Range update

So, I probably have a good 10 months of driving on the car and the battery pack is broken in quite well. The SOC gauge has been showing over 100% in the morning for a few months, but now it seems pegged. I was estimating the old fully charged SOC at 110% but now I'd say it's 120%. After I drive the 4.5 miles to work and she sits a few hours it shows 100% SOC. When I return home and let her sit, it now shows 70% remaining. These are highway miles too, at 60+ MPH...
Back in June I did a test and put 17 highway miles on a full charge. Now I could probably do 20 or 25. Maybe I should revise the range up a bit?

0-60 time revisited

Quick update on the 0-60 time. I occasionally make a pass on my way to work and see what time I get. I still spin the wheels a bit, but I've been getting 12.8 seconds pretty consistently, so this may be the best I can do.
I can't help but think a real driver on a track could do better, but this will have to do for now. Still, it's faster than a Triumph Spitfire, MGB or the original Porsche 914 - http://www.albeedigital.com/supercoupe/articles/0-60times.html
I'll continue taking an occasional pass to see if I can better 12.8.

The Tail

I'm not one for a lot of stickers on my car, so I find most people don't notice that my car is electric. One afternoon I was thinking of putting something where the tailpipe was and struck upon the idea of hanging an electrical plug there.

It's not connected to anything - in fact it's just the plug I cut off my Iota dc/dc converter connected to a vacuum hose tie wrapped to a bolt. But it does the job. It swings around as I drive pointing out that my car has no exhaust pipe and plugs in.
As soon as the day after I did it I started getting complements from the neighbors, so I knew it was working.
So this morning I was stopped at a traffic light on the way to work and happened to look in the read view mirror as the driver behind me mouthed the words "oh look, that's an electric car." Now, as a EV owner, you should seize the opportunity to show the superiority of electric drive when they present themselves - at least that's my story...
I was lined up at the light next to a Porsche Boxster, so when the light turned green, I punched it. The rear wheels chirped, a whiff of burning rubber and the Porsche was in the rear view mirror. Now, the Porsche driver didn't know he was racing anyone, but, for what it was worth, I think the point was made.

Burning rubber

I've been trying to get a 0-60 time on the car and I found that it's not as easy as it sounds.

First you need to find a place with a 60 mph speed limit, with light traffic, that is level for about a 1/4 mile and has a wide shoulder for you to start from. I'm also looking for a place that's along my commute or nearby so that I won't have to drive out of my way to do the test.

I found a place that is pretty close and bought a cheap stopwatch and made several attempts. Problem is, I'm better behind a wrench than behind the wheel. I shift too late, feather the accelerator too much not to mention being late with the stopwatch...

In my latest attempts I decided to just hammer it and shift at 5000 rpm and see how we do.
The first time I tried it the Zilla cut out - I started moving then, no power. After I released the acceleration and step on the juice returned. No point working the stop watch on this run.
I found that the Zilla Stall Detect was the culprit and disabled it.

The next morning I reset my stopwatch and drive out to the spot, pull to the shoulder, put it in second gear and wait for the traffic to clear. Once the coast is clear I hit the stopwatch and floor it. The motor revs and we start moving, but not too very fast - and then there is the smell of something burning. I back off the pedal and get to 60, but the stopwatch shows 14.4 seconds and the smell is now clearly burning rubber. I drive around the block and see about a ten foot strip of rubber leading off the shoulder and into the street.

So, the hammer plan obviously won't work.
I still don't have my 0-60 time, but I do have a nice strip of rubber to show for my trouble.

Highway Cruising

As most of you know who have been following this blog, my commute is pretty short. I have been taking the streets and the route has some 45, 35 and 25 mph stretches with a number of hills, stop signs and traffic lights. Now I have taken the car on the freeway a few times for test purposes but just for an exit.
Lately, when I get in the car for the drive home at the end of the workday, the SOC meter will show 95% SOC. This can be attributed to the fully charged SOC showing over 100% as the Zivan will charge the string above what Optima said for 100%. In any case, last week I decided to take the drive home on the freeway. It was a bit tense as the SOC reads zero under load and I was pulling about 300 amps at 60 mph, but it was a fun ride. After sitting for an hour the SOC showed 45% - not bad.
Over the weekend I picked up a stock Miata "under cover" - this the plastic piece that goes under the engine between the nose and the subframe. My car didn't come with one and I wanted it to keep water off the motor when driving through puddles and for aerodynamics. I also picked up a sheet of aluminum for blocking off the air intake.
This week I've been commuting on the freeway just like the big boys. I'm now pulling around 250 amps at 60 mph (not sure if this has to do with a lighter touch on the pedal or the under cover) and getting about the same SOC displays as I was taking the streets.

