Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Just glad the winter is over
It's now been two years since I've converted a 2002 Saturn Vue from gasoline to all electric. Other than a few minor hiccups, as previously documented, the Vue has been my daily commuter five or six days a week. It now has over 10K electric miles on it.
This winter was a little tough for using the Vue. Everyone who has ever driven a regular car in the winter knows that the starter battery isn't quite as "peppy" when it is cold out. Well lead acid batteries in electric cars are just as finicky about the cold.
On a nice hot summer day, dead empty for my two year old batteries is probably about 35 miles. This poses no problem since my round trip commute is 20 miles. (My wife continually reminds me that it is only 13 miles if I don't go out of my way to get coffee. But it's really good coffee!)
Anyway, I digress. During the winter my range drops to about 20 miles. That means for my 20 mile round trip I need to charge at work in order to make it home. No problem. I have an outlet behind my office. Eight hours is more than enough time to recharge to full.
So my winter routine is drive to work 13 miles one way. Charge eight hours during the work day. Drive back home 7 miles. No problem at all....except for the snow.
You might be asking yourself what does snow have to do with electric vehicle range. My answer would be nothing. Except for when it comes down....and down...and down.. and down...for a total of about two feet over a couple weeks.
You still might be asking what does that have to do with the car? Roads get plowed and the Vue is front wheel drive. So that's not a problem. And the car has a great electric heater. So that's not a problem. What's the problem?
Glad you asked:-). The problem is that all of that snow has to get plowed somewhere. And the guys at my office complex decided that the best place to plow it was in a corner...behind my office...where the outlet is located :-( Yep, several feet high and deep of rock solid plowed snow right where I need to plug in.
I thought about trying to dig it out but then the second shoe dropped...more snow. And this time the outlet wasn't the problem. You see I have to plow the snow in my drive somewhere. And after all the snow had been plowed as far off the drive as possible the only place left for me to plow it was in front of the garage bay where the Vue is stored :-( So now not only couldn't I recharge at work, I couldn't even get the car out of the house!
Luckily the snow melted, the garage door unblocked, the plug visible, and the Vue back on the road for the last several weeks :-)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Just a hiatus
Another update on the EV Vue. For the last six weeks the Vue has been out of commission. Over the winter I was having a very intermittent problem where the vehicle would "start" but was not responding to the throttle. Invariably the problem would go away in a few minutes and everything would run fine. The problem was very infrequent and intermittent enough that I could not reproduce it to troubleshoot.
Well in late March while driving home the vehicle became completely dead to the throttle. I managed to coast it into a local business and tow it with my truck back home.
Between leaving for vacation and just being busy with life it took a few weeks for me to get to work on the car. When I finally did I managed to track down the problem to the controller.
So off to the UPS store to ship the controller to the West Coast. A week later it arrived at the manufacturer. Luckily the only thing wrong was a wire inside that managed to work its way loose. Another ten days later I get the controller back. Today I managed to find the time to reinstall it.
Everything seems back to normal at this point. I'm looking forward to getting it back on the road as my daily vehicle.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Just clumsy
It's now been about 6 months and 2500 miles on the Vue since I converted it to all electric. The Vue has been running great without any problems until....
Last week when I went to charge the Vue the charger tripped the ground fault circuit interupt (GFCI) outlet. For those not familiar with GFCI they are the outlets you have in your bathroom and kitchen to prevent you from electrocuting yourself near water.
In simple terms the GFCI works by detecting the current in the hot leg of the circuit (going out) and the neutral leg of the circuit (returning). Under normal operation they are the same (or within a few milliamps). If for some reason there was a path for the electricity to flow other than the wires, say you standing in a puddle holding an electric appliance, the GFCI would detect this and shut off the circuit. That way the electricity wouldn't flow through you to ground.
When the charger on the Vue is working it sends electrical current through the wiring to the batteries. Under normal circumstances this circuit is isolated from the vehicle. You don't want someone touching the vehicle and creating a new path for electricity to flow through them to ground.
Unfortunately there are a couple of places where a connection between the wiring and vehicle frame can occur with normal use. One source is the batteries. As they charge they create an acid mist which covers the batteries. This coating can create a path between the batteries and the vehicle ground.
Another source is dirt/grime on the motor. Enough of it can create a path from the cables attached to the motor to vehicle ground.
So the purpose of the GFCI is safety during charging. If a ground fault is detected the outlet shuts off so no one can get a shock or worse, while the car charges.
Since my GFCI kept tripping I knew I had a ground fault somewhere. Now I had to track it down. After cleaning all of my batteries and putting additional insulation on some of the exposed metal battery racks I still was having the problem.
With the help of the Electric Vehicle Discussion List I assembled a sophisticated ground fault detection device. Basically it is an extension cord with one end cut off. One of the wires is connected to the vehicle chassis. The other serves as a test probe. The extension cord is plugged in and the "hot" end of the exposed cord is used to touch/probe suspected wires that may be causing the problem. If the GFCI trips than that circuit is causing the problem.
(Note to any readers. Please don't try this at home without appropriate precautions. I've been working on this high voltage electrical system for a year so was comfortable with the voltages and currents involved. I took multiple safety precautions including insulation/protection of all exposed wiring and wearing of insulated rubber gloves meant for high voltage work. And even though I am not an electrical engineer or electrician I stayed at a Holiday Inn the previous night :-0)
Using this method I eventually isolated the fault to a dirty motor. So after a little degreaser and scrubbing of the outside of the motor the ground fault was repaired.
