Hi
I'm from France, I need help to design a reverse trike for disabled people including myself.
I have general idea of the vehicle architecture but I need support to make sure the assembly is up to requirements.
My first question would be, can I use a solar station to power a vesc with a dc power unit? I know this may sound stupid but please consider leaving your opinion and ideas.
Hello Nicolas,
you would need to have a battery as a buffer between the vesc and the solar output. That is because the VESC feeds power back into the source when braking and that could damage solar panels or power supplys. So either a battery, charged by solar power, is needed or you could add a braking resistor.
You mainly need the battery to be able to run the vehicle reliably and predictably unless you live in an area with permanent sunshine, don't have clouds, seasons, or nights. Basically, if you live somewhere close to the sun on a planet that doesn't spin and always faces the sun with constant rate of solar radiation (without atmosphere), then you don't need a battery. You'd only need regular mechanical or other type of brakes to be able to stop. It would also be a good idea (almost a must) to add diodes between the solar panels and the batteries or anything in between to prevent back feeding the panels when their voltage goes below the battery voltage. You don't need a brake resistor.
NextGen FOC High voltage 144v/34s, 30kw (https://vesc-project.com/node/1477)
Hi and thank you for your interest
Indeed, I was thinking of using a lifepo4 battery pack to power this vehicle. Ideally, I would have used a 70kg LTO pack but I can't afford a 4000€ battery and the charger to go with it.
The idea was to plug in the vehicle to a small solar/wind power station to recharge it. But also I wanted to implement accelerometer and data recorder to help with accident analysis.
Anyone interested in this project can help.