FABRICATING THE MOUNTING FOR THE VOLT/AMP METERS

Saturday my wife and I met my family in Coshocton to go on the Fall Foliage tour. We skipped the last two farms on the tour and went to the Roscoe Village Apple Butter Stirring Festival. That pretty much took up Saturday so no work was done on the Fiero.

ROSCOE APPLE BUTTER STIRRIN'

Sunday morning was chilly but started warming up around 9am, so it was time to start on reworking the instrument cluster to incorporate the Volt/Amp digital meters. Right off the bat, I could not find a socket or nut driver that fit the small screws holding the face plate on, so drove over to Ace Hardware in Baltimore, OH to pick up some tools. Before EVCCON I picked up a 1/4 inch drive metric socket set so after finding out the socket I needed was 7/32 picked up a 1/4 inch drive, inch socket set and some inch nut drivers. 

Templates were made for the face plate to mount the meters and the terminal spacing to plug into the existing contact clips that were removed from the instrument cluster that origanally came with the car. The hole locations were transferred to a piece of aluminum sheet metal and were drilled out, then a template was made for the meter and was cut out on the plate with a Dremel cutoff wheel. The plate edges were cleaned up and the meters were tested for fit.

METER MOUNTING PLATE

Then focus turned to making a contact plate so the original contact clips can be used to connect the meters. The holes from the template were transferred to a piece of plexiglas and were drilled out. After another trip to Ace Hardware, brass screws were located in the holes and screwed into place. The contact plate fit like a glove and should work out great.

OLD CLUSTER WITH CONTACTS REMOVED

NEW CLUSTER WITH CONTACTS

STUDS ON BACK OF TEMP AND FUEL GAUGES

CONTACT PLATE

CONTACT PLATE MOUNTED

FACE TEST FITTED

The dual Volt Amp meters are not isolated, so I have to use a 12 volt dc-dc converter to power one of them up to make sure the pack negative is not tied to the 12 volt negative. The leads on the dc-dc converter are very small and require soldering the wires onto them. This can be done but twice not I have had a solder joint fail and the wire come loose, causing the meter not to work, so found a connector that the dc-dc converter will plug into that has connections that you push the wire on to connect them. I believe this will be a much more reliable way to connect the wires to the DC-DC converter and will make the operation of the Volt/Amp meters much more reliable.

DC-DC CONVERTER CONNTCTOR

Next weekend the wiring will be started so I am digging up the instrument cluster schematics and diagrams to find the wires that will need to be spliced to be able to use the original connectors.

More next week,

Randy

BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!

This has been a busy weekend, as I am getting ready to paint the bathroom and re-grout the tiles, so I needed to make as much progress as possible on getting the second module connected. July is almost history and EVCCON is only 8 weeks away. It seems like there is so much to do and so little time.

The module connections were installed, then the next project was to drill holes in the deck plate for the cables to be run through. There wasn't much room in front of the module but I was finally able to get into a position to center punch the locations and drill the holes with a hole saw.

BATTERY CONNECTIONS INSTALLED

HOLES DRILLED FOR CABLES

Earlier in the day a trip was made to ACE Hardware to pick up some flexible conduit and Liquid Tight Connectors to run the cable in.

3/4in x 25ft Ultratite Flexible Conduit

3/4 IN LIQUID TIGHT CONNECTOR

So the end to a busy weekend, that started with mowing the lawn on Friday, finishing some touch up painting around the new patio door and purchasing a car on EBAY, then working on the battery module. My work cloths still need dried and hung up but tomorrow back to work, so maybe I can get a little break and rest up a little!

Until next time,

Randy

MOWING LAWN IN SHORTS

There was rain in Columbus, OH off and on all week and the grass went from brown, to green, to almost too tall to mow, in just a few days. Friday upon returning home after work, the garden tractor was fired up and the first mowing of the season was done, just in time. The lawn was still a little wet and the motor on the mower bogged down in a couple areas of the yard but fortunately, chopped the grass up pretty good and did not leave any clumps of clippings.

FRESHLY CUT GRASS  - SPRING IS HERE!

