New EV from EBay !!!!

[jackatfsi]

It was a close call.....cost me a Prius for the better half just in the nick of time (one day to spare...phew!)

The last two shots are of the sister vehicle........

 

[Ypedal]

Interesting car !!!. not so sure bout the wing and the blower hood.. but that's a matter of personal taste i guess...

Any details on performance ? range etc... ? 8)

 

[TylerDurden]

They kept the lighter??? (by the shift-lever?)

 

[jackatfsi]

Amazing, isn't it....apparently they were made up as display/demo gadjets for the power company.

9" ADC motor, Curtis controller, K&W charger, 10 200Ah(?) gel cells...that's about what I know so far....

I'm assuming the wing and blower scoop are non-functional doodads.......I'm more of a stealth type myself......a small sign saying electric might even be too much......

Questions:

Anybody have a car transport connection...FL to NH ??

Anybody think they might know some history on this car ??

Anybody tried refurbing BIG batteries ???????????????????

 

[TylerDurden]

http://p198.ezboard.com/Lead-Acid-Battery-Desulfation/bleadacidbatterydesulfation

might try these folks

 

[jackatfsi]

Battery Update:

Ordered a set of UPS AGM takeouts....~$ 1K w/ shipping (for 10....new ~ $400 plus shipping)...........24KWH.......1,590lbs ! I would have liked to go Li, but looks like ~ $30,000 at the moment...next time !)

They used 10, 4D size, gel-cell lead-acid batteries in a series string.......I don't see any management in the pictures so I'm assuming just a series charger........I've ordered 10 of those trickle 13.5V float chargers from EBay ($84 inc ship)...since they are transformer isolated units I can set them up as a battery balancing string...........cheap components !

I've set up a test w/ a small and very dead gel-cell (6V, 4AH) to see if there is any hope of reviving the original set........borrowed one of the pulser units and let it sit for three days..........1 micro amp current and a quickly dropping 1.3V out............next test 1 day on a 315V CC power supply set at 1 ma.....still only drawing 1 microamp but voltage now starts at ~ 5V and drops much more slowly (ie minute instead of seconds)...so we'll see....

 

[jackatfsi]

Some more quickie reverse eng. while waiting..........Harbor freight float chargers modified as overcharge protectors.......looks easy enough if I replace the transistors w/ FETs ?????

 

[TylerDurden]

Any signs of battery life?

 

[roller]

what's the word on that charge control circuit? Vcutoff?, does it dump overV current somewhere or shutoff input?

 

[jackatfsi]

The (small) gel-cell I'm trying to revive is not making much progress..........the pulser (30V pulse) only got the curent up to 1 microamp and no residual voltage.........the adjustable constant current supply (130V) got the current up to 70 microamps and a rsisual voltage of about 2 volts this is a 6V battery.....4 ampHr

The float charge circuit seems to be a (soft) cutoff type using a transistor output..........to make a bypass out of it I'll have to switch in a load resistor w/ a FET ?? I need 10 of them for this battery string....the other alternative is 10 seperate "smart" chargers

 

[jackatfsi]

Update: the load of USP takeouts arrived ! 2 were damaged in shipment....2 more on the way......no prob w/ the vendor...we'll see if Roadway will make up the shipping diff.!

These AGM's are the same age as the Gels that are in the car (if it ever gets here) but have always been kept charged, unlike the car.....all tested right around 12.8V on arrival and took charge...no problem so far.......discharge test to go.

Man...these suckers are heavy ! (129 lbs each)

 

[fechter]

Something like a Rudman regluator is what you're talking about. It functions like a giant zener diode. No current until you get up to the set point (around 15v), then it switches on a big resistor. This tends to equalize the string during charging. The maximum current load of the resistor is limited, but seems to work well, since part of the current will still be going through the battery when it kicks in.

I have a schematic around somewhere. I'll see if I can find it. It's pretty simple. You can also buy them from Rudman I believe.

 

[jackatfsi]

That would be great.......

Also ...here's a shot of the first 8 of the UPS batteries that have checked out as good....2 more to go...should be here by Friday...these are a real bargain if they have anything near the original capacity...we'll see !

 

[jackatfsi]

Here are shots of the boards inside a Wal-Mart WM-1200A smart charger....I'm thinking of ganging up 10 of them to make a parallel charger for the car since people have complained about the serial charger not keeping the batteries balanced. The charger has 2 boards, the charger board and a remote display and controller board(couldn't be more convenient could it !!)

 

[Liberator]

Something like a Rudman regluator is what you're talking about. It functions like a giant zener diode. No current until you get up to the set point (around 15v), then it switches on a big resistor. This tends to equalize the string during charging. The maximum current load of the resistor is limited, but seems to work well, since part of the current will still be going through the battery when it kicks in.

