Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

How are the new batteries working out?

I dont' know yet! Been working long days far away. No time to do much with the car yet.

[MPaulHolmes]

The secret to having time to work, is to work like 3 hours per day, and live in your mother-in-law's basement.

[esoneson]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

The secret to having time to work, is to work like 3 hours per day, and live in your mother-in-law's basement.

You a funny man, MPH!!!!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

The secret to having time to work, is to work like 3 hours per day, and live in your mother-in-law's basement.

I must not get the secret... I work 0 hours per day (unless you count taking care of my Son), and still have no time to do anything, except those times that I do happen to have enough time to get something done, but not the proper funds/equipment/whatever necessary.

Oh, and I live in an apartment of my Father in Law's house.

[bennelson]

This morning, I drove the Electro-Metro to drop my wife off for her car pool.

I have been working a lot lately, all farther away than EV range, so I really haven't had a chance to test the new batteries yet.

One battery seemed a bit off when I tested it before, so I checked it with a volt meter before leaving. Yep, it was down to 12.45V.

When I got back, I checked that battery and it was WAY LOW! (below 10.5V!!!)
As were TWO OTHER of the new AGM batteries.

I am manually recharging those three batteries right now with individual chargers, and we will see how they perform after that.

I would love to run the car at 144V. I still have a few things stopping me.
One is just mounting 12 batteries. I already have 1 in front, 5 in the back seat batt. box, and four across the trunk space. I still need two more to go to hit 144V. Looks like it's time to build a front battery rack under the hood!

I also picked up two faulty 72V chargers. They only "float-charge" right now. Apparently, these chargers are mounted the wrong direction in the vehicle they come in. Then the heat sinks don't work right and it melts the solder in a certain place on the board. Supposedly, if I crack them open and fix that solder joint, they should work fine again. Two of them together would charge a 144V pack.

[TheSGC]

I bet the new batteries need a few cycles on them to bring them up to par.

I have been reading up on GEL and AGM batteries hoping to decided what to get for my next set of batteries.

[bennelson]

Been really busy with work lately!

Today was the first time in a week that I drove the Metro. (All of my work has been far away lately, and involved hauling lots of gear.)

I had to run out today for one quick errand. I have been running the car most recently at 120V.
It looks like one of the new AGMs is really no good. Two of the other ones seem like they are fine as long as I don't work them too hard, but their voltage drops fast if I pull any decent amount of amps.

For now, I think I am going to pull the one bad AGM. That drops the car back to 108V, which is the highest my serial charger goes to.

The other trouble that I have is that my analog volt meter only goes to 100 - so even a fully charged 96V system is too much for it. Right now, the volt-meter is disconnected. I may temporarily replace it with with a cheap-o multimeter for now. I would much prefer an analog meter to a digital one though.

The other issue is that I have had an "ozone" smell a few times since installing the AGMs. As far as I know, that smell can come from arcing. All my cables and batteries look good though. Can a battery internal short cause that kind of a smell?

Anyways, after driving the car today, I realized HOW COOL IT IS.
Really! You turn it on, and it just goes! No engine noise, no gasoline fumes, smooth and quiet.

PS: My wife says that I am WAY nerdier right now than when we got married.

[Christ]

Ben, I might be wrong about this, but the only time I remember smelling OZONE is when the coating on cards and circuit panels is melting or being heated. I remember the initial coat process when I was working at EIT, the whole room/area/floor of the building smelled like OZONE because of the heaters that kept it liquid.

I don't believe that arc'ing between lead, or lead and steel, or lead/steel/copper, any variant, etc... will make that smell. Still, could be full of it, too.

[mrbigh]

[QUOTE=bennelson;99788]I made it down to Whitewater, Wisconsin today.
Here's the response to the jump-start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tRdstTyAjY

QUOTE]
I love this, Eric Powers congratullating you for the Energy Boost from your Metro...........one of the best and realistic things included in this thread.

[dremd]

Originally Posted by Christ

I don't believe that arc'ing between lead, or lead and steel, or lead/steel/copper, any variant, etc... will make that smell. Still, could be full of it, too.

I'm 95% sure any arc will make the Ozone smell.

Edit:
Created by lightening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone