tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66768358115345723622024-03-13T14:53:11.608-05:00EVTV.METhe EVTV.ME blog introducing new episodes in EVTV featuring vehicle conversions to electric drive, including a 2008 Mini Cooper Clubman, 1957 Porsche 356 Replicas, and a 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT.Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-3727528116727474572012-06-26T09:49:00.000-05:002012-06-26T09:49:23.474-05:00BATTERY JUMP SHIFT<br><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xgb2eTk1Imw/T-nDkKEcJjI/AAAAAAAACXI/qBMBheo57wY/s1600/1CALBCA-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="295" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xgb2eTk1Imw/T-nDkKEcJjI/AAAAAAAACXI/qBMBheo57wY/s400/1CALBCA-1.jpg" /></a><br />
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Of all the lithium chemistries available, we’ve found the LiFePo4 based lithium cells to offer the best combination of safety, stability, cycle life, power, and energy density. Though slightly less capable in terms of energy density per kilogram, the trade offs of much more stable and safe operation, and the very much longer life expectancy of these cells have made them a favorite. <br />
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Of the LiFePo4 cells, the A123 cells are often offered as the mark to beat. We have not found it so. We early on identified the Sky Energy large format prismatics in 100Ah and 180Ah sizes as much more convenient to build into an electric vehicle and offering a flatter discharge curve and long life when compared to all other cells on the market.<br />
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Sky Energy received a large investment from the China Aviation Missile Academy, a government entity, and became the China Aviation Lithium Battery Company (CALB). They continued production of the Sky Energy design as the SE series of cells which we have used successfully in a number of builds.<br />
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In June, 2012, CALB is introducing their new CA series of cell, notable by its newly designed grey case. Commonly referred to as the “grey cell” this introduction has been eagerly awaited since its announcement well over a year ago.<br />
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EVTV has developed a reputation for ruining the party at Lithium battery celebrations by actually performing direct first party testing on cells – often to destruction.<br />
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In this comparison, we do NOT perform any direct testing but provide a comparison of the SE and CA series cells based entirely on data provided by CALB, which we’ve found in the past to be quite reliable. Indeed, if we have a criticism, it is that CALB tends to hide their light under a bushel, seeming almost hesitant to make claims for their product.<br />
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In this fashion, they have very modestly provided us a spreadsheet of almost puzzling data that on further examination, would seem to hide a stunning advance in LiFePo4 cell quality. We are not at liberty to share the spreadsheet, but rather here present our best take on it, with excerpted graphics.<br />
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We do of course plan an entire series of episodes presenting EVTV test data to support or refute these claims. But if past experience holds true, we look forward to discovering performance quite beyond their claims, and we are genuinely excited to examine this new incremental advance in cell chemistry.<br />
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It should be noted that it is our intention to begin distribution of these cells through the EVTV online store at our web site. And so we may be viewed as something more than a disinterested party in the matter. <br />
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That said, note that we chose the battery, the battery didn’t chose us. Indeed, subsequent to our rejection of the head of their marketing groups desire to establish a U.S. marketing slogan - <b>CALB – Cost A Less Bill<i></i></b>, we have never successfully had a relationship with CALB for advertising or sponsorship at all. Indeed, our humorous response to this suggestion must have lost something in translation as he was pretty seriously offended by it. None intended of course.<br />
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Despite this, we’ve remained enthusiastic over their SE series and have sent many conversions their way. With the advent of this new CA series, and the ongoing difficulty our viewers have in finding reliable trusted sources to purchase lithium cells from generally, we have painfully arrived at the conclusion that we not only have to sell the batteries ourselves, but stock them in our facility at a somewhat enormous capital expense.<br />
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We intend that the immediate impact of these cells will simply be better cars, better conversions, and better results for our viewers. As they demonstrate these very desireable vehicles to their friends, neighbors, and relatives, we believe the demand for electric vehicles will be accelerated and the adoption of electric vehicles in America will within a few short years comprise over half of all vehicle sales.<br />
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In the short and the long of it, the story of DIY conversions in America since 2008 has been all about one thing – the enabling power of the batteries. We believe we enjoy SUPERIOR batteries to those used by Tesla, Nissan, and General Motors in every respect. These cells have allowed electric cars to cross the threshold of viability, moving DIY conversions from semi-interesting science projects, to actual drivable useable automobiles, in one smooth move.<br />
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The introduction of the CA series represents an incremental, but quite important advance in these cells, and consequently the cars that use them. They really do NOT offer any particular advance in energy density and thus range. But we believe they will provide greater power, longer life, more consistent capacities, better thermal characteristics, and much improved cold weather performance. This represents a kind of maturation of the chemistry, and we find these kinds of improvements really more important than range. Our cars go further than we do now. But longer life, better power output, less heat, better performance in cold weather are all extremely valuable characteristics at this point.<br />
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One feature we expect is not provided in the test data, but we intend to test it. Part of the process, and the delay, in introducing the new grey cells was some pretty serious behind the scenes advances in the scale of cell manufacture through the building of newer, larger, and more automated production lines for these cells, enabled by the financial backing received from the government. <br />
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This would appear at first glance to hold nothing for the end user/purchaser of the cells. <br />
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But one generally overlooked aspect to cell management is the fact that we don’t use cells in cars at all. We use STRINGS of cells in our cars. And our range, and our performance, and our power output can never exceed, to even the slightest degree, the abilities of the LEAST capable cell in the string. You can have 35 cells capable of 10,000 amps of power and a 1000 mile range. If you have one cell limited to 200 amps and 30 miles, your car will never travel more than 30 miles, nor accelerate at a rate greater than 200 amperes can deliver.<br />
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I would much rather have a string of cells rated at 180 Ah where each and every cell showed exactly 170Ah capacity, than to have a string where all the cells actually tested at 200Ah, except for two at 165Ah. A more consistent string is easier to charge and discharge safely and effectively and will provide better range and performance simply by being consistent.<br />
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So one of the less obvious aspects of the CA cell is CONSISTENCY – what do we actually get out of the box in terms of capacity from one cell to the next. And with these larger, more automated, more efficient assembly facilities, we would expect to see a more consistent product – leading to much improved cell strings in our cars. We intend to actually test this against a box of undisturbed SE cells we have on hand.<br />
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And now the bad news. At this point, the erosion in cell prices appears to have not only stopped, but reversed in some ways. CALB, now well financed, has been very stuck on pricing and we are seeing some firming in the other companies as well. Some second tier cells were going as low as $1 per Ah for a few months, but that appears to be over and if anything cell prices appear to be rising slightly. <br />
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While we don’t see this trend holding long term, in the immediate future we seem to have formed a “bumpy bottom” in LiFePo4 cell prices. We would love to see a dramatic decrease to half the price in the near future. But it appears to be wishful thinking at this point. In increasing capacity to meet demand, the expenses incurred appear to have put battery manufacturers in a kind of lithium vise. They face ever increasing over capacity and competition, with an inability to deliver cells at any price lower. And so we see their marketing efforts turn hopefully and expectantly to large purchasers for Wind farm and grid power applications. It remains to be seen if this works out for them, but the DIY EV market appears to not offer sufficient clout to drive discounting. We face more likely abandonment than price decline.<br />
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Again, we intend further direct testing in the future. But this should provide a peek at what is claimed for these cells on introduction.<br />
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<b>HIGH RATE DISCHARGE PERFORMANCE<i></i></b><br />
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All LiFePo4 cells have a stated capacity usually in ampere-hours (AH). We currently carry the CA180FI and CA100FI cells that feature a stated capacity of 180 Ah and 100Ah respectively.<br />
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This amp hour rating is measured at a defined rate of discharge of 0.3C. The 100Ah cell would provide 100 ampere hours at a rate of 30 amps. The 180 Ah cell would provide 180 Ah at 54 amps.<br />
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At higher discharge rates, the capacity available is decreased. In the SE series of cells, you could expect at a discharge rate of 3C or 300 amps for the 100 amp cell, a capacity of 94% or 94Ah. In the CA series, this is much improved at 97.7% capacity at 3C. Your 100Ah cell will still have nearly 98 Ah at 3C compared to 0.3C.<br />
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The charts below compare the CA60FI and the SE60AH cells for high rate discharge performance.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UtpxVrPXSdA/T-nD1jNd6aI/AAAAAAAACYQ/76jbggM17XA/s1600/1SEdischargerates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="287" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UtpxVrPXSdA/T-nD1jNd6aI/AAAAAAAACYQ/76jbggM17XA/s400/1SEdischargerates.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctbS0UZziUQ/T-nD10eoM2I/AAAAAAAACYc/tMRH4xtURaw/s1600/1CAdischargerates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="301" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ctbS0UZziUQ/T-nD10eoM2I/AAAAAAAACYc/tMRH4xtURaw/s400/1CAdischargerates.jpg" /></a><br />
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<b>THERMAL INCREASE<i></i></b><br />
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All LiFePo4 cells exhibit a rise in temperature when discharging. The internal process of intercalating lithium ions has certain inefficiencies that show up as heat. At low discharge rates this is of course minor but as the discharge rate increases, so does the heat gain.<br />
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At 3C, the SE cell series shows an increase in temperature of 22.6C. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MF3RcGh4Vtc/T-nD1f7pipI/AAAAAAAACYE/jJh6KiQqPNE/s1600/1SEtemperature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="286" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MF3RcGh4Vtc/T-nD1f7pipI/AAAAAAAACYE/jJh6KiQqPNE/s400/1SEtemperature.jpg" /></a><br />
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This is actually pretty good. The cells have proven to need no particular cooling at all. They are quite hardy up to about 65C where one of the electrolytic solvents begins to deteriorate.<br />
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So at ambient temperatures of 30C for example, an increase of even $25C leaves us at the 55C level. And they cool rather quickly under lower discharge rates. So even under heavy acceleration, we've found cooling of these cells just not necessary. Indeed, they perform better up around 45-50C. <br />
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But thermal gain is a sign of an efficiency loss. For the CA series, this is dramatically decreased to a temperature increase of 8.6C. Internally, the CA series is just much more efficient than the SE series. And this points to even more durability and likely longer life under high accelerations and power demands.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v7UGHGB5Kgg/T-nDlO-rVpI/AAAAAAAACX4/Ptk1gcpPNkQ/s1600/1CAtemperature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="287" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v7UGHGB5Kgg/T-nDlO-rVpI/AAAAAAAACX4/Ptk1gcpPNkQ/s400/1CAtemperature.jpg" /></a><br />
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<b>POWER DENSITY<i></i></b><br />
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One of the more important factors in LiFePo4 cells is their ability to deliver power (current) on demand. We usually relate the number of amperes a cell can deliver with the corresponding decrease (sag) in voltage. More properly, this is measured as POWER DENSITY in Watts per kilogram at various levels of state of charge (SOC)<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Sz4oNKffSNM/T-nDk0Z17yI/AAAAAAAACXs/ptGh7KkgzeQ/s1600/1CASEpowerdesnsity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="262" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Sz4oNKffSNM/T-nDk0Z17yI/AAAAAAAACXs/ptGh7KkgzeQ/s400/1CASEpowerdesnsity.jpg" /></a><br />
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This chart compares the power density of the SE40AHA, the SE60AHA and the CA60FI cells.<br />
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At a 50% state of charge, the SE40AHA shows a power density of 890 W/kg while the SE60AHA shows 779 W/kg. The CA60FI shows 1322 W/kg – a 70% increase over the SE series.<br />
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We were able, for example, to discharge the SE180Ah cells 1000Amps with about a 22% voltage sag when testing the Speedster Redux with a Soliton1 controller. This would imply that the CA series cells could deliver 1700 amps in the same situation. <br />
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The spec sheets on the new CA series cells have thus far been spotty, conflicting, and incomplete. The SE cells we used to rate at 8C at EVTV. We would conservatively claim 12C on the CA series from this data, and we will attempt some sort of testing as soon as practicable. This is a little difficult on these large format cells. Even the 100 Ah cell would thn require a 1200 amp load to prove this.<br />
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<b>COLD TEMPERATURE CAPACITY<br />
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One of the disadvantages of LiFePo4 cells compared to other lithium chemistries is a rather sorry performance in cold weather. While not nearly as debilitating as it was in the old lead acid battery era, the decrease in capacity of LiFePo4 cells is very much a factor.<br />
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At a temperature of -20C, and a discharge rate of 0.3C, the SE series of cells will provide 71.9% of capacity. Your 100Ah cell will provide a discouraging 72 amp-hours at that temperature. This is of course even worse at higher discharge rates.<br />
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The CA series cells provide a dramatic improvement in cold weather performance with 87.49 % of the original capacity. Your 100 Ah cell now provides a little better than 87 Ah at -20C or -4 degrees Fahrenheit at a 0.3C discharge rate.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u2hV_uEMnTk/T-nDkvmqZXI/AAAAAAAACXg/25stXgytkkU/s1600/1CASEcold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="280" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u2hV_uEMnTk/T-nDkvmqZXI/AAAAAAAACXg/25stXgytkkU/s400/1CASEcold.jpg" /></a><br />
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<b>CYCLE LIFE<i></i></b><br />
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One of the most important advantages of LiFePo4 cells compared to other lithium chemistries and certainly with Pb chemistry cells is their very long life. We measure this life in the number of expected charge/discharge cycles to 80% discharge and until the cell exhibits 80% of its original capacity..<br />
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This is projected by doing several hundred charge/discharge cycles at 1C and to 100% depth of discharge and extrapolating the data to the point where the cell exhibits 80% of its original capacity. This calculation is also improved by assuming an 80% depth of discharge instead of the tested 100%. <br />
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At 290 cycles to 100% at 1C, the SE series cells show about 85% of original capacity. The CA series has upped that to about 91%. This represents a huge increase in cycle life for the CA series cell.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0WYzTBIZsaw/T-nDkbjnFJI/AAAAAAAACXU/lPHNZ9dmn-c/s1600/1CAcyclelife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="239" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0WYzTBIZsaw/T-nDkbjnFJI/AAAAAAAACXU/lPHNZ9dmn-c/s400/1CAcyclelife.jpg" /></a><br />
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Assuming that this had extrapolated to a 2000 cycle life at 80% DOD, the new cells would imply 3300 cycles. For 3000 cycles at 70% DOD, the CA cells should see 5000 cycles<br />
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The result appears to be a bit of a huge leap in battery performance at a very minimal increase in price. So while prices have not really come down, we're getting more battery per ducat in a number of very interesting ways.<br />
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After a period of relatively static lack of movement in battery cells over the past year, we are enormously excited by this new introduction. After seeing this data, we are attempting to triple our investment in stock on hand on the assumption that these cells will be very much in demand for the foreseeable future.<br />
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We intend to ship all cells with our braided cell strap with Nordlock washers<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-88277610424989983462012-06-24T08:00:00.002-05:002012-06-24T08:14:52.034-05:00HEARTBEATTesla made their July 2012 delivery date in grand style on June 22. Video of the event <a href="http://www.teslamotors.com/model-s-has-arrived">HERE</a>.<br />
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This week, I could not help but comment on both the paramilitary precision with which they are executing this very heartfelt dream, but also the audacity of what they propose.<br />
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By way of comparison, the Audi A8 ($78,000) and BMW 750i ($84,000) are really very similar cars in all respects. Their appearance is very close to the Tesla, in weight they are similar, and most of all in price they are similar.<br />
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BUt the Audi sold 5700 cars in the U.S. last year and the BMW750i only sold 11,299. That Tesla would introduce a new sedan, otherwise similar but with range - limited electric drive and expect 20,000 sales the first year borders on the preposterous.<br />
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I think if they fall short, it will be by inches.<br />
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<iframe width="441" height="232" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k_xg0XukRCk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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Beyond that, it's all good news. Already this weekend since we shot the video they did release some weights and the Model S is somewhat more porcine than I discussed at over 4600 lbs. That makes their 375 Wh/mile look considerably better.<br />
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As for us, we suffered the thrills of victory and the agony of the feet all in one week with the Elescalade. <br />
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Jeff Jenkins of EVnetics kindly provided two circuit designs to spoof our MAF and MAP signals. I had pretty much came to the same chip with the Manifold Pressure Signal and in fact had one built. But we needed a voltage controlled oscillator design for the Mass Air Flow signal badly and he came up with a good one.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bYWg8e8D59g/T-b1sjPVfwI/AAAAAAAACWs/4zC6e2GOsYY/s1600/massairflowsensor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="341" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bYWg8e8D59g/T-b1sjPVfwI/AAAAAAAACWs/4zC6e2GOsYY/s400/massairflowsensor.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1t7InDAzh_w/T-b12-Us1JI/AAAAAAAACW4/UOtHQWeWuZA/s1600/mapsensor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="332" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1t7InDAzh_w/T-b12-Us1JI/AAAAAAAACW4/UOtHQWeWuZA/s400/mapsensor.jpg" /></a><br />
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In any event we obtained the parts and I clumsily soldered the little circuits together onto some bread board and wired them into the vehicle.<br />
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Along the way testing them, we just went to hell on tachometer signals. First, we lost our THIRD Westach 702-12R we've had on this project. Maybe our voltage is a little high at about 14.5v, or maybe our magnets are two strong, or I don't know what. But we blew up two pronto and the third lasted about two weeks during very light testing.<br />
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This is the hall effect magnetic pickup we use to send an RPM signal to the Soliton 1's. So we bit the bullet and went with EVnetics recommendation for an Automation Direct AM1-AP-3A inductive proximity sensor. Turns out to be a pretty good recommendation. This sensor will pick up bolt heads or gear teeth or anything ferrous. We tried it on our magnets and it worked great. Plus it has a little LED that flashes each time it pulses so you can visually see it working. We loved it. We've added it to the online store <a href="http://evtvshop.projectooc.com/products.php?cat=12">HERE</a>. It's certainly the one to use with the Solitons.<br />
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Once we had that on, we could START and idle again. But our sensor for the Escalade reluctor ring was acting up and it needed to be impossibly close to the teeth to do anything. We actually obtained a replacement on the chance that the one we had was faulty. No luck. We finally got it aligned, but it would drop out as we increased rpm. The mounting plate was apparently vibrating. So we remounted that with a piece of rubber ROOFING TAPE.<br />
It improved dramatically.<br />
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And so. With both sensor spoof circuits, and both tachometer sensors working, we were FINALLY able to start the vehicle simply by setting the key to IGNITIION, and then START. The Solitons fired up the motors and quickly reached an idle of 600 rpms.<br />
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Without the MAP and MAF sensors, when we would accelerate, the ECU would quickly throw a diagnostic trouble code and slam the throttle plate to idle. It then sent an advisory to the screen in the dash - REDUCED ENGINE POWER. Well hell yes its reduced, you've reduced it to idle.<br />
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But with the MAF and MAP sensors deployed, it seems satisfied for the moment to allow us to accelerate using the throttle. <br />
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Let's talk about the circuitous route all that takes. The accelerator sends an accelerator position signal to the ECU. The ECU sends a throttle drive signal to the throttle, and receives a throttle position signal back to the ECU. We use the TPS as a throttle INPUT to our two Solitons through an opamp buffer. The Solitons then actually drive the motor of course.<br />
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By the time we get out of the opamp, our whole range of throttle signal is 1.9 to 4.3v. So the throttle feels a little "touchy". <br />
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Fortunately, the Solitons have another adjustment where you can set the amount of power provided at half throttle. We reduced this from the traditional 50% of power at 50% throttle to 35% power at 50% throttle.<br />
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This gave us much finer control at low rpms. Of course, having 35% range on the lower half of the pedal position leaves 65% remaining power for the LATTER half of the pedal throw. But you should expect this sort of tuning "for feel" on any EV project.<br />
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This also interplays with the amps/sec ramp rate on the Soliton. You can set this from a couple of hundred amps per second up to say 5000 amps per second. This is the rate at which the SOliton will ramp up power to the motors. Too fast a rate and you snap axles. Too slow a rate and your pedal feels sluggish and delayed.<br />
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In any event we FINALLY got it all cobbled together to the point where we could get in, turn the key to IGNITION, and here we have to pause for just a second or so delay for the contractors to close and the SOlitons to come up. We're going to add an LED to the dash using the Soliton RUNNING output to signal this "ready" situation but you can hear the contractors. Then to START. We had of course located the signal the ECU sends to the starter on the gasoline engine, and wired that into the Solitons AS a START signal. <br />
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The Solitons run up the motors and quickly find the 600 rpm idle speed. Note that we have all of this going to TWO Solitons and two motors. I cannot detect any unusual hunting for rpm or "fighting" between the two systems to bring it to idle. They appear to work very well in tandem this way. Of course we have all the other settings setup identically as well with the exception of the optional OUTPUT gage drivers. But given the PID circuits in the Solitons really act independently, we did not know whether they would "play nice" with each other or not. But it appears they work VERY WELL together. While we have two motors, they are on the same shaft and we have ONE tachometer signal, whenever we can keep one running.<br />
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With the MAP and MAF sensors in place, and the crankshaft position sensor, the ECU seems reasonably happy. We can very smoothly accelerate up to about 3500 rpm which is as high as I can bear with it loaded only by the torque converter. It is quite smooth, both in acceleration, as well as vibration and noise. The blowers on the motors make more noise than the motors of course but the entire installation is very nearly vibration free.<br />
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At idle, the system draws between 11 and 14 amperes at 188 volts. That's a 2kW idle which means without air conditioning, just turning the motors and the power steering/brake pump, we use 2 kWh per hour sitting there. Not a great feat of efficiency in an electric car. As this car will probably average 750 Wh per mile, idling for an hour would be the equivalent of about 3 miles range. Viewed in that way, it's not too bad.<br />
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And so early Friday afternoon, we went to shoot some video of all this and explain our sensor spoofing. Just as we turned it up, we heard a loud pop and everything went dead. We never did find the pop. But it took three hours to figure out what happened. We had NO 12 volt power. Our rear DC-DC converter read about 2.5volts. If we disconnected the load from it, it was happily 14.5volts. But when we hooked the load back up, 2.5volts.<br />
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We entered three of the most frustrating hours of troubleshooting I've encountered in some time. If we pulled the fuse block, we were at no load of course and had our 14 volts. So we assumed something was loading the circuit heroically. We put the fuse block back on and pulled EVERY SINGLE FUSE one by one and every relay on the fuse block. To no avail.<br />
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After three hours, we discovered that our battery box, which we had used as a ground for the rear DC-DC converter, and which had always worked fine, really didn't have a ground to the frame of the truck. We could READ the DC=DC voltage as long as no load was applied, but it couldn't supply any significant current at all as it had lost a good ground connection. This is about the fifth time I've cured something that was driving us crazy on this truck with a GROUND solution. ALL the grounds in the wiring harness are there for a purpose and needed. They do not tie together at some central point. If you miss one, you have a problem. In this case it was OUR added equipment, but it didn't matter. A ground was the solution and it fixed it completely.<br />
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Of course, that meant we got to shoot the segments of the video looking into the Elescalade at about eight o'clock at night and THEN do the broader segments on Tesla et al. <br />
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Do I sound like I'm complaining? Fear not. I'm in my salad days here. In the first place, I LOVE it when something is screwed up and I can't figure out what it is. The day everything just works and there is nothing to troubleshoot is the day I walk out of the garage and the end of your weekly fix of EVTV. I only play on the frontier of things. I don't do well with "townies."<br />
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But this was a very good day of winning milestones along the way. I am totally devoted to the concept that everyone should drive magnetically driven personal transportation - electric cars. I don't actually think we need to give UP anything. We can play with ICE vehicles as antiques for the next 200 years. If we got half the people to do HALF their miles electrically, the world is just entirely different in so many simultaneous good ways that it will be incredible to watch this all unfold.<br />
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But I almost singularly REALLY DO understand how technological change happens in our population. And this change falls almost entirely on two factors. The first is, you have to have DESIREABLE cars that are lusted after by early adopters. And second, you have to have information sources to disperse that info to the population - better trusted sources. TV advertisements and press releases don't cut the mustard in this case. <br />
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If anyone is to adopt an electric car, his first official act will be to talk to someone he trusts who actually lives with one. Let me reiterate, the check ain't a happening thing until I talk to probably SEVERAL people who live with the new technology and clearly gain advantage by it. That's manno a manno kemosabe. A super bowl ad won't do it. No first person recommendations, no check. And I have to be persuaded the first person is not a copper foil helmet kook who is also trying to keep his dog from reading his mind.<br />
<br />
Tesla has built a plant in Freemont California to mass produce an all electric all aluminum sleek looking European sedan with enough computer power in it to edit my videos on. Lust.<br />
<br />
We build Speedsters which are automatic head turners. I can't go to the grocery store without hearing about it. The Elescalade is a POWER demonstration of the same thing. It imprints the concept of ANY car. It's not a very practical example for most. But it will be impressive.<br />
<br />
And the cars you build, from a Porsche 914 to a VW THing, to a GT-40 right down to a 1939 Dodge Brothers half ton pickup truck and yes, including a Glastron power boat, where done well, are a demonstration of the same thing. And YOU are a first person trusted source to dozens and potentially hundreds of people around you.<br />
