WIRES, WIRES, AND MORE WIRES

This week I picked up 4 Gigavac GX12 contactors and also ended up getting a Ferraz Shawmut (Mersen) A50P350-4 fuse and some Marathon 1000 Volt, 800 Amp stands to mount it on. Two of the contactors came with metal mounting stands and bus bar to connect everything.

CONTACTORS, FUSE, STANDS & BUS BARS

The components weren't the only thing I got, Brian has a wealth of knowledge of electronics and gave me some very good ideas on where to put the contactors and fuses to make sure everything is protected. He also had some IOTA DC-DC converters and pointed out where I can put a thermistor to precharge the capacitors so they don't get a sudden jolt when energized, helping it to last longer and possibly keeping the contrctor coils from getting fried. I got to see the Bosch transaxle and Siemens motor that was used in the Transit Connect EV built by Azure Dynamics and a UQM motor and controller. We played with the Manzanita Micro PFC 50 charger and discharged it into some lead acid batteries. There are still a couple of the chargers for sale at less than half price of a new one and Brian tests and goes over them before he lets them leave his work shop.  I left my house around 6 pm and did not get home until 10:30 pm but had a great time talking EVs. Thank you Brian for the good deal on the parts and all the information you gave me. Hope I can pay you back when you start your S10 build.

The wiring continues and I traced out the Pink and Purple wires that were spliced into the harness going into the plug on the firewall. The harness on the right in the picture below, was removed and that is where the pink and purple wires came back out of the block. I searched on EBAY and was able to find the connector, so I am going to put it back in and run the wires out of that plug. I will only need the plug on the right in the picture below and the wires on the plug I bought are long enough to splice new wires into. The ones I don't need will just be removed or cut off flush. I think this will be better than having spliced wires running out of the loom.

HARNESS PLUG

The pink and purple wires were spliced back together and new loom put over the wires, then the harness was attached to the firewall.

The wires that were going to the speaker amp were removed and the engine compartment is starting to look a lot cleaner. Wires were run from the charger's normally open, common, and normally closed relay, instead of using the contacts on the AVC2, I am going to use the ones on the charger to disable the positive wire going to the controller when the car is charging. This will keep someone (ME) from trying to drive away when ac is applied to the 220 volt plug or the J1772 plug.

CHARGING SCHEME SCHEMATIC

AVC2 & CHARGER CONTACTS TERMINAL BLOCK

 

NG3 CHARGER CONTACT TERMINALS

 The HiPower LiFePo4 cells are being cycled again finishing with a bottom balance as I want to determine how many of the cells will be usable. I will bottom balance all of the good cells one last time before installing and giving them the initial charge as a pack. There is some adjustment on the Zivan Charger by adjusting the pots but I also have a chip that will allow me to adjust the voltage using the PIC 3.  I am getting closer to putting the motor cradle back in the Fiero and once that is done, will be able to determine the final placement for the battery boxes in the rear of the car. I am going to use the existing angle iron battery racks for the front pack so I can test the car but once everything is running, will put aluminum battery boxes in the front also.

Next week is EVCCON  so I will try to do a post from Cape Girardeau. I was going to drive home Sunday after the Convention but think I will go to the NEDRA Test and Tune at Dyno Dom's Sikeston Raceway in Sikeston, MO.

Randy