DAY six: Sep. 27th, 2008 - Saturday.
Day six of the Santa Rosa Junior College Course -
DET-193. ELECTRIC VEHICLE CONVERSION.
The class gathered for the sixth session of this new course, taught by Peter Oliver of Make Mine Electric.
Alex of Thunderstruck-ev.com who gave a presentation on electrifying motor bikes returned and brought with him the most basic form of EV bike possible. A tubular steel frame holding a 48v (4 x 12v motor cycle batteries), a motor, a controller and a relay. Some of the braver (or pushier) amongst us had a quick ride, noting the instantaneous availability of maximum torque, causing the front wheel to lift excitingly - or alarmingly - depending on the the rider's propensity for extreme sports! :)
Peter Oliver brought in a hydraulic bike lift platform onto to which the bike was wheeled and clamped into place. Some members of each team split off to document, then dismantle the bike, and put it back together again.
Peter also had pre-fabricated a mock Porche Speedster platform, and brought in all the EV components that he had purchased to build his next EV Speedster. The mock-up was put together and the components unpacked.
The task for "Team Woody" is to create a wiring harness joining together all the EV components into a working whole. At the end of he excersise, the engine should rotate in response to throttle control, a brake light should come on when in regen mode, etc.
The wiring harness should then be ready to become the template for all future EV Speedsters made by Make Mine Electric Inc.
The crew all started working with much floating and assisting between teams. At the end of he day we came together and reported
Ed's VW Rabbit Cabriole
[Team VW]
End of day Status:
1. All gaps around the rear battery box in the trunk were soliconed. It is now confidently asserted that water infiltration not be a problem
2. During the week a team member had visited a local wrecking yard and cut out the steel floor from a car there to create a new cover for the "under-the-rear-seat" battery. This is ready to be cleaned up and installed
3. The pot-box mounting plate was installed, and the pot-box attached to it and the accelorator cable.
4 The Clutch cable was re-installed through a space between two batteries.
They felt no huge progress had taken place as many it the team also worked on the motor-bike and the "woody".
Michele's Toyota Corolla:
[Team Toyota]
It had been decided to try to revive Michelle's batteries to avoid her having to buy a whole new traction pack if she did not have to. Batteries can sometimes be revived by charging and discharghing them multiple times in quick succession, so this process was begun.
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End of day Status: .
Three of the batteries that had discharged most quickly in the previous week's test were concentrated on with very mixed results (down-load Excel spreadsheet). Three different chargers were being used which may have been affecting the true starting level of charge. Peter is going to bring in a "smart-charger to see if we can overcome this possible variation.
Peter had also obtained the schematics of Michelle's car as created by the original designers.
>>> cont next column >>>
Below: constructing the hydraulic bike work-bench
<<< from previos column
Don's Plymouth Horizon:
[Team Horizon]
Much non-EV related work continued
End of day Status:
1. Brakes were all fitted from the Master-cylinder to the wheels, and air bled from the system.
2. Steering was al connected.
3. All lights were wired and working.
4. Dashboard was removed for troubleshooing as some warning lights do not appear to be operational.
On Monday the Horizon's motor will be taken to the SRJC electric motor class who will test it, strip it down and rebuild it.
EV Motor cycle.:
End of day Status: The bike was documented in its existing configertion, then dismantled into its components, and rebuilt. It was then taken for a successful test ride.
Wooden Speedster Mock-up.
The new Speedster EV will be using the same motor controller system as Michelle's Corolla which incorporates a lever operated "consul" that provides reverse gears and "on-the-fly" programming of he controller to provide maximum power to maximum economy.
End of day Status:
All components except the motor were laid out, and any removed from their packaging labelled. Five relays were mounted on the "fire-wall", and the consul was placed where it would be located. The wiring diagram was consulted and the first 8 wires from the Consul to the Controler were laid out. An earth wire designed to emulate the chasis ground was also laid out. Short wires looping from Relay to relay were installed, and the pot box mounted.
At the end of the day all components were re-boxed leaving only the wires on the mock-up - which looked depressingly little considering the mental work that had gone into it all.
