Paul & Sabrina's Cheap EV Conversion
 

OK, Gas is expensive. Don't get me wrong! I like choking on carbon monoxide as much as the next guy, but we have decided that it is time. My wife and I have been planning an EV conversion for the last several months. We don't have a dang car yet, though (lots of close calls, but we will have our car, by hook or by crook, by June 20th). We are hoping (settling?!) for 40mph top speed with horrendous acceleration. We are thinking of a Geo Metro.

We bought an $85 Curtis 300amp 48v controller on Ebay ($100 with shipping). I wouldn't have guessed that you could run a car on 48v, but there it was, bigger than life on youtube, the infamous Forkenswift... So, we will upgrade the controller later, but for now, this is fine.

We just bought a 6.7" GE DC Series wound 62 pound motor. It was $127. Not spectacularly cheap like if I bought a whole forklift and removed everything, but I live with my mother in law. She wouldn't go for having a forklift crushing the driveway.:eek:

We just bought an engine hoist for $100 (on sale) at Harbor Freight.

We picked up 8 6amp 12v chargers on sale for $20 each at Harbor Freight. The idea is later I will upgrade the controller to 84v, with a 12v auxiliary battery for running the electrical system of the car like lights and heat.

We bought a drill press at Harbor Freight on sale for $45. This will be used for making the adapter plate between the motor and the manual transmission bell housing. We will probably use 2 plates (thanks Lee Hart!). One attached to the motor face, and one attached to the bell housing. We'll probably use 0.25"x12"x14" (or so) steel plates. This will be explained in detail later. Spacers to be figured out later.

We got a whole bunch of 2 gauge welding cable with battery leads already attached. 12 battery cables that are about 12 inches each, and they all have battery attacher things (??) professionally attached already! 6 battery cables that are 7 feet long each with battery attacher things already attached. It was a very good ebay deal for all of them.

We bought a $2.99 volt meter from Harbor Freight, which will be used as a 0-400 amp ammeter (but the scale will be 0-200, oh well).

Today we bought a dual Curtis contactor/emergency disconnect switch rated at 72v (all in one object, hopefully this will also work for 48v?) on Ebay for a very good deal. It has a continuous current rating of 250 amps. It can handle 400 amps for several minutes at a time, good for later use too when we upgrade.

For a pre-charge resistor, I'm using 4 10 watt 10 Ohm resistors in parallel (for a grand total of 40watt, 2.5 Ohm.
Here's a few pictures of some of the stuff I'm talking about (plus my Ebike).

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Very very cool; I can't wait for further progress.

Cool! Another one begins.

Comments: definitely keep your eyes open for the lightest host vehicle you can find, given your low power design specs. See posts #9,10 in the ForkenSwift thread: http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...ht=crx#post215

I'm glad you're being realistic about the acceleration & top speed goals. Note that 40 mph may take half a mile to reach :) (on flat ground)

Are the chargers "smart" in any way? (Auto shutoff at a minimum?) 6 amps is going to be pretty slow to recharge a typical golf cart battery. Have you done the math?

PS - you're in Seattle. Does that mean lots of hills??

Lacey, Actually. I just said Seattle so people wouldn't say, "where's lacey!?" Almost no hills. I have my eye on a Ford Festiva. Hows that for tiny!?

That's good news about the hills. (Or lack, thereof.)

Festiva sounds good. How much does it weigh? I think they may even be slightly less than the 89-94 Metro. Another consideration though: if you're going to add more batteries later, can it take them?

Here it says 1797 lbs.
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffwor...-festiva-4.htm

Here says 725 kg (1598 lb) - more likely, I think:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Fe...281986-1993.29

The chargers are smart. It seems really slow to me too. I mean, If I'm using 2 115AH batteries in parallel, and 4 of those pairs in series, that's 230AH! Now, I'm no mathematician, but 230/6 = like 40 hours!!! holy cow. But I'll only be driving about 5 or 6 miles a day, so it should be able to recharge over night under those circumstances, and they'll last a long time, since each time I'll only use about 20-40% of the charge in the battery.

