tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20652499589250063882024-03-14T00:19:50.246-07:00kWsakiZen and the Art of Motorcycle Electrification (and maybe some cars too)jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-44578129531679410612020-11-15T11:23:00.002-08:002020-11-15T11:23:57.167-08:00Like two peas in a pod<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjeeh0wLRdk/X7F__hOXyMI/AAAAAAAANq8/vtghuynMdjQqcZlPtaV0_uHGNdyV_flLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1564/IMG_20201115_211625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1564" data-original-width="1564" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjeeh0wLRdk/X7F__hOXyMI/AAAAAAAANq8/vtghuynMdjQqcZlPtaV0_uHGNdyV_flLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_20201115_211625.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Mazda MX-30 eSkyactiv 2020 and my Citroen Xsara 1997/2014 conversion.<p></p>jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-86898601094234006942020-05-13T12:21:00.001-07:002020-05-13T12:24:17.596-07:00Gave up and installed a BMSYes, it's true. I gave up and installed a BMS. A Battery Monitoring System, that is. Not the kind that drains a few of your cells and then their buddies destroy them at the earliest opportunity. No, the kind the measures two voltages. Whole pack voltage and half pack (more or less).<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oViYWbLP3Fk/XrxHHGm2RBI/AAAAAAAAIw8/g8PVSFrs7nYcrrcFgDvyh-RfQIdvbcBcACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2020-05-12%2B19.06.57-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oViYWbLP3Fk/XrxHHGm2RBI/AAAAAAAAIw8/g8PVSFrs7nYcrrcFgDvyh-RfQIdvbcBcACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2020-05-12%2B19.06.57-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The brains of my BMS.</div>
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In my case the half pack is the first 13 cells. What this gives me is four interesting figures:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Average cell voltage (total voltage divided by number of cells)</li>
<li>Average cell voltage for the first 13 cells (their total voltage divided by 13)</li>
<li>Average cell voltage for the last 12 cells (total voltage minus first 13 cells divided by 12)</li>
<li>Difference in average voltage between first 13 and last 12 cells.</li>
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That last bit of information is very interesting, because if it is more than say 0.2 volts, there must be a problem with one of the cells in either part of the pack. All data goes to my Zabbix server, which can alert me, if that happens. I also have Grafana set up, so I can some pretty graphs too.</div>
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Now you may ask how do I measure the first 13 cells and not cause an imbalance? Well done, my young Padawan, that is the right question. Well, I have a relay in the loop, which only connects the first 13 cells for a very short time, less than a second, currently every three minutes. The load imposed on the first 13 cells is also something like 0.1 watts. This should not cause a problem even in the long run. And if it does, I'll know about it.</div>
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I've used a LinkIt Smart 7688 Duo for a couple of IoT things now, so that's what I used here too. You can get easy to user Grove parts with sensors and the like from Seeed. They're really quite handy if you're as lazy as me and don't want to be soldering every last thing yourself.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O49z_VR-8KM/XrxHHCsO8lI/AAAAAAAAIxI/eJINDr16dw0MAXfeGO2UVmRPsfxhmLKlgCEwYBhgLKs0DAL1Ocqzi6PC1mQiBXJykS0hgF29QA2erAKA164R7M51SElmPQ1dpeCPTVe3fuxu_beZc_40g8B1ndOqhM84jcZMMfScHmiJVT34PemdfcSRIeI9etX60FVb-UAtxnfX-DVs9Ji_zEr4lqISQ_mVd3zqYRwx9-7aWrwp5bwyUvTvMgpiA36G6vo0kQztGAyXKMN5vwMigYRVAa6HLKGwzyfIlSSlzlduH1PncPIAZGcNuaOG53YqOiNcemrkG8PwdS2pTTEc6alaVLI_slI18WNriKpK_j08DiTsC9aOgld1-bpjn8SNVM81fAcXwV4Wx619J_-uDEW4zD6ofxioFR6jRco1bnxTxKlw3-OZzWgv9geiQ7Avfdquz8LJrydzQD9HfWR17xUDTgxGFCeYNT3ZQ3SlcuQwOBVEhdQBIZpbDwraO7uBJRYttlXw_5r-u-tIkSib4D3C7GZ0VHRft7yWmx_E5oSIhQBIndR_S5hAiTxrlZTEJQofnaXZVYZAGezEL0r6-ZnG9C7pV4cASlImhNj-QeoUAtAdj6AwfViIHRI9zTrtcd7KfVRsL5F1lMOHWkAXNSoOgY3ZzaJkRrKyebnMnab11QOrdjIsw_ZPx9QU/s1600/2020-05-12%2B19.07.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O49z_VR-8KM/XrxHHCsO8lI/AAAAAAAAIxI/eJINDr16dw0MAXfeGO2UVmRPsfxhmLKlgCEwYBhgLKs0DAL1Ocqzi6PC1mQiBXJykS0hgF29QA2erAKA164R7M51SElmPQ1dpeCPTVe3fuxu_beZc_40g8B1ndOqhM84jcZMMfScHmiJVT34PemdfcSRIeI9etX60FVb-UAtxnfX-DVs9Ji_zEr4lqISQ_mVd3zqYRwx9-7aWrwp5bwyUvTvMgpiA36G6vo0kQztGAyXKMN5vwMigYRVAa6HLKGwzyfIlSSlzlduH1PncPIAZGcNuaOG53YqOiNcemrkG8PwdS2pTTEc6alaVLI_slI18WNriKpK_j08DiTsC9aOgld1-bpjn8SNVM81fAcXwV4Wx619J_-uDEW4zD6ofxioFR6jRco1bnxTxKlw3-OZzWgv9geiQ7Avfdquz8LJrydzQD9HfWR17xUDTgxGFCeYNT3ZQ3SlcuQwOBVEhdQBIZpbDwraO7uBJRYttlXw_5r-u-tIkSib4D3C7GZ0VHRft7yWmx_E5oSIhQBIndR_S5hAiTxrlZTEJQofnaXZVYZAGezEL0r6-ZnG9C7pV4cASlImhNj-QeoUAtAdj6AwfViIHRI9zTrtcd7KfVRsL5F1lMOHWkAXNSoOgY3ZzaJkRrKyebnMnab11QOrdjIsw_ZPx9QU/s320/2020-05-12%2B19.07.10.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Solar controller for charging the car.</div>
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I also now charge the car on solar. I have a couple of panels installed which actually charge my motorcycle first and from there I can charge the car, if it pleases me. But more on that later. The motorcycle has had a bit of a make-over as well. It's been about two years since the last post, so if you waited this long, perhaps you can wait a bit more for those as well. Anyway, good times.<br />
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ps. Don't pay attention to the grounding cable on the battery box. I've been meaning to hide it for six years now. It's going to happen any day now. Really. Maybe.</div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-54125031305246590672018-08-27T02:27:00.002-07:002021-08-13T09:00:42.644-07:00Showing off<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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I got caught on video, mostly about the car conversion. Finnish only, I'm afraid.</div>
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<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The link to the video here has been removed due to the maker of the video becoming an antivaxxer and even harrassing children about it. I will not promote any of his work on any of my platforms.</i><br /></div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-50576360539049914202018-05-30T02:50:00.000-07:002018-05-30T03:55:39.232-07:00Mystery box<i>Disclaimer: I take no responsibility of anything. What you do with the information on this blog is completely up to you. In fact, do not try this at home or anywhere.</i><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dqnyRAAdAxk/Ww5xj8wdCpI/AAAAAAAACbU/0Z4Op_sE9oEOk2vlc7bT-tLYht0sP-HLQCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-05-18%2B16.42.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dqnyRAAdAxk/Ww5xj8wdCpI/AAAAAAAACbU/0Z4Op_sE9oEOk2vlc7bT-tLYht0sP-HLQCLcBGAs/s320/2018-05-18%2B16.42.49.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So this mystery box appeared out of nowhere. It seems to have a couple of connectors. One red male and one black female. I wonder what's inside?</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bRa2WewQam0/Ww5xvCBECTI/AAAAAAAACbY/-WSH8QZqXLkPFydkB5KuGpDK3xs6qTMMACLcBGAs/s1600/2018-05-18%2B12.18.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bRa2WewQam0/Ww5xvCBECTI/AAAAAAAACbY/-WSH8QZqXLkPFydkB5KuGpDK3xs6qTMMACLcBGAs/s320/2018-05-18%2B12.18.48.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Looks like it has a contactor, a piece of PCB with some components for generating a PWM signal and a switch for doing something. The parts could be these:</div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZWET-IEC-62196-Type2-3-Phases-Charging-Socket-European-standard-EV-charging-Type-2-connector-for/32805447401.html">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZWET-IEC-62196-Type2-3-Phases-Charging-Socket-European-standard-EV-charging-Type-2-connector-for/32805447401.html</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TOCT1-4P-25A-220V-230V-50-60HZ-Din-rail-Household-ac-contactor-4NO/32790911085.html">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TOCT1-4P-25A-220V-230V-50-60HZ-Din-rail-Household-ac-contactor-4NO/32790911085.html</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.ev-power.eu/Electric-Cars/EVSE-Kit-V1-1-for-EV-charging-station-cable-Wallbox-kit-only.html">https://www.ev-power.eu/Electric-Cars/EVSE-Kit-V1-1-for-EV-charging-station-cable-Wallbox-kit-only.html</a></li>
