I preemptively publish and establish a 1-year deadline for my own patent application in the USA thusly:
I spoke about my MOEPED series of ultracapacitor electric bicycles with a friend--my boss from my "apprenticeship" days. I created the business name "Replikon Research" to bill this guy with. I billed him. He paid me. The supercontractor paid him. The supersupercontractor paid the supercontractor, and the Navy paid the supersupercontractor. It was the SES-2000, later cancelled, and the bearing bores I did sit rusting in the yard in Brentwood. I got a few CoCo credits out of it.
We agreed a key issue in e-bike design is stop signs and signals. He mentioned the power-to-weight and flexibility of the hydraulic swash- plate motor/pump, and I countered that all infotainment and NAV/COM is electrical, not hydraulic. We agreed I'd get to work on something that would give cyclists *positive incentive* to stop on sign or signal, and an advantage restarting.
I ordered a 3-flute 5/16 milling bit and some 5/16 OD x 1/8 thick neodymium magnets. The prospects for torque using frame mounted coils were good.
I turned to an old rear hub I had. I mounted it to a side flange of an EV Wilderness front hub. I sawed the shaft off and bored out the magnet core. I rabetted the core, turned down a cog, pressed the cog in the rabett, v-grooved the land adjacent the cog, and rolled the grooved lip over to secure the cog. It spun nicely on the freehub body of the old rear hub, and the side plate spun nicely when the freehub body was held steady. TIR to be measured later.
Then came assembly. Ack! Major Magnet Suck. 1/r^3. Yikes. I developed a sleeve to protect the magnet core from suck and misalignment, then the mental fog parted and I order a bit of 4130 steel DOM tubing and a pair of bearings. When they arrive, the tubing will be concentric with the hub body and the bearings will guide the magnet core into place in the armature core, to which the spokes attach.
Remaining:
2 brushes commute the armature. They're held by the magnet core, which rotates on the freehub body. To what do these connect? More slip rings to get out of the hub, or a single slip ring pair to battery or ultracapacitors mounted Green Wheel style around the hub?Measuring the input power. We've discussed the options; the Polar brand's use of chain tension by vibration frequency times chain speed by counting is the best I've seen.
You understand the idea, though? Coasting down a hill, any attempt to put more power into a conventionally regenerating hub will just warm a lot of air behind the cyclist, wasting energy, increasing forward speed an infinitum. With this hub, backpedaling while coasting to a stop or while descending increases the relative speed of magent core and armature, greatly increasing the efficiency of capturing forward motion and pedal power input.
The ideal platform seems to be a folding trike, tadpole style, with this hub in back, and rim drive wheels in front. 3WD, seated comfort at stop signs and signals, seated power generation, in-home use as a backup geneartor, and a stable platform for all kinds of electronic gadgets, which folds into a very heavy bag for all-mode transport: bus, rail, subway, boat, probaby airplane (ultracapacitors are a concern). Challenge offers just this trike. In yellow!
Buddy, can ya spare five grand?
Douglas (Dana) Goncz Replikon Research Seven Corners, VA 22044-0394