Electric Car High School Class?

For some time, I have been thinking that it would be great to have a high-school class in electric car construction.

When I was in high school, algebra and other requirements were not my favorite thing. It seemed like most of my classes weren’t things that would be useful in life. Certainly they were not anything to get excited about in the morning.

What I did enjoy were art classes and the few shop classes that I got to take. Here was some real actually DOING something instead of memorizing dates or conjugating verbs.

Now imagine high school students today. They may not have any classes they get excited about either. Drop-outs are far too frequent. Manufacturing jobs are all now overseas, but we are told that the “Green Economy” is going to provide the jobs of the future.

What if there was a class in electric car construction? Students would learn by doing. Those who excel with the mechanical would enjoy the “hands-on” aspect. Those who love theory and electronics would be needed as well. The artistic could do the paint job. Of course schools don’t have budgets for projects like this, so maybe the more social students could do fund-raising bake sales and car washes.

When done, every student in that class would have a project that would make them proud. That would keep them in school. That would be amazing on any job application or resume.

Imagine a high school sophomore who helps build an electric car, and the first car he ever gets to drive IN HIS LIFE is electric!

How do we set up a class like this? I have no idea. I am not a teacher, not an administrator, and no part of the school system. I am clueless as to how to start something like this. But maybe you know how. Perhaps you at least have some advice or ideas. If you do, please comment below.

One path, similar to my idea is the ELECTRATHON. Electrathon is a high school extra-curricular competition where students design, build, and compete electric go-carts. The competition includes an endurance race and competitive, creative presentations of the vehicles to a panel of judges.

Last summer, I was able to help out an Electrathon team, by loaning them an ammeter from my Electro-Metro. Theirs broke shortly before the big race and needed one for last-minute testing. The students were bright and had a variety of skills for working on the vehicles. While having a well-equiped machine shop at the school helped, it’s really the students attitude and creativity that can make projects like this happen.

Electrathon Team members move their car to a workbench

So how about it? A few of us tinkers work in our garages on eco-friendly vehicles, but how can we get students excited about school and train them in skills that could be useful in the future?

Let me know, your input is very important.

Thanks,

Ben

Once again, we have learned that I am good at breaking things. In fact, I usually learn best when something ends up broken. That way, I know not to do it again. This time, I managed to fry the logic board in the Open ReVolt "Cougar" Controller. It all stems from hooking up a tablet computer to the controller to use for reprogramming and data-logging. I got the tablet computer for free, but it doesn't have a battery. Instead, it needs to run from 12V DC to a 12 to 20VDC converter, and into the computer. I didn't realize that the RS232 port has so much grounding in it, and I somehow managed to push over 20 volts to the ReVolt 12V in. The other night, I got to stop over at Tom's house (for Robot Night) and I pulled out the multimeter and soldering iron to figure out exactly what parts I broke. We tracked down that R1 and D2 were both smoked. R1 was easy to replace, and the controller can work fine without D2, as long as you have a known good voltage going to the controller. Further bench testing showed that the ATMEGA chip was either fried or had a bad case of amnesia. Fortunately, I had a spare one of those from when I did a software update a while back. UNfortunately, replacing the ATMEGA chip did NOT make the controller work properly again, although it does seem to prove that everything on the POWER board works fine, it's just the LOGIC board that's all messed up. The 12V DC/DC converter tested out OK, as did the doo-hickey that converts 12v to 5v. However one or two other 5v components may be bad, and I have no really good way to test them. Paul Holmes offered to help me out by mailing me some spare parts, and possibly even soldering up a fresh logic board. So, my car isn't running right now, but I sure am learning a lot by poking at electronics with multimeters! Another thing I learned about the Open ReVolt controller that I thought is kinda cool is that it's much easier to bench-test than, say, a Curtis controller. For example, a Curtis controller usually has come sort of voltage range, like 48-72V. That means you need at least 4 batteries just to power the thing up (if you, like me, do NOT have an adjustable bench power supply.) You then need 4 12V light bulbs, or a spare motor, or something similar to use as a test load. It starts to be quite a setup. On the other hand, the ReVolt only requires a 12V battery for logic power, and almost any voltage you want for the power section. The test load can be a single 12V light. All I needed for bench testing was a 12V battery and lightbulb, a few jumpers, and a pot. That's it! Even I can handle that. More next time, once I get this thing on the road again. -Ben

