Battery Watering

Yesterday I checked the water level off all my batteries after getting the suggestion from my PakTrakr to "Check Water in Battery B1". I found that most of the batteries needed little to no water, which is excellent. Nothing was dangerously low , which is quite good after 230 miles of EV driving. I have read that watering is needed every 200 or so miles and it only takes about 15 minutes to check the levels and add new water if needed, so it might become a Friday night thing to do since the EV will be doing close to 200 miles a week, hopefully starting tomorrow.

Also, after my video run I checked my cables to see how they were and I noticed that one was quite warm so I removed it and found that is had high resistance. So I removed all the cables and gave them a good corrosion sanding. The resistance went from 0.4 ohms to 0.0 ohms after some instense cleaning, about 15 minutes per connection and I have 16 connections.... do the math... I watche Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and I still wasn't done with the cables....

I haven't driven the EV since that, but I should expect cooler cables and possible an increase of power. Since that resistance was limiting me to 240 battery AMPs (V=IR) now I should be able to pull more, but I really don't want to in order to preserve battery life.

EV Driving Video

Well, here it is, the first driving video! Proof that one can make an EV with an automatic transmission.

There is no commentary by me because I was sort of tired and I did another whole commentary but the the camera fell over at the first corner and I didn't realize until partway through so I scrapped it.

Anyways, it's a 1.1 mile run around my neighborhood doing 25 MPH speeds. You can clearly hear the 12 volt Thomas brake pump and when that is off, the hum of the electric motor. I am going to get another video one of these days with a bit of 45 MPH highway, but that will have to wait until I can get a passenger to hold the camera for me.

Tweaks

I have about 75 miles on the EV now and I am getting ready so some tweaks. I am going to adjust the controller settings for a smoother start and I am researching a new suspension system. I am also looking at the pulley system for hooking up the AC and Power Steering, but the new suspension is on the top of my list. I think I have found a system I like

I am also development my own Battery Management System. While wet deep cycle batteries don't require it, I figure it would be a good system to caring for the batteries and making sure they are properly balanced and don't get overcharged. I do have the PakTrakr but it only monitors the batteries, but doesn't actually manage them or balance the batteries.

I still haven't made the EV driving video but I am hoping to do it this weekend if the weather ever lightens up.

Gathering Data

I have been happily driving my EV as much as possible, and the FB1-4001A is great! I have a total of 38 miles so far on this new setup and itching to put on more.

From the data I have collected, it looks like I have a range of 20.1 miles to 80% DoD, or 25.1 miles to 100% DoD. Now that is pretty decent since those test were with the biggest hills I could find.

Now that the EV is drivable, I have to learn to drive "better", i.e. slow acceleration, steady AMP draw, find the most efficient speeds, etc.

And it's also time to get plugs. My dad was successful and got three plugs from his work. I sent off an e-mail to my college's Access Services over a week ago and didn't hear back. Well, today I called them and they asked if I was the one who sent the e-mail, and I said yes. They said that as of today, they don't have an answer for me. Apparently I am the first person to request a plug, and they are somewhat stumped and trying to figure out what to do. They didn't outright say no, so it sounds like they are trying to figure something out. Now I am itching to hear their response, and I am quite hopeful.

I am also going to try to make a video of the EV in action in the next few weeks. The weather has been quite awful so I have been putting it off for a while. Hopefully when the rain stops I will get the tripod out and setup the camera in the back seat.

I probably should first clean out the EV.....

Balancing Act

I did two test runs again today, just short 3 miles runs, but my batteries are quite unbalanced. I also fixed the vacuum leak and properly connected the Curtis 1400E DC/DC Converter. The car is now drivable, except for the battery issue.

Right now I am charging each battery with a 10 AMP smart charger, one at a time. I have everything setup under my tarp and I will not drive it until each battery has been fully charged with the smart charger. Then I will take it for a good 6-8 mile drive, and charge it again with the main K&W BC-20.

The batteries became unbalanced due to sitting for 3 months, and having the PakTrakr sucking power from 2 of the 8 batteries more than the others (remotes and display).

Once this Balancing Act is complete, I will start to take new data for range and performance. I did take it up to 40 MPH this morning with no problems, even with the unbalanced pack. I am also working on installing the BC-20 into the trunk of the EV. I haven't spent much time on it yet, but I do have an idea that should be very easy, assuming I can get a marine 110v plug for the gas cap connection.

Assembly Day Two

I woke up this morning to torrential rains, which was not on the forecast on Friday. So, after breakfast, I setup my tarp and went to work on installing the control tray. After about 3 hours of bolting, cable installation, checking again and again, it was done!

It wasn't without some little quirks, though. I first tested the control tray and started to smoke up my Precharger Resistor because my DC/DC was connected on the wrong side of it. I just unplugged the DC/DC until I can lengthen the wire for the positive side tomorrow.

After, I fired everything up, got in the EV and went to drive, and the Transmission wouldn't come out of park! It turns out that I had parked it funny, so I had to use the key to override the lock out, rolled down the driveway a few feet, and it was fine.

Then I went for a 1 mile jaunt around the neighborhood, and the EV had much more power now than before, with driving up to 25 MPH. I did feel like it should have had more power, but I decided to skip the step of checking the Kelly Controller settings before my little trip. After I got back, I hooked my laptop and found out that I had the wrong settings on the controller! I changed the settings and tomorrow I will go out to test them.

Now I do have a few things to work on. The vacuum has a leak in it, and my TPS sensor fell out when I installed my control tray, so I will have to reinstall that. I also have to go on a few small trips to break the brushes and batteries in again, so maybe 2 or 3 small trips this week will do that.

Once I get the little quirks out, I will make a video of the EV in action. I need about 30 minutes to fix up the little things, then I should be good for a real joy ride.

My next goal is to install the charger into the trunk. Right now it is an external setup, but I will change that and install the K&W BC-20 into the trunk so I can charge it in any weather. Then I will work on the Power Steering and the Air Conditioning, but that's later on.

Assembly Day One

Today was a full day of EV work. It took way longer than I hoped to get the motor in. After getting the plates on the motor, and the motor hoisted up and car aligned, I found out that the motor was too big to be dropped down! So I have to remove the plates, and then lower the motor into the bay onto the ground, then add the plates again. Then came the aligning which did take a while, but the real pain was the two little bolts on the coupling. I spent two hours trying to bolt those little suckers, but I finally got them in. The whole setup spins by hand beautifully so I built the motor mount.

I did get what I wanted down today, and the new motor looks really good in the car! Tomorrow I will be installing the control tray and finishing everything up and through the car on the charger. I am guessing I have about 2 hours of work left before it will be drivable, so the morning should be busy.

I also made myself a checklist to be safe. I am glad I did it because I was so close to missing a few on the little things.

• Bolt Flex Plate to Torque Converter - Done
  
• Install main line cables - Done
  
• Install motor - Done
  
• Install motor mount - Done
  
• Install Control Tray
• Install Precharge Resistor
• Test Control Tray w/o main traction power (12v test)
• Check Kelly Controller Settings
• Hook up Transmission Ground
• Hook up TPS sensor - Done

I have half my checklist done, and the other half should be nice and easy once the control tray is installed.