Greenflight EV

2011-05-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, just wanted to point everyone over to my new site at spingarage.com. Things are really exciting, I have a product coming out imminently which I am totally psyched about so check it out!

2011-04-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a while! Lots has happened over the last couple of years. I've been working hard behind the scenes, and it's finally coming to fruition. Maybe some of you still check in every now and then. I just thought I should let you guys know what's new.

Here goes... *drum roll please*

I am now the proud founder of spingarage LLC! I started this company in January to develop an integrated electric vehicle drive system, and so far there are lots of good things in the works. I really feel like some of the ideas going into this are huge. I've been working mostly on brushless motors and controllers, and my first product is going to be right along those lines- a development board to help people like me build brushless motor controllers (I've been calling it project kickass, for those who might end up seeing that on my Twitter). Some things never change, huh? Looking at my older posts this is just two phases away from what I was up to two years ago (nerdy three phase joke, sorry)!

Anyway- needless to say, this blog hasn't been getting much of my attention lately, what with the 12-13 hour workdays that come with starting a company. You can keep a little bit more up to speed on my company by liking Spingarage LLC on Facebook (it actually isn't capitalized, but Facebook wouldn't let me get away with that) and by following @spingarage on Twitter. There will be a website up soon, too.

As a few of you will no doubt put together eventually, I'm not at Purdue anymore. I finally had an idea that was just too big to pass up, and decided it was time to move on with my life and do bigger things. With three years of Purdue engineering behind me, I think I'm a lot better equipped to do what I do, and I've definitely grown a lot as a person in my time there.

While I'm on here, I really want to say thanks to all of you who have supported me on my journey to where I am now. It's been a blast, and I'm looking forward to more of the same over the next few years as I continue to follow my inspirations with my company. You guys are the ones who gave me the confidence and enthusiasm to do everything I did when I was younger (albeit not that much younger...), and definitely paved the way for everything I hope to do in the future. Thanks, everyone!

2009-02-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

Despite the recent snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, I have managed to stay relatively productive. The most recent developments (as of last night) are a little more progress on my motor controller design. So far, I've completed the isolation circuit for the IGBT driver. I'm using an optocoupler between my PIC's output and then input of my driver IC, and a 5v to 15v isolated DC/DC converter to power it. I'm using a resistor to return the driver to a logical low after the PWM pulse from the optocoupler. All things considered, I'm pretty proud of the circuit. It allows for full isolation (a few kv, need to review the datasheets to be sure) between the high voltage and low voltage systems, while still requiring only one low voltage input and without tapping the high voltage to power the driver circuitry. This keeps the parts count minimal (6 ICs including voltage regulators and stuff) and the price down. The most expensive part on the driver board cost me $8.

Right now I'm trying to come up with an internal precharge circuit. I want to avoid a high voltage tap across the contactor if at all possible. Right now what I have in mind is a circuit that disconnects the caps from the high voltage while the contactor closes, and then reconnects them through a MOSFET or IGBT once it's juiced. That way, the solid-state part of the circuit would take the brunt of the charge current and minimize arcing. Still working out the details.

After that's all taken care of, I'll be working on designing the PCB. I'm hoping to have only one board for the whole controller. This should be possible if I use the same board (with adequate gaps for isolation, of course) for the high voltage cap circuit as well as the low voltage driver circuit. If I do this right, I'm pretty sure I'll only need one internal connection outside of the PCB- the one that goes to the gate of the IGBT. This means less opportunity for failure, more vibration resistance, etc.

Anyway, I'll be doing my best to get this thing ready to test while I'm home over spring break in about 3 weeks, so I'll be staying busy. Stay tuned!

2009-02-10T13:27:00.002-08:00

So, above we have a picture of my home built controller project in its current state, along with a couple other staples of college life that are continuously inhabiting my desk. Might not look like much right now, but it's actually quite a step forward. I've got it up to the point where it's able to power my 600A IGBT. Granted, it's currently running a motor I pulled out of a VCR that was in the trash behind one of the frats, but it should, in theory, be able to take quite a bit of juice. All that's really left are a couple little programming tweaks, some, uhh, minor wiring upgrades, etc. and it'll be ready to drop into a car. I've got a monster heat sink taking up the other side of the desk, and a few 2200 uF caps are on the way as I type. I've also got a few isolation issues I have to take care of. The logic input to the gate driver will be isolated with an optocoupler, and I'm currently searching for an isolated DC/DC converter to provide power to the "dark side."

Oddly enough, this is actually really exciting for me. I've been working on and off on a home made controller for a good long time now, probably a little over a year, and I finally have enough knowledge that I can probably make one work reliably. Since I've used a surplus IGBT and mostly inexpensive electronic components, the cost for this thing should come in well under $200- quite a bit better than the $1800 or so you might find yourself spending on a Curtis. Of course, that doesn't include the two programmers I've gone through in the process of learning to program, or the mini laptop I ended up buying because it was the cheapest thing I could find with Windows XP, or the several dozen chips I've fried for various inane reasons, but it's still worth it.

Anyway- stay tuned, more developments soon!

2009-01-19T11:38:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks! Those of you that have been paying attention despite my constant attempts at boring you to death may have noticed that I've been 17 for roughly a year. This train of thought would eventually lead to the conclusion that I'd have to turn 18 sometime soon. Rather than keep you all wondering, I might as well just admit it: I'm finally 18!

In addition to me just wanting to brag about having survived another trip around the sun, I might as well bring everybody up to date. College has, oddly enough, been time-consuming! Nevertheless, I've managed to get a little work done on EV-related projects every now and then. I've been doing quite a bit of electronics work, and have succeeded in getting a few gadgets up and running with varying degrees of success. I've built a few motor controllers of various types on the small scale, digital voltage gauges, and a few other non-ev-related items that I am equally unrightfully proud of- digital clocks, stepper motor controllers, that kind of thing.

Anyway, right now my main focus is on the motor controller side of things. Mainly, I'm working on scaling up a motor controller that can handle 6A to something that can handle 600A. I'm probably going to be building either a single- or double- IGBT controller, to save space and boost efficiency. The main goals of the project are to keep size, weight, and of course, cost to a minimum while maintaining capabilities suitable for road-going vehicles.