Saturday morning started with charging the Fiero and heading off to Baltimore Ohio, to have some lunch at J. Gumbo's and show the car to the owner, Fred Baughman. Unfortunately, Fred wasn't in but I still had lunch and a couple glasses of craft beer, as they have one of the most extensive selections around. The car ran well and made the 16 mile trip with ease. The shifter is still not shifting correctly but will go into 4th gear and reverse, so for now, that will work.

J. GUMBO'S BALTIMORE, OH

The Fiero has been in the garage all winter, with the interior and wiring being worked on, so Sunday, another drive was taken to shake out any problems. For some reason, the Dell Venue tablet, would not bring up the number pad, when trying to log on and it took several minutes to finally get it to pop up and log in. I hate to take off without having access to the motor controller, as I have had the controller fail to start in the past and had to reset the throttle, to get it to restart. As fate would have it, after stopping at a store, the car would not move. After turning the key off and starting the controller several times, the car finally moved. Also, the parking brake has been sticking and this is a problem, as if it is not noticed, draws quite a few more amps and could reduce the range enough to strand me. Also, the brakes are a bit spongy after sitting in the garage all winter, so the car will be taken to a mechanic in Kirkersville, OH, near the house to power bleed the brakes and adjust the parking brake so it will release. Because the lead acid batteries used in the original build were so heavy, the original converter used spring spacers to raise the front of the car. With the vast reduction of weight with the LiMn2O4 battery modules, the front end is now sitting higher than it should, possibly causing extra drag when the car is up to highway speed.  All in all, the 16 mile drive went well and used about 40 amp hours at a nominal 120 volts for roughly 300 watt hours/mile. That is a little higher that what I had last year but the tire pressure probably needs checked and as I said, I believe the parking brake is still dragging a little.

Upon returning home, another charge was initiated and more tweaking was done at the end of the charge. The charger is tapering down to 3 amps but still is not shutting off before it reaches 137.6 volts. After I finally get the charger to shut down, it will be installed back in the car and a contactor will be connected to the 220 volt AC input, controlled by the relays on the  EPM-5740TVR volt meter, that was picked up from Light Objects. This will be a good safety back up should the Zivan charger decide not to shut down.

Finally, a bracket was made for the Hella, UP28 rotary vane vacuum pump that is going to be tried out on the car. My current vacuum pump is really loud and has bothered me since the first time I went for a ride, even before buying the car. Also pictured below with the vacuum pump are the new seat adjustment mechanism covers, from The Fiero Store.

VACUUM PUMP BRACKET

It was really good getting the shorts out and enjoying the great day on Saturday and Sunday but as always, the weekend went way to fast! Not a lot of actual work was done on the car  but a lot of looking, measuring, and trying to come up with a plan to mount the other two battery modules.

Until next time,

Randy

CRUISING INTERSTATE 70

EVTV's Friday show was downloaded early this morning, so by the time I finished watching, it was after 2:00 AM Sunday morning. I woke up at 7:am but decided to sleep in a little. About 10:00 am, I got moving and went outside to prepare the Fiero to test on the interstate. Having run the car out of juice a couple weeks ago, I was a little nervous, needless to say. Before leaving, the names of a couple of towing companies were written down, the charge cable was disconnected, and voltage, amp hour, and mileage reading were recorded. The shift linkage was inspected to make sure the cable had not pulled out again. The camera was taped to the dash, the laptop booted up and the Synkromotive UI was brought up. Finally before backing up, the JLD404 was reset and the Synkromotive log program started. So finally, I was driving down the road in front of my house toward the entrance to interstate 70 and even with all the planning and preparation, the 12 volt negative lead to the inverter that the laptop was plugged into came out of the terminal. So much for planning, so I decided to drove across the interstate to the Flying J parking lot and re-connect the terminal. Ok, the log program is running again, so off to the interstate entrance ramp. Just when I made the turn, the negative lead came out of the terminal again. Oh well, here we go anyway and at least the camera was working. The car ran great and I cruised along at 60 mph until turning onto the off ramp at Etna and turned into the McDonald's parking lot to try and get the log program back up. This time I taped the negative lead to the inverter so it could not come out and got the log program back up and running. Then back on to Route 70 to continue the test drive. The car was still doing fine so I decided to pass the Rt158 exit and to on up the road to the Route 37 Exit. The shifter was still acting up but I was able to get it into fourth gear when on the interstate. 

