Electrathon America Forum

Aarun · Aarun

Hello, I'm a student at Augusta Prep and our Electrathon car is not able to race for 1 hour straight. We've done 4 races and the longest we've ever gone is 42 minutes. Our car is roughly 250 lbs total, and we're using 4 12v 20 ah lead acid batteries, and a 3kw motor from Golden Motors. Our controller is the Ke...

Functional Artist · Functional Artist

This is a ~360V (Gen 1) Lithium Battery Pack out of a 2015 Chevy Volt electric car (with its protective cover & connection panel) Without the protective cover It can be "broken down" into (3) main sections These (3) sections can then, be further "broken down", into (8) individual 12S3P 48V 50A...

GTElectrathon · GTElectrathon

Good afternoon, this is our second year doing Electrathon and we are trying to improve our performance and we have a few questions. we heard somewhere that with new batteries we should power cycle them a few times before we race them (discharge to 10v then charge them back up) is this worthwhile and wil...

mrc · mrc

Will a Curtis 1204 controller be damaged if a cable from the controller to the motor is disconnected and the throttle is cycled with voltage to the controller? Thanks for any help.

ProEV · ProEV

ebikes.ca has an excellent online simulator that allows trying different combinations of motors, batteries and vehicles. https://ebikes.ca/tools/simulator.html It is excellent for modelling Electrathon vehicles. They have posted a three part video series on using their simulator. The f...

tman0315 · tman0315

Hello, I am looking for a motor controller that would be compatible with my school's existing motor, a Lynch LEM 170-127 24-48v brushed DC motor. We want to add regen braking to our vehicle ahead of our next race. Any advice on what to buy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

hoth2o · hoth2o

Help I need to know which outputs are which? Out puts I don't know Here is how I'm trying to Wire.

Archer321 · Archer321

SpeedingPotato · SpeedingPotato

https://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-me1003.html

sam · sam

Can you run 3 -35ah batteries when they are under 73 lbs and 1260 watt -- Edited by Jeff McCaw on Saturday 15th of January 2022 01:28:12 AM

toddthuma · toddthuma

I am coach for the Mulberry High School Team, car #38 in Florida. I started a team in the school year 2017-18 with a loaner from Electrathon of Tampa. In the spring of 2017 I purchased a car from Jim Robinson. The next two years, my high school team won the high school champions trophy for the 2018-19 and 20...

ProEV · ProEV

Hi, I have written a little about using Rhino Lithium Ion Polymer batteries to run in the Advanced Battery Class. I was out of racing for 3/4 of a year and had left my pack fully charged. This is not the right way to store lithium cells. My understanding is that it is better to store them about 50% charged. T...

etailleur · etailleur

Hi, I'm new to electrathon. I saw in the manual that there's a couple of battery model that are legal. Which one is the best for a beginner team ? Thanks for all.

ProEV · ProEV

Hello fellow racers, In the Electrathon of Tampa Bay series in Florida, our advanced battery class has grown to five cars. It is lively and fun racing. For those of you thinking about trying Lithium, I have put together some Pros and Cons. I hope others will share their experiences and thoughts. Pro...

ProEV · ProEV

https://shiftev.com/index.php/shop/controls,-pedals-linkage/throttle-input-device-pot-box-detail.html

ProEV · ProEV

Hi,We were asked recently about our experiences with motors and controllers in the ProEV Super Coupe.When we first got the Blue Sky Chassis, it came with a unbadged brushless motor and no controller or batteries. For the first two years, we ran the motor with a Sykromotive prototype AC controller an...

LukeRRider · LukeRRider

In our car, we recently got an Alltrax SR48300 controller. So far it has been working well in tests, but when the throttle is pressed then released, the motor continues to spin slowly. We have checked the pedal to make sure the problem is not mechanical and it appears to be working fine. I have the Alltra...