<br />
I cannot adequately express, or persuade or put into words how very powerful this is. It is NOT the usual gratuitous "if we all join forces together" power to the people bunch of horse shit that many of you would be perfectly willing to accept. EACH one of you has ENORMOUS power to influence others by the dedication of your ducats and handwork to this cause. It actually causes CONSTERNATION in the populace. Gas prices are this. Cars are that. We are told this. We know that. But then how come this old man in Lexington Kentucky can make a 1939 pickup truck run on no gas? And he seems HAPPY with it. What if it doesn't go as far as he wants to? Ah, but what if it does?<br />
<br />
Pebbles in a pool? How about a small block V-8 dumped into a bathtub. The effect you guys have on the world INDIVIDUALLY is so far beyond what you are aware of it is nearly comical. CUMMULATIVELY I don't even know what it means. You are unaware giants walking among aboriginal pygmy dwarves. While they watch TV, you build your electric car. While they whine over every ducat, confident in their knowledge of the cost of everything and the value of nothing, you spend on parts they can't comprehend after you've explained it. If you don't know what it DOES what difference does it make what it COSTS?<br />
<br />
The mission is not to put every one into a 1939 electric truck. It is not that everyone can afford a Tesla and should have one. It is to make them WANT one. It is to build desire, awareness, and demand. The design. The manufacture. The costs and the pricing. All follow from demand. It is not the other way around. Demand doesn't build as the costs fall. The costs fall BECAUSE of the demand.<br />
<br />
You guys are the flag wavers. We've had flag wavers in the past. They mostly waved the flag. They didn't actually buy or build electric cars. They were "activists" and "environmentally aware" and they even "demonstrated". Largely in futility and yes, I dismiss their efforts as almost entirely salutary and trivial. The sum total of them all wouldn't warrant 12 minutes out of one of my days. Lots of people have truly profound opinions on what others should do with their money to make the world better for us all. Noise. And not very useful noise frankly.<br />
<br />
But when you commit to a project to convert an existing car to electric drive, pursue it to completion, and then demonstrate it to all who have an ear to hear and an eye to see, the effect is sufficient to change the world on its path. And I am pretty much personally committed, 24x7 and with every breath drawn, to aid and abet you on this mission where and how able.<br />
<br />
Whether you do or not, I know who and what you are. And there are not yet enough of you. There will be more...<br />
<br />
Meanwhile we struggle with the twelve blind men around the elephant effect, each struggling to describe in words what an elephant looks like. Brandon Hollinger believed he liked electric cars. This week, he upgrades his Saab96 from lead to LiFePo4 and now has lithium underfoot on the road. The difference is the difference between a science project and a car. And now he knows ALMOST as much as his mother does about electric cars. (She drives a lithium Miata). The Saab went 119 miles and had 30% SOC left and it gets scratch on takeoff now. As he drives this daily, the marvel will grow - not subside. And if he thought he had drank the kool-aid before.....<br />
<br />
The heart of this is the marvel that becomes a mantra "If people just KNEW about this, they would...." That's the feeling I get every single day. <br />
<br />
Spread the word...<br />
<br />
Jack <br />
Editor Rotundus<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-52359377140523359812012-06-15T11:51:00.003-05:002012-06-15T12:15:10.105-05:00A Little Bit of Sunshine and the Tesla Stockholders Meeting.If you can't tell from this week's video, I've become something of an Elon Musk/Tesla fanboy. We kind of stole a largish portion of their video for today's show. Unfortunately it had some Beat of the Butterfly Wings" music in it that caused us to be banned on YouTube. We have a scant thousand YouTube viewers anyway - mostly those with technical problems with the JWPlayer we use or Apple in general. But the YouTube thing is a constant pain in my battery box. If HTML5 ever gets fully deployed, YouTube will go away at EVTV.<br />
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<br />
I found the presentation fascinating on a number of levels. Musk was clearly having fun and enjoying the day, and why not? He was delivering early with a car he is clearly pleased with. Of course, there are many questions, but he seems to have better visibility of them than before.<br />
<br />
A couple of points I picked up on:<br />
<br />
SAFETY: Not my hot button frankly. But of course the key element of the deliveries on June 5 and 6th were that the cars were legally production deliverable. This was because they had passed ALL the regulatory hurdles to reaching that state. <br />
<br />
You might recall that the Tesla Roadster caused a Federal fine of $244,000 that Tesla was forced to pay for not having an EMISSIONS CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATE. They had, rightly I think, assumed that since they did not HAVE any emissions, they did not need certification. In fact, to get certified, you have to go on a dynamometer and do an exhaust system sniff test. This isn't even possible to accomplish with a Tesla Roadster. It has no exhaust.<br />
<br />
DOesn't matter said the government. You don't really have to pass an emissions test, but you DO have to have the certificate - ergo the fine. What a kuntry.<br />
<br />
Musk of course has several very small children and pictures the car as a car HE will drive. Busy with the whole new daddy thing, safety is an issue. They had just completed the crash testing and he was clearly gratified with the results. His issue, not mine. But being against safety is kind of like being against puppies and kittens. Not much future there particularly if you ever want to get laid again.<br />
<br />
SALES AND HANDLING. These do not appear to be related. I do relate them. And Musk clearly does as well. One of the things we have learned over and over is that there is a huge disconnect in electric car discussions. It involves a disconnect between those that have driven a good one, and those that have not. And never the twain shall meet. <br />
<br />
There is something indefinable in driving an electric car. I have variously and at various times ascribed this to the lack of noise. Or the continuous feeling of acceleration. Or to the very low center of gravity. Or to the sound it DOES make while continuously accelerating. Or....<br />
<br />
In truth, I don't know what it is. It is the center and soul of the EV grin. You can't help but smile the first time you feel it. It's a thing your face does automatically and you have no control over it really. What actually causes it I don't know.<br />
<br />
In designing the Model S, they did several things that starting with a blank sheet of paper you CAN do with electric drive and you CANNOT do with an ICE car - so no one does. <br />
<br />
They put the entire drive train where it belonged, where it drives the wheels. The rear axle and motor and controller all got strangely confused in this car. It is basically a fat rear axle.<br />
<br />
That one feat leads to a very unusual car. It has no engine up front. Worse, it has none in the rear either. Polar moment of inertia of mass, or the angular mass, is a measure of an object's resistance to changes to its rotation. The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. Therefore, it encompasses not just how much mass the object has overall, but how far each bit of mass is from the axis. The further out the object's mass is, the more rotational inertia the object has, and the more rotational force (torque, the force multiplied by its distance from the axis of rotation) is required to change its rotation rate.<br />
<br />
Hmmm. Wikispeak. What this means is that the rotational stability of a car about a central axis roof to floor in the center, is a function of the DISTANCE of the proportions of mass from that center. The car will handle better with the mass in the center than it will at the two ends. With a front engine car, a lot of mass is far forward and with a rear engine car, of course to the rear. This is why MID ENGINE sports cars handle better. And it's why the usual strategy of putting batteries WAY up front and WAY in the rear do not help your vehicle's handling characteristics. IT becomes much less stable and more likely to spin out in a turn.<br />
<br />
With the Model S, there is no big mass in the front, and no big mass in the rear. And in fact, most of the mass is in the center. People and Batteries are both in the center between the wheels and in fact the batteries are BENEATH the floor of the car. This contributes a movement of the CENTER OF GRAVITY as well to a very low point, probably beneath your ass level.<br />
<br />
The combination of these two have simply not ever BEEN seen in an automobile - lacking perhaps the milk lorries in the United Kingdom during the 1930's. Nobody can design a car with THAT low a center of gravity and that minimal a polar moment - until now.<br />
<br />
If you couple that handling characteristic with the usual elements of an EV grin, you have a driving experience that you cannot describe because there is no analogue to it. You've either felt it or you haven't.<br />
<br />
So far extremely few have. And therein lies a tale. Tesla did a very smart thing several years ago. They started taking deposits to gage interest in the car. But unlike Nissan with their $99 salutary refundable deposit, Teslas wa a pretty handsome$5000. I'm number 2873. But they now have 10,000 reservations in hand or 50 million in deposits.<br />
<br />
Those serious enough to put down a $5000 deposit a year or more in advance all share one thing in common. NONE of them have ever driven the car. Musk of course has. And so he has a kind of double EVgrin.<br />
<br />
He gets to grin from driving it. And then he gets another grin when he contemplates that he has $50 million in deposits for the car from people who have never driven or felt it. If 10,000 people will plunk down $5000 for a chance to drive a car that looks a lot like what modern European sedans look like these days, what would people who actually got to test drive the vehicle do? And so he's pretty confident he can sell 20,000 of these next year. His only concern is can he PRODUCE 20,000 of them next year. <br />
<br />
I don't know that it will be THAT easy. In Missouri we say that it takes a mighty big dog to weigh a ton. And 20,000 is a BIG number when you get into the stratified air of the premium auto market - particularly at the $87,000 level. That's the number that keeps surfacing on an attractively equipped 300 mile range version. I was kind of hoping those would come in at $77,500, which I predicted two years ago would be the price of their $50,000 Model S.<br />
<br />
But then again, I've never driven the car.<br />
<br />
Just a few months ago I faulted Tesla for announcing a proprietary charging plug. I hadn't quite thought that through I'm afraid. If you are going to do a fast charge in less than an hour on an 85 kWh battery pack, and we had that number then, you are pretty much talking about at least 85 kWh of power through the cord by definition. Musk urges us to think 100 kW. Makes sense.<br />
<br />
Neither ChaDemo or the hugely ungainly SAE combi plug proposal can do that level of power, more like half. So our existing combating fast charge standards, will quickly NOT only not be standardized, but won't even charge our cars of just a few years hence if we do get better batteries. How many charge standards do we have to go through here?<br />
<br />
Musk claims they have a small attractively engineered plug that can do 100kW of power. That would be an engineering design win all by itself. <br />
<br />
Once the 9600 bps modem was released and available, nobody really cared about the 2400 bps standard again. Similarly at 19,200. New technology that offers a significant perceived advantage wipes out standards where they stand. If there's one thing better than a 100 mile range car that can charge in an hour, it's a 300 mile range car that charges in an hour.<br />
<br />
In our last episode we talked about what it might take to put a fast charge station every 40 miles on all 47,300 miles of U.S. interstate and came up with a figure of $59 million at $50K per station. I found this an epiphany for me personally. <br />
<br />
Now here is Musk, smugly alluding to the Supercharge Network he doesn't want to talk about, but is dying to talk about because he is so excited he's almost jumping up and down.<br />
<br />
One of Musks other companies is Solar City. They basically have broken the mold on solar installations by financing the installation and tacking it onto your home mortgage. Your mortgage payment goes up, your utility payment goes down, and you put nothing into it at all. Really ever. The next buyer then pays off the mortgage at the sale. <br />
<br />
This little financial innovation has caused Solar City to grow about as fast as they can hire people and buy trucks. They will be doing an IPO I'm told later this summer if the markets are favorable. I really thought Feed In Tarriffs were the way to go to get the solar thing off the ground. Solar City kind of made up their own and are doing well anyway.<br />
<br />
Legacy legislation continues to confound and amaze new technologies. In California, it is actually illegal to sell electricity. This is part of the monopoly afforded the utility companies. So you can't take your electricity, mark it up, and sell it to your neighbor. This all kind of made sense in 1918. But doing charge stations for profit becomes a little problematical. The charge station manufacturers have invoked a theory that you are simply charging for access to the station - not the electric grid. That's a little bit thin if not outright dubious. I can see a battle in the future that could be really ugly. <br />
<br />
But if you make your OWN electricity and sell it from your own grid, I'm not sure how that all reads. If you made electricity from solar, and stored it in batteries, and sold that to cars, I guess I'm not seeing a problem here. Who can object to what?<br />
<br />
California has 8600 miles of "primary" highway out of their 16,800 miles of roads. If you put one every 100 miles, and sprinkled a handful in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego, you could probably come up with about 100 charge stations. They would be a little more expensive with solar and batteries. But at a half a million apiece, that would be $50 million and at $1 million apiece that would be $100 million. And that's not necessarily money down a hole like free public charging stations. Let's say it was $20 to "fillup." I'd pay it. Say the average fillup was 60kWh. In California that's about $18 worth of electricity anyway from the grid. So paying a flat fee of $20 isn't' even an inconvenience.<br />
<br />
Good work if you can get it. You're selling sunshine for 30 cents a kilowatt-hour. If 20,000 cars fill up twice a week, we are looking at $38.5 million a year income from an initial investment of $100 million. Each station has to charge 57 cars per day at that 60 kWh. That's 3420 kWh from 4.5 hours of sunshine or a 760 kW array. That's pretty big frankly. I don't know you can do that with batteries for $1 million. But with 38.5 million per year and a more realistic 10 year cap rate, we probably can for $3.85 million per station. <br />
<br />
This can scale anywhere you want it to. If Musk just did it in California, and with Solar City's ability to purchase large amounts of solar panels, their costs have to be down around 85 cents per kWh, would this business model catch on nationally? I wouldn't' actually mind some of that action.<br />
<br />
This ignores COMPLETELY that gasoline stations don't make squat on gasoline at all. ALL their income comes from Twinkies and cokes. We ARE talking about people charging for an hour. What do you have for them to do? Drink coffee and soda. Go to the rest room. Eat. Get online. <br />
<br />
Suddenly, the necessary infrastructure looks like a business opportunity instead of a charity event or a place for our government to spend more money.<br />
<br />
And the ability to swap batteries in one minute? Oh yes. For those in a hurry. At a bit of up charge. But that's not what that's really about. <br />
<br />
What if we sell you an $87,500 Tesla Model S for $67,500 (less $7500), and you can join our SuperCharge network and let us worry about the batteries on the monthly plan. You were going to spend $600 per month on gasoline? Well, how about $400 per month with us for so many miles. Kind of like a cell phone plan.<br />
<br />
Solar City is thriving by making the pain go away from installing solar. If we take that lesson and apply it to the electric vehicles, would we be looking somehow for a DIFFERENT outcome? <br />
<br />
Guys it is true that Tesla is NOT going to franchise the sale of their automobiles. They are going to own outright all of their own stores and control the sales process totally. <br />
<br />
Why then wouldn't' they want to own all of the gas stations that fuel them as well? Solar powered gas stations. Delivering electricity. To Electric cars. Without the pain. Ding dongs and Ho-Hos akimbo.<br />
<br />
This thing grows into a huge, vertically integrated recurring revenue engine of unimaginable proportions. Actually unfathomable. The vision is breathtaking both in scope and detail and I am in awe. <br />
<br />
Starting to feel the squeeze? He said he was going to make it hurt.<br />
<br />
Wanna play "who is smart enough to be an OEM?" and other games for children and the geriatrically feeble minded? I'm talking about you Bob.<br />
<br />
We've UPPED our game. Now up yours!<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com83tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-67109256580422766832012-06-11T21:32:00.001-05:002012-06-11T21:32:36.399-05:00Missing Week And Elescalade BluesMy wife informed me last Thursday evening that she was going to Fort Lauderdale to graduate with her Doctorate Degree from Nova Southeast University. She was leaving Friday morning at 11:00. As it turns out, none of her daughters were going to be able to make this celebratory event. Sigh. So she guessed she would just go by her self....<br />
<br />
So I wasn't here Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday until pretty late.<br />
<br />
I'm back. Don't travel as well as I once did. But it was a good event and a big milestone for her. She teaches up at Southeast University here and I guess all the other girls had PHd degrees and she seemed to think it important.<br />
Really she's always been there for me. Not sure why the graduation ceremony itself was important, but apparently it was to her.<br />
<br />
The Elescalade is fighting us every step at this point. We're a bit behind on our updates. We've had the motor spinning for about three weeks but that's not the half of it.<br />
<br />
First, we could not seem to get a TACH input IN to the two Soliton 1's. The sensor we had hard installed in the adapter plate would not produce a waveform when we hooked it up to the SOliton's 12v output, PGND, and TACH.<br />
<br />
And it didn't appear to matter how we did it, one Soliton or two, which one, or what pull-up resistor we used.<br />
<br />
So we got ANOTHER sensor, a couple of magnets and hooked it all up to the reluctor ring mounted on the front of the motor. We quickly just connected to switched 12v, frame and ran the signal to the Soliton and checked it. Sure enough, both Soliton's showed RPM on the inputs and at 2 pulses per turn, the right RPM at that.<br />
<br />
So we mounted the magnets more permanently, built a proper bracket for the sensor, and i got some 4 wire shield thinking I was doing a good thing. Ran the three leads all the way up to the Soliton and again connected to 12v, PGND, and TACH. <br />
<br />
It didn't work. We tried everything. One Soliton. The other SOliton. Both Solitons. 2 ppt, 4 ppt, 6 ppt. They did not recognize a signal. <br />
<br />
So we got a THIRD sensor and hooked it up to 12v switched, frame, and ran just the signal to the SOlitons. Worked fine. We started to hard wire THIS one and I noticed that this was our last sensor on hand. STOP. Let' just mount it. Leave it on 12v and frame.<br />
<br />
And that seemed to take care of it. I would guess that the Soliton's are eating our sensors. But I don't know how or why. And since I'm having difficulty getting anything to show the same symptoms twice this week....<br />
<br />
We got the motors to where when we went to IGNITION, they would light up and cycle contractors and all looked good. Then when we went to START, the 12v START signal wired into input 1 would in fact cause the two motors to spin up and then settle back to idle at about 450 rpm. Both are idling. Both are pulling current. Total amp draw on the pack at idle is 11 amps with no air conditioning.<br />
<br />
But the tachometer on the instrument panel didn't budge. So we played with the MAP sensor input and the CAM position sensor input. Finally, the crankshaft position sensor, which reads the reluctor ring, was 1/16 from the teeth. A 1/32 too far apparently. I wobbled it around and suddenly we got a shaky tach signal. After playing with the mounting for an hour or so, and getting it so close it almost made noises as the teeth passed, we got a tach signal.<br />
<br />
Sounds like a good thing. Except the ECU got a tach signal as well. So when we would step on the throttle, it would slam the throttle position plate back to idle quite forcefully.<br />
<br />
I'm no longer doing anything intelligently. Just hooking up wires to various things trying to get a symptom to change. IF I set the %1 output to MOTOR CURRENT, routed it through a 750 ohm resistor, and fed it as a manifold pressure signal (MAP) we could start, idle and run the RPM up and down about three times, then it quits and forcibly sets up back to idle.<br />
<br />
The MAP signal is a 0.8vdc to 4.5vdc signal representing vacuum in the manifold of course. At idle, it should be 0.8vdc and wide open it should be 4.5vdc. Vacuum looks like a nearly linear function of RPM, but all of our RPM was pulse signals and not many pulses per rotation at that.<br />
<br />
MOTOR CURRENT works at the bottom when you are turning up. But once you get to 2400 rpm or so, the current drops off and so the voltage. So we are higher RPM with lower manifold pressure indicated. THE ECU notes the discrepancy and shuts us down hard.<br />
<br />
The throttle position signal actually starts too high. We run from about 2.0v to 4.3v out of the TPS and we are using that successfully for the throttle input to the SOliton's. The opamp puts out plenty of current. But we start at mid range for the MAP signal. So this doesn't work at all.<br />
<br />
I fear if we get this part playing, then it will want the MAF signal. Etc. etc.<br />
<br />
I'll try to put together some video this week. <br />
<br />
Oh, the Helwig brushes are in and on the web site store. We're adding NordLock washers to the kit. They're pretty nice actually. Mylar sleeves. Four leads. We've got 12 sets for the Warp 9 and 12 sets for the Warp 11 and it takes awhile to get them in. These are the H60 Redtop split brushes made famous by Tim Catellier and the Catellier effect. First come. First shipped. When they're gone, it's a good three weeks to get any more.<br />
<br />
Also, I see NO reason to discuss why I think you might want a fire extinguisher for your eCobra or other conversion. Why bring those things up at all. In any event, I found a cool 2 1/2 lb ABC perfect for those late night Interstate shoulder cookouts. It's chrome and comes with bracket. Rated for automotive. <br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-76230881935824970692012-06-03T10:26:00.001-05:002012-06-03T10:29:09.070-05:00Hydrogen Gods and the Nieuwe Elektrische BootThis week you get a twofer as I didn't post a blog with last week's show. I was gonna.... and....see....what happened was.....see....<br />
<br />
Actually, it is embarrassing. THe sheet with the data on it for the follow up test still lays next to the motor. Every day I was going to bring it home and do the blog. Still there.<br />
<br />
So we don't know WHAT happened. Actually we did get our answer. It just wasn't a very dramatic or satisfying one. It appears that 57% of the gain in efficiency comes from the material, and 43% or thereabouts comes from the split brush design. So you need it all.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="414" height="232" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2KgXzd1hXes" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
I also have yet to receive my order of Helwig brushes, so we can't make them available. A couple of viewers have already asked about ADC motors. Yes, Helwig Makes them. No we'll probably not carry them.<br />
<br />
We did a lot of wiring on the Elescalade this week but I didn't shoot any of it. It's just wiring. The starter to the START input and the J1772 circuit to another Soliton input and a bunch of 4/0 cables that were a pain to make up. I can spinet the motor, but there are problems.<br />
<br />
The worst of the problems is the tach signal. The Soliton insists we don't have one. I've tried 1.5.1 and version 1.5.2 of the software and it just doesn't pick up the tach. This is VERY frustrating as we tested THAT tach on THAT adapter plate with THAT soliton a dozen times on the bench. In the car, with the motor turning, no input according to the log program. I've got a little hand held oscilloscope I've bought that is a marvel. Of course I don't know how to use it. It has about seven buttons on the whole thing and no clue what they do. I'll have to actually read the book. I detest that. Males should NOT have to read instructions.<br />
<br />
Maybe my pull-up resistor is bad. We do have three magnets now instead of two. But the Soliton has pulse settings for both 3 pulses per revolution and 6 so that can't be it. IF it is a bad sensor, which as I said we tested numerous times, this is horrifying news. The entire motor assembly, and everything we've stacked on top of it, would have to come out. I'd rather give myself a root canal with a wine corkscrew.<br />
<br />
Somewhat more serious is a glitch with the ECU. With the pickup hooked up to our reflector ring, the ECU cycles the throttle position back to off about once a second no matter the accelerator position. Reviewing the Cadillac manual, I find that in comparing the crankshaft position signal (RPM)to the manifold pressure, if they don't match, the system purportedly throws a Type A DTC. I'm not certain, but I think that means it sets the throttle plate to minimum. I'm GUESSING here. But it would appear we do need the manifold pressure signal.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, the MAP sensor puts out a pretty simple voltage between 0.2v and 4.5v indicating manifold pressure. I'm thinking we can take the MOTOR CURRENT output and scale this 12v pwm signal to a 0-4.5v dc that might correspond. MAYBE if I do it with a potentiometer voltage divider, I can get it to spoof close enough to the expected signal to make it work.<br />
<br />
The system also uses mass air flow and indicated engine coolant temperature in some calculations. But they appear to result in TYPE B DTCs and I don't' think those are as serious. I plan on putting the engine coolant temperature probe in the moutning bolt hole on top of one of the motors to get a digital read of motor case temperature on my normal display. But the MAF signal is a 2000-9000 hz 5v square wave. I can do this, but it would take an old function generator or something on voltage controlled oscillator mode. Kind of complicated.<br />
<br />
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<br />
So we spent a lot of time this week on wiring and mysteries and troubleshooting and there's not a lot to show. We'll work some of this out and hopefully be able to recap a bit next week<br />
<br />
<br />
For this weeks' show I let our viewers bail me out. We had a visit from Mike Orr of Cincinnati who has made a J1772 EVSE box. He sold one for $650 and didn't really make much on it so he wants to ask $750 or $790 for them. Problem is, it is a 25 amp system and it would have to be MORE to get it up to 70 amps, which would be useful. As there are readily available EVSE now at hardware stores for $1000, this is kind of a loser. But we tested his box on the Escalade and it worked fine. It looks great. It's hell for sturdy. And it's quite small.<br />
<br />
Andrew McClarey did some of our video graphics when we upgraded our intro. He had a nice build of a Fiber Fab Valkyrie he stole on eBay. Well, it's gotten nicer. He originally did this in lead and was trying to convince me lead was where it was at. I of course was trying to convince him that LiFePo4 was where it was at and that lead was dead. As it turns out, he has a brand new set of CALBS in the car now and WOW does it make a difference. He and a buddy are also working on a BMS that does have kind of a cool looking display.<br />
<br />
Royce Wood of course continues on his Couger. But he's also doing a conversion for a friend of his. Royce, but a camera. I don't like your camera. But I do like the conversion. Royce has advised us on some of the intricacies of the Cadillac. He has operated an auto repair service for many years. And he's now getting into conversions. Where did you hear about this model - three years ago? It's happening.<br />
<br />
In last weeks episode I talked about maybe doing a boat at some point. Anne Kloppenberg of Amsterdam was here at EVCCON last year and is just a HOOT to be around. This guy just spews energy and enthusiasm. He's done pretty well installing solar panels in Amsterdam. But he was talking about converting an old Glastron speed boat to electric drive. THIS week he sends us some video of the first run. It DEFINES the concept of the EV Grin. Literally WOOH - WOOH MAMA - LOOKY WHAT I BUILT.. as he speeds across the water at 53 km/hour with the sound of the prop, but NO engine sound at all.<br />
<br />
This is cool for us. But cooler for him. I'd like to have an electric boat here on the Mississippi. But in Amsterdam, they are very down on you spilling that oil slick from your gas or diesel engine all over their canals. Quite environmentally conscious there as well. The only CO2 they want in the air is that that comes from burning Marijuana. They actually made CIGARETTE smoking illegal there, but EXEMPTED Marijuana smoking from the law. <br />
<br />
And so Anne faces a serious business opportunity in making electric speed boats. The demand could be huge.<br />
<br />
Finally, I riff a bit on hydrogen. You will be surprised to learn that my first love was not electric cars but hydrogen. Hydgrogen may be God and I am certainly of the religious orders surrounding it. It has one proton, and one electron. It is unity. It is the lightest element, and it comprises 75% of the mass of the universe, unless you buy into dark matter theory. Yes, 75% of everything is hydrogen. IT is the most reactive substance in the universe. The party girl of elements, it will combine with ANYTHING. <br />
<br />
Therein being the rub. You have to PRY it lose. And it becomes a heroic loser as a fuel for personal transportation. I mean HEROIC. I got in a riff with some truly off planet types on LInkedIN that turned into a huge personal attack because I wouldn't buy into their hydrogen promotion efforts. So it was game on and I was slashing back. But it took me back a few years and my utter fascination with hydrogen.<br />
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I still think it holds the secret to all understanding of the universe. I just don't think I want to be in a car with it. Too many steps. It is, to say the least, inelegant in personal transportation.<br />
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EVCCON 2012. We've finished our first discount increment as of June 1. I am delighted to report, and a bit frightened to contemplate, that we have 125 registrants for the convention scheduled Septermber 26-30 and 29 cars. As we had a total registration of 128 and 28 cars INCLUDING ALL OF MINE at last years event, we are already larger than we DID last year. Today being the 3rd day of June, 2012 Year of Our Lord.<br />
<br />
The basic math is 375-400 attendees and 50-60 cars. But my trade show experience indicates something else. We always said you cannot have a trade show for 300. It's the number you can't have. If you get to 300 industry insiders having a meeting, there will inevitably be 700 others show up to watch them. That's why you can't have 300. You can have 100. You can have 200. You can have 250. You could probably have 275. And then you can have 1000. But you can't HAVE a convention of 300.<br />
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This is like King Liunitis and The Battle of Thermopylae. Yes, there were indeed 300 Spartans. But what gets forgotten is that there were also 700 Thespians that came to watch.<br />
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As 125 of you discuss your plans to attend, the cars you're bringing, the side meetings you're going to set up, etc. It just causes the 700 to want to come watch all the more.<br />
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Fortunately Brain saw this coming and has put us in the ShowMe Center Arena. ßo we'll have lots of room. But I don't really know where this goes in 2013.<br />