Good news. I was subbing in Autoshop today and the teacher came in at the last class of the day (not a single kid in there, since it was Senior Skip day). Well, there were 2 kids, but they "had to go get a drink of water". I think they forgot they were supposed to skip school that day. I told the teacher how my wife and I are working on converting a car to electric (once we get the car). He told me he could supply me with some extra parts if I needed them. I just need to let him know what type of car it will be.

Also found two 99 cent Lovejoy connectors that happen to be just the right size keyway for my motor. Oh, Rapture! Please don't outbid me anyone? Pretty please.

Well, I've been hawking all my prized possessions on Ebay. I'm putting off my home-made motor controller until later. I had 4 cheap IGBTs, and have been selling them one at a time, so as not to flood the market. I got them for $12 each, and am selling them for about $30 each. hahaha! I'm so sneaky! I had most of my code written for the microcontroller that makes all the decisions on my controller. Coding is free, but unfortunately, it's also really easy, and the thrill is gone. That rabbit hole only goes like 3 feet deep. Anyone who wants a mostly finished program for a ATMega16 atmel microcontroller to be used in a DC motor controller, let me know. I'll sell it for $-5.00. That's right folks, I'll actually give you the program, and I'll give you $5. (A good application of negative integers! Well, I'll only give you the HEAVILY COMMENTED program). I'm just wasting time until 5pm EST. That's when part 2 comes on for CNN's "WE WERE WARNED!" HAHAHA

I have my eye on the prize, a $200 car by mid-June. It's going to be hard going 3 whole months without kicking any bad kids out of class. I watched CNN's "OUT OF OIL: WE WERE WARNED! Part 1" yesterday. I hope today's is better. What can we do? Ethanol? Hmm... Oh, I have an Idea! How about build an electric car! I hope they mention that option in part 2 tonight.

I was thinking of going to the store today to buy a few nuts that can screw onto the posts of the battery terminals from Costco. But deep in my heart, I know that's a waste of time. I can go there later to buy the nuts. I don't even have the batteries yet. I'll buy them at the last minute, since they don't like to sit on the shelf.

I went to a junkyard yesterday. They had 2 geo metros. Both were stripped to the bone. I just wanted to get a measurement of the spline thing that is inside of the clutch disk (with the springs in it). I found out that the transmission shaft has a bit of play to it. Like 1 mm or so. That's good. That means that making the adapter plate can have a hair of error in it.

-Paul

There's a 300$ crx near my home in NJ, ever thought of one of them?

Looking forward to more progress, :)

You will not need an engine hoist for a Metro. It's 135 pounds :)

Well, one more thing to add to Ebay!!! haha

1 Engine Hoist, completely unused: $1.00
Shipping: $167

Johnny, I fear your mullet...

Dang, that would be good. I have thought of that. That's a heck of a trip though. You are like 3000 miles away or something! You could drive it over and drop it off. I'll give you my address.

Good luck finding a $200 car, I posted a car on craigslist for $200 and had scrap metal people calling me about it.

One of my chargers
 

Here is one of my 12v chargers. Both positive and negative are isolated from the 120v AC supply, so it will work to use one charger per 12v chunk of the series string. Oh hurray! Does anyone know the charging algorithm this thing uses? I was just guessing earlier when Darin asked if it was a smart charger. It's just that I'm so proud of them. Just like children, even if they are dumb, I still think they are smart!

Don't. The Costco deep cycle batteries with screw terminals come with nuts (I just bought 10 for my truck conversion)

Thanks for the info! Are you doing a 120v conversion, or maybe a 60v with pairs? Oh Do tell!!!

Engine hoists are not needed for a Metro engine.

A clothes line doesn't hurt though..... Not that I would know...

heh, it's a 120v system, but it was converted back in 1996 by a retired electritian. It's spent the last 8 or 9 years parked, he died about 7 or 8 years ago and I bought it from his daughter who knows nothing about it. He didn't leave any schematics or instructions. I'm trying to get it running again.

http://nurr.org/gallery/SkunkWorksElectricVehicles

I'm in desperate need of documentation on the motor controller. It's a GE IC 3645LXCD1, any help would be much appreciated. At this point I've replaced the batteries and busted a DPDT Center Off/Normally Off switch in the cab.

The problem I'm up against is that I don' t know what this switch does, nor do I know what the other switch and the knob are for. I'm guessing the knob is for regenerative braking, but I'm not positive.

