SRowells Sinclair C5

[Mattcheese31]

Haha just seen this thread, I remember riding these when they first came out! on my Grandparents caravan site in Skipsea, blast from the past

[Eeyore]

Right here is an update for you all...

I have purchased 8x 10000mAh Multistar 6S 22.2V lipos. These will all be run in parallel and they will be mounted in lots of four into two original original lead acid oldham sinclair c5 batteries. Should look very original. For the 12V lighting circuit im using a 24 - 12V DC DC converter. Im also going to need to get the battery straps, caps and ignition with keys which are difficult to get hold of and probably impossible to get matching keys and a boot lock.

   

So 10000mAh x 8 gives me 80ah at 22.2V. The batteries are from HobbyKing and were reduced from £75 to £45 each so I jumped at the opportunity and on paper this is the cheapest way of doing it. I wont be using 22.2V all the time probably half of that for around the original speed as much faster melts the brushes. At 12v this probably equates to around 140ah which should give me a massive range. Not sure exactly how much but hoping around 50 miles. Yes im aware that Lifepo4 batteries are safer and handle more charge cycles but they are also not readily available in high capacity, ones which are have current limiting boards and they are almost twice the price. Again the same thing for nimh batteries.

The lipo batteries weigh 1kg each so total 8kg. Currently I have two lead acid batteries at probably 15kg each so this should offer a 22kg saving which will again increase the range, increase acceleration and reduce strain on the motor.

This is all going through a power 10 speed controller which takes 100A continuous and can take 140A for a minute and burst of 180A. C5 peaks at 140A on stalling so should be good.  In order to handle the 22.2V and the current draw im using 10AWG cabling to the controller and to the motor which at ~6mm2 should allow use of 90A continuous without issues. 

The hardest thing to work out has been charging. It looks like you can spend a lot of money on chargers. Ive gone for a turnigy 4x6S charger which will charge four batteries at once. Its 200W overall and limited to 50W/6A per battery. 50W/22.2V isnt a lot and only charges at 2.2A so it will take 5 hours to charge all four or 10 hours for all 8! Its a pain but its the most cost effective way of doing it and also safer to charge the batteries slower. The power supply for the charger is a cheap unit from amazon left over from a project where I didnt deem it safe enough to leave in a public place due to no kettle lead but just crimped 240v connections. This supplies 350W  of 12V so more than enough leaving the charger as the limitation.

   

Ive ordered copious amounts of crimps, XT90 connectors, charging leads, heat shrink etc so once it arrives from all over the world Ill be able to get started. So after this itll be 22kG lighter, 50+ mile range, faster accelerating, and probably higher top speed! Wish me luck!

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/multistar-hi...-pack.html
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-4x6s...arger.html

[Eeyore]

Batteries and all the bits to fit them have arrived. Currently charged up to the 50% storage charge and stored in some ammo boxes.

Ive been struggling to print this myself so got shapeways to print it. Its a high vis mast which are difficult to get hold of. Its ended up 3mm out from the original but good enough. Now to cut the reflective vinyl to fit.





Also ordered a spare front and back right wheel to mod with disc brakes so I can actually stop!

[Eeyore]

Very quick run down. There has been too much going on to list. Essentially the whole thing has been stripped down and rebuilt. Bearings greased and replaced where needed. Chassis treated for rust and resprayed in original colour. Ive redone the 24v system for the second time. Received and wired up all the lipos and got a charging station setup. Also fitted a front disc brake. So yeh. pretty much fully restored and ready to go for the 15 mile ipswich to felixstowe road run next weekend.

it feels a lot better now that ive shed 22kg of car batteries for the lipos. Range should be 60+ miles now. Love this so much that ive actually bought a second one that needs a lot more work. ive already bought everything I bought for this one for that so it should also be 24v in no time at all!

new disc brake on a metal wheel. new vs original!


body off showing off the repainted and rust treated chassis.


