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Old 10-31-2008, 11:48 PM   #9 (permalink)
captainslug
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Sterling, VA
Posts: 383

BORK! - '89 Volvo 240 DL Wagon
90 day: 21.27 mpg (US)
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Tore apart the center console.

The Speedometer is confusing.
The gauge itself has an adjustment pot that only adjusted what the peak speed was reported at full throttle. So even if I were to roll downhill with full throttle application it would never report above the preset maximum. I'm not quite sure what it's measuring, not that I really care though since I'm replacing it with a $30 Bike computer.
The battery indicator is unsurprisingly a voltmeter. The only surprise is that on a full charge after traveling 3 miles it was reading out at 52.5 volts. I will be replacing this gauge with a voltmeter with a much wider range.

I started trying to tidy up the wiring a little bit.

I untangled the ones that were really bad by unpinning and repinning connectors. I then by process of elimination labeled which connectors went to which functions/devices.

The DC-DC convertor that came with the bike actually has an input range from 30VDC to 60VDC. However if I add another battery the pack at full charge will probably be outputting more than 60V and would likely fry the stock DC-DC converter. It's atleast nice to see that it's over-engineered enough to survive normal use.

The other bit of work I started was making an LED array to replace the rear brake light and turn signals. I got most of the way through the process today but will have to finish the rest of it tomorrow.
Excluding only the headlamp, I will be replacing all of the incandescent bulbs with high-brightness LED arrays so that I can reduce the energy consumption requirement of the DC-DC converter I will eventually need to buy to replace the stock one.

Last edited by captainslug; 11-02-2008 at 10:57 PM..
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