My explanation for this is that the distance is about the same but there are no hills or stops to waste energy on.

Daily driver

Been a while since I posted anything on the blog, so thought I'd give a quick update.
I've been using the car to commute daily and it's been working great.
In the morning the SOC gauge shows over 100% after charging overnight. I'm estimating it takes about 6 hours to charge.
It's a 9 mile route (4.5 miles each way) that I take which has a 40 mph stretch, a few hills and a number of stop signs and traffic lights, so not "ideal" conditions, but real-world.
It will take about 300 amps to get moving on the flat and 400 - 500 if I'm going up hill. This is not a "jack rabbit" start, but not slow either, I try not to annoy other drivers ; )
It takes around 200 amps to cruise at moderate speed (20 -30mph).
When I arrive in the parking lot the SOC gauge shows 60% (which is 80% SOC since my gauge shows only the top 50%).
I don't plug in at work.
The SOC gauge shows 95% when I'm ready to drive home, since the batteries have had a chance to rest.
When I arrive home it shows 20-30% SOC (depending on how aggressively I drove it home) but if I let it sit for an hour or so, it will show as high as 60%.
Plug it in and it's ready for tomorrow.

SFEVA meeting and a few odds and ends.

Saturday I drove the car out to the SFEVA meeting at Luscious Garage. It was a bit misty out, so I had my running lights on and the wipers on occasionally. Showed the car to a couple of people after the meeting and gave a ride to a fellow EVer on the way home.
After an hour the SOC meter showed just under 60% (80%) .

I have a few items left to finish on the car, and decided to tackle them while I had the time.
I hooked up the light in the Ammeter and trimmed the hood over the instrument cluster so that it could be re-installed. Looks pretty good - like a real car instead of a science fair project.
I also hooked up the disconnect switch - one of the things I hadn't got done after reassembling the car.

Full charge and a trip to work - and back

The message I got back on the charging issues from Ken at HotJuice Electric (makers of the BEQ1) indicated that the squealing battery could be ignored - it's either OK or it's toast, but continuing the charge with the voltage it's getting won't change things.

I also found out that my tires were at 40lbs. I thought they were at 50, must have misread my gauge or lost air since I re-inflated them... I noticed the tires say max pressure 50 lbs. - 55 won't hurt them then... and should make them roll a little better.

So Wednesday I decided to push ahead with a full charge. I wasn't able to start the charge until 6:00 pm as I felt I had to babysit it during the charge. I checked on it every 30 minutes (annoying my family no end) until about 11:00 when I figured I was committed anyway and just to let it finish. At 1:43 I heard the faint beep-beep of the Zivan in the garage indicating the charge was complete.

Thursday morning the batteries are all in the 13v range and I'm off to work. I planned a new route with less stops but a short 40 mph section. She does roll better and I did a better job staying off the accelerator. I got to work with an indicated SOC of 43% ( a little less than 75% in reality). I figured this would come up a bit as it sat.

By the way, the building at work set aside a primo parking place for hybrid drivers. You have to fill out a form an enter into a drawing where the winner gets to park there for a month. I filled out the form explaining that my car wasn't a hybrid but full electric and could they stick an outlet in the spot for me. I didn't expect much to happen, but figured it was worth asking. A week later I got a message that I won for the month of May! I must have been the only one to fill out the form... I replied thanking them and again explaining that my car was (still) not a hybrid, but would gladly use the parking spot.

At 12:30 the SOC meter showed 80% (90%). Not bad. Parking security put a nasty gram under my wiper explaining the spot was reserved for hybrids. I showed it to the attendant and explained that it "looks like a miata, but it's battery powered..."

At 5:30 the meter still showed 80% - I was hoping for 100% ; ).
I took the same route back home. I think I annoyed a couple of SUV drivers, but I stayed in the slow lane most of the way. I got home easily enough and after an hour the SOC meter showed 44%.
That's makes for about a 20 mile range with mediocre driving over a few hills and high-rolling-resistance low-profile tires.

Sunday Driver

I wanted to get a test drive out to my work this weekend. I'm pretty sure I can make it there and back if it was flat all the way, but I have a couple of hills along the way...

