Retro Rocket

[OddJob]

Wow. There's tutorials, and then there's tutorials. Yours is definitely the later!

Thanks for all the details. You really hid all the components well. That double light in the rear cone is brilliant, and I mean that in every sense of the word! It's like a 'double shot'....

Will be watching for the final countdown.

 

[Duchess]

What I love about these build offs is learning from other people and the inspiring ideas, so I'm more than happy to do the same for others and help them understand what I've done if I can remember to and not get too far ahead of myself.

Not doing it for the build off, but I did find a shipping tube of sturdy cardboard that's cheap and about the perfect diameter to replace the HDPE pipe for the rocket body. I would then cover the cardboard in fiberglass with some resin on the inside to reinforce it where needed. I could even blend the nosecone in a little nicer. Ah well, I figure I'll be tinkering with the details a few more times after this is "done" anyway.

 

[Duchess]

Wow, so the headlight made it 3.5 hours on the big pack and the tail light running off the smaller battery pack was at 12 hours when I gave up and connected it to the headlight to kill it. It's been running about an hour and it's finally dying.

The battery pack switch is below. I'm going to cut that out of the circuit and extend the wires to my own substitute switch.

 

[Duchess]

Knocked down by work and a migraine, I have gotten the switches to work, but I can't get them to light up when they are on (they only light up when they're not on). It would help to have an official wiring diagram, but a generic one I found online that shows how to do it won't work with the room I have, so it looks like the switches will just be switches. I even had it so it would be red on the left, green on the right. Oh, well.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Ugh, that would be frustrating!
Maybe when the migraine passes the answer will become clear, I have had that happen a few times.

 

[Duchess]

It lasted 24 hours. I figured out what the problem was when my brain started working again, but the generic diagram was right and I don't think I have the room for enough wires in the shifter tube to make the switches light up.

 

[G-Matt]

What a blast [emoji95]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Duchess]

OK, I finally have everything neatened up and working as I wanted (almost—I don't have enough room to run the wires I need to have the switches light up, but the switches work). Here's the forward compartment. I might be able to finagle the smaller battery pack back a little farther, but it's pretty crowded in there and it's fine as it sits. The two plugs are for the chargers, the aluminum tube is for the brake cable housing, and the plastic harness is the wires. The small battery pack also has a USB charger, which would be handy if anyone was actually going to ride this thing frequently and for any length of time. I'll finish getting the derailers adjusted today and then it's just a matter of getting it outside for a ride (not today as we're in the middle of a snow storm).

 

[Duchess]

So here's some shots with far more backlighting than I anticipated on the porch we're in the middle of renovating, but I realized that it's not 100% done because I didn't do the custom pedals yet.

 

[Duchess]

Took it for a brief ride and the lights are very bright on the road. Shifts surprisingly well with the convoluted routing. Saddle is hard as granite, though and I didn't shrink, so it's still too small (though I am getting older, so there's hope I'll ungrow into it!).

 

[Duchess]

Weighed it: 37.7 lbs. That's batteries and everything, but yikes.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I was expecting heavier...

 

[Duchess]

Got the "ACME" lettering on. Just waiting for the road runner. . .

 

[LukeTheJoker]

YES!
Been waiting for that!

 

[Duchess]

It sure makes it feel slightly less ridiculous to ride.

 

[Duchess]

Here are the negatives on a transparency for acid etching the outer wrap-around cage of the pedals. The "Cape Ann" is for the fronts and backs of the pedals. The rockets will be set inside the circles on the outer sides (covering the bearing caps).