Thanks. Not much existed on the web in reguards to wheelchairs, so I started that site myself.
Sounds like you got a steal at 25 dollars. I spent 17 grand for my quickie p200 that goes 7mph and 43 hundred for my jazzy 1170 that goes 6mph and climbs curbs. Looks like building a chair with wheels and hub motors should run about 3 grand and exceed waht both can do. Most all wheelchairs use that dual motor and gear box setup. Most are now direct drive then belt. Belt lasts the longest and you can get different pulleys to gear it up for speed or down for power. Most older chairs use 2 or 4 pole motors. Look for the number of brush caps to tell. 4 poles generally use parallel gearing and give more power, control and fuel economy. 2 poles generally use worm drive reduction with plastic bronze gears. They are less fuel efficent. You can see the most common ones at http://www.npcinc.com on the robot page. Next is the controller. They use a 2 channel controller, theh are rated between 30-70 amps. They use 2 programmers, 1 for the user the otehr for the manfacture. I believe the numbers for them are pp1a an pp1b. One allows you to set acceleration, deceleration, speeds, etc. The other allow syou to set things like load comp, roll back, brake voltage, etc. The joystick is about the only way someone with limited strength or movement can use to get around. THey make other joysticks for mounting on a chin bar to use with your chin incase you are like super man, as well as other controls that use switches or sip n puff. What I like to do in a wheelchair is to make circles and do them faster and tighter. If the chair is front heavy, it will start to do donuts. On slick wet tile floors they can be fun too. Hardware stores are also a fun place to slide around. Ive heard of people going to ice rinks and power sliding around them. Depending on the model you were playing with, the bottom of the joystick or the controller should have some pots to adjust the paramaters of the chair. I had an old electric scooter I did so with and I was able to pop wheelies and got clocked going 13mph down hill. I had to upgrade to wet cell as the gels didnt give enough range or umph. I just used walmart deep cycle batteries, much cheaper then what most dealers want. thanks jeff http://www.wheelchairmodifications.org The web site in the original message, http://www.wheelchairmodifications.org/ is an interesting source of information about electric wheelchairs. It's worth a visit if someone you know and care about needs an electric wheelchair. Even if you don't have a need to know about electric wheelchairs, reading about them can be an interesting digression from our usual EV discussions. My first EV was an old electric wheelchair that I bought for only $25 dollars. It had flat tires and missing batteries and was thoroughly covered. with mud. After cleaning it, fixing the flat tires and connecting two 12-volt batteries to provide 24 volts, it ran great! I drove it around in my driveway and once took it to a nearby shopping mall to try it out. It's an interesting experience to control a vehicle with a joy stick. It's also a chance to get some sense of what it might be like to need a wheelchair for mobility. And it's fun to drive. This EV is a wheelchair with 24-inch rear wheels and smaller front casters. All wheels are fitted with pneumatic tires about 2 inches wide. Each rear wheel is driven by an electric motor with an integral gearbox and belt drive from the gear box to the wheel. Top speed is about 4 mph. The controller is in a box about the size of a child's lunch box and uses old fashioned transistors. I don't know if electric wheelchairs are considered proper electric vehicles for discussion here or not. I think they should be. Tom Shay . ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 9:51 AM Subject: Hub Motors > Hi, think I got this working now, sorry AOL is free for me to use, so i use it. > > I have a quesiton about those hub wheel motors, like the 1000 watt model at http://abc.eznettools.net/D300013/X300109/eKits2.html > > Can I reverse them by the controller or a custom switch? > > I dont know if an electric wheelchair is considered an EV, but its my only way to get around and at 4-6mph its slow going and at that, I have to deal with over heating because of the small 400 watt motors and severly limited 2 channel 70 amp total controller and thermal roll back. > > I want to make a standard looking wheelchair with 2 of thoese motors on the rear, then mount hand rims to them for manual operation, put 4 batteries under the seat for the 48 volts, then find a 48 volt charger or use 4 12 volt ones, 1 for each battery. Then rig up a joystick like to control it for the long haul and use my hands on the hand rims like a unpowered wheelchair indoors. > > Wheelchairs steer by braking the inside wheel and or accelerating the outside one and in tight areas, even reversing the inside wheel. > > My goal is to run 15mph with tons of torque. I want to run till my batteries die or I get a flat. I dont want to have to stop and wait for something to cool down or some the controls to get lax or sloppy as it warms up. I hope the 2 1000 watt motors would be heavy enough for continious use. I am thinking of using the wheel size up to 24. I need to do more planning for the frame for the ride height I want to make up for my long legs. > > Thanks for any input, sorry about the HTML thing. > > Jeff > > Richmond, VA, USA > > http://www.wheelchairmodifications.org > >
