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Jerry Asher was talking about this at
our last meeting -
This is just a brief note to thank
you for attending the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Discussion Meeting
held on May 4 and 5 at Department of Energy in Washington, DC. I
appreciate your willingness to take time out of your busy schedule to
share your knowledge and expertise. I hope you found the presentations
and discussions both informative and beneficial.
As promised in my closing remarks,
copies of the plenary session and breakout session presentations are now
available over the web by following the link: http://www.sentech.org/PHEV/.
A summary report is under preparation and will also be posted there as
soon as it becomes available. We will notify you when this happens.
If you have any additional thoughts
about the meeting or about the future role of the U.S. Department of
Energy in the research or potential development and implementation of
this technology, please drop me a note at
aat@ee.doe.gov.
Thank you again for your active
participation. Your input and enthusiastic involvement has made this
meeting a success.
Edward J. Wall
Program Manager
FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies
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There was a discussion
about using Anderson Connectors as a emergency disconnect. Here is an
email in a thread 'Circuit Breaker Question' from Roger Stockton, on
6/17/06 -
Anderson Connectors aren't
rated/intended for interrupting even their rated current (which for the
largest ones commonly used in EVs is only 350A)... The first time you
need to open this connector in an emergency, its contacts may weld, or
if they do separate successfully, they may be damaged sufficiently to
require replacing.
And, Andersons take significant force
and travel to separate; if you were to use one as an emergency
disconnect, you are most likely going to have to add to the cost of the
basic connector the cost of Anderson's nifty disconnect lever mechanism,
and it may take a particularly long travel pull cable to operate this
lever to separate the connector.
An Anderson makes an excellent
service disconnect, that is providing a means of breaking the pack in
half or disconnecting it entirely from the rest of the car, but it is
not a particularly good choice for an emergency disconnect.
If you want to use this as an
emergency disconnect, a breaker is a good choice; a pair of the 160VDC
units someone else posted about for $30/ea wired in series and with
their handles mechanically tied together so they open and close together
as a 2-pole breaker cost little if any more than the Anderson approach.
I'd suggest using 3 of these breakers tied together as a 3-pole breaker
and use one pole to break the pack in half while the others disconnect
the +ve and -ve connections to the pack.
This helps ensure each breaker sees
about half pack voltage (so within its ratings), and provides the
service feature of splitting the pack voltage in half as well as
disconnecting the pack from the rest of the vehicle. If you have dual
contactors to disconnect the pack + and - from the rest of the vehicle,
then you could use the 3 poles of the breaker to split the pack into
thirds instead of halves.
Cheers, Roger.
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Here is one link for an Anderson
SB350 (350amps, 600VDC continuous)-
http://www.alliedelec.com/catalog/pf.asp?FN=205.pdf - $10.54 each, plus
#2/0 contacts - $10.44 per set of 2, total $20.98 for a set of 2. Then
you have to crimp them...
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Remember Bill Hammon and his wife
Lisa, the President of the San Diego EAA group, who came to our March
meeting? Here is a link to their newsletter
http://home.att.net/~galemon/nl/NL066.htm
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An email from Bill Dube on 6/29/06 -
The fourth of July came a bit early
for the KillaCycle crew. We provided a $1000 fireworks display at the
track yesterday. The rear motor reverted to the fourth state of matter
about 2/3's of the way down the track.
The A123 Systems Li-Ion battery pack
(376 volts) supplied an awesome amount of HP that turned out to be a bit
too much for one of the motors. I guess I'll have to keep my comms a bit
cleaner. :-)
Here is a clip of that last run for
the day.
http://www.killacycle.com/Second%20Run.wmv
Here is a burn-out clip showing good
use of the "bottomless pit" of energy these cells can hold. We could
have done this burn-out and the run SIX more times before recharging.
http://www.killacycle.com/Burnout.wmv
We should have the motors all back up
to snuff for our next planned outing at the AHDRA event on Nov 10-11 at
Las Vegas.
See you there, Bill
Dube'
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There has been a lot of discussion
about AC's in EV's lately on the EV discussion list. A big problem here
in Tucson...
- Peltier Junctions (TEC Modules) at
http://www.mpja.com/listitems.asp?dept=60, good at pulling heat but they
take a lot of current to do so, from 1 to 5 amps each. To be able to get
the same level of cooling BTUs as 10,000 you would need a whole lot of
them. They are very power inefficient, but they can produce very cold
temps. One could use a TEC to cool water, and pump the cold water
through the existing heater system in a car and get cold air out the
vents. The beauty of the TEC is reverse the polarity, and it will then
be a heater, so you solve two problems at once.