One of the coolest things about a project like this is that it allows you to do something about everything you didn't like about the production stuff you used before. For instance, the throttle sensors used by most modern controllers really suck. Even my Raptor, which is supposed to have auto-sensing capabilities for throttle positions, requires a lot of tinkering to get it working to its full potential. My controller will have a programming mode that requires some setup beforehand, but can be calibrated to just about any throttle setup.

Well, that's about it for now. As always, I'm going to try to keep everybody a little more up to date, but as we've seen in the past that doesn't always work out as planned. Nevertheless, some pretty big developments might be coming out of the GreenflightEV lab (aka "the dorm room") in the next couple months, so stay tuned!

2008-10-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

I bring you Jay Ingram's book, The Daily Planet Book of Cool Ideas. Yeah, I know right, nice book. But the best part of the book is, of course, pages 258-261. Those are the pages that feature my truck! After Discovery Channel Canada's interviews, the book picked up the story, and a few months later, voila- I'm in a book. So yeah, if anyone's interested, it is now available in the US from Amazon.com.

2008-10-23T06:41:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody, as usual, it's been a while! Sorry for the wait. It's great to read all the comments though, so keep 'em comin! Anyway, a couple weekends ago I finally got to go home for a few days, so I got to do a little work on my truck.

What with school and everything, I never really got to talk about what happened at this year's Woodward Dream Cruise. As usual, the cruise was awesome and everybody had a great time. I spent a little while at a car show with a couple other EVs. Awesome to see the interest.

Of course my new underbody lights were a big hit, as was the, umm, "extra torque" I got from my 144v upgrade. Anyway bottom line, right as the cruise was drawing to a close I pulled out the left motor mount. Turns out it was the factory rubber mount that broke- of course I'm proud of the fact that my homemade mount stayed intact!

So, over the weekend I replaced the motor mount, installed a new shifter (the old one was damaged when the mount broke loose), and enjoyed a couple days of driving around aimlessly. It's funny, after not driving for a couple months you really start to miss it. Not a bad weekend, all things considered.

Apparently, since I fixed my truck, my parents have taken a bit of a liking to it. As much as it goes against my intuition to let my parents drive my truck, I'm glad it's seeing some use. Good for the batteries, and of course it's still a money saver. Just wait till next year when I get a parking permit...

For those of you who are wondering, school is going pretty good, it's a big adjustment but I'm having a lot of fun.

Anyway- I've got a post that should be coming right after this one, assuming my computer doesn't crash or something. It's big enough that I figure it deserves its own post.

2008-08-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the first blog post while living at Purdue University. That's right, after all this time, I'm finally at college. Anyway, I'm writing this from my dorm room after taking a bus ride to the store to get some parts for my homemade air conditioner (yeah, it's plenty hot in my dorm room).

So- the upshot is, I've finally learned how much hate buses. Yes, the electric car guy hates a form of public transportation. Now, before you all pile into the family hybrid with baseball bats and come to Indiana, let me explain myself in what I like to call, "10 reasons why I hate buses."

1. You're tied down to their schedule, which is, of course, really eratic. If the bus is late, so are you.
2. You're packed in there like a bunch of overgrown sardines.
3. You get lots of dirty looks if you get on carrying two huge styrofoam coolers, copper pipe, bilge pumps, and other commonplace items.
4. The bus drivers definitely don't believe in brake preservation.
5. It's a terrible place to meet girls. I don't care what you've seen on TV, it just doesn't happen that way.
6. You've got to be some kind of freak of nature to understand the labyrinth of 1As, 3Bs, reds, greens, blues, and whatever that make up the system.
7. The bus routes are just as nuts as the maps that describe them.
8. If you're one of those "it's the journey, not the destination" people, you might as well just give up.
9. Bus drivers are jerks. (OK, not all of them- probably just the one or two that I've dealt with)
10. See rule #1.

That pretty much concludes this rant. Stay tuned for more on this and other fascinating topics!

You know you're famous when...

2008-08-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

My truck has officially reached the highest level of notoriety: the local Starbucks chalkboard.

2008-08-10T16:13:00.001-07:00

This weekend's project: the proverbial black box.

And no, I'm not going to tell you what it does or what's inside.

The latest errr 'improvements'

2008-08-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, underbody lights on a rusty old truck... but they really do look cool! I spent the better part of this saturday installing these things.

While I had the truck up in the air, I decided it would be a good time to add that swaybar that's been sitting around the garage. So, in addition to looking cool, my truck also handles remotely better. Not a bad weekend.

Anyway I've been working on a little bit of everything lately so I'll try to keep the updates coming!

And the verdict is...

2008-07-15T15:01:00.001-07:00

Success! I rolled into the driveway with juice to spare, and I even stopped at Starbucks on the way. According to my trip odometer, my truck has seen almost exactly 70 miles today, almost all of it in 55 mph zones. No trouble there... Talk about a money saver!

Later folks... This is a very pleased EV driver, signing off.

Fun drive to work...

2008-07-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, so far so good. I got to work without any problems and plenty of charge left. Having never driven my truck in heavy traffic, I was impressed how well it kept up. And now: will I make it back home??

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Range test results

2008-07-14T16:31:00.001-07:00

I did an informal range test on my truck yesterday. The official test track consisted of several miles of open, 55 mph road, and several miles of slower stop-and-go driving.

The results (drumroll please)? A very comfortable 45 mile range over a period of about an hour and 10 minutes, with the truck still comfortably maintaining 55 mph when I pulled in the driveway.

I was, needless to say, quite pleased.

Next up: The 70 mile roundtrip commute to my summer job, in rush hour traffic. I hope to undertake this expedition tomorrow morning, and I should have the results sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited. Stay tuned!

Breaking news!

2008-07-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite, but whatever. My latest "media event:" ABC came over and did a feature story for today's news. I didn't get to see it, but reports indicate that it turned out well, and the transcript looks good. Not a bad day!

Stay tuned for more after these very important messages!

144v upgrade

2008-07-05T14:13:00.001-07:00

Here's a pic of the 144v upgrade on my truck. I added four more batteries above the motor. The other four that were already in the engine compartment kept their original position. The component board was turned on edge and mounted against the firewall, and the charger and vacuum system were scattered all over the place to make room. Everything else stayed exactly the same.

Up and running

2008-07-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm quite the procrastinator... I'll try to post updates a little more often now that I have (slightly) more time!

