Happy Holidays to all!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, or whatever you celebrate. I'm away for the holidays, but have big plans to get the Miata fully debugged and on the road when I return.

All the best to all of you!

New YouTube video - Count Down to Blast-Off!

I asked my brother to put together a YouTube using some of my test drive footage. The idea was to have a cheesy sci-fi theme. I love the Thunderbirds opening and the Space Speed Indicator with everyone's faces distorted by the high speed. We decided not to use song so that you could hear the car's whine.

Hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_tEWdpKm98

A few odds and ends

It's a rainy Sunday and while the batteries are being fed, I'm doing a little "debugging."

I noticed that the most negative cable coming from the trunk rack is rubbing just a little on the steering column. So I disconnected and re-routed it.

I spent some time on my experimental passive cooling system for the Zilla. The idea is to reuse the heater core since it is right by the Zilla. First step is to use it as a reservoir and see if that is enough to keep the Zilla happy. Second step, if this fails, is to add a pump to create a little circulation. Either way, I'm going to need the temp gauge to work...

I did some extensive testing on my temperature gauge. It comes out it was the 12v lead going to the gauge that wasn't right - it showed 12v, but only until the key was on... I also found out you can't test the sending unit by heating it up with a soldering gun while it's against a heat sink. The heat sink soaks up all the heat - like I didn't know that... I ended up connecting a 12v jumper to the Iota and removing the sending unit and heating it with a solder gun and got the gauge to work. Instead of fishing for another 12v source on the instrument panel, I think I'll run a new wire, that way I'll know it works.

I also have to hook up the relay for the Iota with a new 12v lead off the key. That will make 4 devices off the key switch - the hairball, the vacuum pump, the temp gauge and the Iota relay. I think it's safe to say I need a fuse box. Found one on eBay that handled 4 fuses, looked good and was under $10!

Probably won't get a chance to install it until after new years...

New 12v charger and DC/DC Relay

Over the week since my drive to the SFEVA meeting, I've been charging the batteries one at a time with my manual charger.

On Friday I decided to invest in a new 12v battery charger. Some of the new ones have AGM settings on them that tailor the charging pattern to the AGM's needs. It sure would beat having my charger on a timer.
Saturday I went down to Sears to pick one up. It being the holidays, this was not easy. None were in the store and, of course, the sales people were less than helpful. I did finally find them in the auto services building out in the parking lot. It took me a little experimenting, but I found that if i used the 2 amp setting it would bring the voltage up to 14.6 before going into a 13.5 volt maintenance mode. This matched what Optima recommends on their web site, and seemed to work pretty well. Not having to check the charger every hour was a big relief too.

While charging the batteries I installed the relay I got to control the DC/DC converter. You don't want it running all the time as it will drain your battery pack. I thought I could hook it up to the switched side of the contactor (the side that is only hot when the car is running) but the Zilla didn't like that. I got a relay that has a 12v coil ans can switch up to 250v for less than $20 and a single gang plastic junction box to put it in. One side of the coil is ground the other side will come off the key switch.


Looks pretty good, no?

Bad Boy

I've been suspecting that my #5 battery was bad for a while. This was the replacement battery for the one that was damaged in "the meltdown". I was suspicious because it charges up really fast and discharges just as fast. And when using the Zivan, it would pull down more voltage than the others, even though its indicated State of Charge was the same. On the way back from the SFEVA meeting it was hot and had dropped to 10.96v - way below what it should have been. It had also blown the fuse on the BEQ1.
I messaged Ken at Hot Juice Electric (the maker of the BEQ1 equalizers I'm using) to confirm my suspicion of the defective battery. He agreed is was bad and I called the battery dealer. I got someone on the phone who quickly told me to bring it in. After describing the symptoms he agreed that they would do a swap. The details will have to wait for after I return from Xmas holiday, but I have high hopes that replacing this bad boy will fix my charging problems...

Follow up KFOG interview

I got a call from my friend, Peter Finch, who does the Fog Files on a local radio station, KFOG. He wanted to do a follow up interview now that the car was running (and watch the '9er game). We set a time for Sunday just before game time for a chat and a quick drive. After yesterday at the SFEVA meeting, I wasn't planning on driving it very far...
He showed up and pulled out a huge microphone and even huger digital recorder and, after I backed it out of the garage, got in. He asked a few questions as I pulled out, then I asked him if he had his seat belt on and punched it. To be honest, we were going downhill, but I think it made an impression on him. We then drove maybe a 10 block loop while a few people stared at the car making the funny noise driving around with a microphone in the drivers face.
We got back to the house and plugged the car in so he could record the charger doing it's thing (those radio people like stuff like that). I gave him a run down of the components and he mentioned that it all looks too simple which led him to ask why I thought Detroit couldn't build them...