</ul>
Looks like this is the manual for the board: <a href="https://www.i4wifi.cz/img.asp/?attid=325360">https://www.i4wifi.cz/img.asp/?attid=325360</a><br />
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There seem to be no protective components, like an RCBO. One has to assume that if one was to plug this in one would have to make sure the inlet already has all the required protections in place.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TuRxtHKvwDg/Ww5x0wwO6XI/AAAAAAAACbg/5gkiybkqlgIQrF21va_0kKYnOt0Eo_fuQCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-05-22%2B19.46.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TuRxtHKvwDg/Ww5x0wwO6XI/AAAAAAAACbg/5gkiybkqlgIQrF21va_0kKYnOt0Eo_fuQCLcBGAs/s320/2018-05-22%2B19.46.14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anyone with a keen interest should probably really dig into the board manual to figure out how the things are connected and how to limit the current of the device. There seems to be more than one way to do that. The way it's done in these pictures seems dubious. Perhaps there's a better way?</div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-61085753116695696212017-11-19T01:28:00.000-08:002017-11-19T01:29:31.761-08:00Still alive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XyjWiiyZIbU/WhFMDUjFckI/AAAAAAAACVQ/y9XOPfQKCKYrVNd32qT5056-MphJ_1IZwCLcBGAs/s1600/2017-11-01%2B13.16.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XyjWiiyZIbU/WhFMDUjFckI/AAAAAAAACVQ/y9XOPfQKCKYrVNd32qT5056-MphJ_1IZwCLcBGAs/s320/2017-11-01%2B13.16.42.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Zoe has been working great. I have well over 10.000 km on the clock now and the only issue I've had is the "Check ELECTRIC System" error which occasionally pops up on the display, but apparently it's much less serious than it sounds and nothing to do with the high voltage system. I'll mention in the first service next year, but that's all. Also funny are some of the translations from french, for example pre-heat is pre-soak. Well, the weather has been quite a soak this fall. The 40+ kWh battery is amazing and I've actually pretty much stopped looking at the range meter. It's more like with an ICE car where you just know or notice that it's time to fill up instead of continously monitoring the state of charge.<br />
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The converted Citroën Xsara is also working as usual. Had to have it's yearly inspection done and still nothing to fix on it. The brakes could be better, but they still get the job done in city driving. I did notice that the ethanol heater I have in the car wasn't putting out much heat, but turned out I just had to bleed the "cooling" system. Luckily it's really easy to do and the heat was back right away.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-71344604896559500242017-07-10T11:19:00.004-07:002017-07-10T11:20:23.436-07:00EV meet-up and time for a ZoeFirst of all, it's alive! kWsaki was revived today for an EV meet-up at the Pori Energia offices. We have SuomiAreena summer happening in Pori now, so there's a lot of people around. This makes a good time to have a little get together. The bike is still working great, although the non-EV bits would seem to need a bit of attention. Brakes don't feel great and there's something weird about the steering.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rTdC7I9-as4/WWPCmcybNZI/AAAAAAAACRw/0_1vBFK-r9Qr78uXWt3ppGLnc74yC0XQgCLcBGAs/s1600/2017-07-10%2B19.48.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rTdC7I9-as4/WWPCmcybNZI/AAAAAAAACRw/0_1vBFK-r9Qr78uXWt3ppGLnc74yC0XQgCLcBGAs/s320/2017-07-10%2B19.48.34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In any case, the bike is alive, currently with 21 cells for about 70 volts of electric power. I tested the bike and the top speed was around 90 km/h with this voltage. I've had it up to 29 cells or 97 volts, which resulted in about 130 km/h top speed. That's about 4.5 km/h per cell or 1.3 km/h per volt.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2U6kIApNtHE/WWPDbOYq_bI/AAAAAAAACR0/3bzP3oXYU-cxFWI_rYfLdw0FAO-afqHFwCLcBGAs/s1600/2017-07-10%2B13.40.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2U6kIApNtHE/WWPDbOYq_bI/AAAAAAAACR0/3bzP3oXYU-cxFWI_rYfLdw0FAO-afqHFwCLcBGAs/s320/2017-07-10%2B13.40.29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We had a lot of good discussions, also with Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen, who visited us and talked about what the government is doing to further the EV cause.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fhYgwFqP3tA/WWPDqgAk0pI/AAAAAAAACR4/v7ZfhXe4sIE4-26xrUdhCPPKL5uV1nSKACLcBGAs/s1600/19866728_10209441993711139_2113116715_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fhYgwFqP3tA/WWPDqgAk0pI/AAAAAAAACR4/v7ZfhXe4sIE4-26xrUdhCPPKL5uV1nSKACLcBGAs/s320/19866728_10209441993711139_2113116715_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In other news, the Leaf is gone. That's right, we decided to invest in a little bigger battery. Quite a lot bigger actually, so we went ahead and got us a Renault Zoe with the new 41 kWh battery.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AdH43alpF7g/WWPEOxg4FvI/AAAAAAAACR8/bBG3fT5AymIKRJO-FMgE7nGcDZCEUQ5WACLcBGAs/s1600/2017-05-29%2B16.06.40%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1253" data-original-width="1600" height="250" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AdH43alpF7g/WWPEOxg4FvI/AAAAAAAACR8/bBG3fT5AymIKRJO-FMgE7nGcDZCEUQ5WACLcBGAs/s320/2017-05-29%2B16.06.40%2Bcrop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have to say the car is really great and range anxiety is gone. Completely. The bigger battery means I can manage my journeys with ease and the ubiquitous Type 2 charging points together with the 22 kW on-board charger of the Zoe means charging is possible almost everywhere, quite often also completely free of charge. So, once again, good times!jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-233157178668253462016-09-26T10:55:00.000-07:002016-09-26T10:56:21.108-07:00A little improvement to the Leaf heater switchI added a little hack to the Leaf heater on/off/half power switch I installed earlier. The Leaf hacker who made the switch into a kit published a video about some improvements to the system and mentioned that there could be a way to bypass the switch when the car was pre-heated. I pretty much immediately figured that if I were to add a relay powered by the 12V AUX outlet that would do it. The AUX outlet only has power when the car is on, but not for example while pre-heat is activated. He later went on describe the same idea on video.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wCTzV2l7fsQ/V-lfJzJzOKI/AAAAAAAACHA/5qJz88zoXY07ZL8LVo4hIhsq09EMN4GRQCLcB/s1600/2016-09-26%2B10.31.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wCTzV2l7fsQ/V-lfJzJzOKI/AAAAAAAACHA/5qJz88zoXY07ZL8LVo4hIhsq09EMN4GRQCLcB/s320/2016-09-26%2B10.31.19.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Today I finally got around to adding the relay. The wires going to the 12V outlet were a bit hard to get to, but I managed to add a vampire clip to the positive wire. The negative wire I ended up connecting to the ground on one of the bolts holding the infotainment screen in place. Then it was just a matter of running two of the wires going to the switch (not the brown one) through the relay and that was it. Come to think of it, I guess I could also have run just the brown one, but the end result is the same.<br />
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Now I don't have to worry about which position I left the switch - pre-heating will always work. The very useful hack is now even more useful and user friendly. It's good to have less things to worry about and it might just save me a couple of trips to the car which I would have done just to check the switch position.<br />
