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I'd like to get the car off the jack-stands and back into a position where I can drive it while still adding things like the guages. After installing the speed sensor, the last thing needed under the car is the splash guard to protect water and grit from getting into the Warp9. After playing around a bit, I found that a piece of ABS plastic 15" x 18" and 3/16" thick will probably work. MORE
I tried installing the Zolox sensor mounting ring for the Warp9 motor from EVsource today. It looks like the holes on the mounting ring don't line up properly. The holes for the Warp9 casing don't match, so I had to drill them a bit larger so the bolts would go in. Here I've placed the spinning magnet onto the end of the tailshaft with a short 1/4 bolt to properly center it. If you look closely, the spacing is off so that the shaft isn't properly centered in the mounting ring. MORE
After futzing around awhile, I was able to get the spacer ring for the Zolox tachometer sensor to line up. Here's the bottom of the mounting ring. The screws that came with the mounting kit stripped out the plastic, so I sunk some depressions in the backside of the ring where the bolt holes were and put in 8-32 x 1" bolts from the backside. Notice that the large holes in the upper left and lower right are somewhat warped. MORE
It's still pretty cold in the garage, but I motivated myself to get out to TAP plastics (10 blocks away) and pick up some ABS plastic for the improved splash guard. Here's the 3/16" thick piece of ABS lying on top of the existing splash guard. I got a piece 36" x 18" which is way too big, but I didn't know what would be needed. In the final directions, I'll probably list a smaller piece to acquire. This one cost me $22.25. MORE
Santa was good to me this year. I received a Link-10 battery monitor from my parents. I don't think they understand what it does and why it costs so much, but okay, they got it for me anyway. The items on the right came from Belktronix. The wires on the upper left are the Link-10 voltage prescaler. The module on the upper right is the DC-DC to supply an isolated 12V to the link-10. MORE
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 volts instead of the expected 14.6 volts. I'll look into that early this week or send it back for repairs. After fixing up the charging system, I took a quick test drive with my friend Jonathan for about 7 miles and the car behaved well. MORE
“It’s gonna be Earth Day on STEROIDS !&# That’s how EV fan Paul Thomas lured us to the sun-scorched Barona Drag Strip to film this year’s Kick Gas Festival. Barona has seen many grudge matches over the years, but this was one we couldn’t miss; the first head to head between electric dragsters and old school gas guzzlers. Would Michael Kadie’s electric blue coupe kick gas in more ways than one? MORE
This is a cool day(And not just because it's freezing outside). The package with the custom tachometer from SpeedHut arrived. Although I received the 2-hole pillar pod last Friday, I wanted to show it here since I ordered both items from Speedhut. The wiring harness is nice and long. The small module in the lower left of the photo is the dash light interface which allows a variable dash light brightness to control the tach brightness as well. This is just too awesome for words. MORE
I got some fun stuff today. The plastic boxes for the BatMons and the Zolox speed sensor with Warp9 mounting hardware came in. Here's a pile of 2x2" plastic boxes 1/2" high that fit the BatMon boards quite well. If I cut off one side, I should have at least some protection from splash and other grit that enters the engine compartment. Here's the Zolox speed sensor from EVSource. I don't know if it will work correctly with the SpeedHut tachometer that's coming, but I hope so. MORE
So was this back in 2008. When my good friend and former CBS EcoMedia colleague, Taylor, heard Larry Mantle on today’s live broadcast of KPCC’s Film Week mention, “Joe from Redondo Beach” and the documentary “Inconvenient Truth,” she texted to ask if that was me. It was. So cool to have the historical record to show who said what, when. I got the price of gas wrong, but nailed the rest of it. MORE
Plug-in 2008 in San Jose, California witnessed a noon-time address by new heavy-weight convert, Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel. Attesting to consumer desire for plug-ins, hundreds of people flooded the Plug-in 2008 auditorium for the low-cost “public” event, which included Plug In America’s Chelsea Sexton participating in a panel discussion. Once again, a conference on plug-in cars. Coming on the heels of the Google/Brookings event in Washington, D.C., MORE
