HOW TO BECOME A PART OF RIMAC AUTOMOBILI

Looks pretty exciting!

MORE PROGRESS ON BATTERY MODULE

This week the other two end plates were cut out and the terminals arrived from EBAY, so with any luck, the second battery module will be ready to install this weekend.

END PLATE WITH TERMINAL

ALUMINUM ANGLE HOLD DOWN

Finishing the calking and trim painting of the patio door off of the dining room has been taking up some of my time but was finally able to get a little done on the Fiero this week. The weather is supposed to ge great this weekend, so hopefully I will be able to get the second module installed in the car. The voltage on the second module will need to be matched with the first module, then can be connected together. 

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

TEN THOUSAND PAGE VIEWS

It's amazing that over the three years that I have been rebuilding the Fiero, there have been 10,000 page views from all over the world. This blog is really what keeps me motivated to go out and keep working on the conversion to lithium batteries, even when I am not feeling well or my heart is really not in it. I find that after getting started on a project on the car, I become rejuvenated again and enjoy working toward getting the car ready to be able to drive the 25 miles to work each day.

10,000 PAGE VIEWS

ALL TIME BLOG STAT

PAGE VIEW MAP PAGE 1

PAGE VIEW MAP PAGE 2

This week also marked the first test fit of the second battery module, which will give the Fiero enough range to get to work and back. If I can get access to a charger at work, then using the Fiero to commute is 100% possible.

Thanks to all of you who have been following my build and as always, drop me an email from time to time to let me know how your builds are going.

Thanks for visiting,

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

INTERIOR FINISHING TOUCHES

After a 120 mile drove to and from my parents, a little more progress was made on the Fiero. An opening was cut in the laminated face plate that was made and it was painted black. After drying, the face plate was test fit and it is going to work out well.

JLD404 FACE PLATE

Then the fuses were checked to see if that is the cause of the dash lamps not working. All of the fuses were good so I checked the dimmer switch and sure enough, it was all the way on dim. After moving it to full illumination position, the right side lamps lit but not the left side. This means that the connector pulled out of the dash socket when the rear cover was put back on, so it will need to come off again.

RIGHT SIDE DASH LAMPS WORKING

All and all a pretty productive day but I will really be glad to get the interior wrapped up and be able to move on to getting the front batteries and new vacuum pump installed.

Until next time,

Randy

BEST GREEN CARS

Last month, I received an email from one of the writers at a new website, Best Green Cars, asking if they could do an article on the EV Fiero. David Klenda, who goes by the pen name of "EightySix" told me he had contacted a group of  EV converters, who had their builds posted on EV Album, and was planning to do a series on hobby and professional conversion, of existing gasoline cars. The first installment of the series was a great article about a 2002 Mercedes-Benz SL500 done by E-V Concepts, of  Charleston, South Carolina.

Check out the article, COULD THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE REVOLUTION HAVE STARTED 4 DECADES AGO by EightySix and make sure and like the article and comment to show the support of the EV Community!

2001 Mercedes-Benz SL500 Conversion

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER

There has to a better way to connect the wires to the 12 volt DC-DC isolated converter,  purchased from Light Object. Soldering the wires to the small pins leaves a connection that is just too delicate. A pigtail that plugs into the pins would sure be nice! These are necessary to make sure the 12 volt negative and pack voltage negative are not tied together causing a small ground leak through the meters.

12 VOLT ISOLATED DC-DC CONVERTER

Sunday morning was spend removing the two isolated DC-DC converters, from the dash and re-soldering one of the wires. Finally both of the meters worked, the wires were stuffed back into the dash, and the gauge face was back in place.

METERS WORKING AND INSTALLED IN DASH

Different instrument cluster LED bulbs were purchased from Light In The Box but it seems like only half of the speedometer is working. I don't think it is the bulbs but probably the instrument panel connector or the light sockets, as they have seem to be very temperamental in a 30 year old car.

LED DASH BULBS

No EVTV this morning and EV West did not do a monthly show for February yet, so my EV fix was watching a Youtube Video from Damian McGuire.

Work on the Fiero will continue tonight, so I may post again before I go to bed. The next step is to get the center console back in the car, the heater controls hooked up, and the connections for the Dell Venue 8 Pro made up. It is almost 50 deg today in Columbus, Ohio and spring is just around the corner. My goal for this winter is to get the instruments hooked up and all of the interior completed. This will allow me to focus on getting the other two battery modules installed and the belly pan back on the car, when spring finally gets here and the car can be parked back outside.

