Lightning in a Bag

Well I got word that there is a nice Li PO pouch cell that is available for a decent price but its only 6ah and has a life of 500 cycles. It has the ability to produce copious amounts of power. Akin to Lighting in a Bag. Bunch up a good number of these bags into a high voltage pack and you have the recipe for one hell of a light weight 1/4 mile thunder boomer. I think I may build a pack for my Buggy but I will be only using one motor coupled to a light weight buggy. Good for short runs down the track but not so good for long distance runs because if you wanted a high AH pack you'd spend lots of money. There are better batteries for that. But for the short run these lightning bags will be nice. I need about 50 bags.

Since racers are not concerned about mileage but speed these fit the bill just right. Fuel costs for gassers is high. Cost for engines is high. Hell any thing RACE is expensive.




So for Ultra Power get your lightning in a bag and go thunder down the track.

http://www.ecedra.com/thebatteryshop.html

Pete :)

Tesla Drops Roadster Line

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/tesla-roadster-reaches-the-end-of-the-line.html

Ouch. But it is actually a natural progression of events. Use the Roadster to build a company and one hell of a quality car at that. The Tesla S is just killer when it comes to quality. No one can match that. No One. I am actually glad to see the roadster go as it really is not a practical vehicle. The S is very practical and refined. The Nissan Leaf is nice but truly not a refined vehicle like the Tesla S. I'd love to buy one. Maybe someday when the stocks split enough I can earn enough to get mine.

Anyway thought I'd like to pass this news along. Time to get more stock in Tesla. It is going to go far.

Pete :)

Leaf

Well I am getting about 70 miles of driving at freeway speed of 55 mph. I think this is reasonable for the speeds and how I drive. I do not try to hyper mile and pretty much trying to keep my same style of driving. The car responds well but you do loose some feel from the steering. I did find myself at 75 today without realizing I was going so fast. So the cruise control is very important. Folks are starting to notice and talk about the car. I think they remember seeing it on the commercials. No one has said but I am noticing lots of looks and talk when they see the car. Lots of pointing. It is a nice car. There is some improvement of the interior parts that could be done better and more refined. Some parts seem kinda cheap. It is over all a nice car. I am getting the full rebate and tax refund for the car so it puts it in the $27,500 dollar class of vehicle with warranty. Try building one like this for that price? I dare ya!

Pete :)

Good run

Took the MG out for a hard spin today. The Synkro has had a firmware upgrade and now can push 800 battery amps and 900 motor amps. Damn if I did not peel some rubber from my tires. Nice.

Leaf is shaping up nicely. Getting a level II charge station installed soon. From a local company that is providing the service. Not the Nissan companies choice. Clipper Creek is the company.

Pete :)


Love the Leaf. Highly refined and smooth. No way could you build one as nice for the price. But if you want a sports car you still have to buy ones that are $100,000 plus or build your own. For a family car it is sweet.

TPS installed and tested

I did have the TPS in the Ghia and it worked just fine. I installed it into the MG tonight and then took it for a test drive. What had been happening was by the time I was back from a drive or sooner when I released the throttle the pot was still on and the controller still thought I had my foot on the throttle when I did not. It also kept feeling like it would go on and off real fast with the pulsing of the tachometer. Now it works just fine. No more pulsing and no more having a throttle flaking out. I'd say from my experience that the PB-6 or its look ones that claim to be a true PB-6 should not be used if at all possible. They do have a new Hall effect throttle that looks like the PB-6. The Kelly controller does require a standard two wire pot but with the controller I have I really need the three wire TPS at least. The MG did real well. It is now time to put in the Kelly and remove a couple batteries for the 96 volt system and charger. So it will have a new HP Kelly 144 volt 850amp controller, Elcon 1500 charger for the 96 volt lithium pack of 100 AH cells.