Anyway, here's the big news: the Tercel is up and running! I've had it on the road for a few weeks now and I love it. Lemme tell you, this thing is FAST! It has no trouble breaking the tires loose in 2nd gear, and I have yet to reach the top speed (so far I've had it up to around 70). 2nd gear is fine all the way up to redline at 55.

I do have to say range isn't so great (so far it's about 20-25 miles), but I guess that's what I get for building a car with cheap marine batteries and a huge motor.

In other news, I've just finished upgrading my truck to 144 volts, which seems to have helped out a little bit in terms of speed and acceleration. I'll probably do a range test sometime this weekend, and I'm optimistic in my expectations. Anyway, more on the later.

Oh yeah, happy Independance Day everybody!

Instrumentation... it's a good thing

2008-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the gauges mounted in the cluster. It actually worked out pretty good. The isolated power supplies are mounted on the back, and there's a nine pin D connector wired up for easy IP removal. Not to mention they look really cool with the blue backlight... I'll add more pics next time I power them up.

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More wiring... it never ends!

2008-05-25T09:42:00.001-07:00

This morning's project: making up battery cables. These are the cables for the rear 120 volt pack. Most positive and most negative connections are at the top (front) center of the pack, and the circuit breaker is at the bottom. This way, when I throw the breaker, it essentially cuts the pack in half. When the breaker is thrown, no more than 60 volts will be present across any two terminals.

Living the EV dream!

2008-05-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to brag about how much I love my truck.

Getting closer...

2008-05-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

I'm getting close to getting my car rolling... just working on putting together all the little bits and pieces. This is the vacuum canister for the brake system. It's made of 3" dia. white PVC, 22" long. It will be mounted right behind the bumper, in front of the batteries, so I won't be missing the space.

2008-05-09T10:02:00.001-07:00

Here's the rear batteries temporarily set in place. They fit surprisingly well.

2008-05-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

I picked up the batteries this morning. 14 marine deep cycle 12v batteries. As always, this is one of the more exciting parts of the project! Now I just have to put my car back together and wait for my gauges to show up...

Wiring... and lots of it!

2008-05-05T13:40:00.001-07:00

Today's project (and probably the rest of the week, for that matter!) was straightening up some of the dash wiring and removing all of the unnecessary engine wiring. Well I'm at it I'm going to run the gauge wiring through the original harness. Tedious at best, but it will definitely look nice and make the car easier to service. Not to mention, it can be kind of fun once you get the hang of it.

EVing in Plymouth

2008-05-04T15:17:00.001-07:00

This weekend I took my truck to the Plymouth Green Street Fair with the Michigan EAA. We all had a lot of fun and the crowd definitely enjoyed it. The kind of interest we saw was really awesome. Darin also brought out his awesome electric drag bike. Having never seen one before, I thought it was pretty slick, with its twin Eteks and 96v system... Power!!!!!

Why you ask?

2008-04-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

The point of all this was to get to the wiring harness, which, as luck would have it, comes through the firewall right in the middle of everything. I had to pull the dash, steering wheel, gauge cluster, heater core, and about a million other items to get to it.

Needless to say, my car isn't very happy with me right now...

My nemesis the dashboard

2008-04-30T12:00:00.001-07:00

I told myself I wouldn't do this. I begged and pleaded with the heater core to spare me the trouble. But as time passed, it became evident: I had to pull the dashboard. So there it sits, on my garage floor, looking smug after putting up such a struggle.

Plugged in!

2008-04-24T13:57:00.001-07:00

Well, not quite, but the plug is now installed on my Tercel. I think I'm having problems with my GFI because I can't seem to get power through it. Other than that, things are moving along pretty quickly. My gauges are on their way from Nanjing, China, and I'm working on the wiring harness now.

And for those who have been wondering- my truck is running great. I just haven't had the time to post pics. More later!

Ready to go...

2008-04-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

The completed component board install, minus the throttle cable. Time for the smoke test!

You see a wiring harness... I see a work of art

2008-04-19T08:08:00.001-07:00

Here's the completed wiring harness for my component board. If all goes well I should have this all installed by the end of the day.

2008-04-07T09:48:00.001-07:00

Hey all, it occurred to me (and I guess to a few other readers as well!) that it can be kinda hard to figure out exactly what's going on here without reading the blog from the very beginning. So for those of you who want some quick and dirty info, here's a couple links on my cars:

Mazda: http://www.evalbum.com/861

Toyota: http://www.evalbum.com/1445

They'll also be in my links section. I don't update them as often as my blog, but they should provide some good info.

2008-04-06T09:22:00.001-07:00

I spent an hour or so this morning building a mount for the charger board up front. This is the test fit. I think it looks pretty good. I've also been spending some time on the front-to-rear wiring, mainly for the chargers. It's coming along pretty quickly, and the recent warm weather is really making things easier!

2008-03-24T12:59:00.001-07:00

I got most of the high-voltage wiring on the component board done today. The pic shows the layout I ended up with. The most positive and most negative of the pack will be attached to the shunt and the fuse, and the motor wiring comes out the bottom of the board. Eventually, I'll put those big Anderson connectors on here to make it really easy to remove.

2008-03-20T12:53:00.001-07:00

This is the finished throttle sensor setup. To disconnect it, I'll just loosen a wing nut on the cable and remove it. It should also be a lot easier to adjust than when it was mounted to the firewall.

2008-03-20T09:45:00.001-07:00

This is for anybody that wants to see what's really inside a Raptor. I had mine apart today for a little while. I'm mounting throttle sensor to the case of the controller. It should be a lot more portable and reliable this way.

2008-03-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

The beginnings of a removable component board. I should be able to transfer this between my truck and my Tercel, eliminating the need for a new controller, contactors, etc., at least initially.

2008-03-15T10:24:00.001-07:00

I'm spending the afternoon today cleaning up in preparation for the Discovery Channel. They're coming over for an interview on Monday. My truck is getting a bit of a workout moving my dad's cars around.

2008-03-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

Charger boards all wired up, and ready for a test fit.

2008-03-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

One board, all wired up. Now I just have to add a connector and mount it in the car.

One down, two to go...

2008-03-12T13:44:00.001-07:00

One of the charger boards. I'll have two of these in the trunk, and another with four chargers under the hood.

2008-03-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm spending a few hours today working on mounting the 14 chargers for my Tercel. I'll make sure to post more pics when I'm done.