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Oh, I also added a switch the EVSE I made. I can now switch between 6 and 16 amps using that EVSE. Together with the original 10 A cable I now have three levels of power to choose from and still have a backup cable in case one of them breaks. Good times.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-15927561443252872912016-08-30T02:43:00.003-07:002018-02-14T11:18:53.585-08:00Improving the Leaf<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"If it's broken, fix it.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">If it's not broken, improve it."</span></i></div>
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<i>--<a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sugru/manifesto/master/manifesto.pdf" target="_blank">The Fixer's Manifesto by Sugru</a></i></div>
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That goes for electric cars too. I've done a couple of little things to our Leaf so far. Let's have a look.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3C9gxv2QELM/V8VMtGH3lSI/AAAAAAAACFA/L05W-YDPjOsJpySpM9QhfkToHEY60vEbwCLcB/s1600/2016-05-20%2B09.08.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3C9gxv2QELM/V8VMtGH3lSI/AAAAAAAACFA/L05W-YDPjOsJpySpM9QhfkToHEY60vEbwCLcB/s320/2016-05-20%2B09.08.05.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Right off the bat, I just had to have a 16 A charging cable. The car came with a 10 A cable, which is fine for overnight charging, but when you're charging at work or on the road you just want to get the full speed (our Leaf only has a 3.6 kW charger). The EVSE is <a href="http://www.ev-power.eu/Electric-Cars/EVSE-kit-for-EV-charging-station.html" target="_blank">a kit from GWL Power</a> and the plug with lead is from <a href="http://evbitz.uk/EVBitz.uk/Tethered_T1_%26_T2_Plug.html" target="_blank">EVBitz.uk</a>. Works like a charm and is very light so it doesn't put a strain on the Schuko plug. I've since replaced the Schuko plug with an angled one to make it even better.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tU2wlaP_IXs/V8VO1MNZ9JI/AAAAAAAACFI/A2Sz1fSQQZoWjhAThRvFEWlRtghBrJc7gCLcB/s1600/2016-08-28%2B10.10.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tU2wlaP_IXs/V8VO1MNZ9JI/AAAAAAAACFI/A2Sz1fSQQZoWjhAThRvFEWlRtghBrJc7gCLcB/s320/2016-08-28%2B10.10.16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Leaf's heater control has a major flaw in that the only way to turn off the electric liquid heater in the car is to use the Climate Control Off button, which stops all fans, but also for some reason directs the natural airflow into your feet. That's not what you want in the winter. You want to be able to control the air (mainly direct it to the windscreen) and still turn off the heater for maximum range. Even better, <a href="http://betterev.tabetalt.no/Produkt/nissan-leaf-heater-controller-kit-v2#product" target="_blank">this kit</a> will let you turn off the heater or have it not heat the liquid as hot as it usually does. The only problem is that you need to remember to switch it back on for pre-heating to work, but I'm working on that as well (you need to add a relay driven by the aux 12V plug, but more on that later).</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cqtQCqQP0eM/V8VO6HvpWuI/AAAAAAAACFM/ExQW3GLw6_QsqN62DmGpqUOFxOoUWd61wCLcB/s1600/2016-08-25%2B15.08.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cqtQCqQP0eM/V8VO6HvpWuI/AAAAAAAACFM/ExQW3GLw6_QsqN62DmGpqUOFxOoUWd61wCLcB/s320/2016-08-25%2B15.08.45.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As an additional source of heat I've put together a somewhat portable heating kit, which includes a 1.5 kWh pack of LiFePO4 cells and a 1000W heater from a Citroën C5 along with some fans. It doesn't quite put out the whole 1000W, but a good 750W anyway, which means two hours of heat into the cabin while not using any from the traction pack. Might come in handy in the winter. You can direct it to the windscreen, which might just be enough to keep it from fogging and freezing. We'll see.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ETz74F9b__4/V8VPRSfBTSI/AAAAAAAACFY/VBmD1Os5BT0263S5vJxwKzHyhVyytbTHwCEw/s1600/2016-08-14%2B20.33.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ETz74F9b__4/V8VPRSfBTSI/AAAAAAAACFY/VBmD1Os5BT0263S5vJxwKzHyhVyytbTHwCEw/s320/2016-08-14%2B20.33.04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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To keep the heat where it's needed we came up with this mattress-based solution. I cut a new 200x120cm mattress into a shape which fits snugly behind the front seats. The piece is 150x120cm at the widest, so you will need a 120cm mattress. My better half even sewed the cover back on so it looks nice. She's a keeper.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dqTxL1KQqdU/V8VPR5X_BHI/AAAAAAAACFc/OLw3CnXmfvA7eroHIpMEn905k24NdtfpgCLcB/s1600/2016-08-14%2B20.41.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dqTxL1KQqdU/V8VPR5X_BHI/AAAAAAAACFc/OLw3CnXmfvA7eroHIpMEn905k24NdtfpgCLcB/s320/2016-08-14%2B20.41.55.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Turns out the cut mattress is also pretty much exactly the right size to fit in the boot with the seats folded down. This might also come in handy if a quick charger is out of order and you need to spend a bit more time charging than you had planned, for example if it's getting late already.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kGsKG4YPS3w/V8VPR-SScSI/AAAAAAAACFg/LP7YEj4JDqgE8Kvq9eK-2Iu-Jw6cei_3QCLcB/s1600/2016-08-30%2B10.26.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kGsKG4YPS3w/V8VPR-SScSI/AAAAAAAACFg/LP7YEj4JDqgE8Kvq9eK-2Iu-Jw6cei_3QCLcB/s320/2016-08-30%2B10.26.34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last, but not the least, definitely not if you consider the amount of work, I wrapped the heating pipes under the hood with some Armaflex XG tube to keep the heat inside the pipes as much as possible. For some bizarre reason the heating system in these early Leafs with liquid heat is not insulated in any way, which lets a lot of the heat just escape and makes the heating terribly inefficient. At least now I've covered most of the pipes. I had to take out the 12V battery, not forgetting to cover the solar panel. Some of the piping below was still unreachable so everything's not perfectly insulated, but I did the best I could. The heater itself has no insulation either and it's sitting right behind one of the cooling fans and a radiator. What were they thinking. Even if this was quite a bit of work, it was the cheapest of the modifications. The tube and the aluminium tape cost 12.10€.</div>
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Anyway, with these modifications, mainly related to winter driving, I'll see if I can manage a winter without installing a fuel burning liquid heater which I had in my previous car, the C-Zero. Hopefully I don't have to go there, but I won't be afraid to do it if I have to.</div>
<br />jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-72144436247522325712016-07-05T10:21:00.004-07:002016-07-05T10:22:46.348-07:00A Leaf among other things<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, yeah, got a Leaf. Traded in the C-Zero. It was a nice little car, but more range is more range. Something like 50% more. The Leaf I got can get about 19 kWh on a full charge and 18 kWh from a quick charge. Much more than the C-Zero, which was down to something like 14 kWh, making the usable kWh between quick charges aroung 12 kWh. Plenty for in town, but not so much between towns.</div>
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I also kinda sorta started putting the electric kWsaki motorcycle back together. I've been bottom balancing the 40 Ah cells I have left. Looks like I might be able to put together 29 anyway, even though many of them bloated previously. They seem to hold voltage now, so I'll just have to drive them to see if they keep working ok. Eight of them have been in the Xsara, four as an extra battery to take it from 25 to 27 cells (two 40 Ahs in parallel, since it has 60 Ah cells) and two as it's 12 volt battery. </div>
