FORK IN THE ROAD

The Fiero EV project has been a great experience filled with ups and downs over the last 5 years. My dream was always to take a build to EVCCON and that dream came true in 2015, although the event was actually canceled and only a scaled down version was held. 

My original thoughts were to purchase a lead acid conversion and just add the lithium batteries but that path went to the wayside when the original Curtis controller blew up, just as I was ready to start working on the Fiero.

Now I am faced with a fork in the road as after the Synkromotive controller caught on fire, I am really back to square 1! One lesson learned was that you do not want to do a build with old technology. When the Fiero was purchased, most conversions used DC motors and the HPEVS three phase motors were just being introduced. Prior that the introduction of this motor, AC motors and controllers were a very costly proposition. Now with the HPEVS motors and re-purposing of OEM motors, companies like EVNETICS and Synkromotive have ceased producing DC controllers for EVs.  

FORK IN THE ROAD

EVTV is offering a Siemens motor and air cooled DEMOC controller for around $1500, but just as the original purchase of the Fiero, this is old technology and is quickly being replaced by much lighter and more efficient motors and controllers. The Siemens motor is 190 lbs and the DEMOC controller is 60 lbs. That would be an increase of almost 120 lbs over the DC set up currently in the car using basically obsolete components.

AIR COOLED DEMOC

SIEMENS MOTOR

Couple this with the fact that used OEM EVs depreciate rapidly and are being resold at a fraction of their original price leaves one with the decision of whether to convert or pick up used OEM EV that still has a battery and drivetrain warranty. Currently a Fiat 500 E can be purchased on ebay for between $5000 and $6000. Decisions.....decisions!

FIAT 500 E

Between better motor/controller efficiency and lighter, more powerful, and safer battery technologies, does it really make sense to put the Fiero back on the road with the currently available components. Also, I am more of a mechanic and do not do well with the programming portion of the currently available OEM component technology, so struggle even pulling up a terminal session to set the parameters.  

With all of that said, the Fiero EV was still a fun and functional car to drive and with the 2 Better Place modules that were installed, had a good 50 mile range when driven moderately. So the question becomes, do I sell the car with the battery module for a little over the cost of the battery modules or dive back in and get it back on the road?

THE FIERO EV

If any of you have any input, I would be glad to hear from you.

Until next time,

Randy

GORGEOUS DAYS!

Here we are on the seventh of February and the weather over the weekend has been spring like, here in central Ohio but no work was done on the Fiero. The new rubber wheel well splash shields from the Fiero Store arrived a couple weeks ago but just didn't have the motivation to put them in yet. I did move the car to do a little paint work on the Mercedes SLK 230 headliner trim pieces but that is about the extent of messing with it.

Even though my posts have been down, the hits on the blog were up in January and are already at 106 views for February. Thanks to all of you who have been following this build and I promise, the posts will pick up in March.

Currently, new equipment is being gathered to be able to do some drive videos and I am really shooting for getting the third module installed so the car can be driven the 22 miles to work. Several of my co-workers have been interested in seeing the conversion but I want the car to be working and look as good as possible before showing it. Hopefully by early spring it will be ready for prime time!

Inside EVs ran an article titled "President Obama Proposes $10 Per Barrel Tax On Oil In Push For Cleaner Transport" and it is ironic because if any of you follow EVTV, Jack Rickard laid out a very similar plan to tax gasoline, starting with $.25/gallon and gradually raising it over the next 5 years. Now I am not advocating raising taxes and the chances of passing a bill to raise taxes on oil would be slim to none, but it would be a way to fund clean transportation and give additional incentives  for the public to try an alternate fuel vehicle. 

Well, got my EV fix out of the way for this week, so back to the Superbowl. Thanks for visiting and don't forget to leave a comment.

Randy

IT COULD BE WORSE!

The other day when the meter leads shorted between the pack battery pins on the d-sub connector, I thought it just damaged the connector but when I went out to work on it today, found that there was no voltage on the wires. After taking part of the center console apart, I could see a wire had come off of the console connector. The easiest way to repair it is to just pull some new wires through the center console and reconnect them to the wires going to the meters.

Sometimes I think I have all the bad luck but this morning when checking the EVTV Page for a new show, found that Jack had a battery fire on Saturday in a Better Place Pack. Seems it ran down too low and when he charged it back up, went ballistic! So when things are not going good on my Fiero build, it is always good to reflect and realize it could be worse. I do have Better Place cells, so will need to make sure they do not run down or overcharge.

EVTV FIRE

Until next week,

Randy

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In May of 2009, while searching the internet for alternate fuel vehicles, I came across a video done by Jack Rickard of Cape Girardeau, MO,  that featured a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster replica, electric conversion. At the bidding of Jack's then partner, Brian Noto, weekly EVTV Shows started being produced by June of that year. Needless to say, I was hooked and started attending the yearly Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention (EVCCON)  from that year until now. This year the weather cooperated and  a barbecue was finally held at Jack Rickard's home, overlooking the Mississippi, River; The location of the original weekly video productions.

The ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

So when when I walked into the driveway from the fire pit and saw the door of the garage open, it took me back to the the beginning of the EVTV weekly show , the source of the many great memories I have of past EVCCONS and of most of the knowledge I have gained about electric cars, over the last 6 years.

THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

INSIDE THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

JACK'S STILL

There were many absent from EVCCON, renamed The EVTV Open House this year but for me and a group of die hards, we got a real trip down memory lane!

My dream was always to be able to bring a car to the show and life is short, so you never really know if you will ever be in Cape Girardeau again, but this year my dream came true!

Long live your dreams,

Randy

VACUUM PUMP CLAMP CLEAN UP

This morning the clamps on the vacuum pump were replaced to hopefully give it a little cleaner look. Nothing functional but it does look better. Eventually a small vacuum tank will be added but doesn't seem to be necessary as the pump provides plenty of vacuum and does not seem to motor boat.

BEFORE

AFTER

Final preparations to tow the car still have not been made and I am a little worried, as Brian's company works with some major manufactures and if the right deal happened to be closing, could cause major changes in the EVTV Open House plans.  Another local EV enthusiast  offered a ride to Missouri, but after four years of sweating over the Fiero, really had my heart set on taking it to Cape Girardeau. 

All my cloths are packed and in the Fiero so will just need to pack up the laptop, camera and all of the chargers to be ready to head out. Hopefully my next post will be from the EVTV Garage.

Randy

HERE COMES THE SON

My son had not been over for awhile and was taking a half day off work to take his cat to the vet, after which, he was stopping by the house. We haven't seen him much during the summer and he had to leave around 6 pm to go look at a house, so I decided to take a half day off of work also, to spend a little time with him. 

I had a new mirror ordered for the bathroom and Chesshir Glass emailed and said it was ready, so went and picked it up. When I got back from picking up the mirror, I took the cover off of the bathroom fan to get measurements, then got on the Home Depot website and ordered a new fan and lights for over the new mirror.

With some of the household chores out of the way, it was time to finish adjusting the parking brake. After a couple of tries at setting the parking brake, it was finally adjusted so it worked well.

PARKING BRAKE ADJUSTER

Then it was on to remounting the vacuum pump for the brakes. A place on the front wall of the front trunk was found and the bracket was mounted in place. After a little moving the hoses around, the vacuum lines were made up and the electrical connections are ready to be hooked back up. This would have been done but a storm was rolling in and there was lightning all around, so I packed it up and well hook the vacuum pump up later tonight or tomorrow after work.

