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A DIY E-bike Conversion on the Cheap

Cars That Think

While it would have been nice to engineer some sort of spring-driven mechanism to control how forcefully the motor pushes against the tire, I kept things simple: I just deflated the tire somewhat, bolted the motor solidly in place, and reinflated the tire. This article appears in the September 2021 print issue as "An Instant E-bike.".

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Junkyard Find: 2007 Mini Cooper S

The Truth About Cars

liter turbocharged straight-four engine co-developed by Peugeot and BMW, replacing the supercharged Brazilian 1.6 This engine was rated at 175 horsepower and 177 pound-feet. They're cheap, quick enough to be fun, and junkyard parts are plentiful. New for 2007 was this 1.6-liter and its Chrysler/Rover ancestry.

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A DIY E-bike Conversion on the Cheap

Cars That Think

While it would have been nice to engineer some sort of spring-driven mechanism to control how forcefully the motor pushes against the tire, I kept things simple: I just deflated the tire somewhat, bolted the motor solidly in place, and reinflated the tire. This article appears in the September 2021 print issue as "An Instant E-bike.".

DIY 98
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The Transistor at 75

Cars That Think

It’s so long that most of us don’t remember a time before the transistor, and long enough for many engineers to have devoted entire careers to its use and development. In honor of this most important of technological achievements, this issue’s package of articles explores the transistor’s historical journey and potential future.

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New nanolithia cathodes may address technical drawbacks of Li-air batteries; scalable, cheap and safer Li-air battery system

Green Car Congress

—Ju Li, the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. Overall, the new battery system is “ very scalable, cheap, and much safer ” than lithium-air batteries, Li says. Nature Energy 1, Article number: 16111 doi: 10.1038/nenergy.2016.111. 2016.111.

Cheap 150
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Hi-fi, Radio, and Retro: The DIY Projects Spectrum Readers Love

Cars That Think

This month we’re celebrating the launch of our second PDF collection of Hands On articles, which IEEE members can download from IEEE Spectrum ’s website and share with friends. Far and away our most popular article in the last five years has been “ Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort of Cheap ” (November 2018).

DIY 71
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Junkyard Find: 1948 Dodge Custom Sedan

The Truth About Cars

The '48 Dodge looked old-fashioned in its day, and so I shot this photograph with an Ansco Memo camera (which was made to shoot then-cheap 35mm movie film) from the late 1920s. Look for more of this treasure trove in future articles from me. This car's engine might be the original one, but swaps happened frequently with these cars.

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