How do you connect the electric motor to the engine transmission? Is it welded? Do I need to have an adapter or an engineered MORE
Many people don't realize that the Honda crankshaft going into the transmission actually turns clockwise for the forward direction, as opposed to counter-clockwise for the vast majority of cars. As such, most EV motors have advanced timing on the brushes to optimize counter-clockwise rotation. Since we have a Honda Civic, we're going to rotate the brushes on the Netgain Warp9 motor so that they have optimal advanced timing for the clockwise direction. MORE
Gav's EV Conversion - Living with an EV - IV from Gav on Vimeo. If you aren't familiar with Gav, he's been a long time contributing member of DIYElectricCar under the name of "kiwiev." Gav converted a 1987 Mitsubishi Tredia last year and has been since making films about his conversion, his lifestyle and other EV conversions. This video is the fourth in the series of lifestyle videos. Gav shows a few changes around the house and gets some live status updates from 3 different active conversions. MORE
Today was busy, so you should see a few posts. This first one is all the work I did installing the rear trunk battery rack base. As I mentioned before some of this will be verbose as I'm trying not to lose all the finer details. A few posts ago, I cut some 1.5"x1.5" square tubing 18" long (1/8" wall) and drilled a 3/8" hole in each end, 5/8" from the end. After laying these down in the trunk where I wanted to put them, I realized that there is a manufacturing "bump" on either side of the trunk. MORE
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. Here is a closeup of the front battery rack on the driver side. MORE
Tags: Editorials candidates senator barak obama john mccain ev electric vehicle phev hybrid range extended campaign race 2008 energy sustainable clean solar wind biofuels diesel hydrogen MORE
What does it take to winterize your electric car, and keep it running well (and far) in the cold MORE
Fisker's Karma is a production-ready plug-in hybrid, - meaning TODAY, not 2010 - and it's coming to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 15th MORE
This is the most comprehensive list of electric cars for sale I've seen yet! It's international, and covers past, present, future, American, European.awesome. Thank you, Jeroen MORE
AC motor question: I'm looking for a less expensive, probably US-made AC motor. I'm aiming my design at 1400 lbs maximum. Ideas? MORE
Since John McCain recently mistook Barack Obama for Paris Hilton (hey, that could happen to anybody, not just the elderly), Paris assures America that she is "totally ready to lead.". Me, I'm totally ready to be your VP, girlfriend. Call me.) Okay, if you're asking yourself, what's that got to do with electric cars? it's in Candidate Hilton's energy policy; she advocates tax incentives to build hybrids and electrics, among other things. It's in the campaign video, check it out MORE
After a suggestion I received from Bryan Belk (of Belktronix), I decided to go with a different tachometer than the cheap Shucks one: [link] This tach is only $96 and comes with a customizable face. I was even able to add the text "Civic EV" for free! The other cool thing is that it has an LED driver on the back for a particular shift point. This could easily be set and tied into the LVP (low-voltage-protection) circuit on the controller to prevent over-revving the motor. MORE
I always wondered how much this kit really cost me, aside from tools, so I assembled a total parts price list and uploaded it to the Civic-EV Google Group here: [link] I'm a bit surprised I came out below $10K (barely). For those of you who have done conversions, please check my spreadsheet and let me know what I missed. One of the high-wants for the kit was that it would cost Cheers, Tim MORE
I think my battery pack is dead after 8600 miles and 1.5 years. My Zivan charger alarm has gone off for the past week and I finally looked into it. Apparently the alarm is indicating a timeout that the charge cycle is taking too long for the capacity of batteries that I have. If I charge overnight, I wake up in 40 degree weather and the pack is very warm, around 80 degrees with vigorous "boiling." MORE
After working with Bryan from Belktronix yesterday, I found out that I had blown some components in the IsoBatMon, the Charge Detector and one of the BatMon boards. Those went off in the mail this morning back for repairs. I'll try the system again when the parts come back. In the meantime, it looks like the speedomter is working again. I also purchased a new headlamp to fix a burned out right hi-beam. It turns out the problem wasn't the bulb but a *missing* fuse in the fusebox. MORE