2008-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, if I do say so myself, the Tercel is looking pretty good. Can you tell I like orange? Since the last post I've finished the component board mount and I have the battery racks mostly done. It's not perfect, but it'll get the job done. Since I'm going to be mounting batteries underneath the front crossmember, I had to remove the brace underneath it. I had to add a whole bunch of extra bracing to make up for it. You can see that in the pic below.
Below you can see the front battery rack. This is going to hold three batteries. I would have liked to have had four up here, but there isn't quite enough room on the left side. I can always modify it later on. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to cram one or two more in there to take some weight out of the back. There's actually quite a bit of room here- you just have to spend the time to figure out how to use it all. I'll also have to find room up here for the 12v accessory battery.
Here's a look at what I'm working on for the rear battery rack. It's really just temporary. I'm going to be stuffing 10 batteries back here. Once I get the car dialed in, and get the batteries all where I want them, I'll sink them into the floor. This should let me have almost all of the original trunk space.

I have a lot of work to do yet. I still have to run all of the wiring (something that I'm going to think through a little more with this car than I did with my truck), assemble the component board, set up the gauges, work out the vacuum system, and of course, purchase and install batteries, along with a bunch of other little stuff.

This is going a lot faster than my truck, though. It really helps to know the basics of how everything is going to go together. I'm hoping to have this car on the road by the end of the month- we'll see what happens. Now that I've gotten this far, I'm getting really anxious to get it rolling. It looks like it's going to be a really fun car. Stay tuned!

2008-01-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a little while since I last updated. And yes, I have cut my hair since the pic was taken! I've gotten quite a bit of work done. I now have the motor installed in my Tercel, and I'm working on battery racks and component layout. So far it's looking like I'll have 3 or 4 batteries up front (plus one for the 12v system) and then 9 or 10 more in the back. Although this is far from optimal as far as weight distribution goes, it'll get me on the road. I'll always be able to modify it later on.

In the spirit of doing things on the cheap, I'm working on a component shelf that will allow me to transfer all of the major components and wiring from my truck to my Tercel by simply unplugging a couple connectors and loosening a few wing nuts. This way, I won't have to buy new contactors and stuff while the Tercel is still in the test stages. It will contain the controller, both contactors, fuse, circuit breaker (maybe), current shunt, and a few other minor items. It will have one connector for 12v power and signal wires (power on, amp meter, volt meter, controller status lights, and a few other things), another connector (one of the big Anderson ones) for the motor, and another Anderson for main battery power.

It will also have a plug for the charger, which is only going to be used on my truck. I've purchased 14 6A 12v smart chargers to use in my Tercel. By using individual chargers, I'll get an automatic equalize charge, not to mention saving a bundle of dough. They will be mounted on-board (they're very small, maybe 8" long), and they will all be tied to one main charge plug. Since they're smart chargers, they'll automatically switch to a trickle charge when the batteries are topped off, taking better care of the batteries than any group charger ever could.

I've been working on my own homemade controller design, but I don't think it will be done in time (hence the reason why I'm working on the removable component board). My controller will be an IGBT controller, driven by a flash-programmed PIC, which will allow me to edit the firmware at any time just by plugging it into a computer serial port. I have a Powerex 600A 1200V IGBT that I purchased surplus off of ebay. This should provide more than enough current-handling capability. If I size the filter caps right, it should be able to handle at least 200V or more. I'm also working on an LCD interface using a 16x2 44780-controlled blue LCD, which is easily interfaced with the PIC.

Initially, it will probably be a pretty bare-bones setup, but later on I hope to add features like built in cruise control, current limiting, RPM limiting, throttle endpoint adjustment, and more. That's the great thing about building these things yourself- once you have the basic power stages and driver complete, you can add all kinds of crazy features for very little cost, often by just adding a few lines of code.

Anyway, I've got some more to report, but I think this post is long enough... I'll try to add some more updates ASAP.

2007-11-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

I've gotten quite a bit of work done on the Tercel lately. The adaptor plate is back from the shop, and I'm currently in the process of drilling it for the transmission. The picture above shows (sort of) the setup for marking the holes. The motor is stood up on end, the adaptor plate, hub, clutch and flywheel are assembled onto it, and then the transmission is placed on top. The transmission centers itself by means of the shaft in the clutch disk. The holes are then marked with transfer punches, and any other necessary mods are also marked. I have to make a cut out for the clutch slave cylinder, and also one for the CV axle. Packaging is kind of tight in this thing!

And of course, check out the cool paint job I've applied to the motor. Rattle cans rock! Due to the transverse layout of this car, the motor is going to be a lot more visible than in my truck, so I might as well make it look cool!

The picture below shows the adaptor plate as received from the machine shop. You can see the countersunk holes for the motor mounting bolts, and the hub. The hub contains a bronze bearing stock insert that replaces the pilot bearing in the engine and centers the flywheel. A pretty slick setup, if I do say so myself!

I've been working on my truck, too. I've been trying all sorts of aerodynamic mods, with varying degrees of success. The current mod consists of a bumper cover that lowers the bottom edge of the car, deflecting a lot of air that would otherwise pass underneath to the sides and upward. I think I may have picked up a couple mph with this mod.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Stay tuned!

2007-10-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

The new motor is here! And man, is it awesome. It's a Kostov 10.5" motor. It should provide plenty of power for my 2000 lb. Tercel! The downside of having a bigger motor is, well, it's bigger. In all respects. It's longer than my 9", making it harder to fit into a transverse mount situation. It's also heavier. Shipping weight on this thing was 230 lbs. My 9" shipped UPS at 120 lbs.! That means the new motor had to be shipped by truck. As in, big truck. I have to admit, it was cool to have a semi back up the driveway to deliver this thing.

I don't think the motor really weighs that much- if I had to guess from lifting it, I would probably say about 180. Still a significant weight increase!

I made up a pattern for the adaptor plate yesterday and took it over to the machine shop. It should be done in a few days. It's definitely a lot easier this time around, now that I have one under my belt already. I'm currently working on the design for the hub. I'll probably be able to turn it in next week. So I should have the adaptor plate ready to go in a week or two.

I've also been doing some aerodynamic mods to my truck. For starters, I covered the grill (already blocked by batteries) with a lexan plate. Should smooth out airflow a little bit.

