Sparky the Electric Samurai

RIP Sparky

2011-09-02T11:27:00.001-05:00

No cause has been determined. Definitely not the Volt. This is the front of the garage.The back of the house. Solar collectors visible at top right were undamaged. Hard to believe that the fire dept was able to save this house!Bye, bye Sparky. Hope you weren't the cause of the fire. Certainly were a victim. :-(

Fire destroys 2 EVs

2011-05-02T08:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KUiqoZcdQc&feature=email
So far, no cause of the fire has been detected. Volt has been pretty well vindicated. Suzuki charge system checks ok.

Garage fire burns new Volt and Suzuki conversion

2011-04-20T19:50:00.000-05:00

Ya gotta love the media and the public's perceptions. Tis true that the Volt
was suspected of causing the fire. So was the Suzuki, the electrical wiring, candles, discarded ashes, oily rags and any other possible ignition source. We have been reviewed by the Fire marshal, the state fire marshal, the CT State Police forensics group, the National auto safety board, 5 engineers from GM; all of whom seem pretty sure that the Volt did not cause the fire. A state electrical investigator spent 4 hours examining the wiring to the Suzuki charger and gave it a clean bill of health.

It will be quite a while before we will be able to occupy the house, despite Heather's observation. Smoke odor is the biggest problem, but we still have no electricity. The local fire department did a super job in confining the fire to the attached garage.

My advice would be to have a smoke detector in the garage, clean the junk out of the garage, and take lots of pictures. It is really hard to remember what stuff you had before the fire.

Storm Connors

GM 1968 Hybrid

2010-12-25T07:39:00.000-05:00

I found a copy of Popular Science from December 1968. Looks like the Volt concept.

Charging

2010-09-10T15:30:00.002-05:00

I had to send a 24V module out for replacement by the vendor. This means I have a 132V pack and a charger that has 144 and 156V settings. How to charge? I decided to try a "bad boy" charger. A bridge rectifier is connected to the 120V AC with the battery pack connected to the + and - of the rectifier. This bridge rectifier is about an inch square and consists of 4 diodes connected such that the AC is converted to DC. It works out to about 160V of pulsating DC. It can be used to charge batteries from 96V up to about 144V. 144V won't fully charge.

This is certainly not a recommended safe practice.

Bolt the rectifier to a chunk of sheet aluminum to act as a heat sink. Make the connections to the battery pack. Hook together all the extension cords you can find and plug in the rectifier. See what the charge rate is in amps. If it is over 10 amps, borrow some more extension cords. (The extension cords lower the voltage.)

Mine turned out to be 2 amps. I kept removing cords. One short cord worked fine. 10 amps when the batteries were low tapering down to 5 when the batteries approached full.

I recommend that you have a timer that will shut off the power when you expect the battery pack will be fully charged. If you don't have a timer, set an alarm clock to remind you to turn it off. I use the alarm on my cell phone to remind me to check on them every couple hours. Remember, the max voltage you should charge to depends on temperature.

A ways back I explained how to use a transformer in buck or boost mode to give better output voltage control.

Please be careful. I am not recommending anyone do this. Electricity is dangerous. Touching bare wires and connections can cause shocks which can be fatal. Don't set your lawyers on me! You've been warned.

NiMH cooling

2010-06-22T23:09:00.002-05:00

Here is the tank installed near the firewall. You can see the water flowing out each hose. The red hose is because I ran out of plastic. The copper tubing is a U that is supposed to feed the pump. Once it was primed, it worked fine.

See the next post for the solution. I am using the charger set up for lead acid batteries. The cooling system comes on when charging nears completion. It seldom comes on when driving. It comes on at 90 degrees, so we will have to see what hot weather does to it.

2010-06-22T22:50:00.003-05:00

Here we go again! Having the usual problems with blogger.

My pump was not self priming so I had to eliminate the copper tube U that I had tried. In my marine supplies, I found a thru hull fitting that I fitted into the bottom of the resevoir.

I found the tank at Ocean States Job Lots. It was sold as a pasta cooker. 88 cents. I guess I will put the other picture in the next post.

NiMH cooling

2010-06-22T22:16:00.003-05:00

Formatting pages is driving me buggy! Everything I add goes to the top and move doesn't seem to work. So here's the completed cooling system. Finding a fan proved difficult. My neighbor was using this in his office and donated it to the cause.
Big radiator fans are available and little computer fans, but I needed one around 6". I made a shroud to fit the fan to the radiator.

I cut a hole in the floor under the passenger seat and installed a radiator. I t hink it was a heater core. I found a pump on Ebay that was being sold to the hydrogen generation for injection crowd.

The relay in the front of the radiator turns on the pump and fan when the thermostat in the battery box turns off.

Hope you can see what I did in spite of the formatting problems.

2010-06-22T21:45:00.002-05:00

When I was removing the seat supports this fell to the floor. A couple of years and they were still hanging on! Go Vice Grips!

NiMH installation

2010-04-17T11:46:00.006-05:00

Well, they are in and running-sortof.
An unbelievable amount of work. All the battery boxes I spent a summer fabricating and installing had to be removed and the support they provided had to be replaced. Additionally, the rust worm had been at work so some more body work was called for.

Here you can see what the installation looks like. The battery pack is now in 2 battery boxes, one under the hood and one in the bed. Unfortunately, there was not enough room between the frame rails to put the new rear battery box under the floor. I hated to lose the space in the bed! Anyway, the boxes are of plywood painted with aluminum paint.

