RIDING OUT THE STORM

With threats of a derecho hitting Ohio, I lifted the motor cradle onto the legs of the lift and pushed it into the garage when I got home from work last Wednesday. The storm never developed but we did get some wind, rain, and a pretty good thunder storm. My garage is small so now I have to push the cradle into the driveway every time I go out to work on the car. I guess the solution for that is to get the cradle back in the car.

Last week the Cellpro Powerlab8 that I ordered from Revolectrix arrived, so I am almost ready to start balancing cells. They had a refurbished one, with full warranty, listed for a good price and now it is in my garage. I didn't order the USB interface module but found one on ebay from a hobby shop for a better price than the ones on the REVO website, and with shipping included in the auction price..

POWERLAB 8

I also took the cover off of the IOTA DC-DC converter to check and clean the fan. When I was charging the Ballistic Battery, the fan did not turn on and I was a little concerned it was not working. I was surprised to find it is a 24 volt fan but it ran when I hooked up 12 volts to it, so after a good cleaning, I put the converter back together. 

 The weekend was spent sorting out the 12 volt system before putting loom over the wires and mounting to the fire wall. When the car is completed, I want to put together a manual with schematics and information about how the car is constructed, so want to gather as much information as possible while I can still climb around in the engine bay and get to all of the wiring.

REAR LIGHTING WIRES

 

POWER DISTRIBUTION SCHEMATIC

I have been placing components in different places to try to find the right placement for them and ordered some thread nut rivet inserts that I saw on Damian McGuire's Youtube video. They should work well and make getting to the charger & DC-DC converter a lot easier, should I ever need to service them.

THREAD NUT RIVETS

My son came over Saturday and we went to a couple boat and hardware stores looking for a connector to make up the power leads on the Powerlab8 but ended up ordering some off of EBAY. We cooked out and had a couple mugs of Buckeye Lake Dark Stout, so really didn't get much done on the car. Then went to my Dad's house for Father's day on Sunday. My Dad watches a lot of Fox News, so he isn't much of an electric car fan but always asks how the build is going. I would love to have my Son and Dad to go to EVCCON with me when the build is done.

It is surprising how much little items add up during a build. Fasteners, loom, hook up wire, power cable for the 220 volt charging, and the list goes on. I have all the receipts, so  will add them all up and post on the blog after the engine compartment is back together but think the number will be surprising.  It's also become apparent that even though you can get a pretty good deal on an original lead acid conversion, you want to make sure what ever you buy has the components you want. There is a lot better equipment out there compared to what was available for a build done in 2008.  

Hopefully the pace will start picking up soon. 

Randy