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See you there.<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com73tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-88129406406359833342012-05-21T12:30:00.004-05:002012-05-21T12:32:30.721-05:00Escaladus Interruptus and the Catellier EffectThis week, we were hard at work in the 2008 Electric Cadillac Escalade EXT conversion and we are at a very rewarding phase of the build where things move along quite quickly.<br />
<br />
Tim Catellier of Chandler Arizona slipped in and mounted a small explosive device under the hood and this kind of wrecked our week. <br />
<br />
Tim, an EVCCON 2011 attendee, and so of course a rank up in standing over "ordinary" viewers, inquired about a pleasant little puzzle he was having with his BMW Z3 conversion. He had been at EVCCON 2011 with his erstwhile assistant, his FATHER, and we were privileged to examine first hand and up close the particulars of this Zilla/Netgain build using CALB cells - excellent in all respects. He in turn claims the drag racing and autocross was the most fun he'd had in a car EVER with his pants on and no music.<br />
<br />
It seems he had developed a "frame leak." I'm actually extraordinarily pleased with this. We had done a show that prominently featured our efforts to chase down a frame leak on the 2009 Mini Cooper Clubman. We described what they were, how you could detect them, why it was important for your personal safety NOT to have one, and how to chase them down. We have since had a regular flow of viewers who HAVE found frame leaks subsequently.<br />
While most were minor leaks in the 30 ma range, some have been serious. So I'm kind of pleased this particular episode caused a lot of people to check their systems for leaks, and more pleased that they have largely been successful in addressing them. I'm not precisely a safety Nazi. Life's a bitch, and then you die, and ho hum. But this one has caused us some nasty shocks in the past and so it deserved some attention. Apparently the problem was not as rare as I thought. It wasn't just us. And so, as Marthaa Stewart says, "That's a good thing."<br />
<br />
The check is simple. Connect a multimeter between any battery terminal and frame ground. You should see a varying voltage of 4 to 6 volts. It will probably jump around. This is because the pack "floats" separately from frame ground. If you read ANY steady voltage above a volt or so, you have a frame leak. If you read DIFFERENT steady voltages based on which battery terminal you measure to ground, you certainly have a frame leak. <br />
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If you connect a 12v light bulb between the terminal and the frame and it fails to light, it is probably a very minor leak of 30 or 40 ma usually through some of your instrumentation. If you get any light, you have a serious situation that can be life threatening in the right environmental conditions - like sweaty skin.<br />
<br />
In any event, Mr. Catellier had one. ANd after carefully and logically troubleshooting the problem, isolated it to the MOTOR. DC series motors of course have brushes and a commutator. Carbon conducts. And a buildup of carbon dust within the motor is not unusual. Sufficient carbon dust can short the field windings to the case. Actually this is so common that a leak of less than 30 ma is not even considered a problem by the motor manufacturers. Tim's was more in the 800 ohm range which into a pack his size, is pretty stout.<br />
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He tried blowing the motor out with compressed air and failed to eliminate the problem.<br />
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<iframe width="414" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PTPNag6O8vw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
George Hamstra, of Netgain Motors had previously rebuilt this same motor and wanted a clean slate on this problem. After examining photos of the brushes, he asked Tim to send in the motor and he shipped him a brand new motor from Warfield, complete with the latest Helwig H60 RedTop brushes.<br />
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It was a non-trivial amount of work to swap out the motor. But Tim again enlisted the aid of his erstwhile assistant, DAD, and they were able to do it in some four and a half hours. The frame leak was gone. And they reassembled the car.<br />
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He was back on the road and drove it to work and back the next day. But there was an interesting difference. Tim had kept careful records over the past 26 months and tracked energy usage, electricity costs, gasoline prices, and right down to the dollars dimes and ducats saved in not purchasing gasoline, all in a handy spreadsheet, just as a proper Computer Systems Administrator is wont to do.<br />
<br />
The car averaged 380 Wh per mile for over two years. In fact, Tim and I had actually had a conversation earlier about this as we have a pretty strong rule of thumb that a car will use about 1 Wh of energy to move 1 Mile over time and average, for each 10 lbs of car. Tim's car weighed in at EVCCON 2011 at 3285 lbs. And 380 Wh/mile somewhat exceeds our rule of thumb. I was unable to account for this or provide a persuasive theory. Maybe my rule of thumb not so good medicine in all cases.<br />
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On his drive to work and back, Tim noted an energy usage of 280 Wh/mile. This is kind of dramatically better. <br />
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He describes this somewhat better than I do on his blog at <a href="http://evz3.blogspot.com/">http://evz3.blogspot.com/</a><br />
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I received an e-mail message regarding this. In discussing the issue, he refined his results with total driving over the past 680 miles - 332 Wh/mile average. At 3285 lbs, I like this number for by now obvious reasons.<br />
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I initially suggested that the only thing I could imagine would cause such a DRAMATIC disparity in two otherwise identical 11 inch motors was the advance timing. The Netgain motors come marked with alignment marks for CCW, N, and CW timing. This corresponds to counter clockwise as viewed from the drive end of the motor, neutral, and clockwise respectively.<br />
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Most explanations of electric motor theory are technically correct as far as they go, but of necessity incomplete. First, some of the factors are difficult to explain. And second, after 150 years some of them we really don't know exactly. For some reason, "square" motors - that is motors with a certain ratio between diameter and length, run better than others. A certain amount of mass of iron in the case is simply required for efficient operation. We CAN make motors lighter. That's not necessarily a good thing. We know that the field windings set up a magnetic field that causes armature rotation. But were you aware that there is an interaction where the armature rotation then affects the magnetic field - in fact rotating it in the direction of the armature?<br />
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This is termed the armature effect and actually we DO know quite a bit about this. In the Netgain Warp 11HV, they employ inter poles to counteract the effect of this, and this is how this particular motor can handle higher voltages without arcing.<br />
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In the ordinary Netgain Warp 11, the CCW position literally rotates the brush ring a few degrees in the direction of armature rotation. This moves what is termed "the neutral plane" that same number of degrees. And so the brushes are only truly at neutral when the motor reaches a couple thousand rpm and the armature effect comes into play. Since it is OUT of neutral at low rpms, you would think this would cause arcing on startup. But in fact, the actually applied voltage to the motor is very low at that point and so arcing isn't as much of a problem. Under power AND RPM, the voltage is higher, and so that is where we want the brushes to truly be in the neutral plane.<br />
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And so we refer to this as ADVANCE TIMING. My theory was that if Mr. Catellier had his first motor accidentally at N or worse CW timing position, this would cause severe arcing during acceleration - and probably a LOT of carbon dust. That could seriously undermine his Wh/mile and explain his frame leak.<br />
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Unfortunately, brilliant though it sounded, it was another case of my trying to type myself smart in a fashion that would make the DIYElectric crowd cheer with pride.<br />
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Tim had of course noted and recorded the position on both motors. CCW. Theory busted.<br />
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Leaving what? The brushes. I'm accustomed thinking of brushes as just brushes and that their main characteristic is their life span, based on the hardness of the material. This also becomes a factor in seating the brushes, as they can take longer or shorter amounts of wear to properly seat in. But once they are in operation, there is little to choose between them other than how many miles you get before you get to change them. The technology is 180 years old. What's to know?<br />
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But in the spirit of rational inquiry, what else is there? That was the notable change between the two motors.<br />
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I happened to have a Netgain Warp 9, and an ADC 8 motor on a bench I had cleared off. We reassembled the Warp 9 using the new Helwig H60 Redtop brushes and painted the motor. The ADC took a little more work, we bead blasted the end bells, (and the armature unfortunately), revarnished the armature, and replaced the brushes and the entire brush mounting ring. I intend to use it on a lawn mower. <br />
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But we looked around and found the old brushes from the Netgain Warp 9. I wired up a JLD404 meter and a digital voltmeter with a contactor, one of our A123 13.5volt modules, and a switch. And we ran the motor with the new brushes, that had about 10 hours of seating on them. Then we changed the brushes to the old brushes. As it turns out, these aren't Helwig brushes at all. They are marked ML1683 and ML1684 H8 with a stylized chevron with a capital N in it. I have not determined who the manufacturer is, but Tom Brunka advises that it is a low voltage brush used on fork lift motors typically at 72v and below.<br />
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So we ran the motor again with the old brushes. The difference was astounding. For the same 129Ah of energy, the new brushes ran for 3 hours 38 minutes and 54 seconds. The old brushes ran for three hours, one minute, and 25 seconds. <br />
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So we reran the new brushes again. Along the way, we began recording RPM and commutator temperature along with current and voltage. The results are shown below.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-muPB-FM9APc/T7pSKcH3MuI/AAAAAAAACWQ/l2QQeGlWj74/s1600/hellwig1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="307" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-muPB-FM9APc/T7pSKcH3MuI/AAAAAAAACWQ/l2QQeGlWj74/s400/hellwig1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1K4Sz6kqh60/T7pSSqkJkWI/AAAAAAAACWc/i80u69PpAGc/s1600/hellwig2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="206" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1K4Sz6kqh60/T7pSSqkJkWI/AAAAAAAACWc/i80u69PpAGc/s400/hellwig2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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If you clear out all the chaff, the new brushes use 485 Wh per hour to turn the motor at 2652 rpm while the old brushes require 535 Wh per hour to turn the shaft 2053 rpm. This is such an astounding difference that there must be something HUGE wrong with our methodology.<br />
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Except it rather persuasively reflects, in both direction and amplitude, what Tim Catellier reports.<br />
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I really have no further explanation for this. Here is the data and we would be very interested in direct attempts to reproduce either refuting or supporting. In the meanwhile, if you are driving a Netgain Motor a year old or more, you might invest in a set of Helwig H60 RedTops. Baseline your Wh/mile, change the brushes, and measure again. We would be very interested in what you find.<br />
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The current Helwig part numbers are:<br />
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For the Warp 9 = 10-621117-674-3-01<br />
For the Warp 11 = 10-621117-674-3-02<br />
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I think Netgain is offering these brushes now at $150 per set of eight brushes. We will try to do the same on the EVTV online store as soon as possible.<br />
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We have also chased down the XSTURBOS guy and ordered 10 of his Garret blowers. We'll put together a little kit with the blower, the shroud for the motor to mount it on, and a relay at $495. George Hamstra of Netgain has already spoken for one for his Bricklin build that we are hoping to see at the EVCCON 2012. But hopefully we'll have these up on the web site this week or next as well.<br />
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Why? The main defense you have to carbon dust buildup in the motor is the motor fan. The newer motors actually have an improved fan on the drive end and these fans do a pretty good job at moving air through the motor, both to cool it and to clear the inevitable carbon dust. The problem is, that works real well at 3000 rpm. It works not so well at 300 rpm. And at 20 rpm it doesn't do squat. We have routinely begun using these 434 cfm blowers on all our Netgain motors. Any more heat you can remove is a good thing. And at low rpms, you still have fairly impressive air flow to remove carbon dust as well as heat. <br />
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Many people have run Netgain motors for years quite handily without an external blower. So this is overkill EVTV style. Still we recommend it.<br />
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Additionally, there are many less expensive blowers that are out there that will do just fine as auxiliary blowers for the motor. These look cool. For what i'm spending on the Escalade build, looking cool is kind of required.<br />
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Your mileage may of course vary....<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com82tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-16755955472273701392012-05-13T11:11:00.001-05:002012-05-13T11:13:27.007-05:00Messin with Wires.This week we mostly deal with wiring issues on the 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT Electric. The motors are in and we spun them up using a 12v A123 battery module. Very quiet and vibration free. <br />
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We mounted two glycol fill bottles, one for our Soliton liquid cooling system and one for the electric heater. It has been over a year since we did the segment on our tankless water heater we are using to heat both cockpit and battery boxes. We'll repeat a lot of that in the next few weeks as we install it. But the big breakthrough is the realization that we could use the windshield washer heater switch to turn it on.<br />
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The Cadillac actually has a heater for the windshield washer bottle. I've never heard of this before. And I don't quite get it. The idea of dumping hot windshield washer solution on an iced up windshield gives me a chill, so to speak, windshields costing what they do. The thermal contrast between the heated solution and the ice is pretty great. I would think they would have some problems with fracturing windshield glass.<br />
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The system IS under recall, but for another reason. IT has burned a couple of Cadillacs to the ground. The problem is, they don't fix it in the recall. THey just disconnect it and you no longer have a heated windshield washer. We haven't exactly done the recall, but I do intend to disconnect the power to it. It goes through a 60 amp fuse on the fuse block. <br />
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Leaving a rather unused, but really quiet prominent switch on the console right below the environmental controls. And so we are going to steal this signal and use this switch to turn on our electric heaters.<br />
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The heater assembly we created has pump, TWO contractors, and two heater elements all in one box. We'll use the signal from the switch to turn on the pump and the heater elements. Relays and thermostatic switches will be used to cut OUT each of the heating elements in turn as the temperature of the system rises..<br />
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In this way, we'll turn them both on initially. When the temperature gets to 45C, we'll cut one of them off with the thermostat. As it continues to rise, at 55C we'll cut the other off as well. As it falls to below 50C, that thermostat should turn it back on. So it will seek around 50-55C on one heater element. <br />
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The pump will pump the fluid first through the cabin heat exchanger. This should provide quite a heat drop to warm the large passenger area. The fluid exiting the heat exchanger will be routed to the battery box where it wanders through a series of loops of pex tubing beneath a false aluminum floor in the box. After leaving the box, it will pump back to the fill reservoir. <br />
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The glycol should be much cooler on the batteries than on the passenger compartment, but still warm enough to maintain battery temperature.<br />
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I know the universal advice is that these batteries need to be cooled. They do not. They do not under any imaginable load cycle. Instead, what we've found is pronounced improvement in all parameters up around 35-40C. Worse, what we've found is pronounced decrease in both capacity and power at anything below 0C. In fact, it has become evident you should not charge these cells AT ALL below freezing. <br />
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And so we are going to heat them. We're also going to heat them in the garage while charging, but with a much lower power 240vac heating pad that we will probably affix to the fill reservoir. This won't do much really. But it will be in a garage when we are charging. And it will go on all night. We think a couple hundred watts will very gradually heat the battery box. The side effect will be a warm cabin on entry in the morning.<br />
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The vehicle features a remote door lock and even a remote starting system. We're hoping to retain that functionality. Of course, there isn't much to remote start with an electric car, but if it can get the air conditioning or heating going, that would be cool - or....err.... warm. <br />
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We used a Ferraz Shawmut A50QS-1200-4 fuse. This monster is the size of a large orange juice can and costs about $350. Sizing these is a pain, and explaining them, even more so. They are a FAST blowing fuse - that blows slowly. No, this makes no sense at all. Neither does the application guide from Ferraz Shawmutt, at least to me. Basically, this fuse will do 2500 amps for about 18 seconds and 4000 amps for 2 seconds. 1200 amps it will do continuously. This does not sound very "fast" to me. I have contacted one of their applications engineers seeking adult supervision on how to size these and how to explain this. So far, no help.<br />
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We're mostly using Champlain Cable COmpany's 4/0 shielded cable on this build. This is 4/-0 of copper wrapped in the using poly insulation, then a steal braid, and finally another layer of insulation. I like this for a couple of reasons. The obvious is the decrease in radiated emissions and noise that can affect other components. We do not have the EMI requirements of Europe, but on the other hand banging 2000 amps of 192volts of energy at 8 kHz is going to put out some stuff. One less thing.<br />
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Secretly, the reason I would pay $12 per foot for it is that with the layer of steel braid and another layer of insulation, this cable is much more resistant to abrasion. It's going to be very difficult for it to rub through to the copper and connect with frame. It is surprisingly flexible for what it is.<br />
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The Solitons already have TWO contractors in each of them. But I caught Sebastien Bourgouis with another pair in his 911 at EVCCON 2011. When asked, he noted it was just redundancy. Ok. Me too then.<br />
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And here's why. With other controllers we do usually have a contactor, but we also have a hand switch in the passenger compartment to break the connection to the controllers manually if necessary. I haven't really worked out a way to do that in the Cadillac cockpit. There is this enormous center console between me and the passenger, and no floor space or bulkhead I could conceivably reach.<br />
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I'm really NOT a safety Nazi. Prudence is good. But pontificating about safety is not really my thing and some of the extremes espoused by the wannabe experts and poseurs just seem over the top to me. But we have a failure mode with DC motors that is sufficiently rare to be hardly mentioned, but sufficiently possible to pose a danger. And the danger is kind of frightening.<br />
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IGBT's can fail SHORTED. Most of the time they just burn up and are destroyed. But it IS possible, though very rare, for them to fail in a short. In the case of a PWM controller feeding a DC eeries motor, this is like connecting the battery pack directly to the motor. With our motors, and this battery pack, that could be 2000 or even 3000 amps OR MORE. When you break an arc at a voltage of 150 and that kind of current, it tends to vaporize metal, and arc weld contactor contacts. Frankly, our manual switch could well be useless too. And that gives rise not to a sunburn, but a vehicle screaming to go at top speed with 300 or 400 kw of power. Not an attractive spectacle for me.<br />
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By adding a second set of heavy contractors, using hydrogen dielectric and magnetic blowouts, IN SERIES with the ones in the Solitons, things are maybe better. The arc welded contacts of one contactor set will not really carry current as well as clean contacts and the immediate, almost simultaneous breaking of a second set stand a good chance of breaking that current flow. And if not, the heat generated in the contractors will within a few seconds cause them to go hand grenade anyway.<br />
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So that's the theory. We are using two 500A EV-250 kilovacs each capable of breaking 2500 amps. This in addition to the little EV200's in the SOlitons. We'll connect the 12v actuating signal through a big red slap switch on the panel beneath the steering column. I won't have to bumble or look. It's the only switch there, and all you have to do is hit it to disconnect the 12v from the contractors.<br />
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We are using TWO Megapacs on the Escalade at 15v. And in addition to our diodes, we are going to add Jeffery Jenkins recommendation of a 100 uh 14 amp inductor to the input to each, along with a 30 amp high voltage fuse.<br />
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So that's what we did this week. This is an enjoyable part of a build. The big stuff that takes weeks is over. Now we see progress every day. Little wiring things are fun for me.<br />
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Yes I'll try to schedule a private class for Brian on wireless microphone batteries sometime this week if I can find time.<br />
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Jack RIckard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-9885441417874048502012-05-07T11:32:00.003-05:002012-05-07T12:02:02.154-05:00Tang Zhengping and John Allen - Brothers from Another Mother<br><br />
This week we begin the more pleasurable work of installing pieces and wiring them up on the 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT. Some mounting issues.<br />
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We installed the two Soliton1 controllers at angles above the motors much after the fashion of the old Ford flathead V8. This allows access to all the terminals and still access to the motor terminals underneath. We mounted the Solitons on a piece of our aluminum aircraft decking honeycomb material, and by angle aluminum to the upper mounting bolt on each of the engine mounts. This held well enough, but allowed a little wobble.<br />
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Brain installed some brackets to tie the decking to the rear Garret turbocharger fan and to the top bolt in the transmission adapter. This left them rock solid.<br />
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We also mounted a Vicor Megapac in place of the lead acid battery on the battery tray. This unit features six 5v 40 ampere cards and two 15v 10 ampere cards. We strapped these up to produce 15 v at up to 100 amperes. It reads right at 15.05v unloaded and our systems in the Escalade should work very well at that voltage.<br />
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We mounted the throttle body inverted on top of the Megapac using a couple of pieces of bathroom plumbing. It is inverted so that the butterfly valve, which is not entirely necessary, can clear. I want to retain this as it gives me a good visual indication of what the ECU is doing with the throttle, and I can reach in and give it a twist myself for test purposes.<br />
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We added a diode to the input of this device. I'm reasonably certain this was what was causing the Chennic DC-DC converter failures - back flushing the input caps into the batteries. As one viewer pointed out, the Vicor already has a rectifier in it so the diode should be redundant. That makes sense, but we're still going to use the diode. I don't know exactly WHAT is in the Megapac, or in what order. I know the power goes through a fan first, which seems to work from AC or DC indiscriminately. <br />
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We are going to buffer the throttle position signal with an LM1458 operational amplifier. We bring out the ground and the 0-5v from the throttle body, tie them to the LM1458 along with our 15v supply. The LM1458 can operate from +/-18v. And we bring the same ground out with the LM1458 output to the Soliton throttle inputs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CDkaPGsVpMk/T6f_sfzvJlI/AAAAAAAACVY/MnLtoxSF2EY/s1600/voltagefollower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="201" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CDkaPGsVpMk/T6f_sfzvJlI/AAAAAAAACVY/MnLtoxSF2EY/s400/voltagefollower.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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By tying the LM1458 output back to the inverting input, it becomes a voltage follower. Whatever voltage we put in, we'll get a pretty close approximation of that as an output. So why do it? The input to the opamp is on the order of 10 to the 12th power ohms in impedance. It acts as a buffer to avoid loading the throttle position signal output to the ECU.<br />
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I get a lot of comments about the parallel motors and controllers. We tested this a year ago and it's just not a problem. The two motors are on a single shaft. The outputs do not precisely fight each other. Rather like batteries in parallel. That current would vary between the two is first not an issue, but the load existing equally along the shaft tends to even out the currents anyway, regardless of any discrepancy between the two controllers. It just isn't a problem.<br />
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Brian reinstalled the air condition compressor and power steering pump on the front adapter plate of the motor. We have not installed the belt as we want to run some motor tests without aimlessly running the pumps. <br />
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We have put transmission fluid into the transmission and connected up the fluid cooler. It will take a bit to work fluid into the empty torque converter.<br />
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Much work remains, but we are at the part where things start to move more quickly. The heavy work of battery boxes and motor installation and mounting are behind us. It's now a matter of finding cunning places for contractors, disconnect switches, terminal bars, the heater, etc and hooking them up. We also have to devise a liquid cooling system for the Solitons. We already have this hanging on the test bench so most of it will just be moving it.<br />
We'll want to add a relay and use one of the Soliton outputs to run the pump only when cooling is called for by the Soliton itself. A welcome feature in the more recent software releases.<br />
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John Allen continues his series on his Toyota rebuild. I'm fascinated by this rebuild as John does not appear to be a master fabricator, and he is very value conscious as to his components. His battery heater appears to work well despite all the warnings from the armchair builders, although I admit even I cringed when I saw all those resistive wires together in his junction box. It appears it is a gentle heat.<br />
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John failed in this video, and on multiple fronts. His controller blew up on him apparently, and his magic number on his motor adapter appears to have been off sufficiently that when he disengaged the clutch his flywheel gouged out a fairly impressive ravine in his motor adapter plate.<br />
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So why is he smiling so broadly. Well, he just finished his first run in the SAME Toyota that used to have about a half ton of lead acid cells in it. Only now it doesn't. The result doesn't feel like an improved car. It feels like a DIFFERENT car. He's going from zero to 80 mph in better fashion than the Toyota could with the ICE engine and he still has pedal left. Instead of a ponderous climb, it is a delightful acceleration. And you just never get over it. But there is NOTHING like that first roll. Ergo the EV grin even WHILE facing some major rework. Gotta love it. <br />
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This is what its about gentlemen. For those of you watching and planning and hesitating, you don't HAVE to be a master fabricator. And the personal satisfaction of making a car GO on battery power from one of these conversions is just not something I can type yourself smart about. You have to feel it. It is gynormous. It's a head rush beyond what drugs can deliver. ANd it lingers for days, weeks, even years.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It will cause you to rip that motor that you took weeks installing out in four hours just to get it fixed and back on the road.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>And it is quite universal. Our Chinese builder of the week, and faithful EVTV viewer Tang Zhengping invested the equivalent of $1600 in ducats in his 90 mile range creation. For those who don't speak Mandarin, what he is saying in the video is that he built a freakin electric car himself and he feels really really good when he drives it and f*** a bunch of oil companies.<br />
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It's springtime and I'm driving around in the ivory Speedster Part Duh we did two years ago. It's not just that I can't get over it. Every stop at Lowes Hardware, the grocery store, anywhere involves an inevitable discussion with perfect strangers that are just bowled over by the car. When they find out it's electric, - cranial detonation right in front of you. The front of their head just implodes. We've gained enough notoriety locally that they are becoming much more aggressive. "Your the guy with the electric cars...right?" <br />
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I am indeed the guy.<br />
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Stay with us.<br />
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Jack RIckard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com89tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-15388021834913477552012-04-30T08:19:00.001-05:002012-04-30T08:21:21.667-05:00Escalade Motor Implant - Finally.So a long show this week. Some say long and boring. I would be wounded to think this is so. Is not the entire world hanging breath abated for the next few minutes of every episode? That is of course my fantasy. Were reality to intrude I might be crushed.<br />