While I wait for the charging components to get fixed, I did some research on gauges to monitor the state of the system. My goal is to use as much of the existing dashboard as possible and then add low-cost gauges in order to prevent any motor problems and detect faults. MORE
During the test drive, I noticed that the speedometer wasn't working. It had worked fine before I removed the engine. After researching the Helms manual, I needed to get at the speed-sensor on the transmission to figure out what was going wrong. Fortunately I hadn't yet wired up all the BatMon boards, so removing the firewall batteries to get at the sensor only took a few minutes. Here's the firewall battery rack with two batteries removed to get at the speed sensor on the transmission. MORE
Okay, it's time to get your wiring spaghetti on. I spent part of last evening (after fixing the speedo) and all of this morning wiring up the Batmon boards. In the process I blew the OVP channel on the IsoBatMon unit. Here I'm crimping yellow 3/8" ring terminals on all the blade fuse holders that will hold the 7.5A fuses. I tried to do as much as I could on a workbench instead of in the cramped quarters of the car. Okay, I've finished wiring up the front set of batteries. MORE
I've got a 31 Ft RV that gets 8.5 Would an AC electric motor or 2 in conjunction with the 8.1 liter gas engine increase the gas mileage in an MORE
GM Finally Unveils Production Chevy Volt Popular Mechanics By Larry Webster September 16, 2008 After 100 years of making cars, it's party time at the General's house. And, with the passing of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 , a credit for the early purchase of plug-in electric drive vehicles is now law. MORE
I t's pretty rare when you get to declare victory and bring the troops home. And those of us at Plug in Partners are grateful to our partners and friends who have made this announcement not just possible, but in a very real sense, a reality. MORE
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. This project started about a month ago when I became co-chair of the Oregon Electric Vehicles Association. MORE
In order to shunt current around each fully charged battery, the BatMon boards use an external 3 ohm resistor. Since mounting these resistors involves drilling holes in metal, I wanted to mount them before mounting the BatMon boards to prevent metal shavings from sprinkling into the electronics. Here are two pictures in the rear trunk showing the drilled holes for the resistor mounting bolts. The BatMon resistors have mounting holes 2" apart that take 10-24 bolts. MORE
H ere's the Mazda story thanks to Autocar: Mazda plans Volt rival Autocar August 28, 2008 Autocar has learned that Mazda engineers are hard at work trying to develop a rival to the Chevrolet Volt – a car which uses a petrol engine to charge a battery pack which powers the wheels via an electric motor. I t wasn't that long ago that I remember a Chrysler ad that bragged about how its new Charger, with the big V 8, was a hybrid. it burned gas and rubber. MORE
At some point, I guess we have to charge this thing. Most people like to be clever and put the charging outlet under the gas tank cover. I don't like this because it's near the back of the car, away from most charging station outlets at parking spaces. It also requires more routing of wire to get to the charger. Instead, I chose to simply cut a hole in the side of the front bumper and use a charging outlet from a boating store. MORE
T he Plug in 2008 National PHEV Conference in San Jose by most accounts was a big success. July 22, 2008; The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) announced today a research and development collaboration with General Motors and 34 top utilities to facilitate integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles ( PHEVs ) into the grid, a key step in providing the nation’s drivers an alternative to petroleum fuels. MORE
One of the major tasks during construction of an EV is properly crimping all the heavy duty battery cables together. Here's the process that I used. I measured the distance between the terminals that I needed to connect, subtracted 1/2" and then cut a piece of 2/0 gauge welding cable for that distance. Welding cable is much more flexible than typical 2/0 gauge wire, allowing it to snake around various car parts. The picture here shows a piece of cable and a special cable stripping tool. MORE
Gas Pain? The EMIS from NetGain converts giant gas guzzlers into parallel hybrid cars MORE
