CarBEN EV5 Full Sized Prototype Construction - 5 Seat Electric Car From Scratch - Page 9 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

NeilBlanchard · 10-11-2012, 08:04 PM

I have now glued another 16" onto the main chassis piece, making it ~8'-6" long and the total glued together is ~10'-6" long. Only about 3 feet left to glue! It now includes about 1/3 of the rear wheels:

The last picture shows the rear bumper and the trailing piece of the main hatch door. The bumper is only a bit wider than the PhlatPrinter 3 -- it is a little over 3'-6" wide.

I've purchased the *last* 16 sheets of foam that I need and I am cutting them as rapidly as I can, to stay ahead of what I need to continue the gluing. I also bought two bundles (10 pieces each) of 16' strapping and a box of galvanized screws to construct the frame from the tarp to keep things dry without having to cover and uncover it all the time -- the taller it gets, the harder this gets.

HydroJim · 10-11-2012, 08:21 PM

This is the coolest thing. I can't wait to see it all come together. I really like how the underbody slopes up in the back. Should make for really good airflow

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr · 10-11-2012, 09:23 PM

All-electrics are not my cup of tea, but that's a pretty interesting project.

NeilBlanchard · 10-12-2012, 10:33 AM

I'm hoping for a range of 300-400 miles, so it will hopefully be an all-electric that could work for almost all people, I think.

YeahPete · 10-12-2012, 11:02 AM

Wow 300-400 miles would definately get you some sponsors. It is great to see something like this coming together. GL I will be tracking this.

HydroJim · 10-12-2012, 12:15 PM

What kind of batteries are you using? 300 miles is highly impressive. you could always create some sort of add-on generator for road trips, but I guess that would take away from your all-electric plans.

Tango Charlie · 10-12-2012, 02:55 PM

This is so cool and amazing to watch. Any comments from your neighbors regarding the big blue monolith?

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr · 10-12-2012, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I'm hoping for a range of 300-400 miles, so it will hopefully be an all-electric that could work for almost all people, I think.

Mileage-wise it's OK, but I'd still be concerned about recharging time.

NeilBlanchard · 10-12-2012, 11:31 PM

The efficiency will (hopefully) come from having very low drag. The pack I was planning on is ~55kWh lithium, and if it can consume between 100-150Wh/mile, then it should be 325-400+ miles on a charge.

Instead of just sitting overnight, it will be charging while it sits -- no problem.

Yes, I have now talked to several of my neighbors quite a bit about CarBEN...

I'm actually having an issue with generating the g-code for one of the sheets -- I thought I found the problem at least a couple of times now, but when I try to load it into the cutting program - it kicks out an error...

NeilBlanchard · 10-13-2012, 11:32 AM

I found the g-code problem at long last (about 6 hours of trial and error!) -- there were 6 stray entities so tiny I could not see them... I got rid of them by turning all the cut shapes on the R18 sheet into polylines (an automatic function in DataCAD) and then erasing all other entity types using Mask - whew!! Then re-export the DWG file (for the umpteenth time!) and import that into SU, redo all the outer and inner cuts and all the tabs (again!) and then it the g-code was clean and glitch-free.

Big relief. The PhlatPrinter 3 is now cutting the first copy of sheet R18, thankfully.

Edit: I glued on 4" today and I cut 6 more sheets of foam -- there are only FOUR sheets left to cut and 33" left to glue! Woohooo!