Behind the front battery box to the left you can see a blue Zerex bottle that is the coolant reservoir. The pump pickup line is a U of copper tubing, and there are 4 return lines from the packs. I wanted to be certain that water was flowing through all the circuits.

I ordered parts to build a control to turn off my DC/DC when the pack voltage was high (like when charging) from a company called Master Distributors. Pieces are dribbling in. Worst run supplier I have run into. I have hopes that the last two relays will show up soon. They already told me that they "couldn't find" the listed as in stock fan I ordered. They seem to have mastered getting to the top of Google listing, but they are still working on fulfillment. Not recommended!!

Here is the view inside the rear battery box. I decided that the headers I was supplied could be replaced. I set it up so that there are just 2 flows in this bank. There are water jackets on each side of the battery. The sides to the front of the car are fed with one flow, those to the rear with a second. The batteries at the beginning of the flow are at the end of the other. I figured the temperature would be more uniform this way. The green hose with the copper tee is the feed line. Smaller clear plastic lines go to the water jackets which are plumbed in series.

I may have to replace the clear plastic with a reinforced variety. It gets pretty soft when heated.

This is the inside of the front box. It has 6 12v modules while the back one has 7. You can see the plumbing more clearly here.

The red fuse holders are lines from each battery to the test panel which allows me to check the voltage and possibly charge each battery from a central point.

I bought a circulator pump from Harbor Freight. It worked, but was way too noisy so I am awaiting another pump from an Ebay vendor.

These batteries put out a lot of heat toward the end of charge. Discharge doesn't seem to produce as much. I planned to modify an indoor/outdoor thermometer to handle 2 remote sensors, but I seem to have destroyed it. I got a unit with a wireless connection which works well for monitoring one box. Serendipitously, I can monitor the temperature from inside the house while she charges in the garage.

An electronic thermostat was recommended to control the pump, but I was not happy with its operation. I pulled a bimetallic thermostat from an old space heater and mounted it on a piece of sheet metal. It is designed to turn off 110v, and I want it to turn on 12v. I wired it up to a 12v automotive relay. Connecting the pump to the normally closed contact on the relay keeps the amperage through the thermostat so low that the 12v arcing is insignificant and when the thermostat is closed the pump is off. When the thermostat gets hot it opens and the pump is turned on.

I have driven it on several trips, one over 15 miles, and it is working well. I keep a wary eye on the thermometers, but they have stayed under 90. Charging is another matter. My charger is programmed for lead acid. It doesn't want to turn off! I am hoping that when the cooling system is operational all will be well. Until then, I have to watch the heat buildup very carefully. I pull the plug on the charger until they cool down.

2010-02-21T11:20:00.004-05:00

I was given these, but I am not sure my batteries are identical. Certainly very similar. I am not very good at formatting these things. Remember that the blog is read from bottom up.

Plumbing NiMH

2010-02-21T10:36:00.003-05:00

Here you can see the "accessories" I was supplied. The headers would indicate that coolant should flow in parallel through the batteries, entering at one end and exiting at the other. There is a temp sensor in the next-to-bottom header. I am assuming that is used to monitor the temp and/or to control a bypass of whatever is used as a heat exchanger (radiator). (I am thinking that some finned tubing as is used in baseboard hot water heating system but have no idea how much cooling capacity will be needed.) Since it gets cold here, it might be a good idea to insulate the batteries and circulate coolant constantly to keep all batteries at the same temp. Thus they could be warmed in cold weather if the coolant bypassed the radiator. Some sort of manual or electrically controlled bypass valves have to be obtained. Ideas would be appreciated.

Looking at the size of the headers, it looks like a high flow rate is intended. So I will need to find a high volume, low pressure pump. The spec sheet says "5gpm, 1gpm" which is not too helpful. It also could be that the cooling is only required with high rates of charge which I don't have available. I can't see getting much more than 20 amps from the charger. Any info or leads would be appreciated.

There are thermistors supplied to go into slots in the battery. I know that it is mandatory that things be shut down if the battery overheats during charge or discharge. Obviously I need a thermostat that connects to these thermistors. Perhaps it would be sufficient to have a thermistor in each of the 2 blocks of batteries. It would seem that I would need a separate thermostat for each thermistor. Probably need a thermometer somewhere so as not to be surprised.

Since I will be going from 144v to 156v, there is a question as to whether my Iota dc/dc and the little dc/dc that supplies power to my Trimetric monitor will handle the higher voltage. I foresee havin to insure them being disconnected during charge for sure, but will they handle the resting voltage? Could I put some sort of resistor in their circuit?

2010-02-21T10:18:00.002-05:00

Here we see the 2 battery boxes beneath the bed. The rear one is about 1/2" too short. It will also only hold 4 modules. I could lengthen it the needed amount, but it needs to be 3" wider to fit 6 batteries. The forward battery box previously held 2 GC batteries. It too would need to be stretched slightly to fit 2 single batteries. The batteries are basically 2 12v units attached end to end making a 30" long assembly. The one in the picture has been separated. I have 5 24v modules and 3 12v. It looks like rebuilding the small battery box to hold 2 singles is not a good idea. I think the best approach is to remove all the existing boxes and start over with a clean slate.

