Well, I'm back to square one again on the tranny. Rennsport Systems kept my transmission for over two months and didn't work on it. I asked the good folks over at 914world.com about the situation and most people suggested that I was waiting far too long and paying far too much for what I was doing. Two folks highly recommended I go out to the Rennsport shop without calling ahead of time and just take the transmission back, just to be sure they didn't start working on it as I drove over.
So that's what I did. Jeff at the shop was gracious enough to give me back the transmission (and the extra-parts tranny) without any questions. They seemed completely stressed out due to the extreme backlog of work, anyway.
I'm in the process of trying to buy a rebuilt tranny from one of the 914world folks, so I hope that pans out. My other option is to have "Dr. Evil" from 914world rebuild a transmission for me for $1500.
My gut feel, not based on any fact, is that a different transmission won't have the same resonant problem as this one does; however, it may come with its own problems. Stay tuned as the saga continues...
Friday, December 21, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Still waiting for the Transmission
Well, it's been over a month since I've posted since the holidays are here and I'm still waiting for the transmission to get back. I talked with a guy at Rennsport Systems last week and he said he'd see what was going on and get back to me. Still haven't heard from him. I'll try again tomorrow.
On a more positive note, Ross Cunniff got his 914 AC kit running recently and Bob has been making progress on his BMW 325i performance EV (see links at right).
I also had a phone interview with a journalist named Kristen that I met at NEDRA who's writing an EV conversion article for the February issue of SportsCarMarket.
In the meantime, I'm helping other folks using the AC kits with the Azure Dynamics controller get their systems working. Best wishes to all the EV conversions in progress.
On a more positive note, Ross Cunniff got his 914 AC kit running recently and Bob has been making progress on his BMW 325i performance EV (see links at right).
I also had a phone interview with a journalist named Kristen that I met at NEDRA who's writing an EV conversion article for the February issue of SportsCarMarket.
In the meantime, I'm helping other folks using the AC kits with the Azure Dynamics controller get their systems working. Best wishes to all the EV conversions in progress.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Hair Dryers Installed
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. This wire provides 12V when activated, just the thing I need to fire up the 12V DC relay.
Here's the travel hair-dryer attached to the heater intake on the passenger side of the car. The coupling is just short enough to let the hairdryer not interfere with the hood spring. The pipe clamps make the whole thing very snug.
Here's the DC relay mounted on the firewall just behind the middle battery box above the foot pedals. I used two 10-32 rivnuts to bolt this thing in. The two hair-dryers are tied into the terminals on the left. The negative battery cable is on the lower right (black wires) and the upper right comes from the positive battery post in the fuel compartment with an inline 10 amp blade fuse.
Remember the yellow/red wire from under the dash in the top picture? It's tied into the top coil terminal on the relay here. Since the chassis of the car is ground, I simply tied the bottom coil terminal to the mounting bolt (small blue wire).
For testing, I started with one hair dryer on the "low" setting with 5-amp fuse. It ran well (albeit loudly) and provided a slight warming into the cockpit. If I put the hairdryer on "high," the 5-amp fuse blows immediately. The hairdryer is very loud on "high" so I put both hair dryers on their "low" settings and used a 10-amp fuse. I suppose in desperate move to heat the cockpit, I could put in a 20-amp fuse and run one hair dryer on "high" since the high setting pulls about 15 amps. I'll try the "low" settings for now and see how it goes.
Next up: experimenting with an optocoupler to capture voltage for the "fuel gauge"
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. This wire provides 12V when activated, just the thing I need to fire up the 12V DC relay.
Here's the travel hair-dryer attached to the heater intake on the passenger side of the car. The coupling is just short enough to let the hairdryer not interfere with the hood spring. The pipe clamps make the whole thing very snug.
Here's the DC relay mounted on the firewall just behind the middle battery box above the foot pedals. I used two 10-32 rivnuts to bolt this thing in. The two hair-dryers are tied into the terminals on the left. The negative battery cable is on the lower right (black wires) and the upper right comes from the positive battery post in the fuel compartment with an inline 10 amp blade fuse.
Remember the yellow/red wire from under the dash in the top picture? It's tied into the top coil terminal on the relay here. Since the chassis of the car is ground, I simply tied the bottom coil terminal to the mounting bolt (small blue wire).
For testing, I started with one hair dryer on the "low" setting with 5-amp fuse. It ran well (albeit loudly) and provided a slight warming into the cockpit. If I put the hairdryer on "high," the 5-amp fuse blows immediately. The hairdryer is very loud on "high" so I put both hair dryers on their "low" settings and used a 10-amp fuse. I suppose in desperate move to heat the cockpit, I could put in a 20-amp fuse and run one hair dryer on "high" since the high setting pulls about 15 amps. I'll try the "low" settings for now and see how it goes.
Next up: experimenting with an optocoupler to capture voltage for the "fuel gauge"
Friday, October 19, 2007
Serial Port and Hood Pin
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. See this post for the prior implementation.
I also took a little time to install the hood pin that I got from Schucks yesterday. Drilling a rectangular hold through the engine compartment lid was very tricky. I covered up most of the rough edges with the plate that comes with the hood pin. At least it's a lot nicer than the block of wood I was using before.
Just for grins, I fitted one of the hair dryers to the passenger side heating duct and plugged into the wall outlet to see how well it would heat the car. It's rather loud, but produces a light stream of warm air. I wouldn't use this to fully heat the car, but it'll probably make a decent defroster.
Here's the finished connector. It's far more reliable than the simple sockets I had soldered to the end of the cable. See this post for the prior implementation.
I also took a little time to install the hood pin that I got from Schucks yesterday. Drilling a rectangular hold through the engine compartment lid was very tricky. I covered up most of the rough edges with the plate that comes with the hood pin. At least it's a lot nicer than the block of wood I was using before.
Just for grins, I fitted one of the hair dryers to the passenger side heating duct and plugged into the wall outlet to see how well it would heat the car. It's rather loud, but produces a light stream of warm air. I wouldn't use this to fully heat the car, but it'll probably make a decent defroster.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Dedicated Charging Outlet and Hairdryer Coupling
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 input. I forgot to bring the relay to the hardware store, so I'll probably get the electrical connectors tomorrow and install the system over the weekend.
I also ordered some of the custom sockets that go inside the 8-pin DMOC connector so that the serial port will be much more of a permanent installation instead of just sort of dangling out of the controller.
Big thanks to Ross Cunniff for pointing out that hood pins are available at the local auto-parts store. I searched high and low for these at the regular hardware store but didn't think to look in the "bling" (ahem, I mean performance) section of the auto store.
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 input. I forgot to bring the relay to the hardware store, so I'll probably get the electrical connectors tomorrow and install the system over the weekend.
I also ordered some of the custom sockets that go inside the 8-pin DMOC connector so that the serial port will be much more of a permanent installation instead of just sort of dangling out of the controller.
Big thanks to Ross Cunniff for pointing out that hood pins are available at the local auto-parts store. I searched high and low for these at the regular hardware store but didn't think to look in the "bling" (ahem, I mean performance) section of the auto store.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Running the AC24 at High RPM - maybe not
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:
http://www.azuredynamics.com/pdf/AC24%202007.pdf
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. Also spinning the input shaft of the transmission above 4500 RPM continuously might wear it out sooner. Oh well, back to bed to recover...
http://www.azuredynamics.com/pdf/AC24%202007.pdf
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. Also spinning the input shaft of the transmission above 4500 RPM continuously might wear it out sooner. Oh well, back to bed to recover...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Initial Fuel Gauge Driver Schematic
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.
(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.
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