SOLAR BICYCLE

MOHD AIZAT BIN BAHARIN

This thesis is submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the
Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Power Systems)

Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Universiti Malaysia Pahang

NOVEMBER, 2010
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“All the trademark and copyrights use herein are property of their respective owner.
References of information from other sources are quoted accordingly; otherwise the
information presented in this report is solely work of the author.”

Signature : ____________________________

Author : MOHD AIZAT BIN BAHARIN

Date : 29 OCTOBER 2010

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank God for his bless towards myself. Without his
blessing I could not be able to finish my final year project. My project title is “Solar
Bicycle”. I am able to complete this project in time of requirement of the degree of
Bachelor Engineering (Electrical Power System).

Secondly, I would like to thank to all people had assisted me either directly or
indirectly in completing my final year project. My special thank to Mr. Ruhaizad bin
Ishak, my intelligent supervisor for the project whom had given support, knowledge,
advice and also guidance that I need. He had been guiding me from the beginning of the
project until the final thesis had been done. With his support, I had learn a lot of
knowledge regarding to this project, many thing that I can used in my future especially
the experience making the project. Without him, I not expect that I will finish this
project same as university requirement. Thank again to Mr. Ruhaizad.

A million thank also to other lectures that had teach and helped me in completing
this project. Not forget, I would like to thank to all my friends in support and their co-
operation.

Last but not least, my very special thank to my beloved family who had given me
support while I was struggling with this project.
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ABSTRACT

There are many types of bicycle in the world such as normal bicycle that people need to
paddle for it to move, motorized bicycle that uses fuel as its prime power and electric
bicycle that can only be sufficient for an hour. Because of some weaknesses in the
existence system, the idea of a solar bicycle came in mind. The idea is to make the
bicycle last longer and can be automatically recharge when the bicycle is not in use by
the renewable solar energy. The concept of the solar energy is that a high torque motor
will be put on the bicycle which will be generated by the solar energy. The solar energy
will be absorbed by the portable solar panel to generate the power. The power that had
been absorbed by the panel can be used directly by the motor if the power matches the
power requirement. If not, the motor will use the power from a battery. When the
bicycle was not in use during the day, the solar panel will charge the battery. The system
will make bicycle operate more efficiently.
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ABSTRAK

Terdapat banyak jenis basikal di dunia seperti basikal biasa yang memerlukan
seseorang untuk mengayuh basikal itu bg menggerakkan basikal tersebut, basikal
bermotor yang menggunakan bahan bakar sebagai sumber tenaga dan basikal elektrik
yang hanya boleh bertahan cukup untuk satu jam. Kerana beberapa kelemahan dalam
sistem yang sedia ada, idea basikal suria muncul dalam fikiran. Ideanya adalah untuk
membuat basikal bertahan lebih lama dan boleh mengisi semula secara automatik ketika
basikal adalah tidak digunakan oleh tenaga suria. Konsep tenaga ini adalah motor yang
mempunyai daya yang tinggi akan ditempatkan di basikal yang akan memperoleh kuase
dari tenaga matahari. Tenaga matahari akan diserap oleh panel suria mudah alih untuk
menghasilkan kuasa elektrik. Kekuatan yang telah diserap oleh panel yang boleh
digunakan secara langsung oleh motor jika kuasa sesuai dengan keperluan kuasa. Jika
tidak, motor akan menggunakan kuasa dari bateri. Ketika basikal itu tidak digunakan
pada siang hari, panel suria akan mengisi bateri. Sistem akan membuat basikal
beroperasi secara lebih efisien.
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TABLES OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

TITLE i
STATEMENT ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
ABSTRAK vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF APPENDIX xiii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Chapter Overview 1
1.2 Background 2
1.3 Problem Statement 2
1.4 Objective 3
1.5 Scope of the project 4
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2 Literature Review 5
2.1 Chapter overview 5
2.2 Literature review 6
2.2.1 Solar panel 6
2.2.2 Solar charger 7
2.2.3 Battery 8
2.2.4 Motor 9
2.2.5 Electric bicycle 9
2.2.6 Speed control 10