Either I will redo the big box to hold 3 24v batteries- if that is possible, or build a new box in the bed behind the seats. Other than losing some carrying capability, that may not be a bad approach. The weight distribution would be slightly better without batteries behind the rear axle. We will pull out the 2 boxes and see what the possibilities are.

NiMH arrives

2010-02-21T09:37:00.003-05:00

13 SAFT 12V NiMH batteries arrived today. There are patent issues with using these batteries in a vehicle so I am not at liberty to specify their source. We wil call the supplier "Addendum".

My original plan was to replace my GC batteries with the new ones in pretty much the same locations. As you can see, the modules have a different form factor. Under the hood, 6 modules nicely replace 6 of the floodies. I would like to add a seventh, but the length of the new battery prevents it from fitting in the same location. If I can move the charger to starboard, there may be clearance between the battery and the brake master cylinder. It will be close, but if it fits the rest of the installation will be easier. I had 7 lead acids under the hood with the other 11 spread out in 5 battery boxes of various sizes. It is recommended that the NiMH be water cooled, and spreading them out would make plumbing difficult. It looks likeI can put 6 in the rear. Adding a 7th would mean using one of the small battery boxes.

Spam alert

2010-01-15T12:30:00.002-05:00

The people responsible for
http://www.iautobodyparts.com/
Calling themselves "Chrysler Body Parts" have made several attempts to insert blatant ads as comments on my blog. The first attempt was successful, so now I have to moderate comments. Please don't do business with these assholes.

The New Underhood

2009-05-28T23:05:00.003-05:00

Here is the view under the hood.

Upper Left is the contactors. Blue box in front is the controller. The stove connector is for the external charger. In front of that is the panel so I can test or charge each of the 18 batteries in the pack. Several of the fuseholders for connections from this panel to the individual batteries are visible kind of hanging off the battery terminals. You can also see the end of the motor below the batteries.

The little box in the center of the firewall marked DATEL is a 12v to 12v dc/dc. The power supply for the Trimetric gage needs to have the same negative as the pack, but the pack negative can't be connected to the chassis. I tried using 16v from the 2 most negative batteries, but the tiny drain all the time made these two batteries more discharged than the rest. I wouldn't have guessed that 16 or 30 milliamps would matter. It did!

I haven't figured out how to format these posts, so the detail photos are in separate posts to follow or is that precede? Anyway, they end up down below. :-)

Underhood details

2009-05-28T22:55:00.002-05:00

The left side of the picture is the grill where the radiator used to be. This is where I relocated the horn. The vacuum pump for the brake booster is near the right side of the car in this area. On the right side of the picture is the new charger with the long threaded rod holding it down.

As you can see, the quick opening battery cell caps had to be modified where the wires went over them.

Left side underhood details

2009-05-28T22:46:00.008-05:00

A view of the driver's side. From left to right (Firewall to grill) The little 12v battery for lights and such. I call it the house battery. The DC/DC that charges it is an Iota DLS55
Designed as a plug in battery maintainer for RV batteries, this switch mode charger works on DC.. Tucked under the fender is the throttle control that looks like a piece of PVC pipe with a spring on the end of it. It is connected to the throttle pedal with the cable that goes in front of the battery.

The relays to run the running, brake, and directional lights when towing the EV. One relay for the oogah horn.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Two contactors

2009-05-28T22:33:00.004-05:00

Here we see two contactors. (Electrically powered switches.) Originally I had just one on the negative end of the pack. Adding a second one for the positive end seemed a good idea from a safety point of view but finding the space was difficult. You can just see it below the big wires going to the controller. It is reversed with the connections on the right in order to keep the positive cables away from the negative. More separation would be better.

The other black thing sharing the mount with the upper contactor is a fuse holder. There is a BIG fuse under it. The shunt for the ampmeter is attached to the firewall below the fuse. The wire from the negative end of the pack goes to the fuse which connects to the shunt which connects to the upper contactor which connects to the controller and the motor. The battery in this picture is the positive end of the pack. It connects to the lower contactor which connects to the controller on the right in this picture. The center connection on the controller is the positive to the motor. The charger is connected to the upper contactor and the battery terminal.

2009-05-28T21:44:00.002-05:00

The new charger can run on 110 or 220v. I updated my meter with the two types of outlets. It looks better too.

Catching up

2009-05-28T21:12:00.002-05:00

I got a new charger from http://www.evsource.com! I don't see it listed in their catalog any more. Not sure what that means. Anyway, this means that I can opportunity charge with more amps than my "boosted bad boy" would allow. Even use 220V if I can find it.

Unfortunately, the charger is about the same size as one of my batteries. Finding space for it was a challenge. It meant redavinating everything on the left side of the under-hood area.

The charger is the black finned thing near the firewall. You will also notice that one of my red batteries has been replaced with a black Trojan. The pack is getting tired and one battery was "tireder" than the rest. Anyway, the charger is in the space formerly occupied by the house battery and the dc/dc. The house battery is at the extreme right where the window washer was, the DC/DC is where the throttle control and red oogah horn used to be. The throttle control is just visible under the fender on the extreme right of the picture. The horn was mooved to the former radiator area and the window washer needs to have a new bracket made for installation.

Electric car won't start!