Thanks for viewing,

Randy

FIXING THE METER WIRING

Last week I put the center console back in the Fiero but when trying to make up the connections to the panel meters, found that a couple of the connectors were wired wrong. I had the 12 volt power wires going to the panel meter shunt wires. There were two wires connected, that I just could not remember where they came from, so today, measured them with a volt meter and found they increased in millivolts as the interior lights were turned on, then increased more when the headlights were turned on, so reasoned that those were actually the 12 volt shunt wires. 

The 12 volt panel meter is not lighting up, so I removed it and checked it across a 12 volt battery. It came on just fine, so went inside the car to run voltage checks on the power feed wires. When the power was originally connected, 12 volt wires branched off, to go to each of the panel meters. The pack voltage meter is working just fine but I do not have 12 volts coming out of the low voltage meter dc-dc converter, so deduct that it went bad. I will need to order another one from Light Object so hopefully this will solve the problem and the instrument panel can be closed back up.

PANEL METER DC-DC ISOLATION CONVERTERS

The pack voltage and shunt wires were connected and when the motor was revved up, I got a current reading. The meter is a 100 amp scale with a 100 amp/75 mv shunt, so  with the 1000 amp/75 mv shunt, I just need to multiply the reading by 10. I searched for a 200 volt 1000 amp duel panel meter but could not find one anywhere, so figured this arrangement would give me an indication of the amps being pulled. I am a little worried because when I switched power to the controller, there was a loud pop in the rear of the car. The motor spun normally and when I went back to investigate, nothing could be found. The Synkromotive Controller is supposed to have built in pre-charge but maybe I still need to wait a little longer before switching the switch all the way to the start position. 

A TCCH charger was purchased on EBAY, as the Pic Chip for the Zivan NG3 charger, would not turn the charger on. I was a little disappointed when when the TCCH charger arrived as it is a good 10 pounds heaver and shutting off at 137 volts, is only rated at 20 amps. The NG3 is rated at 18 amps at 137 volts so I am not gaining that much going to the much heavier charger. I also ordered an AC contactor and will use it as a fail safe, to shut the charger off at 137 volts.

TCCH 3000 CHARGER

To warm the interior of the Fiero, a spot light was put inside overnight, so it would be warm when I started working on the wiring, It worked really well and I was perfectly comfortable working on the wiring, even though the garage was in the 40s.

SPOT LIGHT INTERIOR HEATER

Awhile back I hooked up a TV to keep me company while bottom balancing the modules, so spent the day working on wiring and watching Superbowl coverage. I didn't end up watching much of the actual game but did get to see the final Sea Hawk drive end with the interception on the goal line.

TV TO KEEP ME COMPANY

Spring is just around the corner and if I can get the meters working, the interior back together and the battery charger back in the car, will be able to start driving it in a month or so. I want to get a belly pan back on the car before it is driven in rain or snow but will take it over to a mechanic with a lift in Kirkersville and have him help me put it back on the car. The previous owner claimed that it dropped the amp draw significantly, then the car is driven on the interstate.

Until next post,

Randy 

DATA LOGGER

Last week the Hantek 365A Data Logger arrived and will be used to log the first charge with the new PIC chip controlling the Zivan NG3 charger. For $75 I thought this logger would be a good addition to my test equipment. It is also available with Bluetooth for a little higher price, and that may be a good feature to have if you are using a tablet to save the log files.

HANTEK 365A DATA LOGGER

The Hantek 365A can record voltage, current, capacitance, and resistance. The sample rate can be adjusted and the data file can be exported to a log file on a computer, so it can be graphed. I am especially interested in the voltage climb at the end of the charge on the Better Place battery module, as it seems it is still rather flat when you approach 4.2 volts per cell. The PIC chip has been set up to end the charge at 137.5 or 4.3 volts per cell and has been charged to this level in the past, with no apparent heating or gassing of the cells.

When the new PIC chip is tested and the log file from the Hantek logger is graphed, I will post the results.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

CENTER CONSOLE WIRING

I must admit, even though I graduated from an electronics tech school back in the 70's, wiring is my weakness. I am working on getting the center console back in the car but thought I should put better connectors on the wires going to the tachometer, speedometer, and gauges.

