Ben Nelson's Electro-Metro Build thread

[MPaulHolmes]

I like the pizza. I love pepperoni. I wish I had your pizza right now. It makes me sad that I don't have it right now.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I like the 300 mpg reflection in the window.

I was sooooo waiting for someone to notice that...

Paul, I have two slices of 'za left. Drive out here in your electric car and it's yours!

[MPaulHolmes]

At 25 miles per day, for about 2000 miles or something, that works out to about 80 days. Make sure you put it in the freezer, or else it might not still be good when I arrive. Hey, I could write a new adventure book. I'd call it "Around 2/25 of the World in 80 days!" (because I think the earth is 25000 miles around, and I can go 2000 miles in 80 days)

[bennelson]

Kristin and I went to the farmers market this morning.



The car is still running off a hand throttle 0-5k pot. Her quote: "What's that thing you're holding?"

There are also big, scary looking cables running through the passenger compartment.

She stepped boldly into the passenger seat, and we hit the road.

It drove pretty well, and Kristin didn't freak out at all.

The best part about a CAR EV is that it has plenty of cargo space!




About a 5 or 6 mile trip, and NO GAS USED!

PS: all products were local!

[bennelson]

Today was another EV work day.

I was mostly working on the motorcycle, as I had a problem with it the other day. (Turns out it was that darn battery post again!)

But staying on the topic of the car -

I got some fun new parts from Tom G. He found a matched 300 amp ammeter and 0-100V volt meter (analog - moving needle) in a single case, off of an old welder.

Looks like both work, and I think the ammeter will work with the 50mv shunt I have off the forklift charger.

I also got an AC relay and some extruded aluminum rail.

I hooked up the AC relay to the AC output of the cars battery charger, which turns on when it's plugged in. That activates the relay. I then have the power wire to the main contactor coils running through the "normally open" part of the relay.

When the charger is plugged in, it activates the relay, and prevents power from going to the main contactor. So, you can turn the contactor on normally, but you simply can't if the battery charger is plugged in.

This will save me big headaches the first time I try to drive away in the car while it's still plugged-in!!!

I am hoping to use the extruded aluminum as a support piece to mount various things to. There just aren't a lot of good places under the hood to pin things down. Also, the aluminum is black anodized, so it will look good with the rest of the car. It's a channel shape, so I could pin power cables back under it too!

[bennelson]

I have had some problems with the "15 amp" charger popping my 15 amp circuit breaker.

Right when the charger starts, it pulls a lot of amps. Enough to pop the breaker fairly routinely.

So, I installed a 20 amp circuit breaker in my garage breaker box.



I then installed a 20 amp electric outlet with a built-in GFI directly below the breaker box.



I now have a home-made Electric Vehicle Charging Station! (I just need to make a sign!)



Another advantage of this is that the new outlet is about 10 feet closer to the front of the garage than the closest 15 amp outlet was.

Before, the 25' 12 gauge extension cord would just barely reach if I had the car parked in the driveway facing the garage. Now I have plenty of reach.

[bennelson]

It looks like it's about time I clean up the wiring enough that at least a passenger isn't afraid to hop in the car!


Wiring is a little wild here.

I figured I could run all the cabling under the car in some big conduit.

I used a hole saw to cut into the spare tire well on the back. Then I ran a 10 foot section of 1.5 inch plastic conduit into it with a 45 degree elbow and a short bit of flexible conduit.





Once I had the conduit under the car and connected in back I pulled a LONG section of old welding cable (1/0 size) through there.



I also ran some other misc. cable in there for whatever else I will need to connect from the back to the front. This may include the charger connections, a contactor wire, power to the 12V charger, etc.

That gets to be a lot of stuff to pull through there!!!

I like the looks of the pipe sticking out front. Looks like a 007 car gun.

[toyobug]

will all of your wiring fit through that one pipe?

[bennelson]

It's an inch and a half diameter. Looked plenty big in the store!

I think it should fit in there just fine.

There are a couple of things in the trunk that I am planning on moving up front, which will eliminate the wiring that would otherwise have to run back there.

[bennelson]

I drove the Metro over to see Hot Rod Jim.

Took him out for a ride. It was the first time he has seen the car. Before that, it was always me showing up with my motor and transmission in the back of my truck.

He thought it was a pretty cool project.

We jacked it up so he could look under and evaluate the couple. Said it looked pretty good, but there was a certain bolt that I should replace and add a washer on. Maybe tightening that up will help with the mechanical noise I have been hearing.

I also rigged the charger back up when I was back home (in my driveway in the dark)

Not sure how far I drove. I wrote down the odometer numbers, but am not sure I wrote them right. According to my notes, I drove the car 21 miles tonight!


Did I mention that I drove to the grocery store the other night for ice cream and pizza. (Wait a minute, why are EV's and pizza somehow linked in my life? I did once tell my wife that our marrige would be nothing but pizza and electric bills. I think that is somehow coming true, in a strange way I would never imagine!)