Japan and Europe by 2010 By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press June 11, 2008 TOKYO -- Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in the U.S., On June 11 and 12, the Brookings Institution and Google.org will host a conference entitled “ Plug-In Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington ?” T oyota President Katsuaki Watanabe made his company's intentions clear yesterday about PHEVs. MORE
Whew! I finally got my internet connection back up at home. This is the first of ten entries that will attempt to show many of the tasks I performed over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. First up, we need to beef up the rear suspension to handle the extra 420 pounds of batteries in the trunk. As you may remember, I swapped out the front springs with beefier ones. MORE
Here's the story from Motor Trend : VW jumping on plug-in hybrid bandwagon with TwinDrive system Nate Martinez June 26 2008 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announced today that pre-production testing of the automaker's plug-in hybrid electric system, dubbed TwinDrive, is underway with the full support of the German government. A nother major manufacturer is jumping on the plug in hybrid bandwagon. MORE
The next step involved preparing all the mounting hardware for the BatMon boards that sit on top of each battery. These boards monitor the voltage on each battery and signal back to the charger or the controller if there is an undervoltage ( The Belktronix kit comes with a bag of tie-wrap mounting pads and instructions to cut the pads in half to hold the BatMon boards to each battery. Here's one BatMon board and its mounting pieces. MORE
Even I was surprised. In my rear view mirror I watched a Los Angeles Sheriff’s car pull out of the Chevron and turn on both its blue and red flashing lights to pursue me down Ventura Boulevard. It had only been hours since I eased out of the Tesla dealership in West Los Angeles and already I had a date with the police. This was not the Burbank police who arrested Alexandra and Colette in 2005 for trying to stop EVs from being crushed. MORE
2008 Related Topics Plug In Partners
AUGUST 1, 2008
T he Plug in 2008 National PHEV Conference in San Jose by most accounts was a big success. July 22, 2008; The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) announced today a research and development collaboration with General Motors and 34 top utilities to facilitate integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles ( PHEVs ) into the grid, a key step in providing the nation’s drivers an alternative to petroleum fuels.
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 7, 2008
“It’s gonna be Earth Day on STEROIDS !&# That’s how EV fan Paul Thomas lured us to the sun-scorched Barona Drag Strip to film this year’s Kick Gas Festival. Barona has seen many grudge matches over the years, but this was one we couldn’t miss; the first head to head between electric dragsters and old school gas guzzlers. Would Michael Kadie’s electric blue coupe kick gas in more ways than one?
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Electric Cars are for Girls
DECEMBER 20, 2008
Fisker's Karma is a production-ready plug-in hybrid, - meaning TODAY, not 2010 - and it's coming to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 15th
Electric Cars are for Girls
NOVEMBER 11, 2008
This is the most comprehensive list of electric cars for sale I've seen yet! It's international, and covers past, present, future, American, European.awesome. Thank you, Jeroen
Electric Cars are for Girls
AUGUST 7, 2008
Since John McCain recently mistook Barack Obama for Paris Hilton (hey, that could happen to anybody, not just the elderly), Paris assures America that she is "totally ready to lead.". Me, I'm totally ready to be your VP, girlfriend. Call me.) Okay, if you're asking yourself, what's that got to do with electric cars? it's in Candidate Hilton's energy policy; she advocates tax incentives to build hybrids and electrics, among other things. It's in the campaign video, check it out
DIY Electric Car
JULY 28, 2008
Tags: Editorials candidates senator barak obama john mccain ev electric vehicle phev hybrid range extended campaign race 2008 energy sustainable clean solar wind biofuels diesel hydrogen
Plugs and Cars
JULY 31, 2008
Plug-in 2008 in San Jose, California witnessed a noon-time address by new heavy-weight convert, Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel. Attesting to consumer desire for plug-ins, hundreds of people flooded the Plug-in 2008 auditorium for the low-cost “public” event, which included Plug In America’s Chelsea Sexton participating in a panel discussion. Once again, a conference on plug-in cars. Coming on the heels of the Google/Brookings event in Washington, D.C.,