Anyway, I don't think I said anything stupid this time, so it ought to be a pretty good segment.
Not sure when it's going to air, but I'll post a link when it does.

EV Miata at the SFEVA meeting

Today is the day.
I have had a string of target dates for getting the car done, but today is the day I promised to take it down to the SF Electric Vehicle Association meeting. The batteries aren't terribly balanced, but good enough for, say 98% state of charge (SOC). I made some progress on the gauges, but still no ammeter, tach or temperature gauge. I was going to hook up the Zilla's cooling system too, but that was not to be.

So, mostly charged and with just a speedo and SOC gauge, I was off.
As this was the first drive farther than around the block, I took my time and stuck to the streets. It wasn't too far, less than 5 miles I figured, so it should make it there and back easy - and it mostly did.

The SOC gauge drooped precariously each time I stepped on the juice (AKA the accelerator). Without the ammeter it was hard to drive it carefully, but I gave it my best. At about 4 blocks away the "Check Engine" light came on. The Zilla uses this to tell you that something is wrong, but I couldn't tell if the controller was overheating, the battery voltage was too low or something else was happening. I pulled over and checked the temperature of the controller using a manual temperature sensor - I stuck my hand on it - and it was just warm. The SOC gauge was showing 50% -which, because it only show the "usable" 50% of the pack, indicated the pack was at 75% SOC - not bad. The wiring under the hood looked fine and nothing smelled hot, so off I went. I found Luscious Garage (great place), where the meeting is held each week and pulled in to the drive. Dale, the president, and a few of the club members were out front around a RAV4 EV. After chatting a bit I broke out my palm to read the Zilla error code - d'oh, the SLI battery was low again! This is the same error that caused the car to limp up the street in the "It's Alive" video... Maybe I need to replace that battery...

Anyway, I got to talk a little about the project in the meeting and got to show my handy work off to some people who "got it" - very nice.

One of the long time members let me know that it takes about 3 cycles to get your pack "broken in." Good info.

After the meeting was over, I borrowed a Luscious charger to juice up my SLI battery. In hooking it up I found the negative clamp had worked it's way loose. So maybe the battery was still good? Maybe. At any rate, the Zilla error was soon cleared.

The SOC gauge was now showing 30% (65%) and I was off.
The SOC gauge which had earlier been bouncing about was now spending most of it's time staying around zero. Not good. The car ran well, though, no rattles or other strange noises, just the whine of the motor. Why do people want to play amplified gas car nosies in an EV?

I drove by a motorcycle club with a guy hanging our front. I think he was drinking out of a paper bag, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I pulled up the red light and stopped. Absolute silence.
He shouted "Why is your car making that whine?"
Me: "eh, it's electric."
Him: "Did you do that yourself?"
Me: Expecting now to be told I was a fool to spend a year and $13,ooo with gas prices now under $2, I simply answered, "Yup." and prayed the light would change.
Him: "Very cool."
Ah, this is nice. Even bad-boy bikers drinking out of a bag on the street corner appreciate an electric car conversion. Maybe things are changing...

Not too much longer down the road the "check engine" light makes a return appearance - and this time it's blinking. I recognize this as the Zilla trying to tell me my pack voltage is dangerously low. I pull off onto a side street and let the car sit while I try to act normal.
After what seems like 30 minutes, but was probably less than 10, the SOC is showing 10% and I'm off again. Slow-ly. I'm now less than 5 blocks from home and decide to go for it.

Once I get home I pop the hood and start reading voltages off the batteries: 12.06, 12.07, 12.11... About 40% SOC, not good.
One battery, #5, was showing 10.96 volts. That's not just dead, that's off the chart dead.
I gave it a little charge at 6 amps to bring it up into the 12 volt range and turned on the Zivan. Everything seemed fine, but, after about an hour, #5 was showing 15.5 volts, (15.6 is the limit) where the rest were all around 13+ volts. I turn off the Zivan and head upstairs.
That's enough for one day...