Thursday and Friday i charged the pack. The two batteries that came back from the shop were fully charged, so I couldn't run the Zivan on the pack. I charged all the batteries individually until on Friday they were all in the 12.90v range. Then I ran the Zivan which quickly went into pulse charging mode, as it should.
After about an hour 11 of the BEQ1s were blinking - indicating those batteries had "filled up" and battery #12 started squealing, so I cut the power.

Sunday afternoon I checked the pack voltage and it was above 95% SOC.
I weighed my options and figured it was time for a drive.

The main objective is to get as far as I can, so I was trying to stay off the accelerator - not an easy task for me. At any rate, with one eye on the Ammeter and the other on the road, I was off.
The SOC meter isn't much help while you are pulling current. It dives down as the voltage sags and creeps up at the stop signs and while you coast down hills. Twice I pulled over to let the meter return to a stable reading. I got to within a couple of blocks from work and the SOC meter was showing 50% - meaning I had 75% left on the pack.
(BTW - my SOC meter reads the top 50% of charge, so when it reads 80% I actually have 90% and so on. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's actually kind of annoying. It's like setting your clock 5 minutes ahead - you find yourself constantly doing the math to convert to the actual SOC. Next time I'll just use a standard Voltmeter...)

So with 50% of my usable charge left, I turned back home. I arrived back in my garage with an indicated 20% SOC charge (you do the math).

When I put it on the Zivan, two batteries hit 14.7v in a little over an hour, while the rest are in the mid 13's. So I decided to abort the charge again.

I got a question into the BEQ1 vendor and the Zivan distributor to ask what I'm doing wrong.

Pressed into service

My wife called me at work yesterday to say her car broke. She wasn't too far from home when something went ding (her words) and her battery light came on, then her power steering was gone and then it started to overheat.
Any guesses?
Fan belt, maybe?
I got home at looked under the hood and the belt was there, and in one piece, but it was all wrapped up - looks like an idler pulley broke off.
It was 6:30 at night and I took the Miata down to Kragen for some ICE parts.
Kinda ironic, I guess...
I didn't have a chance to put them in that night, so the Miata got to run errands and drop our daughter off at school. She enjoyed riding in it, not because it's quiet or quick or emission free, but because she can sit in the front. Anyway these little trips confirmed my verdict on #2 - she's bad. So replacing her will be my project for the weekend.
Since I will have everything stripped down up front to pull the battery, I invited the draftsperson (do they still go by that?) over to start the drawings for the kit. Might as well take advantage of the situation...
I also might install the emergency disconnect cable. I bought a choke cable that I was going to connect to the main circuit breaker so that I could disconnect the pack from the driver seat. It's been sitting on the toolbench. Maybe I'll have a chance to connect it this weekend too.

Sunday driver

Friday and Saturday I charged batteries - in between running errands and watching kids. But the pack is charged - though #2 is still acting a little flaky. I noticed that the pack looses voltage over time and am starting to suspect the Zivan may be putting a slight load on it. I've been leaving it unplugged from the pack to test my theory.

So around 2:00 Today the pack was fairly charged. My SOC gauge showed 95% which is closer to 98% in the real world, so I'm off. First thing I noticed in that the vacuum pump isn't working, but no matter, I'll just stand on the brakes like we used to do in the old days. I still have the tach set to display amps, and what a difference that makes in your driving style - you can't help but accelerate slowly and coast into intersections. They need to put something like it on gas cars - like an MPG gauge. Didn't make any friends with the other drivers, though. I took a mile and a half loop and came back to the garage to check things out. #2 is at 12.35v where the rest of the pack is in the high 12.4 to 12.5. I plugged the Zivan in and gave it some juice, but #2 came up to 15.6v pretty fast - the rest of the pack was in the 14v range when I had to abort the charge to save #2 from being overcharged.

I'm thinking #2 needs to go.

I let her rest for a bit then took her out for another drive. This was about a 3 mile loop (the trip odometer isn't working - gotta add that to my list). I took some streets with bike lanes and it sure confused the cyclists having a silent car running with them. I came back home with about a 70% SOC - not too bad. #2 was the lowest about a tenth of a volt below the rest of the pack, and again I had to abort the charge when #2 reached 15.6v.

#2 is in the most in accessible place in the pack - in the front of the nose rack on the driver side. I'll need to pull out the Zivan, all the high voltage cables to the box, pull the gauge, contactor and relay connections remove the high voltage box and bracket, then pull out #1 so that I can get to #2! It's gonna take me a full day just to get her out.

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...