Electric Cars are for Girls
DECEMBER 20, 2008
What does it take to winterize your electric car, and keep it running well (and far) in the cold
Creative Greenius
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
So was this back in 2008. When my good friend and former CBS EcoMedia colleague, Taylor, heard Larry Mantle on today’s live broadcast of KPCC’s Film Week mention, “Joe from Redondo Beach” and the documentary “Inconvenient Truth,” she texted to ask if that was me. It was. So cool to have the historical record to show who said what, when. I got the price of gas wrong, but nailed the rest of it.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 26, 2008
I've got a 31 Ft RV that gets 8.5 Would an AC electric motor or 2 in conjunction with the 8.1 liter gas engine increase the gas mileage in an
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. Here is a closeup of the front battery rack on the driver side.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
AUGUST 17, 2008
Many people don't realize that the Honda crankshaft going into the transmission actually turns clockwise for the forward direction, as opposed to counter-clockwise for the vast majority of cars. As such, most EV motors have advanced timing on the brushes to optimize counter-clockwise rotation. Since we have a Honda Civic, we're going to rotate the brushes on the Netgain Warp9 motor so that they have optimal advanced timing for the clockwise direction.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
JULY 19, 2008
Today was busy, so you should see a few posts. This first one is all the work I did installing the rear trunk battery rack base. As I mentioned before some of this will be verbose as I'm trying not to lose all the finer details. A few posts ago, I cut some 1.5"x1.5" square tubing 18" long (1/8" wall) and drilled a 3/8" hole in each end, 5/8" from the end. After laying these down in the trunk where I wanted to put them, I realized that there is a manufacturing "bump" on either side of the trunk.
Electric Cars are for Girls
JULY 10, 2008
Gas Pain? The EMIS from NetGain converts giant gas guzzlers into parallel hybrid cars
Plug In Partners
SEPTEMBER 15, 2008
H ere's the Mazda story thanks to Autocar: Mazda plans Volt rival Autocar August 28, 2008 Autocar has learned that Mazda engineers are hard at work trying to develop a rival to the Chevrolet Volt – a car which uses a petrol engine to charge a battery pack which powers the wheels via an electric motor. I t wasn't that long ago that I remember a Chrysler ad that bragged about how its new Charger, with the big V 8, was a hybrid. it burned gas and rubber.
Plug In Partners
OCTOBER 8, 2008
GM Finally Unveils Production Chevy Volt Popular Mechanics By Larry Webster September 16, 2008 After 100 years of making cars, it's party time at the General's house. And, with the passing of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 , a credit for the early purchase of plug-in electric drive vehicles is now law.
Electric Cars are for Girls
DECEMBER 23, 2008
How do you connect the electric motor to the engine transmission? Is it welded? Do I need to have an adapter or an engineered
Electric Cars are for Girls
DECEMBER 20, 2008
AC motor question: I'm looking for a less expensive, probably US-made AC motor. I'm aiming my design at 1400 lbs maximum. Ideas?
Plug In Partners
NOVEMBER 3, 2008
I t's pretty rare when you get to declare victory and bring the troops home. And those of us at Plug in Partners are grateful to our partners and friends who have made this announcement not just possible, but in a very real sense, a reality.
Revenge of the Electric Car
NOVEMBER 27, 2008
Even I was surprised. In my rear view mirror I watched a Los Angeles Sheriff’s car pull out of the Chevron and turn on both its blue and red flashing lights to pursue me down Ventura Boulevard. It had only been hours since I eased out of the Tesla dealership in West Los Angeles and already I had a date with the police. This was not the Burbank police who arrested Alexandra and Colette in 2005 for trying to stop EVs from being crushed.
Plug In Partners
JUNE 11, 2008
Japan and Europe by 2010 By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press June 11, 2008 TOKYO -- Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in the U.S., On June 11 and 12, the Brookings Institution and Google.org will host a conference entitled “ Plug-In Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington ?” T oyota President Katsuaki Watanabe made his company's intentions clear yesterday about PHEVs.