Pete :)

PB-6

Still having trouble with the PB-6 so it is going to go away. I am going to find a good connector and put in our TPS. It will be better. Once I test that we are going to strip the Synkro out and put in the Kelly and remove some batteries and put it back to 96 volts and install the Elcon 96 volt charger then sell the MG. It is in reality too small for me. It will make a fine EV for someone and one that is already done ready to drive with lithium and not those nasty lead acid batteries either. We are having troubles with the new Warp Speed Sensor too with the Synkro controller. It should do just fine for using an analog gauge. It does work with those. So that will be sold with the car. I will buy another later when the issue is worked out with the Synkro and the Warp Speed controller. There is another type of sensor that will work. Basically it is the kind that uses magnets. The Warp sensor uses no magnets. I think that is the issue. Incompatible with the Synkro electronics at this point.

Leaf at Home

Well we picked up the Leaf yesterday and drove it home. We only have that little level 1 charger that they provide for opportunity charging while away. 21 friggin hours to charge from empty to full. Ouch. Other than that it is good. I am wanting to build or have built a portable level II charge chord for opportunity with a few extra types of plugs so if I only had a dryer outlet I'd have a plug for that. It would be a good thing to have a level II portable charge chord so you could actually get some energy while out and about. Have on hand about 25 or 30 ft of chord and the proper plugs and jplug. Level 1 sucks.

Can't wait for a level 4. Anyway we have it home and I even took it to work and back today just to get my paycheck. It's on the sloooooow charge right now. Ugg.

No way in hell could you build a car with this range and size and comfort for less and AC drive too with all the bells and whistles. Just no way. We do continue to support the DIY builds and we will be continuing with our VW Bus build. Gotta love the lithium batteries. There is just nothing like them.

Pete :)

Kilovac EV 2000 Contactor

Well I had a contactor shorting out on me this evening.  It could be the economizer or just one of the small wires. It cut out on me on my drive into town. It could have been the problem I have been experiencing lately but today it finally cut out fully. I jiggled the contactor and it came back on line but dropped out again. Then again two more times. I replaced it this evening and connected it all back up including the tach.  I only put on 10 miles today and I have it on the charger. Charging is working out just fine. I now have it at 3.65 volts per cell. The balance of the cells won't be too terrible. I have most at 3.5 volts towards the end of the charge and a couple at 3.8 and a few at 3.4. I will go though and fix that. I will bring down the couple that are high and bring up the few that are low. I will do the low ones first. No cell goes over 3.8 volts.

Nissan Leaf

Got word my Leaf is in. I am going in the morning to take care of business. I am stoked that mine is now in. We will still continue to build our DIY projects. This will become my main commuter vehicle and our Bus will be our main business hauler. We can now promote electric with a real nice electric car. Not a conversion but ground up electric. No gas.

Tach

Well the Tach is not playing nicely with my controller. The Warp Speed sensor is not a normal tach pickup that uses a magnetic pickup. Since it is not that kind my controller is not wanting to work properly with it. It says its going much faster than it really is but it is supposed to be using for magnetic pickups and not two. With two it works but kinda funky. There is some feedback. I think it is because of how this tach sensor works. Not that it's bad but it does not work properly with this controller. I am sending one to the company so they can test it and see if they can figure it out or find a way for the controller to play well with it. I also want a nice hall effect throttle.

Pete :)

220 Power

Well I finally got my 220 power connected for my Elcon 3000. The power cord does not get hot and I no longer get any circuit breakers tripping. With 110 the heavy duty extensions just could not handle the power needed by the Elcon. I would need to build my own cable for that. I did for my 220 and it is perfect. How sweet is that. I still need to do some tweaking on balancing some batteries for my pack. I have a couple that are low in AH ratings so I need to dig them out and replace them and do a final tweak. So far I have gotten 28 freeway miles on the 38 100 AH cells. I hit them hard all the time so I am not sure how long they will last but so far they are proving very good even if abused. The pack gets warm but never hot. If I slow down I am sure I can get better than 35 miles. But for now it is pretty darn good. It will get me to work one way with a touch to spare. My job is 22 miles away. So a tweak and a couple extra cells and I should be good to go.

