When I came home today I suddenly saw 3 packages, total weight of 40kg. What could be in there?

Finally the first few parts for the conversion have arrived. Thank you Rebbl!

Most important part, the Evnetics Soliton Jr controller. Way overkill for this project but it's the only one that has the needed certification to pass inspection at the RDW. But it's the best you can get anyway, very high quality, a lot of options and not to mention it looks amazing.

Next, on top is the hall sensor, also from Evnetics so very high quality as well. The 'gas' cable gets connected to this and it will send 0-5V to the controller. Below that are 4 RFI filters and rubbers to safely guide the cables through the enclosure for the controller.

Enclosure for the controller, this consists of a few parts. This enclosure and the RFI filters (also a seperate mesh shielding that's already inside of the cables) are unfortunately necessary for the controller and motor to pass inspection at the RDW. All because of EMI (electromagnetic interference). The controller won't really be visible anymore which is a shame. But there's no other way, the rules are like this everywhere in Europe.

Also important, the charger to charge the batteries. This is already preprogrammed for the LiFePo4 batteries. I only gave them the info of the CALB SE70's so I hope the settings are still right for the CALB CA60's as well. Still have to ask for this.

On top a 150W DC-DC converter. With electric vehicles this is used instead of a dynamo. This converts the 72V I'll be using for the propulsion to 12V to keep the 12V battery charged.
Also some plugs for charging, a fuse for the charger and a relais. I just don't know what the relais is for, as far as I know this isn't needed. But it'll be of good use anyway.
There's also a box which I think is meant for the fuse but it doesn't even fit. Will have to see what to do with this later, it's a pretty weird fuse anyway (can only see the fuse holder, fuse is inside of it). Usually other type of fuses are used for this.

Then there's still some cables.
This one is to be used as the charge cable I guess. Will still have to ask for some more information on this as I don't think it's all complete for making the charge cable. The yellow roll is heat shrink.

Cable for between the charger and batteries. Pretty nice they're tied together, easier to attach.

Orange cable for between the battery pack and the controller and between the controller and motor (with mesh shielding).

Orange cable for between the battery packs (without mesh shielding).

And last but not least cable shoes for the orange cables.

This isn't all the parts yet though, still need to get the following from different companies:
- Electric motor (within 2-3 weeks hopefully)
- Contactors (big relais) for forward/reverse (within 2-3 weeks hopefully)
- Emergency switch (within 2-3 weeks hopefully)
- Batteries (still have to order them, delivery time of 2 months)
- A few fuses (still have to order them)

But I did already get a lot of parts now, however I need to get some mounts made for the controller and motor. Only after that I can actually start with the wiring and other things. But I can actually do some things now while waiting for the motor to arrive.

As I already wrote before in an earlier post, according to the RDW you need to 2 actions to operate the reverse. Today I tried making something for that. I used the cut off parts of the frame for this. So this is what I came up with.

It works mechanically, with the clutch lever you move the left part up, this is the interlock. With the choke lever you can then move the right part which will eventually operate a pressure switch. If you now release the clutch lever the right part will stay locked in this position (reverse).

While it works well in theory, it sadly doesn't in practice. I'd need to add some springs and be able to hold down the clutch and choke cables. This would get too complicated and with many moving parts so it can easily fail. I'll have to look for something else.

Meanwhile some more bad news. Delivery of both the controller and motor got delayed. Sadly I'll have to wait even longer to get the parts.

I'm having some doubts about which batteries I'm going to use. I think I will run into some problems with the batteries I intended to use (CALB SE70's). There will be a box around them so that they're protected but they need some space at the top for connections and cables. In a few places I think this won't be possible in the frame. So I might have to go with different batteries.

Luckily there's a lot of choice, however the sizes are generally the same for all LiFePo4 batteries with same capacity. But there is one that might have the right size to fit in the frame (CALB CA60's).

Here are both next to eachother.

The paper models are all based on the blue CALB SE70's. The gray CALB CA60's are the newer types, these will fit as well but I'd have to place most of them on their sides instead of straight up. This shouldn't be a problem for these batteries, only upside down is known to be bad.

Few advantages of the CA60's compared to the SE70's:
- They're much lighter. In total 24 of the SE70's will weigh 60kg while 24 of the CA60's will weigh 48kg. That's a 12kg difference which would get the total weight a bit closer to original again.
- They won't need any cooling, even under heavy load. The SE70's though might need cooling.
- Under heavy load there's not much voltage sag, or in other words better performance since the voltage the motor can use will stay higher. With the SE70's there's a lot more voltage sag.
- Better performance with cold weather, for if I'd ever want to ride the quad bike below 0 degrees (C).
- Performance will remain the same, whether the batteries are full or near empty. With the SE70's performance will decrease gradually.
- They'll take up less space since they're smaller. They only have to be placed differently in the frame since they're higher.

The only advantage of the SE70's is the higher capacity so I'd be able to ride a bit further. And they're also lower so I could place them straight up which is always better. But well, it's not really that much of a problem.

Think I'll go with the CA60's now, will probably be easier to fit them in the frame with boxes around them. And maybe the range will be pretty much the same since the weight of the quad bike will be less.

Been busy again today, I'm done cutting off parts of the frame now.

Upper engine mounts are gone as well now.

I will even out everything later on as I'll have to take everything apart anyway when the frame gets resprayed. Will be easier to reach those spots then.

Also still cut off the mount for the ignition coil. Wasn't really in the way off anything but it's no longer needed anyway.

Here's all the parts I cut off. The quad bike definately lost some weight already.

The battery tray might be placed back somewhere, still not sure if I want to keep using the lead acid battery for the 12V system. Thinking of getting 4 small 3.2V 10Ah lithium (LiFePo4) batteries and putting them in series. Much lighter, will last much longer and is even smaller with 4 of them together than the lead acid battery. But I will look into this later, the 12V wiring will be last on the list anyway.

Also checked again if the paper models fit well now. And they do.

Everything fits the way I want it now. There will just still be boxes around the batteries, hope there's enough space for these. Especially near the steering shaft, it'll be very tight there. For the rest I don't think I'll have any problems with it.
Maybe I still have to cut off a small piece of the front engine mounts since it's a pretty tight fit there as well. But I can only see if this is needed when the battery boxes are done.

Today I continued again cutting off some parts of the frame.

Upper plate for mounting the radiator is gone.

I must say it's a pretty solid frame. Took quite some effort to cut through it.

Bottom plate for mounting the radiator also gone.

Bottom engine mounts also gone.

Only the upper engine mounts left now and then I'll have to even out everything a bit with the rest of the frame.

Meanwhile I ordered the motor at LMC Ltd. and some other parts. Will probably get it within 2 weeks. The controller sadly had a delay so I still have to wait a bit longer for that. As for the batteries, I'm still waiting before I order them since I'm not sure yet if I will actually go with the CALB SE70's.