MORE WORK ON FIERO TACHOMETER

Although, Larry Pratt, the original converter of the 1985 Fiero GT was able to get the speedometer to work, he was never able to get tachometer working. I was able to find the tach wire in the C500 connector in the engine bay.

C500 - C3 WHITE WIRE FOR TACH

Although I had the tach working yesterday, it was obvious it was reading high, so I went back through the files I had saved from earlier research and found that the V6 puts out 3 pulses per revolution, and the reluctance ring I was using had 6 tabs. This as an easy fix and I just cut off every other tab so there were only 3 tabs instead of 6 on the ring.

RELUCTANCE RING WITH 3 TABS

Now the tachometer appears to be reading closer to what the actual motor RPMs are but still seems to react a little slower that I feel it should.

FIERO TACH SHOWING RPMS

The tachometer circuit originally had a filter circuit that can be made or purchased from Rodney Dickman.

OEM FIERO TACH FILTER

RODNEY DICKMAN FIERO TACH FILTER

FIERO TACH FILTER SCHEMATIC

It looks like a fairly simple circuit, so I will probably just go to Radio Shack and get the components to build one.

The Synkromotive controller also has an input for a tach and I believe also an out put but I have not found a setting for putting out the 3 pulses per revolution I need for the Fiero tachometer, so will need to contact them to see if I can just use one pulse per revolution from the speed sensor and convert it to 3 inside the controller.

Until next time,

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

POLAR VORTEX

It has been below zero in Ohio the last few days, and when I went to work this morning, the coffee left in the cup on my work bench was frozen, so no work the last couple of days.

Before the big freeze, I was able to install a new lead acid motorcycle battery on the 12 volt system and am hoping this will help to stabilize it under a heavy draw on the main battery pack. The LiFePo4 Ballistic Battery I was trying must have bit the dust when the parasitic load ran it down to zero volts so I needed something inexpensive to use until I can get another lithium battery for the 12 volt system. 

AUTOCRAFT MOTORCYCLE BATTERY

The controller battery pack voltage limit was also moved up to 90 volts and the fault voltage setting left at 60 volts. This seems to have cured the controller tripping problem as on my last test drive I was able to go through the gears and give it plenty of throttle with no problems.

After working on the wiring on the left headlight, the blinker and paring light on that side would not work, so I put in a new bulb. It still did not work, so I started checking from the socket to ground and was getting a high resistance to no continuity from the ground connection in the plug to the frame. The wiring diagram was dug out and it appears that both blinker/parking lamps are connected back to the same frame ground. I am suspecting the wire came loose from the connection inside the connector when I was putting the loom back on the wires.

TURN SIGNAL/MARKER LAMP SCHEMATIC

The nylon cable clamps I ordered from Waytek Wire also arrived so as soon as it warms up a little or I decide to get some propane for the heater, I will tidy up the battery cable connections going to the controller.

NYLON  CABLE CLAMP

The speedohmeter and tachometer are still not working so after finishing the blinkers and battery wires, will start working on them.

Last week my clutch slave cylinder went out on the Miata, so I took it to a local mechanic who does good work and is very reasonable. When I brought it home, it was working great, but when I went out to start the Miata tonight, it would not start and the clutch was out again. It had just been sitting so am not sure what is going on but I guess it's always something.

Until next post,

Randy

INTERESTING CONVERSIONS ON YOUTUBE

Since starting to re-build the Fiero last year, I have looked for other builds to follow to look for ideas for my car.

EDMEVMEDIA is documenting the conversion of a Mazda Miata and usually updates their progress every couple of days. Their videos have covered everything from bottom balancing their cells to making mounting brackets, installing components, and running wiring.

JDDCIRCUIT is documenting the development of soft and hard ware to run a Prius electric motor and install it in an MR2. This work is major as the Prius drivetrains are readily available and from the videos, it appears the half shafts are the same on the Prius and MR2, making for an easy drivetrain conversion.

• Damien Maguire is documenting the conversion of a BMW E39 to electric drive. His videos show some unconventional but effective ways of fabrication and how to get an automatic transmission to function properly on an EV conversion.
• 
  

If you are converting a car or plan to in the future, these active build videos will prove very useful for you. I encourage you to show support and add their Youtube sites to your favorite list.

Happy Converting,

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 

ONE SMALL STEP

After testing the Fiero last week and and looking at the log files to try and determine why it was tripping, I discovered that I had the battery pack voltage reading to the controller coming off of the positive controller terminal, after the contactor instead of at the battery, so used the extra lead that was running under the car to take the reading from the battery pack.

INCORRECT VOLTAGE HOOK UP

 

CORRECT VOLTAGE WIRE HOOK UP

Synkromotive told me to check the negative battery leads and sure enough, I had not fully tightened the one going into the negative terminal of the controller properly, so tightened it up.

Then the battery Low voltage fault and Low voltage limit settings were lowered to 60 volts and several throttle ramp ups were done. With the battery pack lower voltage limit settings lowered, I could not get the controller to trip when just revving the motor, even with some quick accelerations. 

The car was taken for another test drive and it did much better but still tripped when going from third to fourth under moderate acceleration. I have the battery low fault and low limit both set at 60 volts, so am going to try to raise the battery low level limit to 80 and the low level fault at 30 volts. The controller may be set up to back off when the voltage gets down to the low level limit and if I set the fault voltage quite a bit lower, should not get down far enough to trip.The voltages have never been that low in the log files but there may be some noise under heavy acceleration that is making the controller think it did.