VACUUM PUMP MOUNTED AND HOSES ROUTE

Maybe another post tonight and maybe not until tomorrow but the Fiero will be ready to test drive soon and if the brakes feel good with the vacuum pump hooked back up, work will begin on connecting the second module up.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

MORE WORK ON THE BATTERY BOX

Sunday morning it was overcast and chilly in Ohio but around 10:30 the clouds started to break up and it started getting warmer. After mowing the lawn, I turned my focus on the Fiero front battery box. The first task was to finish bolting in the driver's side aluminum angle, then the firewall angle was fit and bolted in. It was a little tricky getting it to match up on both sides, as it did not butt up to the driver's side angle because of the steering shaft. I had to use a level and clamp another piece of angle on the driver's side to make sure it was the same level. After jockeying it around a few times, it was finally able to be fastened in.

FIREWALL ANGLE BOLTED IN

Next, measurements were taken and a cardboard template was made. After a test fit and a few adjustments, the cardboard template fit nicely into place.

FRONT VIEW OF TEMPLATE FIT

DRIVER'S SIDE VIEW OF TEMPLATE

PASSENGER VIEW OF TEMPLATE

When I checked for the weekly show on EVTV this morning, the site was down, at least the homepage and the EVCCON page. When they came back up, the EVCCON page had a link to register for this year's show. It starts September 29, 2015, so this leaves me about 3 months to get the other battery module in and tweak all of the controls, the charger, and gauges. Everything has to be done because I am officially signed up now!

EVCCON 2015 REGISTRATION

Until next post, keep on building!

Randy

THERE ARE STILL GOOD PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!

If you have been following this blog, you may recall the two year old still in the box unused HiPower batteries I bought that ended up being bulged out over charged used batteries with melting around the terminals. Out of the 40 I purchased and waited for three month to arrive, only 37 would hold a charge and none of them over 80 amp hours. Fortunately, I had paid for the cells with a credit card and my bank gave me a refund for the last 12 cells after I filed a complaint. I was able to test out the new Synkromotive Controller and drive the Fiero about 10 miles but they had bad voltage sag and the car was nothing like it is now, with just one of the Better Place modules.

That sets the stage for my next purchasing adventure, that I am glad to say turned out quite a bit better. Back in January I had purchased a TCCH charger as a back up, as the PIC chip that I tried to have programmed for the Zivan charger, would not turn the charger on. My plan was to use the TCCH charger while I was sending the Zivan charger to Mark Weisheimer, a local EV enthusiast, who is a wizard when it comes to repairing electrical equipment. I needed to buy some Anderson connectors so I could hook up the TCCH Charger and just never got around to it until June. When I got everything hooked up and tried the charger, all I got was a red green flash, that the label said indicated it did not see the pack voltage.

TCCH CHARGER

I finally dug up the ebay seller's contact information and sent them a message through EBAY.  EBAY user lu1535 promptly responded and had me try and short two of the control wires together. Excited, I went out into the garage but the charger still was blinking red green. Later that evening lu1535 sent me the manual and it said to hook the red wire to black wire. That is what I had already done, so at this point I was a bit discouraged. Even though I had purchased the charger 6 months ago and had already left  positive feedback, lu1535 offered to give me a refund for the charger! I really needed another charger,  so thanked him and declined. My plan was to have Mark Weisheimer take a look at it but he was in Cape Girardeau MO, helping the EVTV Hack Team unlock the Tesla motor, so I emailed TC Charger, and promptly received a reply telling me to contact Electric Conversions, their US distributor. Even though this was a TC Charger and Electric Conversions is listed as an Elcon distributor, I received a reply back from them in a couple days and was told to hook the red wire to ground. Having already hooked the red wire to  the black wire, I emailed back asking them which of the 3 wires was ground and received an email telling me that the red wire needed to hook to the green wire for the charger to start and that hooking the red to black wire could blow the 12 volt power board, which is not repairable. Again, luck would have that the board had not blown and indeed, when I hooked the red to green wire, the charger started working. Thanks to lu1535 and Electric Conversions for the help you gave me in getting this charger fired up!

