Got me an Insight...

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by Daox

Yeah, the discharge curve of batteries is really not linear. Once they get outside of their normal SOC range, they drop like a brick. Here is a discharge curve for a nimh battery I found here. You went from the red mark on the left to the red mark on the right in those 3 hours.

BTW, what charger/discharger design did you go with? I need to make one too.

Hopefully I didn't cause any damage.. guess well see.

I went with the cheapy dual ebay LED ones. Seems to charge fine (on it's 3rd? charge now?). I ended up buying 2 extras (and have quite a few other parts, fuses diodes fuseholders, etc.), if you need anything. Also have extra trip buttons if you need those. I'm sure I have other stuff as well.

[Ecky]

Here it is:




The harness has a pair http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig8464a.png of fuses in it too.

[RedDevil]

You got to be 100% certain that the 12v DC-DC converter does not share a common ground (they often do) and allows full electrical isolation between both sides beyond 200 Volt.

I killed one Volt meter by feeding it from the car battery while measuring my pack. Turns out it had some common ground.
I now am working on a setup where a 12 Volt powered relay switches the 9 Volt battery in an isolated circuit to my new meters.

[NoD~]

Weekends are great for getting things done!

I got the EPS motor and pinion out. Pinion nut was rough to get out. I bought a 5/8" rod coupling nut that was about 23mm wide and grinded the end down until it fit a 13/16" socket, and muscled the crap out of it out (it was stubborn and leverage sucks in that spot)


Made a nice template by taking paper and rubbing a dirty finger over it... (man, that sounds bad...)


I went to HomeDepot and got a couple shorter bolts and some aluminum to make the cover plate. Used some copper RTV I had available for the gasket seal, and boom! It's done.


Waiting on the the IMA battery to get a good grid charge and I'll get a chance to check it out. Until then, I got plenty of other projects over the weekend on this green machine. Stay Tuned...

[NoD~]

Clutch fluid replacement/bleed...




Not pictured, I used a vacuum pump and pulled all the fluid out of the res and replaced a few times. I did 2 full res fulls to flush out the old crap. Getting to the bleed nipple was pretty easy... Just gotta remove the 2 intake snorkels and then hit the 10mm bolt on the throttle guard, pull that off... and it's right there, as pictured.

I went to do the lower motor mount, but the through bolt was impossible. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and will come back to it.

[NoD~]

Old motor mount was torn completely on one side.



New one in place! (I didn't take the exhaust out to install... I unbolted it from the block instead)



Passenger interior mirror in place. The provided tape wouldn't stick, so I pulled that off and clamped it with silicone (so it can still be removable if I wanted).




Finally, heater block in (and coolant changed.) I used a slightly different model number instead of the Insight specific one. Only difference was cable length and misc installation hardware (zipties, lol). The cable was long enough, so I ran it behind the battery tray instead of the front.

[Daox]

Nice work. I like the interior mirror idea.

How many watts is that heater? After using the 1000W on the Metro, I'm spoiled and love it. 20 mins and I get a good preheat vs the Prius block heater at 300W (I think) needs 3hrs.

[Ecky]

Mine is 400w, I think. I find that after 2 hours, there's not a lot of benefit, and after 4 there's basically none.

[NoD~]

400w.

This morning, it was pretty cool at mid to high 40's (F) and I only let the block heater go for 30 minutes. I started at, according to the ScanGaugeII, 136*, then dropped around 10* after startup.

I'm going to do an hour tomorrow, then 1.5 hours, then 2. See where it makes sense for my daily morning drive (only 3.7 miles).

One thing I'd like to find is a rechargeable battery that I can throw on my car for an hour or so before leaving from work each day, especially winter. Also, I am thinking a small oil heater pad and a 12v trickle charger will be in the future as well. Had this combo on my Neon, seemed to be worthy while.

[Ecky]

Nod~, I'd love to hear your reflections on the PS delete. I'm fairly happy with my Insight's EPS, but I'm also somewhat of a driving purist, plus it's a small electrical load that can be eliminated.