Josh5 · Josh5

I have been researching Formula E cars batteries and their cooling systems. I was wondering if there is an advantage of cooling the batteries during the race. In Formula E they have radiators to cool the batteries during the race, but before the cars leave for the track dry ice fans cool the batteries t...

alexberry1030 · alexberry1030

Our team is wondering the advantages to running an AC motor? We think we have a good connection for one, but wondering how other e car teams use it?

stevgri · stevgri

https://shiftev.com/index.php/shop/motors-2014-01-09/motor-perm-pmg-132-24-72-vdc-19-1-peak-hp-detail.html

Archer321 · Archer321

So I built a hydraulic load cell so I can test the efficiency effects of things like gear ratios, controller settings, operating voltage, etc. I used a jackshaft so I could run the same sprockets on the test rig as on my car while keeping the hydraulic pump speed within its normal operating range. The p...

ProEV · ProEV

Hello racers, Our battery charger had a moment and slightly overcharged our LiPo pack. I did not have quite enough spare cells to replace all the damaged ones, so the pack is down on capacity. It was originally rated at and tested at 945 Watt hours but shut down after 825 the first race and 801 Watt hours t...

Zaine Stapleton · Zaine Stapleton

http://www.mpja.com/Panel-Meter-DC-Snap-in-Multi-Function-DC-100V-100A-10KW/productinfo/32542+ME/

Zaine Stapleton · Zaine Stapleton

I've tested groups of batteries as a pack by disconnecting my motor and hooking up a heater to create a load. I'm able to control how much power is going through by doing this. Talking with Mike Hodgert and Dave Cloud, they test batteries individually to get a better more accurate read for the number o...

Nitoragro · Nitoragro

There is a new team here in Tampa and they have been doing VERY well, a top three finisher in every race. When they race they use one yellow and one red top. Has anyone else tried this? With one bring deep cycle and one being a starter will power be taken from them differently? Thanks for your help

Zahrack · Zahrack

To clarify... this is just an idea/debate I have with myself. I'm in the middle of doing a paper design that I don't plan on building till I have funds around a year from now. The hopes are to compete with the top racers in a new fresh 3 wheel design with a trike configuration. (2 wheels front & 1 in the ba...

Nitoragro · Nitoragro

I have been looking at making a new car and we need a new motor, right now we have the ME0709, and I'm not a huge fan of it, it is the biggest motor being used in Tampa. The ME0909 seems to look good, much lighter then what we have now and much cheaper, has anyone had any experience with it? Thanks for the help

BryceK · BryceK

Hello! I am new to Electrathon, and starting a team this year. From my research, I see that most teams run with an ME-909 motor, but I'm wondering why. Is it price/efficiency, price/wattage, etc.? I also do FRC, and have a couple extra CIM motors lying around, and I'm wondering if they're comparable to...

Nitoragro · Nitoragro

On my car we run a 36v system, using 3 batteries each 12v and weighing 23 pounds. Doing that math we run a little over 69lbs of batteries. So that means we have about 3 lbs of battery weight we can still use. But we can't add just a small battery in series or the pack with die quickly. So I was thinking having a s...

Nitoragro · Nitoragro

This motor I have been looking at from Cloud Electric and seems like a very good motor, has anyone had experience with these? Are they worth there high cost?