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Having a higher voltage on the Xsara might have caused it's DC/DC converter to blow up, but as is often the case with something blowing up I've also learned something. Turns out the issue I had with the 12 volt system was caused by the DC/DC converter. It was quietly draining the 12 volt battery when it didn't have high voltage connected, thus causing me to loose a few lead acid batteries. Well, now I know not to leave a DC/DC converter always connected. You need to disconnect them from high voltage to keep them draining the traction battery and from the 12 volt battery for the same reason. Nasty buggers. I've also learned that I don't really need a DC/DC converter in the car. At least with four LiFePO4 40 Ah cells in series it works fine without and the battery stays full instead of the car draining it.</div>
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Also the 2000 W 87.6 V charger I originally had in the car seems to be ok as well. It just had blown a fuse when I last had it in the car. D'oh. Well, I replaced the fuse and it's working again. Very happy about that. Now I just have to decide what to do with the controllers. I have the better 120 V 600 A controller in the car, but the higher voltage pack available for the motorcycle as well as a 102.2 V charger for it. Not sure if the 72 V (90 V max) AXE7245 I had in the car and before it in the motorcycle is completely functional though. It started go offline while driving, which is why I put the 600 A Kelly into the car. I guess I'll figure it out eventually. I haven't been driving the Xsara after I got the Leaf though, so I might just store it and put the better controller into the motorcycle anyway.</div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-88754209245322930602016-02-06T10:10:00.000-08:002016-02-06T10:10:42.977-08:00C-Zero 12V battery relocationI don't think I've actually told you where I relocated the 12V aux battery in our C-Zero. I did put the fuel burning heater where the 12V lead acid battery usually is. From there, and the positive battery terminal, I ran a 16 mm2 red cable into the cabin thru the grommet below the center console and under the back seat. I took out the styrofoam box containing the tyre fixing equipment and put a 12V 20Ah LiFePO4 battery there. It has a 100 A fuse on it, which is plenty<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pfurm2D0Fqg/VrY1iTU_vvI/AAAAAAAABuY/SX92rkN5dtg/s1600/2015-04-08%2B19.45.55.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W98Fte6zfkE/VrY1xVU4gGI/AAAAAAAABug/DA-M1tJ3rxQ/s1600/2015-04-08%2B16.22.55.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W98Fte6zfkE/VrY1xVU4gGI/AAAAAAAABug/DA-M1tJ3rxQ/s320/2015-04-08%2B16.22.55.jpg" width="240" /></a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pfurm2D0Fqg/VrY1iTU_vvI/AAAAAAAABuY/SX92rkN5dtg/s320/2015-04-08%2B19.45.55.jpg" width="240" /><br />
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The battery in question is one of these:<br />
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<a href="http://www.ev-power.eu/LiFeYPO4-batteries-12V-1-1/Lithium-Battery-LiFePO4-12V-20Ah.html">http://www.ev-power.eu/LiFeYPO4-batteries-12V-1-1/Lithium-Battery-LiFePO4-12V-20Ah.html</a><br />
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It's been functioning perfectly so far. It usually sits at 13.3 V when the temperature is normal, a little less when frozen. The car keeps the 12V bus at about 14.5 volts when it's running or charging. That's about 3.6 V per cell, which is quite ok. The cells are as they came, I didn't do a bottom balance on them myself. I think they ship these 12V batteries with balanced cells.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-75107838392929260452016-01-15T03:41:00.001-08:002016-01-17T00:39:17.149-08:00Heating my EVsI'm sure I've covered the heating in both of my EVs, the cars at least, in previous posts, but I though I'd write a new one about them and how they've been doing.<br />
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As you may or may not know, I heat both of the cars with ethanol. In Finland it's easy to get locally produced bioethanol, which is made from biowaste, so it's basically free energy in the sense that it only requires a little work to make a burnable liquid from it. It doesn't add to the carbon burden on our climate, because it's not something stored underground and pumped into the air. It's already here and it's just recycled into something useful.<br />
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The C-Zero obviously has a electric liquid heater already, but it's not very powerful and yet it consumes a lot of power. It can take up to 5 kW and when you consider that the car only has a 16 kWh (nominal) battery, you can see that it will easily eat up a third of the pack capacity in an hour. To make matters worse, any used EV will not have it's full capacity left, like mine which only has about 14 kWh left, so it's even worse. And it doesn't even really get your toes warm even if you have it on full blast. It'll keep you a alive, for a short moment, but that's about it.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r7S2z7dsMP4/VpjOTZ3JyoI/AAAAAAAABqA/MLSniTlx4F8/s1600/2014-10-10%2B12.48.17.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r7S2z7dsMP4/VpjOTZ3JyoI/AAAAAAAABqA/MLSniTlx4F8/s320/2014-10-10%2B12.48.17.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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The heater I have in the C-Zero is a Binar 5B from Autoterm:<br />
<a href="https://autoterm.eu/en/shop/engine-preheaters/binar-5b-12v-bensiini/">https://autoterm.eu/en/shop/engine-preheaters/binar-5b-12v-bensiini/</a><br />
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It's made in Russia and meant for Siberian winters. I'm not sure if they've completely managed to hit that target or is it because I've been using ethanol only, but so far in the 15 months I've had it, I've had to replace he glow plug twice and I'm just about to replace the fuel pump. It may be that especially in the most harsh winter conditions we've had here I might have been better off using gasoline. I had left the car sitting outside for three weeks during the holidays and when I got back the fuel pump wouldn't work anymore. Ok, it had come down to -25˚C, so it wasn't exactly sunny, but still. I was a little disappointed. Why I've had to replace the glow plug twice, I have no idea. I do think that the ethanol is not as flammable as gasoline (I couldn't get a bonfire started with ethanol), so maybe that's it.<br />
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In any case, Autoterm has a 2-year guarantee on their products and they've come through nicely. I've got new plugs from them and a new fuel pump just arrived today for free, so it's mostly only been the annoyance of the heater being broken and having to fix it. Then again having to fix stuff is something I've known to have taken pleasure in.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-humX6oDdXDw/VpjRicMraeI/AAAAAAAABqM/AvE84Etfe88/s1600/2015-11-20%2B10.47.18.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-humX6oDdXDw/VpjRicMraeI/AAAAAAAABqM/AvE84Etfe88/s320/2015-11-20%2B10.47.18.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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In the Xsara I'm burning the same bioethanol, but with a different heater, a german product called Webasto Thermo Top E. This one I got from a junk yard for 150€, so it was very affordable. Actually the first one I got didn't work at all, but they let me just swap it for another, which did work right away. The fuel pump didn't come with the burner, so I had to buy it separate from ebay, which added about 50€ to the cost. The burner is also a gasoline model and this manufacturer doesn't guarantee it to work with ethanol, unlike Binar, but I just tried it and haven't had any problems with it.<br />
