Trikebuggy Addendum

Dean Sigler Uncategorized Leave a Comment

In “Two Motors and Everything But Coffee,” our entry for February 28, we detailed Pierre-Jean Beney’s Hacker motor-powered Trikebuggy.  Pierre-Jean wants to change things, including, “The motor, the prop, the battery and the wing… So I am still somewhat away from where I want to have….” Currently, it takes 2,000 propeller revolutions per minute to maintain level flight.  The LiF2PO4 batteries allow a current draw of 160 Amps at 48 Volts, and will produce level flight power for about 22 minutes at this rate.  These are, according to Pierre-Jean, very safe batteries, but heavy.  Pierre-Jean’s new batteries are Li-Po, which will give 52 Volts at the same amperage, but are, in his estimation, less safe.  They are also lighter, weighing only 6.6 kilograms (about 14.5 pounds), and have lower internal resistance.  The pictures below show the relative size of the old and new batteries.  You can follow Pierre-Jean’s experiments on the Trikebuggy Owners’ Yahoo Group and see additional photos of his and other Trikebuggies.

Two Motors and Everything but Coffee

Dean Sigler Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Pierre-Jean Beney may be the first to fly an electrically-powered paraglider with a tricycle wheeled chassis. Using a Trikebuggy, itself a unique platform, Beney mounted two Hacker A200-8 motors with 220 Amp controllers, a tidy reduction system, and his own microprocessor board to drive the motors with a combined throttle and kill switch. The board, according to Beney, also monitors the LiF2PO4 batteries, RPM, and will soon be connected to a global positioning system (GPS) to measure speed, “and eventually make coffee!!!” Other anticipated changes may include different motors, including a larger, direct drive type. The motors are each capable of producing 15 kW and can handle 185 Amps of current continuously, with 300 Amps peak. Beney provided your editor with a brief tutorial on the difference between powered paragliders (PPG) and powered parachutes (PPC). “This is not a powered parachute, it is a powered paraglider (you can tell by the shape of the wing which is very rounded compared …