DuraTrax DTXC2250 CONNECTOR

After putting the female plugs in backwards on the first connector set, I had to end up destroying the plastic and use the connector housing from another set to correct my mistake. Ok, no problem, one down and only 3 to go!

CONSOLE WIRING

As you can see, the console wiring looks like a rat's nest and must be cleaned up and organized before attempting to put the console back in place. The 12 volt volt and amp meter quit working, so I am going to need to pull int instrument panel again to see if a wire came loose or if I blew another meter. The meters are very delicate and will blow if any of the wires are connected wrong or shorted together. They come from China and take 3 weeks to a month to get here, so the last time I ordered 3 of them so I would have back-ups. 

The Fiero will drive and as I reported in earlier posts, have had it up to 80 mph on I-70. The shift linkage was adjusted again, as the last time the car was driven, it would only go into first, second, and reverse. This has been an ongoing problem I am hoping to get worked out soon.

I am going to put another push on tomorrow and hope I can finally get the console wiring straightened up and the center console installed. 

Thanks for visiting.

Randy

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

RELOADING

No post last week but the build has still been moving forward. Dell finally offers a cable that allows the Venue 8 Pro to charge and pass data simultaneously, so I now have one in my possession and am happy to report, it works as advertised.

Dell Micro USB Dongle for Data and Charging

CHARGING AND RECOGNIZING USB DRIVE

A couple weeks ago I put the HiPower cells on Craigslist and had an inquiry from a guy in Indiana. We emailed back and fourth and today he and his friend came to pick up the cells. This puts the build back down in the $10,000 range, that was my original goal. Being able to charge while passing data is the last obstetrical in re installing the center console, so I have  been arranging wires and getting ready to put the console back in. 

HIPOWER CELLS GONE!

Now that the project has been reloaded, it is time to move forward!

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

I NEED A TRACTOR

Over the last several weeks, I have been tearing the garage apart in search of the battery connectors for the third Better Place Module and it finally dawned on me, did I ever remove the connectors from the plastic holder that was used to hold the connectors and the BMS connections on the module. I opened the carrier case that the Better Place Module was shipped in and sure enough, they were still in the plastic holder. I had taken the connectors off of a module when I first disassembled the pack but bottom balanced a different module to put in the rear of the car and used the connectors that were already removed. I am not sure why I thought I had a bag of connectors.

BATTERY CONNECTION HOLDER

BATTERY CONNECTORS

I had a friend once ask me if I wanted to buy a tractor. With a puzzled look, I asked him, why would I need a tractor and he replied; "To pull your head out of your Ass." Guess this isn't the first time I have found myself feeling a little stupid.

Last week the half cells were all drained down to 2.6 volts again and I have been watching the voltage come back up each day since then. This morning, the highest cell was back up to 2.911 so if it stays under 3 volts, I may try to charge each half cell back up to 3 volts. After a charge, the batteries stop drifting up and will drop in voltage if anything.

CURRENT HALF CELL VOLTAGE

The weather has turned cold in Ohio, so my next project will be getting the table in the front of the garage cleared off , broken down and stored out of the way. I really need to get the instrumentation and tablet connections completed, the center console back in and complete the interior. Then I can focus mounting the other two battery modules.

Until next time,

Randy

IF MY HEAD WASN'T ATTACHED..........

Over the last several weeks I have been rearranging the garage to get the Fiero back in, so work can continue when the weather gets cold again. It was time to start bottom balancing the other two Better Place modules, so I made some jumper wires and needed another connector to connect the center two cells that originally had external connections going to them. I remember the bag of connectors being in the trunk of the Fiero when I made up the connections on the first module and remember moving it around, all the time thinking, I need to put these somewhere I can find them again when needed. I finally found the bolts in the shipping crate but the connectors were no where to be found. So all of the work I did rearranging the garage will need to be moved back out until the connectors are found.

Not to worry, the show must go on and I can still look for the connectors while the second module is being bottom balanced. I am using two 150 watt quartz lights for the initial drain and just putting a volt meter on the lowest half cell to monitor the voltage.

QUARTZ LIGHT FOR RESISTERS

After the voltage on the lowest half cell gets down to 2.8 volts or so, a smaller light is hooked up to keep a constant drain at a lower amp draw.

