time lapse

In the last 3 weeks I went from: batteries in the trunk...

to chopping up my car

to Mocking up an idea that seemed fairly easy

to these finised metal boxes, which wasn't easy...


lots of new skills learned, people and places met, and a few scratches. no burns or ruined eyes or ears!

welding battery boxes

I tried a wood/metal-brakets version which was okay, but the wood thickness used up valuable space plus it would have to be bolted to the brakets and bolts use up more space poking themselves into the box area.  SO I decided to try the metal approach.

Here is some physical progress on my 3 week brainstorm of a new battery location. 

After finding possibly the best supplier of sheet metal a guy could hope for, I used my brand new MIG welder to tack weld up this box out of 16 gauge sheet steel, which looks shiny like stainless but it is not stainless and will need to be painted.  (Powder coating would be nice, but I think I'll just go with paint for now).

I'll try to get the 2nd box, which holds 1 row of horizontal batteries done tomorrow.

And yes, the auto darkening welding mask is worth 10 times what they cost!

some early christmas presents

these arrived a few weeks ago as well.  various ideas leads to feeding my shopping addictions:

I received my Vicor Maxi DC / DC today, and wow is it tiny!
Not really sure how the "evaluation board" is going to fit into the picture, but I'm kind of glad I bought it...

Also my Raspberry Pi which is now running the Orion BMS software via USB to the unit, but I will be programing my own lite version to show minimal diagnostic data. The 7" display is not touch, and I finally realized I didn't want that thing in my car along with some sort of mouse/keyboard contrpation. Besides at $150 it was too expensive to have laying around a convertible VW. At $35 the Raspberry Pi is a reasonable loss.




So anyway, this Vicor, and evaluation board (which might get relabeled to "production board" by me), I don't really know how to start with it, I suppose I'll just hook it up to my traction pack and see if it blows up.



and the front side faced down into the board:


*shrug* anyone got a suggestion on what to solder first?

it's so tiny! reminds me of a deck of cards, so maybe I should head to Blackhawk and play some NLHE tomorrow? Live Casino Poker really is a lot closer to a slot machine than you'd think.

brainstorming the battery move

few weeks ago...

After scary fun with a reciprocating saw, and nearly destroying my car?
Last night I did a pegboard mock of my sub-level battery holder. Here is some pics.

first the scary hole (opps did I just ruin my EV?)
The large angle iron seen is the rear axle, has no vertical or lateral movement but it does swivel slightly so nothing can be touching it.


more cutting, and then the pegboard mock...


overhead shot, make sense? Total of 3 rows of 15 batteries = 45 = 144v
just the thought of moving this weight lower and in front of the rear axle makes me happy from the viewpoints of suspension/handling/catastrophe


is it okay to have 1 row of batteries laying on their sides? I'm pretty sure I read that it is okay but still not certain.

gas tank removed

I've driven the car to work a few times, realized I need a dc-dc converter otherwise I somehow managed to push my car along the street twice because I let my 12v die.

But the new news is the gas tank is out!,  which was a pain because the rear axle must be lowered.  But the non-pain part is it is possible to do this all without disconnecting any brake lines, whew that would be messy.

the dirty wall straight ahead is a vertical space where the rear passengers calves dangle down, so all the space behind that up to the thick metal in the foreground, is maybe 5 cu feet of space well protected and a nice candidate for batterys.

under side open space.  you can see the lumps where the rear passengers but used to sit.

if i cut something like the yellow outline, maybe I can end up with a large cavity of space to install a battery box.  This has lots of appeal.  Perhaps it will reveal better handling due to the big weights being between the axles instead of behind the rear.  also lower center of gravity *shrug*

yellow line for possible cutting

all gone!

THE gas tank

Licnese Plates!

I received my Colorado license plates today, along with a new little EV sticker they started in 2014 that is placed in the front window in order to park in spots where chargers exist (without getting a ticket).

I also purchased a Raspberry Pi with a 7" screen to install into my EV so it can show live data from the SolitonJr and the Orion BMS on the dash  (as well as watch movies and listen to music?), yet another project latching onto me!

test drives

Last week we did two 15 mile test drives.
This week I drove 27 miles round trip (without knowing if I'd make it home because I still don't have my e-meter setup) to my appointment with the Colorado Motor Vehicle Emissions Technical center, and they signed off a form DR2365 I needed to get my E type registration/title! I was pretty nervous, and some things went wrong before I arrived. 6 blocks away my car lost power due to my old rickety 12v battery dying off (still no dc/dc converter). So in the parking lot next to the one I 'rolled' into, there was a meineke auto shop which happily stocked and sold me a new charged battery ($120 later) and I installed it there in the beautiful Colorado winter sun, and arrived at my appointment three min early. (with the convertible top down!)
Things that went right?
1) I didn't get pulled over for my 3 month expired temp tag.
2) They signed the form needed.
3) I made it home without running out of electricity in my traction pack!
4) my new battery didn't die.
whew.


did get some video, will post soon.