3 Methodology 11
3.1 Chapter overview 11
3.2 Methodology 12
3.3 Task distribution 13
3.3.1 Research 13
3.3.2 Design system 13
3.3.3 Design circuit 13
3.3.4 Simulate circuit 14
3.3.5 Design hardware 14
3.3.6 Interface the hardware 14
3.4 System 15
3.4.1 Sources 15
3.4.1.1 Solar panel 15
3.4.1.2 Altenator 17
3.4.1.3 Power supply 18
3.4.2 Battery 19
3.4.3 Controller 20
3.4.4 Motor 21
3.5 Circuit 23
3.5.1 Charging circuit 23
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3.5.1.1 LCD 23
3.5.1.2 LED 24
3.5.2 Rectifier 26
3.6 Software implementation 26
3.6.1 Microcode studio software 26
3.6.2 Proteus 7 professional software 27
3.7 Mechanical part 29

4 Results and Analysis 30

4.1 Chapter over view 30
4.2 Result and discussion 30
4.2.1 Battery VS Motor 30
4.3 Charging circuit 32
4.4 Rectifier 36
5 Conclusion And Recommendation 38
5.1 Chapter overview 38
5.2 conclusion 39
5.3 Recommendation 39
5.4 Component list 40

REFERENCES xiv
Appendix xvi
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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

4.1 Value of the battery voltage when constantly 31
used to drive motor for an hour.
4.2 calculation of Vin, Vout, hexadecimal and 33
percentage of battery capacity
5.1 The total components and the price for solar bicycle. 40
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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 solar panel System layout diagram 6
2.2 Circuit diagram for solar charger 7
2.3 Electric bicycle 9
3.1 Task flow chart. 12
3.2 System blog diagram. 12
3.3 Solar panel. 15
3.4 Alternator 17
3.5 Battery 19
3.6 PIC18F4550 20
3.7 Motor 22
3.8 Charging circuit 23
3.9 LCD 23
3.10 LED 25
3.11 Rectifier circuit 26
3.12 The window of MicroCode Studio. 27
3.13 Example simulation by using Proteus software 28

4.1 Charging circuit. 32

4.2 Voltage divider circuit 32
4.3 program for PIC 34
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4.4 output for battery low 34

4.5 Output when the batter is full 35
4.6 rectifier circuit 36
4.7 rectifier circuit (simulation) 36
4.8 output of rectifier 37
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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A 18F4550 datasheet xvi

B 2N3055 datasheet xxvi

C Voltage regulator datasheet xxxi

D cording for PIC18f4550 xli

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REFERENCES

[1] Min Kim, Jang-Gyoon Choi, Jeong-I1 Lee, Hyung-Sang Yoon, Yang-Su Kim’,
In-Su Cha “A Study on the DC Motor Speed Control for Electric Bicycle with the Load
Induction Unit” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[2] Ala Al-Haj Hussein, Michael Pepper, Ahmad Harb, Issa Batarseh “An Efficient
Solar charging Algorithm for Different Battery Chemistries” Available:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[3] William C. Morchin “Battery-Powered Electric Bicycles”Available:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[4] Bradley C. Keoun “DESIGNING AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE CONVERSION”

Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[5] Wenhua Du, Dawei Zhang, Xingyu Zhao and Wenhua Du “Dynamic Modelling
and Simulation of Electric Bicycle Ride Comfort” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[6] D. M. Sousa, P. J. Costa Branco, J. A. Dente “Electric Bicycle Using Batteries

and Supercapacitors” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[7] ANNETTE MUETZE & YING C. TAN “Electric bicycle” Available:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[8] S.K. Biradar, R.A.Patil, Maheshwari ullegadi “Energy storage system in

electrical system” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[9] Henry Oman “NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVELING WITH LESS

ENERGY” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[10] Ewgenij Starschich and Annette Muetze “Operating Area Analysis of Direct and
Geared Brushless-DC Motor” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[11] A. MUETZE, Y. C. TAN “Performance Evaluation of Electric Bicycles”

Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org
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[12] Nitipong Somchaiwong' and Wirot Ponglangka2 “Regenerative Power Control

for Electric Bicycle” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[13] Wenhua Du, Dawei Zhang, Xingyu Zhao and Wenhua Du “Research on Battery
to Ride Comfort of Electric Bicycle” Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

[14] My Electric Bicycle Project. [Online]. Available: http://www.electricycle.com/

