Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[bennelson]

A big part of why the fuel economy of the vehicles is close is how the energy is calculated.

Darin is converting both gasoline and electricity to BTUs to be able to directly compare the two, and he is extremely frugal with how he uses the gasoline.

If you compare the two on cost, electric can be a LOT cheaper, depending on where you live and your electric power source.

Also, electricity can be made from oil, coal, nuclear, solar, hydro, wind; you name it. Gasoline can only be made from petroleum.

So even if the two cars got identical MPG, electric still has some advantages.

(Plus it's so darn quiet!)

[Thalass]

Another thing is that you can make your own electricity easily! Especially if you live in a reliably windy place like me. There's a site on the interwebs somewhere that documents a guy making his own wind turbine entirely out of wood (with the exception of the axel and the windings on the generator - everything else is wood). *edit Found the URL!

Hell, if you're desperate you can hook a genny up to an exercise bike or other gym equipment and pedal away furiously for a few days...

[MetroMPG]

Good point, Thalass. I'd love to make a turbine, but it's probably another one of those things I'll just daydream about.

Unlike this guy...

[jwxr7]

Hey Darin, I saw you mention a desulfator earlier in this thread. Did you ever try anything like that for your batteries?
I found a homebrew circuit for a desulfator a while back. Here is a site that shows some details http://www.alton-moore.net/graphics/desulfator.pdf
and here
http://www.dallas.net/~jvpoll/Batter...n_Units23.html

I've built 3 so far (2 for at home and 1 for at work) with good success. We use lots of lead acid batteries at work so we use a store bought desulfator to maintain them sometimes. We wanted more but without the $50 price tag. That's one reason I looked into DIY versions.
I recently brought a 2.7ah 12v SLA back from the dead with the homebrewed circuit in just over a week. The store bought one we use did the same thing with one a month earlier, but took a little longer.

I modified the circuit so I can use a wallwort as a trickle charger if needed. I believe the 12v circuit can do 6v batteries since the timer IC needs only 5v to run. There is a 24 volt version too. There are also ways to make them higher power for really large batteries.

Heres a good forum about them too. http://leadacidbatterydesulfation.yuku.com/

[MetroMPG]

Nah, I haven't tried desulfating yet. I keep hearing people swear by it "in the wild" but (1) don't know enough about it, (2) none of the Yodas of the EVDL are behind the idea, and (3) I have 2.5 battery packs worth of floodies sitting around

[MetroMPG]

New ForkenSwift vid. There are 2 more in the works, which means... sometime in the next 6 months

Watch me shift gears, with fancy graphical aids - whee!

Watch me sneak up on & nearly run over a careless pedestrian!

Watch me exaggerate!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liqv3KgXThk

[Peakster]

As usual, great video MetroMPG. 2 more in the works? I can't wait.

What editing software are you using to get those graphical aids anyway? Pretty nifty.

[Christopher Jordan]

Outstanding video! I am a little dissapointed not tohear *beep*beep*beep*beep* in reverse! ;-)

countersTrike

[bennelson]

I like the graphical aids. Sure helps understand what exactly you are doing.

I didn't realize that you used nuetral like that. Are you just trying to do an electric version of EOC in nuetral so that the rotating motor doesn't slow you down at all?

I was trying to figure out what that loud thumping was. Then I realized it only happened before you turned. The turn signal is the loudest thing on that car!!!!

You need a bicycle bell for pedestrians who aren't looking where they are going.

[MetroMPG]

Peakster: I had to use Adobe Premiere (30 day trial version!) to superimpose the images. I usually just use Windows Movie Maker, but it couldn't do that.

Ben: exactly. There is a small but noticeable amount of drag by coasting in gear, so I typically coast out of gear if I'm trying to maximize range (which is most of the time).

I actually want to put a bicycle bell on it after seeing this vid ...