- Paint your roof white, add some
insulation up there, do a vacuum test on your car and seal all the
leaks. Pull the panels off your doors and add any insulation you can
against the outer steel - even 1/4" closed cell foam is way better than
nothing. Add reflective glazing on your windows. Add a white corroplast
belly pan against the parking lot tarmac. Then you won't need a 10,000
btu unit filling your back seat.
-
- Possible ways to reduce the need to extremely high
cooling capacity:
1. Insulate roof, walls, maybe even floor
2. Paint it white
3. Tint the windows other than the windshield
4. Automatic or otherwise very convenient shades for all the
windows.
5. An exhaust fan to remove the high heat it absorbs being in the
sun.
-
http://www.vintageair.com/
-
http://www.roshgo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=rc01/CTGY/00408
- Just get a portable air conditioner
and run it off your 12V bus with an AC inverter. You will have to take
it apart to make it fit in the car but they are more than adequate.
- Given a short trip EV, perhaps a
tank of compressed air can replace the air compressor. A 2000psi divers
tank can hold a lot of air. Refill the tank when you get home as part of
the recharge.
- I plan to try 1 liter coke bottles
one set in the freezer at work and one set into the freezer at home and
an ice chest setting in the passenger seat until I can find a 2004+
Prius
AC compressor.
- Working on an air conditioning system that will use
large ice packs loaded from a chest freezer in the garage. Projecting 3
hours cooling. Added power brakes using an electric vacuum pump that
runs off the aux battery, accumulator tank made from scrap 4" PVC water
pipe, and a vacuum switch to cycle the motor.
- The simplest solution for EV AC is
to reuse the existing AC compressor, and spin it from the tailshaft of
your motor. A simple pulley and belt arrangement is fast and adjustable.
You won't have AC when stopped (unless you idle the motor) but unless
you're stopped at a lot of traffic lights that isn't necessarily a
problem.
-The next option is keep the existing
compressor, but spin it with a DC motor. Treadmill motors are a
inexpensive and popular 120V option, but they are a tad underpowered and
tend to live short lives. Better quality motors are available surplus,
usually replacements from industrial conveyer systems. (DC motors used
to be the only affordable option for variable speed drive, but cheap 3
phase AC variable speed inverters and motors are replacing them).
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Here is an article in the Pasadena
Weekly about EV's
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3581&IssueNum=26
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Here is some news from Dennis Berube about the Current
Eliminator (6/28) -
-The motor has been freshened up (comm grind, brushes.
bearings, cleanup, etc). I now have 2 months without any bracket racing
so its experiment time. I have installed a Very low gear ratio in
hopes of keeping the motor in motor current limit all the way down the
track. The CE"s motor and z2khv will get warmer but the dragster may get
more consistent. I have also put on an upright fin (6 inches) on the
nose of the CE to break the beam at the end of the track the same way
each time, no matter if I cross the line in the middle or on the side of
each lane. There could be a .004 change depending where and how you
cross the finish line. The addition of line lock to keep CE planted on
the start line has been flawless, she will not move at all until the
dedenbar box lets her go (helps with my reaction times). I will make
some trail runs on Sat. night at Speedworld to finish breaking in the
brushes, and setting the Z2K controller to run the car at 11.95+ -.Then
setting the brush rack to get the most mph. I do not let it rotate while
bracket racing. These adjustments will take 30 runs.
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Don't forget to mark your calendar for "Who killed the Electric Car" is coming to Tucson at
the CENTURY ELCON 20 on 8/4/2006
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Here is an email to the
ev@listproc.sjsu.edu about a 'sleeper
car'... I would love to do one and on sat night go downtown and see what
happens, heh, heh. Anybody want to help me?
Lee, I have often fantasized about a hot rod City Car
being the ultimate sleeper on the street. Any Vette blown away by one
would have a hard time living it down. Of course it would have the words
"Electric Car" very big on the sides, the front and the rear. You would
have room enough to run a high
voltage string of Hawker 16 amp/hr batteries. You could get a narrowed
9" Ford from a Taylor Dunn golf cart. These are so narrow they
would allow for a tubbed type rear with the rear tires almost
touching each other on the inner sides of the tires. Since it is
so light you would not need a transmission. Hey Lee, when are we going
to get started on yours :-)
Roderick Wilde
"Suck Amps EV Racing"
www.suckamps.com
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Here are some great classic
fiberglass bodies and frames....http://www.acautos.com/
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