Floor mats

While these del Sol floor mats I found on ebay are really faded, they are still pretty cool.

Throttle (me)

So, I had the throttle wires connected to the micro switch on the front of the potbox. As you can see from the picture (I got lucky) and there is a 3rd post on the throttle. With some internet reading I connected the 5V input to the unused 3rd wire and grounded the 1st wire (white) and the middle (wiper or black wire) is the throttle input. Now the throttle and gas pedal work correctly.

Note: At this point in the conversion I cannot recommend a Kelly KDH for the simple reason they don't support 0-5K throttle input.

Batteries

Several new things have happened with batteries in the past 9 months. The price of Lifepo4 cells has dropped from about $250/100 Ah to $120/100 Ah and there are a few importers who are offering that price, including evcomponents.com and jungle motors.

Perhaps the biggest indicator is that LG Chem and its US division, Compact Power Inc (CPI), will supply the batteries for the Chevy Volt. They plan to spend $800M on a Korean factory. Also, A123 will supply the batteries for Chrysler and Kia and Nissan Leaf (with NEC) have announced EVs.

A quote from an article about the Leaf:

"However, the battery, the most expensive component on the car, will only be leased to customers.

The Leaf is powered by laminated compact lithium-ion batteries, which generate power output of over 90 kW, while its electric motor delivers 80 kW/280 Nm."

Maiden voyage

With a couple batteries tied to the radiator mounts I was able to drive up and down the driveway a few times before the batteries got weak. Like I said, the throttle is really jumpy and there is a wobble in the motor front plate, which I'm affraid might be serious. The next step is to get the battery racks built and installed and string some cables to the trunk.

Kelly controller error

I had a few set backs today. I first got the 2,4 error "Throttle signal is higher than configured dead zone at power-on." I had the ground and 0-5v output reversed. Then I got the error 2,2 or "Internal Voltage Error", which says "The controller is damaged". I guess I got a bad one.

Later: It turns out I had the potentiometer wired wrong. The 5v goes to the COM (left), Ground to the N.O. (middle), and the 0-5V throttle to N.C. (right). It works now. The throttle is very quick and the car lurches forward or back, not sure what that is.

Solar Bug

Steve Titus lent me a couple batteries for testing. Here he is standing next to his Solar Bug. It is a 72v EV with a solar panel on the top. With 3-4 amps from the PV panel he should be able to get 10-15 miles per day from the sun!

Makin' cables

With the control box in place and the low voltage wiring ready, now time for the high voltage cables. The orange ultraflex cable is much easier to work with in tight spaces, like the control box, than the black but it is twice as expensive. In this picture is the Noalox anticorrosion gel and the hammer crimper. I've found pounding with a hammer on the cement floor give the best results.