WIKISPEED build for Electric Motor Module

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The Low Voltage Junction Box has needed a permanent backplate for some time. And now is the time it will be moved.

Start with a piece of 3/8 inch plywood. Mark out the required terminals, the different cables entering the box, and the relay placement. Route the wires into and out of the box.

How to keep the cables from pulling out of the terminals? The cables will be terminated directly to terminals instead of to quick connectors as they will eventually be. Perhaps an aluminum gauge plate for a stiffener on the plastic sides of the case, with a hole in for each cable. Add a clamp, like they use for extension cords to take some of the stress if a cable gets yanked ... hmm.

This sounds pretty simple, but as usual there are complications. The cables can enter on 3 sides plus the bottom. This makes for several combinations to think through, and to sketch through. It`s nice if the wiring enters from one side and the terminals are close, and close together, so that the wires don`t cross half the box to get to the terminals.

I had a decent beginning to the circuit already on a backplate. I went through several iterations ... but that`s about where things ended up for the night.

I guess I will have to get something done, then improve it later. I fall into the trap of trying to improve things before they get built. It's a time-wasting trap!

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Not to repeat myself .. but ...

Like most things that I do - on Monday I was making things too complicated, trying to optimize from several options instead of building something that is OK and optimizing later. This is the mantra of WIKISPEED. Rapid prototyping, quick iterations, making use of distributed tools to involve many members of the group to guide the iterations rapidly .

So now that I am back on track - here`s what happens. One of the sketches is chosen, not quite at random ... it is one of the more flexible solutions that I sketched out. The cable for the signals going from the LVJB to the HVJB is the most important. It has a single hole between the boxes with a tube between. The other cables include 12V from the controller battery and to the controller; 12V from the accessory battery and power out to the fuse box, the high voltage contactors, the lights, and other loads in the car; the accelerator signal in from the cockpit and out to the controller; the safety system sensors in from the rest of the car and out to the HVJB contactors. There are also 2 chargers, one each for the controller battery and for the accessory battery. The battery chargers and the power bar is in the HVJB, but the cables connect to the batteries through the LVJB.

Sketch out a grid for the 6/32 bolts that I use as terminals. Drill out the holes and mount each of the #6 bolts with a nut to hold it into the backplate.

Here I run into a snag. My grid is too widely spaced, so I ran out of terminals before I ran out of wires.

Re-drill the backplate with more holes, more closely spaced. Now I ran out of 6/32 bolts and nuts. SIGH!

Draw out the wiring on the backplate, strip some more wiring (the right colors - black and red mostly) - and I ran out of crimp terminals.

OK - I guess that's it for the night!

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It's been a while since the last update. Most of my time has been spent on things around the build instead of ON the build - things like getting an axle built that has been extended the required 4.5 - 5.5 inches, and has the extra length adjustable, and is bolt-together (still working on that one). Expediting parts ... getting a voltage regulator that may allow a hall effect accelerator to work with the Kelly controller, which is expecting a 0 - 5K potbox ... and on and on.

So this weekend I'm back to working on the Electric Motor Module with the parts that I have right now, and the parts that are on the way (I have received tracking information).

I'm going to start at the batteries and work my way through the system. I've been prototyping for a long time. I`ll discuss a bit of what I have had working, and what it is intended to be for the initial delivery to Red River College, the client.

The batteries that I have been experimenting with are surplus deep discharge marine batteries. I went through shipping the Electric Motor Module by truck to the client in Winnipeg - which is roughly half the cost of buying new deep cycle batteries! Then I found out that the battery charger that I am using - a Delta-Q - can be upgraded to charge a Lithium pack. This combination resulted in purchase of the smallest lithium pack that has likely ever been put into a car. I now have new 40 A-h CALB grey cells. I ordered 16 to allow for a 48V pack and 2 spares. Depending on how the Delta-Q is configured (the local rep has the config, but was not involved in the programming. It may be 14 cells, it may be 15) I may add one cell to have the charger terminate with the batteries slightly under-charged to extend their life. And I have begun the tedious task of bottom balancing the batteries.

The lead batteries were arranged on my garage floor. I had planned a frame that would require a number of aluminum members in a very sturdy box. I have a battery box for the lithium batteries done in wood, and it will likely stay that way since these cells are so light compared to the lead.

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I`ve continued bottom balancing the cells as my battery box and it's mounting continued. My target is 2.750V plus or minus 5 mV. I got through all 14 yesterday and I was pretty close. 6 of the 14 cells needed energy drained away. It was not very much - I used 10 ma-h for all of them.

The batteries rose slightly after resting overnight. Cell 10 is the lowest at 2.760V. Cell 07 is 2.761V. All of the other 12 cells read 2.763V, 2.764V or 2.765V. That`s close enough for me. I`m getting a bit tired of this little procedure!

The lead batteries were connected (during testing) together with cables that I had cobbled together from salvaged motor connections. I have now built cables the correct length, and made the battery connections `permanent`. This involved removing the corrosion from the battery terminals and from the battery straps. Then I bolted the straps to the batteries in sets of 4. This made it pretty easy to move the batteries into the battery box with a bit of packing material around them so that they can take some vibration and some shock (bumps). Finish the last 3 terminations and the batteries are in the box. I need to make a spacer to hold them tightly in position (the box is too long). I may add another fuse internal to the battery box, to protect against a short circuit in the cabling that runs from the battery box to the High Votlage Junction Box (HVJB).

