Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Yesterday was not a good day. My landline and internet connection went dead on Saturday and the lamp globe for my ceiling fan broke apart above my bed, putting glass shards in the covers. This gave me an excuse to get off my computer and drive over to Home Depot yesterday (Sunday) to try and find a new globe for the ceiling fan. I had recently installed the PakTrakr system, so I cleared out the serial logging attachment and started collecting data.

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DC Volt Plug-in Plug 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 6, 2009

Well, the car's back on the road again. Yay! I replaced the 12V auxiliary battery (a group 30 motorcycle battery) and got a 2 year warranty on it just in case. I remember in the past, I fully drained my 12V accessory battery at least twice by accidentally leaving the headlights on. In fact, I almost did it again yesterday when driving the car over to a friend's place.

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Batteries Battery Motorcycles Connected 124

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 5, 2009

I'm just cleaning up my e-mail this morning and found a message from Paul Pancella about more installation issues regarding the PakTrakr system: I can share my experience with the PakTrakr if you want. Ken Hall was very helpful, but the device itself was a little disappointing. The main thing is to be very careful with installation. The directions mention it, but it can't be emphasized enough, the remotes are easily destroyed if the ring terminals contact any battery terminals out of sequence.

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Installation NiMH Lead Acid Cleaning 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 5, 2009

Paul Pancella (see link at right) put together a great spreadsheet comparing his Civic conversion costs with mine. There are a few minor updates, but things are very close for the most part. The only things that have changed on the Open Source Civic are the MES vacuum pump for the brakes and the fact that I ditched the custom tachometer and pillar pod.

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Conversion Price Parts 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 1, 2009

Hi All, The Civic-EV blog has been slow due to my bad batteries and being swamped at work. I got the recalibrated PakTrakr back a few weeks ago and finally had some time to install it tonight. I've heard of some other folks blowing up their PakTrakr modules, so I tried a few tricks that seemed to work quite well in preventing spurious voltage spikes from killing the modules.

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Installation Batteries Battery Volt 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

OCTOBER 30, 2009

I shipped the PakTrakr modules back to the owner (Ken Hall) for calibration. Ken mentioned that they were rebuilding their calibration unit and would send the modules back as soon as it was finished. I also received an e-mail from John Barton who used the open-source Civic battery rack design as a starting point for his own lithium-ion battery racks for his Civic DelSol: Hi Tim, I'm finishing up my second ev conversion, this time its a '93 Honda del Sol.

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Lithium Ion Honda Conversion Batteries 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

OCTOBER 16, 2009

I took some time to install the PakTrakr modules today. I was a bit disappointed in the voltage measurements from the PakTrakr remotes, so I'll probably send them back for recalibration. Here are the voltages I measured: Unit #1 Battery # Battery(V) PakTrakr(V) Difference(mV) 1 13.43 13.5 70 2 13.49 13.7 210 3 13.48 13.4 -80 4 13.49 13.9 410 5 13.52 13.9 380 6 13.28 12.9 -380 Unit #2 Battery # Battery(V) PakTrakr(V) Difference(mV) 1 13.41 13.5 90 2 13.46 13.7 240 3 13.47 13.4 -70 4 13.46 13.7 24

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Installation Store Batteries Battery 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

OCTOBER 3, 2009

As you've probably noticed, things have been a bit quiet here. The new vacuum pump is working well and is nicely quiet. As the temperatures drop, the capacity of my batteries drop as well. After almost a year of hard driving, I suspect the batteries are also losing capacity. Over the past week, I've been driving a gas car because I had long errands after work that would have exceeded the maximum range of the Civic-EV.

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Range Lithium Ion Installation Miles 113

Open Source Civic EV Kit

SEPTEMBER 5, 2009

Sorry folks, no pictures today. I'm taking this long weekend to just relax and get some things done around the house while avoiding the crazy Labor Day weekend traffic. One thing that's really been annoying me about the Civic is that the intermittent wiper setting doesn't work. After taking awhile to pry out the ICU (Integrated Control Unit) mounted on the back of the fuse box, I opened it up and tried some tests with a 12V battery to verify failure.

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Lead Acid Portland Lithium Ion Conversion 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

AUGUST 22, 2009

It's been awhile since I've posted because, well, things are just kinda boring and working well on the Civic-EV. I passed 4,000 EV miles a few weeks ago and things are still moving along. For those of you who have been keeping track of weather in the NorthWest lately, we had a hot spell at the end of July. One day of that week got up to 107F. I had a bit of a scare coming out of work when I found that the Civic-EV wouldn't start at all.

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Oregon Dodge Kits Installation 113

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JULY 14, 2009

After mentioning the motor controller temperature faults to Ives (the designer) at Synkromotive, he suggested we swap it out for a newer one. I went into the shop this evening and swapped out the controller. Ives looked at the old one and basically told me that I had beta test unit #2 with tiny heatsinks, bad ventilation and very little filtering on the temperature fault circuitry.

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Google Toyota Motor Motors 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JULY 12, 2009

Yesterday was our local EV organization's big annual event called EV Awareness Day. We held it at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. I gave a press event with the Mayor Sam Adams and two VPs from local power companies (PGE and Pacific Power). Probably one of the coolest things about the show is that a Tesla Roadster showed up unexpectedly!

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Portland All-Electric Tesla Powered 113

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JULY 9, 2009

Last week I was mostly on vacation, so I didn't get a chance to really charge the car at full amperage many times. This week was back to work, so I was able to give the charge detector a more reasonable test. In short, the three huge FETs with heat-sinks seem to work just fine (I should hope so.). I've charged the car seven times in the summer heat and the charger can dump a full 8 amps into the batteries every time without heating up the charge detector box.

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Re-Charge Portland Cheap Charging 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 25, 2009

After two days of running perfectly, I found yesterday morning that the amps were down and the FET had blown again. This really stumped me because I thought I had done everything to keep it cool and out of the switching region. After showing the system to the power supply EEs at work, they told me that any FET in a TO-220 case like the one I had would not handle a constant 8-amps for a long time.

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Installation Waste Charging Powered 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 22, 2009

After talking with the power supply EEs at work, I came home and tried a few experiments to see if I could fix the alternative charge detector circuit. First, I used an external 12V UPS battery instead of the AUX power output on the Belktronix charger to see if noise on the power supply was causing my problem. Nope: The circuit still behaved as if the opto-coupler latched closed.

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Lithium Ion IDEA Supplies Plug-in 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 21, 2009

I came home this evening after a 20 mile drive with excitement to see the new charge detector circuit work. I plugged in the car and the circuit had an interaction with the optocoupler on the BatMon board and didn't see the correct signal. Nothing is burning up, but the FET is stuck in the off state for now, leaving the system to charge slowly with a really hot 3-ohm resistor.

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Plug-in Charging Plug Miles 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 21, 2009

After the utter failure of the Soneil and the Joule chargers, I did some more research on individual battery chargers. Ideally I was looking for the following: Power factor corrected Weather-proof for mounting under the hood Isolated to work with a series pack of batteries 6-8 amps charging capacity low power enough to put all 12 chargers on one 15 amp circuit (possibly 20 amp circuit) somewhat affordable I did some more searching and found the BatteryMinder 12248, the Xantrex Trucharge 10, and

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Charging USA Batteries Battery 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 19, 2009

This whole experiment with the individual chargers has been a very humbling experience. After the whole set of failures with the Soneil chargers, I learned from the distributor that the 1214S model doesn't support series strings of battery packs: Tim, Well, based on this email I sent an email to Soneil. Apparently there has a been a design change in some of their chargers (these included) which prevents you from being able to charge while in a "series" configuration.

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Portland Light Charging IDEA 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 7, 2009

Against my better judgment, I took apart one of the failed Soneil chargers yesterday afternoon to see if I could find out anything about the failures. There weren't any burned components or obvious damage. After powering up the unit with the cover off, I could verify that the isolation transformer between the AC side and battery side wasn't getting pulsed, and thus passing no power to the battery (or the LED).

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Re-Charge DC Plug-in Plug 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 6, 2009

This morning was a dark morning. I received the Soneil chargers yesterday around noon and stayed up until 11:30 last night to install them. After installation, I powered them up and all chargers lit up with an orange LED. Yay. This morning, I got up and half of the chargers had a green lit LED and the other half were dark. I used a Kill-a-Watt meter to determine that the dark units were pulling no current at all.

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Installation Green Batteries Battery 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

JUNE 5, 2009

Over the past few days, the car has still been lurching around despite the potbox parameter adjustments that I've made inside the controller. I contact Bob Bath, the original CivicWithACord builder who sold me my PB5 potbox. It was brand new from KTA Services and not used/worn-out. Yesterday in stop-n-go traffic, the car was lurching again and the controller faulted when I haphazardly floored the accelerator with the car out of gear.

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Installation Engine All-Electric Cars 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 31, 2009

Last weekend, I took the Civic-EV to Portland International Raceway to show it off at the Electrathon/Human-Powered Vehicles event there. Memorial Day weekend is the one weekend that PIR can't make any loud noises, so they actively recruit electric vehicles and bicycles of all types to race. Here's Gary's Honda Insight EV with lithium ion batteries and an Siemens AC motor.

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Honda Insight Portland Lithium Ion Insight 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 31, 2009

Over the past week, I've been able to give the Synkromotive controller some good real-world experience during my commute. The controller is very smooth and has several parameters to keep the battery pack healthy. I also like that the Synkro controller doesn't tap off the main pack for part of its power supply which has led to pack imbalances in the past.

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Parts Powered Power Installation 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 31, 2009

Since the Synkromotive controller has its own motor speed limiter based on input directly from the Zolox sensor, I decided to clean up the instrumentation by removing the RPM gauge and moving the Link-10 E-meter onto the dashboard. While this removes some of the "coolness" factor without a tach, I like the more simplistic look as I tend to be a minimalist.

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Oil Light Store Cleaning 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 23, 2009

I stopped by the Synkromotive shop this morning and picked up my beta-test controller that I've been wanting to try out. After running out and buying some more magna lugs and welding cable, I came home and removed the Belktronix controller and all the associated wiring. With the old controller gone, I had to figure out how to place the new contactor and controller.