2008-10-08T20:31:00.002-05:00

I headed out to a fire department meeting last night and the car wouldn't start. Lights on the dashboard worked, but the contactors wouldn't engage to fire up the controller. After spending several hours today debugging, the problem turned out to be a loose nut on the busbar which held the "key on" wire connections. Glad I wasn't paying me by the hour.

October car shows

2008-10-08T18:46:00.004-05:00

Sparky went to 2 local car shows Oct 3 and 4. See pictures of the cars I found interesting, see the Oct8CarShows album at http://stormc.smugmug.com/
Anyway, I created 5 mini posters which were glued to the back of a sheet of acrylic for display on the hood as seen in this picture. Just for documentation, I will copy them here. Ideas for improvement are welcome, and you are free to use any or all for your purposes. They were created using Word. I could email them to you if that would help.

Why Drive an EV?

This vehicle goes 2 miles per KWH of electricity. Even with the high cost in Corrupticut that is still less than 8¢ per mile.

What is the real cost of gas?

Fuel charge? Military expense? Medical expense?

Environmental cost?

Does it make sense to buy gas from people who hate you?

Want energy independence? This is a true multifuel vehicle. With my solar panels I can drive on sunshine.

The fuel infrastructure is already in place.

Eliminate tune-ups, oil changes, and muffler hassles.

No emission tests.

How far would you drive if your exhaust came out of the steering wheel?

Storm Connors

stormc@iname.com

This next came pretty much from the EV Album

Sparky

1987 Suzuki Samurai

Owner Storm Connors Barkhamsted, CT

Motor Advanced DC Series Wound 9"

Drivetrain Stock 5 speed, dual range, 4 wheel drive

Controller DC Power Systems Raptor 600

Batteries 18 US Battery 8 Volt, Flooded Lead-Acid,

11 batteries below floor,

7 (+house 12v) under hood

System Voltage 144 Volts

Charger 2 military surplus 150v chargers in series.

On board charger is a bridge rectifier "bad boy" boosted by an 18v transformer in series

Heater Ceramic element replacing heater core.

DC Converter Iota 55amp batterycharger made for RV use running off 144VDC to charge house 12v battery.

Instrumentation Ammeter, Voltmeter,

Trimetric which displays amps, volts, amp hrs used since last charge, % charge remaining, and cumulative amp hours. (www.bogartengineering.com)

Top Speed 70 MPH (112 KPH)
Acceleration Not earth shaking, but adequate

Range 30-40 Miles

Gas mileage 500 Watt hr/Mile
Seating Capacity 2 adults

Curb Weight 3,320 Pounds (1,509 Kilograms)
Tires Titan Radial load range C ST205-75 R15

Extras After market hard top

Vacuum booster pump provides the brake assist.
Computer slot fans to ventilate the battery boxes.

Battery control panel

Driveshaft mounted parking brake

Diamond plate interior panels

OOgah horn

This is a pretty Spartan vehicle. Not much in the way of creature comforts.

A pitch for the NEEAA. The logo was at the top, but it doesn't seem to want to copy here :-(

Our active EV club generally meets at 2PM on the second Saturday of the month in Killingworth, CT. You’re invited to join us. See the web site or call 203-530-4942 for details.

Sparky is # 1059 of over 2000 EVs detailed at www.evalbum.com

To answer the inevitable question

$$$

How much does it cost to convert?

Much depends on your scrounging ability. Scrapped fork lift trucks can supply some parts. If you are buying new parts, the shopping list would include:

Motor $2,000

Controller $1,500

Batteries $1,500-$20k

Charger $30-$2,500

Battery Boxes $???

Motor/Trans adapter $600

Instrumentation $200 and up.

Misc wire, fuses, etc. $500

Parts are expensive because of the low volumes. Imagine building a Buick with parts purchased from the service department.

Electric Vehicles of America in Wolfeboro, NH

www.ev-america.com is the nearest supplier.

And finally,

Get a charge FAQ

How long does it take to charge?

This car has about 15KW of usable energy in the battery pack. That means that if the pack is low, about 15,000 watts needs to be returned. How long it will take depends on how much power you have available if your charger will handle it.

Ø A 240V 30A dryer outlet could do this in 2 hours.

Ø A standard 120V 15A outlet would require about 9 hours.

Ø A 190 watt (3’X4’) solar panel mounted on the car’s roof could charge it up with 79 hours of full sunshine.

Regeneration would use the motor as a generator to slow down thus saving the brakes as well as charging the battery. If I could do it, it would increase the range by about 10%.

Mounting a generator to the wheel or a windmill on the front won’t do anything positive. The energy to turn these things would ultimately come from the batteries which are causing the car to move. The charge they would return would be less than the drag they created. See “conservation of energy”.

Anyway, a lot of people found Sparky of interest. Trying to format on the blog is still frustrating! Importing a copy of a Word document is not a good idea! Way too much formatting info that has to be removed. The posters are better looking than they appear here.

Ebrake overview

2008-09-07T20:45:00.003-05:00

This is a view looking up. The vehicle rear is at the bottom of the photo. The caliper mount is at the rear of the transfer case. The input and output to the front wheels is at the top. The cable tab is on the right. the cable sheath is actually looped around the battery box at the bottom of the picture as the brake handle is above the u-joint at the bottom of the picture.

E Brake installation

2008-09-07T19:05:00.005-05:00

The Ebrake on the Suzuki left a lot to be desired especially since there is no engine compression to keep it from rolling.