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Actually this burner has been the most reliable of the two. Even though it had seen some heavy use for several years and the pump was a used one too, there has been zero problems with this one. It's also smaller than the Binar and the water pump is right there at the device. It has sort of made me regret that I didn't try to look for a used Webasto for the C-Zero as well, but then again it sort of made sense to use a new part in a newish vehicle. I also might not have been able to find another for such a good price. Usually they ask Binar-like prices for even used Webasto brand burners and the spare parts are expensive as well.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G75w6OGR1og/VpjU-1BlZ_I/AAAAAAAABqY/G4k1POhgm0Y/s1600/2014-10-13%2B14.02.00.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G75w6OGR1og/VpjU-1BlZ_I/AAAAAAAABqY/G4k1POhgm0Y/s320/2014-10-13%2B14.02.00.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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The Binar does have a couple of other things going for it as well. It has a display (in the picture) which shows the "coolant" temperature, so you know what's happening. It's also more powerful than the Webasto, 5 kW vs. 4 kW. The Binar hasn't had a problem getting up to 70-80 ˚C in any weather, whereas I think the Webasto might not have been quite powerful enough in the coldest days. On the other hand it doesn't show the temperatures so it's a bit more based on a gut feeling and it's the only method of heat in the Xsara as well. Additionally, the coolant pipes in the Xsara were quite long and exposed, so I just added some insulation on them the other day, which might also make a difference. I could also test if gasoline would improve it's heat output. In any case when it's not been terribly cold it has been more than enough.<br />
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One thing you need to keep in mind with these heaters is that they're not going to keep the coolant at a set temperature at all times. They will cycle so that first they will run on full blast to get the coolant to 70-80˚C and then go to a low power mode and restart the full power if the liquid temperature goes down to 40-50˚C. So they heat output is not going to be exactly the same at all times.<br />
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The way the heat works in the C-Zero (and all i-MiEV based cars) is that when you have the temperature knob on hot (or previously had it on hot before setting it to neutral) it will blast all the heat it gets from the heat exchanger. It will not mix any cold air into it. So you need to regulate the hot airflow with fan speed if you have a burner. The idea originally has been that the knob's heat setting directly controls the coolant target temperature of the car's own electric heater. If you turn the temperature knob to cold and either keep it there or turn to neutral without going on hot, it will only put out cold air into the cabin and no heat from the heat exchanger. Also the car's original coolant pump only runs when the knob is on the hot area. The burners I have also have their own pump, so they don't need that car's pump to be running, but it's something to keep in mind. I haven't had any problems with having two coolant pumps in the system running independently.<br />
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What I generally do is that on a really cold morning I keep the temperature knob on neutral (having had it on hot previously thus keeping the air going through the heat exchanger) and only start the ethanol burner. Once it's up to temperature, I may switch the temperature knob to one step into hot, just to make both coolant pumps run. It's not strictly necessary though. If the burner is stopped (manually or by it's timer) I can then leave the know on 1st heat step, let the car's pump circulate the still hot liquid to get the most of it's heat into the cabin and perhaps let the electric heater to keep the liquid lukewarm once it's cooled down. Sometimes I might also immediately have both on, with the heat on 1st step, to get some heat into the cabin as soon as possible, but still leaving most of the heavy heating for the burner.<br />
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<i>Update: The heaters will burn about 0,5 to 1 liter of ethanol per hour.</i>jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-33214960675295883352015-10-15T03:11:00.000-07:002016-06-06T10:23:47.174-07:00What's upIt's been a little slow on this blog lately. Which doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Let's start with the converted Xsara. It's 12 V aux battery woes have continued. Also contributing to the issue is your's truly, forgetting the vehicle running and so on. So it seems I killed another lead acid battery. Maybe it's a hint I really should take and just not use them anymore at all anywhere again. To replace it I put in four of the worse 40 Ah SE40AHA lithium cells I had around. Worse because they don't really keep their voltage really well and are at least a little soft shorted inside, but not completely.<br />
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With those four cells in the can serving the purpose of aux battery I set off to the local inspection office to have the vehicle checked, as is required every year. This time I had no less than three officers looking under the hood and asking questions about the electric powertrain. The brakes have seen better days, but the car still passed. I should still take them apart and at least try to salvage the discs.<br />
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It seems there were no pictures taken of the battery swap or the inspection itself, but there are pictures of something I did a little earlier. The repaired 87.6 volt charger gave up the ghost again and this time I pretty much gave up on it. Again, I suppose, but not willing to pour any more money into it.<br />
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So thinking about how to solve the issue again, I decided I'd add some more batteries into the vehicle. It has 60Ah cells, but since I have those abused 40 Ah cells around from the motorcycle, I decided to augment the pack with a couple of them in parallel. Turns out I can just about get away with a string of 27 cells with the AXE 7245 controller in the car. It has a maximum voltage of 90 volts, but it will start if the voltage, as presented by Cycle Analyst, is less than 91 volts. With the 27 LiFePO4 cells in series and fully charged, I end up a little over 91 volts, but if I let the DC/DC converter run for a bit the AXE will relent and start up. This gives me about 400 Wh more to drive around with bringing the pack total a little over 5 kWh.<br />
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It's a bit of a mess, but there they are. I was sort of hoping I could use my 102.2 volt charger directly when increasing the cell count, but I had to put into a bit of monitoring in the end. It looks at 20 cells in the middle of the pack and makes sure they stay within 3.5 volts on average and then it tells the 102.2 volt TCCH/ElCon charger to stop charging until the voltage goes back down. Not optimal, again, but it works for now.</div>
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On the C-Zero I received a shifter cover panel from Ben Nelson, who has a flooded i-MiEV his parting out now. It took a little bit of fiddling to get it in the car, but I managed to do it and now it really looks the part. Thanks a lot for part, Ben!</div>
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Last, and probably least as well, but still quite important is the addition of two new USB charging ports I added to the C-Zero. I can turn them on or off with the switch. They're always connected to the car's aux 12 V battery, so I can provide power to some devices even though th car is not running. Very handy for CaniOn, which I've also configured to turn on when the phone which is permanently in the vehicle gets power, so I can always easily see what's really going on with the battery.<br />
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jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-87895677972643863032015-09-03T03:22:00.003-07:002015-09-03T06:41:40.468-07:00More "gears" to our C-ZeroThanks to the great great folks at <a href="http://myimiev.com/forum/" target="_blank">My i-MiEV forum</a> I got a tip that PSA may actually have just mechanically blocked two of the shifter positions on the Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot iOn. It didn't take much convincing to make me crack open the cover on mine and behold, it was true. I quickly found out that even the screen would show the new B and C modes. On with the drilling and I had some new "gears" to play with.<br />
