Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[nubie]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Actually, all the indications are that the car is using NO GAS and it's a HOT car!

Heh, that is true.

Originally Posted by bennelson

I also measured the frame around the two side gauges, and they are just a little bit too small to remove them and replace with standard 2" volt and amp meters.

If you disassemble the gauge you want to use you can probably mount the workings in that panel, maybe even re-use the needles from your car, then get a nice sticker printed up on the face that will read what the gauge is for, or paint it in with a stencil and some white paint.


(Would it help to use a hole saw to remove the offending material if you wanted to use the whole 2" gauge?

I got a 18 piece set of hole saws in sizes from 3/4" to 5" from Harbor Freight for a ridiculous price, $8 or something.

Harbor Freight Tools

It looks like it is $6, and you will wonder how you ever lived without one.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

You can just cut it out so it overlaps a little bit. )


Love the video Too bad you didn't have 144 volts

[MPaulHolmes]

The 144v is coming, and it had better not break, or I'm going to punch a mosfet right in the head!

[nubie]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

The 144v is coming, and it had better not break, or I'm going to punch a mosfet right in the head!

Hey! What are you doing up at 2:00!

(Oops, I am up at 3:00, nevermind.)

Hope you feel better MPaul, I have been sick the last week too, something wrong with my stomach (It could just be allergies and people feeding me Soy, which I can't digest.)

[MetroMPG]

Nice drag race vid, Ben.

I have video I haven't posted yet of my 7 year old nephew and me drag racing. He's on foot, I'm in the ForkenSwift - with its 225A controller and half full pack. He outruns me for a good 40 or 50 feet. (Little boys have better acceleration, but a lower top speed.)

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by nubie

(Would it help to use a hole saw to remove the offending material if you wanted to use the whole 2" gauge?

It wouldn't help to use a hole saw because the gauages have to install from behind the combined plexiglass front cover and plastic gauge panel frame.

The gauge needs to come in from behind. The clear plastic front is NOT removable. Therefore, I would need a slightly bigger than 2" hole saw, but then the gauge doesn't have anything to mount to!

The only way I can think of doing it is to remove the clear plastic front. It is permanently glued on. I don't think I can cleanly remove it, install guages, and then re-install the clear plastic front.

Even if I did, standard two inch guages might be too thick. I also noticed that gauges usually have 3 threaded bolts on the back where you connect the wires, and tighten down the clamp thingy that holds the thing down. Those would have to be cut shorter, and the one leg would interfere with the printed circuit board of the gauge cluster on the left side!

Maybe I will just mount my gauges in the center AC vent......

[electricman]

Wanted: Instrument / Dash / Cluster Designer for EV's and Metro's (Sprint's, Firefly's, Swift's, etc.) for us metro/electricfly EV Pilots
Robert

[Coyote X]

How about leave the gauges alone and just make new faces for them. You can take any resistors off the meter movement and set it up to read whatever you want it to read. Might look nicer than holes in it and if you have access to a color laser printer just print the new face on a transparency paper so it will even still have a backlight.

[bennelson]

I made it down to Whitewater, Wisconsin today.

The university was hosting a pretty nice Earth EVent including an alternative car show.

The big draw for me to the event was that one of the speakers was Marc Geller. You may have heard of his name in connection with DontCrush.com, PlugInAmerica, or the building of the first modern PHEV.

Marc spoke for an hour about his experiences trying to get an EV. After failing to get his hands on an EV-1 and others, he finally leased a THINK. After the lease on that car was up, he was actively involved with groups trying to prevent the collecting and crushing of commercially made EVs. Later, he was able to purchase a RAV4 EV, which he currently is still driving.

After his presentation, it was open showing at the Alternative Car Show. Before the MC introduced Marc, he spoke a bit about a few of the cars that would be at the show. The first one he mentioned was an Amazing Electric Geo Metro some guy built. Aparently the MC knew of my car through my YouTube videos, but didn't know I was going to be at the show until I showed up! He was VERY excited about it!

The car show included: ZENN, plenty of Honda Insights (MK1 and the new Insight II!) Lots of Prii, several utility NEVs, and a couple of Smart Cars!

Not a bad show at all!



I spoke with plenty of people including a guy who works in forklifts (maybe that's what we should do with all our old motors.....) and an experimental aircraft builder with a friend who ran his motor-glider with an Electric motor! (Homebuilt electric airplanes!!!!! Full-size! With people inside!)

There was a student video producer there who shot an interview with me. Then, he went for a short ride in my car as the final shot for his video. When he mentioned that the car had a very particular sound to it, I asked if it sounded like a futuristic cougar. He agreed that it, in fact, did.

The absolute highlight of the day was at the end of the car show, when most people had left, and an Insight owner left his key on and killed his battery.

To the rescue, I jumped in with cables and an electric car.
I have NEVER seen a car jump-start so fast and easy.
Insight = tiny engine. Electro-Metro = HUGE BATTERY BANK. What a combination.





Here's the response to the jump-start.

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

For more photos of the event please click here

[MPaulHolmes]

That sounds awesome, Ben! I'm done with the mosfet etching, and now I'm going to do the diode etching. I'm putting in 12 each (just to see if the driver can handle it. Mathematically, it should be fine.). You will have a current range of 494 to 776 I think. I think it would have been OK with just 10, but now I HOPE the full 776 will be safe(ish). I'll work as quick as I can. It sounds like you have a lot of awesome places that you can go to show off your car! I talked to Fran, the motor controller expert from the eastern bloc country. He is working 16 hour days right now trying to finish a project by Friday, so after that, things will move a bit quicker on that end for the control board. He's helping to make it more robust and bulletproof.

[Christ]

Why would you be shooting at a circuit board?.. that's crazy

Ben - what a good samaritan, jumpstarting that poor fellow and showing off your car at the same time :P

It's kinda funny that you got "famous" through YouTube, ain't it?