BATTERIES, BATTERIES, ADD MORE BATERIES!

The last Better Place battery module is currently being bottom balanced so it can be synchronized into the Fiero's battery pack and I thought it would be good to show you where I gained my knowledge on bottom balancing lithium batteries.

Below is the presentation on lithium batteries from EVCCON 2014:

PARTING WITH MY MIATA

A hundred thousand miles ago, I purchased a 1989 Miata with 75,000 miles on it from EBAY. After a flight to Philadelphia, and a puddle jumper to Allentown, PA, I was on my way back to Ohio. After driving a few miles I noticed a strong smell in the car and as the previous owner had recently passed, wondered if it wasn't in the car. Half way home the clutch quit working but was able to put in some more fluid and make it home.

Turned out the fender drains were plugged and water from the convertible top drains into the fender wells then exits through the drains. The slave cylinder on the clutch had to be replaced but after that, the car was great. You normally drive down a road in the summer with the air on but in the convertible, you could smell freshly cut grass and the sweet smell of wild flowers.

When EVTV had their Build Contest before the first EVCCON, my entry was the Miata, using rear drive, single speed transaxle, AC motor. I didn't win but did drive the Miata to Cape Girardeau for the first four years. The car was just sitting in the driveway and had an overheating problem that I just couldn't seem to isolate. Then the window regulator broke and the drivers side window would not go down. Instead of letting it sit in the driveway and pay insurance on it, just seemed that selling it was the right thing to do, so it was listed on Craigslist.

I received several inquiries but finally got one from a guy in my area who wanted to come and look at it on the weekend. We have been experiencing some of the coldest weather the last several days, so when I went out Saturday morning to get the car running, I had problems getting the trunk open to try and charge the battery. Ok, finally got it open and hooked up the charger, so several hours later, had the same problem getting the door open to try and start the car. Finally when in the car, nothing! The battery was removed and taken back to Autozone where I had purchased it and after fumbling around with it for a few minutes, the salesman said "Yep, she's toast!" Fortunately, it was still under warranty, so walked out with a brand new battery. Once the battery was in the car turned over smoothly and started, for about two seconds, then just puttered. Ok, it was cold out and car had not been started in months, so decided to put a heat gun under the hood to try and warm the engine up a little. No surprise, the hood would not open, so after cleaning as much snow and ice off of the hood as was possible, was finally able to pry it open and get the heat gun under the hood. After going inside to get warm for about a half hour, I tried to start the car again. This time it started for about 30 seconds, then puttered out. After a couple of tries, the engine finally kept running and after idling about 15 minutes, took it down the road for my last drive. Upon returning, I pulled it in the garage and by the time the potential buyer got here, had most of the snow and ice off of the car.

After the usually tire kicking and dickering back and fourth on a price, we came to agreement and the Miata was gone.

1989 MIATA

So long to the Silver Bullet!

Randy

FIRST SNOW

This winter has been unseasonably warm so far and last week the temperature reached 50 deg one day but finally Old Man Winter is catching up with us! 

FINALLY, SNOW IN CENTRAL OHIO

With the holidays, not much progress has been made on getting the voltage and amp meters finished and the interior put back together on the Fiero but today, new splash shields were ordered from the Fiero Store, for the engine compartment. 

ENGINE COMPARTMENT SPLASH SHIELDS

A bluetooth keyboard and mouse were purchased for the Dell Venue 8 Pro, so while the center console is out of the car, may change the tablet mounting so the keyboard can be incorporated and also to raise the tablet high enough so the camera will clear the dash to get video of drives.

BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD AND MOUSE

The garage is cold, so I have been spending most of my time working on getting parts and developing a plan for work on the Fiero when the weather breaks. Below is a picture of me sitting by the computer with my build assistants Apollo (cat) and Chloe (dog.)

