:)

Revolution!

Well, a big day this last weekend. The control board works. I got it all wired and installed in the car. Hooked it up to 8 batteries, turned the key, pressed the accelerator and the wheels turned. Very, very exciting! I need to get a clamp ammeter and make sure the DC/DC converter is sending juice back into the 12V battery, which I think it is, but I am very happy everything is functioning as it should.

Here is a picture of the final control board layout installed in the car. It looks like a bad eighth grade science project, but I don't care, it works. I won't be showing my car at any car shows any time soon.

ERX Control board

I also took some video of the RPM and speedo gauges as I tested the system out in 1st gear.

This weekend I will hook up the rest of the 36 batteries, put the controller in more of a test mode, and maybe get the car down onto its wheels. If I am lucky, I will convince my wife to let me drive it out of the garage and into the driveway and then back again. She wants me to get more life insurance before I start testing the car on the street which makes sense. I also still need to send my charger in to get adjusted for the latest number of batteries I am using and the charge profile I want, then mount it and wire it into the system.

After that, I need to wire and mount my EV gauges and I have a bunch of car work to do. I have some electrical problems to solve with windshield wipers, brake lights, head lights, horn, need a new Left Fender, etc. I hope to upgrade to Integra brake calipers, rotors and pads and need to wire and mount my vacuum pump for the power brakes. Wow, so much more to do, but the EV system is just about done.

Christmas Countdown

The little elves have been busy in Santa's workshop making all kinds of cables and connections. The control board is pretty much finished. There is one fuse I want to find a better solution for, but it will work for now while in testing mode. Here are a few shots I took with a phone. Not as nice as the other photos on my blog, but they will due.

Control board sitting over the motor for a test fitting

The other half of the Anderson connector is not installed in this photo as well as a small fuse box.

High Voltage power section

Controller input on the far right with the contactors next to it. I have (4) 100 ohm, 10 watt resistors across the primary contactor for my pre-charge circuit. Next to the contactors is the main fuse at top and the shunt below.  Next to the fuse is the high voltage terminal block to send the high voltage to the DC-DC converter and the Amp hour counter/meter. The terminal block has a cover not seen here.

DC-DC Converter and 12V terminal block

Input and output of the DC-DC converter as well as the relay that switches the output on when the key is on. The 12V terminal block also has a cover not seen here.

Throttle box and cable

Here is the solution I came up with for connecting my throttle cable to the PB-6 throttle box. On the right I used a 2 inch piece of angle iron and made a slot for mounting the cable. I just need to tighten down the nuts on both sides to secure it. On the left I used a 1 1/2 inch piece of angle iron, drilled a couple holes for mounting it to the arm of the throttle box, then drilled a hole in the middle and a slot from the hole to the back side to get the end of the throttle cable attached. I will have to take a better picture of it this weekend so you can see what I did. Once again, it is not very pretty, but I think it will get the job done. I still need to throw some paint on them. I also need to get a spring to attach to the throttle arm as a backup in case of a failure of its spring.

If I could smell the finish line last week, then the plate is on the table and the fork and knife are in my hands now. Christmas should come early this weekend and hopefully Santa will be bringing me the EV GRIN!

Something smells good

Here is one picture from the last couple weeks. This is the rear battery boxes with the rear fuse and disconnect.

Rear battery boxes with fuse and disconnect

Yesterday I worked for about 9 hours on the control board. Mainly drilling the mounting holes for a couple items and some large holes for routing wiring as well as adding some grommets to protect the wiring.

I also made a couple pieces for the throttle cable assembly from angle iron. One piece was just a small bracket to mount to the PB-6 throttle arm, that had a hole for the throttle cable to go through, and the other was a mounting bracket to hold the cable in place. I had some trouble getting the cable in a good position to allow the throttle cable to move freely, but once I found the spot, the spring on the PB-6 easily drew the cable back. Now I have to find another spring to attach to the throttle arm as a backup in case the spring on the PB-6 breaks, or the throttle cable sticks some how. I have to find a small enough spring for the space I have, but also good tension, but not too much that it makes pressing the accelerator pedal tough.

