Slick 3-wheeler, teenager made

May 31, 2010

Last year, at the MREA Energy Fair, I met Mark while I was showing off my home-built electric car. He had photos with him – a super-cool electric three-wheeler, complete with a fiberglass body and canopy. While browsing through YouTube, I stumbled across a video on him and his trike. I hope to see Mark […]

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EV DVD Coming Soon!

May 31, 2010

Hi Everyone. We are currently in production on a “Build Your Own Electric Car” instructional DVD. Expected run-time should be around two hours. It’s going to be a challenge to pack in all the information we can about Controllers, Motors, Chargers, and conversion tips and tricks. We expect to have the video ready by the […]

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Perpetual Motion Solved! Regen Alternator.

May 29, 2010

One of the most common questions I get about my electric car is if I do regenerative braking on it. The answer is “No”. Like many other home EV builders, I’m using a plain, series-wound, DC motor. Those motors are just not designed for regenerative breaking. So of course the next comment is “Couldn’t I […]

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Chris’ EV Cycle comes home

May 28, 2010

After a long day at Autocross, I helped my friend Chris bring home his electric motorcycle. He had it at an art metals class, where students used the cycle as a project for designing real-world motorcycle parts. In this case they sculpted a metal body for the bike. My favorite way to move an EV […]

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EV Autocrossing

May 25, 2010

Hey Everyone, This weekend, I was invited by some new friends to come out to an “Auto-Cross” event. I really wasn’t familiar at all with Autocross, but it sounded interesting. Basically, it’s racing a car (just about any car, doesn’t have to be fancy!) around a track made of cones. Racing is based on time, […]

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May 14, 2010

Hey Everyone! The easiest way there is to save gas, is to make a few basic changes to your driving style. First off, SLOW DOWN! Driving fast is an easy way to drop your fuel economy. Besides slowing down, not having to start and stop and start and stop, will help plenty. Start and stop […]

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ElecTrak gets new rims!

April 28, 2010

More work done on the tractor! Turns out I am NOT using those hub adapters. They would have still needed modification to use anyways. The one set of rims was the right size, except that it was for a 3/4 drive shaft instead of a 1″. My friend Rich has a BIG lathe, that he […]

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PowerWheels Racing: Gravedigger Motor

April 28, 2010

The Milwaukee Makerspace is at it again! This time, participating in “Power Wheels Racing” – modifying stock kids electric vehicles for more power to compete against other teams in tug-of-war, races, and maybe even PowerWheels Polo. Gravedigger is so big, that if it weren’t stock, it would exceed the rules about vehicle size! We actually had […]

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Electro-Metro Tablet update

April 18, 2010

Lately, I have been playing with a tablet PC provided to my by my friend Tom. A while back, I mentioned to him how a small computer display would be really handy. So, of course, he dug up an entire computer built around a 800×600 pixel touch-screen display. So far, the main plan was to […]

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100,000 miles on electric!

April 16, 2010

The other day, I was pretty excited to have rolled over 2000 miles on my electric Geo Metro since conversion. Well, that would be nothing for Doug Korthof and Lisa Rosen, who recently passed 100,000 miles on their RAV-4 Electric. The following is thanks to Plug In America. “Doug and Lisa’s trusty 2003 RAV reached […]

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