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This week, we flew into a flurry of work. Some battery stuff, reassembled the pieces of Netgain Warp 9 we had been using as a visual aid. It turns.<br />
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But of course, the lion's share of this weeks work revolved around finally installing the Siamese 11 inch motors in the Escalade and connected to the 6L80E transmission and torque converter.<br />
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In the end, I'm just terribly pleased with how this all came out. <br />
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The two motors are of course painted gloss black and have shiny aluminum end bells - perfectly color coordinated with the vehicle. But even better, the overall LENGTH worked out so well it looks like it was all done on purpose. We have about 1.5 inches between the reluctor ring and the front crossmember of the vehicle.<br />
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By shaving the stock engine mounts about a 1/4 inch each, the motor and mounting plates drop right in place. And our adapter plate mounts perfectly to the transmission.<br />
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We DID have to add a spacer to the mounting plate to pull the torque converter out of the recess for it enough to not bind. And actually when we did finally put it all in place, it DID bind. We loosened the bolts around the transmission, jacked the motor UP and then jacked it back down, and heard a distinct "thunk". Retightened the transmission bolts and the shaft turned like a dream.<br />
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We then went to our tiny access hole to insert our torque converter bolts. We could see both the flex plate and torque converter easily and line up the holes in seconds. But we could NOT get a bolt to start.<br />
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Brain wheeled out his air driven burr grinder and "expanded" the access hole a bit. And finally we were able to bolt it together.<br />
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This week we'll add tranny fluid to the thing, and idle it with a 12v battery. We'll let it sit for awhile and then add more tranny fluid. It takes a bit to get it pumped into the new empty torque converter.<br />
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We had ordered a 6L80E torque converter from Professional Torque Converters with a lowered 1400 rpm stall speed. This should more closely match the torque curve of our electric motors, and make our system more efficient at lower speeds. It will also reduce the heat (and thus losses) generated by the drive train.<br />
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The concept of using a torque converter at all is largely to provide a hydraulic buffer between the<br />
electric motor and the AWD drive train. Torque "lockup" apparently occurs in 2nd gear above 22 mph. By having the "stall" speed - at which basically the two turbines are turning at the same speed anyway, somewhat below that, we hope to get a smoother transition to lockup whether we are accelerating briskly, or slowly.<br />
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The replacement torque converter arrived Friday morning - just in time. We actually worked most of the day and shot the intro sequences quite late - finishing at 6:30PM. Yes, I was late for the ballet.<br />
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In the end, the motor is very securely mounted in the truck. Looks like it was born to be there. We've got a good line along the transmission and drive shaft. The rubber mounts should minimize vibration. It's almost the perfect length. And of course it looks gorgeous in the vehicle.<br />
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With the motor mounted and the battery box in, balanced, and charged, we are actually moving into the area I like the most. Wiring up the controllers and the instrumentation.<br />
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We also have to do the environmentals - largely our water heater - along with a cooling system for the controllers. So we will have two separate glycol systems - a bit complicated with two separate pumps of course.<br />
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So while much work remains, our past projects would indicate that we are actually 2/3 done with this project. We should be rolling rather shortly.<br />
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No matter how many of these we do, I never quite get over it. That this will be the largest passenger car I've ever seen done is no help there. But truly, I always loved this vehicle anyway. For me, at 280 lbs with knees and hips that aren't as young and pretty as they once were, it is very comfortable to enter and exit. Onboard, I sit up quite high with superb visibility in all directions. The seats are very wide and plush with air conditioning vented up through tiny holes in the leather and resistive electric heat available as well.<br />
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The GPS and entertainment are actually a bit sorry. The GM GPS is actually good for a laugh, we used to enter a destination and howl over the route it provided. There is no USB or iPhone connection. So we may do some work on the console and replace the existing unit with a more advanced one - perhaps with a carputer interface and iPhone connections. But this will all happen AFTER we have it fully functional with electric drive.<br />
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In the end, we should have reasonably comfortable seating for four adults, five in a pinch. I think we'll have the usual 80-100 mile range in town. But there is potential for some blue sky on the highway.<br />
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We noted on the Ford Edge a staggering 4.5 Amp hours at 250 volts or 1125 wH per mile. The transmission has never been right on this car and so with 200Ah at 250 volts we hardly had a 45 mile range.<br />
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Incredibly, at 70 mph on the freeway this drops to 2.0 Ah or 500wH per mile - less than half. The vehicle weighs 5000 lbs. This is the REVERSE of our experience with the Speedsters and Spyder and Cobra. How can this be?<br />
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A couple of things come to mind. Mass is intractable. It just is. And it takes a definitive amount of energy to accelerate a mass - more mass, more energy. The edge has 2.5 x the mass of the Speedsters. But it is UNLIKELY that it has 2.5 x the frontal area.<br />
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And so while air resistance is a square function, the energy use profile does indeed invert - not because the vehicle is particularly good at rolling down the freeway at 70 mph - 500wH and 5000 lbs is almost exactly the 10:1 rule of thumb we use to estimate energy usage.<br />
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No, the issue is how very BAD it is at accelerating 5000 lbs from dead still to 35 mph.<br />
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I'm hopeful that the six speed 6L80E with a kind of extreme overdrive 6th gear coupled with our two 11 inch motors will give us an even better profile at highway speeds. And so I would look for something like 70-80 miles per charge in town, but potentially 120 or even 130 mile range on the freeway. This puts us in range of St. Louis - 110 miles away, with this truck.<br />
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We'll see.<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com102tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-32235521141078305032012-04-23T10:27:00.000-05:002012-04-23T10:27:31.353-05:00Short show this week guys. I've had more to do this past week than I can quite say grace over.<br />
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Brain has been studiously trying to trial fit the motor in the Escalade and mate to the transmission. Turns out the shaft cap of the 6L80E torque converter protrudes 0.945 inches while the 4L80E is about a half an inch. This caused the motor to bind on the torque converter.<br />
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The easiest solution appears to be to use the 6L80E flex plate off the engine. Instead of flat, it is slightly dished and adds a half inch to the game more or less. But it also means we need to pad our adapter plate by .37 inches. We are having a spacer ring of that thickness made at Cape Machine Shop.<br />
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As long as we are doing that, I'm thinking to order a 1400 rpm torque converter. I inadvertently did the verbal switcher and referred to this as lockup. Lockup is actually an ECM commanded event that physically locks the torque converter. The 1400 rpm is more correctly the STALL speed.<br />
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In theory, if you locked up your breaks and put full power to the engine, this is the rpm where the motor would stall. The hydraulic coupling between the motor and transmission becomes so great that this event occurs.<br />
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Typically OEM torque converters are at about 2000 rpm. The racing guys will use 2500 or 3000 or even 3500 rpm torque converters to get higher on the torque curve of their peaked up engines at stall speed.<br />
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Diesel applications actually require lower stall speeds as they run at much lower RPMS - typically 1800.<br />
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And so we have contacted <a href="http://www.transmissioncenter.net/">Performance Automotive Torque Converters (PATC)</a> about a 6L80E 1400 rpm torque converter while we're fooling around with it.<br />
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This would allow us to reach stall at a lower RPM more in line with the torque curve on an electric motor. I do not know what effect this will have on our shift points and automatic shifting. It probably will do more harm than good I fear.<br />
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Tom Alvarey brings up the point that we may need to remove the power from the engine during the brief period when shifting via the ECU. As always, this is a marvelous observation, but his history has not been at all influenced by facts or any knowledge of the subject. So I'm not sure. This one certainly makes sense. If it does this with the throttle plate, we are good to go. But if it does it with ignition or fuel injectors somehow, we are hosed. But it would seem shifting with the motor in full power is not wise, so this makes sense to me. Not sure what the cure is.<br />
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And I'm not quite sure it is a problem. How quickly can you remove power from an ICE engine? There is a certain momentum and mass at play here - actually much more than an electric motor. I know the shift changes on this transmission are so quick you can hardly feel them.<br />
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Brandon Hollinger brought us an entertaining as always update on his Austin FX. It almost got me thrown off YouTube as he used some copyrighted music, and the ever changing and ever resourceful YouTube now has a way from preventing to mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad in that event. My initial use of Amazon is justified over and over. I really detest YouTube. We post it there as a convenience to a very few viewers and have less than a 1000 views per month on it. They had added us as a "partner" but I haven't used their ad function to generate income anyway and really really detest this service and all aspects of it. It does make it easier for some who watch on their Internet connected TV sets. And for the past few weeks I've used their embed function on this blog. But I am seriously considering going YouTube free again.<br />
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In any event, it appears Brandon has become ensnared in one of the achilles heels of this industry - nonperforming vendors. We were over 7 months with Jim Husted on what he promised was a 45 day deal. Brandon is now 2.5 months on an adapter from California.<br />
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He is also converting from automatic transmission to manual. Plenty of punishment there.<br />
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Fred Behning has a new project also in this video. And so with these two guys I was able to cobble together a little bitty bit of a show this week. Recall that Fred had the delightful little bug eye sprite. He's now obtained a VW based REPLICA of an MG TD. Problem is, he's going to cannibalize the Sprite for components to use on the TD. I understand. But I still hate to see a gorgeous car like the Sprite dismantled after all that work.<br />
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My mother passed away Wednesday of this week. It was after a long illness with fibrosis and the last few months have not been good. So it was a blessing all around. Still, I'll miss her. We had developed a habit of watching the St. Louis Cardinals with her of an evening. She never missed an inning all season last year. My wife is also a rabid baseball fan. I confess I think the sport is like watching batteries charge it moves so slowly. But I could sit with them and read or whatever and gradually kind of followed the game last year as the Cardinals did well in the end.<br />
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My four brothers and sisters arrived and we were all around her bed when she passed on a beautiful spring afternoon. We saw so many dear friends on the occasion of the visitation and many we had not seen for some time, so that was good. And a lovely Mass on Saturday morning capped it off with our choir providing the music in the Old St. Vincents church. Bullt in 1835, this brick Gothic monstrosity is truly one of the most beautiful churches in the world. I was baptized there as an infant, as was she. So history and tradition here in the heartland runs a bit deeper and older than most places. Many of her friends were on hand and typically spanned a 50 to 60 year period, if you can imagine that.<br />
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Cape Girardeau is a slice out of time in America. I often enter stores or businesses in this town where I distinctly recall the proprietor's father manning the same counter 50 years ago. It is a very unusual place and one of the best kept secrets in the country. IN many ways, it is as America was four decades or more ago. And very possibly that shapes my unusual views. Things may seem better to you in earlier times. I don't have to seem. They ARE better in earlier times. And in Cape, in many ways you can recapture that. A strange brew blend of the old and the new. But relationships are long term affairs here. And family history runs deep.<br />
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My father pased in 2005. And it was time for Ben to go too. I'll lose not a wink over that. But it will take some adjusting to become accustomed to being an orphan waif. A new role. A new week.<br />
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My deep appreciation for all the e-mails of condolence we've received. Apparently many are of the age of funerals also. While this one was better than most, it is what it is...<br />
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Thanks<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-66320986176278124162012-04-16T10:20:00.000-05:002012-04-16T10:20:49.859-05:00Throttle Bodies and Bottom Balancing<br />
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This week we do some final testing on our dual Soliton1's and dual 11 inch motors before breaking down the test bench to install the motors into the Cadillac Escalade EXT. <br />
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One of the issues with this vehicle is where to get the signal to serve as the "throttle" input to the Soliton1's. <br />
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Of course, we have two such signals routed from the accelerator itself to the Engine Control Unit or ECU. We could simply steal one and use that.<br />
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But the Cadillac is complicated by a lot of systems. The ECU is the heart of the beast and it takes a lot of factors into consideration before finally sending a drive signal to the throttle body. The engine of course has fuel injection for the gasoline, but the actual engine speed and power is regulated by controlling the flow of oxygen containing air into the intake manifold. This is done with a throttle body - a round hole with a round plate we used to call the butterfly valve in the carburetor days of the 1960's.<br />
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As it runs out, the throttle body has two potentiometers each provided with 5v from the ECU. They move with the throttle plate. They actually operate in different directions and at different scales. And so one varies from about 3.8v down to something less than a volt, while the other ranges from 1.2 to up over 4volts. The ECU uses these two signals with a function in software to determine throttle position, so if either one is "off" by any appreciable amount, the mathematical relationship between the two signals fails and the ECU will shut down the system.<br />
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So we have to be careful not to "load" one signal down by feeding it into the Soliton. I'll probably build a little opamp buffer for the signal. Something else to fail. But it will avoid throwing the ECU into a data storm.<br />
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We've had some interest in our little cobble up to bottom balance cells. Understand that this was cobbled together in an hour out of stuff laying in the pile on my bench. And it was mostly a test case for the little voltmeters we found. It actually works pretty well. Sufficiently so that we had some viewer interest in purchasing them or at least a parts list so they could make their own and indeed two have made their own.<br />
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The problem with this is that in many ways, your mission and mine are forever different. The bottom balancer I built has large components that are easy to identify, and it makes it easy for me to describe on camera what they do and why we want to do that.<br />
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To ACTUALLY do that, there are some better choices. They don't show particularly well on camera, and they don't illustrate the principles quite as well. But they are less expensive, do more and are easier to operate once you get past the small learning curve.<br />
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I've reviewed four or five of these, and I think the winner hands down is the Revolectric 1344 watt device. It both charges and discharges and will even do "cycles" of charge and discharge. You can interface it to a Windoze PC and at that point, the sky is the limit on cell testing, bottom balancing, cycle life testing, cell matching, and more.<br />
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Economically, by the time you buy a power supply, a meter, a $55 bleed resistor, and a contactor, you're talking the same money with far more capability in the Revo device. <a href="http://www.revolectrix.com/">http://www.revolectrix.com</a><br />
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This week we also add to our online store with David Kerzel's J1772 kit for DIY conversions.<br />
David sells these things on eBay. He has a web site that isn't very well done frankly, so he sells on eBay quite successfully. But the plastic inlet ports from China are now down to about $51. He can mark those up and sell them on eBay all day long and MOST EV builders prefer this. <br />
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I don't. He started out making his own J1772 ports with a work of art in 6061 billet aluminum. The problem is, the aluminum billet costs more than the finished Chinese port BEFORE he machines it. So he had dropped the product from his eBay store.<br />
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The problem is, I have fallen in love with it. Yes, thrift is always a virtue. But we build nice electric cars and do so for the PURPOSE of attracting attention so we can demonstrate the cars and hopefully convert a few more PEOPLE than we do cars. And I've noticed they are ALWAYS curious about the charge port.<br />
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We used to use a Marinco NEMA 5-15 recessed male plug. This allowed us to use any ordinary extension cord and plug into any ordinary 120v outlet. In practice, we almost never charge on 120v. We always charge on 240v at home. But the problem was that the NEMA 5-15's are just not meant for daily use. The act of plugging in and unplugging wears them out over the course of a few months or a year.<br />
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I've fallen in love with the J1772 standard not for the safety features, but for the heavy pistol like plug and sturdy inlet connector that it is. This is designed for 50,000 insertions. It is just a much more physically substantial system.<br />
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On the eCobra, we actually put David's billet aluminum device inside a billet aluminum flip over gas cap. David liked it so well he's working on a version of this on his own. But we also used it on the Swallow and we had one mounted behind the normal fuel door on the Escalade. The door and interior are of course glossy black and the shiny aluminum billet just looks like a piece of jewelry there. As one of the first things anyone is going to want to see is the charge port, we've got a nice one to view.<br />
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So I asked David to make me up 10 so I would have them. We added them to the store, and the first three were sold out within four hours of the release of this weeks video. Should have seven more next week. As he makes these by hand, I'm not sure we can keep up. Even though they are QUITE a bit more expensive than the plastic ones.<br />
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He's also updated his little circuit board that actually properly does the copilot signal AND the proximity switch. This is what actually lets you use J1772 in your car and triggers the available J1772 EVSE, such as the GE Wattstation, to put out power.<br />
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It is a very small device and quite inexpensive. His update includes packaging it in a plastic case that can be easily mounted. The terminal strip is still readily exposed and clearly marked.<br />
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So with these two components, it is very EASY to add J1772 functionality to your build. You can STILL have a NEMA 5-15 in parallel for opportunity charging at the Walmart parking lot light pole if necessary. But with this kit, you can also make use of the many public charge stations going up, and install a proper J1772 EVSE in your garage.<br />
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In any event, we've gone from one thing to another in the EVTV store. First it was braided straps, then the JLD 404 meter. This J1772 inlet is a welcome addition. I don't know where all this leads. I hadn't really pictured EVTV as a component retailer. But we have received eight Soliton 1's and two Soliton Jr's in stock as well and I'll be adding those to the store this week. We kind of intend to pursue it to see where this all leads.<br />
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This takes me back to the early days of the BBS. We originally thought BBS would advertise in our little newsletter. Instead they became readers and we wound up running an eight line BBS ourselves. Our advertisers turned out to be Cisco and Sun, and US Robotics and the companies making tools for online communications.<br />
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Similarly, I thought all these little dealers of EV components would be a market for advertising on EVTV. They are all VIEWERS of EVTV, but not a single online retailer showed up to advertise. Just like the BBS/Internet thing, we'll wind up with the component manufacturers, but the guys just running online shops are simply not sufficiently sophisticated in the art of selling and running a buiness to be a market for advertising. <br />
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I would predict these SAME guys will grouse that we have an unfair advantage with the EVTV show. And they will never put two and two together there or pick up on the irony of it all.<br />
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Nature of the beast is that we aren't much of a threat. The average EV builder is if nothing else, thrifty. And our focus is entirely going to be on the very best components we can find. My belief is that if you build a rocket entirely of components provided by the lowest bidder, always include the cost of hiring a test pilot to fly it. You don't want to actually be IN the rocket yourself at any given time.<br />
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If I'm building a car, I want to make careful choices, but generally go for the better device. These choices are cumulative, and will result in a car that is either the sum of the cheapest things I could find, or the sum of some inspired, but sometimes pricey choices.<br />
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Our entire mission is to build ATTRACTIVE and DESIRABLE cars people will WANT. And of course I like fine rolling stock myself. So it's all part of God's plan.<br />
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If you just want some crate to creak you along the four miles to work and back without buying gasoline, let me strongly note that that's an ENTIRELY VALID MISSION. I don't share it. But it is entirely valid. <br />
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And our A123 work is a nod in that direction. I think you'll STILL find a small lithium pack more durable and more practical than Pb chemistry battery cells. And SOMEONE is going to figure out a way to package them in a small 60Ah or 80Ah pack that will do 30-40 miles at a competitive price without 200 hours of labor.<br />
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But let me reiterate, in building a car for ME, these cells would never make the cut. The CALB prismatics are just better in all respects and make a better, more trouble free car to last a lifetime. I like having 100 mile range even if I'm never going to use it.<br />
<br />
The ongoing soap opera with the company A123 is just beyond belief. I am at this point actually embarrassed for them and about the entire topic. I cannot conceive of a product this good manhandled so badly and on such a grand global scale involving hundreds of millions of dollars and at least three continents. Along with taxpayer investment in an effort to make us a world "leader" in battery development. It has reached the point of public obscenity and defies the willing suspension of disbelief necessary to follow the story.<br />
<br />
<br />
But did I mention the 3p28S module we have in shipment from China as we speak?<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-77554989728590309162012-04-09T09:23:00.001-05:002012-04-09T09:25:33.481-05:00International Battery SetbacksThe news this week was sobering. Despite my caterwauling about American battery companies that arrogantly refused to sell us battery cells, and the obvious karmic infractions thereof demanding their recompense and appropriately so, there is simply no joy in Mudville over the incumbent funeral expenses incurred in the current debacle of battery companies.<br />
<br />
First to blow was of course Enerdel/Ener1. They put $89 million into Think, proving the wisdom of BUYING a customer instead of selling cells to us. Think tanked. And took Enerdel with it.<br />
<br />
Little known is that Ener1 DID survive bankruptcy - thanks to an $81 million cash infusion (less than their investment in THINK poetically, The prince to rescue them was none other than Boris Zingarevich, a Russian businessman with ties to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. <br />
<br />
And so after $118 million in Federal tax funds, and $80 million in investment from state and local governments, the technology developed with the Argonne National Lab in Illinois at another untold brazillian dollars, is now wholly owned by the Russians for a measly $81 million.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe width="414" height="256" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3ssYq_Juj50" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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Last week, we discussed the dark cloud over A123 regarding their recall of the same 20 Ah prismatic cells we have been struggling to develop a use for and a package for. Again, this company abusively declined to sell these cells not only to us, but to anyone daring to do a custom or one-off vehicle conversion as they were solely dedicated to selling to OEMs. Again, they invested $30 million in Fisker to BUY a more desirable customer than we represented. Fisker too is in the process of failing most horribly, despite hundreds of millions of dollars of US Depertment of ENergy direct loans and of course A123 received a $249 million GRANT to build their factory in Livonia Michigan.<br />
<br />
Fisker did not produce the 15000 cars in 2011 that A123 was so hugely counting on. They suffered a recall of a couple hundred for a coolant leak in the battery pack. And now recall about 600 Fiskers for this battery cell fiasco at a cost estimated by company CEO David Vieau at $55 million.<br />
<br />
In case that doesn't strike you as sufficiently funereal, last week SEVEN major law firms filed shareholder class action lawsuits. This morning that count is now up to EIGHT and the companies shares are trading at $1.05, somewhat down from the $25 peak reached shortly after their Initial Public Offering in 2010.<br />
<br />
The company is essentially mortally wounded, but the technology will remain attractive and someone will undoubtedly scarf this up for a bargain at the bankruptcy - which has not been announced but we predict will be momentarily.<br />
<br />
Does any pattern suggest itself? Lithium batteries are proving quite expensive to us as taxpayers as well as to builders. That $249 million federal investment now running a total of 600 Fiskers works out to about $415,000 per car just for the cells. That makes $106,000 for the car look like a REAL value proposition. We'll buy one two years from now on ebay for $30,000, yank that little piston popper, and TRY to get it running again.<br />
<br />
And the irony of ourselves being forced to buy these cells and have them imported from China instead of 300 miles up the road?<br />
<br />
The cells are no panacea. Our flat pack continues to swell in cost and weight and complexity for what will most likely be a 6000wH little bundle of energy at 120v. That's 30 miles range in the very best possible scenario. And I've probably got 60-80 hours in the pack so far.<br />
<br />
<br />
The good news is it will have a fuse, a contactor, and a shunt built in. And the cells are proving very efficient in the charging roundtrip and bottom balance very well. We DID lose a cell to a short that was simply unprovoked. Just sitting overnight after bottom balancing did the trick. I'm fearful we may have gotten our own allotment of cells from tab welding machine number four. It could also possibly explain our failures with the earlier 40v resin modules. We did run them up and down a couple of times before pouring, but it is possible.<br />
<br />
Motor mounts for the Escalade prove a bit more reluctant than we had planned. One of the issues is access to the bolts that connect our flex plate to the torque converter. We lack the largish starter motor hole of the original engine. Mr. Husted provided us a very tiny hole just large enough for a socket - but oriented to the wrong way. As we had provided him a dummy used transmission, and paid him a stupid amount of money to marry these two motors, I'm a little butt sore over this. We'll have to hog out a bit of the motor end plate to accommodate this and we'll probably enlarge the access hole in the bottom of the transmission as a backup.<br />
<br />
We have reverted to the stock motor mounts and Brain has devised a clever mounting system I think that will just work by about a 32nd of an inch. I hope....<br />
<br />
In this week's episode, John Allen updates us on his Toyota build with a frightening foray into battery box warming techniques. And Royce Wood shows how to use an automatic transmission and NOT idle the transmission to maintain hydraulic pressure, employing an external hydraulic pump instead. A very thrifty conversion of a Mercury Cougar underway there using a $300 GE forklift motor.<br />
<br />