Until Next Post,

Randy

LETS DANCE - CANCON

EVTV had the group that is reverse engineering the CAN communication in OEM electric cars, to get the TESLA motors spinning, so I was keeping an eye on the EVTV webcam. There was a post on the EVTV blog, commenting how it would have been nice to have had a web cam showing the TESLA motor bench, where the team was working. I had saved a couple of pictures from the shop cam and when I was looking at them on my picture viewer, noticed that the two in sequence made it look like the group was dancing, so I just had to do a gif and post it. 

EVTV CANCON 2015 - PRACTICING DANCE MOVES

On the bright side, it seems that in between all the dancing, the team was able to spin up the TESLA motors, so congratulations to all involved for another job well done! This really opens the door for some pretty cool conversions with plenty of power.

I made a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up some angle iron and aluminum plate to start boxing in the front of the Fiero to hold the batteries. After getting the material home, I was not satisfied with it and decided to order some aluminum angle from Alro Steel. I plan to screw the aluminum angle to the side frame and then fasten the flat aluminum plate to the angle. To get the battery module into the space in the front of the Fiero, I am going to have to break the pack in half and put 8 cells end to end. I am not sure if the module will be standing up or if I will put it on the side like it was in the original Better Place module. I am not much of an artist but below is the general arrangement of the batteries.

BATTERY MODULE CONFIGURATION

It has been hard finding time to work on the car with the kitchen remodeling we are doing but I have been trying to divide my time between the two.

Thanks for stopping by,

Randy

EVTV 2015 CATALOG

The Fiero GT EV was submitted to the EVTV Database, just in time to be included it the EVTV 2015 Catalog. Below is the electronic version, and although not quite complete, is a great resource to assist in converting an ICE engine car to magnetic drive.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We have had a great year at CZ-EV and wish you and yours a Merry Christmas!

A special thanks to the builders in Ohio who have always been there to lend a helping hand when called upon!

The bottom balancing of the Better Place modules has been going well and the second module is all most done. The trick seems to be ending the bottom balance with a charge instead of a discharge. I had two cells that were still at 3 volts and discharged them to 2.91 volts before charging them back up to 2.95 volts. I have noticed that when discharging, the cells always come back up to close to 3 volts but after a charge at low amperage, will stat at 2.95 volts or drop a volt or so after charging. I am going to try to do a video of my second module bottom balancing and hope it will be useful for any of you still working on bottom balancing a Better Place battery module.

Hoping for a great 2015,

Randy

BOTTOM BALANCING MODULE 2 CONTINUES

Last week the clip came off of the Powerlab 6 and blew an IGBT. I needed to charge all of the cells back up to 3 volts, so purchased a SKYRC iMAX B6 Super Mini Professional Balance Charger. So far, the charger has been working great, just charging from the unit, without having the computer interface hooked up.

BOTTOM BALANCE SET-UP

SKYRC - iMAX B6 DISPLAY

The cells are all below 3 volts and so far, I have not been able to set the iMax B6 to automatically shut off at that voltage, so have to manually shut the charge off. The cells are all reaching 3 volts and when the charge is discontinued, dropping back to 2.9 volts or so. My strategy is to get them to all fall back to around the same voltge (2.95) after they have been charged to 3 volts. Charging them will keep the cells from drifting up like they do when discharging them and I should be able to get them all to the same voltage much easier doing a charge rather than a discharge.

The temperature is supposed to get into the high 40s on Saturday and High 50s on Sunday, so will try and take this opportunity to get the Fiero in the garage. 

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

IF IT WEREN'T FOR BAD LUCK..........