Topic		Started By	Replies	Views	Last Post
	Battery not lasting a full race (Preview) Hello, I'm a student at Augusta Prep and our Electrathon car is not able to race for 1 hour straight. We've done 4 races and the longest we've ever gone is 42 minutes. Our car is roughly 250 lbs total, and we're using 4 12v 20 ah lead acid batteries, and a 3kw motor from Golden Motors. Our controller is the Ke...	Aarun	10	182	8 days ago by javisredtwine
	Lithium Battery Packs made from cells out of Chevy Volt electric cars (Preview) This is a ~360V (Gen 1) Lithium Battery Pack out of a 2015 Chevy Volt electric car (with its protective cover & connection panel) Without the protective cover It can be "broken down" into (3) main sections These (3) sections can then, be further "broken down", into (8) individual 12S3P 48V 50A...	Functional Artist	8	214	November 20th by Functional Artist
	Power Cycling/Battery heating? Batteries charging (Preview) Good afternoon, this is our second year doing Electrathon and we are trying to improve our performance and we have a few questions. we heard somewhere that with new batteries we should power cycle them a few times before we race them (discharge to 10v then charge them back up) is this worthwhile and wil...	GTElectrathon	2	144	Sep 24, 2023 by Functional Artist
	Controller Damage? (Preview) Will a Curtis 1204 controller be damaged if a cable from the controller to the motor is disconnected and the throttle is cycled with voltage to the controller? Thanks for any help.	mrc	1	200	Apr 23, 2023 by nickg
	Comparing motors, controllers and batteries (Preview) ebikes.ca has an excellent online simulator that allows trying different combinations of motors, batteries and vehicles. https://ebikes.ca/tools/simulator.html It is excellent for modelling Electrathon vehicles. They have posted a three part video series on using their simulator. The f...	ProEV	0	267	Mar 29, 2023 by ProEV
	DC Brushed Motor Controller with Regen Braking (Preview) Hello, I am looking for a motor controller that would be compatible with my school's existing motor, a Lynch LEM 170-127 24-48v brushed DC motor. We want to add regen braking to our vehicle ahead of our next race. Any advice on what to buy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!	tman0315	4	523	Feb 6, 2022 by Archer321
	Help with wiring alltrax (Preview) Help I need to know which outputs are which? Out puts I don't know Here is how I'm trying to Wire.	hoth2o	1	337	Feb 4, 2022 by Archer321
	Battery testing (Preview)	Archer321	1	470	Oct 27, 2021 by ProEV
	What Speed Controller to use for a DC Brushed motor? (Preview) https://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/0-me1003.html	SpeedingPotato	1	347	Oct 27, 2021 by Archer321
	Batteries (Preview) Can you run 3 -35ah batteries when they are under 73 lbs and 1260 watt -- Edited by Jeff McCaw on Saturday 15th of January 2022 01:28:12 AM	sam	1	2293	Sep 18, 2021 by ProEV
	Sharing what a Newbie is learning about Li-ion chemistry - On the road to my own pack (Preview) I am coach for the Mulberry High School Team, car #38 in Florida. I started a team in the school year 2017-18 with a loaner from Electrathon of Tampa. In the spring of 2017 I purchased a car from Jim Robinson. The next two years, my high school team won the high school champions trophy for the 2018-19 and 20...	toddthuma	3	686	Feb 18, 2021 by Archer321
	ProEV tests an 18650 Lithium pack (Preview) Hi, I have written a little about using Rhino Lithium Ion Polymer batteries to run in the Advanced Battery Class. I was out of racing for 3/4 of a year and had left my pack fully charged. This is not the right way to store lithium cells. My understanding is that it is better to store them about 50% charged. T...	ProEV	2	1127	Feb 17, 2020 by Archer321
	Best batteries (Preview) Hi, I'm new to electrathon. I saw in the manual that there's a couple of battery model that are legal. Which one is the best for a beginner team ? Thanks for all.	etailleur	12	1599	Apr 23, 2019 by Archer321
	Pros and cons of moving to Lithium (Preview) Hello fellow racers, In the Electrathon of Tampa Bay series in Florida, our advanced battery class has grown to five cars. It is lively and fun racing. For those of you thinking about trying Lithium, I have put together some Pros and Cons. I hope others will share their experiences and thoughts. Pro...	ProEV	16	2403	Apr 2, 2019 by Zaine Stapleton
	Throttle and regen set up ideas (Preview) https://shiftev.com/index.php/shop/controls,-pedals-linkage/throttle-input-device-pot-box-detail.html	ProEV	2	1272	Nov 13, 2018 by ProEV
	ProEV`s experiences with controllers (Preview) Hi,We were asked recently about our experiences with motors and controllers in the ProEV Super Coupe.When we first got the Blue Sky Chassis, it came with a unbadged brushless motor and no controller or batteries. For the first two years, we ran the motor with a Sykromotive prototype AC controller an...	ProEV	3	1425	Aug 11, 2018 by 4TRIDENT4
