Launch Prep

I have everything installed and I am ready to test this thing out! No, the car's not done, but I have enough strapped down and plugged in to try a 60 volt test again! I have to wait until someone else is home for safety reasons, but I went over the wiring about 20 times, tested the low voltage setup, got the Kelly Controller programmed and I am topping off the batteries before the first run.

This is the Kelly Controls KHD09401 almost installed and on a scrap piece of aluminum. It's not the best solution, but should suffice for a trip down the street. I am going to get a proper heatsink before I attempt any real road rage.

And this picture is of the batteries and their top off charge before the run. I measured all the voltages and they were pretty close except for battery #2, and it was 0.7 volts lower than the rest. The other batteries finished their top off charge in 30 minutes, but this battery is still going and it's almost been an hour and the charger says its 25% complete. So this battery is either my weakest link, or it hasn't been charged, and I actually don't remember actually fully charging this one battery EVER. It's only a month old, and has an August date on it.

First Battery

I have bought my first out of the eight EV batteries. It's a Walmart MAXX29 12 volt 125Ah deep cycle that has shown great promise so far. It was manufacted this month (May 2008) and was fully charged when I bought it. I hooked it up to my controller and motor and it ran great and was still fully charged after 20 minutes of playing with it. My last battery barely lasted 5 mins on testing and completely gave out after 15 mins so this is a great upgrade. 96 volts 125 Ah will give a 12 KWh pack of batteries. I hope to be getting some more in the coming weeks while I am still getting my adapter plate and coupler made. I may order the raw materials this week so I can attempt to lay everything out so the ready for a quick machining.

Gas Prices are Criminal!

Well, I just drove by the gas station today, and the current price of gas is $3.57 a gallon!! I still have a few weeks left of the semester and probably going to need another two or three fills ups at bank-draining prices!

So in the past week or so I have had about a whopping 5 minutes to work on this project, and in that time I changed the wire on the PB5 throttle from a two wire to a three wire cable.

Today I hope to work more on the motor plates and adapter, and I am still waiting for a piece of keyway to come in so I can have a better idea of what needs to be done. I have started to make some plate templates out of plywood I have lying around but I think I am going to have to bring the transmission and motor to a machine shop and let them have at it. The real trick is finding a place that wont cost me an arm and a leg. I got a quick quote from a local shop, but I am still going to look around since the end product would cost me more than I currently have.

I also have been recalulating my battery needs, and the battle between weight, total costs and range is being fought. So far, I think the 12 volt is winning with a 35 mile range, 480 LBs of lead and a $500 price tag for all eight of them. Also, charger 12 volts is easier than 8 volts.

Bump in the Road...

Well, I just found out that I can't charge at my destination, so those 8 volt batteries are looking mighty welcoming right now. I was hoping to use 12 volt deep cycle and getting in a 3 hour charge, but now it looks like I have to figure out another way. The 8 Volts should take me 35 to 40 miles per charge in my hilly area at reasonable speeds (35 to 40) to about 80% DoD.

I have spent the past hour or so playing with the EV Calculator and imputing data from similar EVs and comparing them to mine and like what I see. I have been looking at 72 volt EVs for comparasion, punching in their data, then use that same data for mine, input my EV specs and voltage and getting 35 to 40 miles per charge.

I am also thinking about hooking up some small solar panels for some day time trickle charging, mainly to keeps the volts up for acceleration since they won't be powerful enough to actually do much charging.