Thursday, February 4, 2010

Mounting the PakTrakr

It's time to mount the PakTrakr on the dashboard.


Since I have a low-end model Civic, there are several unused accessory plates that I can tap into. Here's one that I popped out just to the left of the steering wheel. I drilled holes in the pop-out plate to match the mounting threads on the PakTrakr as well as a 1" hole to thread the wires through.


After taking off two nuts on the back of the PakTrakr, I decided to disassemble the whole thing just to see what was inside.


Here's the PakTrakr threaded through the pop-out plate with the nuts holding it on.


Finally, the PakTrakr is installed where I can see it reasonably while driving. Most of my information will come from the Link-10 E-meter, but if I want to see any bad batteries, the PakTrakr should display those.

I've routed the signal cable to the PakTrakr. I also routed the serial output cable with a serial extender and a serial to USB adapter around to the passenger side so I can plug my laptop into the Synkromotive controller and PakTrakr at the same time with USB ports. The car is looking much better than it did awhile ago.

One thing I haven't done with the Lifeline traction batteries is to run a conditioning charge on them. Yesterday I ordered a 0-30V 6 amp power supply so I can run a higher voltage charge on each individual battery. Perhaps that will help them regain some of their life.

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