Using a rock was advised as a chock when parked on an incline especially if you were trying to keep her from rolling backwards.

Since the Suzuki is so popular among rock-crawlers and off-roaders there is lots of after market stuff available. Spidertrax created a kit to replace the Ebrake. One reason is many off-roaders replace the rear drum brakes with disks and lose the Ebrake. A quick search showed that Lowrange Off Road had the best price for the Spidertrax kit. I also purchased a set of interior panels from them at the same time.

The Spidertrax kit is an aluminum disk and caliper that mounts on the rear output of the transfer case. They also supply heavy duty mounts for the transfer case. The bonded rubber mounts are replaced with thru bolts and polyurethane bushings. The installation is simple.

Remove the forward end of the driveshaft from the transfer case output.Attach the mounting plate for the caliper to the back end of the transfer case. (Why are there 4 convenient tapped holes in the transfer case?) Install the aluminum disk between the transfer case and the driveshaft using the new longer bolts provided. Hook the existing Ebrake cable to the caliper. All done!

The installation is simple, but didn't prove to be easy.

The hassles. The nuts on the transfer case mounts really didn't want to be separated after 20 years. The convenient holes on the back of the transfer case really didn't want bolts threaded into them. Tip. If you can figure out how to get the output flange off thetransfer case life would be much easier. Run a tap through the holes. Tighten the bolts with a socket. I couldn't get the nut that holds the flange on loose even after I unpeened the locknut. Neither an impact wrench on 130# pressure nor a 2 foot breaker bar would turn it.

I filed a notch in a short bolt to use as a sort of tap to clean the threads. I ended up having to cut a 1/4 inch off two of the mounting bolts and putting a nut on the third as a spacer and tightening each of them with an open end wrench. :-(

Now to hook up the cable. You are to drill two holes in the frame and bolt the cable tab to the outside of the frame. Unfortunately, two battery boxes prevented me from doing that. One is outside the frame completely blocking the frame and the other is inside the frame in the way of the cable route. Serendiptiously, there was a leftover mount on the crossmember that I could attach the tab to. I reinforced the attachment with a piece of steel hooked around a body mount and bolted to the tab.

Of course, now the tab was closer to the caliper than designed so the cable was too long. I shortened it by looping the cable and fastening it with a couple small cable clamps.

Looking at the picture, the tab that ends the cable sheath is at the bottom. The loop to shorten the cable is near the middle and the connection to the caliper is near the top. The clip at the end of the cable is what was on it originally. The bolt with locknut is the adjuster for the caliper/rotor clearance. Somehow the photo got rotated in uploading. The "wall" on the left is a battery box running across the vehicle perpendicular to the frame.

Solving the "trailer lights" problem

2008-09-07T18:45:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately when the Suzuki is being a trailer- hey her range is only 35 miles or so- the neatly wired trailer would blow fuses on the tow vehicle. The problem was too many bulbs. The running lights and directional signals would activate both front and rear lights on the Suzuki.

There are a number of possible solutions, but I decided to use relays. Left, right, and tail light each is activated by the tow vehicle but the power to light them comes from the Suzuki through the red fuseholder midway up on the right.

While I was doing relays, I added a fourth for an Ooga horn. Much more fun than the factory horn's pitiful beep. The Ooga comes from Harbor Freight.

Anyone know where I can get a Bermuda Bell?

Hospital Day Parade

2008-08-08T11:07:00.004-05:00

It was interesting to watch the parade watchers as they figured out the sign on Sparky's door. Granddaughter Riley holding up the plug helped some.

I ordered a set of interior panels to improve the appearance a bit and a driveshaft mounted emergency brake kit. On an incline, the stock ebrake is a worry, and is downright useless for preventing rolling backwards.

Energy consumption

2008-07-26T21:04:00.004-05:00

The question is always, how far can you go on a charge? About 35-40 miles driving conservatively in the summer. How long does it take to charge? Depends on where you plug it in. If you have the power you could charge up to 85% in 15 minutes. I am limited to 15 amps. This translates to 1800 watts (1.8 KW) As the batteries near full, the amps go down. Near the end, 5 amps goes in. That's 600 watts.

In an effort to figure out how much energy I was really using, I bought a used KWH meter on Ebay. There are a lot of utilities updating meters, so lots of the old ones are available for about $25. The socket is a bit harder to find at reasonable cost. Anyway, I use 2 120v outlets on opposite legs of my supply, so I have 2 standard plugs attached to the meter. 2 outlets below the meter to plug in my chargers. I am using 2 maximum 150v chargers in series.

What I have found out is that I use 500 watt hours/mile. I suspect that a more efficient charger would help. So would a more aerodynamic car with less rolling resistance. But I like 4WD! It's a Jeep thing.

I find that I am using just about 500 watt hours for each mile I drive

Pictures

2008-04-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

I just updated the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/stormconnors/SuzukiEV .
See the whole building process.

Other view of soft top

2008-04-07T11:44:00.002-05:00

Spring is coming!

2008-04-07T11:42:00.003-05:00

Spring is coming!

2008-04-07T11:06:00.003-05:00

There's only a few patches of snow in shady areas. Time to put on the convertible top.

