Home-made electric car - part 1

HickTimes, hello! Now the automotive industry is rapidly developing using electric traction. Many do-it-yourselfers, and just enthusiastic people try to collect something like this with their own hands, so my friend decided to get carried away with it, and in turn I help him, and I want to tell you the beginning of this story.





I learned about this project quite by accident. My wheel bearing collapsed on my car, there are many options for which service to go, in each familiar service a friend works or manages. I chose which one to go due to the age of meeting with one of my friends, my classmate at university.



Entering boxing with him, looking around, after a while he noticed that on one side on the workbench lay something welded from aluminum.



By asking him: “What is this?” - He told me that in the future this is an electric traction machine, which he is building for his newly born daughter.



The main design of the car is made of aluminum parts, this is basically all that remains of the activities of the car service, and something else was bought at a local flea market. The parts were interconnected by TIG welding.



The machine was conceived with rear-wheel drive, with a modified engine from a car starter. The planetary gear remained in the motor, but with a modified housing. As an output stage, they put an angular gearbox from the “grinder”. As a result of these improvements, the output shaft produces 210 rpm, in terms of linear speed, with a wheel diameter of 250 mm, the machine will be able to accelerate by about 10 km / h, which is more than enough for a child (in our opinion).





The front suspension was made independent, the springs were selected according to the stiffness of those that accumulated over many years of the service, so it’s quite difficult to say which springs it was.



Still, I had to buy a steering rack, we didn’t “collective farm” ourselves. We ordered it on the entire well-known Chinese site, by design it is actually a smaller copy of the steering rack of a full-fledged car, the quality is quite decent and the weight is also, as it is entirely made of metal, the body is cast.



From what remains to be done, it is to complete the rear suspension, install the motor - gearbox, steering wheel and seat, separate some wiring and the machine should go.





Now for speed and reverse control. All this is answered by a small box that contains: a motor driver, an arduino microcontroller and a bit of strapping.



The speed is changed by pressing the pedal, working on the basis of the hall sensor. Arduinka coordinates the operation of the pedal with the engine driver, and reverses when the toggle switch is switched.



I also want to implement wireless control, for safety, at least just turn off the power to the engine. This, of course, is nothing complicated, but we will do it a bit later.



Braking will be carried out by the engine.



As for the power plant, we will supply an ordinary car battery for starters, and then it will probably be replaced by a lithium one.



PS Everyone enjoy reading, and have a good weekend! :)

PSS Congratulations to all involved and amateurs on SAMBO day!