Electrathon America

EpsilonZero

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We are culturally forcing electric vehicles to be "the future" rather than allowing the marketplace to decide. The problem is the people who are pushing this think the general population are akin to apes. There is a trail of money here that will explain this sudden push for EV's, and someday we'll all know better of it.
The free market already chose electric. For my personal use, an ICE-powered car is never a better option.
 

Functional Artist

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Is this event really still a thing? The calendar is empty.
It looks like Electrathon is mostly made up of High School & Colledge teams that work on a car during the school year
...& then, race 'em at the end of the school year
...so, most races are in the spring/early summer

Also, looks like it hasn't been as popular since all of the Covid crap :ack2:

From what I've found, they still race 'em in Michigan & Wisconsin
...& also, down in the Florida & Alabama area

This is a race from back in April 2023
 

Functional Artist

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Here is a video on the thoughts, materials & construction methods used to build the Budget-Beater Elactrathon car. :cheers2:

Beware: The materials & construction methods in this video, are NOT what we usually use & do to build go karts :ack2:
...& I don't advise to do it this way :eek:
...but, it's very interesting, to see how others have done things 🤓

 

Functional Artist

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Here is the third (& final) video in the series :thumbsup:

I cover's more of the technical stuff like motor, controller, battery pack & gear ratio
 

Functional Artist

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While doing more research, I found this "oldie but a goodie" (~1980)

Anyone ever heard of the Lucas Engineering School in Burnley?

Check it out, they certainly had/raced some really interesting "creations" :thumbsup:
 

Denny

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While doing more research, I found this "oldie but a goodie" (~1980)

Anyone ever heard of the Lucas Engineering School in Burnley?

Check it out, they certainly had/raced some really interesting "creations" :thumbsup:
That’s where they teach you to suck the light out of everything! Joseph Lucas “The Prince of Darkness”.
 

Functional Artist

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Can't believe I hadn't seen this thread until now. We do something similar here in SW Florida



View attachment 145557
Electrathon America has a Solar Class
...& AFAIU they still run races in a few places, in Florida

Here is an excerpt from the EA rule book

27 SOLAR CLASS
All other Standard Class rules apply with the following additions:
1. Solar panels are permitted provided they are an integral part of the vehicle body and do not protrude to the front, sides or rear.
2. Wings or trailers are not permitted


Here is a link to the rule book ;)
https://www.electrathonamerica.org/_files/ugd/032d61_adf13ba2aa674698914f6caa4a78f49d.pdf
 

nobled2

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Electrathon America has a Solar Class
...& AFAIU they still run races in a few places, in Florida

Here is an excerpt from the EA rule book

27 SOLAR CLASS
All other Standard Class rules apply with the following additions:
1. Solar panels are permitted provided they are an integral part of the vehicle body and do not protrude to the front, sides or rear.
2. Wings or trailers are not permitted


Here is a link to the rule book ;)
https://www.electrathonamerica.org/_files/ugd/032d61_adf13ba2aa674698914f6caa4a78f49d.pdf
Our solar panels protrude everywhere, lol

I think those guys might be a little ahead of us....


My big concern at the moment is finding out how I can get the power curves for a new different motor for us, can't find anything on the ME1003. Only one I can find is for 48volt, we can't really go higher than 36 with our battery limitations. Would love to know what kind of rpm I can expect
 

nobled2

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I don't think 800 Watts will do what we need and we already have the ME1003, it came on another kart from a different school here in the county that is not participating in this any longer. We have used an ME0909 since I inherited this project and made it work great. So good that we can no longer test it on the track at school, too fast to handle the turn. We got 30 mph out of our old kart with that motor before it dumped itself over on its side.

If we can't find the specs for the newer motor, we will probably just swap in one of the spare ME0909 motors that we have and run the snot out of it.

Trying newer batter set-up this year using lithium batteries combining starter batteries and deep cycle batteries in parallel then series to run higher voltage and have what amounts to added capacity due to more of the capacity being useable. Still have no idea if it will work right for the whole race, lol
 
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Denny

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I don't think 800 Watts will do what we need and we already have the ME1003, it came on another kart from a different school here in the county that is not participating in this any longer. We have used an ME0909 since I inherited this project and made it work great. So good that we can no longer test it on the track at school, too fast to handle the turn. We got 30 mph out of our old kart with that motor before it dumped itself over on its side.

If we can't find the specs for the newer motor, we will probably just swap in one of the spare ME0909 motors that we have and run the snot out of it.

