Jon's Warrior Build

Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
Karts are nowhere near centre point either. Better to have a decent camber and loose the centre point IMO.

An alternative is to cut the booms just next to the headtubes. That would maintain centre point.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
107
Location
Ontario, Canada
I'm planning on leaving it as it is, and see how it handles. If the camber becomes a problem, then I will cut and re-weld the booms near the end to get it neutral.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
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1,353
Location
Netherlands
It will have not a big influence, other than on the tyre wear that will be on the side and the cornering. You will roll faster.
But I don't think that you will have a problem with it.
 
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Jul 7, 2020
Messages
107
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Ontario, Canada
So its basically working now - I had to replace the pulleys I was using, since they were only held in place with M6 screws, and the rear one bent. I replaced them with a fully 3D-printed pulley with an M8 stainless steel threaded rod shaft, and that seems to be better. Had to crank up the 3D printer so it was printing solid with no infill, but the new pulleys seem like they should work. If not, I will try printing them with a TPU (fairly hard rubber) insert where the chain goes, and possibly replace the ABS parts with carbon fiber infused ABS. We'll see how it goes.

In any case, here it is in the basement, ready to start its first winter as an exercise trike:



I'll be building a new seat for it this winter, and painting it in the spring when it is a little warmer out.

Right now the issue I have is the trike is a little too short for me. What I mean by that is with the seat-back modification I did, the more vertical position pushes my shoulders forwards a few inches, and my elbows have to go behind my back to get my hands on the handlebars. Its not terrible, but I built this trike in order to have a comfortable ride, so I want it to fit right. I can't move the handlebars forward because they are currently clearing the tire by about an inch when I turn. I currently don't have any padding on the backrest part either, and once I add that this geometry will be worse for me. Its not too bad when it is going straight, but when I turn I have to really haul back on my shoulder joint, which is rather uncomfortable.



My current thought is I will give this trike to my wife (I was originally going to build hers next), and build a new one that has a slightly longer wheelbase. She is ~8" shorter than me, so she should have no trouble with this one. I think I will design a new frame entirely in CAD first, and make sure it has the parameters I want before I start building.
 
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I think that abs will work, but if not you can make a combo of abs and tpu. Abs on the inside and the outer part from tpu. Than you can put bearings in the abs and the tpu will make that it is less noisy.

As you move the handlebars a bit more up, than you can move the even a bit more forward.

I did both designs in cad. First one, I used a lot of the warrior design and changed it as surten points. The second one, I went from scratch and added things that I liked and improved on my experience from my first build.
Also I went out more from the cad files than I did with my first build. Now I design everything in cad first and fit it on my trike. First one, I only did that with the main frame.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
107
Location
Ontario, Canada
So, it turns out I won't need a new frame. I sent a pic of my trike on the exercise roller to the store who sold it to me, and the woman who owns the store sent me an email back and asked if I wanted to buy a seat - she had a brand new, never used seat off a Terratrike Rover, and she gave it to me for a really good price.

I picked up the seat this morning (the store is an hour and a half drive away from here), and installed it this afternoon. It moves my butt back a few inches, and my arms are in a much better place now.



I'm pretty happy with how comfortable it is, although I'll need to try it some to make sure. The back is reclined more than my old seat, but it is still comfortable.
 
Joined
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More reclined is what I personally like more. The 45 degree is a good angle for a trike.

The seat looks good on the trike.
I make my seat, do I can move it a bit forward as I recline it more and a bit back as I put it more upright. That helps with the steering position.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
107
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Ontario, Canada
Here's what it looks like now, with the new seat:



As you can see if you compare it to the previous image with the old seat, my elbows are in a much more comfortable position now.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
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Did you also adjust the pedal position with the new seat?
As I see your trike, I can't wait till my second one is that far. Its strange, because I have one, but now I want to ride my new one also. Especially as I see your trike and tgst from others.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
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Did you also adjust the pedal position with the new seat?
As I see your trike, I can't wait till my second one is that far. Its strange, because I have one, but now I want to ride my new one also. Especially as I see your trike and tgst from others.
Yes, I had to move the pedal assembly back a few inches.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
107
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Ontario, Canada
So I've started working on the lighting system for my trike. Back in the summer I ordered a 5 meter red 12v LED strip from AliExpress, and I just ordered a pair of motorcycle front aux. lights from them. Earlier this week I ordered a few electronics boards from a local Adafruit distributor, to build a simple controller for the lights.