DIY Electric Car
DECEMBER 5, 2008
Gav's EV Conversion - Living with an EV - IV from Gav on Vimeo. If you aren't familiar with Gav, he's been a long time contributing member of DIYElectricCar under the name of "kiwiev." Gav converted a 1987 Mitsubishi Tredia last year and has been since making films about his conversion, his lifestyle and other EV conversions. This video is the fourth in the series of lifestyle videos. Gav shows a few changes around the house and gets some live status updates from 3 different active conversions.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 29, 2008
Santa was good to me this year. I received a Link-10 battery monitor from my parents. I don't think they understand what it does and why it costs so much, but okay, they got it for me anyway. The items on the right came from Belktronix. The wires on the upper left are the Link-10 voltage prescaler. The module on the upper right is the DC-DC to supply an isolated 12V to the link-10.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 29, 2008
I tried installing the Zolox sensor mounting ring for the Warp9 motor from EVsource today. It looks like the holes on the mounting ring don't line up properly. The holes for the Warp9 casing don't match, so I had to drill them a bit larger so the bolts would go in. Here I've placed the spinning magnet onto the end of the tailshaft with a short 1/4 bolt to properly center it. If you look closely, the spacing is off so that the shaft isn't properly centered in the mounting ring.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 29, 2008
After futzing around awhile, I was able to get the spacer ring for the Zolox tachometer sensor to line up. Here's the bottom of the mounting ring. The screws that came with the mounting kit stripped out the plastic, so I sunk some depressions in the backside of the ring where the bolt holes were and put in 8-32 x 1" bolts from the backside. Notice that the large holes in the upper left and lower right are somewhat warped.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 29, 2008
I'd like to get the car off the jack-stands and back into a position where I can drive it while still adding things like the guages. After installing the speed sensor, the last thing needed under the car is the splash guard to protect water and grit from getting into the Warp9. After playing around a bit, I found that a piece of ABS plastic 15" x 18" and 3/16" thick will probably work.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
DECEMBER 31, 2008
I think my battery pack is dead after 8600 miles and 1.5 years. My Zivan charger alarm has gone off for the past week and I finally looked into it. Apparently the alarm is indicating a timeout that the charge cycle is taking too long for the capacity of batteries that I have. If I charge overnight, I wake up in 40 degree weather and the pack is very warm, around 80 degrees with vigorous "boiling."
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 19, 2008
It's still pretty cold in the garage, but I motivated myself to get out to TAP plastics (10 blocks away) and pick up some ABS plastic for the improved splash guard. Here's the 3/16" thick piece of ABS lying on top of the existing splash guard. I got a piece 36" x 18" which is way too big, but I didn't know what would be needed. In the final directions, I'll probably list a smaller piece to acquire. This one cost me $22.25.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 18, 2008
This is a cool day(And not just because it's freezing outside). The package with the custom tachometer from SpeedHut arrived. Although I received the 2-hole pillar pod last Friday, I wanted to show it here since I ordered both items from Speedhut. The wiring harness is nice and long. The small module in the lower left of the photo is the dash light interface which allows a variable dash light brightness to control the tach brightness as well. This is just too awesome for words.