Trying newer batter set-up this year using lithium batteries combining starter batteries and deep cycle batteries in parallel then series to run higher voltage and have what amounts to added capacity due to more of the capacity being useable. Still have no idea if it will work right for the whole race, lol
The problem is your kart is too top heavy. If I were you I’d be looking for a lighter panel or thinking thin film solar panels. Along with some improved driver skills.
 

nobled2

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The problem is your kart is too top heavy. If I were you I’d be looking for a lighter panel or thinking thin film solar panels. Along with some improved driver skills.
Those are flexible panels up there, we have no other place to put them, and they are already 100 pounds lighter than the old solid ones were. A wider track width would help but the track we will run at for the actual competition has no real turns. It is a 1.88 loop around the campus.

Not worried about stability there but it does make testing difficult, hard to know what it does if you don't have good place to actually do it.

Driver skill was also a problem when she dumped it over, she did not recognize when she was starting to get unstable and lift off accelerator to keep it under control
 

Functional Artist

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I don't think 800 Watts will do what we need and we already have the ME1003, it came on another kart from a different school here in the county that is not participating in this any longer. We have used an ME0909 since I inherited this project and made it work great. So good that we can no longer test it on the track at school, too fast to handle the turn. We got 30 mph out of our old kart with that motor before it dumped itself over on its side.

If we can't find the specs for the newer motor, we will probably just swap in one of the spare ME0909 motors that we have and run the snot out of it.

Trying newer batter set-up this year using lithium batteries combining starter batteries and deep cycle batteries in parallel then series to run higher voltage and have what amounts to added capacity due to more of the capacity being useable. Still have no idea if it will work right for the whole race, lol
OK but, those are both HUGE (power hungry) motors for such a small kart

For comparison,
I have a ME0709 (~8HP) powering my full size motorcycle @ 48V (~50MPH top speed)
...& it can & will draw over 200A at times
A ME0708 (~5HP) powering my Hellraiser kart @ 48V (~35MPH top speed)
...& it can & will draw ~100A
Polaris, my Electrathon race car is powered by a (~1.2HP) MY1020 48V 1,000W motor (~30MPH top speed)
...but, only draws ~20A (peak) & ~12A - 15A (constant)
 

nobled2

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OK but, those are both HUGE (power hungry) motors for such a small kart

For comparison,
I have a ME0709 (~8HP) powering my full size motorcycle @ 48V (~50MPH top speed)
...& it can & will draw over 200A at times
A ME0708 (~5HP) powering my Hellraiser kart @ 48V (~35MPH top speed)
...& it can & will draw ~100A
Polaris, my Electrathon race car is powered by a (~1.2HP) MY1020 48V 1,000W motor (~30MPH top speed)
...but, only draws ~20A (peak) & ~12A - 15A (constant)
What do those weigh in at? We have to meet min weight of 440 pounds plus driver. Once we get up to speed we run at 90ish amps with the 0909 motor. It's a full frame go kart with solar panels added on.

If we can average 30 mph, we can complete each of the first two heats in a minute thirty seconds giving us over 22 minutes to do nothing but recharge batteries.

These are the motors we have available to us. I'm leaning toward just swapping in what we know and running it.
 

Functional Artist

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While doin' more research, I found an interesting build thread (from ~15 yrs. ago)
...&/so, I'ma gonna share it with you'all :2guns:

It is formatted kinda wierd (in sections)
...&/so, I'll post it the same way (in sections) ;)

Building an Electrathon Car From Scratch by Jim Robinson – March, April 2009

This is something that I got involved in back in 2002 with my students. For those reading this that may not know, Electrathon is a competition for purpose-built electric powered vehicles. These are not little toys or R/C cars; they are 3 or 4-wheeled vehicles that you can get in and drive. These also are not the $100,000+ solar experimentals that race across country every Spring. An Electrathon car may be built from a kit or completely scratch built. Although the kits can get pricey, depending on options, I have seen some very good competitive cars built from scratch for around $500! The final cost depends greatly on the ingenuity of the builder. Although Electrathon is a great project for high school kids, it is not limited to them. Anyone who posesses a valid driver's license can participate in Electrathon. The races are "enduro style" which means that we race for a specified length of time (usually one hour). Whoever completes the greatest distance (most laps) in the designated time is the winner. After the initial expense of obtaining or building a car, the upkeep and maintenence is really cheap. Most of the cars run bicycle tires in the $12 to $20 price range; how long they last depends on the surface we race on. Lube the chain, charge the batteries, slap on a couple of fresh tires and go race. At the end of the day we usually have spent $30 - $40. When I was racing stock cars, that wouldn't fill the fuel tank and tires were $110 each. Electrathon is just good cheap fun. I recently sold one of my cars and have undertaken, with a couple of my students, to build a new one to replace it. Follow along on this thread and see how we do it. For more info on Electrathon cars and events, check out the Electrathon America website:
https://www.electrathonamerica.org/

