sourcing cheap components for conversion
 

Hi guys.

After reading some of the conversions made in my country (Portugal), i'm trying to figure a way to lower costs for my future conversion.

Could you guys please comment on my newbie ideas?

1- First thought that came to mind, was to somehow source some "intelligent" small 12v chargers and charge the batteries independently instead of using a big "smart" charger that could cost me 1k USD.

2- Vacuum pump. If I understood this correctly, any conversion that uses a recent donor, will need a vacuum pump for the brakes. Anyone ever tried using a central locking vacuum pump (from junkyard) ? Would it have enough power?

Thanks in advance :)

If it really is cheaper and you have the space it can be better to have a charger for each 12v battery or each pair of 6v batteries because it will then charge it until it is full instead of over charging the whole pack because of one bad battery.
But if you want to go the cheap route, there are golf cart and electric fork lift battery chargers that charge at 36v or 48v and tend to cost less, but then again it's hard to say what you can find where you are.
What is a central locking vacuum pump? you can hook a vacuum gauge up to your gas car's brake booster and see what kind of vacuum it is getting, it's not a perfect true vacuum of course so what you are talking about will most likely work, then you just need a vacuum bottle to store the vacuum so the pump is not running all the time and so you can use the brakes a few times without running out of braking power.

Btw Gratz for "bennelson" it was his awesome project who has inspired me to start a project of my own :)

EDIT: hu.. just read about Forkenswift.. another amazing budget project. My confidence is starting to build :)

I ordered one of his DVDs a couple of days ago and I cant wait to get it.

Sourcing cheap parts seems kind of hard in Portugal, do you guys happen to know anyone who would build me a Open Revolt, accept a paypal payment and mail it as a "gift" ? Importing parts from the US with declared prices means I would pay a TON in taxes alone, and i can't seem to find cheap controllers and chargers around.

Everyone in the Portuguese EV forum says i shouldn't use deep cycle batteries and to go for LiFePo4, but my objective is 50km on a Fiat Panda (lightweight) and I'm trying to figure if i can do it for less than 4000€.. any thoughts ?

thanks on the tip regarding the vacuum bottle, i'm keeping that in mind

ok , small update on my "research" :

some volvos from the 90s have usable brake electric vacuum pumps, that means i can start searching the scrapyards and therefore I can prolly save about 500€ in a new pump.

Yes, "everyone" says you should use LiFePo4 batteries, but who really does use them? check out EV Photo Album: Our Electric Cars on the Web I would say that 98% of the electric cars on the road are using deep cycle lead acid batteries, I don't want to use lead acid batteries either in my projects but unless you have a rich uncle or someone who is willing to give you a pile of money you are out of luck.

peppp, I got myself a pack of lithium which moves me over 50km any day for less than 4000e including bms and charger. You'll get that range with car weighing about 1000kg and less than 10kWh of batteries.

See Home - GWL/Power - Your Complete Power Solutions - EV-Power.eu for european supplier of Thundersky batteries. The more you buy the cheaper it will get.

I used miniBMS and TCcharger (ElCon) bought from manufacturer directly. I remember it being something like 300$. Now if you could get motor, controller and wiring cheap you'd be pretty close to your goal.

mock post to make post count 5 and be able to post links... sorry ;)

thank you very much on all your interest, i'm learning as a go :)

4k € would be the budget for the whole conversion (yes, i'm trying to figure if a reallyyyy low cost car can be done), and maybe i can change it around to LiFePo4 next year or so.

help me out a bit more please :

would love your opinions on these products ->

Golf Trolleys & Batteries - 12V 4AMP Golf Battery Charger (buy 6 of them and charge all batteries independently ?)

Caravan Batteries, Boat Batteries & Leisure Batteries - Lucas Sealed ULTRA Deep Cycle 105ah Leisure Battery (there must be something wrong with this price... what am I missing?)

http://shop.electro-vehicles.eu/shop...t=0&path=47,62 (enough power for a Panda?)

or

http://shop.electro-vehicles.eu/shop...t=0&path=47,61

the Advanced DC should work, the smaller pancake motor would be ok for a motorcycle or scooter, it would be great for a bicycle, but not a good fit for a car.
the 105amp hour battery you linked to is a bit small, a 6v battery of the same physical size would give you twice the amp hours and hold up better, giving you more miles per dollar spent.
The charger is going to be a bit slow, like 25 hours or more to charge your car, you are going to want to look at suggested charge rates for the batteries you use, but I would say a 10 to 15 amp charger is going to be better, basically as high of a rate as your power source can handle.

Hello Ryland,

Once again thanks for your feedback. I understood what you said regarding the charging, but is there anyway at all to avoid spending 1k € on a charger?

Mind taking a look at the other models of those Lucas batteries in that website and making a suggestion?


Thanks :D