[15] How to Build Small Solar Circuits. [Online]. Available:

http://www.solarpowerwindenergy.org/2009/04/26/how-to-build-a-small-solar-circuit-
wiring-diagrams/

[16] Solar charger. [Online]. Available:

http://talkingelectronics.com/projects/SolarCharger/SolarCharger.html

[17] High Power DC Motor [Online]. Available:

http://www.engineo.co.th/DC%20motor/DC%20power%20motor%20Eng.html

[18] Periksa kereta anda setiap minggu [Online]. Available:

http://www.infokereta.com/panduan/penyenggaraan-kereta/periksa-bateri-kereta-setiap-
minggu.html

[19] Batteries are rated in Amp/Hours (Ah) [Online]. Available:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/883557

[20] Photovoltaic module [Online]. Available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic_module

[21] Solar panel [Online]. Available: http://www.solarhome.org/

[22] R L HODKINSON “Brushless DC Motors for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles”

 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Chapter Overview

This chapter will discuss about the main idea of this project and to get a
larger picture on what is the problem in the current technologies, what that I want to
achieve in this project and the area that will cover on this project. This chapter is
divided into some categories that are project background to describe the reasons to
do this project, problem statement to inform about the problem or weakness of the
existing technology, objective to make sure what actually this project must achieve
and scope of this project to specify what will be used in this project.
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1.2 Background

There will be a big area at the UMP campus Kuala Pahang when it is fully
built and operates. So students need a vehicle to move from one side to another. In
state of using car or motorcycle that are costly, student will be prefer to used bicycle
as their vehicle. There several types of bicycle that can be chosen such as paddle
bicycle, motorized bicycle and electric bicycle. But there are some weaknesses about
that type of bicycle. To overcome the weakness this project will develop a better
bicycle.

Because of Malaysia is located in the actuator area, this project will make
used the energy of the sun that rarely used in Malaysia to generate the bicycle.

1.3 Problem Statement

As what had been mention earlier, there are several types of bicycle that can
be categories that is paddle bicycle, motorized bicycle, and electric bicycle. The
weakness of the bicycle make people do not like to used bicycle.

First, paddle bicycle need a lot of energy to paddle the bicycle. The user will
surely be tired after used the bicycle. This will not suitable for student to use to go to
the class because they will be tired when they are in the class and will lost their
concentration while hearing the lecture.

Next, motorize bicycle that used fuel as it prime mover. The bicycle use fuel
that is costly. As a student, their allowance is limited and only can be used for their
study material and for their food to survive at the campus. Besides that, motorize
bicycle will make pollution that can be very bad for our environment especially in
this period that global warming happen to the earth.
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Lastly, electric bicycle that generate by battery can be only be sufficient for
about an hour. The user needs to find power supply to recharge the battery or else
they need to paddle the bicycle that used more energy compare to the normal bicycle
because of the weight.

1.4 Objective

To overcome the problem and the weakness, this project need to do some
research and studying to develop better technology. To make it success there are
several thing that we need to know such as what will be the prime mover, how to
stored it and the advantages of this new vehicle. In that case, these are the list of the
objective to be conduct before continue to proceed on this project:

 To develop a vehicle that use renewable energy, environmentally friendly and

cheap.

 To develop an electrical bicycle that can charge the battery when it is not in
used.

 To develop low speed bicycle, but for a longer distance.

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1.5 Scope of the project

This project is consists of two part that is hardware and software. The
hardware will be the bicycle and the software is the program of the controller to
control the operation of the bicycle. To be more specific about this project, there will
be using several things that are:

 Use solar energy to recharge the battery.

 Use PIC Microcontroller for charging system.

 Use high torque motor to drive the bicycle.

 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORY

2.1 Chapter Overview

In order to perform this project, literature review has been made from various
sources like journal, books, article and others. This chapter includes all important
studies which have been done previously by other research work. It is importance to
do the literature review before doing the project because we can implement if there
are information that related to this project.

The most important thing before starting the project we must clearly
understand about the topic that we want to do. So by doing the literature review we
can gain knowledge to make sure we fully understand and can complete the project.

