Electric Kart questions (please read)

[Krazy Karl]

Hi id just kike to say this is my first post so please dont hate if i ask questions which have already been asked.

Okay so first off i just recently started working as an apprentice electrician and i love it and everything electrical.. so i want to build an electric kart.

i have read over some things on the site such as car starter conversion and i think i am quite capable of doing so.

here is what i would like my kart to be like... (please comment on specific things that are bad and i should stay away from if you notice any)

1-starter motor, converted. Some sort of additional cooling fan to help with cooling

2-smalls wheels for fast acceleration, pneumatic rubber for traction

3-belt driven for silence and ease of installation of pulleys as opposed to sprockets

4-engine pulley will be smaller then axle pulley for higher torque

5-possibly welded frame (just got a mig welder, yet to be hooked up and tested)

6.a- 12 volt, most likely two 12v deep cycle batteries wired parallel to increase ah (amp hours) as opposed to voltage
6.b-another option later on will be next time we re wire a school or commercial building i'l get the 12v batteries form the emergency lighting system. these i believe are lead acid batteries and are much smaller then regular 12v auto or deep cycle, and they have a pretty decent ah (for electrical code the emergency lighting is they must stay on for at least 22 min)

7- for a speed controller i was planning on using a variable speed drill trigger. has anyone done this? i figure the trigger on a drill regulates voltage (educated guess) seeing as with a DC engine voltage is directly proportional to speed of the engine so that would be the simplest way to do so. I was wondering if it would have to be a DC trigger or if it could be AC and run DC through it

8-somewhere down the line some type of re-gen system, maybe a car alternator. i figure that since car alternators need high RPM to produce power i would gear it so i would have as large of pulley i could fit on the rear axle while still maintaining ground clearance (for example if i use six inch tires, i would use a 5 inch pulley so there is ground clearance) and on the alternator itself have as small as pulley as possible

9-as cheap as possible of course haha

for ease of replying i added numbers to each point so please reply either in general or use the number as a reference so reply's will be easier to understand.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Krazy Karl]

oh i think il add one thing to point 7, speed controller. using a drill trigger, i figure i would make a bow tie style steering wheel so the trigger will be right at my hand. and i will have the steering so just less then half a turn (150-160 degrees) will equal maximum turning of front wheels. and to over come extreme front end pull into the turn i will attempt to distribute the weight as well as possible

 

[jr dragster T]

You mean a smaller pulley on your motor for more torque right? And if I where you you I would use sprockets with that kind of torque from a starter. Plus attaching a sprocket is no more difficult than attaching a pulley.

 

[Krazy Karl]

there is just something that draws me to a pulley as opposed to sprocket. pulleys are more at my disposal for a better price then sprockets, i can double up the pulleys (so i would have two belts) for cheaper then one set of sprockets, which i guess i would only need one anyway because there wont even be a possibility of slippage

 

[Krazy Karl]

oh and i see you are from canada.. have you ever heard of peavey mart? thats were i am getting my belts and pulleys from, they have many different sises of pulleys and belts

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

I doubt the drill trigger could handle the amps, build a custom controller, it is rather easy to pose as an engineer to get free expensive semiconductor parts as "samples". If you use backup batteries just wire a bunch in parallel.

 

[jr dragster T]

No I have not heard of that store. Where abouts are you in canada?

 

[Scout]

I doubt the drill trigger could handle the amps, build a custom controller, it is rather easy to pose as an engineer to get free expensive semiconductor parts as "samples". If you use backup batteries just wire a bunch in parallel.

Use the drill trigger to control some scr's that can handle the power.

 

[Krazy Karl]

No I have not heard of that store. Where abouts are you in canada?

Saskatchewan

 

[jr dragster T]

Ohh ok. A little way's from me.