Just more checklist stuff

I can now take reattaching the hood off of the list.

I also attached the vehicle speed sensor to the right drive axle (the little red thingy). It is a small magnet that senses the change in magnetic field from the metal bits (nuts) secured to the axle.


With the hood attached I figured I could go a little bit further without drawing too much unwanted attention. Who needs a bumper anyway :-)

I ended up driving about 5 miles. Other than the speedometer not displaying the speed everything else works fine.

With the EVision gauge working I was able to get some quick and dirty readings for the "gas mileage". Based on the drive today I should be able to get 18-20 miles easily and only use 1/2 the battery capacity. This should actually improve as the batteries "break in" and I learn to drive the car more efficiently.

Just the checklist

Now that I have the battery pack hooked up and the car running I'm starting to get to my checklist of things I still need to do.

Checklist:

1. Get the speedometer working

2. Check the tachometer calibration

3. Secure the batteries

4. Secure the charger

5. Put the hood and bumper back on

6. Feed the cat...okay...not needed for the car to run; and since we don't have a cat I guess I can skip it :-)

One item I did get off my checklist was getting the EVision working. This is the gauge that tells me the battery pack voltage, how much current is being used, what my "gas mileage" is, etc. Luckily the only thing wrong was a loose wire. My bad.

While I'm on the topic of the EVision I want to give a ringing endorsement to Victor at MetricMind for puuting together this great device. Not only does it provide every possible parameter one needs for an electric vehicle, it has a great interface and display for accessing that data.

Now back to the checklist. I anticipate securing the front batteries next week which means I can put the front end and hood back together. Once that is done I can get the car out on the road more (can't take it too far with the hood off).

Just that little red thingy

One of the items on my "to do" list is to troubleshoot the vacuum pump. The pump is used to provide vacuum for the brake booster.

There are two problems with the pump...it takes forever to create a vacuum and it's loud. So I went over all the hoses and connections to see if there is a vacuum leak. All the connections look good.

I went back to the instructions for the vacuum to see if I missed anything. Still no luck. But while looking for the instructions I found this in the box:


Not knowing what this was (it was not on the instruction sheet) I decided to call the supplier of the vacuum to see it he knew what was going on. He didn't have anything new to add to what I already had done. Then the conversation got interesting.

Me: Also there is an extra part that came with the pump (see attached picture). No idea what it is. Do you know what it is?

Him: Muffler - it goes on the exhaust port of the pump - will muffle the noise some.

Me: Will try the muffler on the output port. Is that the little red thingy on the pump?

Him: I'm surprised turning the pump on didn't "eject" the little red thingy - that port should be open so it can pump out the air. That could possibly explain why it is taking so long to draw down the vacuum.

Me: OK. Taking out the "red thingy" and putting on the muffler makes a huge difference. Vacuum come up in a few seconds.

Well at least the vacuum works like it is supposed to. One less thing on the to do list.

Just the annoying stuff

A quick update. Took the car out for another quick run. This time to the end of the driveway and back. Nothing new to report from the ride.

In the meantime I've started to power up some of the auxiliary high voltage components. I hooked up the DC/DC converter and it works great. It provides a nice 13.8V power supply for charging the auxiliary battery and running the twelve volt accessories.

The heat for the car is also hooked up and works great. It basically is a small water heater that is powered by the main battery pack. The water is pumped through the OEM heater core. The only thing I needed to add was a small switch to turn the heater and pump on.

Next big thing to work on is the power steering. This one may be tricky. The power steering is electric and received input from the old engine computer. Supposedly if it does not receive info from the engine computer it should go into a default assist mode. I'll need to wait till the weekend to check it more thoroughly.

I also need to work on the vacuum pump. It works, but is slow and noisy. Exploring options.

Just the maiden voyage!

Yesterday I hooked up the remainder of the batteries. After plugging the controller into the battery pack I turned the key and....nothing happened. Nothing meaning explosions, sparks, and other nasty stuff.

What did happen is the green light on the controller went on. This was the signal that the controller liked what it was seeing and was ready to go. So I put the car in neutral and pressed on the gas pedal. The electric motor hummed and the tachometer started doing whatever a tachometer does.

So today with the weather warm it seemed like a perfect time for that first electric trip. I went ahead and double checked that nothing was loose and nothing was in the way. I pulled out of the garage and took a trip to the front door. After picking Nancy (my wife) up from the front of the house we took the trip back into the garage. Total mileage...less than 1/10 of a mile.

Here's the car out of the garage.





Some observations from the maiden voyage:
1. The rear, with all of the batteries, is riding low. I have upgraded springs on order to solve this problem.
2. The vacuum pump for the brakes has a leak that I need to track down.
3. The display for the Evision unit (battery monitor) is not working. The main board and other components are working fine since I can interface with it using the computer. Need to troubleshoot this.
4. The electric power steering was not kicking in. Another thing to troubleshoot.

Overall, given the complexity of the project, I was happy with the first run. Next thing to check is the charging circuit. I have the car plugged in and charging as I'm typing. Again nothing is happening...the good type of nothing that is!

Just the odds and ends

Now that the charger is ready to be connected I need to have something to plug it into. I was lucky enough to have a dedicated 20amp circuit already in my garage. All I needed to do was extend it to where I wanted it to be and change the outlet to a GFI outlet.

Extending the circuit was no big deal. Changing out the outlet was a little more challenging. Originally I started with a single gang box. Because the GFI is deeper than a regular outlet there was not enough room for the outlet and wiring. No big deal. Out to the hardware store for a double box. Next AM install the outlet. Still not enough room for the GFI and wiring. OK. Out to the hardware store for a double deep, double gang box. Yeah it fits. Oh...and it works too :-)



Next step is to hook up all the batteries. Remember all those cables I made a few weeks back? Well this is where they will reside soon.


Before hooking up the high voltage I'm starting to clean up some of the wiring. I'm making sure that all of the wires are protected from damage. This is what the low voltage wiring gets wrapped in.


For the high voltage wiring I'm using spa tubing to protect the wires. You can see the grey tubing around the wire up until the point it inserts into the Anderson connector.