That's about all for now. I'll probably take some more pics later and post them, plus more info on the adaptor plate. Check back soon!

2007-10-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

New look, new attitude!

After dropping the front a few inches and giving my truck a flat-black spray can trim job, my truck has an all-new "police cruiser" look. And it's not just to look cool, either (well, I guess the paint was...). I managed to pick up an extra 3-4 mph in third gear since the drop. Not to mention, it really does look awesome...

To go along with the whole "cool" thing, my truck also doesn't squeak anymore. Having replaced the u-joints, my truck is much more fun to drive. Plus I don't have people saying "I don't like EVs because they squeak."

And this is all just in time for my truck to tick over the magic 1000 mile mark. That's right, I now have 1000 gas-free, quiet miles on this machine. I have about 500 on it since the motor rebuild, as well. So far, that's 40 gallons of gas I didn't have to buy!

Now that I'm becoming more and more comfortable with it, I'll be driving it much more often too. It has no problems whatsoever in the rain, and cold weather doesn't seem to be much of a problem either. So that 2000 mile mark is coming up pretty quick...

I am, however, going to have to work out some sort of a heater... These 40 degree mornings are starting to get to me. I'll probably install an electric heater of some sort... I'll make sure and post about it when I figure something out.

I've also been doing a bit of work on motor cooling. Here's a pic (albeit a cryptic one) of my electric radiator fan:

So far, this has been doing an excellent job of keeping the motor cool. I've got it wired to turn on whenever the ignition is on, so even when I'm sitting at a stop light the motor is cooling down. I think that's very important. The original fan, attached to the motor shaft, only turned as fast as the motor. That meant that when I needed it most (low rpm situations) the fan wasn't doing anything! This one works much better.

The Tercel is coming right along. I'm currently working on eliminating the unnecessary engine wiring, which accounts for the majority of the underhood wiring. Should be a lot neater when I'm done. Plus I'm going to find some cool color of electrical tape to wrap it with!

The motor is scheduled to arrive later this week, so I'll be able to start working on the adaptor plate. It should be very simple. This transmission doesn't use a pilot shaft, so I don't have to incorporate the pilot bearing in the hub. This does mean, however, that I have to be extra careful with alignment.

Anyway, that's all for now. Make sure to check back soon!

2007-10-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

I think I can sum up this post in two words: NEW CAR! My 1992 Toyota Tercel has been warmly welcomed to the garage, and is undergoing the conversion process. This great little car weighs right around 2000 lbs.- perfect for electric conversion. It came with a 5-speed and a 1.5L EFI engine (now no longer). The car is shown below in its current (disassembled) state:

Engine, exhaust, gas tank, etc. have all been removed. At this point I'm thinking I'll run a 144v system with 12v batteries. I may upgrade later on to 156 or higher- we'll see. I want to get "zippy" performance out of this thing. I'm currently waiting for the motor to arrive. Should be an impressive motor. It's another Kostov, only a little bit bigger. It's a 10.5" dia motor, vs. the 9" Kostov in my truck. It should be able to handle the amps a little better, not to mention putting out a lot more power!

My truck is running awesome. I'm approaching 1000 EV miles. Currently the driveshaft is in the shop getting new u-joints... I finally decided it's time to get rid of that obnoxious squeaking that's been plaguing my truck ever since conversion.

I'm also playing around a little with the suspension. Turns out that it's really easy to adjust height with torsion bars! Just turn a couple bolts underneath, and you can raise and lower it to your heart's content. Fun! I've got the front lowered an inch or two right now- I'm going to remove the bumpstops today and drop it a little further. Fun to play with, albeit not very productive... Looks cool, anyhow. I'll post a pic when I'm happy with the height.

Well, that's all for now. Make sure to check back for updates. Also check my photobucket- username is greenflightev. I've got some more pics of the Tercel up there now.

2007-09-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

EVing at the Cruise!

Make sure to check out my photobucket: http://www.photobucket.com/albums/cc52/greenflightev

Click on "Mazda EV." More pics of the Cruise, the truck, and the motor rebuild.

I took my EV to the Woodward Dream Cruise in August. Man, talk about weird! An electric vehicle cruising around at an event dedicated to engines, and it still managed to get attention! Who knows how many video cameras and cell phones I'm in. It's amazing. There is definitely interest in this technology, you can't deny that! I drove it for 7 hours at the dream cruise without a recharge, and I still had plenty of voltage left! In fact, the 12 volt accessory battery started running low, when there was plenty of juice left in the traction pack. It was awesome! The Cruise is great for this kind of car. Stick it in first gear and cruise all day! It draws a crowd wherever it goes, especially with my shiny new lettering:

Yeah, nothing garners the public eye quite like LIME GREEN signs on a red truck. The pic doesn't do them justice- they're quite eye-catching.

Anyway, while I'm at it here, I should probably mention a rather important incident: the motor blew up. Well, it didn't exactly blow up, but it went out with quite a bang. I had just pulled out of work when I heard a BANG and the tires started squealing. My first thought was a flat tire, since my truck's not exactly the lightest car on the planet. So I pulled over and got out, looked at everything, kicked all the tires, and found nothing wrong. So, like anyone who fails to use his head would do, I fired it back up. This time, it gets me up to about 25 and then does the same thing. And it wouldn't restart. So after an embarrassing half hour parked in a driveway with the hood up staring blankly at the motor, my dad showed up with a tow strap and pulled me home.

Turns out the insulation (class F- 311 degrees F, if I recall correctly) had melted off the field magnets, and one had shorted to the motor case. Actually, two, and in the worst possible locations- they caused the voltage to bypass almost all of the field coils and interpoles. I believe the insulation melted during the initial test phase, when I was having difficulty with the controller. I tried shifting earlier to get the truck up to speed. Turns out I was just heating up the motor. So- to all you new EV drivers out there- wind it out! I believe the vibration eventually caused the coils to contact the case. I guess that's what I get for buying a cheap motor.

After getting a quote of $1000 to rewind the motor, I decided I wasn't feeling so flush after all. I decided to try and rewind it myself. It's not too difficult- just takes time:

Hopefully in the future I'll be able to write up a detailed description of how this is done. The bottom line, though, is that it worked, and the motor runs great. Not to mention, it now has class H insulation- good through 356 degrees F. I also installed a 12v CPU cooling fan in the endbell to help with cooling- the original fan was near worthless.