Controller for a Dumb Charger

2008-01-26T10:53:00.003-05:00

On the Electrac site I read about Harry Landis "Charger controller" designed to replace the timer on the rudimentary chargers installed on the tractors. He had an ad but you have to sign up for the Eletrac list to view it. With Harry's permission, here is the ad:

BATTERY CHARGER CONTROLLER INSTRUCTIONS

Principle of operation:

The controller measures the voltage of the battery pack, and turns on the charger if the measured voltage is below the setpoint. After approximately 5 minutes it turns off the charger and monitors the battery voltage. If the battery pack voltage falls below the setpoint, the controller again turns on the charger and repeats the process.

The setpoint is adjustable between about 36 and 42 volts by means of an onboard potentiometer. The red LED illuminates if the battery voltage is LESS than the setpoint. The controller is supplied with the setpoint set at 38 volts. It is recommended that the setpoint be left at 38 volts for best results.

But if you want to adjust the setpoint, there are several options. The simplest is to use a well regulated variable power supply such as a 0-50 volt bench supply. Adjust the supply to the desired setpoint, and then adjust the pot so the LED just illuminates. Then vary the supply voltage to verify that the LED goes on and off at the desired voltage.

If such a supply is unavailable, you can use the ET itself. You will need a good digital voltmeter. Connect the controller’s red and black wires to the + and – of the ET battery pack. . As an illustration, let’s assume you want to adjust the setpoint to 39 volts. Measure the battery voltage with your digital voltmeter. If it is less than 39 volts, charge the batteries with whatever charger you have handy until the voltage is a little over 39 volts. This should only take a few seconds. Then disconnect the charger. The battery voltage should then slowly drift downward. As the voltage gets close to 39 volts, adjust the pot so the LED is just barely off, or flickering. Then watch the voltmeter and see if the LED goes on just as the voltage passes 39 volts. Then give the batteries another very quick charge to a little over 39 volts. Disconnect the charger, and monitor the voltage as it falls through 39 volts. If the LED illuminates exactly at 39 volts, you are done. If not, readjust the pot and try again.

If the ET is left unattended for long periods, the controller will automatically keep the battery pack fully charged and equalized. The controller will turn on the charger a couple of times a day to make up for self discharge and the small amount of current consumed by the controller (about 10 milliamp).

Installation:

The red wire should be connected to some convenient point that is always connected to the + end of the battery pack, You can directly connect it to the most positive terminal of the battery pack if you like, but for reasons of convenience when changing batteries and also to prevent corrosion problems, it is preferable to find some appropriate place inside the tractor. Likewise, the black wire should be connected to some point which is always connected to the – end of the battery pack. On at least some models, the accessory plug is a good place.

The two large terminals on the solid state relay interrupt the 110 volts AC which goes to the charger. If you remove the original ET timer, you can simply connect the wires from the timer switch to the two terminals.

The controller should be mounted somewhere reasonably clean and dry. One option is to mount it where the ET timer was with a couple of screws. You can put it inside some kind of box for even more protection if desired. The controller consumes less than one half watt of power, however, the solid state relay may dissipate up to 15 watts when energized. So it is probably a good idea to mount it firmly to a flat part of the sheet metal to keep it cool. I have never had or heard of any problems from overheating, but it can’t hurt to take precautions.

Harry Landis

hlandis@hotmail.com

I contacted Harry and he built me a controller with a setpoint of around 155v. This eliminates the need to guess at how long the batteries will need to be charged. A strength of this controller for the Electric Tractor is that it will keep the batteries charged during extended periods of inactivity. Tractors might be used once a week or much less during the winter. This could be the case with some EVs as well. (Not mine.) Keeping the batteries on a float charge of 13.5v is a usual approach to this, but it reduces the capacity over time.

Anyway, I adjusted the setpoint to hold the pack at 156.8v. I got this value by fully charging the pack and letting it rest overnight.

So far it seems to be doing a good job. I can't seem to get the picture of it in here! Here is the URL: http://picasaweb.google.com/stormconnors/SparkyTheElectricSamurai/photo?authkey=br5eIwNQ3i0#5159898365802713010

More on the DC/DC

2007-12-25T19:49:00.001-05:00

The way it was set up, the DC/DC was always on floating the batteries unless I turned off the main breaker. This caused the main pack to have a parasitic loss. Some discussions on the EV discussion list made the point that floating a 12v battery at 13.5v will cause it to gradually lose capacity.

I decided to use the optional feature of the Iota wherein it will produce 14.5v and only charge when the car is being driven. In order to do this, I installed a second contactor in the negative line to the controller and motor. When the ignition key is turned on the negative contactor will close which will supply power to the DC/DC whose negative lead is on the controller negative bar. This also allows the controller to precharge. Once the precharge is complete, the contactor in the positive lead is closed and the car is ready to go.

This contactor also isolates the controller from the charging voltage which it would ordinarily see via the precharge circuit. It also means that there are 2 contactors that can be opened in an emergency. It is possible that trying to open a contactor under a load could cause it to be welded closed. The emergency kill switch on the dash is designed to open the contactors.

A downside to this arrangement is that there is a path for the high voltage to the negative side of the motor through the DC/DC. Since motors can leak to their case which is connected to the chassis through accumulated carbon dust, there could be a path to the chassis while charging. It is not a concern to me as the liklihood of any significant amperage through this path seems small.

Finding space to mount the second contactor was difficult. It ended up above the main contactor. I really would rather have the positive leads separated more from the negative. I did mount the new contactor so that its terminals are on the other end rather than right above the terminals on the main contactor.