I`ve got the battery box mounted in the Electric Motor Module frame. The battery box cover and the tie-down for the cover still need some work.
In this design, all cables go through the High Voltage Junction Box (HVJB) or the Low Voltage Junction Box(LVJB) (or both). No two devices are directly connected together. The idea is that you can replace any part with a functional equivalent and deal only with that part, and the two junction boxes.

I`ve done some video, but I have not gone through the pictures yet.

Saturday Demo Aug 24, frame and crate - YouTube

Sunday Demo Aug 25, Assemble the battery pack and install into the Electric Motor Module frame - YouTube Demo Aug 25, Cover tools in electrical tape, torque battery posts - YouTube

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This build log has not gotten the consistent updates that it should have.

The first WIKISPEED Electric Motor Module was delivered to Red River College on September 6,7,8.

It is a Netgain WarP 9 mated to a Honda D series transmission adapter and coupler from CanEV, a 2002 Honda D series 5 speed manual gearbox with clutch driving modified axles from a 2002 Honda Civic.

The Motor Module frame is one of the first (perhaps the first?) bolt-together module built for WIKISPEED - 1.25 inch square aluminum tube bolted with 3/8 grade 8 bolts.

The battery pack is 16 CALB 40 A-h cells with a DeltaQ Quik HF/PFC 48V charger upgraded to use the #50 charging curve for Lithium-Iron-Phosphate cells. For some reason, the charger charges to 58.9VDC instead of about 52V (4.0V per cell). I had intended cells 15 and 16 to be spares in case of a failure in the pack of 14. I had included cells 15 and 16 in the pack for the first charge as a 'just in case, boy am I paranoid' thing. I'm glad that I did! Apparently the DeltaQ charger charges to 4.2VDC per cell (assuming 14 cells in the pack). That's a bit higher than I'd like. 16 cells, however, makes the ending charge just over 3.68VDC. This is a BIT undercharged and should extend the life of the cells measurably.

The controller is a Kelly KDH rated for 120VDC, 350A. The DC/DC converter is a Surepower 48V model rated at 20A and will accept up to a 70V pack. There is also a small (5 a-h) 12V gel cell with it's own 12V trickle charger that ONLY powers the Kelly controller. This was faster and easier than getting an isolated DC/DC power supply and getting it wired in.

The axles were not completed while I was at Red River College, so I did not get to drive around in the car. I had tried SO HARD to get the car to the point where it would drive.

The Electric Motor Module has a few backlog items to be addressed.
- The Honda hall effect accelerator does not interface to the Kelly controller. The controller simply won't use the voltage signal as a speed reference - or I'm doing something very obvious very wrong (this is possible). The pedal will have to be replaced with a potentiometer accelerator.
- There are switches to mount on the dash - ignition, forward/reverse.
- It would be nice to have a clear plastic guard built for the battery pack.
- Some type of spalsh guard would be useful to keep foreign material out of the motor brushes - mud, water, dirt.

There are a number of other backlog items on the car before it is complete.

Here is a link to pictures taken by the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association. (MEVA). Special thanks to Rodger for capturing the essence of the weekend.

Winnispeed September 2013

I'm working on editing the video (about 14 hours of GoPro and Android phone footage from a tripod in the corner of the build room). I've also sent it to Bruce, who had done some professional photos and camera work during Sunday - he was going to get a time-lapse or speed-up done with the video that has action.

I'll post an update with the links when they are ready.

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The video from the Winnespeed build is on hold. I have asked for some help to come up with a story to tie the few segments that are OK together .. but it will take time.

Back on topic ...

The electric motor modules have progressed in the past 3 months.

There are actually 2 electric motor modules in progress, one is for team WIKISPEED and one is for me.

[thingstodo]

So far, here's what I have

1 - Netgain Warp 11 series wound DC motor
2 - Netgain 1000 amp, 400V DC controller
3 - DC contactor for electric reverse
4 - Honda Civic 2004 5 speed transmission
5 - Axles and CV joints

Here are a couple of possibilities

6 - A Lithium manganese oxide battery pack at about 340V
7 - Honda Civic adapter plate, Warp 11 to Honda transmission

A couple of question marks

8 - Battery Charger
9 - DC/DC converter

[thingstodo]

So far, here's what I have

1 - Netgain Warp 9 series wound DC motor
2 - Netgain 1200 amp, 400V DC controller
3 - Honda Civic 2000 5 speed transmission
4 - Axles and CV joints

Here are a couple of possibilities

5 - A Lithium manganese oxide battery pack at about 340V
6 - Honda Civic adapter plate, Warp 11 to Honda transmission
7 - Battery charger built from an old industrial VFD
8 - A small Programmable Logic Controller to coordinate the DC controller, charger, State of Charge, lighting, etc
9 - 220V european PC switching power supply modded slightly to become a DC/DC converter
10 - cable-driven selector for selecting reverse from the gearbox