With almost 3000 miles of cheap, reliable operation, I think it's time to move on to something that will help more people do their own conversions. I really appreciated the high-quality parts and detailed instructions provided by Electro Automotive with their 914 kit. I would like to see the same thing done for a more modern, practical vehicle for much less cost.
You probably won't see much more activity on this blog in the upcoming months as I focus on developing an open-source EV kit for a '92-'95 Honda Civic. I invite you to come along for the ride over at civic-ev.blogspot.com
Thanks to everyone who has offered their support and knowledge during the 914 conversion. I hope this blog has helped many people convert their own 914s and save them time.
Cheers,
Tim
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Going back to CAMP914
Yesterday was fun. I drove the electric 914 back out to Camp914 where I originally purchased the car and drove it away as a gasoline vehicle. Craig was happy to see me and took several pictures. Since the round-trip drive was 44 miles and included several long hills, I charged up for an hour out at camp just to give myself a bit of breathing room. Overall, the car handled the freeway and hills well.
Here's the 914EV charging up at Camp914.
Camp 914 is a fun place with many 914s as well as other Porsches and classic cars.
On a slightly more frustrating note, the LED flasher still isn't behaving the way I like it to, so I took it apart again to see if I could adjust the resistor values. I tested the unit by hooking it up to a 12V SLA battery and applying varying resistances to the output terminal to simulate different light-bulb loads. In my haste, I tried to unsolder a resistor while the battery was still attached and I fried the circuitry (oops!). I guess experience varies proportionately with equipment ruined. I ordered another flasher and put the original one back in the car along with two incandescent bulbs to give it enough load to operate.
I've mentioned before that I'm working on an open-source EV kit. Today I drove out to the U-Pull-It wrecking center and took a bunch of pictures of '92-'95 Honda Civics to see how I could design battery racks for them. The 914ev blog might be winding down as I put more time and energy into the open-source project with its own blog. I'll keep y'all posted as this gets going.
Cheers,
Tim
Here's the 914EV charging up at Camp914.
Camp 914 is a fun place with many 914s as well as other Porsches and classic cars.
On a slightly more frustrating note, the LED flasher still isn't behaving the way I like it to, so I took it apart again to see if I could adjust the resistor values. I tested the unit by hooking it up to a 12V SLA battery and applying varying resistances to the output terminal to simulate different light-bulb loads. In my haste, I tried to unsolder a resistor while the battery was still attached and I fried the circuitry (oops!). I guess experience varies proportionately with equipment ruined. I ordered another flasher and put the original one back in the car along with two incandescent bulbs to give it enough load to operate.
I've mentioned before that I'm working on an open-source EV kit. Today I drove out to the U-Pull-It wrecking center and took a bunch of pictures of '92-'95 Honda Civics to see how I could design battery racks for them. The 914ev blog might be winding down as I put more time and energy into the open-source project with its own blog. I'll keep y'all posted as this gets going.
Cheers,
Tim
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