We've also heard from Rich Rudman, of Manzanita Micro who will be presenting at the Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention. We did not mention, and have NO knowledge of ANY three phase AC inverter announcement from this company. WE know NOTHING about this. Nor has Otmar been pledged to appear at the convention as yet. And we of course deny any knowledge of a new control board for the PFC series giving it programmability. Though we fervently wish we did.<br />
<br />
But Rich does have a 12 cell version of his Rudman Regulator and will be bringing his electric Mustang which is purported to be quite a build. It must have a daughter mode as he is bringing his daughter. Actually I think she runs the company and I suspect she's the one who forced the visit to EVCCON. Bidness being bidness.<br />
<br />
Alsno not unveiled until NEXT week's show is the decision by George Hamstra to offer a drawing for a Netgain Warp 9 motor at the closing dinner - must be present to win. You'll be able to sign up for the drawing at the Netgain booth in our about to be unveiled vendor area and the motor will be on display at the dinner. We can probably help you hoist it out to your car afterwards.<br />
<br />
Keegan Han of China Aviation Lithim Battery Copmany will also be speaking at the event and participating in the Vendor area. I'm squeezing him for some sort of show discount at the event. But he's thrifty. You might send him a note of thanks for supporting the event at keegan@calibpower.com<br />
<br />
The Brain is working with the Show Me Center staff this week to work out the layout, but we're hopeful to have a map soon of a large session area, a very nice vendor display area, and an indoor car display area all in 32,000 sf. They claim to have limitless 240vac and are working on a grant for J1772 charge stations as well.<br />
<br />
I don't think they actually have a concept of what limitless means, or how much electricity 80 or 90 thirsty cars can drink. But of course we'll also have charging at the shop and at the airport and perhaps at the car show in the park.<br />
<br />
Registrations are lagging, while the number of e-mails of people claiming to not only attend, but bring cars are climbing dramatically. I don't know what this means. Perhaps the June 1 deadline on the discount was too generous. So my mailbox looks like 800 and 100 cars, and our registrations look like a disaster. Please sign up soon so we know we have a show to go to that week.<br />
<br />
And know, I have no idea where Brain and I went during three minutes of today's video. Probably to take a pee. <br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com141tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-49224152985847594482012-04-03T09:55:00.004-05:002012-04-03T10:02:43.673-05:00A ONE, and a TWO and a THREE.This week, we were contacted by Tom Brunka of Hellwig notifying us that we had the WRONG brushes in our Jim Husted build of the twin Netgain WarP11 motors.<br />
<br />
Recall that Mr. Brunka BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE at EVCCON during what was supposed to be a Saturday norming dozer/sleeper session at the Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention. A session on the most boring <br />
topic we could conceive - BRUSHES. Brunka went over 30 minutes as we sat enthralled. Fascinating session and a LOT we didn't know.<br />
<br />
He contacted us to alert us that we had H49 drag racing brushes and he would be much more comfortable if we changed the brushes to his H60 model. These are stronger, harder brushes with a much longer life and that put down a better film while working better for light current loads. <br />
<br />
That may be counterintuitive on a motor pair that will likely suffer the indignities of 1000 amps EACH during acceleration.<br />
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<iframe width="414" height="256" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JBFbX_IYfmc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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<br />
<br />
Apparently the H60's are well able to handle that 1000 amps, but also carry light loads of 20 or 30 amps when idling/coasting. In truth, that's what the Escalade will be doing 99% of the time.<br />
<br />
And so he actually supplied us with 16 new brushes at no charge to ensure success with the Cadillac build. Thank you Mr. Brunka.<br />
<br />
In every bit of good news, there is a downside. First, we had already done three days of running the motor with the brushes we had. But about that time we received an e-mail from a viewer who had a catastrophic brush failure of the H49 brushes after a total of 120 miles on his car.<br />
<br />
Because of the torque converter and mounting, installing the motor on this vehicle will be non-trivial. Worse, our usual technique of putting the motor and other components in where we can easily "drop" a motor on this build is simply not feasible. Once it is in, it would be DAYS of work to paw it back out.<br />
<br />
And so we did the change. <br />
<br />
I also have a disassembled Netgain WarP9 laying around that we used to discuss motor dynamics and the inter poles of the 11HV. We wanted to put this motor back together with some of the newer Helwig Split red top split brushes that Netgain is now equipping new Netgain WarP9's with now.<br />
<br />
So we did a demonstration on the disassembled motor.<br />
<br />
As usual, I have a lot of groundless opinions on motors and brushes in my own version of armchair quarterbacking. The reason everyone does this is that it is irresistible. I rankle when our viewers do it, but in truth, I am subject to it myself.<br />
<br />
One of the issues is the reversibility of the Netgain motors. If the brushes are offset from center, and if they are radiuses to a round commutator, how could you possibly simply wire the motor backwards to reverse rotation for vehicles such as the Honda, which normally use a clockwise from drive end CWDE rotation when the Netgain is built for a CCWDE rotation?<br />
<br />
In any event, a couple of interesting reactions to the show. First an e-mail from Brunka:<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hello Jack and Brian<br />
<br />
Very nice presentation on brushes, thank you.<br />
<br />
I also liked the way you emphasized that the direction of rotation during brush seating is very important that it matches the direction of rotation when driving the vehicle forward.<br />
<br />
Another important point that you made is that it is very important that the brush angle is in the proper direction for your direction of rotation. Yes you are correct we do not want the comm surface rotating into the long side of the brush, instead it should be rotating away from the long side of the brush.<br />
<br />
Yes, I did change the brush terminal from a fork lug to a ring lug, we had a couple of reasons for this. Typically an EV application will have the highest value and the most number of overloads per hour.<br />
<br />
So in an effort to improve the connection (More contact area and to prevent the spread of the fork when tightened) and to make an easily identifiable difference between the NetGain brushes that are intended for EV applications and those that intended for other applications, we have made the EV brush a ring and kept the fork for the other brushes.<br />
<br />
Yes, you have also sold me on the Nord Locks.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your help and continued support<br />
<br />
Tom</i></b><br />
<br />
Annoyingly, the new brushes had a full hole connection electrically. The earlier brushes had a forked terminal and you could simply loosen the screw a turn or two and slip ti out. The full hole terminals required you to completely remove the screw, put it through the terminal, and reinstall the screw - kind of significantly complicating the procedure if you are trying to do it on an installed motor and of course at the risk of dropping a screw into the motor.<br />
<br />
This has been done to improve the surface area of the connection. Well, ok. Who can be against that at 1000 amps.<br />
<br />
I DID notice that they added a mylar sheath insulation to the connecting wires. Gotta love that. And the wires themselves seemed of better material and more flexible. More strands, finer wire. Maybe my imagination.<br />
<br />
In any event, we suffered the change on the twin 11's on the bench. Brain was even able to do the bottom ones without dismounting the motors. <br />
<br />
George Hamstra of Netgain also followed up with the information that they were absolutely going to the H60 brushes for all new motor builds, though it would take some months to work through current stock which have the H49's. It might be pointed out that there have been THREE total failures noted out of many hundreds of motors sold over the past few years. But in any event, they are going to standardize on the H60's and you will be able to special order the H49's for drag racing purposes.<br />
<br />
He also alluded to looking at a neutral bias on the brush mountings. And both he and Brunka thought our idea of putting a nord-lock on the terminal screws was uptown. He alluded that he might get a fight from Warfield but he was going to carry the torch.<br />
<br />
We also heard from a little bird in Azure Dynamics commenting on our coverage of their bankruptcy. No leak of company private information actually. They are trying to dispose of their stock of Siemens motors and the controllers they built for them. I won't quote the prices but they are VERY attractive. Downside, 300v of course and the controllers are CANbus controlled. ANd it was unclear if there was any documentation, and probably no support of any kind. Also Brusa chargers at VERY attractive prices, but 300-520v models which we cannot use.<br />
<br />
The most significant notice in this weeks show is the news of A123's actually horrifying boo boo with regards to their 20Ah pouch cell. According to CEO David Vieau, in a <a href="http://www.a123systems.com/Collateral/Documents/English-US/Letter%20from%20Dave%20for%20Web%20site_LIV%20prismatic%20cell%20field%20campaign_FINAL.pdf">letter to everyone</a>, one of four tab welding machines in Livonia was miscalibrated, resulting in a hard to detect defect in the cells that could cause premature failure. The wording of this seemed to allude to a failure of the packs they assemble there, which do indeed use "tab welders" to assemble them. But it has been commonly accepted that he was alluding to the cells themselves. <br />
<br />
One of the problems we have with the cells from China is that our sources are not very transparent with regards to the source of the cells. Ours are marked MADE IN USA and Vieau's letter would seem to imply that indeed cells are manufactured in Livonia. We had also heard that cells made in Korea were often labelled MADE IN USA. So we just don't know at this point. And we don't know if our MADE IN USA cells are subject to the recall or are even part of the bad cell output. <br />
<br />
The problem does seem to arise from the "compression" of the cells together in their packs. We don't compress cells ourselves. Some weight of cells on top of others in Flatten-em series but we only stack them three high. So I don't expect it to be an issue. If it is, at this price I can live with it.<br />
<br />
But A123 may not be able to. After suffering the indignity of Fisker's failure to produce cars after gearing up for batteries for 15000 cars a year - what HAS to be 7 million cells, Fisker has sold a TOTAL of 600 cars we're gold. To pile on, A123 had already done a recall on packs to fix a liquid coolant leak. NOW they will have to recall all 600 Fiskers, along with some other vehicle installations, and extend the warranty on the car from 50 months and 50K miles to 60 months and 60k miles. Vieau's probably worst case projection - $55 million. It's a blow that would take many companies to the mat. ANd possibly this one. It will certainly cause any potential OEM buyers to look askance of a company that had TWO recalls on their batteries in the only significant OEM automobile build they had landed. Never mind that A123 had made a $30 million dollar investment in Fisker stock.<br />
<br />
BMW, purportedly an A123 customer, announced this same week that they were going to work closely with Toyota on battery technology.<br />
<br />
Virtually all the other battery companies selling cells to OEM's are using Lithium Manganese Spinel or the new Lithium Manganese Cobalt Nickel hybrid cathodes. As you know, I think the LiFePo4 are much better with regards to cycle life and safety. A123 was really the only American battery company sporting LiFePo4. <br />
<br />
Hopefully the WAS in my was wasn't really a literal WAS. We're kind of warming up to the concept of the A123 cells now that we can obtain them at a competitive price.<br />
<br />
With all these failures, Tesla continues on the march to an on-time July delivery date. One stock analyst, after a visit to the factory and seeing the aluminum stamping forms and presses already mostly in operation, reversed their call on the stock and raised their rating to $49. Tesla's stock, TSLA on the Nasdaq, remains at a 45% of float short sale. That means that 45% of the total available trading stock in this company has been sold short, and with every increase in price, the pressure to bail on this trade increases. Noting that his stock is now the third most shorted stock on the NASDAQ, Musk has vowed to "make it sting - a lot."<br />
<br />
As we have a deposit down on an S model, we wish him every good fortune and hope he makes that stick. Our position in Tesla stock pretty much assures us at this point of a FREE Tesla Model S, but we would graciously accept a bonus for loyalty and long term prediction. eBay once bought me NINE collectible MG automobiles when I was just testing if you WOULD actually receive a good car bought on eBay back in 2000. ONE of the nine was outright fraud. Most EXCEEDED my expectations from photos and descriptions.<br />
<br />
So we will be delighted to take delivery of our Tesla Model S, paid for by Tesla stock. If it moves a little higher, I may upgrade to the Signature series.<br />
<br />
Currently at around $37. We've actually piled on some September CALLS at $40. We'll see how THAT turns out - very risky actually. I still don't like their battery program.<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com87tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-80211555625969531372012-03-26T10:36:00.001-05:002012-03-26T10:37:56.637-05:00Plugging AlongThis week we continue plugging along. Not a lot of activity. Actually we spent a good part of the week packing braided straps and meters. We received a shipment of 20 meters and had a bit of a backlog to fill, so it kept me busy casting shunt bases and Brain in packing boxes. We are also moving a lot of the braided straps. If this keeps up we'll have to order another brazillian.<br />
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<br />
And this is a bit of a business lesson. Whatever you are trying to do, be aware of signals that something else might be afoot. We've been struggling manfully to get some of these vendors to cough up fairly piddlin amounts for commercial advertising - 1 minute ads in our show. They've been oddly resistant.<br />
<br />
I could be sympathetic, but recently had cause to learn what a huge discount they are giving to their dealers - often more than they make themselves from the product. I've written on the flattening effect of the Internet on dealer networks for many years. That we still had them going strong in EVland was kind of missed. And I have to say I don't get it.<br />
<br />
But when in Rome.....<br />
<br />
This week we received our polyurethane motor mounts that we are going to use on the Escalade. This is kind of an important issue. We need to hold 450 lbs in position, keep it from turning with 350kw of power applied, and ideally we do not want to transmit any vibration to the frame of the car.<br />
<br />
This last can be a surprisingly annoying and often overlooked aspect to an EV build. We've never really talked about it although you've watched us do it build after build. Basically, you want some sort of rubber or urethane shock mount between any vibrating motors and your vehicle, to prevent the vibrations from entering the passenger compartment, traveling up the seat back supporting structure, and entering the fillings in your back teeth. This can be terribly annoying if you forget to do this.<br />
<br />
And so, polyurethane shock fittings. Used for many years with ICE engines, which also vibrate annoyingly.<br />
<br />
They basically absorb vibrations in the flexible material, isolating the vehicle from the vibrating or oscillating motor.<br />
<br />
These cost $142 I think for two basically urethane cylinders with a top and bottom steel piece and a hole through it. A bolt through it holds it in position, and does transmit a bit of vibration, but most of the weight is carried on the flexible chunk which absorbs a lot of the vibration.<br />
<br />
Not much happening on the flatten 'em series. I am building a 2x2 inch by 1/8th aluminum angle frame around the bottom section at the moment. We'll add the second section to that soon. Bottom balance both at 2.65 volts or thereabouts. Add a third section for a bandwidth of 4.5-5.0 inches. I may work in a Kilovac relay to allow me to turn this pack on and off remotely, and perhaps a separate fuse for it.<br />
<br />
We tested our last 12v monolithic that we cast in the pink silicon rubber last week. It came in at about 117 Ah very nicely. Good battery. We may have to make a set of the terminal tops and some drawings and see what we can do with a machine shop to have some of those made up professionally as fas as the terminals go.<br />
<br />
We did receive a new shipment of 500 of the A123 cells. We're gaining confidence in our CHinese supplier and the cells themselves. I guess I do NOT think these cells are as good a solution as a CALB 180 prismatic for an electric car. But the smaller granularity with the much higher power output offers a significant advantage - smaller battery packs of less CAPACITY that still offer the same power output at any given instant. As we've said numerous times, this opens the door to a pack of less expense, but consequently less range, while still retaining full operation of the vehicle. <br />
<br />
The bad news is that you basically have to engineer a structure for the cells. And that is additional expense, effort, and time. If you can swap sweat equity for money, it can be a strategy. If you spend as much on the module as you would have with the CALB 180's in the first place, you lose all the way around. Not a great strategy.<br />
<br />
Flatten em looks too heavy and too expensive to make sense. It's main advantage will be I can bolt it on underneath a car for testing purposes. It could be a model for a very light Speedster where that was the sole supply and we accepted a 35 mile range in the car in exchange for lightness which is of course next to Godliness in the land of the EV.<br />
<br />
<br />
Nine or 10 of our monolithic 12volts would probably make more sense with a 120v pack of 115 AH. That would be more of a 50-60 mile car and more practical. Probably a lot easier to put together. But the resin is a significant expense. <br />
<br />
Nine of those would make a nominal 120.4 volt pack of 288 lbs and 115 Ah. <br />
<br />
For those wishing to experiment, we are offering these cells in small quantities at $31 each. We have them in the <a href="http://evtvshop.projectooc.com/">EVTV online store. </a><br />
<br />
We included the WSIU PBS piece in this week's episode more or less for archival purposes. But it was March last year when we first announced a little gathering at the shop that grew into EVCCON 2011. And so we kick off the season. More on the event and registration at <a href="http://www.evtv.me/evccon.html">http://www.evtv.me/evccon.html</a><br />
<br />
We had most of our sessions, our vendor area, and quite a few of the meals in my hangar at Cape Girardeau Airport last year. It's about 18,000 sf and it was pretty comfortable for the number of attendees we had. If that number were to go up even modestly, it would quickly become uncomfortable. And so we have purportedly contracted to take the entire <a href="http://www.showmecenter.biz/">Show Me Center Arena</a> here in Cape for our educational sessions, most meals and the vendor area. It's about 32,000 square feet and so unless we just have a blowout event, it should be quite comfortable.<br />
<br />
I see Willie Nelson is in Concert there April 8th. I think he'll have cleared the area by our September 26th event. What famous singers are associated with electric vehicles?<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com113tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-38606330577022851382012-03-21T13:32:00.001-05:002012-03-21T13:34:48.670-05:00Electric Vehicles - Deathly QuietAgain, we're struggling to come up with a show. There just isn't ANYTHING happening at the moment that we can find ANYWHERE. All online forums, blogs, and other EV news sources are MORIBUND.<br />
<br />
Oh, I guess Coda has shipped two cars. And Wheego has sold 36 EV's in the past year and the company president has announced that that's just what he wants and just what he planned all along. He's been reading too many Volt press releases. The Volt production line is currently shut down.<br />
<br />
And so doing my normal early Friday morning perusal of the wires and press releases and blogs, trying to find some gems for your consideration this week, there was NOTHING. I mean NO news.<br />
<br />
Chris Paine of course produced "Who Killed the Electric Car" and of course this year's documentary "Revenge of the Electric Car" which he graciously previewed at our EVCCON in September. One of his favorite recharge stops is BURNING MAN in the Black Desert. Now a 50,000 person annual event with a hideous and growing set of laws and regulations, he did deliver a talk there that basically said that if no one buys these electric cars during this "window" change is not going to occur. <br />
<br />
He was basically acknowledging the same phenomenon we predicted nearly two years ago - very meager sales. His take is that the consumer is not sufficiently dedicated to the cause. My take is the value proposition presented is poor and the consumer is no dummy when it comes to counting their ducats.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
At this point, the excuses have all rung hollow and faded away. The "next month in Jerusalem" talk is pretty much over. And the finger pointing has begun. According to Lutz, it's conservatives using the Volt as a political football. To others, it is proof positive of range anxiety. It's another Obama plot.<br />
<br />
And as that dies down, we are left with....nothing. No news. No commentary. No developments. ALL the press release announcements from those NOT actively producing a car fall prey to the wait and see what happens to the Volt and Leaf. You will find all those firm plans can just as easily be changed with another press release.<br />
<br />
I find Nissan's announcement of new models and the $9900 ChaDemo fast charger heroic in the breech. I'm actually starting to pull for this gutsy little French dwarf with the Italian suit and shoes. In the face of a total meltdown of a couple BILLION dollar bet, he's talking "double down."<br />
<br />
I again predict the Tesla Model S will re-energize the thing, but add FURTHER confusion when they come out selling well. Ironically, the numbers won't be much different. But for them to sell 10,000 cars in a year will be viewed as a blowout victory, where for Nissan to do the same thing is viewed as a horrifying train wreck of a failure. Expectations. It's all about expectations.<br />
<br />
Note that all along I've been talking about VALUE PROPOSITION. Not PRICE. They are different things.<br />
<br />
A $100,000 car is of course expensive. If it comes with 120 lbs of gold bar in the trunk - it is a good value proposition. You can stop off, sell the gold for a couple of million, and keep the car.<br />
<br />
A $32,000 car is not very expensive. Of course, if it is a dead clone of a $19,000 car, but electric, not a good value proposition.<br />
<br />
As an ENTIRELY new model, on an ENTIRELY new production line, ENTIRELY manned by people who have never been in the automobile business, the odds of Tesla delivering a functional car that doesn't crater itself Fisker fashion are pretty slim. I will predict the issues with the Tesla S will be modest and software related. And within a year of introduction, this car will be touted as one of the greatest sedans ever designed worldwide of any kind and any power train. And sell perhaps as many as 20,000 in 2013. <br />
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That's going to further stun the pundits, along with the 44% short sale in TSLA stock who wind up with their panties around their ankles, and entirely out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas at more or less the same moment.<br />
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Fear. Uncertainty. And doubt. How ironic that the companies seeking to sow it are now the ones reaping it. FUD.<br />
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Meanwhile we struggle for life. We should be overrun with advertisers at this point. We have built a great following of some great viewers all pretty passionate and engaged in the sport of divining the next great movement toward galvanic magnetic propulsion. This should be ENORMOUSLY attractive to advertisers unless I know NOTHING about publishing.<br />
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We had one vendor run an ad for six months and experience great growth. They then dropped the ad. Growth slowed. And their conclusion? They have reached MARKET SATURATION.<br />
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I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. This is the most absurd situation I can recall facing.<br />
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We've been doing some little experiments. Recall that I had a little trouble with getting my very excellent braided straps from Australia because of the shipping charges. Oh EV works hosed up one order because of a change in size of the terminals on the 400Ah cells they were unaware of. But the real issue was huge shipping. <br />
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So we sourced the straps ourselves and of course came up against the problem that they wanted to sell us one BRAZILLION straps, and we needed 75. Interesting experiment here. We can't get them stateside for less than $20. Let's go ahead and ORDER the brazllion. The shipping IS substantial but for some reason NOT what it is from Australia. And we'll offer the straps to our viewers.<br />
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We sold out of the straps in two weeks. We reordered ANOTHER brazillian and we're looking at a third order at the moment. The guy selling them to us wants us to look at his tinned copper cable terminals as well. <br />
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We found this little Ampere Hour meter that had actually been DISCONTINUED. We talked the guy into importing them again and we wrote a little manual for it. Cast the goofy Chinese shunts into some nonconducting resin so you could mount it, added a 12v-12v converter to close the door on any isolation issues, and we sold OUT in 10 hours. <br />
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We reordered 20 of them. We have four left. I've ordered 32 more.<br />
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I guess I'm not having the same problem justifying advertising on EVTV that my advertisers are. What's going on? <br />
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It's true, that some of our viewers have just been curiously supportive. I'm not sure they NEED braided straps right now, but they will and they wanted to show the flag. We appreciate it. Ironically, I had an order for the METER from AUSTRALIA and he's a little butt hurt over the $134 shipping charge - Fedex and UPS being within a dollar of each other. I don't know how to tell him that's where we started.....<br />
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And now I have Matt Hauber of EVWest calling to take me to task for COMPETING with them as a dealer. Wait a minute. We never HAVE had any dealer advertisers. What's with that. Why would I worry about competing with them? <br />
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MORE comically, I get on YouTube, and this onetime EVTV intern has started his own series of videos under the EVWest umbrella. What's good for the goose is NOT good for the gander? Actually they are not bad. You might have a peek. Very hands on, how to, just like he learned here in Missouri. He even kind of labors to mimic my labored Pall Mall limited breathing and talking style.<br />
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But it puts me in mind to fulfill his phears. What would EVTV look like as a dealer? We're not stepping on any dealer toes as we've never HAD any dealer advertisers. And the same component developers who are very shy about a commercial contract are EXTREMELY generous to their "dealers" often ceding a huge markup.<br />
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I have to tell you, I don't quite get the dealer thing in the first place for some of these companies. Understand that I was more or less famous for an editorial I wrote in the very early 1990's where I predicted the worldwide wholesale collapse of dealer networks because of the Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web. <br />
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When the dealer web site and the manufacturer's website are geographically separated by one click of the mouse, the whole house of cards kind of comes tumbling down. If you took the dealer markup and split it, the manufacturer gets half more profit and the end user gets a lower price. What happens to the value add from the dealer? What WAS the value add from the dealer?<br />
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For a dozen years since, as hundreds and HUNDREDS of these networks have gone down in flames just as I predicted, the chant has been the same. SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE. And the end user has gone for the same thing instead, PRICE, PRICE, PRICE. And in every case I've examined, the problem was the dealer wasn't DELIVERING the service.<br />
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The relationship was based on the manufacturer believing the dealer brought them sales from the local area. And in those days indeed dealers stocked product as well as spare parts, made repairs, etc. It all made sense.<br />
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With the Internet, the manufacturer is empowered to deal with customers directly, wherever they are located physically. With UPS and Fedex, items can be shipped overnight, products returned, etc.<br />
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Local John Deere dealer, Cape Girardeau Missouri. Case in point. Sells John Deere lawn mowers. It gets to be spring, and I take mine in for repair. The guy looks me RIGHT in the eye - "twelve week backlog buddy." <br />
WTF. I'm not going to NEED a lawn mower in August champ. In fact, he was rude about it. I felt like I was intruding even ASKING him to repair a lawn mower I'd bought from him a year before. <br />
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Feet don't fail me now. It's off to Walmart.<br />
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One year later, I run into him in a restaurant. He's lamenting that at age 50 he has lost his dealership - everyone's buying at Walmart or Online, and he has to start all over. Where are they going to get SERVICE he bleats plaintively. I bight the last inch of my tongue off completely and roll it around in my mouth. "Twelve week backlog buddy". Had he WANTED to provide service, he simply would hire a couple of extra mechanics for the spring season. He wasn't to be bothered. He's unemployed. <br />
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What service? The manufacturer drop ships the product and answers most of the questions. Very little value add going on out there that I can see. And it's easy to add. How about writing some INSTRUCTIONS to go in the box guy. I can't tell you how many times I've ordered parts and received them, with NOTHING in the box. I can't even tell what the part number is. <br />
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So we have a new world changing technology trying to reinvent distribution networks of the 1950s.<br />
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I understand my 500 new A123 cells are in St. Louis being held up by DHL as usual. Should be here in a day or two. We've added these to the EVTV store at $31 each. Yes, I know that's more than what I paid. Duh.<br />
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Fortunately, it also covers the $1985 shipping and the $450 Paypal surcharge. And we'll have to repackage them to go out. We intend to offer them for those viewers that want 8 or 16 or 32 or something to play with, test, experiment with, etc. After they have that all worked out, it would make sense to go through the angst of dealing with the Chinese directly for larger numbers. But this will work well enough for our viewers to get to play with them and test them and see for themselves before committing to a larger order. And yes, we'll unapologetically make a couple of ducats per cell on the deal.<br />