I'm currently in the process of installing an electric radiator fan in its place. The motor still gets warm with the CPU fan. Should allow me to push a few more amps through the motor, and get more top speed. I'll try to add some pics to my photobucket later.

Speaking of fans, I now have one installed in my homemade bed cover to vent the batteries. This way I don't have to prop up the bed cover to allow hydrogen to escape. I also have a 12v charger hardwired in under the hood to charge my accessory battery- this thing just gets easier and easier!

Anyway, I have about 700 EV miles on my truck so far, and all I can say is- I LOVE IT! The cost of electricity is nearly negligible, and it is awesome as a commuter and errand-runner. Range has not presented any issues for me. I do notice that I tend to plan a little better, trying to get more things done on one trip, but hey- that's a good thing!

2007-05-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

I took the truck out on the road today. It's AWESOME. The first few runs I had some difficulty getting up to speed (couldn't go over 30 or so) but after adding more travel to the throttle sensor it is about as quick as it was as an ICE car. I drove it about 18 miles today, and I've only noticed a decrease of a few volts in pack voltage. I didn't even start with fully charged batteries! I think I'll get pretty good range out of this thing.

So far, I've had it up to almost 50 mph, but I'm sure it'll do 55, no problem. It pulls less than 100 amps at 45, and that's with a somewhat marginal drivetrain (high rolling resistance due to a lightly dragging brake and a few other things). Might go even faster, don't know for sure. It all depends on how many amps you want to draw.

I've got a few issues that I still have to work out. I've got a lot of tweaking to do on the controller and charger (20 amp circuit breaker? I can trip it...), but the most important part is IT RUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, it also makes this great noise like a turbine whine...

I love this thing!!!!!!!!!! And now I'll have all summer to play with it!

2007-05-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, just as a quick update, I have it working a lot better now. It turned out to be a problem with the way I had the throttle sensor mounted. Anyway, it seems to have plenty of power now. More details later.

2007-05-23T05:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's alive! Well, sort of. Yesterday, after all this work, I finally got it to go up and down the driveway under its own power. It was pretty exciting. I do have some troubleshooting to do. My car, after all this effort, fails to go signifcantly faster than walking speed. Needless to say, there is a problem. My controller seems to be malfunctioning. At this point, I think I can fix it. The most likely problem that I can think of so far is corrosion on one of the internal connections in the controller. I'm going to open it up later and see what I can find out.

Obviously, since the car is running, I've made plenty of progress on it since the last post. I put the metal bed back on (stupid wood, who needs the stuff, worthless trees...) and I've dropped 1000 lbs. of batteries into it. You can see them in the pics at the top of the page. That's before the final connections were made, but all the interconnects were installed in the back.

I was actually quite surprised how well my 1/4 ton truck handled 1300 lbs. of extra weight. It doesn't sit significantly lower than it did before conversion. Hard to believe, I know, but it's true!

Anyway, I've got to go get that controller fixed. I'll post up some more pics later on (if I remember).

2007-02-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, a couple of updates here. I've made quite a bit of progress. The most noticeable progress is the wood bed that I've constructed.

The bed tilts to allow access to the batteries. The rear battery box, right behind the cab, will hold 16 batteries. The goal was to keep them as far forward as possible, for C.G. purposes. I still need to add some reinforcements to the battery box. I'm planning on putting two metal L-brackets on each corner, and a few along the bottom edges. There will also be angle iron running underneath on top of the mounts.

I've also built a component shelf over the motor, and a front battery box. The component shelf holds the controller, charger, boost transformer, and a lot of the little stuff, i.e., contactors, circuit breaker, and that sort of thing.

The controller is the blue box on the left side of the truck. It is a DC Power Systems Raptor 600 controller, bought used. It is rated for 600 amps and 156 volts, more than enough for my truck. This controller is not as widely used as the Curtis 1221 and 1231 models, but I believe that it just as adequate. The throttle sensor can be seen just to the right of the brake master cylinder, mounted to the firewall. This attaches directly to the gas pedal on the other side.

The charger is the gold box on the right side of the truck. It is a pretty common model, the K & W BC-20. It will be using a boost transformer to allow it to charge the 120v battery pack in my truck off of 115v. This should be pretty handy for "opportunity charging" at work, the store, or pretty much anywhere. I believe that this outweighs the benefits of a 220v charger. Although it can charge the batteries faster, there are fewer locations to plug it in.

There will also be four batteries mounted up front, in a rack in front of the shelf. This should help keep the front wheels on the ground.

Currently I am waiting to receive the contactors, gauges, inertia switch, and a few other things. Once they arrive, I'll be able to start work on the wiring.

I am also very close to getting the batteries. I should have them in the next week or two.

2006-12-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hi all. I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the truck since the last post (granted, that’s been quite a while), with the biggest accomplishment being the installation of the motor. Yes, that’s right, after all this time the motor is finally in. Want proof? Check out the pic:

Not bad, eh? It dropped right in, with only a minimal amount of shoehorning required. The design process of the adaptor plate and hub were the hardest parts. There is a fair amount of information about this on the internet, but most methods require a CAD system and "computer nerd" status. My method did involve some extra work, both on my part and on that of the machine shop, but it turned out pretty well in the end. Here’s how I did it:

I started by getting the hub made. The hub uses two setscrews, one over the key and the other 90 degrees to it, with lockscrews (a short setscrew installed behind the first setscrew, kind of like a locknut) and plenty of permanent (red) threadlocker. I’m really not concerned about the hub coming loose, and even if it does, I doubt it would damage anything; the clutch simply wouldn’t work properly.

The pilot bearing from the crankshaft was installed in the hub in the proper location, as measured relative to the mounting surface of the crank. I would recommend installing this bearing for two reasons: 1) It greatly simplifies the alignment and drilling process of the adaptor plate, and 2) It should provide some extra support for the tranny shaft. It is very important to make sure that the trans shaft is going to clear the motor shaft when inserted into the pilot bearing. This can be done by observing the wear pattern on the trans shaft to see how far it was inserted into the pilot bearing. There should be a very distinct mark where the pilot bearing was. Here’s a bad pic of what the hub looked like when I got it back from the shop:

The next part was the plate itself, and the spacers. I decided to go with individual spacers to keep costs down. Since I’m intending to install a very comprehensive splash shield system, I’m not very concerned about debris getting into the clutch. The plate was designed using a method suggested by Larry (a fellow Mazda converter) on the EV photo album. I started by tracing the outline of the bell housing on a piece of posterboard and marking the approximate location of the trans shaft. I then cut this out and transferred it to another piece of posterboard, this time simplifying the outline of the bell housing and adding about half an inch all of the way around to allow for inaccuracies in measuring the location of the trans shaft. I then gave this to the machine shop. They cut the plate out of half inch aluminum and transferred the motor bolt pattern (centered around the location of the trans shaft, as marked by me) onto it.