I can smell the finish line, or at least the testing portion of the finish line. Next on the docket is wiring the control board, which I should be able to complete over Thanksgiving weekend. Then, connect all the batteries and start testing the system both on the jacks and then on the ground.

Connect the dots

I have made a bit more progress and am shooting for getting the car on the ground and testing by Thanksgiving. I will be working on it again this weekend and next weekend. Maybe even a day over the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are some photos of the latest work.

Added a grommet for the Positive Battery cable running to the rear of the car

Another angle - You can also see the flexible tubing to help protect the wire from debris

Flexible tubing for High voltage wire and a 1" clamp to hold it in place

Rear Fuse and disconnect location

Connection to front battery pack

Control board layout - Most of the mounting holes have been drilled

Installed RPM sensor on the tail end shaft of the Netgain Impulse 9" electric Motor

I have actually done more work than you see here, but forgot to take photos last weekend. I ran the negative cable to the rear of the car and installed another grommet for it to run through. I also crimped a couple more lugs on the wires and completed the rear Anderson disconnect assembly. This was my first attempt at an Anderson and it went smoothly. I bought new tires for the car since the ones I had were very worn and one was flat. This weekend I will finish up the negative cable installation by adding the flexible tubing and mounting it. I will also cut some more aluminum for the front battery racks and cut off a piece on the main rear battery box. After that, I plan to start wiring all the 12 Volt wiring for the control board. The following weekend should consist of double checking lots of stuff like mounting hardware, and wiring. Then, it will be time to connect all 44 of the batteries together, turn the key and see what happens.

Rattle Rattle

Been a while since I have posted and I haven't worked on the car too much either. It has been very hot here and school has started as well as the second busiest time of the year for me at work. I am discouraged a bit because I am so close to having all the components hooked up and operating, but there is a minor issue. I am going to post a couple videos here and would love to get some comments but I need to explain them a bit.

I wanted to hook up some batteries to the controller and motor and do some tests in various gears, but didn't have tranny fluid. I filled the tranny with what I thought was the recommended fluid. At least thats what Pep Boys said. I also saw some posts online that it should take about 1.9 quarts. Well, Pep Boys was wrong and what I read online about fluid level was about the next model up of my vehicle. So, I had the wrong fluid, although probably not much different, and was a half quart shy. Here is a recording I made. The tranny is making noise. It is tough to hear because the brakes are rusty and are also making noise.

I was not happy about this at all. I talked to some guys and researched a little more. I got the correct fluid and filled it all the way up. I also removed the front wheels. One wheel is flat and the car had been sitting on it for a while so the balance of the wheels was probably causing issues. Here is the next video after making these changes.

A little bit of knocking at the higher rpms but tough to hear over the brakes. Much better than before though. In the first video the knocking only happened when I let off the throttle. This may be due to the flat tire and not quite full fluid level. In this video the knocking sound happens at the higher rpms, but does not make any sound when I let off the throttle. It is in 5th gear for this video. In the next video, I put it in 2nd gear and it is much smoother. I don't hear the knocking.

So, in 4th and 5th gear when the rpms get higher it starts to knock a bit. Does anyone think this is an alignment issue with the motor, adapter and input shaft? Could it be the old rusty brakes causing uneven amounts of resistance on either side and it causes the noises at higher rpms? Should I install all the batteries and put the car on the ground and get it rolling a bit to see how it acts with wheels and weight? Could it be that the tranny just needs some more time to get the oil in there and worked around? Any other thoughts? Please comment and let me know what you think.

Crimpin'

Not a huge update but more motion in the right direction. I have spent some time crimping the 2/0 cable to make various connectors on the control board as well as the connections to the motor.

Control board with 2/0 cable and lugs

Motor with 2/0 cable and lugs

The layout on the control board is not very straight, but that is what I needed to do to keep the contactors from being too close to each other. I may still add a piece of lexan or something in between them so the chance of touching the most positive and most negative side is smaller. I ran out of heat shrink so I did not finish the last lug on the motor, but more heat shrink is coming soon.

I hope to have the car in a test mode in 2 to 3 weeks. Wheels up tests and maybe wheels on the ground tests. That is very exciting.