At any rate, it's time for summer league bowling, I'll check back later.

redbear: the answer to your controller questions will most likely be found on the EVDL mailing list. http://evdl.org

Thanks!

Homemade Potbox
 

OK, so I was bidding on this terrific foot pedal/pot box. That dang thing got ripped from me at the last second! oh dear! I was going to buy a PB-? (maybe PB-5 but I'm not sure) for my 1204-412 curtis controller. Well that's $100. Plan B! I'm making it homemade. I'm also going with the $2 radio shack 5k pot. I'll put up the pictures of my prototype when I'm done. Total cost will be about $5. I made a really crappy round piece of wood that I drilled through that will sit on the post of the Pot. I'll fasten the Pot to a piece of sheet metal (or hard plastic) which will be fastened to a short piece of 2x3 wood. The purpose of the round wood is to increase the diameter of the pot post so that it's easier to turn and a wire attached to the wood will have a linear range that is the same as the range on the gas pedal from all the way up to all the way down to the floor. There will be another wire attached to a spring that will keep the pot in the "off" state until the pedal is depressed. I just need to make it look nice enough so that an inspector ignores it. Pictures to follow!

I'm done with version 0.9 alpha
 

It works good! (the homemade potbox). Here are a few pictures. I just need to beef it up, like use wire cable instead of nylon string and not use a thumbtack to hold the string on the pot. Also, I can shrink it down a bit, so it's a box! Pot Box!!!

Hard to get more homebrew than that!

Guess it beats spending $100 for one and waiting for it to come in the mail.

I am thinking my Electro-Metro will start out using my motorcycle twist throttle in the early testing stages....

Well, I have some very interesting news about the car for our conversion. It's going to be... a...

VW Bug!!!

For a while I would take my ebike for leasurely cruses through my neighborhood, seeking out the perfect conversion. Well, I noticed a nice little blue VW bug a while back, and I tried to talk to the owner but no one was home. Yesterday, I took my baby for a walk and they were home. A very elderly couple that loves little babies! He had put in quite a bit of money into it fixing various things, and had almost rebuilt the whole engine on his own, but something was still not working. His wife wants it out of their driveway. He decided that since the engine isn't working, that he'll just take it to the scrap yard.

"Bad engine? hmm... I don't mind!"
"Well, I put quite a bit into it, so I can't give it to you for free, maybe a couple hundred?"
"I get payed on the 15th of June."
"You want to convert it to Electric??? Wow! I didn't know people did that!"
"Heck yes they do!"
"Your baby, She is so beautiful! We have lots of grand children"
"Yes, HE certainly is!!!"

Best of all, It's only about a block away, so I don't have to tow it! At least I now have a use for that 1 Ton engine hoist I bought. hahaha just kidding.

Electric rear-wheel drive! Fun!

Mounting the motor should be pretty easy because of that!

SWEET!!

E-Bug will be awesome. I think there are even commercially available motor plates for those transmissions now days.

Homemade Potentiometer, ver. 0.99 beta
 

Well, I upgraded the string to 1/16" steel cable, coated in plastic. I changed the roll of electrical tape that was used to expand the diameter of the Pot post to a chunk of the wood off of our plunger. I drilled through the piece of the cylindrical wood and slid it onto the post. I used JB weld to hold it in place. Also, the plastic round sides are JB welded to the wood post. Then I drilled a hole through the wood and through the metal post of the pot, and put the steel cable through the hole, making it stick in the hole with lots of JB weld. It's drying right now. The spring I'm currently using is from my stapler. All the plastic is from a bucket. The wood is just a 2x3. The only thing I'm now concerned about is the durability of the Pot and the spring. But, I can easily get a strong flexible spring and I found some 5k Pots that are good for 5 million turns for like $30. We'll see, though. I'll post pictures once the JB weld dries.

