Jellybean3D Printed Car

Description

The Jellybean3D is a fully DIY Open Source 3D printed electric vehicle.
Designed to be made with standard FDM hobby printers and easy to find/work PLA, and/or maybe PETG plastic, some small parts printed with PA (Nylon/Polyamide), and some off the shelf components.

In order to create the big parts like the body and door, they have been strategically cut on small easy printable pieces that will be glued/welded afterwards.

Details

This is an experimental project that aims to explore the limits of hobby 3D printing.
This project does not aim to reproduce a standard vehicle construction. Many things can go wrong, but we will enjoy and learn through the process. :)
Any suggestion and help is welcome. Feel free to comment.

Plastic itself is not so stiff and strong as other materials like composites or metals.
But with 3D printing it is possible to create intrincated internal structures in the parts that are impossible to do with other manufacturing systems.
So it is possible to get final parts quite strong if properly designed.

The main reason I have chosen PLA or PETG for most of the parts is because those materials are easy to find and most important, they are easy to print. So anyone can do it with a hobby printer. ABS, PA, PC and other plastics for big parts like the ones needed, are difficult to print on a hobby printer, as they tend to warp if you are not very careful when printing.

Vehicle technical details

Tadpole 3 wheeler.
Light self supporting structure body.
One seater and cargo space.
Partially enclosed to protect driver and cargo from damage, and weather conditions.
Ergonomically accessible: easy entry and exit.
Full lighting systems: Position light, High/Low Beam Road Lights, Brake Lights, Turning Blinkers, Rear light, Emergency light.
Rear mirrors.
Simple suspension for comfort and structure/systems conservation.
Rear Traction.
Sizes: 2020mm Length, 1050mm Height, 1050mm Width, 1240mm Wheelbase.
Estimated Vehicle weight 75 to 85Kg (Final weight may vary depending on printing material/s, printing adjustments and components chosen)
Cargo capacity: Driver + cargo ≥ 130Kg maximum (estimation)
Wheels sizes: 3 wheels around 20" to 23” overall diameter
Motor type: Brushless direct drive, Continuous/Maximum Power: 1000/2000W.
Controller: Programmable, 30 – 50A with reverse function.
Maximum speed: around 50Km/h (estimation). NOT RECOMMENDED TO DRIVE IT OVER 45Km/h
Maximum slope: ≥12% (estimation).
Battery: 48V 1.2 to 2kWh.
Range: ≥40-70 Km (estimation).
Charger: Internal 200 to 300W.
Charging time from mains: 5-10 hours from empty (Depending on battery size and charger power).
Brakes: Front wheels, discs. Rear wheel, regenerative braking.

Project technical details

Around 230+ printed parts for 220x220x220mm printers
Estimated printing time 400 to 500h
Weight estimation for 3D printed parts is around 35 to 45Kg (It will vary depending on the material/s chosen and printing adjustments)
Around 290 different components
Around 560 parts

This is an Open Source Hardware project, I am putting all designs and info together in an understandable way, and will publish it soon.
Construction playlist:

All documentation of this project on any format is licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-by-sa 4.0) license Your comments here and other in places help to improve the project so its design will change as time passes.

Participation

This is a non commercial project borne with my own time and money and with the help of some collaborators, people and companies that decided to help me in this endeavour that alone may be impossible to do. THANK YOU to all of them.

Please, consider participate in these kind of projects by:

DONATE: If you want, you can make a donation via Paypal here: https://paypal.me/GonzaloChomon
AFFILIATION: Make your purchases online by buying from affiliate product links.
WORD OF MOUTH: Invite your friends to come and discover this project and share them.
If you have any other ideas of how to participate, please contact me, through this project at Hackaday: https://hackaday.io/project/177105-jellybean3d-printed-car , by comments or by email.

Project Logs

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Door Assembly
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 04/20/2022 at 18:17 • 0 comments

I just managed to finish another video about my FULLY 3D PRINTED #electricvehicle project. And finally I was able to test my ideas on a real part.
Looks like it holds quite well, I am very happy and proud.
It is just a 2 min. video. Hope you enjoy it.
How to Glue PLA like a PRO
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 03/22/2022 at 12:33 • 0 comments

After a long stop in this project, I was able some weeks ago to retake it.
I finished the development of the chemical welding for the 3D printed parts. And it certainly works quite well.
If you are interested here is a video about it, make sure to see the end of the video...
How the Jellybean3D was designed
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 02/23/2021 at 10:41 • 0 comments
Here are some details about how the Jellybean3D is designed:
- The intention was to use 3D printed components and parts as much as possible, so I decided to make an unibody vehicle in order to avoid the use of a metallic chassis to support the body.
- Although a vehicle like this could be made by many other different approaches, it is designed to be 3D printed.
- Given the strength limitations of the materials available for hobby printers I have been very cautious on the structural design. So I created 4 different levels of structures: eggy shape, internal ribs (like airplanes fuselages), reticular structural web created by the bondings, and internal mesoscale structure created by the infill in every part.
- The big parts, body and door were designed as whole parts and later strategically cut in order to:
  1. Get the most strength in the directions that are more needed and make them coincident with the XY printing plane.
  2. Avoiding or enforcing the cuts in determinate areas in order to strengthen or not weaken them.
  3. Taking in account the appropriate cut orientations and cut locations in order to avoid the use of supports when printing.
- Some parts like the knuckles and others, have been topology optimised.
- For the non printed parts and components I tried to use very easy to find materials or components.
- In order to make strong bondings between the parts I developed a chemical welding system, more info here: https://youtu.be/5LqmyYqS6-k
First printed parts
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 02/16/2021 at 20:43 • 0 comments

First parts just come out of the printer (door parts+), all looks good so far.
Next step post-processing and chemical welding.
Video Blog (Part 4), Components
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 02/16/2021 at 20:37 • 0 comments

A list and info of principal components:
Video Blog (Part 3), 1/10 scale model
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 02/16/2021 at 20:03 • 0 comments

1/10 scale model of the Jellybean3D.
I have created a 1/10 scale printable version. The printing files can be downloaded from here: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/47678 or here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4669754

And assembly guide for this scale model is here: https://youtu.be/9_9_ydc-NO4

3D CAD document of 1/10 scale version: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e88854e0f694e95508aed56c/w/c09b93324fe9abec278f257b/e/2b249be11dccc2a3ce46b4fe
Video Blog (Part 2), First tests parts
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 02/16/2021 at 19:27 • 0 comments

First printed parts tests and first final parts:
Video Blog (Part 1), Introduction
Gonzalo P. Chomon • 01/28/2021 at 22:03 • 0 comments

Introduction to the project: