Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 13, 2008
I did some more work on the battery racks over the past few days. The biggest challenge is getting everything to fit properly without hitting any blockages. At this point, I think I have all of the metal pieces cut, but I don't have the bolt holes drilled. Note: the following descriptions are a bit verbose because I'm trying to keep track of all the detailed measurements as I go.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 26, 2008
I've got a 31 Ft RV that gets 8.5 mpg. Would an AC electric motor or 2 in conjunction with the 8.1 liter gas engine increase the gas mileage in an.
Plugs and Cars
JULY 31, 2008
Once again, a conference on plug-in cars. Coming on the heels of the Google/Brookings event in Washington, D.C., Plug-in 2008 in San Jose, California witnessed a noon-time address by new heavy-weight convert, Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel. Grove brings some needed high-profile gravitas to the community of electrification advocates. One week earlier, former Vice President Al Gore issued his well-received challenge to make the American grid 100% renewable in ten years.
DIY Electric Car
JULY 28, 2008
Big news! U.S. presidential candidates Barak Obama and John McCain are talking about EVs. Finally, American politicians, corporate executives and grassroots advocates all seem to agree that powering cars from clean, affordable and domestic electricity makes sense. However, politicians have talked about electric vehicles before and in the past, the talk did not translate into government support for practical technologies.
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Plug In Partners
JULY 18, 2008
O ften when I talk about Plug-Ins , I say that PHEV's are a perfect embodiment of the 80-20 rule. There are a lot of versions of the rule and it has been written about a lot. But in the case of the PHEV , the logic goes something like this: Roughly 80% of our daily trips are under 35 miles. And the remaining 20% are longer trips. So why carry around five times more battery storage and weight for that 20 %?
Honda S2000 EV Conversion
JULY 27, 2008
I finished bleeding the brakes today and wanted to share a few new things I learned this time around. I've always done brakes in the past as a two man job. One guy pushing in on the pedal while the other guy is releasing the pressure at the caliper. The wife was with the baby and my neightbor was on vacation so I decided to purchase a brake bleeding kit.
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Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 16, 2008
Two questions, the first about batteries, the second about the battery meter: (1) How many batteries would you estimate would be required for an.
Plugs and Cars
JULY 17, 2008
Buried in Al Gore's challenge today calling for a 100% renewable electric grid within ten years is a call for plug-in electric cars. This represents a big change in his thinking, and will hopefully quickly push political and environmental leadership to coalesce around policies to push plug-in cars into the market as quickly as possible. We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric
DIY Electric Car
JULY 21, 2008
Major news keeps buzzing about Hydrogen, Flex-fuel, E85/Ethanol, Bio-Diesel and other alternative energies but when it comes down to it, I believe that only the least common denominator will be able to survive in a world of constantly changing energy sources and that thing is called electricity. Does anyone remember natural gas lighting in houses? How about oil?
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 31, 2008
I visted Synkromotive two days ago to look into becoming a Beta tester of their new motor controller. It handles 600 amps and has a really nice user interface through a laptop to configure several controller parameters like the DMOC445 that I have on the AC 914EV. Other than the Zilla, I haven't seen a controller out there with this much programmable flexibility.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 23, 2008
This evening, I took apart the engine harness that we looked at back here. After taking the harness apart, I'm left with a bunch of rotten electrical tape (top center in picture), the leftover wires (on the right) and what I really care about (on the left). The white wire is the alternator wire to the main battery, so I'll probably use that with the DC-DC converter to drive the main battery.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 22, 2008
I took a few hours last night to learn more about Google Sketchup. It's quite a powerful tool for visualization, but I realize now that, unless you buy the expensive "Pro" edition, don't bother trying to export any valuable information from it. I took the adapter plate into a precision measurement shop to get all the hole locations for the Civic transmission bell housing.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 19, 2008
Remember how we talked about making the power-steering into manual awhile ago? We still have some hydraulic tubes coming out of the power steering valve that need something done with them. Based on my internet research, it's best to have a closed system where the output power steering fluid tubes feed back into the input fluid tube, but with a reservoir in between to handle expansion from heat.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 19, 2008
Of all the battery racks, the firewall rack is the most complex with the most interferences. I'm going to try and capture all the problems I ran into today while trying to get the firewall rack base installed. I re-installed the transmission while ago to make sure that I would get the proper spacing with the firewall rack. Since the mounts for the transmission are rubber, they flex, so I needed to use a floor jack to raise the transmission back to its working height to get the proper spacing.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 13, 2008
I called a local suspension shop and asked if they would take the springs off of my strut assemblies. They gave me an estimate of $30 per strut. Against my better judgement, I looke at Harbor Freight and found a strut compressor tool that only cost $33, so I ordered it. Here's what UPS delivered to my door. After opening things up and assembling them, this is the final compressor tool.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 13, 2008
"If I have seen farther than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" Many other people have done Honda Civic EV conversions before this one, which is why my job is so easy. There's not much special about this project other than I'm trying to collect the information together into an open-source kit. I'd like to thank Rob Connelly for providing 3D drawings of his front battery racks so people can see different ways of doing things.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 8, 2008
I'm taking a different strategy from many EV installations in the hopes that people can more easily put together a kit for the Civic at home. Most folks weld together battery racks and then bolt them into the car (or sometimes weld them in). This strategy uses beefy angle iron pieces and 3/8" grade-8 bolts with nylock nuts to hold things together. I'll revisit whether this strategy is a good one or not after trying it out.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 8, 2008
In preparation for designing the front and firewall battery racks, I wanted to make sure the engine compartment had several existing components in it so I could determine clearance more accurately. Here my friend Rick and I are re-installing the transmission so I can properly figure out clearance on the front battery rack and placement for the firewall battery rack.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 4, 2008
Today was a slow day for the Civic, since I'm preparing for EV awareness day tomorrow with the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. I printed a bunch of flyers and made about 300 business cards for the event. This should be interesting. I did spend a few hours ordering battery lugs and terminal covers as well as the vacuum pump for the power brake assist.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 3, 2008
I spent a few hours looking at the engine wiring harness and all its connectors to see how I could effectively attach signals to drive dashboard lights and gauges. Bob Bath calls this the "snake," but I like to think of it more like a nine-headed Hydra. Here's a photo (click to enlarge) of the wiring harness I removed from my Civic DX. I cut off the C118 connector because the wire to the sensor was too hard to remove.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 3, 2008
After removing all the gasoline based components from the car, my garage was pretty full of stuff. Here are the leftover fluids from the car. Left is power steering fluid, center is coolant and right is contaminated gasoline with bits of everything in it. Fortunately, Portland has a great city recycling program and they take home hazardous waste for free (up to five gallons).
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 2, 2008
Today was a bit slower since I didn't get much sleep last night and I helped my friend Andrew diagnose a bad brake drum on his truck this morning. For the most part, today was the last day of removing parts from the car. From now on, it's all about engineering new parts and installing pre-built ones to make the electric car. Here's the engine that we removed yesterday.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 1, 2008
My buddy Andrew came out this morning to help get the engine out. Here's Drew, happy to use an engine hoist for the first time. To get enough clearance to lift out the engine, you need to open the hood as far as it can go. I've doubled the engine hoist hook back on itself to allow for more lifting space. While following the instructions in the Helms manual, I couldn't get the long rod out of the driver's side front engine mount, so I removed it completely.
Plugs and Cars
JULY 22, 2008
[Source: CNN ]. Tags: solar power miles o'brien toyota rav4 ev ev1 cnn solar PV solar electricity energy efficiency solar battery electric car.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 10, 2008
Gas Pain? The EMIS from NetGain converts giant gas guzzlers into parallel hybrid cars!
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 21, 2008
I just bought an already converted 1986 Chevrolet Sprint EV that just needs new batteries installed. I had a man that has an electric vehicle like.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 18, 2008
I don't mean to sound rude, but English petrol prices are far far worse than American prices at the moment, we are currently paying 1.20 per litre.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 17, 2008
Why use batteries ? Batteries are heavy, and maintenance hogs. Why not integrate a diesel powered generator, and use an AC motor to power the car?
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 28, 2008
I am considering creating an alternative fuel vehicle by running a generator off a steam engine to then run a direct drive electric motor. Thus.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 26, 2008
I have a small delivery company and wanna try to convert one of our trucks , a 1997 Ford F150 , into an electric truck. I have a list of what I.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 24, 2008
What is the best sized electric car motor? Hi, Martin! A medium sized one. Small is too small, and large is. Okay, just kidding. When you're.
Plugs and Cars
JULY 12, 2008
Two guys convert an old VW bug. Tags: conversion electric volkswagen battery electric car.
Honda S2000 EV Conversion
JULY 26, 2008
Last weekend I started creating a new wiring harness. The original wiring harness had so many extra sensors that I didn't need and didn't want cluttering things up so I decided to take it apart and remove all the connections I wouldn't be using in the conversion. Look at all those wires! I haven't finished the harness yet but will add some pictures of the final product.
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