Last weekend I was picking up a prescription at the drug store and when I pulled out of the parking spot,  heard a scraping sound. I pulled out and drove a little way and the sound continued, so got out of the car to find one of my tires was completely flat. I was able to limp the car across the street, where there was an air pump but after about 5 minutes, came to the realization that the tire was not going to pump up. The lugs take a key socket to remove, so I got it out and on the first lug, it split down the side. By fortune, there was a tire shop right next to the carryout that had the air pump. I had bought the tire at another Tire Store and had road hazard insurance on it, so asked them to just put on the spare. It was near the end of the day and they said they would not be able to put the spare on until the next day, so I called my son Shane. His girlfriend Vanessa was working in Pickerington and picked ue up to wait at her work until Shane got there to take me home. The next day he came back over and took me to pick up the car. Mr Tire put my spare tire on for no charge, so I would recommend this business as they were willing to help out someone in need and did not try to take advantage of me.

899 Refugee Rd

Pickerington, OH

(614) 863-2444

I took the tire to the tire shop where I bought it and they had to order a new tire, so dropped it off. I took my wife's car to work on Monday and the temperature had plummeted into the teens, so after work I walked out into the cold parking garage looking forward to going home but when the key was turned, nothing happened. I turned the lights on and they seemed to be working fine but I called security and ask them if they could come down and try and give me a jump. When they arrived, we hooked up the jumpers but the starter still would not crank. My son gets off work about the same time as me, so I called him and he picked me up on his way home to take me to my house. It is a strange feeling because it is usually me helping my son and his girlfriend keep their cars going and coming to pick them up, so I could tell it made him feel good, to finally get to bail me out of a jam.

Now the only car I had that would make it to work from my house was my Miata with the small spare tire. It was still really cold out and the spare is probably 34 years old, so I kept my speed to under 60 miles per hour on the way to work. I decided to take a half day off to go and pick up the new tire and again, kept the speed under 60 all the way to the tire shop. The tire replacement was free and I got a new key socket, so if I have another flat, I will be able to change it. I would recommend Tire Discounters because they honored their warranty, no questions asked.

1041 Hebron Rd,

Heath, OH 43056

(740) 281-3611

tirediscounters.com

OK, one problem solved but I still had a car in a parking garage in Columbus, OH. I tried to start the car a couple more times but the starter just would not turn over. Friday night I got on the internet and found a tow company that said they would come and pick me up on Saturday. Early Saturday morning, there was an ice storm in Central Ohio, so the wrecker company emailed to inform me they were not releasing any of their trucks until the temperature came up and the ice had been cleared. About 10:00 am, I headed to my son's house in Columbus and upon arriving, called the wrecker driver again. We agreed to meet at the parking garage in 45 minutes, so my son and I went to the garage and pushed the car to get it ready to push out of the exit, when the wrecker arrived. The driver backed up to the exit and we were able to push the car close enough to the truck for him go get it hooked up. We met the driver at a downtown repair shop and I paid the driver $75 for the tow. I would highly recommend Buddy's Towing!

BUDDY'S TOWING

Telephone:+1 614-496-0802

E-mail: buddy@buddysrpm.com

As always, the repair shop said the car would not be done until Monday, so my son and I went to the Tip Top on Gay Street in Columbus and had a craft beer and lunch. While we were eating, the shop called to happily inform me they had found the problem and for the small price of $450 would gladly repair the car. Now I know how much a starter costs and I know how long it takes to put one in, especially if you have a lift, so was quite put out. To get it home would have been a couple hundred dollars and there was no way I could have changed it in the parking garage, so guess I will just have to accept the highway robbery. I would not recommend taking your car to Grismer Tire and Auto!

DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE

Ok, so with all of that, I still was able to do a little work on the Fiero EV build. I went out to set up the Powerlab6 and the cables that went to the 12 volt battery were dangling over the side of the table. When I went to pick them up, the clamps that were on one of the half cells of the module came off the terminals, and there was a dreaded popping noise. Now I am not very hopeful of any help from Revolectrix in honoring their warranty, as I am sure that they are going to somehow say I misused the product. It wasn't even connected to a 12 volt power supply so even if the connectors came of of the cell, should not have blown the charger.

