A LITTLE MORE PROGRESS,,,,,,A LITTLE SET BACK

This morning the radio/heater control center console cover and glove box were painted and after drying, were installed in the car. The connections were made to the Dell Venue 8 Pro and it is pulling up the Synkromotive user interface.

INTERIOR COMING TOGETHER

The instrument panel bolts were installed and that is where the wheels fell off! The 12 volt wire must have pulled off because I am no longer reading any voltage on the 12 volt system meter. The dash meters have been a constant challenge, as they would work, then quit working when the face plate was put on. The amperage reading on the instrument panel meter, is quite a bit different that the reading on the Synkromotive user interface. I could not find a 1000 amp meter so used a 100 amp meter with a 1000 amp shunt, figuring I would just need to add a zero to the reading to get the pack amperage. The shunts put out 75 ma at 100 amp or 1000 amps, so the basic reading should be correct. 

Once the radio is removed from my son's fiance's jeep, I can install it and the JLD404 and the complete center console can be put back in the car. Then just some seat adjustment cover work and the interior will be finished.

The weather is turning nice, so I want to get the car back outside where it will be easy to get in and out of. A new mounting is going to be made for the Zivan charger, a 220 volt relay installed on the AC, controlled by a EPM-5740TVR from Light Object,

EPM-5740TVR

I am still planning on having an open house for the Fiero on Saturday, April 25th from Noon to 5:pm. I am just east of Columbus, OH close to Kirkersville, OH so drop me an email at randy@cz-ev.com if you want to drop by. The grill will be going and there will be plenty of beverages to quench your thirst.

DIRECTIONS

Hope to see you on the 25th!

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

MORE WORK ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

It was still a little chilly out this morning, when I finished the mounting for the Dell Venue 8 but the afternoon got up to the middle 50s, so work continued on the Fiero. The tablet was hooked up to a battery and some experimentation was done on getting it to charge while passing data. Originally, the tablet was designed to short the data cables when charging but Dell finally started offering a cable that allows you to pass data while the device is charging.

 It seems that the tablet still will not charge if you use a USB extension cable between the tablet micro USB port and the charge/data cable that Dell now provides. After the charge/data cable was plugged directly into the tablet, it started charging and I was able to see files on the thumb drive I had plugged in, so time to test it out in the car.

CHARGE LIGHT ON

DATA CABLE SHORT ADAPTER.

SERIAL TO USB ADAPTER FROM CONTROLLER

DELL CHARGE/DATA CABLE

SYNKROMOTIVE USER INTERFACE WORKING

The tablet is set up so the back light stays on when it is charging and when the ignition is turned off, it will go in sleep mode in 2 minutes.  The Synkromotive user interface has a couple of very nice gauge tabs, one with 3 large gauges and the other with 6 smaller gauges, so it would be easy to set up motor or battery volts and amps, along with the 12 volt system voltage. The user interface also makes it easy to set up minumum pack voltage and I know from past experience, this feature works well, as the car will not move until you go in and change the setting or charge the car. The minimum pack voltage can be lowered and a limit put on the motor amps and voltage, to function as a limp mode. The problem is, the day I ran my pack too low, I did not have a computer with me, so had to have my wife bring the other car and tow me home. The tablet will solve that problem.

The dash instruments and lights were give a final check and the top dash cover was installed, so another project is done. 

Finally, the face plate on the center console heater control/radio cover was clamped to a flat board and heated with a heat gun to try to remove a slight warp that is causing it not to seat correctly.

STRAIGHTENING THE FACE PLATE

Originally only the bottom and center were clamped down while heating but the top was warped a little also, so while still hot, the top of the face plate was clamped down too.

TOP OF FACE PLATE CLAMPED

A very productive day and finally some light at the end of the tunnel in getting the interior done, so I am real pleased.

On another note, some of my Son's friends want to stop over sometime in April to see the car, so I am considering having a cook out and having the Fiero back on the road so I can give rides and test drives. If any of you who are close enough would be interested in dropping by, shoot me an email at randy@cz-ev.com. I am close to Kirkersville, OH, just east of Columbus.  Saturday, April 25th is my tentative date, so mark in on your calenders.