My Grandmother: The EV Queen

My grandmother was in town visiting this last week. While I missed the family dinner with her (as my mother picked a date out of the blue WITHOUT asking people IF they were available first) I was able to visit her by myself a few days ago. I brought some slides and photographs that I had converted for her, and that got her talking about old times. What I hadn't realized, is that my grandmother is the undisputed Queen of EV's. My grandparents lived in Wisconsin, but after retirement, started spending winters in Arizona. Where they lived, many people used golf carts to zip around the retirement community, and travel to the local grocery store and other places for other near-by needs. Since my grandfather passed away, my grandmother started living full-time in Arizona. She told me that the first time they went to Arizona - in 1986 - they bought a 36V, 1956 model electric golf cart. She didn't disclose the price, and I forgot to ask what brand it is, but both Marketeer and Cushman had both just started producing electric golf carts only a few years before that. Now here's where it gets good. In the conversation, she mentioned "It's not like golf-carts are free to run. I finally just had to replace the batteries." I asked how many times before she had done that. "Never, this is the first time I've done that since buying it." That's right. My grandmother bought a 30-year old golf cart, over 20 years ago, and has only replaced the batteries once.......at a cost of $300. They must have a senior discount down there. Last I checked, golf-cart batteries typically run over $100 each!!!! 82 years old - double hip and knee replacement - sharp as a tack - and still drives herself to the grocery store - in her 50 year old electric car. Hope I am doing as well in 50 years. -Ben

WINTER EV TIPS

Most hypermiles, ecomodders, and fuel-economy fans are familiar with using a block heater to improve fuel economy in a gasoline vehicle. However, drivers of electric vehicles should also know that warming your batteries in the winter can give greatly improved EV performance.

In general, my cheap-o electric car (running on used batteries) has had a range of about 20 miles in the summer, but could be as low at TEN miles in the winter!

While there is snow, increased rolling resistance, thicker transmission fluid, etc in the winter, the MAIN difference is battery temperature.

Many battery types just can't give out as much power when they are cold. A simple example of that is trying to start a gas car on a cold winter day. The starter (powered by the battery) just doesn't crank as fast and hard.

So, to keep our cold-climate EVs in top notch performance for the winter, here's a few things to try:

USE YOUR GARAGE:
If you have a garage, use it! Even though my garage is not attached to the house, isn't heated or insulated, it still keeps the wind, rain, and snow off the car. What little heat is in the car gets retained a bit better. If you have a heated garage, that's probably the ultimate way to get better winter EV performance.

OTHER SHELTER:
If you don't have a garage, at least try to park out of wind, perhaps next to a tree, which in real-world testing have been shown to act as heat storage and help prevent frost formation on the car's windows. (But watch out for pine sap!)

INSULATE YOUR BATTERIES:
Batteries will be much happier if they are wrapped in a cozy blanket. If batteries are exposed to the outside world (such as under the hood) heat can also be lost to wind. Any insulation should be water-resistant and non-conductive - using foil-faced foam is a bad idea - but using pink builder's foam works great.

WARM YOUR BATTERIES:
Find some way to get a little heat into your batteries. The best way is with something in direct contact with the batteries, either under them, or on the sides. It will need to have some sort of automatic temperature control, to prevent overheating.

Waterbed mattress heaters, electric blankets, and water-pipe freeze prevention tape all have automatic temperature controls, and can easily be repurposed to warm batteries. Make sure to not set batteries directly on heating elements. Many heaters can be easily wrecked that way.

IF YOU ARE HAPPY, YOUR BATTERIES ARE HAPPY:
While I don't mind wearing a heavy coat, hat, and gloves in the winter, it is nice to be just a bit cozier than that in my car. Last winter, I experimented with an oil-filled electric radiator space heater. I simply put it in the car (behind the passenger seat) and ran an extension cord out the window. That was plugged into a timer going to the wall. The heater came on automatically in the morning, and heated the inside of the car for about 45 minutes before I left for work. I would unplug the heater, and drive off. The heater would stay warm for about 10 minutes after that. (In my gas car, it takes 10 minutes for the engine to warm up in the winter!)
The unexpected side effect of warming the inside of the car, was that it also warmed the batteries! By trying to make myself more comfortable, I also improved the range of my battery pack!

CHARGING = HEAT:
Another trick is based on the fact that running electricity through the batteries (either discharging OR charging) warms the batteries.
Set the car's charger up on a timer so that the charge is just finishing up when you will next use the car. The batteries will be a little warmer than they would be if they simply sat charged all night. Also, opportunity charge any chance you get. Even short charges can increase your range more from the heat than from the electricity to the batteries.

I hope these tips help keep your car happy and healthy this winter! If you have any other winter electric car tips, please post them below!

THE SPARKSTER! Homebuilt EV Motorcycle.

A while back, I gave some advice to Mike, on how to rig up his electric motorcycle project.

He decided to build an electric motorcycle after seeing what I had done.