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<i>I'll still need to modify or acquire a suitable cover plate with all the shifter positions.</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mpS2olaQ810/VegewVfoKGI/AAAAAAAABbc/K_MwWvdPlWg/s1600/2015-09-03%2B11.06.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mpS2olaQ810/VegewVfoKGI/AAAAAAAABbc/K_MwWvdPlWg/s320/2015-09-03%2B11.06.19.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--hB9tII11Mc/VegewUu4vtI/AAAAAAAABbY/xdMELWLmW7w/s1600/2015-09-03%2B11.49.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--hB9tII11Mc/VegewUu4vtI/AAAAAAAABbY/xdMELWLmW7w/s320/2015-09-03%2B11.49.40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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A quick check using CaniOn and it looks like the difference from B to C is about 10 kW in regen power, with B having the strongest and C the least regen. Normal D right in the middle of those two. Letting the accelerator pedal go at 70 km/h gave about 10 kW regen at C, 15 kW at D and 20 kW at B. I finally have the low regen "C" option for cruising long distance. Good times!</div>
<br />jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-49238555416684419842015-08-27T04:50:00.001-07:002015-08-27T04:50:18.180-07:00Back to the original chargerThe cheap charge controller I had installed gave up the ghost - or more like stopped reading the pack voltage correctly - and the next option, installing a PowerLog 6S to monitor the pack, also ended up with some smoke escaping and thus rendering that device inoperational as well. They run on the magic smoke, as you know. I now have some more electronic junk to be taken to recyling.<br />
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Cheap and readily available options exhausted, I figured what the hell, perhaps a local electronics repair shop could fix the original charger. The one that actually charges to a correct voltage right away. And what do you know, a couple of days in the care of Porin Radiohuolto and I once again had a working charger. Had to depart 85 euros for the job, but it's well worth it. These chargers do run at least around 500 € from China.<br />
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It had blown a fuse and a couple of caps had swollen, so they had replaced those. I had already suspected that I might have in fact aided in it's downtime by having it connected to the pack permanently, even while driving. It may have gotten on those caps a little and caused the fuse to blow.<br />
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So installing the charger back into the vehicle now, I added an 80 amp 12 VDC contactor, which only closes and connects the charger to the pack when the car is plugged into the mains. In the same power inlet as the main charger I just have a 12 VDC PSU originally from a Linksys router, which activates the contactor. I had a timer circuit as well, but decided to leave that out, just to keep it simple. In addition to the charger and the PSU there is also a aux battery charger, which keeps the small 12 VDC lead acid battery of the vehicle topped up.<br />
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<br />jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-43159833148738466372015-07-18T13:29:00.000-07:002015-07-18T22:19:37.208-07:00Added insulationI've been planning to add some insulation to the doors of my C-Zero. Insulation for the cold winter and also some sound dampening to reduce noise. Today I finally got it done. All four doors got some 1 cm thick foam with a sticky side and a side with aluminium foil.<br />
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Driver side front door before and after.</div>
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Passenger side rear door. Not as pretty, since I used leftover pieces.</div>
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Same door. Now you can see the foil in the unused speaker opening instead of cold steel.</div>
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On a quick test drive I noticed two things. The sound of the electric motor was more audible than before. I guess when you reduce other noises you start hearing others. I also noticed that the bass frequencies sounded louder on the car stereo. To be expected, since adding the insulation makes the doors perform better as speaker enclosures.</div>
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I'm also planning to add some anti-stone chip shield behind the front wheels. There doesn't seem to be much to speak of. It could also make the car quieter. At least concerning noises made by flying stones, if nothing else.</div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-59778470579877676922015-04-26T20:41:00.001-07:002015-04-29T11:37:20.542-07:00Update on charge controllerNoticed something nasty with the charge controller setup in my previous post. I really should have thought of this, but the 100V voltmeter is not isolated. It will connect your high voltage pack negative to your 12V negative, which is your vehicle ground. Not cool. In fact so not cool, that it seems to have killed at least one, probably two 12V lead batteries I used in the vehicle as the aux battery.<br />
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So, lesson learned, again, always check your pack isolation after you install anything that connects to it. Check voltage between both positive and negative ends of you high voltage and the vehicle chassis. If you see the pack voltage or something like it, you have a problem. If you get some fluctuating, small voltage, you probably don't have a problem. Note that with a brushed motor, you can end up having dust from the brushes build up and create a short, so it's not a bad idea to check even if you don't install anything new.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-15455180087114160392015-03-28T07:33:00.001-07:002015-03-28T07:33:06.174-07:00Charge controller<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Went ahead and installed the simple 100V solar controller. It takes 12 volts and the pack voltage. When pack voltage reaches a set value, it will disengage a relay. It's set to disengage at 88 volts, which is a little over 3.5 volts per cell. The relay then controls the Elcon/TCCH charger's Enable pin, which will instruct the charger to stop charging.</div>
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Of course as the pack voltage drops, the controller will re-engage the relay and the charger will resume charging. This will make the pack voltage bounce back and forth pretty much forever, so it's not a perfect solution, but it should make sure the charger doesn't overcharge the pack right away. On the other hand there's no CV phase, so the bouncing is kind of necessary to get the pack full.</div>
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In any case, this solution will have to do for now.</div>
jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-2738552555595242942015-03-19T05:14:00.001-07:002015-03-19T05:20:38.980-07:00It's dead, Jim<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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First things first. Godspeed, Mr. Leonard Nimoy and GNU Terry Pratchett. Also dead is my 2kW KP charger. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. In any case, I'm a little short on chargers (and great minds). Luckily, I have the Elcon/TCCH 2500W charger from my temporarily defunct electric motorcycle.<br />
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As it happens, the Elcon charger is set for 102.2 V, which is way too high for the 25 cell pack in the car, but it will still start charging although the initial voltage is lower than expected. For the 25 cells the 102.2V would be about 4.1 volts per cell. Not into dangerous territory, but not very good for the cells either. So you either need to watch the voltage carefully while charging or device something to end the charge earlier.<br />
