Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 30, 2007
GreenOptions blog reports that Mayor RT Rybak of Minneapolis is now driving a plug-in hybrid. His daily drive, a Prius, has been converted. He's also moving the Minnesota city along a solar fast track. He recognizes that plug-in cars, already cleaner than hybrids or ethanol vehicles and cheaper to fuel, can get even cleaner as the electricity gets greener.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 21, 2007
I took a few hours today to get the small hairdryers installed. In order to have a convenient switch to activate the hairdryers, I hijacked the defroster knob switch. I was lucky enough to have this option on my car. The wires from the defroster knob sit in their own plastic tube, so it was easy to find the yellow/red wire going towards the center wiring column of the car under the clutch pedal.
Plug In Partners
OCTOBER 19, 2007
N ot that long ago, the idea that the transportation sector might actually provide energy back into the stationary generation sector was pretty much on the outside of the bell curve of acceptable thinking. Today the VtoG concept is a respectable topic in respectable circles. Here's an example from Spectrum Online : Can plug-in hybrid electric vehicles keep the electric grid stable?
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 30, 2007
Got2BeGreen reports BYD, a large Chinese firm that is jumping into cars, will be showing a plug-in hybrid, the F6DM, at the Detroit Auto Show. According to this report, it will begin selling next year in China for about $20,000. It is said to be using an iron-based battery, which none of the major world auto-makers is considering. The Chinese have nothing to lose breaking new ground in the US market.
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Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 28, 2007
Thomson Financial is reporting that Mitsubishi aims to launch its i-MiEV city electric car one year earlier than expected. Techon blog from Japan gives more details. 16kWh of Lithium betteries. 160 kilometer range. Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Mashiko clearly stated "We will commercialize a small electric vehicle in 2009.". Tags: mitsubishi electric car imiev.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 27, 2007
Required reading: Bill Moore's EVWorld review and Martin Zimmerman's LA Times piece about their test drives of the Toyota Plug-in Prius and the hydrogen fuel cell Highlander FCHV. Paradox 1 - Soot: There's an apparent emissions paradox with plug-in hybrids (PHEV): Driving longer distances on battery power means more cold starts as the internal combustion engine (ICE) stops and starts up again after the batteries deplete.
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Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 26, 2007
NY Times reports: Oil Prices Continue to Rise $91.86 per barrel at Friday's close. A little context: oil at its lowest this year? $50.48 a barrel on January 18, 2007. Tags: oil price per barrel Big Oil.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 24, 2007
Joseph White, Wall St Journal Detroit bureau chief, is writing about electric cars again , this time about the majors. He's in Tokyo reporting from the big Japanese Motor Show. Hybrid or All-Electric? Car Makers Take Sides Nissan-Renault continue talking up small all-electric cars. Toyota and GM are continuing down their differing hybrid paths. Honda, the quintessential internal combustion company, is lobbing criticism at hybrids, a market Toyota exploited better than Honda.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 22, 2007
Popular Mechanics got a look and briefing on Toyota's own plug-in Prius. And they said it couldn't or wouldn't be done. Or it would take Lithium to make it worthwhile. Well, surprise, surprise: "Toyota has the knowledge and experience with nickel metal hydride. And we have to use the battery we know best, in terms of overall performance," said [Yoshitaka] Asakura [Project General Manager of Toyota's Hybrid Vehicle System Engineering Development Division.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 21, 2007
Terry Tamminen, Arnold's green guru, showed up at the Santa Monica AltCar Show in a BMW Hydrogen 7. Mr. "Lives Per Gallon" ought to be ashamed to lend his name to BMW's greenwashing. But of course he's been hydrogen's biggest booster, despite its inefficiencies and impracticalities. You can't beat a free car and free fuel. Especially a super luxury car that switches to gasoline with the flick of a finger.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 19, 2007
Today was a bit slow. I received some AMP pins in the mail that fit the special connectors on the DMOC445 controller. To make the serial port more robust, I crimped the pins onto the ends of the 16-gauge wires and inserted them into the 8-position connector that came with the DMOC. Here's the finished connector. It's far more reliable than the simple sockets I had soldered to the end of the cable.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 19, 2007
Forbes 12:43pm ET: Oil retreats from today's record highs around 90 usd as traders lock profits Bloomberg Crude Oil Falls From Record on Signs U.S. Supplies Are Adequate Associated Press Oil Futures Retreat From $90 Record CNN Money Oil retreats from $90, but gas keeps climbing. Tags: petroleum Big Oil.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 16, 2007