Pete :)

Fixed

Well I got the differential in and the brakes fixed on both sides now and the new diff is much nicer. Not so sloppy. I finished all the work and got every thing back together and took it for a spin. Well what do you know. The grinding and scraping are still there. Damn. Now what. So I go back home and rip the rear drivers side tire off once again. Took yet another look and another and another and another and looked all around and looked at the back side of the rim. I saw what looked like a very slight rubbing. So I look again and lo and behold I found the problem. Well it is a total Doh! moment. The bracket for the spring helper was rubbing on the inside of the rim all along. Loosened up the bracket end and pushed the bracket out and tightened again and slapped that tire back on and speed down the road once again but this time it was nice and quiet and no clunking, scrapping sounds at all. NICE. I can't believe that was the problem all along. But it actually was a good thing. I no longer have a sloppy differential and both rear brakes are renewed properly. Brakes bleed and adjusted and a new master cylinder too. Wow. So much done and it is nice and quiet. Now to focus on the controller and charger.

Pete :)

Grease Monkey

Well I got to do some serious grease monkey work today on the MG. Rather than just swap the entire rear end I decided the easiest thing would be to just replace the differential. It unbolts as a unit once you remove both axles. I removed the diff from the parts MG and put in in the other one. With out putting a load on the vehicle the only difference is that the old one had a touch of slop. The replacement one is pretty tight and smooth. I still found no source of grinding and clunking. All bearings look and feel great and are within specs of movement. The outer wheel bearings on the MG had been replaced and still feel very good. Not sure where the problem is. Hopefully the differential swap will clear up the issue. All gears are clean and show no sigh of wear and nothing looks out of place. Neither had any metal in the oil. If it does not work I will replace the u-joints but they look and feel good too. No slop and smooth. I have new ones coming but have ones off the parts car still. Maybe I will have to replace the driveline altogether. I have a spare that turns smoothly on both ends. The one installed is also smooth and tight. We shall see. It is going to be a hunt and peck for that clunking and grind on right turn only but had started to show signs of the same while going straight. So something must give. I did find out that the passenger side has bad brakes. The wheel cyinder is toast and the shoes are soaked. I will have those replaced tomorrow with new parts. I purchased both sides and installed one. So in goes the new tomorrow then button it all up and take it for a spin to see what happens. Below is what I swapped out. Simple and easy to change and if new bearings are needed those are easy to replace too. Four bolts on the inside to release the carrier and its component gears. I also used the same axles from the parts car so the axles are in the same differential. I figured since the ration of gearing is not the same I'd keep it as matched as best as possible. Actually it is matched only as needed. The case need not be the same. The wheel bearing need not be the same as those can be removed too. It is so simple. This is the firs differential I have ever had to open up. I never even opened one up for fun either. Dang, so simple.

Synkromotive

Well I got my new firmware to up load into my controller. It is now able to run at a higher current if needed. Peak is now set at 800 amps. It will also now do Fuel Guage and Range Calculations. How cool is that. I will have to test it out. I need to ask about a few things. I will check it out and report how it does at accuracy. It will be important. This is a big deal.

Pete :)

Funnel

A smaller version but with more footage. Again scrub the play bar when fully loaded.

UpDated Synkro

Well I updated my Synkromotive controller yesterday. I needed to be sure any logs and errors were removed from the cache first but beyond that the update is painless and fast. Easy instructions and it works. Now when the weather clears we get to go take it for a spin. It is now updated with new calculations and higher amperage limit. I still can't go full tilt because we don't have a modified fan but even as it is this controller is just excellent. We had a funnel cloud skirt our house yesterday. We don't see a lot of this kind of activity here in California but this puppy came within 1/10th of a mile. Literally over our neighbors place heading for ours. It was a confirmed twister in the town over from us for a brief moment but it dissipated and then tried to come back down again by our place. I got some good HD footage that is best played at faster than normal speed. The time frame is like 12 minutes but in slightly faster motion you can see the power of the rotations. It was only a funnel cloud by us but quite impressive at 8X speed.

Scrub the play bar when its fully loaded to get the best effect.