Electric Assist Project: E-charger (2000 Subaru Outback) - Page 26 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

brucey · 08-09-2011, 12:18 AM

I'm working on it! I didn't want to give it much of a test run without having the batteries properly charging first (I was charging them with a single 12v charger)

With that said, the charger is in! These things are substantial. Will hopefully wire them in tomorrow.

brucey · 08-09-2011, 01:56 PM

Chargers are in. I plan to build a modular box for the batteries/chargers and hook it all up to an anderson power pole connector so that I can remove the batteries if need be for cargo.

That said, I got the belt on and gave it a test run. The motor is spinning the wrong way! Whenever I applied throttle it tried to stall the engine. Oh well, it's just a matter of switching a wire or 2 around to get it to spin the right way.

Phantom · 08-09-2011, 04:50 PM

Sweet I'm glad to see so much progress over the last few weeks when i was out of town and moving. I will need to check the vid out when I get home and can't wait to hear how the car responds to it.

brucey · 08-09-2011, 05:06 PM

Yup, I've been burning the midnight oil trying to get this operational. It's been a LOT of work, right now the big problem is the motor is spinning the wrong way (CC When it should be spinning clockwise) and the wiring diagram says simply hook up the yellow wire instead, but my harness has no yellow wire or anything in pin 33... I'm waiting to hear back from the MFG or someone over in the EV forum.

Diagram, for anyone that wants to give an idea http://www.electricautosports.com/fi...-2009%29_0.pdf

henshao · 08-10-2011, 08:14 PM

I am one of many apparently who have always wanted to do this. I didn't realize motors could sustain damage by being overrevved, but my ideal setup was a motor-generator system. Suppose you have a target cruising speed of 60mph and your engine turns 2000rpms at that speed. If you had an assist motor that was GEARED DOWN to 2000rpms it would have so much additional torque to assist you at low speeds, which is where hybrids really shine, and then at your cruising speed it could charge your batteries.

But again I didn't realize overspinning the motor was bad for it. I do know that motors are a different animal than ICEs and are most efficient at peak RPM.

One crucial CRUCIAL modification I would make if I had an automatic, is to manually control the lockup of the torque converter. Now, obviously if the TC is locked while you're at a standstill the engine will stall. but you have the biggest starter motor on the planet. Provided you're in first gear, with the TC locked the electric assist will simultaneously move the car and start the engine, or at least make the engine an "add fuel to me" setup. This brings me to my next point of why a diesel would be perfect for this arrangement. It's already an "add fuel to go" setup, and has no pump losses from throttle blades being closed.

My final point that i can think of right now is that I would want to have an electric oil pump in addition to the one already in the engine, just to keep the engine lubricated when at a stop.

brucey · 08-10-2011, 09:19 PM

I have the motor currently geared to never be able to over spin (Unless my motor learns how to somehow rev up past 6500 rpm with it's 6000 redline) I know this isn't the best set up, and I would love to be able to have most power at 2000 rpm, but as of right now it's simply 7500 = 6000 as far as the RPM to protect it from over revving.

I've also got no plans to do auto stop features currently. Nor do I want to have this motor replace the starter (Although it probably could.) Although, torque converter lock up would be helpful for efficiency. I'll see how it drives without it first. There are many guides how to wire the 4EAT up for manual control, including the TC. So it's certainly possible.

deathtrain · 08-10-2011, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brucey

Yup, I've been burning the midnight oil trying to get this operational. It's been a LOT of work, right now the big problem is the motor is spinning the wrong way (CC When it should be spinning clockwise) and the wiring diagram says simply hook up the yellow wire instead, but my harness has no yellow wire or anything in pin 33... I'm waiting to hear back from the MFG or someone over in the EV forum.

Diagram, for anyone that wants to give an idea http://www.electricautosports.com/fi...-2009%29_0.pdf

Looking at that I would try the following

AC motor's are usually ABC or CBA try switching the A and C around. that should reveres the direction. After that I would need to know how close your design is to the actual diagram you used.

Boreas · 08-11-2011, 12:23 PM

Hello Brucey, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to document your project. I've been following it from the start. I'm a two finger typist so I haven't taken the time to reply before. It looks like on your diagram, If you took the red wire on pin 25 (12v+) and connected it to pin 33 after disconnecting the white wire, pin 22, the controller will reverse the motor. See note 2 just backward. That's all the forward-reverse switch is doing. My guess why you don't have a yellow wire is that your wiring harness is not set up for reverse. Keep up the good work. Boreas

brucey · 08-12-2011, 01:46 AM

Motor finally spinning correct direction, successfully revved my engine up using the E-charger.

First test drive: After I sleep.

brucey · 08-12-2011, 03:37 PM

First test drive semi successful! Scangauge showed 54 MPG for a 2 mile trip. It's back on the charger now.

Thoughts on driving:

No slip on the belt. The only time I got any squeal was when I floored the throttle all the way from a dead stop. Don't plan to do this very often, so not worried about it right now.

Nothing blew/burned up! That's a plus.

Acceleration when using both the gas and electric is extreme for this car. Probably in the 8 second to 60 range when I'm used to 11 seconds.

Now the bad news:

The batteries don't seem to be up to the task of powering the motor. When I first started, 250 amp was full throttle. After just 3 miles, 50 amps was all it would give under full throttle. They are labelled as deep cycle AGM and listed at 55AH and 600A but I'm starting to think they aren't up to the task. The good news is is that it's local so I can likely trade these in on some that work properly. I'd like to stick to AGM, but any one see any problems with Optima Yellow tops? Can they put out 250A Continuous?