ME AND MY BUILD ASSISTANTS 

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

TAKING CONTROL OF THE

I had purchased a PIC chip to control the Zivan NG3 charger awhile back that Custom Circuits had developed and Mark Weisheimer had complied and loaded the program during the winter but the chip would not turn on the charger. The charger would blink but nothing happened. The Zivan NG3 charger really is a good piece of equipment if it could be set properly but to get it to shut off at 137.6 volts, I had to set to voltage to start tapering at about 124 volts and it would taper the voltage down to just under 3 volts before shutting off. I guess for charging at home this is ok but if I am going to be charging at work or when I am at a public charter, the early taper adds hours to getting close to a full charge. With the pack taking 65 amp hours and the charger putting out 18 amps per hour, I should be able to charge in 3-1/2 hours or so but the time increases proportionally as the current reduces.

To combat this, I set the NG3 charger so it does not start to taper until 136 volts, where it steps down to 14.5 amps. I will then use a JLD5740 from Light Objects, to shut off the charger. So last night and this morning, I started mounting the JLD5740 and ABB 220 volt contactor with a 12 volt relay. By early afternoon, the components were all mounted. All that is left is to wire it all up and test it on a charge.

CONTACTOR AND METER MOUNTING

JLD 5740

CONTACTOR BOX WITH COVER ON

INSTRUCTIONS FOR JLD 5740

The J1772 connector along with a 20 amp 220 plug have been installed in the Fiero, so it is just a matter of hooking up the wires and putting the Zivan NG3 charger back in the car and I will be ready to test it out at a public charger. I also have a TCCH 3000 charger, so if I can find someone who can get the programming on the PIC chip to work with the NG3 charger, I can use it while the NG3 is sent out bo be programmed.

Many of my posts speak of my son Shane and his fiance Vanessa but last week they broke up and called off the wedding,,,,So Sad! Anyway, better now than after they have been married a couple of years.

Until next time,

Randy

YOU HAD BETTER SIT DOWN

This is Easter weekend and in addition, a vacation day was taken on Thursday, to take my wife to the doctor. Upon returning home, the passenger seat was removed, to do a little rust clean-up on the adjustment rails and any exposed metal. 

The metal was cleaned and any areas with surface rust were coated with rust transformer jell. After the jell dried, the area was cleaned with a wire brush and wiped down with some solvent. The seats were masked off and a coat of metal etching primer was applied to the adjustment rails and all of the exposed metal. After drying, a coat of semigloss black paint was applied. 

ADJUSTMENT RAILS PAINTED

RECLINE ADJUSTMENT PAINTED

On Friday morning, the masking tape was removed and all of the vinyl was cleaned with Armor All. The rails were then greased and it was then I noticed that the rod from the adjustment lever was missing. A coat hanger was used to make a new one and after a little fitting and adjustment, the slides on both side of the seat worked freely. The bolt that attaches the seat back to the bottom had to be run in and the seat hold down bolts were cleaned and painted.

NEW ADJUSTMENT ROD

When the seat back adjustment and seat belt guide covers were dug out, it became apparent that they were not going to be able to be used. The holes to bolt them to the frame were either broken off or wallowed out. I did an internet search and found that THE FIERO STORE has replacements in stock, so ordered a pair.

BROKEN OFF BOLT HOLE

 NEW SEAT MECHANISM COVERS

Aluminum backed duct tape was put on the bottom of the seat mounting feet to prevent future rust from staining the carpet.

TAPE ON FEET TO PROTECT CARPET

Finally the mounting nuts were cleaned and painted. One of the nuts was missing but fortunately, I have a box of miscellaneous GM fasteners from a Camaro I rebuilt a few years back. I must be better than the Manufacturer because there always seem to be bolts left over from my projects!

SPARE GM FASTENERS

PAINTED HOLD DOWN NUTS

Many metal parts and fasteners can not be seen and are hidden under the dash or interior panels but they have been rust treated and a new coating applied. There is just something that bothers me about knowing

there are rusty parts hidden in the build, so they were dealt with during this conversion. GM must have saved millions of dollars building their cars without coating all of the hidden parts, so it must not bother them. Maybe that is part of the reason GM went bankrupt a few years ago and had to scrap the Pontiac brand.