Anyway, I am hooking up a JLD404 with a small dc adapter to charge the cells back up to 3 volts and have ordered a cheap battery balance machine to use, once it get here. I bought this charger for the price of shipping the Powerlab6 back to Revolectrix and it has a USB port so it can be controlled from a computer. Hopefully, they don't put all of the restrictions on the setup as the Powerlab6 and I can charge and discharge without having to hook anything up to a 12 volt battery.

With everything going on, I still did not get the table if the front of the garage broken down so I can get the fiero in but tomorrow when my son helps me bring the car home from the shop, I am going to have him help me carry the table down to the basement.

Mark Weisheimer programmed the Pic chip that I bought for the Zivan charger, so I want to run the batteries on the Fiero down a little to try it out. We set it at 18 amps to charge and to shut off at 137.6 volts with no constant current charge at the end. I am going to need to watch the first charge and probably adjust the voltage pot to shut off at the correct voltage. The contacts on the JLD404 will also be set up to stop the charge a little before it gets to the 137.6 volts, so there will be two shut off mechanisms. Mark is really busy with the Lear Charger and Chevy Volt DC-DC converter development, not to mention the traveling he does in his day job, so I really appreciate his taking the time to help out a fellow EV converter.

Well, next week has to be better, because there isn't much room for it to get much worse, so I guess what doesn't kill you, just makes you stronger! Looking forward to next week!

Randy

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR... WELL ALMOST!

After taking the car on the 20 mile interstate test drive, the voltage had settled around 119.5 volts and even though, there should be another 9 watt hours in the pack, according the the JLD404, I  decided to go ahead and charge. At $0.15 per kilowatt hour, it cost me $1.04 to put 6.786 KWH into the pack.

The voltage and current were lowered last week at the end of the charge, so this charge dropped from 18 amps to 17 amps. I watched the end of the charge a little closer this week and the charger still is not shutting off as soon as I would like. At 138.2 the average half cell voltage is 4.312 volts or 0.112 volts over the recommended cutoff voltage.

I decided to stay with the Zivan NG3 charger because it only weighs 15 pounds and it fits neatly in the space on the engine side of the trunk, tucked away and barely visible. The drawback is it can not be programmed without sending it in the the manufacture rep in California, paying $75 and hoping they program it the way you want it programmed. Enter DIY Electric car and a thread on putting a PIC chip in the charger that can change the voltage cut off. I got one of the chips but have never programmed it because the original HiPower cells I purchased were never going to work. Now that I have the Better Place modules, it is time to put the Pic chip in the Zivan charger, get it back in the car and hooked back up to the J1772 and 220 volt sockets.

PIC CHIP AND CIRCUIT BOARD

I left the chip with Mark Weisheimer when he worked on the Zivan charger after I blew one of the IGBTs., so contacted him to see if he had ever loaded the code. He has been heavily involved with reverse engineering the CAN commands for the Lear charger, used in several of the OEM electric and hybrid cars, so I was a bit worried he may not have time right now to program it but was relieved to get a reply telling me he would program the chip and help set it up in the charger. He also gave me some good recommendations on setting up a back up system to shut off the charger, just to be safe. I have a JLD404 and a spare contactor, so it is just a matter of wiring it up to shut off the charger if it's programming fails to do so.

A couple of the rollers on my garage door had pulled loose and the door would hardly close, so I made a trip to the hardware store for some new rollers. After working on it for a couple of hours, it is opening and closing just fine now. Also, the garage cleaning continued to try and set up space to charge the other two Better Place modules and still get the car in when it gets cold. Shouldn't be long and I will be able to get the car back inside for winter.

Until next time,

Randy

HURRY UP AND WAIT

The Fiero will be officially insured after midnight, so I am anxious to get the 12 volt cutout box that was purchased on EBAY and test the Better Place Module. I guess the second module could start to be bottom balanced and the Dell Venue tablet finished wiring. This would allow the center console to be installed, so there is actually work I could be doing.