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The other thing on my mind these days is that March was about when we kicked off the idea of an Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention last year. We got quite a surge of signups. We sincerely hope and plan for a larger and better convention this year. Registrations are $595 again this year, with a discount to $400 between now and 1 June. IF you bring a car, we will discount that to $99 each for up to two people per car recognizing the not inconsiderable expense of shipping a car out here. Ask those that did last year if it was worth it. THey had a blast. To register: <a href="http://www.evtv.me/evccon.html">http://www.evtv.me/evccon.html</a><br />
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As noted last blog entry, David Kidd did a fascinating little 30 minute documentary on EVCCON 2011 I found quite engaging..<br />
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Bottom line is that I think we are facing a great future of unlimited potential with thousands of very interesting and passionate people engaged in a holy mission to change the world for the better, at least when it comes to energy usage. That there are a BILLION cars on the road as of July 2010, and each could be made 7-8 TIMES more efficient at energy usage while doing the same job is a HUGE benefit to mankind and the wobbly little blue marble we ride on. I'm neither dazed nor confused and in fact energized by excitement as to all the good things to come.<br />
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Feet don't fail me now.....<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-64148057372714342722012-03-20T08:24:00.002-05:002012-03-20T08:32:10.859-05:00EVCCON 2011 VIDEOWe received a lot of requests from viewers unable to attend EVCCON 2011 for videos of the event. I allowed the world to consider me miserly in not providing this so you would be inspired to pay the $595 and come instead.<br />
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But that's not quite what happened. More likely, you've got one old guy who can't do two things at the same time and doesn't like to admit it. To VIDEO the event, and then to edit all that down to a presentable and representative video, is a HUGE amount of work. ANd of course putting on such an event is a huge amount of work.<br />
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So I had Brian do the huge amount of work to put it on. And I basically drank beer, played with high voltage, and took people on drives - in that order.<br />
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We did have an old guy in a straw hat haunting the place. David Kidd is a producer at WSIU PBS television over in Carbondale Illinois. This is a Public Broadcast TV Station affiliated with Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.<br />
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This past week he released an INFOCUS spot that they aired four times over the past weekend. And actually, it does a remarkable job of capturing the essence of the event and what we do in a single 30 minute video. He must have shot 10 hours of video to get this 30 minutes so it's all about what you leave in, and of course what you leave out.<br />
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They finally put it up on their web site this morning. I thought it was really quite good.<br />
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Enjoy.<br />
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I was left with EVTV again this week. But that is not all bad. I like puttering around the shop by myself and some of my more productive days are spent this way. This week I reprised the Escalade test bench and got the two EVNetics Soliton1 controllers back up and running - more or less - in preparation for moving the motors from the bench to the vehicle.<br />
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Under the rubric of "Even a blind hog gets an acorn now and again.." we found that the total length of our assembly from the face of the transmission to the air conditioning compressor clutch was right at 35.5 inches. <br />
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And we appear to have about 36.5 inches clear in the vehicle, with another inch to the large tubular cross member on which most of our coolers and heat exchangers mount. As there is a twin fan assembly mounting INSIDE of those heat exchangers, I would say we are going to lose some fans, or more likely have to get something in a tractor version from Summit to go on the other side.<br />
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But clearly the very long twin 11 inch motor will fit the car, albeit not by much. As we had the internal fans removed to minimize the length, this is currently looking like a brilliant move. At the point where we are at the side of the road with smoke rolling out of those motors, probably less so. The difference being a pair of XSTURBOS garrett turbocharger air pumps - each purportedly capable of 435 cfm and excusing their ear splitting howl. This may NOT be the quietest EV on the road.<br />
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The upgrade of Soliton1 software was surprisingly easy. I hooked a laptop up to the device with an ethernet cable, applied 12v, and started the program UPLOADER.EXE. The new 1.5.1 release being in the same directory, it found the Soliton1, and uploaded the new firmware. When it rebooted the device, it was updated. <br />
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Oh, there was a progress bar and an advisory that it was successful. But my role in all this was pretty damned impressively limited. I basically posed and preened and tried to look knowledgeable while all that was going on. <br />
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I also had a request from a viewer that we intercede for them in the purchase of an AC50 system direct from HPEVS. We've basically always avoided dealing in components as it is kind of like competing with our advertisers. But the advertisers didn't show up, and the deal is getting progressively harder to do for our viewers in a lot of cases. So I was casting about the net trying to determine what the going rate was on this, as well as on a Zilla 2K a guy was pestering me about (I still don't know how he knew we had one - he says he SAW it on an earlier video on the rack). <br />
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I was struck by a couple of things. There is a kind of deep malaise in the EV components industry. I suppose the David Kois/James Morrison/EVComponents thing did more damage than we thought. And it is true the economy has been a problem. But the landscape looked decimated and moribund. Half the ev components guys are GONE and the other half appear to have not updated their web sites since the middle centuries after the renaissance.<br />
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It is truly bleak looking. <br />
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I'm juxtaposing in my mind this sad state of affairs with the TRULY improved golden age of conversions that we are clearly IN at the moment. The EVnetics Soliton1 is just beyond conception three short years ago. The batteries are of course infinitely better and substantially less expensive. The motors are better. The HPEVS AC50 and Curtis 1238 controller are frankly MARVELS in some key ways. These guys kind of sauntered onto the scene in quiet mode. A few people tried this very low power AC option and it worked some better than expected. Even on midsized vehicles of 3000 lbs, this very underwhelming spec sheet was actually moving the vehicles quite well.<br />
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We've done a couple of builds now ourselves and bought the Spyder from Duane Balle who also used this solution. WE've run them for awhile. They just don't get revisited very much. They just work. <br />
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I find the setup a little annoying each time. SOMETHING or other gets me. On the swallow it was a weird interaction with a perfectly normal hall effect pedal. But it's always something. The controller is just a LITTLE too hard to setup for my tastes, certainly compared to the EVNetics Soliton1 but it IS quite flexible, which I do like. It is the ONLY controller where we've gotten the hydraulic pressure transducer 0-5v to actually control the regenerative braking, and this is a "feel" item that I "feel" rather strongly about. This is the way to do it. We've actually been advised by the HPEVS guys that it won't work or won't' work very long. It has proven bullet proof for us and we have it on Speedster Duh, the Spyder, and the Vantage Van where we stole both the idea and the parts supplier.<br />
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Unfortunately, great flexibility and utility usually come at the cost of some configuration angst. Choices are choices. But the 1238 is truly a marvel.<br />
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One of our regular viewers, Ryan Fenchel, has a brother in-law working at Curtis's Livermore Facility, what is called the PMC division. He sent us a fascinating article published in the March 8 edition of a very local small town newspaper titled the Independent. It profiled the PMC division of Curtis Instruments.<br />
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Curtis Instruments is a family owned business started in 1960 with about 1000 employees worldwide. The PMC division in Livermore has but 68 employees, but accounts for half the company's revenues. And therein lies a tale.<br />
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My own first EV attempt was in 1980 with a 73 Pinto. It did use a kind of homemade "contactor" but a contactor was actually a series of switches that allowed you to cut the batteries in in various combinations to do various speeds. Kind of like a complicated manual transmission. Your motor was either ON or OFF and when on could be at several different voltages. It was a mess I have to tell you. With lead, you got about 11 miles to a charge. No heat of any kind. Electric cars were tough I tell you.<br />
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THere were no MOSFETs. There WAS such a thing as a field effect transistor or FET but it wasn't really used for high powered applications.<br />
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Stephen Post started his conversion somewhat before mine, at age 12. His father worked at Lawrence Livermore Labs and so innovation was a family rite. In 1984, he attacked the control problem using parallel Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET) to create a "chopper" controller that took the battery output and chopped it into a square wave. This square wave was then "pulse width modulated" to vary the positive portion of the square wave duty cycle from 0 to 100 percent. In this way, the AVERAGE voltage to the motor could be varied. Since motors are mostly a series of inductors, and inductors strongly resist a change in current flow, the high frequency square wave was very much "averaged" by the motors themselves.<br />
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He launched Post Motor Controllers, but within a year the company made the radar screen of Curtis Instruments. As Curtis has international distribution and a very good name from providing instrumentation for the space program, the acquisition was a no brainer. The PMC division has had a great result within the company by providing controllers for industrial machinery, primarily forklifts and pumps.<br />
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But it DID become the default controller for electric vehicles and the Curtis 1231C remains probably the most widely installed controller in electric vehicle conversions. According to Fenchel, half the employees at Livermore drive EV's to work. They're all believers in the cause.<br />
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Stephen Post continues as head of the division and Vice President within Curtis to this day.<br />
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We found the article fascinating. But it puts us in mind how progress occurs over years and you can be a bit too far ahead of your time. <br />
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Enter the curious case of Thomas Davenport. Much like Mr. Post, he too was intrigued by the possibilities. A blacksmith in Vermont, he visited a nearby ironworks and was enthralled by the action of drum with iron spike electromagnetics protruding from it that was turned against finely ground iron ore. The more iron rich particles would stick to the spikes and so very fine iron containing ore could be extracted. <br />
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He was so taken with this that he bought one of these Henry electromagnets and took it home and disassembled it. He learned to make his own electromagnets and continued working with it until he developed the first commutated series DC motor.<br />
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He attempted to patent the motor in 1835 but the patent office had never patented an electrical device. Electrical apparatus was viewed at the time as part science and part occult mysticism and most adherents that actually made money did so by traveling about giving presentations bordering on magic of various things that could be done with electricity. Kind of a version of stupid pet tricks with batteries.<br />
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Davenport enlisted the aid of some famous engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic, the first American school of engineering and even got Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of BF himself, to vouch for the device. Rensselaer actually bought one of the first motors. In 1837 he received the first American patent ever issued on an electrical device - number 132.<br />
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We like to view inventors of the past as ignorant provincials lacking the understanding we have today. It was almost never true. Davenport had a FULLY formed vision of what his motor could do and he particularly saw it as THE driving force in railroads, which were JUST then getting underway. He actually built model trolleys, cars, and a railroad on a track that ran on electricity. He also used one of his motors to run a PRINTING PRESS which he used to publish a newsletter on the motor. He had almost everything we use a motor for today correctly envisioned in the 1840's. <br />
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He died bankrupt in 1851, heart broken that Samuel Morse had been credited with invention of the telegraph, which Davenport had apparently also invented earlier. He never achieved any kind of commercial success with his motor. Nor did he see it used for the many things he envisioned, and which indeed it came to be used for.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mSxx_UrEfB8/T1-IfdSAnoI/AAAAAAAACUM/uOCkBsjZnu8/s1600/thomasdavenport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mSxx_UrEfB8/T1-IfdSAnoI/AAAAAAAACUM/uOCkBsjZnu8/s400/thomasdavenport.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>I'm struck by how FULLY he envisioned and described the motor, its importance, and its future uses. He had not discovered something and failed to understand it's importance. He had FULLY comprehended it from birth.<br />
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The problem, apropos to us in the here and now, were the batteries. Motors in 1834 could only be driven by batteries. There were no generators, or dynamos, invented yet. ANd the batteries were unreliable, expensive, and there was no way of determining how much energy was left in them.<br />
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And so steam power was the watchword of the age and there was NO market for electric motors to drive anything - largely because there was no electricity.<br />
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The ultimate irony of course, is that the solution lie in the problem. Had he but turned his motor around and turned the shaft by hand, he might have observed that it PRODUCED electricity and might have invented the dynamo as well. That was not to come for some thirty more years. And so Thomas Davenport, was simply decades ahead of his time, with a fully formed vision of electric cars and trains, and electrically driven industry. He foresaw electrically operated looms, textile machines, all of it DECADES before it was remotely possible.<br />
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A large segment of our viewership are unduly focused on the concept of IDEAS and place great stock in them. In truth, they are not very valuable and have almost never been the driver in innovation and technology. The ability to develop something or execute and bring a concept to a useful product is the heart of engineering and of technology. Ideas are a dime a freight car load.<br />
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And so while I rail in frustration over all the obvious things we don't' have with regards to chargers, instrumentation, and so forth, there is another view. How marvelous the things we DO have available to very common everyday sorts at achievable prices in the way of batteries, controllers, motors, and other elements necessary to build an electric car. We may in fact be entering a golden age of componentry. That rich availability of capable parts can lead to magical, incredible things.<br />
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If you watch the march of innovation and technology from the best technical minds and university labs, in steady progression into the maw of the huge corporate creature which grinds and masticates this technology into a churning stew of bits and pieces and industrial magic, it generally remains some lone guy somewhere who found three pieces that fit together in a new way to produce the disruptive technology that changes the game.<br />
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But for each of those stories, there are also a hundred Thomas Davenports. And even keeping the story straight is nearly impossible. If you look at almost EVERY single inventor credited with the invention of x.. when I was a child, we now know that at least three others that had an excellent prior claim....<br />
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To a pessimist, the glass always looks half empty. To an optimistic, always half full. But to an engineer, it looks like the wrong sized glass, with the wrong amount of water in it, and placed probably in the wrong place in the first place. But with a few adjustments....<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-67306491506672798852012-03-05T13:55:00.004-06:002012-03-06T15:58:38.156-06:00In the News - FinallyWe have not been gradually altering our format. I want to have some news chat at the beginning of every episode. But it kind of has to BE news and frankly we just haven't had any. This week there was some and so we kind of partied down.<br />
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John Hardy's book ICE FREE is now available from Amazon.com and if you'll click here and buy it I think I get about eleven cents from his efforts. Not a bad deal. He's sent me the book but I haven't received it and can't say much about it one way or the other. But I like the title and concept.<br />
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<a href ='http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il?ie=UTF8&keywords=HARDY%20ICE%20FREE&tag=e00f1e-20&index=aps&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325'><img src='http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL110_&ASIN=0957149506&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=e00f1e-20&ServiceVersion=20070822' border='0' /></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=e00f1e-20&l=as2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
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But much in news. Let's see. Nissan is pushing a $9,900 ChaDemo level III charger. They are also rolling out their cars in the remaining 21 states and you can order now. Like all ever confused Nissan press releases, this one is again nonsense. You cannot order the car and you cannot order the charge station, but we love the talk.<br />
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The head of Envia took exception to our characterization of their work as derivative from Argonne National Laboratory. He did admit it was derivative but professed much effort in furthering the cathode, the anode and the electrolyte. Fair enough. No, they still are not going to produce them but they hope someone does.<br />
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We did talk about the Chevrolet Volt actually increasing sales in February to slightly over 1000 units. AFTER we edited the show on Saturday it came out that they have announced a shut down of the Volt production line from March 19 to April 23 to align output with market realities. We would be more sympathetic if these people EVER told the truth. Last June, they shut down for a month to INCREASE capacity to be able to meet demand. Or was THAT a shutdown to meet market realities. <br />
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If they shut down March 19, and don't restart April 23rd, what - another press release? These people have forfeited all credibility to a public that is contemplating the second large expenditure of their life after a house. How can you set yourself up in an adversarial relationship BASED on lies and expect to thrive at $42,999 a pop? I just don't get it. I know these guys went to college and learned how to dress and all that. Clearly they GET to work somehow, either finding their own way or perhaps with the aid of a spouse or child. I don't know. How hard can it be with billions in resource (from us) to NOT look stupid in public at least while failing.? <br />
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BMW is looking more serious all the time. We loved their i3 and i5 commercial shot in Chicago. This is some creative thinking. What if an electric car did NOT try to mimic the look of an ICE car but looked like itself? Carbon fiber?<br />
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Barrack Obama gave a speech where he started to sound like he understood part of the energy thing so I ran it. We got some heat on YouTube, which doesn't really contribute much to our viewership frankly although now I am hosting the BLOG version on YouTube and it works pretty well. Probably do 900 views or so per week on Youtube and about 6000 on the blog and about the same 6000 on the web. The complaint was that we were becoming political.<br />
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Ahem. WE always WERE political. We announced at the outset that I ALREADY HAVE A CAR thank you but that we were launching a global movement and looking for 100,000 guys to join us. What part of this do you fail to comprehend? I want YOU to go to your garage, sweep out a space about the size and shape of a car, build one there, and get in and drive it away. Then show it to everyone who'll listen while you tell them how cool the thing really is. WHAT PART OF THIS HAVE WE BEEN COY ABOUT? And if you don't want to do that, get off my blog and quit watching my videos. It's expensive for me.<br />
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Lest you be confused, we are ALL ABOUT political. Oh I don't go on to much about particular elections or candidates as it is generally polarizing and rarely has anything to do with OUR political movement, which is of course to take over the world with electriic cars one freakin car at a time. I guess I think some of you do not believe this can be done or don't believe I can do it or are pretty sure there is some other agenda. There isn't.<br />
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Yes, we are trying to find oxygen to make it go. And we assumed that those who would be most eager to help us would be the component vendors who we were naturally and indeed directly helping them sell their products. False economy is not thrift. It is just the stupidity of the lame and the halt. Had an interesting if negative conversation by e-mail with one vendor I found shocking and so for the moment, I've fired them all. No more advertising. <br />
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Still not sure where that leaves us, but you can lead a horse to water, if he just won't drink it, drop him with a bullet to the head and get a REAL man's horse that drinks WHISKEY.<br />
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Of course the main theme this week is the Escalade. Brain has removed the front clip and the intake manifold and we're actually ready to pull the engine. The week before last, Brain was out ALL WEEK with a horrible viral stomach flu that is going around here in Cape. This week it looks like its my turn on the throne. So I don't know what we'll be getting done this week.<br />
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We did get a dozen of our meters out this week. I have 20 more supposedly arriving the week of the 12th. You can now sign up on the web site store to receive an e-mail notification when they arrive. <br />
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The flatenem series continues and I have two layers done. Ordered some aluminum angle and so forth to try to put some of this together. Haven't' known exactly where I was going with this. Received an e-mail yesterday from our friend Brian Andersson at B&B Manufacturing in Granby. Recall that he was making a SECOND eCobra for Aptima motors out of molytube and carbon fiber. Claims the body is 30 lbs total and the frame is about 200 lbs instead of 500.<br />
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Better, he tells me he is going to try to put together a carbon fiber bodied speedster with molytube frame. I don't know what it is going to cost, or what it is going to weigh, but I've provisionally told him to put us down for one if it is at a cost that would make any sense at all to our viewers. I'm picturing a super lightweight speedster with the A123 flatenem series underneath as the SOLE battery pack. If the car is much lighter and we mate it with a 180 lb pack, then the overall weight and thus energy requirements should go down. I'm aiming for a flatenum series car with 35 mile range to 100%, only it actually goes FIFTY miles on a charge with a per mile energy usage down around 150. Probably not doable. But we'll see. It would be a whole new thing for us in minimalist electric car. <br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-3072612982462642452012-02-28T10:51:00.005-06:002012-04-04T08:57:34.064-05:00Flatenem Series A123 ModuleThis week we heard from John Hardy of the Midlands in the UK. John is about to publish a new book titled ICE FREE specifically on the topic of converting your car to electric drive.<br />
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He suggested a flat pack design and while a little rough and perhaps a little obvious, we pretty much liked the idea. <br />
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We've been talking about a flat pack for a few weeks to put under a Smart Car build or to test an A123 pack under a Speedster. This concept does well enough.<br />
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I suppose we jumped the gun describing the book, but I wanted a little context for the conversation, like who he was and where he was from. The book came up. The problem is it isn't precisely released yet, so you can't have one. But it should be on Amazon soon.<br />
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The other aspect we went on with in this video at some length and probably at some tedium was the JLD404AH Intelligent AH Meter. We actually found this meter BY ACCIDENT in a box of stuff we had ordered a year ago. We more recently found this DC Voltmeter that allowed you to set relays based on voltage and we kind of designed a bottom balancing circuit out of this very simply by connecting that control relay to a contactor and a 0.1 ohm 250watt power resistor. This little "bleeder" would bleed a cell at about 30 amps until it gets down to 2.50 volts, or really whatever value you set, and then disconnect the load.<br />
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But while rooting through a box of similar meters, we found this Intelligent AH Meter version. We had never hooked it up. And it was no longer available, and worse the documentation was no longer available.<br />
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But it was a pretty similar meter and we gradually were able to piece together how to work it. incredibly, the relays could be activated by Voltage on those as well. In fact, you could tie the relays to voltage, current, ampere-hours, or time in a way that is so flexible, you really can't quite work it all out mentally. It actually lets you set TWO levels an activation threshold and a deactivation threshold kind of like a thermostat.<br />
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A thermostat? Well yee. THis is the easiest example, which is unfortunate because this device does NOT measure temperature. But let's say you wanted to turn on a heater to bring a pot of water to a certain temperate and hold it there. Wouldn't it be nice to have a relay that would run the heater. IF the water is below 100 degrees for example, it energizes, turning on the heater. When it reaches 140 degrees it reenergizes, allowing the temperature to fall. But at 100 degrees, it comes on again. In this way, it cycles but without hystereses. It has a band gap.<br />
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That's how these relays work. And you can set them on an ascending curve or descending curve. And they can work on voltage, current, amp hours, or time.<br />
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The flexibility of all this hurts the head, so I won't pursue it. But it makes it a very handy little device.<br />
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We went back to the guy we bought this from and had a couple of weeks of discussion to get him to reprise it. We ordered a dozen, and put it in the video which we released Sunday noonish.<br />
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We also put a description and a way to order on our <a href="http://evtvshop.projectooc.com/proddetail.php?prod=JLD404AH">web site online store</a>. By Monday morning, we had sold twelve. Of course, I already had two of our dozen on the lab bench. So we're not only sold out, but scrambling to get enough to fill the current orders. <br />
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This basically illustrates the ongoing need for instrumentation. We recently reviewed Valery Mitzikhov's EMW Dashboard. It turns out this hardware isn't done by EMW at all, but rather by Dmitri Butvinik, an online impresario we've crossed swords with before. The hardware literally came apart in our hands. And now that we know where its from, the odds of fixing the 5% accuracy problem are essentially none. I played with some GOOD hall effect sensor s a year ago and found accuracy to be a devilish problem. I assumed Valery, with a Phd in Physics, had some magic sauce on this topic since they used a hall effect sensor. As it turns out, no. He has simply bitten on a Dmitri device assuming it would report accurate current. It doesn't. And it can't. In fact it's a very cheap hall effect sensor to begin with. Dmitri and his followers are big fans of cheap.<br />
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In any event, we're going to piece together this AH meter, a 12v DC-DC converter to power it with full isolation from your pack voltage, a shunt that COULD be mounted with a bit of additional work, and a Operations Manual that yours truly has cobbled together to serve as some DOCUMENTATION for this device.<br />
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The device uses a shunt. We get rather inexpensive shunts from China that are 75 mv. Let's talk a little about current measurement. Everyone KNOWS all this, and in most cases know at least part of it wrong.<br />
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Basically to measure current, the most accurate and temperature stable way to do this is with a known small value of resistance. According to George Ohm, the amount of current through a given resistance is a function of the voltage you apply. Conversely, if you measure the voltage across a known resistance, you can calculate the current flow.<br />
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To measure high current levels, you want a very LOW resistance value so you dissipate a minimum of current as heat. The power dissipated will be a function of current level, times resistance, squared. So if you have a high level of current, you must have a very low value of resistance.<br />
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In the U.S., most shunts are machined to have a resistance where the full current level will cause a voltage drop of 50mv. For example, you might have a shunt that is rated at 100Amps/50mv. That means that if you run 100 amps through it, you would read 0.050 volts or 50 millivolts across the terminals as the voltage drop across that resistance. If we take that voltage and divide it by the current 0.050/500 we get the resistance of the shunt resistor - in this case 0.0001 ohms or 0.1 milliohms. Indeed a very small value. But if accurate enough, very useful. <br />