The top picture shows how the 2 contactors ended up on top of each other. The second picture is a wider view showing the blue controller and the batteries. The firewall is on the left.

I am also finding that the cold weather has halved the range. Coming up the hill to my house at 5 MPH is not so much fun. When the pack is low, I watch the voltmeter and try to keep it above 120v for my 144v pack. This means that the amps might have to be kept below 25! When the pack is more than 1/2 full I try to keep the ammeter below 200. I am also going to do a thorough equalization charge on the batteries. There is a chance they are not being fully charged.

DC/DC

2007-10-25T07:25:00.000-05:00

The guys at the firehouse noted that my headlights were yellow. This is a result of running them off a 12v battery. Even though the laptop brick kept the battery up it was still only giving 12.5 volts or less to the lights. The solution is a DC/DC converter. This is a 12v battery charger.

Iota makes a battery charger for motor homes and the like which serendipitously will run on DC as well as the normal AC. Because these units were so expensive, I was just using a large marine battery. Anyway, I started looking on Ebay and ended up with a 55Amp unit for $125 including postage. I mated it with one of the little sealed UPS batteries I had left over from my original traction pack. The space was less than the marine battery and the weight was much less.

I installed it in the same place the marine battery used to be. The battery is on its side on top of the Iota charger. The little battery is held at 13.6v and the lights stay bright. 55amps should handle any conceivable 12v load.

Borrowing a motor

2007-10-21T20:05:00.000-05:00

I wanted to go to the car shows the Oct 6 weekend, but my motor was in the shop being repaired due to an over revving incident. Anyway, an EV club member offered to loan me one!!! It was a brand new, bright red, Warp 9". I got my motor back the next day after the show. The pictures here were taken during the swap.

There are some good views of the adapter that Ed Hendrickson made by cutting off the back 2 inches of a Suzuki engine. At the last EV meeting Bill Glickman noted that the adapter in his VW Beetle was also made by Ed the same way.

Apparently there is a problem with uploading images right now. See pics in the Borrowing a motor file at http://stormc.smugmug.com . (If you decide to use Smugmug for your own pictures, tell them that stormconnors at Yahoo.com sent you. :-) You can order prints from them or download the pics at full resolution. The slideshow is beautiful!)

New London Hospital Day Parade (Better Picture)

2007-08-04T20:14:00.002-05:00

Hospital Day Parade

2007-08-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

New London, NH has an annual weekend festival, carnival, craft show, flea market extravaganza to raise money for the local hospital. One of the activities is a huge parade. Sparky was entered. After cleaning and decorating her we found our spot #26 out of 60 or so entrants. Many antique cars, fire equipment, horse back, and floats...and one electric car.

My daughter, Tamara, cut out letters from reflective mylar spelling out "No Gas" on each side and "Plug it in" on front and back. A big american flag and some blue and gold cheerleader's pompoms on the rollbar completed the decorations.

Comments from the spectators along the parade route indicated that some "got it."

We made the news!

2007-07-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

Newspaper writeup

2007-07-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

Update on charger

2007-06-20T23:25:00.000-05:00

I purchased the transformer from Al Tech Electronics www.73volts.com It is a TR800 15.8v 22Amps (with a center tap I didn't use).It is listed at $15.99 on their site. After a short time it failed. The primary had a dead short. I can't envision how this is possible. It was not shorted to the steel core. Anyway, Al Tech sent me a replacement which I installed.

I also had to replace the dimmer switch which the local hardware store had for less than $4.

I then tried recharging the pack. With the batteries over 50% discharged, I had to use the dimmer to keep below 15Amps so I wouldn't pop a breaker. As the voltage in the pack increased, the dimmer was increased. At the end, I measured 2 amps at 177v. To fully charge the batteries requires around 186v, but they got over 95% charged, with no danger of overcharging, excessive bubbling or whatever. It still looks like an hour of charge for each 3 miles will be in the right ball park. An extra hour or two would have no bad effect. I repeat, be sure to install a timer on any unregulated charger. Accidently leaving the batteries on charge for an extended period of time will damage them. It is easy to forget.

We took the car over 32 miles, and there was still battery left. There was a lot of voltage sag going uphill near the end. Gotta use a light foot!

If you are reading this, leave a comment. Thanks.

On board charger

2007-05-08T21:27:00.000-05:00

I've been carrying a simple "bad boy" charger for opportunity charging. A "bad boy" is a 1 inch square by 1/4 inch thick bridge rectifier attached to a cord. It takes the ac and converts it to dc. This produces around 150v dc which is enough to add to the charge of a low 144v pack, but not enough to fully charge it. The design goal was to have a plug it in and forget it charger so my wife could use the car in my absence. The WWII charger I am using requires more adjustment than she would be comfortable with.

Rich Rudman of Manzanita Micro sells a nice charger, but it is $2000. I actually considered it. Then I remembered that I wanted to experiment with a boosted "bad boy." I had purchased a 12V 20 amp transformer on EBay for this purpose some time ago. Time to get a round tuit.

