Local EVs in the news

EcoAuto had a press release with Environment Montana recently and a few of us brought our EV's there.

Kelly controller programming

I messed around with the controller programming today. It was pretty easy (doesn't work with Windows 7) and I set the Throttle start position to 20% and 30% and the performance was really bad, only 20 MPH with it floored. Fany at Kelly also had me set the throttle up/down to "lower" and at 20 it would take forever to "ramp-up" to speed and at 1 it would do better off the line but had a dead spot between 15 and 30 amps about. Very frustrating. I've asked them to let me return it unless they can suggest other settings.

Bluetooth & test drive

We finally got some warmer weather, which motivated me to wire the IOGEAR Bluetooth adapter into the 5v output of the Kelly controller temporarily to allow the EV Dashboard to connect to the Paktrakr. I drove 10 miles and didn't find any EM interference from the engine or controller with the Bluetooth connection. The Kelly can only consistently put out a max of 120-130 amps but no more. The acceleration from the line was good, but not great. Also, at about 4500 RPM, in any gear the motor made a high pitched whine and reduced power. The SOC% went from 88% down to 52% for 10 miles.

One thing did suprise me, while accelerating, the LFP cells all dipped well into the "low" range below 2.75v (120v pack total). And they snapped back up to 3.2v (144v) when I let off the gas pedal. That's still a usable term isn't it? "gas pedal". This indicates that a low-voltage cut-off on the controller at anything above 2.75v would fail.



After adjusting the throttle and changing the Paktrakr amp sensor I drove it again, 10 miles. It topped out at 68 MPH and could sustain 140 amps. Better, but not the 250 amps in the Kelly specs, which I thought it could do.