Adapter Plates, 2.0

It turns out that the machine shop just doesn't have the time to work on my plates. So today I went down and picked up my FB1-4001A, sacrificial transmission and the new plate stock. I then went off to Home Depot and picked up a new 15" Drill Press, new bits and new DeWalt batteries then spent the day setting up the equipment.





The drill press seemed more complicated than the EV! After setting up, I went straight to work. It goes so much faster now that I have the old plates to use for patterns, and all the right equipment does wonders. I only spent about 30 minutes actually making the plates today, but I will be working on them for the next few nights with the *hope* that I can install it this Saturday. I am also taking my time and making these new plates as professional looking as possible, vs my other "hacked up" plates, which did look pretty bad up close, although they worked perfectly.

Chargers

I bought 8 Schumacher SC-600A chargers on eBay today. They are 6 amp smart chargers, while not the fastest thing in the world, it will get me started. My budget (pocket mulah) is getting low, and I picked these up nice and cheap at $100 for all 8 inlcuding shipping.

Today I also build another controller circuit, this time using a PIC processor and a 16 KHz frequency so it can't be heard. My other controller used a discrete hardware setup, but had an audible 2 KHz frequency. I will keep the old board in the gloved compartment as a backup in case anything goes awry...

Tonight my dad and I drilled a few 1/2 inch holes in the motor adapter plate to see how easy it is, and it was a breeze. Tomorrow I will mark up all the bolt holes on the larger plates and drill those, and also drill the holes in the spacers. It's coming together really fast and I might just have the motor in on Monday since I will be going away this weekend.

Raw Materials

Now I am making the final measurements before I purchase all the the aluminum and stainless steel for my adapter system. I am figuring out the best way to piece the system together and keep the costs down. Hopefully I will have everything set and I will purchases the metal tonight. I decided to make the plates my self and to get the coupler machined and I should be getting it machined for a good price.

I also have acquired all the heavy gauge cabling! It was great actually, I was mowing the lawn and found a spool of heavy gauge wire behind the shed that my dad put there a few years ago because he had gotten it and had no use for it. There is over 40 Ft of 3/0 gauge equivalent wire and it should be all the wire I need. This is about a $200 savings so I am psyched!

Update: I have ordered all of my aluminum plates, spacers and the stainless steel piece that will be used for my coupler. All I have to do is wait for the pieces to come in and find a machinist for the coupler. I have e-mail a few and they either did not return my e-mail, or are booked until mid July which is too long for me.

Progress Update

Ok, so I have some more progress. I have made the modifications to my controller and added the connection panel so I can connect the throttle and power to the controller. I am in need of a new battery to do anymore testing, but using small motors and power sources everything seemed to work. It also has this safety feature that if the current sensing fails, the controller stops the motor. It will probably always be a work in progress, but this should get the car moving. I also bumped it up from 250 amps to the full 500 amps. So now its a 24 to 156 volt 500 AMP controller.

I have also started my templates and hope to bring them to a shop next week and see what they can do. This is really a concept template because I don't have the tools to properly make them, and the shop will use its own equipment and scan in the measurements to a computer and CNC mill out the plate. I do have the designs for the coupling done and will be bringing those along as well. My 7/8 taper hub piece should help make the coupler real simple since last time I went over there we spent about an hour trying to figure out the coupler because they didn't have the machine to make the key way and all the lovejoy couplers out there didn't have enough strength to survive the torque of the motor.

I will not be working on the car this weekend since I will be spending it in the middle of nowhere fishing on a well earned vacation trip.