I'm still waiting for the headlights (will be a few more weeks), but in the meantime I can start working on the control system.

The boards I bought from Adafruit:



The top left one is a battery current/voltage sense board, the top right is a 4-motor controller, the bottom right is a tiny color LCD panel (160 x 80), and the bottom left is a microcontroller board that will run CircuitPython. Think of it like an Arduino on steroids, that you can program in Python.

The current/voltage sense board will let me keep track of the battery level (I'll add a little display icon on the screen for battery level). The motor controller will allow me to control a couple LED light strips and the two headlights, all independently. And the display will show a simple user interface, allowing me to turn on and off the lights, choose flash patterns, etc. In addition to the screen, it has a tiny joystick and a couple more push buttons. I will of course 3D print a case for the battery and the electronics.

I'm a software developer in my work life, and I've built hobby robots for a little over 20 years, so I've been doing embedded electronics like this for a long time.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
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563
Location
Fernley, NV
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miscdotgeek.com
Very cool! I also have a bunch of red LED strips, some arduinos, and batteries. But, I'm going a simpler route. I'm not a developer. I'm just building my own drivers with 2n2222's, programming some predefined patterns that cycle every minute or so, and my battery situation will be... different. I have almost 200 slightly used AA batteries. I'm soldering them into packs of about 20, in series, for ~35v, then using a buck boost converter to get it down to 5v. Should last a nice long time. And when it dies, I have more lol.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
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107
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Ontario, Canada
Yeah, I need one more board that I will probably make from protoboard, that will have a 5 volt 5 amp switching regulator, and power distribution. Since I also have a phone carrier on my trike, I want to be able to charge the phone battery from the big 12 volt lithium, so I'll throw a USB-A female socket onto the power board (downstream of the regulator) so I can plug in a charge cable.
 
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I just received my front and rear light. Everything from aliexpres is delayed a lot. Local post can't handle the amount of orders, so they aren't delivering it.
I went for simple. A motor cycle control unit whit buttons on it.
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
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Ontario, Canada
Here's the protoboard I built to handle power:



The two USB sockets provide 5 volts (from the voltage regulator daughterboard) to the microcontroller stack shown earlier, and to my cell phone (which will be mounted normally on the trike).

Here's the case I designed and 3D printed, which holds the battery pack, the microcontroller stack, the above power board, and the cables and wires needed.



On the bottom are a couple slider tracks, which will hopefully hold the whole thing in place on another printed piece attached to the center chassis tube. That way, when I park the trike in the garage, I can just slide this whole unit off to bring it down to charge the battery (when it needs charging).
 
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
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Ontario, Canada
The cover panel finished printing, so I mounted the power board on it and tried it all for fit:



And here it is, all done up - note that I still need the power wires from the battery to the power board, and from the board to the motor control board on the stack. I also need to add a power switch - you can barely see the spot for mounting it on the cover plate (in the shadow at the back of the cover plate on the side):



However, looking at it again, I realize that the USB cable for the stack power is in the way of where the power switch will mount, so I'll have to relocate the switch and re-print the cover. I also need to figure out where the power cables for the headlights and taillights will come out, so I might need to reprint the whole thing, and leave a little more room inside.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
869
Location
Axedale, Victoria, Australia
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axerail.coffeecup.com
Good job John. Always challenging to come up with the perfect build first time.

I took delivery of a 3D printer two days ago. My first job will be to print some rear light housings for some LED lights I want to make up. They will be waterproof and easily mounted. The idea is still in my head but I may get a chance to design today. I like the idea of being able to make what suits you and not what some manufacturer thinks you should have.
 
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