I even bought a bunch of solar cells for that purpose in October 2013.
But an arrival of another kid, buying a house and subsequent extensive renovations put a big hold on PVelomobilisation:)
Sometime in 2017 I had spotted Wing by Kogakuin University Solar Team and was so much inspired by novelty of the design that decided to finish my distantly similar project.
After a very long and productive period I finished the panel, but the trike didn't look aerodynamic enough. Only the right mirror positioned itself in a streamlined way. Just kidding!
I connected the panel to the trike's body with plastic pipes initially.
Even with the help of two precious assistants I found no problems with such setup.
I started soldering the cells on 24 February and on 25 March 2018 I tested the front half of the panel.
The second half was ready on 20 April 2018.
Having gotten motor&controller, MPPT and connected all them together, on 19 June 2018 I made the first test ride in A7 with solar panels.
85-kg me + yuramobile accelerated to 15 km/h on the solar power alone! The feeling was similar to the first experience of riding a sail boat on my own.
Plastic tubes were still in use.
In July 2018 I added 2 KWh of batteries (the proven usable capacity is 1.6 KWh). Yuramobile got heavier and reached 72 kg. Though it sounds simple, wiring all battery cells in series took me about 6 working days to complete. I had watched a ton of vids on YouTube how to do the job, all of them being of no help. But the voltage I got was a solace.
As the panel's plastic braces that connect it to the canopy got loose from the harshness of test rides, I had to replace them with aluminum ones. The sun also made the plastic softer.
The cat had nothing to do with that issue, but he enjoyed the shade!
In the meantime I applied a corrosion protection to the fork and put a fender in, but the latter had to be removed when 20x2" tires were installed.On 30 July 2018 I finished a 170 km trip spread over a few days riding with little pedaling and maximum acceleration at speeds close to 40 km/h (on a more or less flat terrain, lots of potholes, skies mostly overcast). Here is a low quality video of a motorway ride. I had to slow down to film the ride.
About 30-40 km of that ride was energized courtesy of the Sun. The battery voltage dropped below 54 V.
I tried smaller chainrings (48T the biggest), but it wasn't practical with the motor on.
On 4 August 2018 I rode for 40 km with pedaling, decent acceleration and speeds close to 35 km/h. After an hour of lunch brake, I found the battery being completely replenished by 3 p.m. Whenever I left yuramobile while making adjustments or tuning it that day, I put the solar panel to face the sun by lifting the rear wheel, but it was far from the right angle.For the following updates, please check News section.