The cars are technically interesting and sometimes aesthetically appealing, too. Most of all, they are a blast to drive. Being an old stock car racer, I am accustomed to combustion engines that have to turn up some RPM's to generate horsepower. Boy, did I have a lot to learn when I started playing with electric motors! Come to think of it, I still have a lot to learn.The objective in Electrathon is to complete the most laps in a given amount of time (usually 1 hour). We are limited to 73 pounds of lead-acid Gel Cell or AGM batteries or we can use two batteries off the approved list (My team uses two Optima batteries) wired in series for a 24 volt system. Each car must also carry a 180 pound payload (payload is defined as the driver plus ballast, if necessary, to equal a minimum of 180 pounds).There are races held at real racetracks occasionally, but most of the courses we run on are temporary parking lot venues. All you need is somebody to race against and a place to do it and you can hold an Electrathon race.

Innovation and ingenuity are the name of the game in this sport. Although most of the cars are capable of speeds in excess of 40 or even 50 mph, because of the tightness of the short courses and the need to conserve the limited battery power, race speeds are usually only in the 24 to 28 mph range which makes this a fairly safe sport. Even so, competition is sometimes close and fierce. Here are some typical cars (left to right & down): Pic 1 is a Blue Sky Designs Aerocoupe. This is a very popular kit car. It is of the "cycle car" type, meaning it has two wheels up front and one in the rear. They are aerodynamic, light, mechanically simple, and very reliable. They ain't cheap, though. Pic 2 is a front-wheel-drive car. Note the motor is mounted on the front fork. Batteries are behind the driver and the driver sits well back in the car. This is a tricycle design (one front wheel, two rear). Tricycle style cars have a tendency to roll over if the weight is not kept centered between the rear wheels. If you've ever ridden a three-wheel motorcycle, you know what I mean. Pic 3 is one of my team cars. This is a cycle car style and the driver reclines way down low. It was originally built with independent front suspension, but I recently converted it to rigid suspension for better reliability and less weight. Pic 4 is one I built for myself. This is the car that I just sold recently. It is cycle car style and includes a six-speed derailleur. Pic 5 is the dominant car in this area right now, at the time of this writing. It ain't pretty, but it's fast. It is powered by a 1 hp Scott motor, uses a six-speed derailleur, and the chassis is suspended and linked to the steering so that it leans into the turns.

OK, this is supposed to be a build thread, so let’s get to it. If I seem wordy it's because I want to explain everything as best I can to those who have never been exposed to this type of thing before.First thing is to decide which type of car to build. Of course, we could build a conventional 4-wheel car, but since friction is a consideration, eliminating the rolling friction of one tire on the ground seems to be the way to go. The simple fact that probably more than 99% of all Electrathon cars are 3-wheeled lends credence to that practice. So.., with that in mind the next consideration is whether to make our 3-wheeler a cycle-car or a tricycle. Folks who have ridden old Harley Servicar 3-wheelers know that, in a tight corner, those things will dive right over the front wheel and flip over at relatively low speed. The problem is that the high center of gravity (CG) transfers forward and outside the triangle formed by the three contact patches of the wheels. In order to stabilize a tricycle in a corner, it is necessary to get the CG down low and between the rear wheels so it won't dive over the front wheel. To do that, we need to stretch the wheelbase and move everything down and rearward. One of the winningest teams in Electrathon, Cloud Electric, successfully uses the tricycle configuration, but up in the Northwest they run mostly on long courses or ovals. On the tight parking lot "road courses" we run most of the time here in Florida, quick handling is important. With a cycle-car configuration we can keep a shorter wheelbase for quick steering response, move the CG around pretty much at will to put components where we want them, and still not worry about the car having a tendency to roll over. I have video of one of the Kennedy High School cars from Iowa actually smoking the rear tire in a tight turn and all 3 wheels stay firmly on the ground. So, it is a cycle-car style that we will build here. I have an advantage in that I have done this before. The car below (also pictured above) was originally conceived by my students, the design refined by me and a former teaching assistant, and built by my students and me. That was in 2004. Since then, this car has proven itself to be reliable, consistent, and driver-friendly. The new car I am building here is similar to this, but with a few refinements I have learned along the way.

The pics are in this file
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://electrathonoftampabay.org/www/Documents/Jim%20Robinson%27s%20Build%20Process/Electrathon%20Build%20Thread%201.doc&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK
 
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