DCM Motors?

[Bill Butler]

All,

I'm starting a project with my son's Hurricane Jeep. It's a 2WD truck with 2 electric motors (one on each back wheel) and 2 speed settings plus reverse. I think it would be fun to make it operate on either battery power or solar power and also charge the battery via solar. It's a 12v system. My thought is to put in a switch so my son has the ability to choose the power source (battery or solar) and also install a smart charging system so their would be a one way flow (diode?) to charge the battery all the time with a smart switch to stop the charging when the battery has reached optimal charge.

I have some questions about sourcing small electric motors. Ideally I'd like to find a place that has DCM motors or equivalent. The part number for the motor is: 00968-9013. Seems to be the DCM267. I'm also interested in 12v battery charging accessories resources. I figured that you arduino geeks would have some trusted places to source this type of stuff.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

--
Bill Butler
bi...@butler.net
(615) 330-5044

[Scott Kozicki]

You would design this circuit so that you're always running off the batteries and the PV panels are charging the batteries. Just like in a data center. It's not much different than what I built for the solar powered wifi ap, just higher amperage. You can buy solar charge controllers off the shelf for this application. The circuits are fairly simple. 

Not sure why you'd use two electric motors to drive one axle. Seems like over complexity and you'd basically be wasting the differential in the axle. I'd mount one motor to drive the prop shaft for the rear axle directly. Then you could always have the option of converting it to 4wd with either another motor driving the front axle or a beefier motor driving a center differential driving both axles. You could get multiple gear ratios that way so your two speed motor could give you multiple drive gears in lots of configurations (2wd locked, 2wd slip, 4wd locked, 4wd slip, front or rear digs, etc)

Also, you should talk to the guys at RechargeCar. They have several products but their big claim to fame is modding ICE vehicles with electric motors. They are based here in Nashville and I'm hoping they present at the Real Bar Camp coming up. I can make an introduction if you have interest. 

[Bill Butler]

The switch to run off solar only is mainly for illustration purposes, that's easy enough. I'm using 2 motors because the hotwheels car that Jack has already has 2 motors, 1 for each rear wheel. I've actually found a good source for upgrading the motors. Apparently Hobbymasters has a nice line of upgraded/replacement parts for these cars. Looks like the car wants about 30A at 12v watts to run properly. This will likely be a problem if I truly want to run off solar alone. I haven't found any 360W panels out there. Looks like 240 is sorta the max for a single panel.

[Scott Kozicki]

Wait, is this a real jeep or like a toy?

[Jay Settle]

Wondering the same thing. 

-Jay

[Bill Butler]

It's a kid's electric jeep. Yes, a toy. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Scott Kozicki]

Hahaha! Okay, disregard everything I said!!

30A? Really???

[Jay Graves]

To quote an aeronautical engineer I once knew, "Grossly overpowered is barely enough." 

--
Jay Graves
3617 Central Ave
Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 566-8300
Twitter: @allballbearings

[Scott Kozicki]

Oh I know! Just seems odd that it would come stock that way. Usually thats what you'd be modifying first!