MEMORIAL DAY BLUES!

This morning started with a trip to Do It Best Hardware to pick up some 12-3 SO cable and a NEMA L6-20 receptacle and plug. Of course after looking at all of their plugs and receptacles and plugs, then getting the store owner to look in the computer, found they did not stock it. Oh well, it was a pretty morning and I was driving with the top down in the Miata, so off to Ace Hardware in Baltimore, OH. Driving down State Route 37, I came upon Canal Road,  that lead into Baltimore, so turned onto it. Just before getting to the town, I came upon Cherry Valley Road, that I thought would be a short cut to Ace Hardware, so made the right hand turn and drove down it, expecting to come to Rt 158 shortly. This did not happen and after driving for 15 minutes or so found I had driven in the opposite direction, so drove back to the road I was on originally that took me to Ace Hardware. Alright, no problem, it was a beautiful morning for a drive through Ohio farm lands but finally I arrived at Ace Hardware and once inside found one of the employees in the electrical section to help me find the receptacle and plug. After looking for a few minutes I was told that they were not in stock but could be ordered. Gee, I can order one too and I came to your store so I could pick one up to day, so back home and onto the internet I went. Amazon had both the plug and the receptacle but of course it will not be here until the middle of next week.

 

NEMA L6-20 PLUG AND RECEPTACLE

I have a J1772 receptacle on the Fiero also but wanted to just have just a standard plug for home as I figured most of the charging would be done there. Since my house has the old 3 conductor 220 wiring, I did not get the more recent NEMA Standard 4 conductor plug, so I guess this is why no one carries it in the stores anymore. So I started wiring the JLD5740 meter that is going to be used to turn off  the ABB DPE40C3P-80/MQC contactor, disconnecting the 220 volt power to the charger. The meter was wired up and everything was going great until I found that the JLD5740 was not reading voltage. The leads form the battery pack were on the correct connectors and the settings correct also but the meter read zero. I set the off set to 300 volts and heard the contactor close but shortly there after, the meter went dead. I was expecting the 12 volt coil to draw milliamps but it had just blown a 15 amp fuse, so back to the drawing board. I still want to  try and get the PIC chip programmed and working to control the Zivan NG3 charger, so if any of you have any experience with programming, I could sure use a hand. In the meantime, I emailed Light Object to try and get them to exchange the meter and have had real good service with them in the past on returning items.

One of our Yorkies, Babe got real sick tonight, is having a hard time breathing and cannot walk. She was a puppy mill breeder dog and we got her from a rescue agency after she was discarded by her former owners. About 6 month ago we thought we were going to have to have her put down but she bounce back and within a few days was running around the house like normal. If she makes it through the night she will probably be running down the hallway to her food bowl in the morning!

Lilly and Babe

Hope your Memorial Day weekend was a great one!

Randy