40 WATT LIGHT FOR RESISTER

Finally, after the lowest cell settles below 3 volts, I hook up a small night light to try and drain the battery at close to the same rate as it is trying to recover at.

SMALL NIGHT LIGHT FOR RESISTER

Once the small night light is connected, I take readings on all of the half cells and keep draining until the highest cell will settle at under 3 volts.

The final step is to use the Powerlab and charge all of the cells back to 3 volts. The LiMn2O4 cells seem to work at a higher voltage that the LiFePO4 cells and are charged to 4.2 volts before settling back to around 2.9 volts and at 3 volts are pretty much done when pulling higher amps when driving, so 3 volts as the bottom balance voltage should be fine.

The shifting is still not correct so I pulled the shifter so I could give it a good inspection for wear.

SHIFTER

After an inspection of the shifter, I could not find anything wrong, so put it back in the car and and attempted to readjust the shift cables. It seems that the select arm keeps changing when the adjustments are done, almost like something is not returning to the same position inside the transaxle so my next step is to try and remove the pin holding the select pivot to put now bushings in it. If that doesn't work, I am afraid the transaxle is goint to need to be pulled and sent to a transmission shop to be gone over. 

So as the batteries are draining, the search continues for the lost connectors. As I said in the title; If my head wasn't attached, well you know the rest of the story.

Thanks for visiting,

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

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

TWEAKING IN THE ZIVAN CHARGER

This morning I drove the Fiero another five miles around the neighborhood, to drain the pack down  before charging again. While still not perfect, the gears can be shifted reasonably well now and I was able to go through all four gears without any hang ups. The amp hour reading was down to around 14.5 and the voltage was at 120 volts before starting out.  During the drive the voltage did not dip below 98 volts, under light acceleration and stabilized around 113 volts, when cruising at 40 mph in fourth gear. The car had been driven 19 miles since the last charge and had used 45 amp hours, so it used around 2.4 amp hours per mile or using 120 volts as an average, 284 watt hours per mile. 

When I got back from driving the car, the charger was hooked up and the fourth charge of the Better Place module was started. The voltage had come back to 120 volts and I took readings after charging for one minute, and then every half hour, until the end of the charge, where I tried to document when the charger started cutting back the amperage.

CHARGE GRAPH

This time the module was charged to 136.9 volts or 4.27 volts per cell. The amperage cut back to 2 amps but the voltage did not hold steady and kept climbing. Even after adjusting down the voltage and current pots, the charger still did not shut off so had to be manually shut off again. The pack took 47.71 amp hours and had 14.7 amp hours left in it from the previous charge, so should have 62.41 amp hours or 7489 watt hours in it. Tomorrow I am going to take the Fiero out on the interstate again and have a route that should give me about a 18 mile drive.

PLANNED INTERSTATE 70 - 18 MILE TEST DRIVE

While the module was charging I rearranged the air compressor, shelves, and table, in the front of the garage, so the Fiero can be moved back in. The other two modules will be moved to the front of the garage to bottom balance but there should be room now for the car to be pulled in if the weather turns cold. I moved some items that were on the shelves into a plastic storage box and put it all in the Better Place shipping crate. It has proven to be quite handy to store the unused components from the Better Place packs, like the contactors, cell measuring connections, and BMS. The new location for the table will be much bette, as their is an electric outlet close by and it will be more out of the way now.

My focus is going to turn back to getting the meters, tablet, and interior installed in the car, so I can get the passenger seat back in. The car runs so much better with just one of the three modules, I am excited to take my wife, son and his fiance for a ride. I also have some co-workers asking me about the build, so would like to be able to drive it to work sometime soon.

Until next time,

Randy

TODAY IS A BETTER DAY

Sunday morning I went out to try and adjust the Fiero shifter linkage, armed with the shift position diagrams that were posted yesterday, and after pinning the shifter in third gear, disconnected the shift and select linkages at the tansaxle. After moving things around a little, I found that the select linkage was actually trying to lift the shift stem going down into the transaxle. This time I made sure that with the lever on the transaxle in the correct position, the cable could not push it up farther, causing the shaft to lift. Then the shift lever was put in the correct position, the play in the cable was taken out and then the connector tightened. There seems to be some play in one of the rods on the shifter and on one on the transaxle linkage, so that is probably the areas I will check out in the future. For now, it's working, so I am not going to mess with it.

