E-Graz, an elettric revisitation of Graziella like bike

Hi Everibody,

here we are with an other DIY hack, modify an '80s Italian folding bike (for italian people is a Graziella) and put on it an e-bike kit disassembled from an old 24" wheel e-bike my friend founded without some pieces in a bike shop for less then 100€.

We started disassembling the  24" wheel e-bike, the bike shop had used that to pickup some pieces like the battery (maybe it cost more than the bike itself) and the front wheel, but still have the hub motor, the motor controller, throttle and brake switch and was very cheap in place of an e-bay kit that cost about 300/400€ without the battery pack.
We also unmount the hub motor wheel from the rim, to send only the motor to a bike shop that can remount it on a 20" wheel suitable on the Graziella.

Meanwhile we was waiting the modified wheel, we starting modify the Graziella frame,  cutting the back part of the 24" wheel bike to get the original fork for the hub motor, cause the "Graziella" one is more close and cannot fit the new wheel.

On the "Graziella" we cut the 2 pipes that are between the pedals hub and the wheel fixing plate

to be able to fit the other fork.

As you can see in the picture below, we add the light grey piece that have 2 more pipes than the original, that goes from the main frame to the fixing plate of the wheel and give to the bike more stability.

To have a more comfortable use, also the front amortized fork is mounted but to fit the new wheel we need to create 2 plate that move the hole 6 cm upwards.

 Once arrived the hub motor mounted on the new 20" rim all the other parts could be mounted.

We use also the handlebar from the old bike that is a little bigger, but we take only the throttle and the brake and removed the tachometer and the lights, switching both on a lighter one.

The last step is the battery pack.
We found in a DIY shop a plastic toolbox that can  contain 3 x 12V 12Ah Pb battery and the motor controller. We had try this battery type, cause is economical and easy to find, but in the future they will update with a li-on type for more power with the same weight

The final results of the bike looks quite good,as you can see in the first, like a brand new one. It give us more than 40km autonomy at 22 km/h average with 28 km/h top speed. For the use it have is enough, it only runs 30 km a day, for the travel between home and work.


This project is a kind of test, to have an idea on how to make a more complex 4 wheel electrical vehicle, that will started as soon as possible, and added on this page to share the experience, so don't esitate to write your idea, sharing is the fuel.

A Special Thanks goes to Daniel for the "garage".

Good Bye guys.

THE ROBOT MOWER

The main project of the site: THE ROBOT MOWER.

Necessity is the mother of invention, mine is not an invention but a try to create a DIY, low cost and flexible robot mower, that can autonomously cut my lawn for me. 

When I was thinking on how to put the cutter part on it, a quite lot of idea grows up. One in particular : why create a robot that can do only one thing? 

Why not create a robot where I can mount all this ideas?

In this way, the project evolved, still focused on a robot lawn mower but with an eye to the possibility to change the cutter part with other tools. 

I started an year ago creating the first prototype, made in wood, with a raspberry pi mounted on it. 

Just a try to understand how much hard could be realize it. Not so bad, a lot of information could be get from the internet. So lets start with the next one


Currently, all of the first prototype has been change, only the motor driver shield and the original shape idea is still in the new one but I don't exclude that can be also that changed .

Now, on the aluminium frame is mounted:

the core pc, one ASUS EEEPC with ROS (http://www.ros.org/wiki/)
the motor driver shield (SDC2130 from roboteq.com);
2 x motor 24V DC 18A max, from an automatic garage door, with 2 encoder after mounted;
2 x battery 12V 18Ah;
2 x led light;
one Kinect for laser scanning;


I choices the Kinect because is easy to find out and the ROS os is well documented on how to setup your robot (also the motor driver shield is supported) and use the Kinect.


 At the moment I'm trying to get ROS working, I'm still on the navigation stack and I need also to find/write a algorithm that can generate a path that cover all of the surface of the field.


If someone is interested on the project or want to help me is welcome.

How it will be

Hi guys,

this is an image on how I think my robot mower will be.
Is still under construction, and some parts will change, but have all the things I want to improve.

At this moment the robot is at a good point, so I'm looking on  how fix the various tools. For the moment, for simplify the problem, as you can see in the next photo, I use a 3point fixing like the tractor one. I will also automated that, so the robot could change it autonomously and choose for each kind of work the right one.

Thanks guys for attention and don't forget to share your opinions.

E-Graz an italian folding bike gone electric

Hi guys,

I add a new page to show you a new project we have just finish.
An italian folding bike with an e-bike kit.
It is not the end of the project but is at a good point to be showed up-

This project was made with a friend of mine that provide both, the folding bike frame and also the kit. Is not a innovative concept but have some good solution. 

For us will be a pleasure that you add your comment or ideas, we love that.

Have a nice day

P.S. looking for a quote to add to the project I found this that I think this suit to a T.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." A.E.

Robot mower page added

The first project has been added: The DIY Robot Mower.

In the dedicated page on the blog you could find an intro to my try to be a little more lazy and take something else do repetitive and annoying jobs like cut the lawn.  

As in the post in the other page, this project evolved in a multitool robot but, for an easy rapresentation of the problem is still focus on a robot mower, and when it will arrive to a good point (autonomous navigation, complete coverage of an know/unknow area, make an action depends on where it is,... ) it will take all that kind of tool that have this same prerequisite.

  Take a look to the other page and don't forget to tell me your opinions.

Take off Daniel Quattrin Project Overview

Hi folks, I'm Daniel, an Italian mechanical designer, with interesting in elettronics and computer technology. I create this page to share my personal/hobbistic project. Not the first human Mars landing but maybe something that could interest a little number of people. Thanks everybody who want to share this experience and give your suggestions.