(The Sparkster, (foreground) and the inspiration for it, my EV KZ440. (background))

Today, I was rounding up EVs to show off at a local energy fair, and E-Bike Mike showed up with his converted Harley Sportster, the "Sparkster".

The cycle is running at 60V with an Alltrax AXE controller (72V max), and off-board charging. Mike has a motorcycle buddy who is good with the welder and paint sprayer, so the finish on the bike it top notch!

The chain noise is a little louder than on my cycle, but the chain is about twice as big as well!
I had never ridden a hard-tail before (ouch!), but other than that, it rides really well, with a real low center of gravity and good acceleration.




(Mike, far right, green cap, shows off his cycle.)

See all the photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4203459...7622565028224/


PS - I also just realized why the cycle is a hard-tail. Look where the motor is mounted. It's directly under the seat. As the real swing arm would move, it would change the chain length. One way to solve the problem is to hard-mount the rear wheel. By having the motor right under the seat, it frees up space for more batteries in the original engine area of the cycle. This means more batteries and a lower center of gravity.

It's already been a week since my last post on this blog.

One one week, it seems I have done everything, and nothing.

Although we have had a few days of sunlight lately, we are still in the grip of winter, with all of it's energy-sapping short days, and finger-numbing cold.

This keeps me indoors and not nearly as active in my projects.

A couple of things of note though.

On the bio-diesel frontier, I located BOOKS! That's right, through Craigslist I was able to obtain three different books on the old Mercedes diesels, including one gigantic mechanics manual of late 70's imports, which is over a thousand pages long!

I now have all the technical information, sizes, and measurements I need about my 4-cylinder Mercedes Diesel.

Later in the week, I was able to find two internet forum threads on people who have put 4-cylinder Mercedes diesels into trucks. Both were 4x4s, and really had to squeeze the 5-cylinder in there. I am now starting to feel that the more compact 4-cylinder is the right choice for my application.

On the one thread, the builder kept the original Mercedes automatic transmission, and modified it to the truck. The other builder created a custom adapter plate to mate his truck's original manual transmission to the diesel engine.

This is great in that I now have insight into BOTH of the two different ways I was looking at for the diesel install.

I also got an e-mail from a local eco-friend. The said she had a barrel I could have for my bio-diesel use, but was out of town for the rest of the week. I called her on Saturday, and was able to meet her husband and pick up the barrel.

This is something they have had in their back shed since using it to stockpile gasoline in the 70's oil crisis. Well, this barrel is going to have new life, serving its original purpose, helping plan ahead for our energy needs.

I also heard good news from Rob, one of the two guys I know who is really going all out for bio-diesel. He has located a small, but steady source of used vegetable oil for conversion to bio-diesel.

He is also at the heart of a "Community Supported Energy" project, which has ambitious goals for local, renewable energy production. As part of that, they have decided that bio-diesel production is one of the prioritites.

If you haven't seen Rob's Blog, you really should check it out. He is a fountain of knowledge about gardenening, energy, and a lot more. Especially note his Jan 25th, 2009 entry in regards to energy production and bio-diesel.
http://onestraw.wordpress.com/

Also, I have been continuing to help others on their electric vehicle projects, including Tom's Neon EV project, and Swee's electric (and eventually bio-diesel-hybrid) trike.

Not only are these electric car get-togethers great for getting the work done, but they are also great events for like-minded folks to talk tech, throw out ideas, and get their dreams out there.

I did notice that one of the members went out to start working on his Electric Riding Lawn Mower conversion after being jump-started by working on other people's EVs.

Good works seem to be contagious.

Oh No!!!

Nov 18, 2008:

I think I broke my Geo Metro's coupler!!!

Was driving to the grocery store, heard mechanical noise - POP - motor didn't spin the transmission any more.

Cold and dark out. Won't know for sure until morning. Good thing I have that towing setup installed.....

Nov. 19, 2008:

Yep - It's the coupler...
I picked up the car with the S10 and tow bar.

I am getting better at hitching it up that way now.

Once I had the car home, I jacked it up and took a look through the coupler access port on the bottom of the transmission.

It looks like the two halves of the lovejoy coupler have been constantly wearing against each other, ever since installation. I also think the rubber spider was never in there quite right. I installed the motor to the transmission from under the car, by myself, struggling with it the whole way.

The transmission half of the coupler also was forced back to the sleeve covering of the transmission shaft. I think that is superficial damage, but won't know until I take everything apart.

When I fix and re-install this, I am planning on doing the combined motor and transmission, attached to each other, and install them into the car from below.

In this way, the alignment of the motor to the transmission can be checked and made perfect - BEFORE - I put it in the car.

I'll make sure to DO IT RIGHT the second time!

See more photos here:
Coupler Photos