While working on this post, EV West uploaded the March addition of their EV Show. While not quite as technical as EVTV, they feature actual builds and finished conversions. Actually the show is very professionally put together and is quite enjoyable to watch. I can see a Discovery or History channel show on the horizon.

MARCH 2015 EV SHOW

The steering wheel was tightened down and when putting the wheel back on, the horn honked. This is rather strange as since the car was delivered to my driveway, the horn has not worked. After with messing with the plunger, spring and carrier bushing, it appears the plunger is too short. I have a bid on one on EBAY, and sure enough, the plunger appears to be longer. 

Until next time,

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.

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

RPMs

Had a good week and now the tachometer is working. I am sure there will be some tweaking to get it reading the correct RPM and will probably need to install a pull-down resister to get the movement to react a little quicker but the needle moves! Seems I had the B+ lead going to a blank terminal and once it was moved to the 12 volt positive switched terminal, it worked.

12 VOLT TERMINAL BLOCK

FIERO TACHOMETER WORKING

After messing around with the left blinker light socket, it is now working. I have a new one ordered but at least I was able to re-loom the wiring and attach the head light assembly.

TURN SIGNAL FIXED

The speedometer still is not working and the black with white stripe wire appears to be cut off of the C20 connector. That is the wire that needs ground to make it work. The original builder must have ground it somewhere else and I probably removed the splice when I was re-wiring the car.

WIRE TO LEFT OF CONNECTOR CUT

The 12 volt lead acid battery was able to be mounted in the same location a the smaller LiFePo4 cell.

AUTOCRAFT MOTORCYCLE BATTERY

Two of the cable clamps were also installed on the traction pack cables. I am going to cut the longer cable and match the lengths so the cables will look a little better.

TRACTION PACK CABLE CLAMPS

I wasn't able to work very much on the Fiero but still had a pretty productive week. As soon as all the bugs are worked out, it will be time to start on the interior and instrumentation. I was told by Synkromotive that the controller user interface will work with a Windows 8 RT device, so have been watching for one on ebay. A 10 inch screen probably will not fit in the space I have available but Dell made an 8 inch model the will.

Thanks for dropping by,

Randy

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year and hope you enjoyed reading about the 1985 Fiero EV re-build last year!

Срећна Нова година и надам се да сте уживали читајући о 1985 Фиеро ЕВ поново изграде прошле године!

Gott nytt år och hoppas du gillade att läsa om 1985 Fiero EV re-build förra året!

Frohes Neues Jahr und hoffen, Sie hatten das Lesen über 1985 Fiero EV re-build im letzten Jahr!

Feliz año nuevo y espero que haya disfrutado de la lectura sobre el Fiero 1985 EV re-construir el año pasado!

新年快乐，希望你喜欢阅读有关1985年费尔罗EV重新构建去年！

An Nou fericit și că va plăcut citit despre 1985 Fiero EV re-construi, anul trecut!

С Новым годом и надеюсь, вам понравилось читать о 1985 Fiero EV ремонтом в прошлом году!

Godt Nyttår og håper du likte å lese om 1985 Fiero EV ombygging i fjor!

Happy New Year dan berharap Anda menikmati membaca tentang 1985 Fiero EV re-build tahun lalu!

LAST WEEKS VISITOR STATISTICS

Thanks to all of you from around the world who visited the blog in 2013 and I hope you have been able to find something useful for your  conversion. I have joined many blogs and Youtube sites since starting this conversion and would love to hear about and follow your build. 

THIRD TEST DRIVE

If you have been following, the controller has been tripping out under hard acceleration. Before this test drive, the low pack voltage setting was set at 80 volts and the battery pack fault voltage was set to 60 volts. The car did better and would squeal the tires a little when the throttle was depressed quickly. After I turned around at the Motel, and headed back for the garage, the controller still tripped when shifting from third to fourth, but when I turned the key off and back on, did reset and allow me to power the car back into the garage. The battery is bad in the laptop I am using in the car and when the controller tripped, the laptop shut down, so I believe the DC-DC converter output voltage is dropping low enough to drop out the contactors. This is not logged properly because the laptop is shutting down. It must be a pretty instantaneous because I am not seeing it on controller user interface but it must be happening because the laptop is shutting down.

