AC Dodge Neon Electric Conversion Videos

[bennelson]

Hey Everyone - New Video!
Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9seClR1FqZ4

Sorry it's a bit shaky. I didn't have a tripod with, and that camera REALLY exaggerates when it's hand-held.

I was surprised at how loud the car was. I makes a whine at low speeds, which I think is from the controller. There were also some clunky sounds of a few things that need to get pinned-down better.

The car still needs some work, including some sort of speed sensor so that the motor speed, accelerator, and transmission all work together a little better.

Don't worry, there will be more to come in the future about that.

Overall though, a successful first test drive.

We also drove it to Arby's later in the day....

[bennelson]

I had a short day of work today, and it just happened to be about 2 miles from Tom's house, so I headed over to his place.

Tom just got a matched set of batteries for his car. The old set didn't have quite enough batteries of the same type to get to his system voltage.

The new set is all the same brand and size, but they are the "long-life" instead of "high-power" version, which is actually better for his project.

We went for a test ride.
There were a few issues that still need tweaking. Sometimes, pulling away from a stop, the motor is "clunky". The motor doesn't really quite know how fast it is going compared to how fast it should be going.

That is going to be resolved with a custom circuit board Tom will make for a speed sensor that will feed data to the AC controller.

When we stopped out at the sandwich shop, I realized that there was still no hood on the car. It was pretty funny to watch people walk by the car and do double-takes, first seeing that there was no hood, then seeing that there was no engine!

I also noticed that the AC controller does make PLENTY of noise on AM radio stations. Tom, didn't flip over to FM. I would imagine that there is a bit of noise there, but nothing seems to pick up noise the way AM does.

[bennelson]

Tom's got all the new batteries in and has been tinkering with both a controller reset button and a "keep the controller on" button, in the front of the car.

One of the issues with the car is that the controller is designed so that when you let completely off the go pedal, the controller turns off - this allows freewheeling, instead of regenerative braking. However, if the motor is spinning, and the controller gets turned back on, it errors out.

Tom installed a button on the stick shift that keeps the controller on while it is pressed down. That way, he can shift, without the controller erroring out and turning off.

If the controller does have an error, there is now another button in the front of the car to quickly reset the controller, without stopping the car and climbing into the back seat to manually reset the controller.

Keep in mind that this is all original industrial equipment that has been re-purposed for use in an EV. Some modification may be required.

Here's a couple new pix.

[Christ]

When you said "Controller reset button on the front of the car", I understood in my twisted little head as "Big red button on the front bumper clearly labeled "Controller Reset"."

LOL. Sorry.

[bennelson]

Tom continues to tweak the car.

He did finally get to take it out for a long drive to see how far he could go on one charge.

Guess what it was!

53 miles!

No, don't pester me for the exact discharge rate, I don't remember. He told me a certain voltage. Lets just say that Tom is a smart enough guy to not run his batteries down too far just get get a range brag out of it.

Also, he grabbed a pair of forklift joysticks from the junkyard. They have two buttons on the stick. He will use one to replace his stickshift knob, and use the two buttons on it for the controller on and controller reset features.

Also, yesterday we worked on the rear suspension a bit. New rear springs were put in the back of the car. I don't recall what they were originally off of. I think a minivan of some sort. The size was about right, but they were thicker diameter. A little heat from Rich's big torch made everything fit real nice.

[MPaulHolmes]

53 miles is awesome! Are the motor specs back in the thread somewhere? I guess I could go look . I saw some 25 HP and 40 HP (continuous) 3 phase AC induction motors on Ebay for between $150 and $600.

Do you know if it's space vector drive (field oriented control) for the inverter, or just V/f = constant?

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Do you know if it's space vector drive (field oriented control) for the inverter, or just V/f = constant?

Sorry, I don't know.
It's a Baldor brand. I think its 25 hp.

[MetroMPG]

Wow - 53 miles? Did he say what kind of driving that was?

[bennelson]

I am assuming it is all city driving.

I know Tom hasn't had it out on the freeway yet. He lives in the city, and the roads vary from 25 to probably 45 mph.

In the couple of times I rode with him, he wasn't babying it too much. You just have to be able to keep up with traffic or get run over!

Here's a new video today from Tom and I!

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

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for the context, Ben. We need that info to decide what those numbers mean.

Pardon my ignorance: is he discussing regenerative braking at around the 3:00 mark? He doesn't ever actually mention the word. (The car could have "plug" or "dynamic" braking, which uses the motor/controller to slow down, but doesn't recapture any energy.)