Walnuts

Well its not EV's in general but our first harvest of the year of our Chandler Walnuts are in. The first of the nuts are falling. We don't have many but we do harvest, shell and sell our all organic Chandler Walnuts. We put in 25 trees two years ago. Another 10 will go in this winter. We have persimmons to harvest too. Only one tree but it gives us plenty of good eats.

Kelly Controller

Well my Kelly Controller finally made it back home. No cost and fixed. They said it was the power board inside. They said that the internal components are modular in nature to make repairing easier. So if a component goes bad the component is removed and a new on inserted. Why it failed was not revealed. Not sure they even know. So they did not replace the controller. Power board was just found to be defective and they replaced it. Now I must try again to see if it works properly.

Pete :)

Transaxle

Well I purchased my Transaxle for my Bus project today. Buying it outright with no core. I purchased the Pro Street with a 3.44:1 Ring and Pinion. Three weeks and it will be home. Now I can start putting in the new suspension components. I might not do much video production on that but I will do some. We are going to do the boat too. That will get some good video when we start on that. We are pushing the Bus project and the FAST charging project. A few small components for the fast charging scheme are on the way this week. Talked to Synkromotive this week and got some excellent news from the company. I will be bringing Synkromotive Controllers next Conference and will be bringing along the a Live Demo. The controller is more for your average sized vehicle and is for on the road use and not built for racing. It will however provide excellent street performance and with Fast Charging will be a game changer. More from Synkro coming as well on the AC side. It will be awhile but it is in the works. Got some ideas for Synkro on that front too. For now it is only DC. Fast Charging can be done from Direct DC or AC. No extra charger will need to be purchased. So an excellent controller/charger for the price of a controller! How sweet is that.

Pete :)

EVCCON

I am still not home from EVCCON but still enjoying my vacation. The convention was a much needed push and much needed publication for building electric cars. The best thing about the whole conference was the alliances made with all the folks that came. I did not get to meet every one by any means but I did get to talk to many. I look forward to next years event and will be bringing a vehicle. I committed to bringing my Electric VW Bus. I should have no trouble having it ready. I enjoyed the speakers and recorded audio for all the sessions. I was interested in the brushes and the brush holders for the motors. I see it is very important for the life of the motors in the environment we put them through. I really enjoyed the cars and I really enjoyed driving Duh and the Spyder. Duh is a real fast car. The Spyder is real nice and I liked the performance. It is an excellent build. Many were built well and for me will be what to strive to build. I hope to stay in contact with all the folks I was able to talk with and I hope to see new and exciting things coming to the field of electric cars.

The races were fun and educational. I never raced before and I never really knew what happened at the tree. All I know is when the light turns green you go like a bat out of hell. Well, it's not quite like that but sort of. Go to soon and you get a red light. Ouch.

If you have video or information on the cars that raced I'd like a copy so I can tie the information to the cars that raced and my video of the cars I captured on film. The more the better.

I am also going to build a 64 Correct Craft 16ft Ski Boat into an electric conversion. I have the motor and adaptor already and I will have a controller that can be used. The boat needs some work but the running gear is ready to go. Mostly just interior work and sanding and painting. Maybe some cool gauges.

I hope to have it pull a skier and be able to get on plain with little effort. It will be lithium powered.

Fast DC charging

We are getting closer to having a setup operating soon. Will be looking to do at least 100 amp charging for a 156 volt lithium pack. We will be using a bank of lead acid batteries for the source. Solar will charge the source.

Pete :)

Plate Holders

Well I went and ordered a pair of aluminum license plate holders with custom engraving for both. I needed to get these because most folks when they look at the car think they are looking at a Hybrid and not an All electric vehicle. Too bad. Even with the huge Zero Emission sticker on the sides of the car they just don't get it. So I had a couple plates made up to help.

No More Stinky Gas
100% All Electric Car

This will now be on the license plate which also will say GOT EV.

If they don't get it there is little hope.

Charge Station

My SPX Charge Station arrived to day. How sweet. I is a normal level II charge station with a little twist. This one is portable if you wish. I connected mine to our 50A 240 Circuit to our standard drier style  outlet. It came with a nema style plug and I have one I can swap the drier style one with but since my outlet is pretty far from my plug I needed a good long heavy duty extension. The one that came with the charger is short. The length of the plug cord is not long enough unless I have an electrician come and install a dedicated 240 outlet in the car port. I may do that later but for now what I have works and the car is now charging on 240 rather than 120. Wow. It was so easy to set up too. One nicely made extension and three wires to the box. Simple as pie. I am a happy camper now.