Tomorrow I need to put new brakes on my Miata, as one of the rears has started scraping. New rotors and pads were ordered from Autozone and were shipped to the house as part of the purchase price. I may start discharging the next module while I am working on the Miata, so once all the bugs are worked out with the new connections and connectors, it will be ready to install in the front compartment.

As a JLD404 needs to be mounted in the center console for the fuel gauge, I am going to need to pick up another one from Light Object and below is a link if any of you need to pick one up.

JLD404 METER

 Specification

Dual Alarm output (relay) J1,J2
Power: 12-32V DC
Default DC500V,5A
Max current: 9999A (an external shunt required)
Amp-Hr recording: 0.001~9999AH
Sampling: 3/s
Control Type: Relays
Relay: 3A@125VAC, 3A@14V DC
Display: Blue LED
Size: 96mm x48mm x62mm
Mount Hole: 92mm x44mm x62mm

The weather has been getting cooler over the last several days and it is hard to believe that summer is almost gone. I have been working on the Fiero 3 nights a week and every Saturday and Sunday since April, hoping to get it done enough to take to EVCCON. Now I am hoping to get it done enough to drove to the Columbus National Plug in Week event on September 21st at Easton Town center in Columbus, OH.

NATIONAL PLUG IN WEEK COLUMBUS, OH

Thanks for stopping by,

Randy

FINISHING THE NEGATIVE CONTACTOR, SHUNT, AND FUSE

Saturday morning, work continued on the negative side contactor, shunt, and fuse mounting, and the bus bars were added. Then the plate was mounted on the end of the battery. Plexiglas covers will be added to the top of the battery module and to the contactor, shunt, and fuse once the battery connections are made up.

COMPONENTS MOUNTED

The battery module has set for over a month now, so reading were taken to see where the voltages settled to. The lowest wa 2.691 volts and the highest was 2.897. Jack Rickard of EVTV has stated that he is not bottom balancing them to 3 volts but from the looks of the graph below, I should be able to charge all of the cells to 2.897 and get them to stay pretty close to that voltage.

Anyway, it's off to a pet event with my wife, son, and his fiance,  not by choice but to keep the wife happy. Our Yorkie will be happy also.

Thanks for stopping by,

Randy

BACK FROM EVCCON

I left Cape Girardeau around 7:00 am ext and headed for home instead of the drag race, as it looked like rain. After seeing Michael Brown's posts, it looks like I should have stuck around!

EVCCON 2014 DAY 5

Michael also did a post of DAY 4, and it is really great that he took the time to document the event. I finally did get to talk to Michael at the Awards Banquet to let him know his work was appreciated. 

Although I had a great time at EVCCON this year, was disappointed the Fiero did not get done in time to take, that so many speakers canceled out on Jack, and that quite a few of those in attendance in the past, did not make it this year. Thanks to Al Gada and William for letting me be a part of the drag racing team at Jack's hanger on Friday. It turned out being a lot of fun!

Thanks to Jack Rickard and all of the folks at EVTV for making this year's EVCCON another success, and for all of those taking the time and spending the money to bring their conversions. Can't wait until next year!

Randy

DISASTER AVERTED!....I HOPE!

Over the last six weeks I have been putting on the push trying to get the car ready for EVCCON and although I fell short of that goal, have got the battery pack installed and made much headway on getting it hooked up to the controller. In my haste, I put the motor compartment lid down last night after dark, not noticing that I forgot to put on one of the side covers, allowing the rain we had overnight to get into the Synkromotive controller. Fortunately, I had made a separate cover for the DC-DC converter, so it was protected from the rain.

COVER LEFT OFF OF MOTOR COMPARTMENT

CONTROLLER LED NOT BLINKING

When I went out this morning, the led was not flashing on the communications port. There was no pack voltage on the controller and only 12 volts, so I unplugged the connector and after 30 seconds or so, plugged it back in. The led was now flashing yellow, not a good sign. I took my wife to the grocery store to stock up for the week I would be gone to EVCCON and upon returning, started emailing the folks at Synkromotive, to find out what the yellow light means and to ask them what they think the water could have damaged in the controller. Before sending the email, I thought I would look and see if there was a code being flashed, so opened up the motor compartment cover, plugged the connector back in and to my relief, the port was now flashing green again. Not 100% out of the woods yet but I do feel a lot better and will hook up the computer to see if communications can still be established to the controller.