3d printed and metal speed controller mounting.


3d printed fan mount for attaching a 90mm PC fan to the motor to provide cooling to brushes and magnets.


new wiring.


all together and looking smart. Few bits of a trim to put on but mainly ready to rock and roll!

[Eeyore]

So things have changed a lot since the last update.

First of all the ipswich to felixstowe road run which i was prepping for in the last post was a complete disaster... but a lot of fun. I did 2 miles in the c5 to the park where all the vintage vehicles were meeting. I then did a grand total of 5 meters before the speed controller blew. Not sure why but oh well. I ended up being naughty and connected the lipos directly to the motor via a relay controlled by the on off switch. This dumped a whole load of power through the system so I had to be pedaling at max speed and even then it was a hell of a kick. Reckon it must have got at least 30 mph down the cycle lanes under taking all the cars. I managed 8 miles before the motor melted. Because I was switching the entire system on and off it meant the fan wasnt on all the time.

   

Anyway... motor rebuilt and ready to go again but at the moment this first one is in pieces. Also swapped out the front caliper and started to fit a rear one.

First one you say... thats right I bought a second one from a bloke in kent who used to go to the pub. Its a bit rusty and ive restored the chassis but its still in pieces. 180 on ebay.

A third one came up on gumtree and I got the guy down to 220. Picked it up the same day at midnight and collected from his son. It was missing the front wheel cover and he listed it separately a week later. Annoying as they are worth 50 quid. Replaced the tyres on this one and found a wheel barrow inner tube in the 12" front wheel.

A fourth one came up on ebay with lots of spare parts and two expensive motor upgrades worth 80 each. I won it for 280 so essentially a c5 for 120. This one was really clean so I put some new tyres and tubes on it. Cleaned it up. Replaced the control box as this had previously caught fire and it was good to go.

   

A fifth one came up on the owners club. The guy wanted 150 and didnt know anything about them. We told him to put it on ebay which he did. I helped him bump up the bids by sticking 120 on... and unfortunately for him and me I won it for 100. He didnt realise I had won it though so I collected it. Its super rough. Chassis is rusted through and its had three coats of paint. The plastic is white and people tend to paint them when they dont know how to clean them. This one will never be original so I reckon Im just going to paint it yellow and then make this one super fast as I feel bad doing mad things to an original one.

   

I took two of them out a week or so ago. Fun day out. 3 miles in Woodbridge. 8 miles in Felixstowe. 11 miles on a 35ah car battery. Not terrible especially as it was cold and the batteries arent as good in low temps.

   

   

Apart from restoring three of them to original condition and the first one to essentially OEM+ the 5th one is going to be mad. I became a member of the fighting robots association which essentially home of the robot wars competitors. I snagged 2x ampflow e30-400 motors which put out 2.8hp. The original is 0.34hp so when i get one fitted it should fly! They also came with two speed controllers only found in the US which can handle a large sustained current. They are PWM controlled so I need to do some conversion to use the pot operated twist grip I currently have.

[welshpug]

very cool! though you will need to upgrade the drive system, those plastic cogs and toothed belt wont like a 10x power/torque bump

[Uberderv]

This is awesome Takes me back to watching Tomorrow's World...

[mr_fish]

such a collector. one for each day of the week.

how heavy are they?

[Eeyore]

very cool! though you will need to upgrade the drive system, those plastic cogs and toothed belt wont like a 10x power/torque bump

yeh Ive been looking at gearboxes, belts and chains etc. Will probably end up chaining it. It depends if I want to make this a one off or if i want to design it as a kit to be retro fitted and sell which is what ive done with everything so far. The 3d printer is running loads to make things!

such a collector. one for each day of the week.

how heavy are they?

legal limit of electric trike in 1985 when the law was introduced was 60kg... the c5 weighed in at 30 kg which allowed for a 15kg battery and a second one as an optional extra! The whole thing was made just to exploit the new law.