The shifter went through all of the gears smoothly, while sitting in the driveway, so reverse was selected and the car backed up to pull out onto the road. Second gear was selected and the car moved forward out onto the street in front of my house. The shift to third and then fourth was fairly smooth, so I decided to run it around and make a pass back down the interstate. The car accelerated smoothly from second, to third, to fourth gear and I leveled the speed out at 60 mph. As I progressed down the highway, the current went as high as 503 battery amps at 91 volts and 576 motor amps at 79 volts. I believe these cells are only rated at 350 amps or so and appear to have been designed for higher voltage and lower current. When the other two packs are installed, the pack should not see such a drastic sag and I should be ok.

VOLTAGE GRAPH

As shown in the graph above, the battery volts and motor volts are inversely proportional and actually were almost the same during the acceleration onto the interstate. I wanted to put battery and motor current on the graph but it kept formatting so that voltage just looked like a strait line, so did not really show anything.

TEST DRIVE SPREADSHEET

The Synkromotive Controller does a great job collecting data  and I really should have hooked up more inputs to it. I originally thought that my low voltage battery volts were limiting the controller but it appears the pack voltage is limiting the controller, as the low pack voltage limit is currently set at 90 volts. You know when you reach the limit because the car slows down and you can not accelerate back up to the same speed you were at before the controller started cutting back.

The pack voltage and current for each entry were multiplied, then each line added together for a 60 second period, then divided by the number of entries to get the average wattage. I was driving at 60 MPH so the average watts were divided by 60 and came up with 432 watt hours per mile. I may not have done this correctly, as it seems a little high but the emergency brake may have been dragging, so that may have been the cause of the higher than expected watts per mile number.

In about 4 hours the voltage has recovered to 125.1 resting voltage. The car has been driven 13.5 miles and has used 32.5 amp hours, so using 120 volts as an average, has used 3900 watts. Dividing this by 13.5 miles is 289 watt hours per mile.This figure seems a little closer to what I was expecting. 

The temperature is up to 56 deg today, the shifter is working much better, and I got another interstate test drive in, so today really is a much better day that yesterday!

If any of you are using the Better Place Packs, I would like to hear your experiences.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

RUDE AWAKENING...BUILD RECAP

It is currently 45 degrees in Central Ohio and the realization sunk in that it is time to start getting the garage ready to put the Fiero inside, so it can be worked on as the temperatures keep dropping. It's time to put away the shorts and t-shirts and get out the long sleeves and jackets to continue work when cold weather gets here.

STORM CLOUDS

TIME TO MOVE INTO THE GARAGE

Last year at this time, the HighPower cells had been installed and the car could be driven, although because of the voltage sag, the contactors kept tripping out when the 12 volt system voltage dropped below 10 volts. Work on the interior and the addition of meters was also started. By spring, a new headliner, the dash , all of the interior trim panels, and the sun visors, had all been refinished, then put back in the car. Work was progressing on adding meters, and the Dell Venue tablet, so it looked like the interior would be wrapped up by early summer. 

Enter the Better Place battery pack sale. When the modules were offered by EVTV and I found out that one of the builders from Central Ohio was going to go out to Missouri to pick them up, the deal just could not be passed up. Once the pack arrived, work stopped on the interior and focused on dissembling, bottom balancing, and building a mounting platform for the modules to be put in the Fiero. After I missed getting the Fiero ready to take to EVCCON, work still continued and got to the point of test driving with the new Better Place module. 

Then the shift cable broke and so far, as hard as I try, does not want to come back into adjustment. I am a little worried that there is something wrong with the shift forks inside the transaxle. The shifter does not seem to want to go over far enough to properly engage 3rd and 4th gears but seems to work ok for first, second, and reverse. If it quits raining and warms up a little I am going to take another stab at adjusting it and found a diagram that shows the positions of the leavers for each gear, so maybe this will help. I had to make a new end for the selector cable, so I may need to figure out how to lengthen it a little

SHIFT POSITION DIAGRAM

It is a little discouraging, as now that the module is mounted, it will be a real chore to put in a new shift cable or have to pull the transaxle so a shift fork can be replaced and now that the car in insured, I was really looking forward to being able to drive it a little before winter sets in.

So I guess that while some work will continue on the car, the next big chore will be to get the garage set up to get the Fiero back inside. Where did summer go!

Keep Building,

Randy