Copper sheet was ordered to make the bus bars for the battery module, positive side contactor and emergency/maintenance shut off switch and should be here when I return from EVCCON. Also, a new trunk seal was ordered from the Fiero Store to keep the water out of the trunk when it rails. 

There is a potential buyer at EVCCON for the HiPower cells that are currently in the car but since I am not bringing the Fiero, have no way to get them there without renting a vehicle, so will just have pass on the offer. I guess if they really want the cells, we can arrange to meet somewhere between Columbus, OH and Tulsa, OK, this fall. My wife has been after me to go somewhere together before the end of the year, so maybe a trip to St Louis, MO may work out.

Anyway, with any luck, I should be having appetizers and drinks at the EVTV shop by 5:00 pm tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

WORKING ON THE GROUND!

Today, the tabs were finally bolted down to the battery rack rails and the module support rods were all tightened up. I had to go to Ace Hardware and get some button head bolts to have enough clearance to get the rod nuts to turn but all is good now. Also, before taking the Fiero off of the jacks, gave the underneath side of the rack a good coat of bed liner.

HOLD DOWN CLIPS MOUNTED

ANGLE CLIPS IN PLACE

BED LINER BEING APPLIED TO RACK

INBOARD HOLD DOWN CLIPS FROM TOP

CLEARANCE BETWEEN MODULE AND CONTROLLER

An electrical box was purchased from Home Depot to mount the conatctor, shunt, and fuse. The box will be bolted to the inboard end of the battery module on the negative terminal. I will probably put another contactor and an emergency/maintenance switch on the positive side also, so work began on laying all the components out and mounting them in the box.

Only a week to go until EVCCON and it is looking like the Fiero will not be done in time to take it this year but I am still going to keep trying, until it is time to leave next week.

Thanks for visiting, 

Randy

4500 PAGE VIEWS, 100 POSTS

My first post after purchasing the Electric Fiero was on Saturday, June 9, 2012, almost two years ago.Over that time, it sometimes felt like no one was visiting the site but to document the build, I kept on posting, almost every week. The blog has been a motivation for me and many times I have forced myself to go out and work on the car, even though I didn't really feel like it, just so I would have something to post.

I could probably have had many more page views but have taken steps to prevent sites like Semalt and Vampire Stat from artificially driving up my numbers and over the last 9 month, have seen a drastic reduction in hits from those type of sites. I was getting 50 hits a week from those sites for a month until code was added to help keep them from visiting this blog.

The first build blog that I followed from start to finish, had 4500 page views when the car was completed, and with my less than 1000 page views at the time, thought, I will never have that many people visit my site. Upon seeing that conversion, it is the best one I have seen so far and is currently the number one voted car on EVTV's Build Data Base.

BAD CAT

It has always amazed me at the hits this sites gets from around the world and it is always nice to run into another builder at EVCCON who has visited the site. It is a great feeling to be involved with a hobby that brings so may people together, in a world where it seems so many work to tear it apart.

COUNTRIES VIEWING THIS BLOG LAST MONTH

It seems like my page views are up over the last several months and this is probably because of gas prices starting to creep closer to $4.00 per gallon. Discovery Channel has also had a couple of EV builds over the last several months, so I am sure that may also contribute to the increased interest. Also, John Metric and Don Garlits have been pushing the speed envelope in electric cars so maybe people are realizing an EV is not just some kind of GREEN MACHINE, but can be made into respectable muscle cars. 

Thanks to all of you who have visited the site over the last two years and don't be afraid to leave a comment or join the site, it would make my day! 

Thanks again for viewing,

Randy