More in 2014,

Randy 

TESLA TO OPEN FIRST OHIO STORE

Easton to get Ohio's first Tesla store

By The Columbus Dispatch Dan Gearino 

Tesla Motors has chosen Easton for its first store in Ohio, opening on Dec. 6. A week later, the company will open its second Ohio store at Kenwood Towne Centre in Cincinnati. 

The California-based automaker will sell its all-electric Model S, which has a base price of $62,400 after a federal tax credit. “We put stores in locations where people are educated and interested about technology, and where there is already a strong market for Model S.” said Alexis Georgeson, a Tesla spokeswoman. The Easton store will be 2,600 square feet and have seven employees. “It’s more like an Apple Store than a traditional dealership,” Georgeson said. It will be located at Gramercy Street and the Strand, with a public grand opening scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Dec. 6. Last year, the automaker opened its first service center in the state at 4140 Tuller Rd. in Dublin. That center will remain open. The company is adding stores in the Midwest and preparing to release a less-expensive model, all part of an attempt to reach more of a mainstream audience, said Michelle Krebs, an auto analyst for Edmunds.com. Most of the initial stores were clustered on the coasts. “They’re trying to change the game by being a Silicon Valley company instead of a Detroit or Japan company,” she said. Tesla has about 40 stores in 19 states and the District of Columbia, plus several stores in Canada. The Model S recently got 99 out of 100 points in a Consumer Reports owner-satisfaction survey, which was the highest score in years. It was also the Motor Trend 2013 Car of the Year, Time’s Best Invention of the Year for 2012, and Automobile magazine’s 2013 Automobile of the Year. At the same time, Tesla has faced several reports of car fires and concerns about the lack of an infrastructure to charge the vehicles. The Model S is designed to go 265 miles on a single charge.

ODDS AND ENDS - BOTTOM BALANCING AGAIN

This week I continued working on getting ignition power for the vacuum pump and main contactor. The cooling fan was removed during the original conversion but the relay is still in the left front corner of the car, so that looks like the best place to get power.

MODIFIED COOLING FAN RELAY CIRCUIT

The left headlamp assembly was removed and the wiring to the cooling fan relay was exposed. It would be nice to run fan wires back through the division into the the area where the vacuum pump and contactor are but the lighting wires need to stay in the front, so separating them could be a little tricky. I may just use one of the extra Bosh relays I have since the circuit is going to need to be rewired anyway.

COOLING FAN RELAY WIRING

 As the batteries are all in the front of the car, I decided to move the charger until the rear battery boxes are installed. The connections to the motor were made up and loom was installed over the wiring. Orange shrink tubing was put on all of the high voltage cable, and all that is left to do back there is to anchor the loom and install the battery and DC-DC converter..

CONTROLLER AND MOTOR CONNTECTIONS COMPLETED

 During the original second bottom balance, a couple of the batteries that initially tested bad, seemed to come back to life. During my first two full charges of the pack, I had been spot checking the pack as it approached full discharge and when the pack reached 2.9 volts/cell on the second discharge, took readings on all of the batteries. To my surprise, they were varying mostly from 2.7 to 2.9 volts per cell, with one at 2.0 and one that had reversed polarity. Actually it was the one that had originally tested bad then checked good after I cycled it a couple time and since it was on the end, I just eliminated it from the pack. Because of this, I decided to give the cells another bottom balance with the JLD404 and a small flashlight bulb.

BOTTOM BALANCING WITH JLD404

The bottom balance is going to take awhile, as it would be quicker to put a little charge in a few cells but my Powerlab8 is still back at the factory for repair, so my only option is to discharge all of them until they settle at 2.6 volts. It takes a couple hours for each cell to finally settle out where it does not drift back up to 2.7.

