Custom Ram Air for cooling

Traditional Ram Air dama and systems function to feed more air to a combustion engine to increase output. In my case, it is a little different… So… my old enclosure was about 1/4 inch shorter than this new one. Apparently the old one allowed just enough air to flow over top of the motor to keep it from getting too hot. The new enclosure blocks that airflow and the motor heats up pretty good. So, I had to develop a ram air system to restore airflow to the motor. Here is this afternoon’s invention…

8 Likes

Does anyone else do something to help keep their motor cool?

yeh, ive seen people printing a fan for it and then attaching it on outside…

I printed it but it didnt fit… later on I concluded the motor barely needs colling unless going up hill constant.

Though I totally dig your ‘solution’… looks very unique, sort of like steam punk design :smiley: im sure if you added some paint to the tubes it might look badass

Add ice for extreme conditions

5 Likes

I think I’m going to start experimenting with some peltier devices

wow! this looks awesome! if you would 3D print a funnel to combine the pipes it would have a larger area of AIR-INTAKE.

my concerns: if there are no internal fans involved, this rather blocks the airflow, than increasing it. - air is a tricky thing.

my guess here: -the whole construction itself is shielding the motor from the natural airflow. -the air will not be collected and directed to the motor. with all those windings it might NOT even FLOW through the hoses and rather stop inside (just guessing)

2 Likes

I think you are pretty spot on. I have begun looking for something very similar to exactly what you drew. I would mount it at the tip of the board on top and then run it to a T-junction below. I was also looking for some small fans I might be able to mount in front of the openings, or even a fan and Peltier Device that would generate cooling at 12 V DC. It is also conceivable that the only reason I am experiencing heat issues over the last two days is because it’s hotter than hell outside. Almost 100.

I do believe that my enclosure is already blocking airflow, which is why I only started having this problem after installing it.

An orthodox solution would be to run the board with motor in front… though the braking then is a bit tricky, if you apply too much braking force…

Otherwise… if heat really is an issue, and you got time to remake enclosure, maybe I would have made it in a way there is a ‘channel’ for air to travel to the motor. This would require that there are 2 parts of enclosure probably but if you are using lipo bricks, I think this should not be as a big problem as it would be, if you had one flat li-ion pack installed.

And yes… to be honest, a direct fan at the motor of some sort does not sound like a bad idea to save some time by not modifying enclosure but by a burning off a few watts in battery life for cooling.

before you spend more money in new parts for cooling, simply buy a bigger motor. It´ll stay cooler and you don´t need to put on strange looking toilet tubes :wink:

4 Likes

I think you would be better of making a fan that bolts to the motor can. Something like this.

11 Likes

Come on… just strap on a 2.5 pound tank of liquid nitrogen, that’ll do the trick :slight_smile:

-Mike

(Sorry had to)

3 Likes

A front brake is maybe twice as effective as a rear brake. So if I only had one, id rater a front brake. Front wheel drive over rear wheel drive sucks but…

2 Likes

make sure you have somewhere for the heat to go. Peltiers get really, really warm on the hot side. I’ve got some coming in at some point, i ordered them a couple months ago. We were going to tie the cold side to the focbox and the hot side to a heatsink that’s exposed to outside air and see if we couldn’t crank up the output a little.

SK3s have a built in fan. Maytech, R-Spec and my motors blow quite a lot of air due to the centrifugal fan behavior of the mag wheel looking end caps. They get warm and even hot on occasion but it seems to have little effect on anything.

We put a scoop on them once but ended up getting crap clogged in it.

I’m pretty sure its totally not worth it though to do peltiers, but it will be fun to try and come up with something.

I’m interested in heatpipes actually as a more realistic ESC cooling solution. Scoops and fans though… there’s defeinitely something there for the motors. Yuneeq had that fan on thier e-go motor.

1 Like

Yeah - I’ve wanted the peltiers for a home-made cooler anyhow, so while I don;t expect to find a very practical use for them on the board, I was ordering anyway. I also thought that for $15 I might give this a shot as a way to push air into the pipes…

It’s only 42mm.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Performance-Air-Box-Filter-Motorcycle-Scooter-Go-Kart-GY6-49cc-50cc-RED-H-AF32/380675288367?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

Unless I can get some serious airflow pushing through there and can make a noticeable difference in the temp of my motor after a 5-mile run I may disassemble the whole works. This is just what I did as an afternoon project tinkering with what I had lying around. I’m not even sure that the temp the motor is getting to is dangerous for it, I just know it is hotter than it used to get when I was using my slightly shallower temporary enclosure. The normal operating temp for my motor is 120-130 degrees. Mine doesn’t get too hot for me to touch it, but if I left my finger there for more than about 6 seconds it would start to hurt. I guess there is also a little plastic fan inside this motor? I suppose I should see if that stopped working somehow (or is turning in the wrong direction)…I don’t know exactly where it is, but I’ll look for it tonight before I ride.

1 Like

I’ve been toying with an idea of water cooling for a while now. For example, a sealed hub motor with water cooling… But it’s risky, so… Might be a while before I try that one, haha.

Oh man had a flash back to how we used to keep the grow room cool haha

2 Likes

just keep a squirt gun handy and crouch down and spray the motors now and then while you ride.

2 Likes

haha, one solution. I might need a really big squirt gun, cause I get motors HOT.