PACKING HEAT

Sunday, work started on the heater control. The original build had a separate switch to turn on the heating element, that was mounted on the side of the instrument pod. Over time, the switch started pulling out and the vinyl around the opening was starting to split. The hole was covered with electrical tape and some grained sheet was heated with an iron to melt the electrical tape into the original vinyl. Then the dash pod was painted, with charcoal interior paint. It isn't perfect but covers the hole and looks pretty good.

INSTRUMENT POD VINYL PATCH

There is a micro switch on the pot box that is no longer needed because the Synkromotive controller will not start if the accelerator is depressed, when turning on the ignition, so it was removed and will be used to turn on the heating element when the heater selector is slid to the hot position. After placing the micro switch in several different positions, while operating the heater selection slide, a good placement was found and holes were drilled to mount it.

HEATER TEMPERATURE SLIDE

MICRO SWITCH NOT ACTUATED

MICRO SWITCH ACTUATED

One of the pods that house the duct door actuators was in the way on the bottom of the surface where the micro switch was mounted so the hole was drilled a little smaller and the bolt was threaded into the housing plastic. You can also see the washer that had to be used to keep the bolt from pressing on the duct door actuator housing. When the micro switch is removed for final wiring, some contact cement will be applied to assure it will remain in place.

Then the heater fan schematic was used to figure out how to power the switch so the element would only energize if the fan was running. Diodes can be used to power the heater element control so no matter what speed the fan is set to, the element can be energized. After thinking about the system for awhile, a small led light will also be added so you can see when the element is energized. Also, a fuse will be added from the pack to the element.

HEATER ELEMENT CONTROL SCHEMATIC

Documentation is getting a little behind, so I am trying to catch up a little, as when the car is finished, it will have a service and operation manual.

When looking for the ground leak, the first row of cells had to be removed, so while they were sitting in the garage, the voltages were checked. They were all 3.34 volts and within thousandths of a volt of each other. If any of you follow John Hardy's battery work, he has documented this behavior in the LiFePo4 batteries. As they are cycled, the voltages seem to come closer to each other.

BATTERY VOLTAGE READING

This has been a very productive weekend and all the known bugs have either been fixed or components ordered to fix them. The Better Place battery module is about half way through the second bottom balance and with some of the cells out of the car, I can survey where it can be mounted. 

Until next post,

Randy

NEW HEADLINER

The new headliner material arrived this week but I had to go to Autozone to pick-up adhesive, as it could not be shipped. During the weekend, the headliner panel was given a good cleaning and the new material was fastened to the panel. I watched a couple of YouTube videos before starting and everything went well.

NEW HEADLINER

Then I moved on to painting the plastic side panels and molding with interior paint.

FRESH INTERIOR PAINT ON MOLDING

Finally the seat belt attachment cover and coat hooks were painted.

PAINTED COAT HOOKS AND SEAT BELT COVERS

Everything turned out good but before starting to put everything back together, I want to install the new LED dome lamps that were ordered today. That will give me some time to recover the sun visors.

SUN VISORS

The dome lamp assembly and sunroof latch cover still look good and will not need any refinishing.

SUN ROOF LATCH AND DOME LAMP ASSEMBLY

There is so much more to a conversion that just the electrical work and I really want to get this interior done so I can start working on getting the Better Place Pack installed.

I have had a couple of contacts on the Better Place battery module and the crate that they came in, along with the HiPower cells that are all on Craigslist. I was hoping someone local would come and pick them up but so far, the closest prospective buyer is 100 miles away and the furthest in Great Britain. I really hate to have to ship these cells but if that is what it takes, that is what I will have to do.

Until next time,

Randy