February 7th, 2010
The new guages are installed – one is for the pack voltage, the other is the pack current. Both are left and above the dash. Speedo is also reinstalled, so the passenger compartment is (mostly) done.
Working on the BMS battery connectors now. A lot of fiddly little parts that require a magnifying glass (for my somewhat older eyes) and a good soldering iron. Elithion did a very good job with their battery connectors – they actually show the color of wire to hook up where. On the end of each battery group there is a connector that will have two wires attached – either black/red or green/white. If you look carefully at the two wire connector on their part, it says B R / G W (or something like that). Nice job. 
I still have the rear battery pack to work on, and then it is time to fuss once again in the rear trunk – I now have a quick disconnect for the battery pack that I need to fit in.
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January 20th, 2010
Since the trip reset cable was missing, I took the opportunity to have the speedometer rebuilt. At Sean’s suggestion, I sent it to North Hollywood Speedometer after getting a quote from them. Very fast turn-around, very nice work. When I realized I hadn’t asked for a reset cable, I called back, they remembered my speedo. They were able to build up a cable and sent it to me the next day….another amazing company.
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January 7th, 2010
I finally figured out which of the interconnects are which. This took some careful reading of the Elithion website (my fault, not theirs) and as a public service present to you which connector is which:
I’ve gotten the current sensor put together, but these tiny wires are enough to drive an older guy crazy. I had to go and buy one of those soldering stations with those clips and the magnifying glass. Sheesh.
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January 4th, 2010
The holidaze were great – warm weather, no stressful driving anywhere, and time to take care of the small details. Cutting the boxes to proper size, attaching the fans to the boxes, running BMS signal cables (which involved pulling and re-running the power cables through the driver-side tube) and so on. Ready to start putting batteries in and hooking up the BMS cables. Oh and mounting the BMS with a power supply as well. LOTS of small stuff.
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December 23rd, 2009
Well, the braided copper cable is cool and all that, but for the vast majority of connections, just plain copper bar is gonna be fine. So I bought a whole bunch of pieces made to order at Industrial Metal Supply (very nice people, although you will need to go into the place to make special orders if you don’t have an account). I also picked up the new license plates for the car. Busy day (in addition to doing actual work).
Copper interconnects and the new license plates.
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December 14th, 2009
Well, due to the usual delays of business travel, pulled muscle, Thanksgiving and shopping for Christmas, not much was done until this weekend.
I was able to trim the battery boxes to a lower height – making a much better fit in the various compartments. Apparently, the trick is to use a carbide blade with 60 to 80 bits in the power saw. Worked great!
I also started working on the battery interconnects. I’m looking into flat braided copper cable, with silver-solder for the ends. However, I’m not happy with the way the ends have worked out – I don’t think they are flat enough yet. This will take some tinkering to figure out.
Battery Interconnect sitting in the Silver Solder
Posted in Distractions, Parts | 2 Comments »
November 3rd, 2009
I had been having some trouble trying to find a local source for braided copper grounding straps suitable for making battery interconnects. No idea why it is hard to find, but there it is. Sean suggested I try a few sites, and one of them is www.mcmasters.com. Wow. 460,000 different parts, just about anything you can imagine you would need for just about anything. (who me? impressed? Heck yeah!)
Anyways, I ordered the flexible braided copper cable (equivalent to 2/0 AWG) and melting pot for solder last night. This afternoon – they were delivered. O_O
Wow. Color me majorly impressed.
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October 26th, 2009
Yay! I am now the proud owner of 109 Sky Energy 60Ah batteries. All 690 pounds of ‘em (however, some of that weight is the boxes and pallet they arrived on). Gosh, all I have to do now is (list redacted). Shouldn’t take too long. 
Battery Porn:
109 Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries
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September 17th, 2009
Well, now that I’m getting ready to hook up the high voltage, I feel good enough about my terminal block and relay hookup diagrams. I’ve put it into a PDF for your viewing pleasure, and it can be found here: 914_AC24_Layout_V1. I hope this helps with other people trying the same sort of madness.
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September 12th, 2009
Since I’m going to go with the higher voltage, I have to change the wiring of the motor from Delta to Wye (hence the bad joke in the title).
Getting to the wiring was challenging, since one of the hex bolts holding the protective plate was stripped during initial installation. Thanks to Sears, I now have some nice tools to remove stripped screws and bolts. Fortunately, my wife went with me to the store, otherwise who knows what I would have ended up bringing home! (called the “ooooh it’s shiny!” syndrome)
Once I got the wires exposed, I thought a before picture would help explain. Here is the Delta wiring:
Delta wiring for the AC24
And then after the rearrangement of wiring to Wye:
Wye wiring for AC24
Now I have to put the cover back on, but that requires instant gasket goop to seal the wires in. *sigh* Yet another trip to the store.
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September 8th, 2009
I’ve had a busy weekend adding in the plug and getting the wiring set up. The plug is an interesting model – it will automatically eject the plug when the key is turned – very nice feature.
The AC is routed to the relay panel, the charger and to the EKM meter. The EKM meter has a ring around the live wire to the charger so it can record how much power the charger is using.