It has been a good week, as I have been able to finish the little odd and ends and find there are fewer and fewer things that need finished before testing the motor and controller. The interior, gauges, and heater still need finished but that can be done after I test the motor and controller. There will also be brake and possibly clutch adjustments after the car is rolling.

Until next week,

Randy

WEEKENDS ARE TOO SHORT

Last weekend I made some progress on wiring the controller but had to remove 10 batteries to start figuring out how to mount the contactor and shunt. I went into work Monday, wasn't that busy, and couldn't keep my mind off of the Fiero build, so took vacation Tuesday and Wendesday.

Tuesday morning I walked around the front of the car while drinking a cup of coffee, trying to come up with a plan to clean up and connect all of the components in the front trunk. Currently, there is no air conditioning but the tubes were just sticking out in space and it doesn't look very good, so I removed the evaporator/blower cover and removed the evaporator. There is also a rectangular hole where the heater cable goes into the interior and the original builder just stuffed red rags to fill the space, so I am going to need to make a cover. The positive control lead of the blower relay has a wire spliced on it that runs back into the interior but I am not sure if it is to energize the heater relay or power the vacuum pump, so will need to trace it out.

HEATER POWER CABLE

The vacuum pump was originally mounted on the fender well of the car and I think that amplified the vibration, so am going to try to mount it under the battery pack on the more solid frame. This will also hide it under the batteries and clean up the front battery compartment.

VACUUM PUMP INSTALLED

A bracket will be mounted on the front battery tray to mount the contactor and shunt and should make a  pretty clean platform for the component connections to the batteries. There was a metal plate left over from the original build that I cut to size and bent a right angle on the top to mount the contactor and  shunt. There will need to be some trimming and adjustments in the placement to clear the heater blower cover,  as when it is reinstalled, will cause some clearance issues.

All of the wires on the controller have been connected except the pack leads, so I am going to need to get the 12 volt system connected to test the the vacuum pump and main contactor power. I should be able to power both of them off of a switched 12 volt source from the fuse panel inside the car.

I picked up some stands that I could use to mount the shunt but they are really too tall, so am considering picking up some rubber expansion nuts to mount to the bracket I am making. I would use copper studs and  nuts to mount the shunt.

RUBBER EXPANSION NUT

 Friday I stopped at Ace Hardware and picked up fasteners to connect the power cables to the controller and the rubber expansion nuts to hook up the shunt. Then mixed up some body putty to fill the holes in the evaporator cover where the tubes exited. While the putty was drying, I fabricated a cover for the heater power cable where it comes out of the interior and painted it. To make sure the paint and putty were fully dried, I called it a night.

Saturday morning I started by mounting the heater power cable cover and cleaning up the evaporator and heater blower cover.

 HEATER POWER CABLE COVER

 Before installing the heater blower/evaporator cover I painted the vacuum pump black and ran a black rubber hose from the vacuum tank to the power brake assist chamber to make them dissapear.

VACUUM PUMP PAINTED BLACK

BLACK RUBBER VACUUM HOSE

 Recently we cut back our satellite  package as we only watch about 10 of the 210 channels on our previous plan. As luck would have it the Buckeye's game was on the Big 10 Network and that was a channel not included on our new package, so I changed cloths and went to Biggs Bar to watch part of the game against Purdue. When I got there it was almost halftime so I had a sandwich and a couple beers then went home at the end of the third quarter. 

Upon returning home I filled the holes in the heater blower cover where the evaporator tubes went into the duct and after applying a coat of body putty over the holes, went inside to watch football while the putty dried over night. Sunday morning I painted the putty filling the holes in the cover and after the paint dried, bolted the it back onto the heating duct. Then on to fabricating the bracket and platform for the shunt and contactor. 

I had a piece of sheet metal that was used to mount the controller in the original build and cut it down to size with a cutoff tool. Then an angle was bent on the top to mount the components. The platform was test fitted and some trimming was done to one corner so it would clear the heater fan relay bracket. After that the shunt and contractor holes were laid out on the platform and holes were drilled, before drilling the holes in the battery racks to mount the whole assembly. Some final adjustments were made, then everything was disassembled to paint the bracket. After the paint dried, the shunt and contactor were bolted back to the platform and the whole assembly was bolted onto the battery rack for the last time. Then orange heat shrink was put over the exposed parts of the cables going to the controller in the rear of the car and the terminals were connected to the shunt and contactor.