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Knowing my tendency to forget things, an automatic shutoff would be much safer. Luckily I've had some experience with one of these <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171379578687" target="_blank">voltmeters</a>. It can measure up to 100V and control a relay based on that, among other things. I have one in my bottom balancer, but I'm reluctant to take that well functioning setup apart, which is why I've put another on order from ebay. Once it arrives I'll set it up to control the ENABLE wire on the Elcon charger, so that it will end charging at 87-88 volts. Actually it will bounce back and forth, but at least it will give me more time to pull the plug.<br />
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Or, as I just recalled, I also have a CellLog 6S, which I haven't come up with a use for yet. I could also set that one up so that it would monitor five series of five cells and control the charger as well. In that case the cutoff voltage would be 17.5 volts for five cells. It would even be more accurate, since it would monitor five cells at a time, instead of the whole 25. Certainly something to consider. On the con side, it does require more wiring, but maybe it would be worth it. We'll see.<br />
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Technically, the Cycle Analyst display could also do the job, but it would require opening the CA case, adding some wires, using a solid state relay and so on. A lot more work, all in all.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-70071245142208939872015-02-28T10:10:00.001-08:002015-02-28T10:12:25.145-08:00Update on cell testingJust a quick update regarding my previous posts on the SE40AHA cells that seemed to be fine after all. So far, in testing the cells by draining them to about 2.6 volts I've found that out of the 33 cells I have, nine seem to have internal shorts. I can tell this by leaving the cells at 2.6 volts and monitoring their voltage. The bad cells have gone down in voltage, some already below 2 volts. They must therefore have internal shorts. The better cells have bounced back a little and then kept their voltage.<br />
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So it looks like I might have 24 usable cells. Unfortunately this doesn't really match anything I have in use. The car, Xsara or kWsara, has 25 cells in series, and the motorcycle, kWsaki, is set up for 29 cells with it's 102.2 volt charger. So it's either figure out something else to do with the cells, get a new charger perhaps, or try to find a couple of SE40AHA cells. Unfortunately GWL Power doesn't list them anymore. They are a couple of generations old now, so it's understandable that they'll be unavailable. Sinopoly has similar black 40 Ah cells, which might do just fine, though.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-33673081660645709982015-02-18T10:06:00.000-08:002015-02-18T11:20:23.935-08:00Regarding winter range<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the questions I often get asked at the quick charge stations during the winter is how does the winter affect your range. It depends. That's the answer. Turns out, it doesn't just depend on one thing either. It depends on a lot of things.<br />
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The most obvious one, and the one people are most aware of, is the fact that current batteries perform better when they are in optimal temperature. That's usually around room temperature, or perhaps body temperature. Much above and you get into trouble. Freezing and below charging becomes slower and they're not quite as willling to part with their charge either. How much this matters on my C-Zero I don't really know. I've done most of my long trips in less than optimal conditions, so I don't really know well it will perform come summer. If I'd have to guess, I'd say it's in the 10-20 % range.<br />
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The second rather well known factor is heating. Electric cars tend to use the electricity in their batteries not just for driving but also for heating. In the C-Zero the heater can use around 5 kW. With a 16 kWh battery, with some usually left in reserve, it's not too hard to figure out that the heater can suck up a third of the range in an hour. Generally when I have 100 km range on the gauge, turning heat on will drop it to 70 km, which is probably quite accurate. So I'd say 30 %. In my car I've installed an ethanol heater, so I don't have to suffer this drop in range or the cold either. Some newer vehicles also have heat pumps, which should be able to reduce the consumption to around 1 kW in optimal conditions while still providing enough heat.<br />
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Some people are also aware of rolling resistance. Winter tires are designed to grip on snow and ice. And you can't have perfect grip with perfect rolling resistance. In other words, your summer tires will roll easier and winter tires will decrease your range. My guess, 5-10 %.<br />
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What I haven't seen anyone recognize is air resistance. If I've done my math right, going from room temperature to something like -20˚C can increase the air resistance or drag as much as 10 %. Simply because cold air is heavier than hot. That's quite a bit for something most drivers don't even think about.<br />
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I'll leave it to you to figure out how much all of these could dimish your range.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-6907557716300946312015-02-15T01:53:00.001-08:002015-02-15T01:54:04.653-08:00Lessons learnedA couple of things I learned from the events described in my previous post.<br />
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<li>Cells at zero volts may not be dead after all</li>
<li>Cells at zero volts will not charge from a full cell connected in parallel</li>
<li>Bloated cells may actually shrink back to size</li>
<li>Bloating does not automatically mean internal soft shorts</li>
<li>CALB LiFePO4 cells can take hell of a beating</li>
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Point number two also casts a shadow on parallel bottom balancing. I think it probably still works if you start with cells in roughly equal voltage, definitely all cells above the bottom balancing voltage, but it will not cause lower voltage cells to rise to a higher voltage (or charge from it's buddies).jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-60457205749317402482015-02-15T01:47:00.004-08:002015-02-15T01:47:41.790-08:00Magic recoveries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Remember the 29 cells in my motorcycle I destroyed last summer, when I accidentally left it turned on and the DC/DC converter has drained all the cells to empty and beyond? Something interesting has happened since. Actually, two interesting things.<br />
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I was actually going to take most of these cells in for recycling, but I just hadn't got around to it. Instead I had just left them in our basement. Before storing them I had connected them all in series and drained them down to 2.6 volts, figuring that they would bottom balance together and I'd see which cells had internal soft shorts.<br />
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Now the eight newest cells I had just bought to increase the cell count to 29 were at zero volts after my little mishap. I had also connected them in parallel with the others, figuring that they'd recharge from the other cells if they had any life in them. They hadn't and I had left them for dead at zero volts.<br />
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But before I get to those eight newer cells, let's get back the 22 older cells which had bloated. Actually 12 of them hadn't and I had connected them into three 12 V packs for whatever use I'd come up with later. I even tested them and each 12 V pack had more or less 500 Wh of capacity, so I thought these 12 cells can be saved for later use and the rest scrapped.<br />