Now for the clumsy part. During the mucking around required to access my high voltage wiring in the fuse box I put a little too much tension on a wire connection and....well the pictures below say it all. The top picture should be attached to the bottom one.
So prior to my efforts I had a vehicle that ran great, but I couldn't charge. Now I have a vehicle that I can charge, but can run.
Luckily for me the good people at CafeElectric who make what I broke also can repair what I broke. So off to the west coast it goes for repair, hopefully to return soon.
Last week when I went to charge the Vue the charger tripped the ground fault circuit interupt (GFCI) outlet. For those not familiar with GFCI they are the outlets you have in your bathroom and kitchen to prevent you from electrocuting yourself near water.
In simple terms the GFCI works by detecting the current in the hot leg of the circuit (going out) and the neutral leg of the circuit (returning). Under normal operation they are the same (or within a few milliamps). If for some reason there was a path for the electricity to flow other than the wires, say you standing in a puddle holding an electric appliance, the GFCI would detect this and shut off the circuit. That way the electricity wouldn't flow through you to ground.
When the charger on the Vue is working it sends electrical current through the wiring to the batteries. Under normal circumstances this circuit is isolated from the vehicle. You don't want someone touching the vehicle and creating a new path for electricity to flow through them to ground.
Unfortunately there are a couple of places where a connection between the wiring and vehicle frame can occur with normal use. One source is the batteries. As they charge they create an acid mist which covers the batteries. This coating can create a path between the batteries and the vehicle ground.
Another source is dirt/grime on the motor. Enough of it can create a path from the cables attached to the motor to vehicle ground.
So the purpose of the GFCI is safety during charging. If a ground fault is detected the outlet shuts off so no one can get a shock or worse, while the car charges.
Since my GFCI kept tripping I knew I had a ground fault somewhere. Now I had to track it down. After cleaning all of my batteries and putting additional insulation on some of the exposed metal battery racks I still was having the problem.
With the help of the Electric Vehicle Discussion List I assembled a sophisticated ground fault detection device. Basically it is an extension cord with one end cut off. One of the wires is connected to the vehicle chassis. The other serves as a test probe. The extension cord is plugged in and the "hot" end of the exposed cord is used to touch/probe suspected wires that may be causing the problem. If the GFCI trips than that circuit is causing the problem.
(Note to any readers. Please don't try this at home without appropriate precautions. I've been working on this high voltage electrical system for a year so was comfortable with the voltages and currents involved. I took multiple safety precautions including insulation/protection of all exposed wiring and wearing of insulated rubber gloves meant for high voltage work. And even though I am not an electrical engineer or electrician I stayed at a Holiday Inn the previous night :-0)
Using this method I eventually isolated the fault to a dirty motor. So after a little degreaser and scrubbing of the outside of the motor the ground fault was repaired.
Now for the clumsy part. During the mucking around required to access my high voltage wiring in the fuse box I put a little too much tension on a wire connection and....well the pictures below say it all. The top picture should be attached to the bottom one.
So prior to my efforts I had a vehicle that ran great, but I couldn't charge. Now I have a vehicle that I can charge, but can run.
Luckily for me the good people at CafeElectric who make what I broke also can repair what I broke. So off to the west coast it goes for repair, hopefully to return soon.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Just legal
Not to be confused with barely legal :-)
This week marked a milestone for the Electric Vue. I was finally able to get the safety inspection sticker required by the state.
Since putting the vehicle on the road I've been waiting for my local mechanic to get back to me on the inspection. He had no idea what needed to be done for an electric only vehicle and had to check with the state on the inspection requirements. It took a while for the state to get back to him. Finally they did and we went ahead and scheduled it for this week.
Since the vehicle is all electric there is no emmisions inspection. There is a safety inspection requirement. This consists of makings sure all the lights works, turn signals, brakes, tire wear, visual inspection, etc. All this worked fine so there was no trouble passing. Most of the time was spent with the mechanic talking about the conversion, electric vehicles, etc.
The Vue now has over 1500 miles on it and is still working fine. Below is a picture of the battery box in the rear of the vehicle (giant poodle optional component).
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Just an update
It's been three months and over a thousand miles since the Vue has been up and running. No major news or problems.
One minor problem with the charger where it would not shut off automatically. I had to have the manufacturer ship out a new circuit board that I exchanged out with the broken one in the charger. Since then the charger has been working fine.
The only work I've had to to lately, other than watering the batteries, is finishing the back battery box. I ended up using carpet and padding to cover the box.
Here's a picture of the Vue in the parking lot at work today. Could not resist :-)
One minor problem with the charger where it would not shut off automatically. I had to have the manufacturer ship out a new circuit board that I exchanged out with the broken one in the charger. Since then the charger has been working fine.
The only work I've had to to lately, other than watering the batteries, is finishing the back battery box. I ended up using carpet and padding to cover the box.
Here's a picture of the Vue in the parking lot at work today. Could not resist :-)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Just a quickie :-)
Last weekend I got a chance to replace the rotors and brake pads. Both were relatively easy and I did not run into any snags. Even without the extra weight the OEM front rotors are a known weak point for the Vue. With the new brakes and rotors the braking is definitely improved.
Today I decided to push the range limit while out doing errands. I went 35 miles using 80% of the battery charge. This means that "dead empty" is probably about 45 miles. As a practical point 35 miles is probably the max range I would want to go. And I would not want to do it on a regular basis as it shortens the battery life.
Today I decided to push the range limit while out doing errands. I went 35 miles using 80% of the battery charge. This means that "dead empty" is probably about 45 miles. As a practical point 35 miles is probably the max range I would want to go. And I would not want to do it on a regular basis as it shortens the battery life.
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