Plug In Partners
JUNE 30, 2008
Here's the story from Motor Trend : VW jumping on plug-in hybrid bandwagon with TwinDrive system Nate Martinez June 26 2008 Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announced today that pre-production testing of the automaker's plug-in hybrid electric system, dubbed TwinDrive, is underway with the full support of the German government. A nother major manufacturer is jumping on the plug in hybrid bandwagon.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 14, 2008
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 volts instead of the expected 14.6 volts. I'll look into that early this week or send it back for repairs. After fixing up the charging system, I took a quick test drive with my friend Jonathan for about 7 miles and the car behaved well.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 11, 2008
I got some fun stuff today. The plastic boxes for the BatMons and the Zolox speed sensor with Warp9 mounting hardware came in. Here's a pile of 2x2" plastic boxes 1/2" high that fit the BatMon boards quite well. If I cut off one side, I should have at least some protection from splash and other grit that enters the engine compartment. Here's the Zolox speed sensor from EVSource. I don't know if it will work correctly with the SpeedHut tachometer that's coming, but I hope so.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 8, 2008
While I wait for the charging components to get fixed, I did some research on gauges to monitor the state of the system. My goal is to use as much of the existing dashboard as possible and then add low-cost gauges in order to prevent any motor problems and detect faults.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 8, 2008
After a suggestion I received from Bryan Belk (of Belktronix), I decided to go with a different tachometer than the cheap Shucks one: [link] This tach is only $96 and comes with a customizable face. I was even able to add the text "Civic EV" for free! The other cool thing is that it has an LED driver on the back for a particular shift point. This could easily be set and tied into the LVP (low-voltage-protection) circuit on the controller to prevent over-revving the motor.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 8, 2008
I always wondered how much this kit really cost me, aside from tools, so I assembled a total parts price list and uploaded it to the Civic-EV Google Group here: [link] I'm a bit surprised I came out below $10K (barely). For those of you who have done conversions, please check my spreadsheet and let me know what I missed. One of the high-wants for the kit was that it would cost Cheers, Tim
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 6, 2008
After working with Bryan from Belktronix yesterday, I found out that I had blown some components in the IsoBatMon, the Charge Detector and one of the BatMon boards. Those went off in the mail this morning back for repairs. I'll try the system again when the parts come back. In the meantime, it looks like the speedomter is working again. I also purchased a new headlamp to fix a burned out right hi-beam. It turns out the problem wasn't the bulb but a *missing* fuse in the fusebox.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 5, 2008
Okay, it's time to get your wiring spaghetti on. I spent part of last evening (after fixing the speedo) and all of this morning wiring up the Batmon boards. In the process I blew the OVP channel on the IsoBatMon unit. Here I'm crimping yellow 3/8" ring terminals on all the blade fuse holders that will hold the 7.5A fuses. I tried to do as much as I could on a workbench instead of in the cramped quarters of the car. Okay, I've finished wiring up the front set of batteries.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 4, 2008
During the test drive, I noticed that the speedometer wasn't working. It had worked fine before I removed the engine. After researching the Helms manual, I needed to get at the speed-sensor on the transmission to figure out what was going wrong. Fortunately I hadn't yet wired up all the BatMon boards, so removing the firewall batteries to get at the sensor only took a few minutes. Here's the firewall battery rack with two batteries removed to get at the speed sensor on the transmission.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 3, 2008
Whew! I finally got my internet connection back up at home. This is the first of ten entries that will attempt to show many of the tasks I performed over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. First up, we need to beef up the rear suspension to handle the extra 420 pounds of batteries in the trunk. As you may remember, I swapped out the front springs with beefier ones.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 3, 2008
The next step involved preparing all the mounting hardware for the BatMon boards that sit on top of each battery. These boards monitor the voltage on each battery and signal back to the charger or the controller if there is an undervoltage ( The Belktronix kit comes with a bag of tie-wrap mounting pads and instructions to cut the pads in half to hold the BatMon boards to each battery. Here's one BatMon board and its mounting pieces.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 3, 2008
At some point, I guess we have to charge this thing. Most people like to be clever and put the charging outlet under the gas tank cover. I don't like this because it's near the back of the car, away from most charging station outlets at parking spaces. It also requires more routing of wire to get to the charger. Instead, I chose to simply cut a hole in the side of the front bumper and use a charging outlet from a boating store.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 3, 2008
One of the major tasks during construction of an EV is properly crimping all the heavy duty battery cables together. Here's the process that I used. I measured the distance between the terminals that I needed to connect, subtracted 1/2" and then cut a piece of 2/0 gauge welding cable for that distance. Welding cable is much more flexible than typical 2/0 gauge wire, allowing it to snake around various car parts. The picture here shows a piece of cable and a special cable stripping tool.
Open Source Civic EV Kit
DECEMBER 3, 2008
In order to shunt current around each fully charged battery, the BatMon boards use an external 3 ohm resistor. Since mounting these resistors involves drilling holes in metal, I wanted to mount them before mounting the BatMon boards to prevent metal shavings from sprinkling into the electronics. Here are two pictures in the rear trunk showing the drilled holes for the resistor mounting bolts. The BatMon resistors have mounting holes 2" apart that take 10-24 bolts.
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