INTERSTATE 70 TEST DRIVE MAP

Upon arriving back at the house, the drive was 20.9 miles and 50.5 amp hours were used giving me 2.4 amp hours per mile or 288 watt hours per mile. The controller had not limited amperage and drove normally the whole drive. When the other two modules are installed, I should have a good 60 mile range, that should be sufficient for me to drive to work in downtown Columbus, OH and back with out having to charge. 

Below are the graphs from the Synkromotive log file showing pack and motor voltage, pack and motor current, and all four on the last graph.

PACK AND MOTOR VOLTAGE

PACK AND MOTOR AMPS

PACK AND MOTOR VOLTAGE AND AMPERAGE

The last graph is a little busy but shows that just one module can power the car on the interstate without sagging the pack voltage too much. Also, the 12 volt system did not sag below 11.5 volts and always recovered to at least 13 volts after an acceleration.

There is a feed store and a granary close to my house with scales, so as soon as the other two modules are installed, I want to have the car weighed. The 288 watt hours per mile is a little higher than expected and may just be a result of the weight of the car. Fieros are notoriously heavy for a two seat car, so that may be the reason for the higher than expected watt hours per mile.

Below is a video of the test drive and I didn't put any music or voice over as I wanted to show just how quite the car is when cruising down the highway.

FIERO EV INTERSTATE 70 - 20 MILE TEST DRIVE

The day ended with a visit from my son Shane, his fiance Vanessa, and their husky, Finn. Shane and I enjoyed a growler of Buckeye Lake Blond draft during dinner and while visiting the rest of the evening.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

METERING ALONG

This week the blog picked up another follower; Welcome Jerry! As always, questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome. The blog actually keeps ME motivated, as when it is cold in the garage or when I am just feeling lazy, it is my reason to get to work, so there will be something to write about each week. If you are doing a conversion and have a blog, make sure and let me know, as I spend quite a bit of time learning from other builder's experiences.

Saturday morning was spent finishing the 12 volt system meters and did not go without some setbacks. Holes had to be located and drilled in the face plate where the meters mount so I used masking tape  and a couple of punches to mark the screw holes in the tape. I had put the tape adhesive side up and after the holes were located, placed the face plate on top of it, allowing the tape to stick to it. I drilled the holes on one side and then repeated the process on the other side, this time placing the punches though the holes I just drilled to make sure all four would line up. The other two holes were drilled and the plate was placed back on the instrument pod, then the screws were started. Of course, since the screws were counter sunk, the heads were sticking up quite a bit. In the past, when I have tried to countersink a hole in thin gauge metal, and have made the hole  too big, allowing the bolt head to pull through, so this time I thought I would punch the metal down into the holes on a couple of washers to give me an indent for the counter sunk heads. This worked really well on a couple of the holes but on the other two, it actually punched the metal out, leaving me with a hole larger than the heads of the screws. I believe if I would have ground a point on a large punch it may have worked good. Oh well, on to plan "B".

ACE Hardware has stainless steel, socket head button screws, so off I went to pick up some supplies to finish the project. Along with the screws, I picked up some rubber washers to fill in the gap between the face plate and the top of the screw hole, and some silver textured paint. 

ACE HARDWARE BALTIMORE, OH

It was lunch time, so I stopped at J.Gumbos in Baltimore, OH to have some of their great gumbo and to taste a couple of their large selection of craft beers. As luck would have it, Fred and Heather, the owners were both there and as always, I had a very enjoyable afternoon at their restaurant.

J. GUMBO'S BALTIMORE, OH

Saturday evening the face plate was painted and after drying, the pod was reassembled. Sunday morning the pod was put on top the center console and power was hooked up.

FINISHED 12 VOLT METER POD

Saturday evening,  the Better Place batteries from Israel arrived at EVTV in Cape Girardeau, MO.and you could see Jack and Brian filming the dis assembly of one of them on top of a crate in the middle of the shop.

BETTER PLACE BATTERY PACKS

Sunday was finished out trying to get the CX102 A meter to work and I was able to find the spec sheet on a website. It takes 9 volts but when trying to power it up with a 9 volt battery, nothing happened. I can either order two more of the CX102 A meters, order a couple from Light Object, or pick up a couple more like I used on the 12 volt system from EBAY.

CX102 A LED METER

Thanks for visiting,

Randy