The most challenging soft inclined grassy section was always get off and walk, but now I can roll it, but only at walking speed, and it definitely chews battery and really heats the already hot running motors.

The most challenging hill is short but steep, and crushed shells. I used to have to get a lot of momemtum going, with chariot at my side, then let it fall back as I slowed going up the hill. Well, there was a time where i could not even make the hill no matter what.

Now, I can just power up hill entering it under 10mph.

The brakes with the Meepo motors are actually good. They are definitely losing traction on max brake, but are not locking up. They brake stronger down to a lower speed than the Puaida motors. I am way more confident with them.

I’ve not yet tried them with 90mm sleeves.

Getting 9+ miles of range towing Fiona, at fair to good speed on 10s2p BAK 45D is not difficult. No ideas about expected range riding solo. It Feels like cheating riding without her.

Storing Fiona and the Esk8 in the Chariot, so it is balanced, with little tongue weight is desirable. Needs to done quick though, on and off.

Best temporary solution I’ve come up with so far is this.

A velcro cinch strap up by the nose holding it to the chariot pole.

Gotta put a little stick into a hole on back corner, to prevent tail from sliding off.

If Fiona sits with her butt up against back wall, there is little tongue weight, but if she stands and moves forward the handle gets heavier.
Usually when she stands and moves forward, we are rolling, and she wants to get out and hunch and squat.

Her and the esk8 in the chariot while I walk the portion of trail covered with cameras is pretty recent. Kind of wish there was just a speed limit and not a bunch of ‘No motorized vehicles’ Karens

I ruined it for myself though, by full throttling the whole thing when nobody was around, then accruing more power to do 16mph+ and drift the turns, leaving obvious tracks that no other vehicle could.

[SternWake]

I did a short solo ride early afternoon yesterday to cool off, and when I returned Fiona was waiting in some shade by the end of the driveway, panting.

I hosed her down, brushed the wet hair away from her eyes, commanded her into the chariot, and kept a relatively high average speed for several miles. She was almost completely dry on our return, and the damp bath towel she was sitting on was 12F cooler than ambient.

I disassembled the chariot intending to epoxy seal and fiberglass reinenforce the Cedar forks and joints to handle and plywood base.

Somehow that got ignored and I sanded the doug fir basket instead, and then the barrel sander came out, then the propane torch, and before I knew it hours had passed and Fiona was barking at me, hungry.

The insides of the grooves is difficult for the torch’s heat to get to.

The vertical corner wood is still damp, oozes thin sap when heated which easily catches fire.

I am by no means close to done Need new fine bristle steel and brass brushes, and nothing yet finer than 120grit has touched it. I busted out the torch primarily to burn the sharp edges so I could sand less, and then just Zenned out and did 90% of it inside and out.

So it will be burnt again, then blended.

It has darkened significantly, almost camouflaged .

The cedar and teak poles/handle will darken a lot too when sealed with epoxy. Different shades of tan and brown though.

One day I might even finish enclosure lid, and paint it black.

Should really make a flexy enclosure for this flexy deck one day too, and not have rely on semi loose velcro cinch straps to give slightly. This enclosure is super ridgid, and i don’t really like riding the midsize kicktail that deck I made it for.
It basically only comes out when the Kayak does now, and i’d have to swap back to 90mm sleeves, or remove rear and front hanger to get it in kayak hatch. The mini kicktail should fit with no hanger removal.

[SternWake]

My booster would not have much direct metal to metal contact with heatsink, if I didn’t wet sand away the extrusion striations, making it flat and shiny.
Did both sides, with 180, 220, then 600 grit on a plate of glass on a flat surface using shoulder, wrist and elbow grease.

I put a dab of thermal grease in the middle and JBweld on the edges, clamped finned heatsink to flat plate tightly, threaded it tight, bottomed out the screws, and covered their heads with JBweld.

I’ll use m3 screws and thermal grease to hold booster to the heatsink combo.
One of those m3 screws will hold the heatsink to 7s enclosure too.

I have another 420 watt booster I’m gonna use on the workbench feeding it 12v nominal, for when my 150 watter is too slow. I have some ‘400 watt’ boosters that I don’t like or trust as much.

I am thinking about having two inputs to V booster, one for Ridgid 18v power tool batteries. The other to the 7s2p.

[SternWake]

I cut the clear heatshrink off the Mboardslabelled 6-60v 60 amp antispark switch Trancejunkie gifted me last year.

I was going to shorten the 12awg xt60 leads, but then decided against doing so.

Decided it would fit nicely between battery and V booster as is, and even added a little more finned heatsink to it, before covering it with thick black Marine heatshrink.

Drilled another hole in enclosure for its latching switch.

Added a fuse to the 7s 5.5x2.1mm charge port.

Stacked two sheets of 0.5mm G10 FRP, drilled 6 holes through both for panhead M4 screws, and used tin snips to cut the rough shape of the enclosure lid, and put it on a Vbooster set for 29.4v.

Went for a good long fast evening roll to deplete 10s2p BAKpak, and just now decided to test the portable charger. I took the g10 lid off to slowly dial up the booster toward 10amps, see how hot everything was gonna get.