	Throttle won't stop automatically (Preview) In our car, we recently got an Alltrax SR48300 controller. So far it has been working well in tests, but when the throttle is pressed then released, the motor continues to spin slowly. We have checked the pedal to make sure the problem is not mechanical and it appears to be working fine. I have the Alltra...	LukeRRider	2	1145	Feb 28, 2018 by 4TRIDENT4
	Battery Cooling Battery Dry Ice Cooling Formula E endurance Performance (Preview) I have been researching Formula E cars batteries and their cooling systems. I was wondering if there is an advantage of cooling the batteries during the race. In Formula E they have radiators to cool the batteries during the race, but before the cars leave for the track dry ice fans cool the batteries t...	Josh5	3	2025	Oct 3, 2017 by mhodgertt
	Does anybody run AC motors? (Preview) Our team is wondering the advantages to running an AC motor? We think we have a good connection for one, but wondering how other e car teams use it?	alexberry1030	1	1249	Sep 1, 2017 by Archer321
	Best motor on the market? (Preview) https://shiftev.com/index.php/shop/motors-2014-01-09/motor-perm-pmg-132-24-72-vdc-19-1-peak-hp-detail.html	stevgri	7	3339	May 8, 2017 by Lutzedarknut
	Hydraulic load cell for motor testing (Preview) So I built a hydraulic load cell so I can test the efficiency effects of things like gear ratios, controller settings, operating voltage, etc. I used a jackshaft so I could run the same sprockets on the test rig as on my car while keeping the hydraulic pump speed within its normal operating range. The p...	Archer321	4	1814	Mar 18, 2017 by Archer321
	Best series/parellel set up for lipo pack (Preview) Hello racers, Our battery charger had a moment and slightly overcharged our LiPo pack. I did not have quite enough spare cells to replace all the damaged ones, so the pack is down on capacity. It was originally rated at and tested at 945 Watt hours but shut down after 825 the first race and 801 Watt hours t...	ProEV	3	1878	Mar 3, 2017 by Archer321
	Roughly $20 dollar meter with shunt (Preview) http://www.mpja.com/Panel-Meter-DC-Snap-in-Multi-Function-DC-100V-100A-10KW/productinfo/32542+ME/	Zaine Stapleton	0	1364	Aug 31, 2016 by Zaine Stapleton
	Load Testing Setup (Preview) I've tested groups of batteries as a pack by disconnecting my motor and hooking up a heater to create a load. I'm able to control how much power is going through by doing this. Talking with Mike Hodgert and Dave Cloud, they test batteries individually to get a better more accurate read for the number o...	Zaine Stapleton	8	2487	Aug 20, 2016 by Zaine Stapleton
	Mixing yellow/red tops (Preview) There is a new team here in Tampa and they have been doing VERY well, a top three finisher in every race. When they race they use one yellow and one red top. Has anyone else tried this? With one bring deep cycle and one being a starter will power be taken from them differently? Thanks for your help	Nitoragro	10	2883	Aug 19, 2016 by Zaine Stapleton
	Using differential gears for forward wheel drive? (Trike configuration.) (Preview) To clarify... this is just an idea/debate I have with myself. I'm in the middle of doing a paper design that I don't plan on building till I have funds around a year from now. The hopes are to compete with the top racers in a new fresh 3 wheel design with a trike configuration. (2 wheels front & 1 in the ba...	Zahrack	4	2196	Jun 15, 2016 by Zahrack
	ME0909 (Preview) I have been looking at making a new car and we need a new motor, right now we have the ME0709, and I'm not a huge fan of it, it is the biggest motor being used in Tampa. The ME0909 seems to look good, much lighter then what we have now and much cheaper, has anyone had any experience with it? Thanks for the help	Nitoragro	4	1587	Apr 28, 2016 by Nitoragro
	Brushed vs. Brushless Motors (Preview) Hello! I am new to Electrathon, and starting a team this year. From my research, I see that most teams run with an ME-909 motor, but I'm wondering why. Is it price/efficiency, price/wattage, etc.? I also do FRC, and have a couple extra CIM motors lying around, and I'm wondering if they're comparable to...	BryceK	7	2804	Apr 27, 2016 by Archer321
	Electric Booster (Preview) On my car we run a 36v system, using 3 batteries each 12v and weighing 23 pounds. Doing that math we run a little over 69lbs of batteries. So that means we have about 3 lbs of battery weight we can still use. But we can't add just a small battery in series or the pack with die quickly. So I was thinking having a s...	Nitoragro	14	2968	Mar 31, 2016 by Lutzedarknut
	Motor LEM200-D135 LEMCO 24-48 VDC double magnets For Electrathons (Preview) This motor I have been looking at from Cloud Electric and seems like a very good motor, has anyone had experience with these? Are they worth there high cost?	Nitoragro	2	2192	Mar 30, 2016 by Lutzedarknut
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