 SHUNT AND CONTACTOR MOUNTED

Some black terminal boots would be nice to help identify the polarity of the connections, so I will probably order some and change the red one on the negative terminal out. 

My charger is fixed but has not been tested, so it looks like I got done with connecting the contactor and shunt, just in time.

Thanks for reading,

Randy

NOBODY TOLD ME

Last week started out good as my 8mm SS bolts and wedge lock washers arrived on Thursday, so that evening, I started connecting the terminals. I continued on Friday night and also started strapping the packs to keep them from moving. 

Saturday we went with my family on the Coshocton County Fall Foliage Tour that features stops at local points of interest. This year, most of the leaves had not changed yet and the weather was chilly and rainy but it was good spending time with my mother, sister, nephew and niece. Upon returning home, I continued hooking up the batteries and by late evening had them all connected and strapped.

BATTERIES CONNECTED & STRAPPED

Sunday I removed the charger from the rear of the Fiero and put it on a a work bench in front of the car. I wanted to monitor the voltage during the first charge as the Zivan NG3 charger was going to need to be manually shut off, so I thought the Powerlab 8 could be hooked up just to monitor voltage. This would give me a nice graph of the voltage when finished. Seemed like a great idea until I plugged in the positive lead and heard a loud POP, right before the Powerlab 8 went dead. I emailed the manufacturer to inquire about the warranty but am not very hopeful the damage will be covered.

So on to hooking up the JLD404 to monitor the voltage. I had not used it for awhile, so had to go inside and read the manual but finally got it working and the voltage reading the 108 volts my volt meter was reading. When I had it hooked up in the Fiero when it still had the lead acid batteries, I could not get the amps to read correctly. The negative lead on the JLD404 is common and the shunt was on the front battery pack and the voltage wires were off of the controller terminals, so there were two leads on the negative terminal on the JLD404. There was a long 2/0 cable between the two negative leads and I believe it was acting like a parallel circuit, throwing off the amp readings. This time I hooked the shunt on the negative battery pack terminal using the negative shunt lead as the only ground. Then hooked up the positive side of the shunt to the 75 mv terminal of the JLD404 for the amp reading and the 500 volt terminal was connected to the positive terminal on the battery pack. That must have been my problem before because when the Zivan NG3 was connected the amps came right up to the 17.5 volts I was expecting and the voltage was at 108 volts and then started climbing.

 

JLD404

I monitored individual cells several times and when I felt comfortable everything was working correctly, went out and mowed the lawn. When I got back into the garage, the voltage was 130 volts, or about 3.4 volts/cell for the 38 cells and the pack had taken about 30AH. I noticed that the heat sinks on the diodes were getting pretty warm and thought if I put a piece of copper bar on top of the hottest ones, they would help dissipate some of the heat. With the cover off of the charger, the air was not being pulled through the heat sinks very well, so was afraid they were overheating. I put a bus bar on one of the heat sinks and when I put one on the other hot heat sink, kind of dropped it onto the top. It bounced and made contact with the one beside it, then a loud POP! This sound is getting too familiar and I am going to have to start being more careful. Two pieces of equipment blown in one day is not good. NOBODY TOLD ME THERE WOULD BE DAYS LIKE THIS!

I met Mark Weisheimer at EVCCON a few years back and have been told he is really good at repairing electronic components, so shot him an email. Mark agreed to look at the NG3 and CellPro, so I am taking them over to his house tomorrow night, with my fingers crossed that I did not do too much damage.

Monday evening after work, I took the blown components over to Mark's and got to see his 1975 Honda Civic Wagon . It  was a very clean build, there was no rust, and is a very solid car. Behind it was a crate of CALB CA 60 AH cells to be installed, so it is going to be a really great EV when it is done.