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Chinese meters almost always specify 75mv shunts. And so we are coupling this meter with a 1000A/75mv shunt. In the meter, there is a APuH value where you enter the full scale value of current - 1000 amps. And of course it has a fixed 75 mv input.<br />
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Because of this full scale variable, we can actually use ANY shunt with this menu. What you are setting is the number of amperes to display and to count in the AH calculation when the meter measures 75 millivolts. If we had a 500A/50mv shunt for example, it would never exhibit a voltage drop of 75mv until it carried 750 Amperes. No problem. Hook it up to the meter and enter 750 as the full scale current value.<br />
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Similarly, if you had a 100A/100mv shunt you wanted to use. How many amperes should you enter for 75 mv? Well, how about 75 amperes? <br />
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There are a couple of things to keep in mind here. First, it is just a fixed value of resistance. The maximum current that can be measured is a function of the METER primarily. In other words, we don't know what this meter does with inputs above 75 mv. So you want more or less to size your shunt so you never exceed the 75 mv. <br />
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The other criteria is that the power dissipated DOES heat the shunt slightly. If you run 1000 amps through a 100 A shunt, not good. It will heat it and that will affect accuracy and too much heating and the accuracy goes off permanently. But it is NOT precisely a problem to run 2000 amps through a 1000 amp shunt, or 1000 amps through a 500 amp shunt briefly. We just don't' know exactly what the meter is going to do with the information.<br />
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The other proviso is that the LOWER you go the more accurate you become. There is no point using a 1000 amp shunt in a buggy that will never do more than 200 amps. The scale is 75 mv to 1000 amps and so 1 mov of change in voltage represents 13.33 amperes. At a 300 amp shunt, each millivolt represents 4 amperes so you have a much more accurate scale, and you're not going over 300 amperes anyway.<br />
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Similarly, the 75 mv shunts are more accurate, all other things being equal, than the 50 mv shunts. You are simply using a wider voltage drop to represent the same change in current.<br />
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The EV community has faced a real challenge in finding current measurement and particularly kWh or AH accumulator/counters sized for our use. The only other market for such devices, aside from nuclear power plants, are solar power systems. ANd they tend to be 50 amp and 48v scale items. Similarly, some attention is paid by large boat and recreational vehicle owners. BUt again, 48v and 50amp or 100amp is pretty much the game there. <br />
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And so if you want to accurately measure 500 or 1000 amps and you have a pack voltage of 150 or 250 volts, there is really not much out there to find in the way of generic measurement devices.<br />
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The ability to measure 50 mv or 75 mv is actually chip based. There are some phenomenal operational amplifier chips out there to do this and have been for many years. The problem is that they are now ENTIRELY surface mount devices. I cannot find one that will measure both directions and provide a useful output in a larger chip format. And I cannot SEE much less solder SMT devices. <br />
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Hall effect devices CAN output higher values such as 0-5v or 4-20ma or even 0-10v that can be read with standard A/D circuits in multicrontroller devices such as Arduinos. But they become quite nonlinear outside of their defined range, and it is quite hard to find the zero point, even with temperature compensation. And so at these scales where we are charging at 25 amps and driving at 1300 amps and need to be able to measure both accurately, that can be difficult to do with hall effect devices. And not possible at all with undersized inexpensive ones.<br />
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We have used the Xantrex device for several years. It is kind of pricey at $250-$275. I cannot SEE the display in any lighting conditions. And the little terminal board in the back is very difficult to poke a wire into and get it to stay put. But we've lived with it. THe JLD404AH is the first meter I've found that does what I want, allows control based on AH, and that I can read.<br />
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But given the immediate dozen sales, I'm guessing we need to keep looking. Apparently, we are NOT the only people looking for instrumentation.<br />
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We'll try to expedite all current orders and get new stock in soonest.<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com86tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-19693711319548144972012-02-22T09:06:00.004-06:002012-02-22T10:07:41.401-06:00The Cape Girardeau ENDURO.Of batteries and range and endurance and costs and complexities and batteries....<br />
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This week we continue A123 module obsession AND we do some minor work on the Cadillac Elescalade.<br />
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Apparently the A123 cell thing is of intense interest to at least some segment of our viewership. If developed, it would appear to offer some alternative cell strategies. However, these are not entirely without difficulties.<br />
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A couple of items. We continue to have lab anomalies I'm hesitant to report in detail. The reason I can't share these with you guys is you guys. You shred me every time I do with a laundry list of how I SHOULD have done the test. <br />
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We are accustomed to testing large format cells - 160 Ah and 180 Ah units with the odd 400 Ah cell thrown in. It's true I've done quite a bit of work in the last year in pairing two 90Ah cells for 180 Ah.<br />
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Suddenly dealing with 20Ah cells is just a different world. 1/2Ah or even 1 Ah isn't anything on a 180Ah cell. It's not really much of anything on a 100 Ah cell. It's a LOT on a 20 Ah cell. And so our procedures and test equipment, which I am ALSO always testing, gets a little bollixed up on what I'm doing at any given moment.<br />
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IS the decrease in capacity from 19Ah to 17.8 Ah due to test equipment or have I damaged the cell? Or not fully charged it in the first place?<br />
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As everyone who has gone into real cell testing has discovered, defining fully discharged OR defining fully charged is actually a little squishy. You can fully charge the cell using anything you want. Let it rest a couple of hours, and it will take more using the same metric. Similarly on discharge. A "bit more" starts to get hard to define at 20 Ah.<br />
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But we have had some mysteries. Like bottom balancing four cells to exactly 2.50 volts and then charging the pack. When we discharge it, they are all out of b a lance again. So we repeat the process and they are BACK in balance again?<br />
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How about draining a cell to 2.50v and then leaving it overnight with NOTHING connected to it. To find the next day it is ruined at 0.85v. Wait a minute. Recharged it works fine again????<br />
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We do not see these sorts of things with the larger prismatic cells. I would characterize these A123 cells as about as stable as a burlap sack full of cats. But I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.<br />
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More reality. Yes, I know you all are all packaging engineering experts and I was made to WATCH the other kids during art class in the second grade. But whatever I do adds 1/3 to the weight and volume of A123 cells. You can pretty much figure that if it takes 10 cells and they weigh .496grams each that will be 4.96 kg. My package will be 4.96 x 1.33 or 6.6kg. So any increase in energy density you "imagine" from these cells is not only not possible, but if I'm doing the packaging there is a penalty here. A half sized pack doesn't get you half the range. It probably gets you 1/3 the range. So your 100 mile car with a pack that costs slightly MORE than half a pack probably actually delivers 1/3 the range or 35 miles or so. <br />
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Similarly the costs. Yes, it's $100 for resin. Let's try polycarbonate at $150. Or straw, at $90. Whatever I do, at least in prototype, dramatically increases the cost of these cells which STARTED OUT very pricey themselves. As their price has fallen, the percentage devoted to connectors and resin and molds and so forth has risen as a percentage.<br />
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So despite my obsession with these cells and posing them as a low cost alternative because of their high power output, reality keeps intervening to make it clear to me that this will NEVER be my choice for cells in a car. The large format leggo block 180Ah CALB is the battery of choice for me in designing a car at the moment. And I would list A123's as "problematical". <br />
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But that's not to say some effort making them LESS problematical isn't in order.<br />
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On the good side, despite my totally ruined mold, the 13.2v 120 Ah battery is testing well at about 113 Ah without any real overcharging or over discharging. I have mentioned some oddities but the cells seem to still be ticking along. But from what I am seeing I can see new insight into why some are so focused on top balancing BMS systems. They are a brute force way of making these cells do your bidding or appear to. I suspect there is another better way, but I'm still looking for it.<br />
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And the 13.3v package is looking pretty good to me in camp green and black. It is a little heavy at 36 lbs was it? But obviously durable. All cells are available at the top, perhaps too much so. A dropped wrench on this one would be fireworks. I might put some effort into a soft rubber "cap" made out of the silicon rubber mold material. Pour it on, let it cure, and pull it off. Then you make your connections and mash it back on to secure the terminals. Kind of a soft rubber hoodie for a battery.<br />
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All this is kind of stalling out our larger projects. But I confess I am having some fun. ANd it feels like we are just doing some things very differently from the OEM's and the very elegant high tech style so in vogue. But I kind of think "car stuff" out to be a little more rough and tumble along the lines of the SLI battery, which has evolved over 100 years - in fact we missed the anniversary of Kettering's electric start automobile 100th anniversary this week. <br />
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The 1912 Cadillac Touring Edition was first to eliminate the hand crank and opened up driving to everyone. Cadillac founder Henry M. Leland, who had already pioneered electric lights and electric ignition on his cars, worked closely with Charles F. Kettering, the inventor of the electric starter, to incorporate the device into his cars. The electric starter also was GM’s first electric motor – a core business today anticipating the growth in the electrification of the automobile.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bckciVgnscs/T0T-c2S2MzI/AAAAAAAACTQ/vxw6EE7vgfw/s1600/cadillac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="228" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bckciVgnscs/T0T-c2S2MzI/AAAAAAAACTQ/vxw6EE7vgfw/s400/cadillac.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Point is, that battery has been "evolving" for a century now. It looks the way it does for a reason, or a million reasons. It arrived in Darwinian fashion to be exactly what it is. And so using that as a starting point is not a bad, if slightly blind, strategy.<br />
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But new ideas are good too. And so we are casting about. We have used several. We used the alternating cells on the nylon threaded rod. I liked that, but it buried our terminals. We kind of stress tested it, which on reflection may not have been good medicine. But it got us to a pretty gruesome failure quickly which prevents spending more time on such a thing and then having it blow later.<br />
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We then mimicked the individual cell thing we already get from China. A word about that. I've heard a lot about just using similar boxes and similar terminals from China. Well, I've looked for them on Alibaba and I can't find them. If you can find who makes those, yes, I wold prefer to just buy the existing hardware and plastic extruded boxes, even if I had to cut them down a bit. Haven't found a source.<br />
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And this to the concept of ideas. An idea is not a general piece of shit on a napkin. They work better with measurements, specific product recommendations, and sources. "Expanding foam" is fine. But there are a brazillian. Similarly urethane resins, polycarbonate, silicon rubber, etc. ALl have different cure times, shore hardness, tensile strength, exothermic reaction, temperature tolerance, etc etc. ad nauseum.g<br />
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This is why I can be a little short with some of the arm chair theorists. If you've really thought this through by looking up at the ceiling, you're not in the same category as someone like Nabil or Peter who have hooked some of this up and then had an idea they don't have the resource to implement. And then if you're a Damien Maguire or Paul Holmes are someone in that category, just send me a list of parts you need and a delivery address and we'll wait for YOUR video.<br />
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I did include a segment of Damien Maguire's in this episode. If you were looking for someone to liven up the pace of conversation, Damien is more in my camp than out of it. But he does some interesting and of course tedious work on bottom balancing and shows you the ugly end of it on his BMW and so I included the entire video he uploaded to YouTube. I think he will find bottom balancing surprisingly effective in a lot of ways, and no easier than he thought. <br />
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I was reminded by the head of REAP systems, a leading BMS developer at the EVCCON that while bottom balancing might be more effective than top balancing, at least arguably, it was not very convenient. My response to him, and to Damien, is that in all the battery testing we've done, across several years and now locations, I've never once had a SINGLE LiFePo4 cell express ANY interest at all in my convenience. They are just curiously agnostic and apparently have no feelings for MY feelings whatsoever. But on the other hand, if I ask one to do the dive for the cause at my behest, they will head toward zero volts so fast you think they actually LIKE to give their lives in order to save mine. Valient. Just valiant. Splendid behavior.<br />
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This week I'm working on a new supur sekert module project. We are code naming this one the FLATENUM SERIES. It will be a flat pack designed to slide under Speedster Duh and ultimately get hooked up to it to provide 120v of juice at 60Ah. I have kind of a theory that this small Ah pack will act as a pack stiffener - holding the voltage up on acceleration. After acceleration, it would be restored by the larger prismatic pack to an identical state. This appears obvious. But it either may or may not be TRUE. We haven't really done such a thing. I would THINK it will work and instead of plunging to 106v on a hard acceleration we should maintain up at about 114 or even 116volts. This means more power through the controller to the wheels. <br />
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it should add about 200 lbs to the car, but in theory another 25 miles as well. <br />
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To make all things fair, i'll just quietly mention in passing that we are considering an addition to the Drag Race and Autocross at EVCCON this year. It will be a two hour race we will call the EVTV ELECTRIC ENDURO. It will run through a very SCENIC fall drive from Cape Girardeau up the hilly twisty U.S. 61 to Perrryville Missouri, thence across highway 51 to Illinois, where it will pick up Illinois highway 3 down the banks of the Mississippie before recrossing at the Cape Girardeau Bill Emerson Bridge back into town. And it looks like 127 miles on the map. <br />
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I think Speedster Redux can make it now and Speedster Duh likely will make it after the A123 addition if it works. But if you're working on an extender pack, battery trailer, etc there may well be a showcase for it in the EVTV Enduro. Probably a timed race rather than a true road race. Time and the ability to complete being the issue.<br />
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<small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=embed&saddr=Cape+Girardeau,+Show+Me+Center+Arena&daddr=37.30677,-89.52662+to:37.306355,-89.5181745+to:37.32104,-89.50975+to:37.332999,-89.4955554+to:37.34379,-89.49299+to:37.35925,-89.478845+to:37.48226,-89.51996+to:37.46571,-89.64028+to:37.5448,-89.68479+to:Perryville+Mo+to:MO-51+N+to:37.9189182,-89.8276819+to:rockwood+to:Morgan+Oak+St+to:Show+Me+Center+Arena&geocode=Fd50OQId4u6p-iGEO9utXzHXfw%3BFZJBOQIdpO6p-ikDblsEkod3iDEm8VtKdBphaw%3BFfM_OQIdog-q-ikRn4Y3m4d3iDFzr2qyijaQMQ%3BFVB5OQIdijCq-ilPF3NQCod3iDHZUI7zPxpNeA%3BFQeoOQId_Weq-ilTKpgEGYd3iDHMptCHIyJ3gg%3BFS7SOQIdAnKq-imzf8_m4IZ3iDHQSLjTDM56iw%3BFZIOOgIdQ6mq-invTVD7tYZ3iDFl1VPfe6ndEw%3BFRTvOwIdqAiq-ilD8JPw25p3iDG1dAbMFXWMsQ%3BFW6uOwIdqDKo-inZiH_N9Y13iDFz5CbrC7dN5g%3BFWDjPAIdyoSn-in3pjs7XZN3iDFuEo22UFIVvg%3BFTygPwIdnNOk-ilni5qsZNt3iDFDm-rokz3UaA%3BFRBRQgIdpCql-g%3BFcaYQgIdn1al-innGz65vs13iDFtpC-xh5TIzg%3BFd9mQQIdzUan-ilT3exq17d3iDGhiNy26jEmTQ%3BFc8fOQId7u2p-g%3BFd50OQId4u6p-iGEO9utXzHXfw&aq=&sll=37.303962,-89.521859&sspn=0.024373,0.046756&hl=en&mra=ls&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12&ie=UTF8&ll=37.338568,-89.539862&spn=0.62417,0.47348&t=m" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small><br />
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I may try to arrange some charging in Perryville for those who want to try half of it, and still get back to the festivities without a flatbed. Yes, the entire concept is for this very beautiful scenic country drive to be just beyond your reach. An electric road race no one can finish. That's just the way my mind works. I would have been different had I been born a TALL instead of a ROUND. But I'm still around.<br />
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One other element that will apply to drag race, autocross, and endure - anti homolugation. If you have produced over 100 of these vehicles, you cannot compete other than exhibition only. It must be a custom conversion or VERY small run OEM with less than a hundred instances on the road. We remain TEsla Fanboyz too, but that's not really what EVCCON is about.<br />
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Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-6924627377834685872012-02-13T11:32:00.006-06:002012-02-13T11:56:11.088-06:00OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER AND A123 BATTERY CELLSWhat do you mean obsessive/compulsive?<br />
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This week we continue our obsession on A123 cells. I fear this obsession on developing a mechanical package for these cells to use in a car is going to cost me my entire viewership of our EVTV weekly show.<br />
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But we continue to pursue it for a number of reasons.<br />
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FIRST. We think this higher power cell opens the door to a different kind of power pack for electric vehicles. Not dramatically different, but just conceptually different. Our DIY crowd lives in a strange space of time, space, and money restrictions that VW and BMW simply do not face.<br />
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As a result, EVTV has lived in a strange grey zone of tension between those who want to build excellent electric vehicles and those who want to do it inexpensively. There is a little army of guys out there still building lead acid vehicles because they perceive the $3000 of lead cost as workable and $10,000 for Lithium as not. They desperately want to be perceived as "pioneers" in the electric vehicle movement. When I tell them they are not only NOT pioneers, but actually damaging to the cause, it drives them into a frenzy of hostility and abuse mostly directed at the messenger ME. <br />
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Let me repeat: lead is dead. IT is at this point a NOT very interesting science project. It is not a car. ANd it reenforces false stereotypes about electric cars among the public. If you have a lead powered electric car, please hide it from view.<br />
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But the desire for a lesser cost battery, and the willingness to settle for less range, just might be an itch we can scratch with the A123 MD1HD-A 20Ah pouch cell.<br />
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Here's why. This cell only has 20Ah of energy in it and in testing, really more like 19 Ah. But it can put out 20C of POWER and so it's POWER density is quite high. To drive a 1000Amp controller and motor, would only require three of these cells in parallel. A 60Ah pack would cover up to 1350 amps actually which encompasses the power requirements of every single vehicle we've done at EVTV including the eCobra.<br />
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And so a 100 Ah pack is actually overkill for a normal car with regards to power or instantaneous current requirements. But it is a smaller pack than we normally use. <br />
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As an exercise, let's redesign our pack for Speedster Part Duh. This vehicle is limited to 120v by the controller. If we did a 100Ah version of this at 5 cells in parallel, we would actually be a little less than that, probably 90-95Ah. At let's say at 120v, such a pack would of course have 10,800 kWh. But the weight of the cells, not counting any modules, would be more like 180 lbs instead of our current 450 lbs and could conceivably bring our wH per mile down to 200. That's a 54 mile range to 100% DOD and of course 43.2 miles to 80%.<br />
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The national average for a daily drive is 39.4 miles and 78% of the population can deal with a car that does 40 miles or less.<br />
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The car would be lighter. And the cost of the cells based on our last purchase would be $4770. The cost of the cells we HAVE in it now for an 80 mile safe range is a bit over $8000 with shipping. <br />
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And so we have lead acid, with 1200 lbs of cells and about a 30 mile range at $3000, the CALB 180's with an 80 mile range at 450 lbs of cells at $8000, and the A123 at 180 lbs and 43 mile range at $4800.<br />
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The A123 fills in nicely and the CAR actually PERFORMS better than either of the other options because of lower cell weight and so lower vehicle weight. <br />
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But perhaps most importantly, the initial cost is closer to the lead $3000 cost than it is to the CALB 180's $8000 cost. And the car is not only fully functional, but probably super functional as it will drive better at a light weight than it will with the CALB 180 cells.<br />
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IF you then like the car, and need more range, ADDING cells to the system is almost a trivial exercise.<br />
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And so we see these cells as allowing a whole new group of our viewers who mostly view, finally get started to build. That's a big play for us and a big play toward the adoption of electric drive for personal mobility worldwide.<br />
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REASON TWO. I'm just incensed at the hubris of Miet Ming Chang and the A123 group in accepting $249 million dollars and publicly dissing ANYONE not an OEM qualified in their mind to be an OEM right on their web site WITH my tax dollars in their jeans. I'm further incensed that they would lay off 125 hapless yucks the first time Fisker hits a glitch, saving themselves what $7 million a year in payroll while lunching at the Fish on their $249 million dollar grant.<br />
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I'm THEN incensed that they actually make the cells in Korea, and have MADE IN USA printed on them there.<br />
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And then I'm enormously entertained that FISKER has now missed the milestones on THEIR Department of Energy LOANS and have shut down their production and layed off 65 workers. This is a company A123 invested $30 million dollars in, and lo Fisker announced A123's cells to be the very highest quality available.<br />
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Now A123 has a rather diminished need for cells.<br />
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And so it APPEARS that the Asian factories, facing plummeting demand from A123, are actually selling the cells out the back door to Chinese traders. And there we purchase them.<br />
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Several people have alluded to the fact that these may be "reject" cells from QA or "seconds" or otherwise undesirable cells. I would note that EVERY person I have heard this from also sells competing batteries. It is just dehumanizing to watch the "who's ox got gored" scenario play out EVERY TIME in EXACTLY the same way.<br />
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Our examination and testing would tend to indicate that the cells we are receiving are brand new and of acceptable quality per the published specification. At some price, the performance is what the performance is and we find 18.5 to 19.5 Ah of energy density and a full 23C tested current capacity very persuasive at these prices.<br />
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So reason two is simply that it tickles my fancy to buy cells from China purportedly made in the USA from a US manufacturer who's head is so far rammed up their own ass you would have to e-mail them JPEGS of sunlight if you ever want them to know what it looks like.<br />
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REASON THREE has to do with establishing the ongoing market price of these cells. The factory and traders have to make some level of profit to continue making the cells at all. I don't know where the floor is. Our first purchase was a little over 2 months ago at $36 per cell I think. Our latest purchase in December was at $20 per cell plus shipping and paypal charges. Nathan Knoppenberg reported this week a quote of $17.40 FOB china. I asked my guy and he quoted $19.20. As these two quotes were from the same company and our viewers have already purchased several thousand cells from this guy, I kind of went ballistic on him. His response is that I can have them at whatever price I want to pay.<br />
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Lower pricing is good. You want to squeeze. But when you squeeze all the oxygen out of the room, understand that the supply might just disappear.. In infant industries such as this, while you are seeking the lowest price, understand that it is generally in your interest for these people who make motors, controllers, batteries, et al to remain in business and for it to actually be an attractive business for others as well.<br />
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In any event, CALB cells are at $1.20 per amp hour and TS/Winston/Sinopoly somewhere around $1 to $1.05. At anything like $19 and below, these A123 cells suddenly make sense in a lot of ways. At $15 they pretty much kill off the larger prismatics.<br />
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REASON FOUR - it may just be a better battery. A little over a year ago, in our <a href="http://jackrickard.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-he-said-what-i-said.html">December 6, 2010 blog entry "What heSaid, What I said" </a> a professor Jay Whitacre of Carnegie Mellon University did a video addressing the Carnegie Mellon EV club and talking about batteries, battery management systems, chemistry, etc. This guy has had quite a career specifically with Lithium batteries going back to the NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab and a decade of it. In this video, he several times held up the A123 cell as the "gold standard" by which LiFePo4 cells should be compared. Since then, A123 has done several presentations to DOE as to how they have improved their cells, and mostly this 20 Ah cell. It is a LONG way from the little can cells used in the deWalt power tools. <br />
(Incidentially deWalt as it turns out has a patent on a little BOTTOM BALANCING battery charger).<br />
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Now Daniel A Cogswell and Martin Z. Bazant of MIT have published a paper, <a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.3877v2.pdf">Coherency strain and the kinetics of phase separation in LiFePO4 </a> that would appear to imply that fracturing of the crystalline matrix in LiFePo4 cells may be DIMINISHED by the use of HIGHER current levels during charge and discharge. In other words, the harder you work em, the longer they last. I have for about a year now thought that the disconnect in the broad electric vehicle community that I feel is about really smart people NOT looking hard enough at these LiFePo4 cells because of their lowish energy density. They don't REALLY know why these cells work, and yet they are moving on to others that have none of the same advantages, for a few ma of energy. How about driving THIS chemistry to its limits first.<br />
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Our latest module uses a mold we made from a CALB 180 prismatic cell using <a href="http://www.smooth-on.com/Silicone-Rubber-an/c2_1115_1341/index.html?catdepth=1">Mold Star 30 </a>Platinum Silicone Rubber from a company titled SMOOTH-ON. This took about 16 hours to cure but gives me a very durable but flexible rubber mold to pour cast urethane in. The material needs no release agent when used with urethanes. So you just pour it in and in 10 minutes pull it out.<br />
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The urethan resin we used this week (resin du jour as we try a lot of different ones) is their SMOOTH CAST ONYX which has a deep glossy black finish. It takes about 40 ounces in our mold. The bad news there is there is this stuff is $94 per gallon meaning we could do three batteries per gallon or EACH cell would take about $31 plus shipping just of resin. We probably need to find something less expensive.<br />
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Assuming about $10 worth of hardware, $31 in resin, and six cells at $26.50 our little battery costs about $200 each for 115 Ah. And our 36 cells in Speedster Duh, instead of the theoretical $4800, is more like $7200. Of course, that is with 120 Ah instead of the 100Ah described at the beginning. But you can see that the form and the cost of the actual modularization of these pouch cells is what it is entirely about. You can wipe out the advantage of them if you have too high a costs in the module. And of course you wipe out the advantage if the modules can't handle the current or lead to early cell death.<br />
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So we are doing more work on a module. But we had kind of hoped our viewers would do some work in this area as well.<br />
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We also took a first look at Valery Mitzikhov's EMW Bluetooth Dashboard for Android in this episode. MORE ON THAT LATER. This is a fascinating device with a few early version problems.<br />
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Yes, the audio is wretched in the first part of the show. Brain forgot to change batteries in the Juiced Link. We would not have even HAD a show but for our new backup TASCAM DR-100 recorder. But even there, he had the microphone pointed at the wall instead of at us and so the sound is like being in a bathroom. We'll do better. I hope....<br />
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Jack<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com155tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-56607807399331061482012-02-07T09:43:00.000-06:002012-02-07T09:43:22.838-06:00This week the Brain is off to see his parents in Southern California. They are not as young and pretty as they once were and indeed Lou is facing open heart surgery. If you are accustomed to prayer you might put in a word.<br />