I have a schematic around somewhere. I'll see if I can find it. It's pretty simple. You can also buy them from Rudman I believe.

http://www.manzanitamicro.com/ Getting the Mk2's put in my car. If you also have one of his PFC20 or PFC30 chargers I think it'll also feedback to it.

 

[jackatfsi]

Still bumbling along on all fronts....car hasn't shipped yet but I did get a Title and registered the car.......of course, they sent the wrong title so its lucky I live in NH so a call to the state got it caught and on its way back to me (then on back to Fla. then on to Wisc. to its proper owner etc etc)...you get the picture.....

Anyway....charger....I still like the gang of 10.......Schumacher SC/WM-1200A's.........the drawback being to push all the little buttons on each and every charger each and every time you want to charge.....as I said...you get the picture

The display board is actually a complete microcomputer in its own right....the CPU is the ST62T25C....an 8-bit machine, lots of A/D and I/O (w/ read-protect on the program memory) So there is at least the possibility that I might be able to swap a couple of the I/O pins and fool it into thinking the AGM is the regular setting. That would be one button that would not have to be pushed twice each time (ie 20 pushes right there)

I'll probably call Schumacher tech support this week...they've been very nice so far, but it's been dumb questions.......

EDIT: just gave up and ordered 5 Dytek dual bank marine chargers......

 

[jackatfsi]

The 5 Dytek dual bank pulse chargers (15Amp E Class Marine Electronic Charger) arrived today. At first I was a little disapointed to see that they are 2-in-parallel rather than 2-in-serial setups.

They do seem to properly charge the AGM batteries...no pushing buttons etc etc....and it does seem like they will be suitable as long as the 10 battery string is seperated into two parallel 5 battery strings when charging....this fits in well w/ the main contactor(s) breaking the string in the middle for safety reasons.

The logic is that the AC in from the charging plug will be interlocked to both contactors....and I'll add 4 NO contacts (2 would do but 4 is safer) to each unit so they will be totally isolated from the battery string when the contactors are closed and/or the AC is disconnected. I'm supposing it would also make good sense for the contactors to be locked out if the AC is connected !

These are now considered obsolete so the price was right !

 

[TylerDurden]

FWIW,

A guy in Sylvania, OH uses his electric-truck batteries to run his home if the grid goes down.

You could get a Xantrex or similar inverter to do the same...

...if ya don't have one already.

 

[jackatfsi]

Yup...that might be one of the next projects once the decks are clear.......24KWHr is a lot better that my puny present setup !

 

[jackatfsi]

Got a notice that the "Bad Boy" EV might finally ship tomorrow...

Finished the (1st of 5) modification of the Dytek charger as well...so far, so good.....(I'll add a photo)

 

[TylerDurden]

Got a notice that the "Bad Boy" EV might finally ship tomorrow...

Finished the (1st of 5) modification of the Dytek charger as well...so far, so good.....(I'll add a photo)

Excellent.

What do you think a shipping an EV from Austin TX to Detroit might cost?

Lotta toys for sale around Austin.

 

[jackatfsi]

Looks like the going rate is ~$ 800 +/- $ 200....wide range.....lot of horror stories so check out the carrier realy well !!

 

[jackatfsi]

It's HERE !!!

In all the excitement....here's a shot of the modified Dytek charger (the prototype) w/ the isolation relays installed.....

 

[xyster]

It's HERE !!!

And apparently in one piece too -- wow!

 

[jackatfsi]

Just thought I'd give a quick update while I had the chance.....

The surplus batteries (10 AGM SLF-12205's by POWER battery Co.) still check out despite age etc.....we'll see how they behave in real charge discharge this spring

The parrellel charger bank made of 5 dual marine Dytek 15 amp chargers w/ isolation relays added has been finished........works good....it will require the batteries to be setup in 2 5-battery strings when charging as the (-) sides are common in each charger...so I'll have to add a midpoint breaker which is a good idea anyway....next step is to remount the batteries and charger in the car

I have a 1221C controller to replace the 1221B and have scrapped a ceramic heater to be added..its COLD in NH !

The current wiring is size 1....I have to make up new cables for the side mount batteries anyway so I want to go w/ 2/0..
(any hints on battery connections appreciated)

I spent some time adding a public chargeing station to the side of the building here...don't know if anyone else has used it yet but you can see it at http://neeaa.org/charging.htm

PS: the e-bike is running fine...moved the battery cg as far forward as I could...realy need to make a frame w/ extended rear....