You spend so much time alone in the garage when building an EV that it is really great to talk to a fellow converter and always come away with many new ideas to use on your build.

 

CONNECTING THE CONTROLLER

The Synkromotive controller comes with a pre-wired unterminated assembly that plugs into a 23 position AMPSEAL Connector on the side of the case. It looks like spaghetti and has wires for forward and reversing contactors that are not needed in my build. I considered removing the unused wires but was afraid I would break the connector, so will just hide them in split loom. The placement of wires in the connector do not group the wires going to different components very well causing them to tangle but I believe I finally got all of them straightened out pretty well. 

CONTROLLER WIRING

AMPSEAL CONNECTOR

Hopefully, next weekend I will be able to install the main battery connectors and charge the pack. I have also been working on contactor and fuse placement and am looking for a place to put the shunt, so I can measure pack current. I don't want to cut the battery cables in the engine compartment as battery packs will eventually be installed there and I don't want to have to splice them, so may leave them a little long for now. With the transaxle and motor cradle installed, it is a bit awkward getting to the motor compartment wiring.

Reading the controller manual and prearranging the wires has slowed me down quite a bit but I hope to pick up the pace in the coming weeks.

Until next week,

Randy

WEEKEND OFF

I have been working on the Fiero several nights a week and almost every weekend since March, so I kind of slacked this weekend.

We took my wife's sister to the airport for her return flight to Florida after a weeks visit, then I picked up my son and his girl friend and we went to National Plug In Day Columbus.

They had the Tesla Model S, and Roadster, Nissan Leaf, and Chevy Volt well represented but none of the local converters brought their builds. They also were not giving any rides when we were there but I guess they did give rides later in the day. As you can see in the picture below, there were quite a few people showing interest in electric cars.

 TESLA MODEL S

 NISSAN LEAF

TESLA MODEL S

TESLA ROADSTER

CHEVY VOLT

After about an hour at the car show, we decided to get something to eat. I work in Columbus every day but never just walk around the city, so my son suggested we to to Dirty Franks on 4th St. Our plan was to get something to eat and go back to the car show but when we got there, we ended up having to wait almost 45 minutes to be seated, had to walk a block to where the car was parked to feed the meter, and by the time we were done eating, the show was over.

DIRTY FRANKS

 When we got back to the car, we had over an hour left on the meter and noticed Uncle Sam Pawn Shop across the street from where we were parked, so decided to go in. (Been watching too much Pawn Stars on the History Channel)

 

One of my coworkers, Tony,  moved to Columbus from a small Ohio town and the first year he was here, his friends in his hometown put on a surprise "Martini Party" in his front yard, to commemorate his move to the big city. It became an annual party and the second year Tony decided to burn down a pine tree that he no longer wanted in his front yard. The tree is gone but burning something is his front yard has become a Tradition of the Martini Party. Tony even had a projector and large screen for all the Buckeye fans to watch the football game.

MARTINI PARTY

Sunday morning I got my weekly fix of EVTV and it was a pretty interesting show. They are fixing rust an a Karmann Ghia that sold for a premium price on EBAY because it was supposed to be in great condition, only to find out the under body was very rusted. Then Jack introduced a new golf car project, and a new concept of bottom balancing and not worrying about how low the batteries are discharged. There has been many documented cases of the batteries going to nearly zero and coming back to full capacity when charged. All of the OEM charging equipment will be used and the battery pack will be adjusted to keep the pack from going too high. This is a neat concept, as when I sold the lead acid batteries out of the original Fiero build, I had a bunch of interest from golf cart owners and I believe that the HiPower batteries I have now would be of great interest to them when I am ready to put in the CALB pack. I have always thought that it would be fork lifts and golf carts that will help increase volumes battery sales to the point the prices will start to come down for EV converters. I don't think there is much motivation for traditional battery companies to change to a lithium chemistry because they like the business model of a battery going bad in a few years, so they can sell new ones. It will take a shift in consumer demand to change that.

Hope to have more EV stuff next week.

Regards,

Randy