Thanks for reading my blog,

Randy

EVTV BUILD DATABASE

Not much going on with the Fiero EV build last week but did decide to post the build on the EVTV Database. The pictures I have are not that great so I went back through my picture archives and finally found a few that will work for now.

1985 FIERO GT EV CONVERSION

This weekend all of my time was spent cleaning carpets and finishing up all of my Christmas shopping, so nothing new on the build. Looking forward to a new year and finally finishing up the conversion.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

NEW HEADLINER AND MORE!

My son stopped over today and helped me install the new headliner. Everything went well except I cut the sun visor holes too big and the brackets do not overlap the material. I will need to make a plate to extend out a little to cover the gap between the brackets and the headliner. After the headliner is attached to the roof, there is a channel around the sunroof that the material tucks into. After a few tries, we finally got the rubber trim started into the groove, pushing the material into place and after getting around the first corner, had a pretty easy time getting the rubber trim in place. 

HEADLINER INSTALLED

The sun visors are done except for sowing the edge. My son's fiance is going to sow if for me but she needs to get thread and a larger needle first. I took the sun visors to a local upholstery shop but was told that they were in too bad of shape to be redone. Not! I am really surprised how lazy a lot of local businesses are. The owner wasn't even at his shop but was down the street goofing off at a body shop. Anyway, I got some cardboard and cut a new pattern, cleaned and painted the metal retainer, and put the press board in a vice between two boards to take the warp out. Then cut the cardboard, and material before using contact glue to put everything together. They look great and it is good knowing that I did something in a couple of hours that a professional turned away. 

REPAIRED SUN VISORS

The Plugable USB 3.0 docking station that I ordered last week, arrived today and will allow me to have multiple USB inputs to the Dell Venue 8 tablet. I was able to get the Synkromotive user interface installed and the USB driver for the adapter that plugs into the controller. I took the Venue tablet out to the car and was able to connect to the controller. Actually, I did not even need the docking station to connect but will  use it for the final set up to allow me to have multiple inputs, sound outputs, and charging.

PLUGABLE USB 3 DOCKING STATION

Next a little clean up to get ready to start working on the dash wiring and figuring out where and how to mount the meters and tablet. There is a ton of molding to re-install but I want to take the seats out of the car and clean the carpet before putting it back on.

Most of the major purchases have been made for the car, so now it is just a matter of getting everything back together and installed in the car. With only around 4 months until EVCCON, I will need to kick thing up a notch, if I want to be able to take the car.

Thanks for visiting,

Randy

PIXELS PER MINUTE POD CAST

My son Shane and his friend Eric operate the website Pixels Per Minute, dedicated to video games and every couple of weeks, host a pod cast. Last week, they invited me to talk about electric car conversions and I must admit, it was very enjoyable being interviewed, while having a couple of  Great Lake Brewing Company brews. Below is the link to the pod cast, if you are interested in listening.. Shane, Vanessa, and Eric are really quite entertaining.

ERIC, SHANE AND GUEST

SHANE AND VANESSA

PIXELS PER MINUTE

ELECTRIC EV POD CAST

Hope you enjoy,

Randy

LED HEADLAMPS

The seal beam replacements and H4 LED headlights arrived this week so last night, they were installed after work. I didn't realize that the standard seal beam plugs are the same as the H4 plugs, so did not need the adapters I had ordered. Getting the new LED lights to fit in the new housing was a challenge, as it was a really tight fit but I finally got them installed and the whole assembly back in the headlight socket. The sockets had to be plugged in and unplugged several times to get the lights to make good contact but finally made good electrical connection. The original low beams appeared to be adjusted too low, so I will mess around with aiming them so they are not in on coming driver's eyes but still project a little further down the road.

After the LEDs were installed, the car was taken down the road for a test drive.