At the same time, they also made the eight spacers, each 1" in diameter, out of steel. I determined the length of these spacers by measuring the distance from the flywheel mounting surface to the bell housing mounting surface, subtracting the length of the coupling, and adding the thickness of the plate (note that this only works if the back of the coupling sits flush with the back of the plate). This should give a negative value, but its absolute value is the length of the spacers.
Here’s what the plate and spacers looked like at this point:

I then bolted the plate and spacers up to the motor, slid the coupling onto the motor shaft and stood the motor up on its endbell. I gently lowered the tranny down onto it. With a little fiddling, the trans shaft dropped right into the pilot bearing. Now, the trans shaft does have some play in it. I wanted to locate the tranny on the plate so that, when inserted into the pilot bearing, the trans shaft was at its center of movement. I did this by lifting the tranny up slightly (not enough to allow the trans shaft to come out of the pilot bearing) while my dad wiggled the tranny back and forth. When he found the center of movement, I simply let the tranny back down and marked all of the holes with transfer punches. I then removed the plate and drilled it. I also had to use a band saw and file to take a small chunk out of the plate where the clutch cylinder goes.

It was then time for the final assembly of the motor and tranny. With the motor still standing on its endbell, I bolted the flywheel to the coupling and then assembled the clutch on it, as shown below:

I then lowered the tranny down on to the motor and bolted them together. At this point, I had what I like to refer to as the "leaning tower of Mazda."

It was a simple matter to let the assembly down, hook it up to the hoist, and drop it into the truck. It is a lot easier to install the assembly with the stick removed. This is a simple procedure, and should yield no complications, as long as the opening where the stick was is covered up to keep dirt from getting inside. It also helps to have a friend work the hoist while you get in the engine compartment and guide the assembly down into the truck (carefully!).

Other developments to follow soon. I don’t have the time right now to write them up, and I doubt you have the time (or the attention span) to read it all in one installment! I know I wouldn’t... Stay tuned!

2006-10-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted. Whenever I remember, I never seem to have the time to type up a quick post. I've been pretty busy with my truck, along with school, work, and a host of other things. One of my other projects that's been receiving a lot of my attention lately is my wind generator. Since this falls into the realm of alternative energy, I might as well post a few pics and a description.

At right are pics of (from top to bottom) all six blades arranged around the hub, the 40 VDC Ametek tape drive motor, and the tip of one of the blades. The blades and hub were purchased off of eBay from Hydrogen Appliances. Their website is at www.hydrogenappliances.com. The blades appear to be carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate. They're pretty nicely made, although I think the leading and trailing edges could have been finished a little bit better. They definitely seem to be plenty strong enough for the job. They also appear to have a very efficient shape. The sharp taper should provide a nearly elliptical span-lift distribution, while minimizing tip vortices. I'm expecting very good performance out of them.

The motor is an Ametek 40 VDC motor. These motors were used in early tape drives (!) and are now used as generators for wind turbines or traction motors in very small EVs, among other uses. Since I don't have much use for a small EV right now, I decided to put it to use in my wind genny. I'm thinking I might be able to get something along the lines of 75-100 watts out of it in a decent wind.

Right now I'm exploring different methods of constructing towers and pivots. I should have that figured out before long. I think I've got a good plan for a tower. I'm planning to use two 10' lengths of 2" electrical conduit with 1/8" galvanized steel guy wires. That'll give me a 20' tower. That's kind of short, comparatively speaking, but I think it'll be plenty adequate for a first try. Later on, I might set up a taller tower.

So, all I've got to do is come up with a pivot and I'm all set. It shouldn't be too long before this thing is up in the air spinning around.

I'll be posting some more about the truck before long. I haven't done a lot of work on it, but I have been doing some design work. I'll be putting that up here soon.

2006-09-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Adaptor Plate Design Considerations

Since the last post, I've decided to design the adaptor plate myself and have it machined locally by a friend. I've been busily working on a design for a while now. I've got the basic idea roughed out, and I'm currently working on turning it into something workable. Here's what I've done so far:

1) I traced the transmission bell housing outline and bolt holes onto a piece of high density cardboard. The next step is to cut this out using a scroll saw and bolt it up to the transmission to see if it will fit. Then, I'll find the approximate location of the shaft and cut an oversize hole for the hub. I will then have an adequate pattern for the profile plate.

The profile plate doesn't have to be perfect, thanks to the way I intend to mount the motor ring. I will drill the bolt holes to mount the motor ring a bit oversize. Then, when I install it, I can tweak its location until it lines up perfectly. I can then drill and pin it to lock it in place.

The motor ring also sets the spacing for the flywheel. This way, I can just cut the profile plate (which is larger than the motor ring, and more tedious to machine to thickness) out of a piece of 5/8" thick aluminum and not worry about thickness.

2) I did some design work on the hub. The most difficult part is actually determining the method of attachment to the shaft. I've considered several options. The two that I've spent the most thought on are the taperlock and the setscrew. At this point, it seems like the taperlock hub would be the best option. There doesn't seem to be a good way to keep a setscrew from loosening under these conditions.

The downside to the taperlock hub is that it's kind of hard to design. I don't know what the dimensions need to be for something like this. For instance, in order for the taperlock hub to work properly, the tapered bushing must be slightly larger than the recess that it fits into. I don't know how much larger it needs to be. I'm slowly getting it figured out. If anyone out there has any information regarding the taperlock hub, I encourage you to let me know through a comment here.

So, that's where I'm at for now. For those who aren't familiar with the taperlock design, I might detail it in another post. Right now, though, it's kind of late at night and I'm too tired to write it. Keep checking back for updates!