A review of the article was performed to identify studies that relevant to the
topic. The search to find material that related to the topic is categories as solar panel,
solar charger, battery, motor, electric bicycle and speed control.
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2.2 Literature review

2.2.1 Solar panel

Figure 2.1: solar panel

A photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panel is a packaged interconnected

assembly of photovoltaic cells, also known as solar cells. The photovoltaic module,
known more commonly as the solar panel, is then used as a component in a larger
photovoltaic system to offer electricity for commercial and residential applications
[20].

The primary difficulty with solar power and indeed with its cousin wind
power has been one of efficiency. There is more than enough energy hitting the earth
in the form of solar radiation to meet power needs of our species. Estimates indicate
that there is four times as much wind energy available for our use as the species uses
every year. Solar power is even more dramatic, the sun showers the planet with more
energy every day than we use in a year. So the difficulty has never been the
availability of sun and wind, they are readily available [21].
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2.2.2 Solar charger

Figure 2.2: Circuit diagram for solar charger.

Solar battery chargers are an inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and

convenient way to make sure your batteries are always fully charged and ready to go
all the time. The problem with charging a battery from a solar panel is the SUN. It
does not shine all the time and clouds get in the way. Our eyes adjust to the
variations in the strength of the sun but a solar panel behaves differently. As soon as
the sun loses its intensity, the output from a solar panel drops enormously. Not only
does the output current fall, but the output voltage also decreases. Many of the solar
panels drop to below the 13.6v needed to charge a 12v battery and as soon as this
occurs, the charging current drops to ZERO. This means they become useless as soon
as the brightness of the sun goes away [16].
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2.2.3 Battery

Given the current market, lead-acid is the only viable battery technology for
electric vehicle conversion. The following is a list of criteria to use in selecting an
electric vehicle battery [4][19]:

1, Voltage. Batteries are available in both 6V and 12V units. Most standard,
wet-cell, golf cart batteries are 6V units. Most sealed batteries are 12V units.

2. Amg-hour rating. The capacity of a battery is rated in amp-hours. This

rating must be specified with a given discharge rate.

3. Discharge rate. The discharge rate of a battery is the minimum length of

time during which the battery must be discharged in order to meet the specified amp-
hour rating.

4, Watt-hour rating. The watt-hour rating is a true indication of the energy

capacity of a battery, Like the amp-hour rating, this rating must be specified with a
discharge rate. The watt-hour rating of a battery is the amp-hour rating multiplied by
the specified voltage of the battery.

5. Energy density. Energy density is the energy capacity of the battery, in

watthours, divided by the weight of the battery, in kilograms. This is a critical factor
in selecting an electric vehicle battery-the amount of energy a battery carries per unit
weight.

6. Cycle-life. Cycle-life is the number of times a battery can be fully

discharged before replacement. However, in most real applications, a lead-acid
battery will exceed its specified cycle-life, since the battery will not be fully
discharged every time it is used
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2.2.4 Motor

The main characteristic of Brushless DC Machines is that they may be

controlled to give wide constant power speed ranges because the Motor Voltage may
be held constant at Maximum Bus Voltage over the Constant Power Range. In this
condition the machine exhibits a leading power factor and with suitable control leads
to low switching losses in the Inverter when in the High Speed Region-The Machine
has the lowest size and weight of any of the main contenders. The disadvantage is the
need for Permanent Magnets with Unity Recoil Permeability and Suitable
Containment Sleeve Technology both of which have now been solved effectively. In
this type of machine the main losses are in the Stator Iron and a number of factors are
important in reducing this [22].

2.2.5 Electric bicycle

Figure 2.3: Electric bicycle

The basic configuration of an electric bicycle drive consists of a controller

that controls the power flow from the battery to the electric motor. This power flow
acts in parallel with the power delivered by the rider via the pedal of the bike. The
rider of an E-bike can choose to rely on the motor completely, pedal and use the
motor at the same time or pedal only (use as a conventional bicycle).
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2.2.6 Speed control

As considering on the measurement results from the system, the noise effect
of PWM control method, and the characteristics of the dc motor, it is expected that
we could control the speed of the dc motor stably and highly efficiently [1]. In
ordinary times the dc motor is driven by change of a transmission in this system and
as the speed of it decreases due to the overload, the load induction unit works
automatically to accelerate it with the maximum efficiency of the system. The speed
of the dc motor, therefore, can be regulated.