Scooter Goes
Mar. 30th, 2011 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errantemberWhen last we left our hero, the electric scooter was randomly tripping its breaker. Every time that happens, the power to the bike dies (no matter how much traffic you're in), and you have to stop, remove the seat, flip the breaker back on, and keep going. This happened six times in one trip, and was getting pretty old. Maintenance minutia follows.
So it was either a malfunctioning breaker, or an actual short that was causing the breaker to trip. It turns out you can get an ammeter, which measures how much electricity flows through the system, for about $25. I got one that I can actually mount on the dash of the vehicle, so I'll know exactly how much power I'm pulling at a given moment. If the amount of power is over the rating for the breaker, then I know the breaker is working correctly, and it's time to take the whole fucking bike apart again to look for the problem. If it's flipping for less than 80 amps, then I know it's broken and needs to be replaced.
So after the ammeter arrived, I opened up the bike to install it. In the process, I discovered that the connection of the main power wires to the breaker was quite loose, and probably the source of the original problem.
Go figure.
The ammeter has two parts, a shunt that goes inline with the main power path, and the display which hooks to that with some smaller wires. Today I managed to get the shunt installed under the seat, and take the scooter for a test drive to Central Market. It seemed to be running cleaner than it had before, and I had no circuit breaker resets. When I have another few hours of daylight, I'll add the display to the dashboard and run the signal wires to the shunt, at which point I'll be able to see my instantaneous amperage flow whenever I'm riding.
So it was either a malfunctioning breaker, or an actual short that was causing the breaker to trip. It turns out you can get an ammeter, which measures how much electricity flows through the system, for about $25. I got one that I can actually mount on the dash of the vehicle, so I'll know exactly how much power I'm pulling at a given moment. If the amount of power is over the rating for the breaker, then I know the breaker is working correctly, and it's time to take the whole fucking bike apart again to look for the problem. If it's flipping for less than 80 amps, then I know it's broken and needs to be replaced.
So after the ammeter arrived, I opened up the bike to install it. In the process, I discovered that the connection of the main power wires to the breaker was quite loose, and probably the source of the original problem.
Go figure.
The ammeter has two parts, a shunt that goes inline with the main power path, and the display which hooks to that with some smaller wires. Today I managed to get the shunt installed under the seat, and take the scooter for a test drive to Central Market. It seemed to be running cleaner than it had before, and I had no circuit breaker resets. When I have another few hours of daylight, I'll add the display to the dashboard and run the signal wires to the shunt, at which point I'll be able to see my instantaneous amperage flow whenever I'm riding.