LED HEADLAMP TEST DRIVE

Once again, the controller tripped when I shifted to 4 gear so I am going to need to evaluate the log files to see what happened but I did notice the acceleration seemed a little more sluggish, so maybe the batteries just need recharges. The last charge was back in December and although I have not driven that many miles, I have done quote a bit of revving the motor and leaving the headlights on. I have the dc-dc plugged into 120 when the car is not in use, so have not run them down from that.

More to come,

Randy

ALMOST READY TO TEST (CONTINUED)

We had snow in Ohio this week and the temperature was in the 20s so I decided to take my time and try to wait for a little warmer weather before taking the Fiero out on the street for a test drive.

BATTERY LEADS CONNECTED

A regular 110 volt plug was used in the original conversion for the DC-DC converter and I really do not like the way it looks but decided to keep it for now, so wired a 110 volt female plug to pack voltage. This way I can plug the IOTA DC-DC (AC-DC) charger into an outlet to keep the battery charged. There is a drain, probably from the radio, and  the Synkromotive controller has a lead that is hooked to 12 volts all the time.

 

110 VOLT PLUG FOR DC-DC CONVERTER

 I am going to email Synkromotive to find out if I can just have the hot lead energizedwhen the ignition is turned on or if it is needed to save the settings.

The charger cover was still hanging below the car, so I removed the grommet so the wires could be pulled free of the cover. I am going to leave the charger out of the car until I get the voltage set properly and am certain it will shut off without overcharging any of the batteries.

I started moving the JLD404 inside the cabin so I can monitor voltage and current while testing the car. There wires are hooked up the the traction pack and run inside of the car, so all that is left is to hook up the meter.

The last items that need done is to put the seat back in and hook up the cigarette lighter socket so I can plug in  a 12 volt dc to 120 volt ac inverter to run my laptop. I want to be able to monitor the motor and controller during the test drive.

The weather report is calling for more snow tomorrow so it may be a few days before I am able to take it on the road for a test drive.

Randy

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

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  

SYNKROMOTIVE

Last week ended with problems getting my old laptop to connect to the Synkromotive Controller. I kept getting errors telling me the program could not launch. I went to the event viewer and there was a message that .net framework 2 was not starting, so I tried to remove it from the program menu so I could reinstall it. Both the uninstall and Repair would not work so I decided to just load it again. The Synkromotive control panel still would not work. I tried several procedures from the Microsoft site with no luck. I even tried to restore the computer back to an earlier date and just managed to wipe out the drivers for my wireless internet connection and the link to the Synkromotive Control panel, so I restored it back to the most recent restore point and got everything back, including the inability to open the controller control pane. When I got home from work on Tuesday, the updates ready icon was there and sure enough, it was a .net update. I ran the update and to my surprise, the control panel came up. I had other things to do and was not able to try and connect to the controller, but when I got home Wednesday, 12 volts was hooked up to the controller, control panel was opened, but I still was not able to connect.. After reading the manual and adjusting the port and baud rate, it finally did connect. Still no word on my connectors from CALIB but one menu shows 24 volts as the minimum voltage for the controller, so I may hook up two 12 volt batteries just to test the set-up and make sure everything works when connected to the motor.

SYNKROMOTIVE CONTROL PANEL

 Saturday a new platform was fabricated to mount the controller on top of the Warp9 motor. Two of the three stator bolt holes were used  Two counter sunk bolts were drilled out to 11/32 and the threads cut off to make a counter sunk washer, then a 1/4 inch spacer was made. A plate was made to go on top of the spacers that the controller will bolt to. Button head 5/16 inch stainless steel bolts were used to fasten it all together and hold the stator windings in place. The fan on the Synkromotive Controller was turned to the cabin side of the engine bay, so the wires will be visible from the rear of the car making them a little easier to get to.

 

CONTROLLER RE-MOUNTED 

My wife went with her sister to a class reunion, so after getting the controller mounted, it was off to J.Gumbo's in Baltimore, OH for a bowl of gumbo and a glass of Southern Tier Pumking 2013. Both were very tasty and it was nice talking to Fred and Heather Baughman, the owners.

