1999 vintage EV scooter rebuild

Description

A complete rewire / respray with modern motor controller and an LFP battery pack. Plus, a few choice additions and upgrades. Originally, this scooter was powered with an 18v NiCd 3 cell 100 AH battery pack. I’m upgrading it to a 24v 100 AH LFP battery with a Curtis motor controller. This will give it a power boost and also more range. This scooter was given to me for nothing, we all love free stuff!

Details

The Peugeot Scoot'elec is an early BEV moped that was powered by an 18 volt NiCd pack made of 3 x 6v (100 AH) mono bloc flooded cells (made by Saft) and a brushed traction motor. My example had obviously been dropped and is not in perfect condition. The original motor controller was a Peugeot designed unit, as such, special diagnostic equipment was needed to 'service' the bike. Because the NiCd batteries need periodic topping up with deionised water, the motor ECU came with a built in safety feature, in that it would limit the speed when a water top up was over due.

The only way of clearing this mode of operation was to plug in the special Peugeot diagnostic tool, which I don't have. So, I bought a Curtis Sepex 24v 150A motor controller which can be programmed to suit my motor / application. The Curtis programmer is expensive, but it is available.

Two friends are helping me with the restoration, I'm working on the electrics and they are helping with the bodywork and fabrication.

Project Logs

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ESD protection
Mark Kelsall • 06/22/2024 at 17:01 • 0 comments

Apparently the Curtis motor ecu is not ESD safe, so they recommend that all cables are insulated to avoid potential ESD damage. So have set about insulating everything.
Control system
Mark Kelsall • 06/22/2024 at 16:39 • 0 comments

Made up a new motor control system with two SSR relays. One is an AC ssr that is used as a latching relay, and one DC ssr to switch the motor ecu on and off.

A big part of this project, is to use recycled materials as much as possible, hence the wooden platform in the photo below. The wood was discarded stock picked up for free and coated in acrylic varnish. The two bus bars are the 12v bus bars that all other 12v electrics on the bike will derive from (lights, horn, indicators etc).
Batteries in
Mark Kelsall • 06/22/2024 at 16:36 • 0 comments

Got the traction batteries in their final positions, made sure that the bodywork will indeed fit over the new batteries.
Charger
Mark Kelsall • 05/26/2024 at 12:10 • 0 comments

The old charger was a 25 volt 50 amp unit (!! 50 amps !!), but I am going to use an external 24 volt 40 amp unit for the LFP battery. There will be a charging port under the seat, not decided what plug / socket to use yet. Maybe a waterproof design?
There is a possibility of modifying the old charger to put out the right voltage, and having a cutoff mechanism to stop charging. I'm assuming that it's a CV / CC unit.
Field winding cables
Mark Kelsall • 05/26/2024 at 12:05 • 0 comments

The motor in this scooter is a separate field excited DC brushed motor. The old motor ECU only had the 1 field connection, I've rewired the motor to bring both field connections out to the Curtis Sepex controller. Have terminated the field windings with 90 degree spade connectors because of lack of space in the motor eco box.
Stripped body panels off
Mark Kelsall • 05/26/2024 at 08:52 • 0 comments

As you can see, the scooter has had its bodywork taken off, this is currently stored close by, and will be restored by my two friends. Being more of a 'get it working' restoration rather than a 'better than factory restoration'.
Probing the wires.
Mark Kelsall • 05/26/2024 at 08:49 • 0 comments

In removing the old motor ECU, I've had to cut the old plug for ECU off. I've been working out what wires go where and labelling them.

The 12v power for the controls (motor start, emergency motor cutoff / horn / lights switch) all used to be produced from the motor ECU. So I have designed a new power system using the original wiring plus a 12v Lipo battery.

Also have designed a circuit for controlling the motor and ECU, which will be posted after I've tried it out. I am avoiding using any microprocessors in this bike I'm no programmer, and am doing everything with relay logic so it will be easy to repair and maintain without having a Github!