After sleeping for 14 hours last night, I think I'm somewhat recovered from that nasty cold. I dropped by Parkrose hardware after work and picked up some stuff to install in the EV. Since I have a gas range, I replaced the 240V breaker for the non-existant electric range with a 20-amp 120V breaker dedicated to charging the 914 EV. I purchased two small travel hair dryers over the weekend and found some plumbing couplings that seem to fit quite well on both the hair-dryer and the heating system i
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 16, 2007
Back in May Tesla announced it would be selling batteries to Th!nk Global for its revived City electric car. Seemed a great synergy at the time. Now CNet is reporting that Tesla won't be supplying Th!nk with batteries after all. Tesla Energy Group is on hold, while TeslaMotors concentrates on getting the delayed Roadster produced. Th!nk Global has therefore had to to look elsewhere for batteries.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 15, 2007
I'm still big-time sick today, but recovering quickly. In my efforts to understand the torque of the AC24 motor a bit more, I looked at the datasheet online at Azure Dynamics: [link] Hmm, it looks like the optimal operating point is really around 4500 RPM and torque drops off quite a bit at higher revs than that. In my frenzy to go on the freeway in first gear, I didn't really look at the operating characteristics of the motor.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 14, 2007
Joseph B White, Wall Street Journal's Detroit bureau chief, takes Tesla seriously and respectfully. His column in Monday's WSJ Online explains what's going on with the Silicon Valley automotive startup so many hope will push electric to the fore. Other than one stupid paragraph about the EV1 and RAV4 EV that repeats the conventional received wisdom on why we have no plug-in choices - "GM EV1 and the electric Toyota RAV4 struck mainstream customers as geeky, slow and impractical" (really?
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 12, 2007
The major project of the day was finishing the rain gutter under the engine compartment lid. The original gutter was too deep and interfered with the rear battery box. As described in a previous post, I purchased a piece of ABS plastic from TAP plastics and bent the edges to make a rain catch. Here's the plastic that I bent a few weeks ago. ABS plastic has the nasty property of deteriorating quickly in sunlight, so I spray painted it with three coats of Krylon black satin paint to protect the pl
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 12, 2007
I had a bit more time today to work on some other small projects. Here's the 914 patiently waiting for its rebuilt transmission from Rennsport Systems. It'll be awhile since Rennsport won't start on the rebuild until November. Up until this point, the serial cable from the DMOC445 AC controller to the passenger seat was routed along the outside of the car.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 13, 2007
Since I'm stuck indoors today to recover from a sore throat, I put together the following schematic to drive the fuel gauge based on the pack voltage. (Click to enlarge the image) With the exception of the 4N25 opto-isolator, which I salvaged from a dead UPS, all parts are available at Radio Shack. I hope to implement this soon. Comments and feedback are welcome.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 11, 2007
I've long heard rumors of Chinese auto makers developing an electric car. It makes lots of sense, given Chinese battery production. Now Autobloggreen has a report out of China involving BYD. I recalled hearing in 2005 that BYD acquired a license from Ovonics to manufacture NiMH batteries. But I was disappointed if not surprised when it was stated clearly in the press that they were acquiring "the nonexclusive right to manufacture, use and sell Ovonic Battery's proprietary NiMH technology-based b
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 10, 2007
Another auto maker is suggesting the future is with electric cars. CNet is reporting Subaru will be showing an electric car prototype at the Tokyo Auto Show later this month. Unlike many electric prototypes - Nissan's Pivo comes to mind - the G4e looks like it could appear in showrooms today. Story includes a photo and gives some stats: Lithium batteries, 125 mile range, but no word on whether it's actually to go into production.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 10, 2007
After receiving admonishment from two mechanics about driving around with a resonant frequency, I dropped the transmission out of the 914 and gave it to the experts at Rennsport Systems this morning for a precision overhaul. This is the fourth time dropping the motor/tranny, so I was able to do the whole process in less than an hour. Giving up the tranny was an ego battle for me because I had spent so much time rebuilding the transmission in the first place.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 8, 2007
I started commuting to work again today. I think the transmission is making slightly more noise than before but otherwise the car is fine. The RPMs are limited to 5300 RPM, so I won't have any resonant activity. I'm really happy that the tachometer is hooked up. It really helps me keep tabs on what happens to the motor/transmission at different speeds under different driving loads.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 9, 2007
Business Green Blog in the UK reports on a plan to install 250 EV charging stations in England. Elektromotive is making a sleek charge point with a tiny footprint. CNNMoney reports on a cooperative effort of Aerovironment , AltairNano and two European partners demonstrating fast charging on a converted full size 5 passenger Fiat Doblo in Norway. It's no coincidence these reports are out of England and Norway.