The inline wattmeters went to zero amps just after I surpassed 9.3 amps

I think I only used a 7.5 amp fuse on the BAK10s2p charge port, and I think it blew after about 30seconds of 9+ amps.

I was sweating balls, mosquitoes were chewing my legs in the 90f garage(11:00PM), so I didn’t investigate further.
I think it was a 7.5, not a 10 amp fuse. Can’t remember what I used.

My 10s2p enclosure’s 5.5x2.5 charge port is rated for 10amps, and so is the dumb Daly BMS, and so is the Voltage Booster, and 9 amps is a 1C charge rate for the BAK10s2p, but BAK data sheet say 13.2amps max per cell.

I have no idea what 18650 cells the premade 7s2p uses. Just that it claims 4000 mAH. It was getting warm when the fuse blew on the BAK battery.

Ill need to retest proper, but 10amps charge rate could be unwise, and unnecessary.

The latest dumb Daly 10s BMS I got, says 15 amps for both charge and discharge, where my previous ones said 10 amp charge 20amp discharge.

The Eve40pl 10s1p is 8 amps max charge rate, so perhaps I should put newer 15amp bms on BAK 10s2p. I do add extra finned heatsink to the BMS’.

I could wire up the second charge port, but the single one did not feel hot.

I have not made the portable charger weather or vibration resistant, yet.

It will fit nicely in Fiona’s chariot, and should be good for 3 -4 miles of range.

When the premade 7s2p proves lacking, I gonna order EVE35v’s(3500mah 10amp CDR) and build a7s2p battery that I trust, to power this portable charger.

On paper that should be 75% more capacity.

[SternWake]

This AM, I dropped the enclosure and removed blue tape holding full size neoprene gasket to enclosure. Found that the 7.5 amp charge port fuse was blown, as hoped.

Replaced it with a 10 amp, and added some M4 backing nuts to the loopkey panel mount screws, and buttoned it back up.

Rolled with Fiona to our watering hole, leaving with less than 36v, less than half charged BAK pak. We walked the full trail length, and then Ibusted out portable charger and dialed booster to 300 watts.

The finned heatsink was basically too hot to touch for more than 2 seconds, after it delivered 1.76amp hours, and I then lowered it to 250 watts, though I don’t much trust this particular wattmeter’s AH or WH figures. It is 88f outside with little breeze.

The 7s2p battery’s BMS cut power after the wattmeter registered 2.26amphours delivered to 10s2p, and my BAKpak battery voltage was then up in the 38.5v range.

On my return, I plugged in 7s2p to charge, and quickly dialed amperage down to 0.05, and it showed 22.38v, or nearly 3.2v average. At much slower discharge rates this same procedure previously revealed 21v.

I have not checked balance on this 7s2p, and the charge port will not show voltage when not charging. When I have checked voltage at output xt60 it is always lower, sometimes significantly so, than the charge port even when charging super slowly. The charger that this battery came with said 29.4v max but would happily exceed 30v. I never use it anymore and when I did used an inline bucker to limit it to 29.4v.

I do have an extra 7s common port BMS, for when I make a 7s2p 35V pack which looks more inevitable now.

The rather large heatsink getting so Hot at 300watts, is disappointing. The wirewound toroid was also very hot, and will see no airflow with lid closed.

I do have small 12v 50mm fans and 3s1p battery packs I could aim at heatsink if I really want/Need to portable charge at 10amps, but I Dont want to attach a fan to the heatsink.

I would enjoy having a voltmeter showing 7s battery voltage under load. The inline wattmeter showing booster output is a bit clunky, but functional.

It can all be refined, but for now, is functional.
I can go explore a bit further now.

I spoke with the HOA’s Head of Security about rolling the crushed shell trail, and the 200$ fine I was threatened with, and he was like ‘who told you that?’

He was cool, saying he’d quash it, just take it slow, and even slower near pedestrians, and I’d have no issues.

[trancejunkie]

Nice… maybe you can get your dog cart registered as a handicap accessible device

[SternWake]

Dog cart!!!

DOGCART!???

It is a chariot.
.

Light weight, low drag, nimble and floating on 12 inch 8psi Pneumatics.

[SternWake]

Added about 600 grams of epoxy and fiberglass tow/roving/finrope to the chariot’s base after taking this photo.

I had about 16 1 meter long sections of roving, presaturated with laminating epoxy That I lashed around all joints and around the vertical stiles after painting on a thick layer, and letting the dry thirsty cedar drink all it could.

The heat is not giving me enough time to work with this epoxy, so it is a bit rushed, and I mixed up 5 different batches.

I could really use a second set of hands when wrapping it. I hope I have the gumption to mix some more epoxy after cooking dinner.

The humidity is also unideal for the prevention of Amine blush, but we have not rolled together for 3 days, and I don’t wanna make it 4.

The basket still needs some wirebrushing and sanding and more burning before it too gets to drink epoxy. But that might not happen for a while.

[SternWake]

Looking forward to seeing this in natural light.

I’m digging the contrast and pattern of the plywood

The roving/tow never goes as clear as hoped.

[rafaelinmissouri]

What would you guess the chariot weighs?

[SternWake]

It weighed 26lbs last week.
I did sand and burn a little more weight from it since then, but just added ~600 grams of epoxy and fiberglass today, and am not done.

[jack.luis]

This is beautiful