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Leaving me loose in the shop by myself. Actually, I enjoy solitude and particularly in the shop. If I set something down, I can kind of count on it being there when I come back. With a single other soul in the building it is always remarkable to me. I could build a trick double throw me down quick disconnect air powered overspeed protected refrigistastitator flavis waven that no one on the planet but myself even knew what it was, much less have a use for it, and lay it down on a bench immediately on assembly. <br />
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If I turn and refill a tea glass, when I come back 12 seconds later, the damn thing will have disappeared completely. A search ensues. EVERYONE in the shop SWEARS they haven't touched a thing. 45 minutes later I find it on the SINK in the bathroom. <br />
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OH YEAH. Is THAT what that was? I was wondering? So I took it into the bathroom. NOW I know what you were talking about.<br />
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I actually had an incident this week, again with an object so nondescript NO ONE could have a use for it EVEN ME, in theory, but I did. It had been moved and when I complained I was told in no uncertain terms by the only other person in the shop that they hadn't done it. When I noted that there were only two of us, he became THOROUGHLY incensed that I would "call him a liar" and threw a total fit. Without missing a beat, he then noted that he had only moved it for "safety reasons" and because it was in his way. ???? So he was INCENSED that I would call him a liar, which I never did, and then confessed to lying about it, which he did. <br />
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I apologized profusely of course and noted that I wouldn't' for anything in the world have him offended in any way. And indeed to prevent any POSSIBILITY of a future occurrence, I invited him to leave the shop and our employ as quickly as he could assemble his train.<br />
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Alzheimer's is not precisely a disease in my family. Picture it more as a tradition. So I kind of feel like Helen Keller after her parents have rearranged the furniture for the twelfth time.<br />
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So I kind of had a good time this week, once Rod had been promoted to whatever he's doing now, and I'm rattling around the shop by myself. It has been wonderful. It's true I am not as good as those guys at fabrication and just being able physically to reach things and lift things and so forth. But I actually got quite a bit done, albeit in piddling ways.<br />
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<br />
Not really shown in this weeks' episode. I got some 4 AWG cables run from the Manzanita to some terminals under the truck tied in with the J1772 plug wires. This gives us much stronger cables to carry the current for our PFC-75. I'm so accustomed to chargers that put out 20 amps, that having a 75 amp monster is a constant reminder. The little 10 gage wires I had on it, normally overkill for charger duties, were getting very warm.<br />
<br />
As many know, the Manzanita is NOT my favorite charger. But this particular unit we spent about $4500 on several years ago when it first came out and it is capable of 75 amps at up to 400 volts. That's pretty stout.<br />
Despite Manzanita's assurances that they are all fully capable of 75 amps, we get 68 amps or so into this one from the wall. That's still pretty stout. And with a 400Ah pack, we need all we can get. At that high current level, it will still take six hours to charge this 76 kWh pack.<br />
<br />
I've done something kind of goofy here and may pay the price. We've mounted the charger, and a DC-DC converter, on TOP of the polycarbonate lid of the pack. So now to get to my pack, I have to remove a lid with a n ever increasing array of wires and stuff on top of it. I added the little voltmeter we talked about recently from LightObject to it for example, so I can see the pack voltage at a glance. Turns out this little <a href="http://www.lightobject.com/Programmable-4-Digit-Red-LED-ACDC-Volt-Meter-with-dual-control-Good-for-HHO-System-P408.aspx">5740TV voltmeter</a> is really pretty accurate. I just love these things. I found an older JLD404 AH counter from these guys and got it set up in the lab and working and it is pretty nice. Voltage, current, hours, and AH all in one little device. Problem is, they don't sell it anymore. They sell a JLD404, but it does something else and no longer does AH. But we're talking to them about getting them again.<br />
<br />
I also tied the charger to the pack INSIDE the box. This poses a little problem I hadn't thought through. I need a hall effect device and a shunt device for current measurement and in order to work, it has to be inside the loop of both the controller AND the charger. In this case, that now means inside the battery box. So my electric car is moving one piece at a time into the battery box in back. And I'm not sure I can stem the flow of parts into the area.<br />
<br />
We did bleed the pack down using our Aurora Inverter - basically running the shop off of the 76 kWh pack for two days until the pack was drained. Then I used an old Thundersky 30 A charger I have laying around with big jumper cable clips on it, to individually charge each cell up to about 2.80v - then letting them fall back to about 2.75. We did this to all 57 cells until they all read 2.75 +- 0.05v. At that point, we hooked our Manzanita back up and charged it to 205 volts. This will be about 3.6v per cell and is high enough for my purposes. Again, I like to undercharge a bit and we have a huge pack here.<br />
<br />
As noted in the video, we did build a little heater for the Vantage GreenVan. Brain had reported in from California that he had visited HPEVS and they were working with Vantage GreenVan on a LiFePo4 version of the van. We've been enjoying one for some time. But it has a little diesel heater that I'm scared to death to even turn on. So I wired my daughter up a little electric heater using two of the by now familiar PTC heater elements and a Kilovac relay.<br />
<br />
And as promised, I show the damage done to our A123 module attempts and even pry open one of the cells to look at the very different looking cathode on this cell and talk a little about the patent disputes over this cathode.<br />
<br />
I'm still mystified by our losses there. This week I've made TWO little modules with 6 cells in parallel more like our prismatics. They are champions. About 117 Ah - full spec 19.6 Ah per cell. <br />
<br />
I DID notice something that is a little problematical in an electric car and kind of hard to test. If I fully discharge a set, and then immediately full charge it, it looks like ti has lost capacity and reaches a high voltage quite prematurely. If I let it then set overnight, I can add another 10 or 15 Ah to the cell the next day with no harm at all. This is NOT like our existing cells. It is quite strange behavior. And it might explain some of our damages in the modules. I was running it HARD to discharge it and pretty hard to charge it and doing it quite back to back based pretty much on what it OUGHT to take.<br />
<br />
Of course, I don't want to have to leave my car overnight before fully charging it? That makes no sense.<br />
<br />
IN any event, this week I'm working on a rubber mold to make cells that look like CALB 180Ah cells but of smaller size and HIGHER power of course. A 120Ah cell would have a current capability from our tests of about <br />
2750 amperes. Imagine driving the Elescalade on 57 of those. 57 x 6 x $26.60 = $9063. That might seem steep but it is some less than the $25,000 we have in the back now. Of course, again that would be a scant 23kWh pack and we would probably be limited to 25-30 miles on such a pack. But it drives home the point of those high power cells, we could still drive the two Soliton1's to their limit easily with such a pack or an even smaller one of 90Ah for example. And so we can use less expensive battery packs for shorter ranges. Not my style, but an option.<br />
<br />
The problem of course is that it would take quite a bit of "sweat equity" to convert boxes of individual A123 cells to our prismatics - including hardware, resin, and so forth. So long run, I'm not sure what would be saved. But many of our viewers aren't concerned about the long run. They're concerned with limiting expense in the right now. If they'll settle for less range, these cells appear to be an option. <br />
<br />
The cells from VictPower seem to be testing much better than the cells received from OSN power. We're clearly up over 19 Ah with these. We are charging to 3.65 volts and discharging to 2.50. There is indeed some power between 2.50 and 2.00. We're content to let it remain there.<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-34072918882750007552012-01-30T09:18:00.000-06:002012-01-30T09:18:36.604-06:00The Struggle ContinuesWe're having a time in the short days of winter. Here at the end of January, there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel as the winter at this point WILL end at some point. But we struggle.<br />
<br />
This week, we look at the final touches on the Electric Swallow. This is a neat little car with a neat little body and we had fun doing it. I was a little annoyed over the throttle issues but we more or less solved it with a 12v to 5 v converter even though it wasn't as it should be by the book.<br />
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<br />
We did do something we are going to try to incorporate in all future builds, including the Elescalade. That is interlock our controllers using the little relay on David Kerzel's J1772 board that we use. This little board is $37 and it makes your car respond to proximity switch and copilot signals from J1772 EVSE. But it features a little relay. On this build, we routed a 12v interlock signal through the normally closed contacts of this relay. In this way, if you plug in the charging plug, the car is disabled and you can't drive it away.<br />
<br />
We actually routed the same signal through the Xantrex so it could also disable the controller when the SOC got down to 10%.<br />
<br />
The car drove well and Lee took off for Denton with no real issues. If you stepped on the throttle all the way the controller kicked out. I showed him where to put a little resistor on the 5v DC-DC to fix that. And he seemed happy when he left Saturday afternoon. The car drives very nicely and as predicted, by using the 100Ah cells and the AC-50, it is very spritely.<br />
<br />
We were hoping for additional reports when he got home on actual range and acceleration as we had no time for them here before he needed to be back to work. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately, he apparently towed the car all the way to Denton with the VW tranny in gear. On arrival, he found transmission fluid all over the passenger compartment and nothing working. We're hopeful he can get all that turned around but it's a setback after all this work.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, I blew experimental A123 module La Troiseme number two WIDE OPEN.<br />
<br />
I've already heard from a number of viewers DEMANDING to know what happened. Well, I'm not sure and I'm not sure we'll ever know. We don't have a "script" like House. Whatever happens happens and I don't always know what caused it.<br />
<br />
Before casting, the cells measured 77.75 Ah which I thought was quite good. We cast it in resin and let it cure a few days and discharged it - but we really only got 65 Ah out of it and that was down to 24volts or 2 volts per cell. We probably over discharged a couple of cells at that point. Then we put the charger on it. After 80 Ah it never did reach above 41 volts but it DID split the resin wide open and the most positive set of cells were hugely swollen and leaking electrolyte. Later, another set split it in another place. So at least two cell segments failed.<br />
<br />
No fire. No smoke. But some heat. And the module did split wide open.<br />
<br />
Module one failed in an interesting way as a result of something I just did wrong. I've been playing with these new light object voltmeter controllers. They have a voltmeter that sports two relays with two voltage set points each. You can use these for all sorts of things.<br />
<br />
I was using it to switch the first prototype Troiseme to a load. Of course the load is very low resistance. The cables to the load are also very low resistance. But we were sampling the voltage at the wrong place. So when the controller closed the contactor, the voltage dropped to under 2 volts because of the drop across the cables. The ratio of cable resistance to load resistance is very low. When it goes to 2 volts, the controller opens the contactor. With the load removed, the voltage shoots up above 3 volts. This causes the controller to close the contactor.<br />
<br />
And so what I set up was a series of perhaps 50 cycles from zero to several hundred amperes all occurring in 30 seconds until I could figure out what was going on and get it stopped. This caused a lightning display inside the battery module. It now shows full voltage, but any attempt to draw the least amount of current results in a total collapse to zero volts - maximum internal resistance possible.<br />
<br />
With Swallow finished,we are working more on the Elescalade and have good progress there really. Rod fabricated a couple of 3/8 inch polycarbonate covers for the massive 76 kWh battery pack and box in the back of the Cadillac. We've mounted an Manzanita PFC-75 to this cover and a Vicro Megapack power supply we will use with six 5v 40A modules and one 15v 10 Amp module for a 15 volt output at 90 amps for our 12volt system.<br />
<br />
We also moved the Aurora Inverter down to the shop. This allows us to hook up the 192v pack to this inverter and drain about 36 amps from the pack to produce 21 or so amps of 240vac right into our panel. iN this way, we can use the truck to power the shop. Because of anti-islanding circuitry in the Aurora, this will do us NO good as far as backup power goes because it won't make any if we lose grid power. Why they have done this mindless thing makes no sense to me. It does not achieve the safety issue they sought.<br />
<br />
But in any event, it DOES let us drain down a pack and instead of wasting the energy as heat, we can use it to run the bandsaw and the lights. That's pretty cool.<br />
<br />
After taking the pack down to 170 volts, we'll trim from there manually using a little setup from the batt lab. <br />
I basically mounted a 12v supply, a 0.1 ohm 250 watt resistor, a contactor, and this voltmeter controller all on a little piece of the aluminum aircraft decking we've been using. We have one set of cables to carry the 30 amps or so of drain current and a SECOND set of voltage sense wires with alligator clips we will connect DIRECTLY to the batt terminals to prevent the oscillation that caused so much trouble with the A123 module. In this way, we sense the actual battery voltage instead of the voltage after the current drop. Again, this is caused by the very low 0.1 ohm load. It's actually about the same amount of resistance as we see in the connections.<br />
<br />
We'll set the lower limit at 2.60v and the upper limit at 2.77v. In this way, the cell will discharge into the resistor until it reaches 2.60v. At that point, the controller will disengage the contactor. The cell voltage will creep back up slowly. When it reaches 2.77v, the controller will again engage the contactor and take the cell down to 2.6v again. This cycle will be repeated until the cell just can't make it to 2.77v. That should be about 2.75volts near enough. <br />
<br />
In this way, I can connect this device to each of the 57 cells in turn and basically walk away. An hour later, that cell should be at 2.75v. At some point, they all will be. Then we'll charge the pack and set our Manzanita for the top voltage.<br />
<br />
The J1772 receptacle has some pretty stiff wiring but the 75 Amp Manzanita will certainly heat that up. Fortunately, it is just a foot or so long. We've terminated that in some terminals under the truck right where the J1772 comes in at the gas cap. We'll run 4 AWG cable from there to the Manzanita to handle the 75 amps this charge really can draw if you put it close enough to a panel. And of course, we have 4 AWG cables from the Manzanit to the cell terminals, although with the charger mounted on TOP of the battery box, those cables are quite short.<br />
<br />
Again, we're going to use David Kerzel's little AC31 board to do the magic and make use of his relay to do a couple of things. Interlock the controller again of course. We'll also probably use it to turn on the heater pump through a seasonal switch. In this way, in winter with the seasonal switch set, the charger will cause the pump to come on circulating our glycol in the system. We're going to put two little 250 watt rubber heater pads on our system that run off of 240vac. When the J1772 connector is in, this will use wall AC to gently heat the system - all night long in most cases. So the pump will run and the very low level of heating should keep both cabin and batteries reasonably above freezing and I suspect, running all night, really quite warm which is why we are using such weenie heaters.<br />
<br />
During the day while driving, our much larger 14 kw heater running off pack voltage can be used as desired. But I don't want THAT much heater running all night. A thermostat failure and we could really heat things up and cause a fire.<br />
<br />
So we'll have an alternate system powered by AC when charging.<br />
<br />
Today's video is of a bit more reasonable length. Our 3 hour mini series are just too much editing for me, and two much video for you.<br />
<br />
Warmest Regards;<br />
<br />
jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-19780461148804943762012-01-22T14:54:00.001-06:002012-01-22T18:56:23.236-06:00The International ModuleWe've built precisely two of the A123 modules of the third kind. I shouldn't be excited over something we don't REALLY know if it will work. And it IS risky. We've locked up 48 cells in urethane resin that can never be dug out again. If a single cell fails, we just tossed $1230 worth of cells out the window.<br />
<br />
Of course, if a single foil fails in one of our normal prismatics, I suppose things start to go bad there as well.<br />
<br />
So I'm thinking of it as a larger prismatic battery of 40volts and 75 Ah - car sized at 75 lbs.<br />
<br />
The interesting thing is that it was designed by a landscaper from the North Coast of New South Wales, a battery guy from a small OEM in Lisbon Portugal, and neither of them have ever SEEN it before as the first assembly was in Cape Girardeau Missouri. ; And none of us even know each other beyond a brief introduction.<br />
<br />
Michael Murray of New South Wales sent in the BLENDER animation we showed in last weeks episode. It was a direct embodiment of a connection scheme first described to us ny Celso Menaia of Lisbon. And we added a bit of aluminum as a heat sink and some Dascar Plastics RP-40 urethane casting resin. Actually about a gallon for each battery.<br />
<br />
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<br />
I confess my heart was NOT in the module project initially. But something about the A123 cells kept nagging at me. Often, I know something is important by looking at it, but for some time I cannot come up with just WHY I know it is important, or important in what way. In that situation, I just keep fooling with it and at some point it will tell me.<br />
<br />
What this does is open the door to smaller, lighter, cheaper battery packs for smaller, lighter, cheaper electric cars. And why is that important to someone building a $160,000 Cadillac Escalade Project? Well, there are a lot of viewers who are not going to build an Escalade. That's reality.<br />
<br />
And we hear from a lot of viewers that are definitely going to build SOMETHING ,but seem stuck in "PARK" awaiting the signal to go.<br />
<br />
We have been dismissive of lead acid cars as being "Science Projects" but in reality, that level of expenditure seems doable for most people, while the $17,500 required to do it our way does not. <br />
<br />
I've been curiously unsympathetic. An aluminum john boat on a trailer with a trolling motor runs over $18,000 new now. So I remain curiously unsympathetic. My heroes, the real pioneers, routinely put down two or three times that for a build and are moving the token forward to change the world.<br />
<br />
But it is of course true that all of this happens faster at a lower price.<br />
<br />
So let's change the game. And that requires some different assumptions. <br />
<br />
Let's talk about range. The lead guys swear they get 40 to 50 miles on a charge. This is where I fault them first. It's a barefaced lie. They do not.<br />
<br />
They might get it in theory, but in reality, 30 or 35 miles might be the range of their FIRST test drive. ANd it goes down steadily from there to five or six miles two years later when they park it.<br />
<br />
If we defined our battery as 120v and 75 Ah for 9000 wH, and 225 lbs, we could probably do 35-50 miles on a single charge REALLY. We would be a half TON lighter than lead. Instead of a two year life, we have potentially a 10 year life. <br />
<br />
I believe you could build these modules for around $1400 each. Three would be $4200, which is very different from $8500 or $10,000. <br />
<br />
And do you know what? Not only is range anxiety not an issue for me at 80 miles or 100 miles, but my wife has been driving a car with a 45 mile range for months now and it hasn't been a problem yet. We charge more often, but she really does NOT drive more than 45 miles per day.<br />
<br />
The trick is the power output. The A123 cells we have TESTED to 23C - that is they made 475 amps in front of me while I was watching - from a series of three single cells. Yowsers. <br />
<br />
ANd that means that despite it being a weenie 9000 wH pack, it could put out 1850 amps or so. Which is nearly TWICE what a Soliton1 will do and over THREE TIMES what the Curtis 1238-7601 can do. So we get not only FULL performance and FULL acceleration, but with a 225 lb pack, I would say OVER full acceleration.<br />
<br />
Better, if you build a car this way, with this modest "test pack" in it and it all works out for you, but you need more range, what level of effort do you imagine you would face in wiring in three more of these? Picture a single Saturday afternoon.<br />
<br />
So we think demonstrating this might just open up the EV project concept to a LOT of people that are avidly watching our show, but not actually turning a wrench at the moment.<br />
<br />
This egregiously long and boring episode shows you how. We omitted the resin casting at the end, which is no big thing and we can cover it next week. But all the important and hard parts are there. It is a good bit of work. They do not assemble themselves. But we think it is a good design. Testing will tell. Note A123's own module is in recall as we speak. These things aren't easy. ANd I'm really NOT a packaging engineer.<br />
<br />
We're also a little giddy with cash flow these days. In the past week, we've sold over a dozen sets of the battery strap kits. This is simply a 70mm braided strap for a CALB 100 or 180Ah cell, a Thundersky 160 Ah cell or SOME Thundersky 100 Ah cells. We also throw in two stainless M8 bolts and two zinc coated <a href="http://www.evtv.me/nordlock.pdf">Nordlock washers</a> - the combination that has worked SO very well for us in the past year or so. We mentioned we'd sell these at $7 each and we've moved about 1000 straps in the first week. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KCcHy7g7UGU/Txx2RnUAH0I/AAAAAAAACTA/pQxnti29Rbg/s1600/battstrapkit1-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="256" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KCcHy7g7UGU/Txx2RnUAH0I/AAAAAAAACTA/pQxnti29Rbg/s400/battstrapkit1-3.jpg" /></a></div><br />
This is no big deal. It's a small thing. But God is in the details. Battery connections are a quick way to a stranded car. And we've kind of worked out over time how to simply avoid that entirely. We were getting straps from Australia, and now we have to get them in a relatively huge quantity from China in order to have them. But we think they're a huge improvement over the copper straps provided with the cells.<br />
<br />
This is the longest show we've ever done. As Mark Twain said, I would have written a shorter letter, but I hadn't the time. <br />
<br />
The close ups and the green chroma key have strained our editing equipment and software to the very limtis of what they can do. <br />
<br />
Regards;<br />
<br />
Jack Rickard<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676835811534572362.post-6135967395997971732012-01-17T19:18:00.001-06:002012-01-17T19:21:49.529-06:00Braided Copper Ground Straps.Over the past three years we've paid careful attention to our battery connections. There's a reason. Even in the days of lead acid Trojans, it was not unusual to blow the entire CORNER of your battery case off with an almost explosive event over a battery connection.<br />
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These aren't terribly dangerous. But they're not very convenient either. Kind of like a rifle shot going off behind your ear. And you are stranded. Of course, you also lose the expensive battery.<br />
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So we mind our connections. I really rather liked the little bent copper straps we got with our first few sets of cells. And the steel M8 bolts and lockwashers were a HUGE improvement over the slotted soft aluminum screws we got with our first set of Seiden LiFePo4 cells.<br />
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And they worked well enough. But there were some disadvantages that just kept growing on us. The most worrisome is the lock washers. The threaded holes in the cells ARE soft copper and aluminum. The M8 size and 1.25 mm thread are really a pretty strong size in that soft material. But you cannot overtighten these or you will strip them and have to retap with a larger tap and use a larger bolt. <br />
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More to the point, however you tighten them, if you check back in a month, they have all loosened up an 1/8 turn. Some a 1/4. Not good. As they loosen, resistance starts to build, corrosion occurs, and at some point you blow a connection from current flow. And quite possibly a cell this way.<br />
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The problem is that a car vibrates going down the road. Worse, the bolt, wssher, strap, and terminal are all different metals with different thermal expansion coefficients. And every time we press the accelerator, we heat them up. ANd every time we release the accelerator, we cool them down. Constant thermal cycling and constant vibration combine to gradually work even very good connections loose.<br />
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The other area of concern is current inflation. By that, I mean that three years ago 300 amps was quite a bit of current. Then 500 amps. Then 1000 amps. Now with teh Cobra, we're doing 1200 and 1300 amps routinely. Now with the Escalaade, we're talking about 2000 amps - or was it 3000 amps.<br />
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Those little bent copper straps are good up to a point. But in China, an electric car with a 10 kw motor is motoring. Here, we're starting to look at 150 kw, 200kw and in teh case of the Elescalade, 400kw power plants. That's a lot higher current than we were dealing with just a year or two ago.<br />
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Over time, we've come up with a terminal connection scheme that has worked EXTREVELY well for us. We no longer HAVE loose connections AT ALL. We can handle a lot higher currents. We no longer are "prying" against the terminal with every flex of our battery pack. The whole pack is "flatter" and in fact looks a lot better. So what did we do?<br />
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1. Braided copper grounding straps as straps. These are copper of 50 sq.mm cross section. But it is tinned to reduce corrosion and increase connectivity at the terminal surface. They flex in the BRAID. So the encased part at each end is held flat to the terminal. As the pack flexes, the braid takes up the flex. There is just more copper in these too so they can carry more current.<br />
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2. A little upgrade on the bolts to 18-8 stainless steel. <br />
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3. Nordlock Washers. http://www.nordlock.com. This Swedish company has invented a wedgelock washer that is very hard, and features a kind of reverse CAM between the two active pieces. Each piece bites into the adjoining hardware to grip it, and then to LOOSEN the bolt, you have to work against the cam direction between the two washers. This actually INCREASES pressure on the bolt. They just don't back out. Not from thermal cycling. Not from vibration. They are ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE better at keeping those connections clean and tight than the lockwashers we are so accustomed to. <br />
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4. Zinc coating on Nordlock washers. In a situation of dissimilar metals, in the presence of an electrolyte, you get a bit of galvanic action that causes corrosion. This can be diminished using a bit of Zinc as a "sacrificial anode" to give up electrons. So we use the Zinc coated Nordlocks.<br />
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We were getting our braided straps from EVWorks in Australia. This has been an excellent source of a number of components for us over the years. They appear to be currently undergoing some changes internally. We're not sure what all that's about. But we recently ordered some straps for our 400 Ah cells and received the wrong ones. Their response was bizarre. They've offered to change the text on their web site. And they don't have any for our 400 Ah cells and won't EVER have any.<br />
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Worse, they have recently had some new shipping deal that sent the cost of these way over $5 a piece by the time they hit the U.S.<br />
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So we had to cast about China to find a source for braided tinned copper ground straps.<br />
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We found one. And they made us stome straps for our 400 Ah cells. The problem is, they like to sell them in quantities of ONE BRAZILLIAN at a time. Now we are never going to need a brazillian 400a cell straps. But we do use quite a few of the straps for 180Ah and 160 Ah and 100 Ah cells from CALB and Thundersky. These are 98 mm long with 8mm x 13mm holes on 70 mm centers. So we talked them into making us a couple of hundred 400Ah straps if we ordered ONE BRAZILLIAN 70 mm x 8 mm straps.<br />
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They agreed. And four or five THOUSAAND dollars later, we have our straps and a lifetime supply of 70mm straps as well. And we love them. <br />
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We mentioned this on the show, and had three immediate sales of EVTV viewers who have builds going who needed small quantities of these straps. So we put together a little kit with a strap, two of the 18-8 stainless bolts, and two of the Nordlock washers - for $7 plus shipping. Our first three sets averaged about $30 for a $2 box and the UPS ground charges. Way different from shipping from Australia or China. <br />
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So we're going to offer these sets complete with the two bolts, two washers, and one strap at $7. You don't have to chase all this down the way we have had to. And you'll enjoy clean, tight, safe high current connections that actually make your pack look good as well. <br />
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This is one way to support EVTV and help us reduce the inventory on hand of ONE BRAZILLIAN 70mm braided copper straps. <br />
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There are also straps with holes on 60mm and 80 mm centers - the 8 mm holes of course. We can get those as well if anyone needs them.<br />
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Send me an email to jack@evtv.me with the number you want and your shipping address. I'll respond with a Paypal invoice with the shipping calculated - but usually $25-$30 here in the U.S. Each "set" weighs 0.19 lbs if you are into calculating such things.<br />
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Regards;<br />
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Jack Rickard<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-agoO3SmCHjw/TvCyqyTVpuI/AAAAAAAACSk/RkTnOjWIqXs/s1600/braidedstrap70mm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-agoO3SmCHjw/TvCyqyTVpuI/AAAAAAAACSk/RkTnOjWIqXs/s400/braidedstrap70mm.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://EVTV.me</div>Jack Rickardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15936311474215791697noreply@blogger.com26