It would be super-sweet if batteries obeyed
Moore's Law ... we'd have all been riding around in electric Hummers by now.
It just doesn't look like we'll get there - at least not in the next decade - but still, we need to replace gas as our primary fuel for transportation.
Electricity would be a prime candidate if it weren't for batteries!!!
Progress has been made & we have many usable portable battery-powered devices today than we'd have imagined possible ... but I dare to say that more progress has been made in the efficiency of the machines they power than in the power to size ratio of the batteries themselves. My laptop will still die after 4,5 hrs away from a power source.
Of all of the silly rules we impose on ourselves for this journey, I'm convinced that running the prototype ee(R)go's non-stop is the most important ... if we can prove that that can be done, we can show that we have at least one viable option ... that's possibly even more robust than its predecessor. Speaking of which, it's probably funny to note that my biggest apprehension about pulling this off at this stage is whether my Land Rover will make the journey ... there's something in that ...
There has to be a viable option to this problem with batteries ...
There's a
Russian-invented brainstorming science called TRIZ that's exactly the type of thinking that should be applied to this problem ... it seems to me that too much effort has been thrown at trying to force batteries to obey Moore's Law - & they won't, until we see some new "step change".
TRIZ says that there are only 40 standard Inventive Principles ... and 76 standard solutions to all problems. If you look at the TRIZ lists, you see simple principles of science and nature listed ... the vaccuum, magnets ... etc. etc. what's fascinating is they're not very long lists - yet they seem surprisingly complete!!! The science of TRIZ is to open-mindedly apply all of the principles & solutions to a problem that you're looking to solve - and then evalute which is most viable / succesful.
That's the aproach that we're going to take with charging the batteries on the ee(R)go. The probelm we're going to solve is how to ride the bikes continuously for 6,000 miles (stopping only to swap riders). The approach we're going to take is to TRIZ the problem of keeping the batteries charged ... and believe me, our bases will be loaded ...
I admit that haven't read through the TRIZ lists again ... but am already attached to implementing all of these strategies on the bikes & the journey ...
- Wheel-driven dynamo ... well-proven on bicycles ... should benefit from the speeds we're targetting .... must be able to "free-wheel" & offer little resistance ... simple solution but probably not good for much more than running the aux. systems.
- Solar Panels ... I'm very bullish about these. The bike's design allows for a LOT of panel surface area (considering this is a bike andd all) ... solar panels work & should be easy to spec. ... we'll place them at different points on the bike & have some good data by the time we get to Peru. the support vehicle must be able to measure weather conditions to map those to panel's performance.
- Wind Turbines ... this is a shot in the dark but could prove useful. At 30 to 45 mph, there's quite a bit of wind coming over the ee(R)go. Could we harness some of that to charge the batteries? I think we can & that there are possibly 2 good collection points ... one is at the top of the solar panels on the front forks ... and the other is at the drivers feet & over the rear wheels.
- Swappable Batteries. This is the ultimate failsafe. If nothing else works, this plan will. We need to be able to detach single batteries when they're discharged and simply plug in charged ones. The RMB1's should work well for this ... but will need some modification for simple mounting & dismounting. This picture above shows the standard connections for the RMB1. It needs to be easier, quicker, less finnecky to change a battery ... get this right and we'll be able to change batteries on the road ... charging spare batteries in the support vehicle. This is the (essential) fail-safe plan for this project ... this requirement must be nailed.
To TRIZ the ee(R)go, we're going to ride the prototypes 6,000 miles & measure the performance of each of the strategies above. The production bikes will impliment the best of what we invent ...