Rear Trunk with AC lines
Here’s a picture of the new plug.
AC Plug installed
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August 16th, 2009
Well, as I mentioned in the last post, I am completely rewiring everything. About the only thing remaining in the same place are the battery racks and the wires going from engine to mid compartment. I’m still cleaning up the wiring in the rear trunk…and as you’ll see from the picture I’ve got the controller out (for reprogramming).
New relay panel in rear trunk
I’ve also moved the potbox to a location closer to the relay panel (and out of the most nasty of the weather).
Potbox moved to a new location
Also note the new battery (red), charger (green) and DC-DC converter (black)…so I’ve been keeping busy.
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August 4th, 2009
Well, nuts. The new charger won’t fit into the front trunk, so it will be installed in the rear comparment, along with the new DC-DC converter. I’m also putting the aux battery in the rear compartment.
Net result: no need for relays in the front compartment or engine compartment. I’m creating a new relay panel that will go in the rear trunk, and will move the DC shunt to the mid compartment (nearest the amp meter). Lots of rewiring, and re-organizing, and most likely a new set of connectors in the engine compartment.
I’ll post pictures once the relay panel is installed.
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July 12th, 2009
Well, along with the 109 Sky Energy 60Ah batteries, I am getting the Elithion Battery Management System (BMS), the Manzanita PFC20B battery charger, and EVComponents touchscreen interface to the BMS. Oh, and a new DC-DC converter.
All told, this is $15K worth of batteries and support equipment. (YIKES!)
However, I knew that the job was going to be hazardous when I started. Nothing more exciting than being bleeding-edge, is there?
Now that I know what the parts are, I’ve been making mock-ups of the new parts and will be figuring out where to put them into the car. Once I have the new locations figured out, I’ll post photos.
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July 2nd, 2009
Well, I got smart – I talked to the people that actually manufacture the motor and controller and asked their opinion. I gave them the possible battery packs, and let them choose. Turns out that there is a “no-mans land” that all but the high voltage pack would hit. So I’m going to use the 349 volt pack (consisting of 109 batteries with 60 Amp-hours capability). Not cheap, as I was warned, and completely found out, but it should do the job admirably.
So, I await the billing and will get the controller updated at the factory. Meanwhile, the minor stuff continues to get cleaned up.
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June 8th, 2009
I went and did some initial testing on the 12 volt system in the car, and it doesn’t have any obvious shorts, so it is ready for testing.
However. A number of disturbing reports on how badly the car will perform with 1200 pounds of lead acid battery has me very worried. I’ve read several real-world scenarios of max 50 miles and very weak acceleration. Since I need need to have freeway speed and the ability to climb some steep hills, this is just not acceptable.
The only solution is to go for a higher voltage battery pack, and lead acid batteries won’t do it.
Time for Lithium. Lithium Iron Phosphate. Trouble is, that these are only made in China right now. And they are expensive.
Comparison time (shipping not included):
- Lead acid pack, 144 volt, 12.9 kw, $2600.
- Lithium pack, 163 volt, 13.7 kw, $8000.
- Lithium pack, 243 volt, 20.4 kw, $12,000.
That last pack will take up the same space as the lead acid batteries, but provide much more voltage and almost twice the available capacity. The cost is just astounding though.
I’ll keep you posted on any further thoughts on this.
Posted in Parts, Research | 2 Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Sean took the car for a week, and added a new front sway bar (21mm) with chassis re-inforcement, poly-graphite front bushings, and a new rear-trunk release. All very spiffy, and all done VERY nicely. I continue with the minor wiring work for now.
The new sway bar has a minor problem, in that it interferes with the middle battery compartment battery rack. New metal was required.
New front sway bar
The new rear trunk release has the knob just under the driver’s seat. I wouldn’t have seen it if Sean hadn’t told me where to look.
Rear trunk release just under the driver's seat
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April 16th, 2009
I just got through wiring up the front relay board (and found I had put the wrong relay on the rear relay board in the process). It actually looks like I know what I’m doing!
Front Relay Board ready for mounting
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April 7th, 2009
Sean came over and did 3 hours of hard work under the car while I “helped” by handing him tools and making bad jokes (as if I make any other kind). He replaced the springs and torsion bars, but kept the shocks (as the shocks are very good autocross shocks).
It was a good thing he was looking under the transmission, as the speedo and clutch cables are both “toast”. He’ll be getting me some new ones later this week.
Safety tip: ALWAYS have an expert replace your springs, those things can kill you if you are not careful.
So while I am waiting for the new speedo and clutch cable, I will continue working on the wiring in the front compartment. Lots of fiddly wires and not-so-great documentation. *shrug*
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March 9th, 2009
After dealing with another long trip (Macau, PRC) and the flu (caught before the trip, and made worse by the travel), I’ve finally done a bit more work. I’ve got the power cables hooked up to the controller. For some reason, the power cables from the motor are REALLY long (another cleanup project later).
Power cables going to controller
I’m a bit worried about the cables going through the floor of the trunk – those grommets are not very strong, and it is possible for the metal to cut through the rubber and short out the cables. Yet Another Cleanup Project.
Power cables through trunk floor
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