Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 14, 2008

volts instead of the expected 14.6 I received the fixed charger parts back from Belktronix on Friday and installed them with no problems. After going through a full charge cycle, I did find another Batmon board that was activating the shunt resistor at 13.5 I'll look into that early this week or send it back for repairs.

Parts 100

Parts Miles Charging Volt 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 1, 2009

volts after sitting in the car for a few weeks. volts at full charge, but I suspect that some have significant loss in their capacity. Again, the intent of this was to prevent large voltage differences from blowing up the PakTrakr. With the PakTrakr installed, I now have a good tool for seeing which batteries are dying first.

Installation 100

Installation Batteries Battery Volt 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 31, 2008

The original CivicWithACord design used 18 8-volt golf cart batteries. After some debate on the Google Group and dealing with clutch-link interference issues, I'm tending towards 12-volt group-31 AGM batteries for the initial design. Rob Conelly provided the following picture of how the Optima 31s are placed in his system.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Batteries Battery Volt 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I still have to analyze the system more, but here's what I think is happening: The charger can only generate about 175 volts because it gets it's input voltage by rectifying the 120V AC line. volts at 40 degrees F to get to 80% charge. volts (ouch!). When cold, AGM batteries need a much higher charging voltage.

DC 100

DC Volt Plug-in Plug 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

DECEMBER 4, 2008

volt float charge overnight (perhaps the weekend) to see if I can get it back to full. I'll probably sell this if there is a local buyer. After checking a few other electrical items, I noticed that my 12V car battery was actually quite low (11.8 I'm pretty sure it came this way, since the DC-DC converter appears to be working.

Volt 100

Volt DC Engine Batteries 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

I think the voltage drop across the zener diodes on that BatMon board is just a few tenths of a volt higher than the other BatMon boards (home fix job). The IsoBatMon pulls no power when there is no LVP/OVP signal activity; however, when charging, it pulls 10mA when the OVP signal is on.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Volt Light 100

Open Source Civic EV Kit

MAY 31, 2008

You can't beat the price and it handles the automatic balancing of the 12-volt AGM batteries. I received good feedback from Rob C., on his experience with the Belktronix system. It's made locally in the USA and has good tech support. The minor downside is that the charger is limited to 1200 watts.

USA 100

USA Low Cost Volt Price 100