Below is the video of the first test drive last week that my son edited for me.

There is still much to do on the car but on the One Year Anniversary of starting the rebuild, I have made one small step!

More next week,

Randy

THE THRILL OF VICTORY, THE AGONY OF DEFEAT

The temperature has been in the high 50's the last few days and all of the snow has melted but it has been constantly raining, so I was glued to the weather channel watching for a break in the weather. I had the charger hooked into the batteries in front of the shunt, so the amp hours on discharged were counted but not when charging. This was a good time to change the connection, so now the amp hours are counted on both the charge and discharge cycles.

Finally around 4:30 pm, the rain stopped and it was time to test drive the car. I tried to set up a video camera but should have taken the time to charge it earlier in the day because it just kept shutting off with a low battery warning. I climbed in the car, switched on the power, pulled up the Synkromotive user interface, and carefully backed out of the garage. So far so good! Pulling out of the driveway onto the street, the Fiero seemed to accelerate nicely in second gear so I depressed the clutch to go to third. That was pretty much when the wheels fell off of the test drive. The motor was no longer responding to the throttle request but I coasted down the road to a motel, just up the street, and pushed the car into a parking spot. This was not good because the hood was not on the car and all of the batteries in the front were exposed. It had been raining all day and the weather radar was showing another line moving in within the next hour. Fortunately, my neighbor was home and brought his truck to pull me home. Once back in the garage, I calibrated the throttle again, and the motor started turning.

I pulled up the log file but could not see what fault shut down the controller, so will need to make sure I have the log settings configured properly before the next test drive.

Sunday, the rain had stopped and the temperature was in the low 60s, so I decided to try again. The car seems to work fine as long as the throttle is slowly depressed and released but trips the controller when it is depressed quickly. I sent the log files to a fellow builder in California and after looking at it, he sent it to Synkromotive. I believe the throttle upper fault limit just needs raised and may try that next week.

Randy

MOVING FORWARD AT A SNAIL'S PACE

This week I had a minor surgical procedure done and was a bit sore for a couple days, so did not get much done on the Fiero.My wife has also been having back problems, so my son came over to help me clean the house before we put out the Christmas decorations. After we were done cleaning, we all went to J Gumbos in Baltimore, OH for my Son's Birthday Dinner. They have one of the best craft beer selections in this part of Ohio, so we had a very nice time eating Cajun food and sampling different draft beers. Heather and Fred Baughman, the owners were both there and it is always very enjoyable spending time with them. If you are ever in the area, make sure and stop in!

 

FRED & HEATHER BAUGHMAN

 My son's girl friend Vanessa was the designated driver, so she drove us all home and we started a fire in the fireplace to put up the Christmas decorations. A perfect ending to a great day.

 MY SON SHANE AND HIS GIRL FRIEND VANESSA

I did get the JLD404 moved inside the car and temporarily wired. Once the car is tested and the motor and controller check out, I am going to take the dash out to mount and run permanent wires to all of the gauges.

 

JLD404 MOVED INSIDE THE CABIN

The cigarette lighter socket was also wired back up so I can move the laptop inside the car to monitor the controller while testing. I emailed Synkromotive to ask if there were any mobile apps to run the user interface and was told that the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT would run the program, so am also trying to figure out where I could mount one on the dash.

CIGARETTE LIGHTER SOCKET WIRED

There used to be a couple of 12 volt DC to 120 Volt AC adapters around the house but when one is needed, they were nowhere to be found, so for now, the IOTA DC-DC converter was plugged into AC and the laptop is still connected to the controller in the back of the car.

IOTA CONVERTER CONNECTED TO AC

The weather has still been very cold with snow every few days, so I am hoping for a couple of days when it will warm up a little, so the Fiero can be tested. If something happens, I just don't want to be stuck out on the street in low 20 degree weather.

Until next week,

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

ALMOST READY TO TEST

The wiring for the vacuum pump and contactor is completed and the left headlight has been reinstalled. I am going to need to get a new wiring clamp to hold the main bundle out of the way, as the old one broke and the bundle tends to get in the way of the headlight bracket retracting.

An AC-DC adapter was used to bring up the voltage on a couple of cells that had to be charged before bottom balancing to 2.6 volts with the JLD404 but all of the batteries are now balanced. The JLD404 was hooked up to the pack and another charge was started.With only 37 cells in the pack now, the voltage was a little too high and one of the cells was approaching 4 volts before the charger shut down. The voltage pot has been lowered a little so I will just have to wait and see what happens on the next charge.

The power leads were made up from the contactor and shunt, to the battery pack, so I was able to enter the settings in the controller, calibrate the throttle,  and test spin  the motor. The motor spun up great and everything is looking good but the stock tachometer did not work, so I will need to do more work on it.

All that is left to test drive the car is to hook the DC-DC converter to the pack, run wires to move the JLD404 inside the car and put the driver's seat back in. Until I get the voltage set so the charger shuts off correctly, I am going to leave it outside of the car. Once I am sure it will not overcharge the batteries, it will be mounted back in the rear of the car.

Randy