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This is what I posted to the EV list after my first trip:
Subject: UNBELIEVABLE !!! (another EV hits the road)
What a thrill!
Last night I did all the final high power checkout. Had to switch the two wires on the shunt for the ammeter, but everything else was just fine. Changed tires to the spike tires we use in Norway. Then at 10 PM. I was ready for my first drive.
It is amazingly how smooth the Curtis 1231C controller starts the car, even with the clutchless design. I felt like a huge magnet was moving the EV out of the garage. Out of the driveway I had to stop for crossing traffic. I had my window down, and was just overwhelmed by the silence, and the beautiful evening (31F, white snow everywhere). And just SILENCE!
I went the about 1 mile up the slow hill to our church at 20- 30 mph. Passing one pedestrian on the way. I could hear his foot steps in the snow as I passed! I could definitely feel that this EV will not be the one slowing down traffic (ADV DC 9" + 144Volt Optima YTs). The feeling of pushing the pedal , and move forward with NO SOUND is just incredible!
It looks like I will be able to plug in at work, so that will be great. In Norway gas is about three times of what it is in the USA. Electricity is cheap (we have mostly nice, clean hydro-power). Also EVs do not have to pay the about NOK 1800 ($280) government road tax every year, so I believe owning the EV will be less expensive than a gas car, even considering replacing the Optima batteries one day.
You know, without the support from the EV list, I would never have taken the risk of converting my Escort. Thanx to everyone contributing to the list. And thank you, Bob Batson at Electric Vehicles of America, for all the E-mail support the last six months.
You all just helped another EV hit the road!
Svein* Back to top
I went down to Biltillsynet (Road and Vehicles) to get my new conversion inspected.
At the most there were five inspectors looking into my EV! They had never seen anything like this before. In advance I had done some writing to the authorities in Norway. They could not say that it would not be possible to get a conversion approved for driving in Norway. But, then again nobody wanted to promise me that it could be done… So there I was with the five inspectors. Would all my effort be granted with the privilege of actually be allowed to drive my EV? This was the final test.
"Say, this vacuum pump replacing the vacuum of your power brakes, is it approved by Ford ?", the one inspector asked.
"No, but it is the approved vacuum pump as supplied by Electric Vehicles of America.", I said.
"It will have to be approved by Ford, the maker of this car…"
At this point, I had to sit down. This did not sound too good. He grabbed my copy of "the Book" containing all the vehicle rules and regulations in Norway. Looked to the section of rebuilding of cars. Found what he was looking for and read something like this:
"All unoriginal components must be approved by the original manufacture or other approved third party vendor" , all five inspectors where now looking in to "the Book". Then came the paragraph that saved my day, " unless the unoriginal component can be inspected by Biltillsynet and with in reason found to be safe".
The inspectors seemed to be at least as relieved as I was. They decided to measure the break power and do a drive test. "This is just like driving any other car!" the inspector said. But, when driving out of the hall where the break power tester was, he hit the accelerator pedal to hard. Weeeieeeoiiouiiiiiiiiiww! The tires left two burn marks on the concrete floor. "Oops, I'm not quite used to this car…"
Finally, I got the cars papers changed to show that it has been
rebuilt to an EV. The main benefit from this is that the car as
an EV is exempt from the Årsavgift (annually government
road tax for cars) of NOK 1705,- (about $225). Back to top
From what I read, the higher the RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) is, the more efficient the motor becomes. So it would pay off to just drive in 2nd? I have been trying to figure out if driving in 2nd or 3rd gear gives the most range.
Driving in 2nd gear gives incredible acceleration from
start. But with out an RPM limiter I do not feel comfortable to
drive faster than about 70km/h (45mph) (I have not calculated
exactly what speed the maximum 5000 RPM corresponds to), which
means that I have to shift gear often. Much of my driving is actually
done coasting. I go up a small hill and then coast down on the
other side. Then the drag of the motor is noticeable higher in
2nd than in 3rd. I have one steep hill with
speed bumps, which I travel at 30 km/h (20mph). The current drawn
in 2nd is about 100 A. In 3rd it looks like
it draws slightly more, maybe 120 A. So, on my daily trip. This
hill is the only place I use 2nd gear.
Driving in 3rd shows the flexibility of the electric
motor. I usually put it in 3rd when I start. Then I
have to be a little bit careful about how hard I step on the accelerator
pedal. If I step too hard, a lot of current is drawn without having
the EV accelerate correspondingly. But I appreciate nice soft
starts, which seem to draw about the same current for both in
2nd and 3rd. So, most of the time I just
drive in 3rd. It's very much like having an automatic
transmission….. Back to top
I had to go on a longer trip at work yesterday. So, my wife and
I switched cars for the first time. I told here to keep an eye
on the Amp meter, and try to stay below 100 A if not accelerating.
Also I asked her to put the gear in 3rd and leave it
there (without changing gears there is no chance that she might
over rev the motor). And of she took…
I tried not to show that I was a little bit nervous on how it
went when I got back home after work. She said she was a little
bit tense driving to work. I couple of times she had been taken
off guard when pushing the foot on the accelerator pedal. The
EV is so quiet , and most ICE drivers expect some kind of motor
sound when accelerating from a stop. A couple of "flying"
starts, but on the way home she had already got used to this.