Plug In Partners
OCTOBER 8, 2007
M omentum for a Plug in Future continues. First, there is this story from Volkswagon. Apparently, VW is set to unveil an Up!-based minivan in Tokyo, followed by a plug-in hybrid sedan at Los Angeles. Since the goal of the Up ! concept unveiled in Frankfurt is to give VW a low-cost, rear engine, affordable vehicle, both the minivan and plug-in hybrid should carry a meager price tag if they come to production.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 6, 2007
Well, the car is all back together again. I really can't say it's any better than before; however, I've learned a tremendous amount in the process. After balancing the flywheel twice, adding rubber grommets, replacing the transmission mounts and putting in a new pilot bearing in, I still can't get the vibrations to go away or diminish much. Given that the second transmission didn't vibrate much at all, even over 7000 RPM, I'm really suspecting the existing transmission has a bent shaft in it or
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 5, 2007
Last week Craig at Camp914 offered to lend me another transmission to see if I had vibrational issues. I drove out to Camp914 this morning. I wish to express much gratitude to Craig for letting me borrow this spare tranny. Since it's an older tail-shifter and many of the external pieces are missing, he even gave it to me. Here's my test setup again.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 6, 2007
After receiving an updated.css file (ccShell config file) from Azure Dynamics for the DMOC445, I was able to access the EE1SpeedoDiv variable. After setting this to a non-zero value, I attached a scope to pin 25 of the main DMOC connector and (yay!) got a pulse train corresponding to the RPM of the motor. Here's the pulse train on the oscilloscope. It has a 50% duty cycle and swings the full 12V range.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 6, 2007
I purchased a new pilot bearing for the flywheel to see if replacing it would help with the rattles. Flywheel - it's what's for dinner! I've found during my transmission rebuild that heating up components in the oven (200 F) sometimes helps with removing the bearings, so I heated up the flywheel prior to replacing the pilot bearing. I also put the new pilot bearing in the freezer to make it smaller.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 6, 2007
"Automakers get it this time, calling for up to a 40% increase to 35 mpg by 2022, the first increase since 1985. In a business where product plans are set six, eight and even 10 years in advance, 2022 is closer than it would appear." - Irv Miller, V.P., Toyota, in Open Road Blog , the official Blog of Toyota responding to NY Times Columnist Thomas Friedman's Et Tu, Toyota?
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 4, 2007
Puregreencars.com reports Renault's (and Nissan's) Carlos Ghosn sees electric city cars in their future. Three to four years away, apparently. Seems like further confirmation of my previous Nissan post (cnet), and the rumors of a renewed interest by European automakers in electric city cars. The question for us in the USA is whether plans will include cars that meet the peculiar and unique legal requirements which limit the availability of many more fuel-efficient, interesting vehicles.
Porsche 914 EV Conversion
OCTOBER 1, 2007
After spending most of yesterday researching machine resonance, I chatted with one of the mechanical engineers at work today about the resonance problem. After drawing a picture of the motor/transmission assembly, it became rather obvious to both of us that we have the equivalent of a vibrating violin string. The motor/transmission is attached to the car somewhat rigidly at both ends.
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 2, 2007
VW's announced "Up Concept" city cars could have a Plug-in Hybrid version. Autoblog and Left Lane News are reporting VW will be showing a PHEV UP at the LA Auto Show. Small enough to be labeled "tiny" in DailyTech.com 's headline. Only 18 inches longer and one inch wider than my beloved 53 mile range Th!nk City that Ford confiscated in 2004. Sure would make a sweet all-electric city car!
Plugs and Cars
OCTOBER 16, 2007
NY Times reports Record Price of Oil Raises New Fears.
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