JUST ANOTHER LABOR DAY WEEKEND

If I have any hope of taking the Fiero to the Drive Electric - Columbus event, the battery charger must be installed, as there is a possibility the car will need charged to make it home. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were spent working on the car and the bottom trim has all been painted satin black, there is now plexiglass over the top of the front batteries, and the battery charger is mounted in the motor compartment.

BOTTOM MOLDING PAINTED SATIN BLACK

PLEXIGLAS OVER FRONT BATTERIES

CHARGER MOUNTING BRACKETS

CHARGER MOUNTED

In addition to working on the Fiero, I was able to finish the drywall in the bathroom, got it all painted, put up the new light bar, and installed the new mirror.

The interior paint for the SLK230 also arrived late last week and I was able to wet sand and touch up all of the places where the paint had pealed off on the passenger side of the car. After all of the nicks and scratches are pre-painted, the whole console and dash will be wet sanded again, wiped down with alcohol, and a good coat of paint put on all of the surface.

It has been a busy weekend but a lot of work was done. I signed up for Chargepoint, so as soon as the charger is wired up, will take a trip to Walgreens to make sure the J1772 plug and module are working. I may need a little charge next Saturday to make it back from Drive Electric, so want to make sure everything is working properly.

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

MORE WORK ON THE CONTACTOR MOUNT

Work on the mount for the fuse, contactor, and shunt continued and slots were cut in the top so it would slide over the rails on top of the module. It  is going to cover the end of the module very nicely. Last night I laid the components out on the plate, evidently before the paint had fully dried and it left some bare spots, so the plate was removed and another light coat of truck bed liner was applied.

FITTED COMPONENT MOUNTING PLATE

The remainder of the evening was spent looking for materials to cover the components, once they are mounted. Progress is moving slow but it is moving, so hopefully by the end of this weekend, the module will be hooked up and ready to test. A couple more wires will need to be pulled inside the car for the shunt and a couple of wires run to control the contactors. That means getting the wires in the loom behind the battery module but I should be able to get to them. I may also hook up the starter switch to a couple of relays so they will close when you turn the key to start and stay latched in the run position, until you turn the key completely off. It may also be nice to have a green LED come on when the contactors are closed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Randy