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Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 17, 2009

As with many EV projects, much time is spent waiting for parts. The replacement Soneil chargers haven't shown up yet. On a more positive note, Synkromotive figured out some of the glitches in their new beta controller, so one should be available this coming Friday. This new system will require a different potbox, contactor and other wiring. I'm excited to install the controller, so I installed a new potbox to get ready.

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Open Source Civic EV Kit

APRIL 18, 2009

It's been over a month since I've blogged about the Civic and people have started to ask where I've been. I'm still commuting (even with a blown charge detector) and the car has 1500 miles on it. Several events have happened with the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association (of which I'm the Chair) and I also went on vacation. At the end of march, I went on an amazing backcountry adventure, skiing the Wapta Traverse with a 45 pound pack on with Randonee' skis.

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Oregon Miles Charging All-Electric 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

APRIL 18, 2009

In a month or so, I'll be getting a beta-test motor controller from Synkromotive which will have a variety of programmable features as well as more power. Since I'm replacing the controller, I looked into replacing the other components with off-the-shelf items that might work better than the current Belktronix system I have. Here's the plan: - replace the controller with the programmable Synkromotive unit - replace the optical potbox with the original Civic TPS (throttle position sensor) - repla

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DC Arizona Convert Purchase 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

APRIL 18, 2009

One of the downsides of a home-EV conversion is that most of them don't have air conditioning. The AC tends to suck precious power from the battery and adds extra weight to the car while taking up space that could be used for batteries. Thus, it's often best to get a white (or light colored) donor vehicle to repel the sun's rays during the summer. The conversion vehicle I purchased is dark metallic blue, which get's really hot inside, even on a mild day in the sun.

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Open Source Civic EV Kit

MARCH 12, 2009

A few days ago, something funny happened to the vehicle. I drove home and my LVP light came on earlier than I expected. When I got home, the front battery was rather lower than the others in the pack. I attributed this to being just behind the front grille where a lot of cold air is blowing in. to remedy the problem a bit, I slide a large sheet of foam-core board between the batteries and the radiator grille which gives a bit of insulation and forces the air go around the side.

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Charging Light Plug-in Plug 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MARCH 7, 2009

A few weeks ago, I added an "EV Driven" link to the right menu bar of this blog. EV Driven is a group of folks trying to spread the word about EVs and are behind the upcoming movie Revenge of the Electric Car. It contains several searching features for this blog as well as many other blogs related to electric vehicles. Please check it out when you get the chance.

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Electric Cars Electric Vehicles Cars Electric 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MARCH 7, 2009

There's not too much to report on the Civic. I just passed 1000 miles yesterday and it still seems to work fine. I've definitely noticed over the past several weeks of commuting that my range is highly dependent on my speed. Even driving at 55mph instead of 60mph on the freeway gives me a few extra percent of battery life on the Link-10 E-meter. I've ended up driving with the LVP protection disconnected from the Belktronix controller because it tends to make my speed go way down even though I ha

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Miles Volt Batteries Battery 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

After doing another fix to the Charge Detector box on Monday, I enclosed all the BatMon boxes to prevent them from shorting out due to grime and automotive fluids. Here are the plastic boxes I talked about in a prior post. They are held in place with velcro adhesive tape and the box lids are held together with red electrical tape. I don't seem to be having any trouble with overheating (yet.) and the clear plastic lets me see the OVP/LVP lights.

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Charging Porsche Light Miles 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

With 350 EV miles on the car, I'm ramping down on fixing things and ramping up on commuting. Before I forget all the stuff I've learned, I'd like to capture some thoughts about the Open-Source kit and my experience with the Belktronix system. Good points about the open-source Civic-Kit: I really appreciate keeping the clutch. It makes shifting much easier and makes the car feel like a regular vehicle Choosing AGM batteries was a great idea.

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Kits Batteries Battery Parts 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

I've been somewhat concerned with how imbalanced my pack has been lately. Given that the charging system has been blown for a few days, I'm not too surprised. Here are some observations. The front two batteries behind the radiator grille are the lowest voltage in the pack. They tend to be the coldest because they get lots of air while I'm driving. They also get more drain then other batteries because they supply 24V to the controller and to the contactor.

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Batteries Battery Volt Light 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

Last Friday, I took the Civic into the suspension shop to replace the passenger-side axle (CV joint boot was broken), replace a brake line (those are important) and get a full alignment. The mechanic just couldn't get over how he could come to a full stop and not stall the motor without pushing in the clutch. The electrical specialist mechanic up the street took my card and vowed to come to the next OEVA meeting.

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Charging Gasoline-Electric Gasoline Motor 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

APRIL 7, 2008

After spending the past year and a half converting a Porsche 914 to an electric vehicle, I decided to expand my horizons by designing an open-source electric vehicle (EV) conversion kit for a commonly used car. The intention is to create detailed designs and directions so that anyone who has a garage and is moderately proficient with hand-tools can convert their car to an EV.

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Kits Conversion Golf Cart Saturn 185