2006-09-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

The Adaptor Plate: A Necessary Evil

The adaptor plate is the piece that connects the motor to the transmission. It consists of three parts: the aluminum transmission profile plate, which is cut and drilled to bolt onto the transmission and replicate the original mounting surface of the engine; the steel hub, which attaches the motor output shaft to the flywheel; and the aluminum motor ring, which acts as a spacer between the motor and the transmission to keep the correct spacing for the clutch. Several small spacers between the motor and profile plate are sometimes used instead of the motor ring.

I now have to decide if I want to get the adaptor plate made at a local machine shop or if I want to get it made by a specialized company out in California. I was originally thinking that I would just get it made in CA. They have a library of patterns for various cars and motors, and at the time I thought they had a pattern for my truck on file. The catch: if they don't have a pattern for your vehicle, you have to ship your transmission out to CA and get it measured.

The problem arose when I realized that my truck didn't have the original engine and transmission in it. When I went to get a distributor cap and rotor for it (back in the day when it still had an engine), I just got one for an '88 B2200. I mean, duh, that's what kind of truck I have. When I came back with the cap, it didn't fit. That's when things started to get fun. It turns out that the original distributor cap was off of a 2.0 Mazda, not a 2.2. I then noticed a whole bunch of pinched off hoses and unplugged connectors. And then, as I was removing the transmission, I noticed that the crossmember had moved forward to accommodate a new transmission. I just assumed that it was out of a B2000, because of the distributor cap. The company out in CA had a pattern for this transmission, so I was golden. For a little while, anyway.

Fortunately, I got in touch with another EV guy who is in the process of converting a B2000, and he sent me a pic of the bell housing on his truck. Mine looks nothing like it. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I'm going to see if the auto parts store can run the numbers for the transmission so I can find out what it is.

Having actually seen the clutch assembly and how and what it bolts to, I'm now thinking that it wouldn't be prohibitively difficult to get the plate made locally. I'm going to see about coming up with a sketch and maybe a template to take down to the machine shop, along with the transmission, flywheel and clutch, and motor, to see what they charge for something like that. Wish me luck!

Next: Who knows? Could be anything from battery boxes to heater cores.

2006-09-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately, working on various projects (including this one). With school starting and everything I haven't been able to find the time to update this page. Hopefully now that I have things under control I'll be able to update this more often. I guess I'll just start where I left off:

ICE Component Removal

This is easily the most tedious part of the project, for me at any rate. It's also the dirtiest. It's a good reminder of how much cleaner EVs are when compared to ICE-powered cars. The ICE car requires antifreeze, oil, and gasoline to run. An EV requires none of these. Not to mention, EVs require much less maintenance than gas cars. They don't require oil changes or oil filters, they don't need alternators, timing belts, distributor caps or rotors, and a slew of other things. All they need is to have the motor brushes replaced every 80,000 or so miles, and the batteries topped off every once in a while. The batteries in an EV also need to be replaced every 3-5 years. Even including these things, EV maintenance is much cleaner and affordable than ICE maintenance.

I started by draining all of the fluids. Luckily for me, this was a simple task because I had run the truck out of gas before conversion. I didn't drain the oil because the engine is probably just going to go in some other project anyway, and draining the oil would have been a waste of time. The one thing I wish I had drained, but didn't, was the transmission fluid. I remembered this right before it all started draining out as I pulled the tranny out. So, I ended up with an empty transmission and half a bag of cat litter all over the garage floor.

I then removed the radiator and any other pieces that could hinder the removal of the engine. That included the fan and clutch, ignition system, wiring harnesses, fuel, vacuum, and antifreeze hoses, air cleaner, etc. I then loosened all of the bolts holding the engine in, and set off to rent an engine hoist.

Engine removal was pretty straightforward. The engine pretty much just slid right out, after a little tinkering to get the transmission shaft disengaged. I then decided that it would be best to pull the transmission as well. It'll be a lot easier to bolt the motor up to the transmission if it is removed from the vehicle. Plus, I'll get a chance to degrease it and perhaps paint it. The only problem is this: the transmission is a very annoying object to remove, with lots of little connections cropping up everywhere, and that obnoxious shift lever sticking up in the middle of the truck. I ended up dropping the crossmember and lowering the rear of the transmission instead of removing the stick.

Once everything was out of the truck, I had a very greasy engine compartment to work with. Since the electric motor is very clean, and will not spew oil all over the place like the ICE did, it made sense to clean up the engine compartment before proceeding. So, I rented a pressurewasher and got to work. A couple of hours later, I was rewarded with a sparkling clean engine compartment. Well, almost. You can see what it looks like now in the photo at the top left of this page. Pretty empty, eh?

Next: The Adaptor Plate and Related Issues

2006-08-30T04:51:00.001-07:00

Motor...

After working for what seems like forever, I was finally able to acquire a motor. It arrived on August 24th.

Originally, I was planning to purchase a used Advanced D.C. 9" (FBI-4001) motor, but these cost easily over $1,000. New, they go for about $1,700. If I bought one, I wouldn't be able to buy anything else I needed. So I kept looking. Eventually, I came across a Kostov 72v 9" motor on eBay. I did a little research, and I discovered that Kostov also made a 144v version of the motor, which would be perfect for my project. I emailed the seller and asked if he had any 144v motors available. Luckily, he still had one 144v motor remaining, which he sold me. These motors retail for significantly less than the Advanced D.C. motors, leaving a little room in my bank account for the adaptor plate (the part that attaches the motor to the transmission). I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

Next: ICE Component Removal, Part 1 of 1,000,000 (or so it seems).

2006-08-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Before Conversion...

To start off, here's a picture of my truck before conversion to electric power. It's a 1988 Mazda B2200. It's somewhat rusty, but not too bad. It's got a lot of miles on it, so the engine smokes pretty badly (especially on startup), but the rest of the truck seems to be in good mechanical shape. This is pretty much ideal for a conversion.

The idea is to convert the truck to 100% electric power, as a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV). This will be done by removing the dirty internal combustion engine (ICE) components and installing an electric motor, batteries, etc. in their places.

The truck should be able to cover most, if not all, of my daily traveling needs. I'm expecting to end up with a range of no less than 25 miles, probably at least 35. This is will be plenty for me. I'll be able to recharge it at night, when I'll rarely have to drive it, and it'll be ready to go in the morning.

So that's the plan. At this point, I've acquired a motor for the project and I've removed the engine and transmission. I'll cover this in future posts, when I have the time. Watch this space for more info!