 

J GUMBO'S BALTIMORE, OH

Sunday, I kind of took a break from the Fiero and went to get a hair cut, them watched the NASCAR NAPCAR, race. I saw the beginning and end but felt pretty refreshed after it was over, so I went out and spliced in the speedometer connector I purchased on EBAY. The old one got tangled when I dropped the cradle and ripped off. The wires on the new connector were a different color so I had to find the diagram to make sure I hooked it up correctly.

 

SPEED SENSOR DIAGRAM 

SPEED SENSOR CONNECTOR 

MOTOR COMPARTMENT 

Until next post,

Randy

JASON HORAK'S EVCCON 2013 VIDEOS

A couple videos of the shop during EVCCON.

JASON'S DAYTONA EV BUILD BLOG

HONEY DO !

My wife's sister is coming for a visit next week, so I have been busy cleaning carpets, weed eating, and doing maintenance around the house, Needless to say, not much work was done on the Fiero. My sister in law lives in Florida and they don't get to see each other that often, so a little delay in working on the car is a small sacrifice. My wife has been pretty understanding with all the work and money I have put into the Fiero and a little payback is in order.

 

 MY WIFE AND HER SISTER

The night before I left for EVCCON, I tightened the bolts holding down the toilet and when I opened the valve back up, the packing was leaking. When I tried to tighten the packing, the nipple broke and I had to rip out some tile to get to the fitting, so most of Saturday was spent cutting and mortaring tile to fix the hole. The flange was also broken on the toilet hold down screw, so off to Home Depot to get a new 2 piece flange to tighten everything down.  When I got done, I decided to get a growler of Buckeye Lake Brewery's new Autumn Ale to try during the Buckeyes game. The beer was good and the Buckeyes did not disappoint in the game against CAL.

I was able to manage to hook up the shifter and it feels pretty smooth. Probably after I am able to drive the car, there may need to be some final tweaking, but it shifts good just sitting there.

TRANSAXLE LINKAGE

Also, the pot box was painted red and I have started to plan how to mount it in the motor compartment. This is another  item that would have been much easier to do with the motor cradle out of the car but I wanted to have the cradle in so I could see where the wires had to go.

 POT BOX AND BRACKET

I don't like the way the controller looks on the mount I originally made, so am working on something different to get the controller in the middle of the motor and away from the motor cooling air intake. I am also working on communicating with the Synkromotive Controller so I can set some initial settings.

SETTING UP THE SYNKROMOTIVE CONROLLER

Ratcheting straps were ordered from EBAY and will be used to hold the batteries in place until I get around to making the battery boxes.

BATTERY STRAP

BATTERIES STRAPPED

An email was sent to Keegan at CALIB inquiring when the 51mm connectors will arrive from China. I am ready charge the batteries and am just waiting on the connectors and bolts. The car is getting close to a test drive and I am getting a little anxious.

My son came over Sunday and helped mow the grass, so that freed up some time to work on the car. After he left, I noticed he left the driver's side door partially open and was afraid the 12 volt battery ran down but after checking the voltage, it was sill over 13 volts. He just landed a job at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, OH and I am excited for him, as the economy still has not recovered and even with a college degree, good jobs are hard to find.

Ok, I was almost done with this week's blog and decided to go out and work on the pot box. I cut a piece of flat iron and laid out the bolt holes for the pot box and bracket. Then I drilled and tapped the holes to 1/4 20 and drilled two holes to mount the plate to the side of the frame. I marked the holes on the frame and drilled holes to install nut rivets. Once everything was painted and the paint had dried, I bolted the plate with the pot box and bracket to the frame. It turned out pretty good and will be out of the way.

POT BOX MOUNTED

Still trying to get the gui for the Synkromotive controller to load on the old laptop I have in the garage and believe it  is a .net issue. I am trying to repair the .net set up but the old laptop is so slow, thought I would just come in the house and finish this week's post.

Until next week,

Randy