OOH, we got a clutch spline
 

Well, I was at a high school today, and the autoshop teacher was in the office, and I told him I was looking for a clutch hub for a 1971 beetle, and he said "Hey! come down some time today and I'll give you one." What? OK! So, I picked it up, and hacked it up, trying to increase the welding surface area, but maybe it's not a good idea to do that. By the way, those rivets were forever! Dang german engineering!!! Well, I got it off. It has a lip that is exactly 40 mm wide, so I can get a L-110 Lovejoy with a 40 mm diameter, and it will slide right on perfectly centered. I can then weld it really solidly, and then the only thing to do is the adapter plate, all without visiting any professionals that want my money. This is going to be good, and I'm an idiot that doesn't know how to change oil even!
Also, I got a good deal on a 250amp continuous emergency disconnect/contactor from Curtis. It was only $35! I do need to attach a red button though. I don't know why it didn't come with one. I tested it and it works! oh ya.
The last picture is with the spring fully stretched, so if I let go of the second green cord, it will automatically go back.

Score on that clutch hub!

I think at this rate, your conversion is going to be done before mine!!!

Bought the CAR!!!
 

We payed for the car today, a 1971 VW bug (blue). It has an excellent body with almost no rust. The same owner for the last 25 years. The engine has only 10,000 miles on it since it's last rebuild. I'll try and sell it, but there is something wrong with the distributor (I have no idea what that is). I am told it's a minor problem. Hopefully, someone on Craigslist wants it for their project. I could end up getting the car for "free" in that case.
Here's the annoying part. It's been parked outside for the last few months, and not moved, and the brake drum is frozen to the brake pad, so the back wheel won't move, so we need to take care of that. It's still at his house, but I have a few ideas how it will be taken care of so we can roll it over here.
Also, I bought 2 L110 lovejoy couplers (both about 1.5" diameter) so if I screw up on the welding job, I have another one. I still need to buy the 7/8" diameter L110 now. Maybe in the future, I'll go with a smaller one like the L095. I don't know. It's just that they were super cheap on ebay. One was only $4.99! The other was $10 I think (I forgot). I'll do the welding once they come, maybe by the end of next week! I probably should practice my welding a bit more before that.

Nice to hear you sealed the deal. A big hammer and making lots of noise on that drum is one of the first methods people use to free a stuck brake shoe.

I freed the brakes shoes on my 66 bus with a bottle of marvel mystery oil (as soon as posable), a chain, and most recently a Supra. . . .. I can provide details if needed . . .

If it is really stuck; pump the tire up and drag it on a trailer (that's how I got my 68' home)

if you can reach on of the adjusting stars that would be very helpful as well . . .

Pictures for Jim Husted
 

Here's the inside of part of my motor. I hope it can be fixed. I think it's just carbon after all, though. Hopefully it can just be scraped off and start all fresh and clean! The rest of the rotor is nice though.

looks like it can be cleaned :thumbup:

I'm working on chopping off a big completely stuck-on spline thing on the back post of the motor, so I can slip off the cover to get at the copper bars to clean them. I bought a 3 foot long crow bar, but that didn't do it, so I'll be grinding it along the keyway (which is buried under steel!) and prying it apart that way. A spider for my L110 came today. Now I just need the L110 so I can weld the spline to it (no machining necessary! I hope it works!). By the way, those L110's are beasts, and I think I could do some drag racing with them, and not break anything. I was attempting to take lovely pictures, and the dang batteries ran out!!! They are recharging now. ooh, that makes me mad!

The L110 must be huge.

I grabbed a pair of L095s thinking they were plenty large, and who needs extra weight anyways?

You are probably right about them being good for drag-racing.

Man, the motor had 2 posts (front and back), and I had to remove the back HUGE spline gear thing on the "back" post in order to get access to the copper bars that the carbon brushes slide against (they had all that crap on them). I figured I could take it to a real motor person, but then again, hard plastic SOS pads only cost $0.99. It worked really well. It's now very smooth. Not perfect, but almost perfect. Good enough for government work (I'm a government employee I think. I substitute teach)

Removing that back post was like giving birth to a cactus. My 3 foot long crow bar came in handy though! ha!

The brushes were nice and long still. Now I know how to change the brushes. Really a very simple system, DC motors. Not many parts at all. The brushes were H-100's, whatever that means. Now I'm trying to put it back together. I hope it works once it's back together again.

Great news! I can't get the motor back together! hurray! Wait just a dang minute. That's bad news...

Well, some progress. It is a pickle!

Paul, glad to see you have the right attitude for this kind of project.

There are ups and downs to these things, just don't take yourself to seriously when working on it.

Look at the Youtube vid of me being covered in Geo Metro gasoline sometime for a good laugh!