Geo Metro plug-in parallel hybrid EV - in progress

[Coyote X]

Tried every combination of wiring and found the best setup.



The wiring listed on the Kelly website pulls 3.9A@36V no load and the motor growls a bit like it has a bad hall sensor. With the wiring listed like I have shown it pulls 3.5A@36V and is really quiet and smooth.

I put the chain back on and reconnected the 72V to it and turned it on and the car promptly started rolling forward and ran into my bike before I got the key turned back off

Didn't hurt anything but the fact that it actually rolled without help I thought was pretty good. Before I had to help get it started before it would go and it was not able to hold speed without helping or going downhill. It seems much stronger now. It is still a pretty slow takeoff but at least it looks like it will actually be able to drive around on electric only. I will find out soon how it does. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to put it together good enough to take it out for a spin and get a video of it. If not it will probably be Wed or so before I can get back to it. Spring break is almost over

[MPaulHolmes]

Way to go Coyote!!! That's awesome. I can't wait to hear how it feels driving!

[MazdaMatt]

Congrats! I honestly believed that this was a hopeless project... i hope your sprocket doesn't crap out due to misalignment as your suspension moves.

[MetroMPG]

Who ever would have thought that running into your own motorcycle would constitute "success"! This is really cool. Looking forward to the vid, too. YouTube!

[Coyote X]

Car is sitting in my garage and it basically works. It just won't quit raining for me to get a video of it.

I might try cleaning up some of the wiring today. I can't really get it out in the rain, I can't put the top up. I have wires running from the trunk over the top to the passenger seat the wiring and fixing the front struts is about all that is left before it is ready for the road again.

I have pretty much decided that in order to keep the chain working I am going to lower it to the bump stops and shorten the struts so it has no downward movement. That will make it ride like it used to when it was white. That setup should get me through for a while. I am really thinking of eventually changing to a belt drive driven off the inner axle hub to solve all the problems and eliminate the vibrations being transmitted to the chassis through the chain.

But that is a future project. Right now I need to just get it done and out on the road to see some mileage numbers

[MetroMPG]

Don't forget to record electricity numbers too. Got a kill-a-watt?

[Coyote X]

First Test Drive of the Electric Drive–MetroXFi.com

There it's first run down the road

Here is the youtube copy of the video so it can embed here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggtvqmhj3Tc

The batteries have not been charged and I have no real controls set up yet for it. I am using an old game controller joystick for the throttle and it is not mounted. It was acting up a bit though. You can see that when I got out on the road and it quit pulling till I messed with it and made it start pulling again. I got up to 35mph with the electric. There was enough traffic I decided to pull out with the gas motor and just let it idle in neutral just in case I needed it.

The gearing is not really good the way it is set up. It has 4:1 gearing right now but if I go to 5:1 gearing it should pull much better than it does now. The chain was jumping a bit at the start. I don’t really have it adjusted or even lined up perfectly so that is expected.

Overall the car is doing pretty good and I am happy with how it is running. This weekend I will start putting the controls together and actually finishing things up with it so I can start driving the car again.

[Coyote X]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Got a kill-a-watt?

I need to get one of those this weekend. I haven't actually charged the batteries yet. I hooked the charger up the other day but I didn't have the wires tight and it never actually charged

[MazdaMatt]

Congrats. I was wondering what you were doing with the keys... At the start, were you not able to climb that hill? It is hard to tell when you were under batt or ice power.

[MetroMPG]

Nice vid. Was that an EV grin?

Now how many vids are there of partially finished electric drive vehicles being test driven on this site?