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The remaining 10 old cells were pretty well bloated, but they seemed to retain voltage, at least for a while. To my no small amazement, they still had the same voltage after about six months of storage. All ten cells were around 2.55 volts. What that means is that they can't have any significant internal shorts. If they had, they'd keep going down until they're at zero volts. Alas they hadn't. What's even more amazing, they had lost their considerable swell and are now pretty much right size and shape! The had actually shrunk back to shape.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YRDQc9G232Q/VOBlQIBJdjI/AAAAAAAABTI/p5O1n_2uJ20/s1600/2015-02-13%2B13.37.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YRDQc9G232Q/VOBlQIBJdjI/AAAAAAAABTI/p5O1n_2uJ20/s1600/2015-02-13%2B13.37.33.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Back to the eight newer cells I'd left sitting for half a year at zero volts. I had even been so sure of their fate, that I had liberally sprayed some gold paint on them to mark them as the ones I'd definitely take to the recycling center.<br />
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After discovering that the older cells had gotten back to shape and were still holding their charge, I thought I'd give these cells one more chance too. What if they just didn't want to charge from the other cells while being in parallel? I made two 12 V packs of them, measured a voltage of about 0.5 V for both whole packs and connected a 14 V 5 A power supply.<br />
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What happened was that the voltage started to steadily rise as one might expect, so I just left them charging for four hours. When I got back, I disconnected the power supply and checked the cell voltages. They seemed normal, about 3.33 V, as they should for just charged, half full cells. Again I left the cells, figuring they'd probably start draining themselves. I was, again, quite amazed to find out they had not, but kept a voltage above 3.2 V instead. I repeated the same for the other pack with identical results.<br />
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These eight SE40AHA cells which I had left for dead and stored at zero volts for over six months were back as well! Now I don't expect the cells to have their full 40 Ah capacity left and I haven't tested them with a load, but I will bottom balance the rest of the cells now and connected them as a 29 cell pack. Charging them together will reveal if any cells shoot higher too early and what the remaining capacity of the pack is.<br />
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Right now it looks like bottom balancing saved the day after all.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-72308882817181737782015-02-15T01:07:00.000-08:002015-02-15T01:07:15.995-08:00Check your connections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BhZiUDDTtd0/VOBf3sp-pDI/AAAAAAAABSo/eznFjfvL3rs/s1600/2015-02-14%2B14.17.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BhZiUDDTtd0/VOBf3sp-pDI/AAAAAAAABSo/eznFjfvL3rs/s1600/2015-02-14%2B14.17.42.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've been aware of the possibility of cell connection bolts loosening over time. There are ways to combat this, such as using braided straps and nord-lock washers. Having been reminded of these techniques by several recent YouTube videos, I thought I'd check my cell connections.<br />
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I've been cheap, as usual, so I've just used the plain copper interconnects supplied by GWL Power along with the bolts and washers which come with them. It's also been nearly a year since I put everything together, so I was interested to find out if they had indeed loosened. I had also noticed that the pack temperature does rise quite a bit while driving. No visible signs of extra heat were noticeable though.<br />
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Turns out not only where several bolts quite loose, I had even forgot to put in all the washers. So yeah, don't forget to check your battery bolts regularly, especially if you don't use nord-lock washers.jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-23077590307877742542014-11-24T06:31:00.001-08:002014-11-30T08:28:30.831-08:00Winter update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kHciS_uKKNw/VHM-pzMitJI/AAAAAAAABQ4/DZHqq2wUyMU/s1600/2014-11-24%2B14.38.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kHciS_uKKNw/VHM-pzMitJI/AAAAAAAABQ4/DZHqq2wUyMU/s1600/2014-11-24%2B14.38.03.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>That's 3.7˚C</i></div>
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It's been a little slow on the blog side, but in the real life I've been driving both of our electric cars regularly. Even exclusively, since I sold my diesel car and we're now all electric with two cars and a motorcycle. Hooray!</div>
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The DIY car got a little winter update in the form of a cabin heater, which I bolted on to the side of the battery box in the trunk. It gently heats up the aluminum box with the cells inside, but mostly the cabin of the vehicle. The little thermometer has it's sensor inside the box, in the middle of the pack and between the cells. It really hasn't shown temperatures below zero yet, since both charging and driving seem to keep the cells well heated. Instead I've seen temperatures close to 30˚C even with the outside temps hovering around or slightly below freezing. Currently the car has no batteries in the front that would need heating, so the single PTC heater takes care of everything.</div>
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With no batteries in the front of the vehicle, it should not come as a huge suprise that even though I bought some studded winter tires, they don't grip very well in the front. It could also be that they are "Aurora" branded tires, which are hardly recommended. Should get me through the winter though. </div>
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Also in the picture behind the big charger is a smaller, grey 12V charger. My 12V AUX battery hasn't been very happy with just the occasional 13.5 volts it gets from the DC/DC converter while driving, so I installed an automatic lead battery charger to keep it charged at all times. It's connected to the same 230VAC input as the main traction pack charger, so it automatically charges the AUX battery whenever the main battery is charging. Quite like the C-Zero, where the DC/DC converter also is always on while charging.</div>
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The car has two 230VAC plugs in the rear, which means that I can choose between heating and charging simply by choosing which plug to plug in to.</div>
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As for the C-Zero, it's also working great. I installed a Binar ethanol burning 5kW heater to keep it usable over the winter as well and also a 230VAC plug for a electric cabin heater. It's been a great vehicle and fun to drive. The only thing I'm really missing is Cruise Control. It would make keeping a steady economical speed a lot easier than it is now.</div>
<br />jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2065249958925006388.post-11406032361553355212014-10-05T11:18:00.002-07:002016-06-06T10:29:32.639-07:00Baby got homeSo I got our new baby home, finally. They had fixed the dents in the roof and repainted the whole roof. I'll have to make sure they did the brake vacuum pump recall or take it back for them to do that when they get the part. It had to be ordered from France.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6utYHRylwVI/VDGKHuO6pLI/AAAAAAAABNY/_geJ5NPF_98/s1600/2014-10-02%2B13.20.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6utYHRylwVI/VDGKHuO6pLI/AAAAAAAABNY/_geJ5NPF_98/s1600/2014-10-02%2B13.20.56.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So what happens when you get a new vehicle? Well, you start to think about ways to improve it, of course. So far I've acquired some Calix heating gear in order to pre-heat the car before driving. I'll just need to decide where I want to put the heater within the car. More on that later.</div>
<br />jsantalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13711677346363688402noreply@blogger.com0