I used Tom Martins schematic at http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/tech/ and it worked exactly as advertised. The concept is to put the transformer in series with the 110v electric line so the 12v is added to the 110. The addition of a dimmer allows the addition of less than 12v. (The numbers refer to the mean voltage on AC. The DC from the rectifier will be about 40% higher.) When the pack is low, about 16 amps will be fed to it. Might have to use the dimmer to avoid tripping the breaker of the outlet plugged into. I measured 3 amps flowing into a fully charged pack at 179v, so overcharging shouldn't be an issue. ANY UNREGULATED CHARGER MUST HAVE A TIMER. I found 15 amp GE timers at Ocean State Job Lots for $3! Without a timer, forgetting about the charger can be a very expensive error.

It is also recommended that ground fault protection be included in the circuit to protect against possible shocks. The least expensive GFI is sold in the form of a duplex outlet. For some reason, if you buy it in the form of a circuit breaker, it is much more expensive.

So, we have a GFI outlet, a 600 watt dimmer, a timer, a transformer, and the rectifier to be mounted. Have to think about where. Also have to consider how the vehicle will be plugged in. The cutsey approach is to use the gas filler for the power cord location. One problem is the possibility of driving off without unplugging the car. The current scheme requires the hood be open while charging which solves the driving off problem, but I wanted the new system to be simple.

I wanted to make use of the existing volt and amp displays to monitor the charge so it made sense to mount the charger controls in the passenger compartment. If the plug was also inside, the drive off problem would be unlikely to occur. I searched for a metal triple size electrical box, but couldn't find on, so went with 3 singles. The outlet with plug in pigtail, the dimmer, and the timer are each in a box on the dash. The boxes are side by side with modified plastic conduit connectors connecting them. I made a cover plate of clear plexiglas. The back of the plexi was painted with black spray paint. Really looks nice! The transformer was mounted under the hood and the rectifier is below it, bolted to the 2" aluminum angle used for the battery mount. This should make a great heat sink to keep the rectifier cool. Hook up the wires and it works!

I am told that the charger can be made more efficient by adding an inductor and capacitors to smooth the current. Perhaps more will be done when I get more information. For now, set the timer to charge for 1 hour for each 3 miles driven and plug it in. If it is charging at more than 15 amps, turn down the dimmer a bit.

Middletown show followup

2007-04-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

Dave sent along this after the show pic showing the 4 electric cars and owners.

Middletown Show

2007-04-30T07:42:00.000-05:00

I met Dave Oliveria at the church, unhitched Sparky from the Blazer towcar and parked it for viewing. Shortly, Bob Rice arrived with his just completed Jetta- some details remain, but it is drivable- Bill Glickman drove in his bug, ___ brought a beautiful S-10, and there was a Mercedes running on filtered used vegetable oil to round out the display. Bob Rice and I brought electric scooters as well.

Off to the show

2007-04-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

I spent today cleaning, polishing, and tying up loose ends. Tomorrow Sparky gets towed to Middletown to participate in a mini car show. I created a placard for it:

Sparky

1987 Suzuki Samurai

Owner Storm Connors Barkhamsted, CT

Motor Advanced DC Series Wound 9"

Drivetrain Stock 5 speed, dual range, 4 wheel drive

Controller DC Power Systems Raptor 600 upgraded to 1200
Batteries 18 US Battery GC8V, 8 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded

11 batteries below floor, 6 (+house 12v) under hood

System Voltage 144 Volts

Charger 2 military surplus 150v chargers in series.

On board charger is a bridge rectifier "bad boy" with GFI

Heater Ceramic element replacing heater core

DC/DC Converter Sony Laptop brick power supply 18v output, 120/220v input brick connected to traction pack. Output goes into a simple controller made for solar panels.

Instrumentation Ammeter, Voltmeter,

Trimetric which displays amps, volts, amp hrs used since last charge, % charge remaining, and cumulative amp hours (www.bogartengineering.com)

Top Speed 80 MPH (128 KPH)
Acceleration Not earth shaking, but adequate

Range 30 Miles (48 Kilometers)
Gas mileage 550 Watt hr/Mile
Seating Capacity 2 adults

Curb Weight 3,320 Pounds (1,509 Kilograms)
Tires Titan Radial load range C ST205-75 R15

Extras After market hard top

Vacuum booster pump provides the brake assist.
Computer slot fans to ventilate the battery boxes.

Battery control panel

This is a pretty spartan vehicle. Not much in the way of creature comforts.

2007-03-31T22:44:00.000-05:00

After Leifert's Automotive Machine Shop was done with it, it weighed 8 1/2 lbs!

2007-03-31T22:38:00.000-05:00

This was the flywheel. It weighed 12 3/4 lbs

Clutch and flywheel

2007-03-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I got the transmission out (really big for such a little car!)

The flywheel is at the machine shop. They will lighten it and get it balanced. I'm hoping the new clutch won't slip. If I had the car in high gear going up a hill, the smell was overpowering.

The heavy flywheel does store energy. Unfortunately, you have to put the energy in to store it. If I pushed in the clutch at a stop, the car would lurch when I started up as the flywheel was still spinning. All that inertia makes it harder to up shift as the motor doesn't slow down much when you take your foot off the gas. I'm hoping the lighter weight will help. The flywheel weighs 12 1/2 pounds. Be interesting to see how much comes off.

Gonna go paint some previously unpaintable areas now that the tranny is out.

March 27, 2007

The electric car is running. Went 17 miles today and it still had
30% left. I think I will replace the clutch and get the flywheel
lightened. Today I added hold downs for the rear battery boxes. I
think the batteries back there were bouncing when I went over a bump.

2007-03-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

This was the final result, ready to roll