My Valk trike has a reverse system based on some car's starter motor, connected to a flywheel on the drive shaft. It's primitive but effective. Trouble is, being a starter motor it draws huge current and is is way too fast and powerful for the job, as geared.
I tried it fpr the first time last evening and, because the battery was a bit low, it was not that fast, but stalled very quickly. Firing up the motor, I lifed the battery and got some reverse. But it takes so much power that unless the battery is top hat, if I have the engine running and ask for reverse, the engine dies! So the reverse is sucking away the ignition!
The previous owner warned me that the reverse is scary fast if the battery is charged. So it is way overpowered and high geared, both because it is too fast and because it draws huge current and demands a lot from the system.
I can think of various ways to gear the system, or PWM the motor (I know that at several hundred amps starter motors are a biznitch for this) , but are there standard, accepted, reasonably-priced ways to deal with this?
Any ideas? I can fix this, but I do not want to reinvent the wheel.
Nick
I tried it fpr the first time last evening and, because the battery was a bit low, it was not that fast, but stalled very quickly. Firing up the motor, I lifed the battery and got some reverse. But it takes so much power that unless the battery is top hat, if I have the engine running and ask for reverse, the engine dies! So the reverse is sucking away the ignition!
The previous owner warned me that the reverse is scary fast if the battery is charged. So it is way overpowered and high geared, both because it is too fast and because it draws huge current and demands a lot from the system.
I can think of various ways to gear the system, or PWM the motor (I know that at several hundred amps starter motors are a biznitch for this) , but are there standard, accepted, reasonably-priced ways to deal with this?
Any ideas? I can fix this, but I do not want to reinvent the wheel.
Nick