She loved not having to shift gear all the time. So, now we can
switch cars anytime needed. Back to top
Last Thursday night someone broke into my EV by destroying the
key locks on both doors. Inside they had pulled off the plastic
under the steering wheel, to get to the ignition switch. When
I tried the car it was perfectly driveable, so I guess the thieves
must have gotten very surprised when they found no clutch pedal
and no sound of a starter motor when turning the key switch…
Probably some kids that wanted to take it for a let's-see-how-many-times-we-can-wreck-this-car-before-it-want-run-anymore.
And I didn't even have a car stereo! My insurance will cover for
the damages, but it is just such a hassle.. Back to top
How is my Optimas doing? After 280 cycles battery number five failed. One cell shorted and the voltage dropped bellow 11 volts after driving. My battery charges will not start to charge a battery at below 11 volts. I did not notice this at the time, which the day after resulted in 11 charged batteries and one uncharged battery. On my next trip I noticed a significant reduction of power…. Battery number five showed 9.95 volts while the other batteries were about 12.9 volts. I turned the battery in to Gylling Teknikk in Norway. They charged the battery and tested it without finding any errors. Capasity was measured to 48Ah ( was 52 Ah as new). I put it back in my EV again, put it failed just as before. The test done at Gylling Teknikk was undertaken with a 10 Amp load only. Driving the EV stress the battery with typical 100 Amp.We concluded that the battery was fine for small discharge rates, but not for high discharge rates. I was happy to receive a new battery at no cost. (Battery five was one of the two batteries originally showing the lowest voltage after a full charge.)
At about 450 cycles both battery three and eight would not go from constant voltage (14.8 volt) to float voltage (13.7 volt). When a charger is at constant voltage it stays at this voltage until the current drops below 0.7 Amps. This never happens with these two batteries. I assume this is an indication of ageing. I know that flooded batteries have a significant increase in the finishing current as they get old. The batteries are still working, so I try to turn off the chargers within 12 hours to avoid to fry these two batteries. I am now at 548 cycles and it all still works fine.
Except for the one dead battery, I have done nothing but charging
and driving, charging and driving, charging…. since a put
my EV together. It's great! Back to top.
Most batteries never have a chance to show their maximum performance becaused they get murdered by their users. My three battery charger LEDs indicated that battery number three never managed to go from constant voltage (14.8 volt) to float voltage (13.8). I did not investigate this any further at the time. However, when I replaced the battery and the charger still indicated the same as with the old battery, I just had to figure out what was wrong.
It turned out that there was two bad soldering connections, which resulted in that the battery charger skipped the constant voltage phase and went straight to the float phase… So, when I was affraid of overcharging the batteris, I was actually undercharging them. When it comes to sealed lead acid batteries, over charging is bad but undercharging might be even worse. So, a proven way to murder a battery is to undercharge it for a couple of hundered cycles. I know.
From now on I will check the fully charged float voltage eon the
batteries every Sunday to prevent something like this to happen
again. Back to top.
After the easter holiday my EV had been parked unplugged for about ten days. The small 12 volt battery had been drained by the car alarm. When turning the ignition switch there was no respons, just a voltmeter showing about 8 volts… Previously, I have read suggestions on having a set of jumper cables that can be used to charge the small 12 volt battery from one of the traction batteries in the EV. This would work out fine, but long ago I thought of an easier methode to get the EV going in such an eventuallity. This morning I had I chance to try it out.
Usually, when turning the ignition key on, one of the two contactors in the 144 volt system will activate. This will in turn give power to the 144 to 14.5 volt DC/DC converter that charges my 12 volt battery when driving. This morning there was not enough voltage to activate this contactor. Leaving the ignition key in the ON possition, I took out the car's cigarette lighter, and opened the hood. By holding the lighter in it's plastic part, I used it's metal rim to make a jumper to short out the high voltage side of the contactor. This alowed current to pass on to the DC/DC converter, which instantly supplied 14.5 volts to the 12 volt battery, which in turn would activate the coil of the contactor as usually. Of cource, the alarm sounded at the same time, and I had to run back in to the EV and use the remote to turn it off. Then I took off to work as usually.
Beeing a non-smoker, it was the first time I ever had some use
of the lighter. So, no need to carry jumper cables with you, just
make sure to keep the car's lighter! Back to top.
It looks like some of my batteries now are getting old. When charging at 14.8 volt the current must drop below 0.7 A before the charger for that battery moves on to the 13.8 volt float charge. On this battery the current would not drop off any further than to about 1.5 A. This is a typical sign of the battery getting old. For the last half year or so, I have added a cheap timer to the 220 volt inlet of chargers. Since #12 would never go to the float phase, I was worried that I might dry out that battery from overcharging it. With the timer set to a maximum of twelve hours, I think a managed to prolong the life of battery #12 with some hundered cycles.
But yesterday, my charger indicated an abnormal low battery condition on battery #12, thus refusing to charge it. I tried connecting a small 600mA charger to see if I could get it going, but no such luck. Unfortunately, I did not have any possibility to bypass this battery either, so I figured I would try to drive home with this defective and uncharged battery. When driving, my voltage indicator usually reads about 145 volts, now it showed about 120 volts. A lot of reverse voltage pain for the battery #12… But, the EV drove all the way home, but with significant lower acceleration.
At home the battery #12 was warm when touching it. A replaced
the battery with a new one. The dead one showed -0.95 volts….
After attempting to charge it for a while, it reached only 1.75
volts. Defenitely totaly dead. Back to top.
It has been some time since I wrote anything here, but there is a reason for that. Not much to tell. The EV keeps on running and running. The work involved is basicaly bodywork. There is some rust to constantly fight. Also, I have probably refilled the washer fluids twicw a year....
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