Battery day is 2/23 or 2/24

Called EV components today, and they reported the lithium cell shipment shows up 2/22, which means after their sorting I can pick them up in Lacey either 2/23 or 2/24. Awesome.

Lexan battery box lids installed

The lexan clear battery box lids, machined to my specs, arrived this afternoon. Isn't it a bit ironic that some of the cooler things in my EV are those things that you really can't see? They will ooze coolness by what they allow the viewer to see - the lithium cell monitoring LEDs (each cell monitor will have a red and green LED, which are lit or not depending on cell state).

Here is a picture of the front battery box...
What - can't see it? Here is another...

Either the lamp is levitating, or there is a lexan lid - you be the judge!
Here is a picture of the rear battery box with the lid on...
A little easier to see this one with the reflection!

DC/DC converter is almost done. Almost time to buy a real car battery for the aux electronics. That's another thing - the last design only allowed room for a small motorcycle battery for the electronics, which stressed under load. This design actually has one of the former traction pack spots in the front reserved for a proper group 34 car battery - so no potential for 'brown outs' in the LV circuit going forward.

Getting antsy - where are my lithiums?!

Zilla subassembly back in

I spent tonight finishing the rewiring on the Zilla assembly so that the shunt is now on the battery (-) side of the motor controller. This is necessary because the new TBS monitoring gauge I am installing in the dash will perform a real-time calculation on the energy left in the traction pack, and it needs battery current as one of the input variables (others are traction pack voltage and aux 12v).

The rest of the cabling to the Zilla, the contactor and the shunt has been reconnected, and the subassembly has been rebolted to the car wall. No pictures here, it looks pretty much the way it did before, with the exception that some of the cabling has moved around.

One note - I was informed that my clear lexan battery box lids are in the mail. All I need now are the DC/DC converter from Belktronix (soon) and the batteries themselves to finish up!

I was informed by evcomponents.com that the ship carrying my lithium cells has left China, so I guess we'll see them in a couple of weeks.

New cooling reservoir & front battery box

I have completed the assembly of the ABS sheets into a solid plastic box for the lithium cells in the front, and the box fits into the steel frame like a glove. Here is a picture:
The clear lexan lid isn't here yet, so I am working out where the cable in holes and fuse block mounts should be. Also, the new Zilla cooling reservoir, possessing a mammoth 2.5 gallon capacity, has been installed as well. Here's another pic:


I had the reservoir custom-made by a vendor that makes plastic fuel tanks. The 'customization' is that this tank has welded 3/8" ribbed fittings on both ends, for flow and cooling of the liquid coming from the motor controller. Note that the tank is now positioned in the direct airflow of the front grill, which should help in overall cooling. I used modified ratchet-down straps for the tank - looks a little temporary, but they do a nice job - very solid. If I find ratchet hold-downs that are a little more permanent, I might replace them.

Note also the fluid pump sitting nearby. That will be put in series with the tank, and will be held down by super-strong double-stick tape pads.

One week to February, which means batteries are almost here!!

Building a box!

So, as you can see from the diagrams, I have a need for a battery box in the front where I had none before - the lithium batteries are considerably smaller than the original lead acid blocks, and thus require some structural support. The rear battery box will work fine, but the front only had hold-down steel frames.

So I need to build a box.

I decided on the same material as the rear battery box (1/4" ABS plastic), because it is strong, non-conductive, and easy to work with. My cut sheets of ABS arrived yesterday in the mail, and this weekend I will be chemically welding the pieces together. Pics soon.

Another thing... since each cell will be equipped with an active monitoring/balancing circuit on top that provides visual feedback in the form of red and green LEDs, I wanted to make another improvement - clear lexan lids for both battery boxes, to be able to see the cell lights easily. My lexan lids will be arriving in the next week or two.

I am itching to get that email stating my batteries have arrived!!

Countdown to lithium battery arrival...

The SE100AHAs arrive in February. In preparation, I have been getting the rest of the car hardware ready, and creating diagrams for how this is all going to come together. Here is the front pack:

and here is the rear pack:The red/black interconnects will be copper straps provided by the battery supplier (EV components) along with the fittings. The orange interconnects are most likely 2 AWG gauge welding cable interconnects for those odd corners and end connectors.

The custom controller cooling tank I designed also arrived. It is a 2.5 gallon reservoir (much larger than the original Zilla radiator), and has custom fittings to allow connection of the aquarium pump and hose. I also have marine lock-down straps for both the tank and the larger 12V auxiliary battery that I will be ordering soon.

Counting the days!

While I'm at it...

I just sold my 16 US125XCs last night. They'll have a good home, in another EV conversion up in Vancouver, BC! So now I work on Electro, waiting quite literally for my lithium battery ship to come in.

Since the batteries are out, I am taking the opportunity to improve a number of systems in Electro, such as better battery instrumentation (a fuel gauge device), some more appropriate HV fuses, and finally reinstalling the venting/heater/defrost system, this time as electric!

I kept the heater/AC core from the original cabby, and tonight started pulling it apart. I got the condenser out (or is it evaporator?), and the heater core itself out of the big box. The heater core is like a small radiator inside the car that is responsible for transferring engine heat to the passenger compartment. Mine is tiny - about 10"x6"x2" - and I believe I can replace the original antifreeze-carrying one with a ceramic heater element for a reasonable price. Pics soon!