My Father's Day present

Patman3

I hope I'm not spamming, but I wanted to share this with you guys!  I'm so excited I got an electric truck!!  http://www.citlink.net/~pata/ev.html S-10 EV Page.
My other solar stuff is here, still working on some of it
http://www.citlink.net/~pata/solar.html

System2

Re: My Father's Day present

Congratulations!!! I would love to have one of those!!

Tom

niel

Re: My Father's Day present

hey that's really nice and you've got to keep us informed on how well it does, how fast, for how long, etc., etc..

Patman3

Re: My Father's Day present

Driving it home I was worried, I had to go about 40 miles and the seller said it had a 40 mile range. I made it, gauge was on yellow, 1/4 left, 36 miles total. I drove about 30-35 mph in first gear because at higher RPM electric motors are more effecient. There is no clutch but a 5 speed tranny. 55mph in 2nd is common. I can't get it to really Zoom, current won't go above 200 amps. I saw green on some battery posts so maybe I have to clean those up. 20*70lbs=1400lbs, thats heavy. The brake system runs off the aux 12V battery, pumping pressure, a potential worry if brakes go out. I want to install a $400 relay that reverses the motor so going downhill it would charge, called plug braking. :-)

crewzer

Re: My Father's Day present

I want to install a $400 relay that reverses the motor so going downhill it would charge, called plug braking.

Good idea... also called "regenerative braking".

Enjoy!
Jim / crewzer

Frank

Re: My Father's Day present

Hang on - plug braking isn't the same thing as regeneration. I'm guessing by the pictures of the Curtis controller that you can't regen with it. What kind of motor? Sounds like an 8" or 9" ADC, in which case you can't regen.

crewzer

Re: My Father's Day present

Hmmmm... I haven't played with this stuff for a while. Is plug braking more like "dynamic braking", in which the electric motors used for traction are reverse-excited to become generators for slowing a vehicle by disspitaing the electric power into resistance grids?

Thanks,
Jim / crewzer

Frank

Re: My Father's Day present

Here's more info on the controller shown in the photos (fifth one down):

http://www.curtisinst.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cDatasheets.dspListDS&CatID=1

Page 39 of the manual discusses plug braking. Jim, I use a Curtis 1204 controller on a small motorcycle and my manual says that a heat-sink mounted resistor must be used if you want to plug brake. Someone has hacked a Curtis controller and supposedly it can be modified so that a series-wound motor can regen but I wouldn't do it. Curtis says the technique is meant for low-speed applications (fork trucks, golf carts) not EV's.

If you're making mods, A.C. technology is the way to go (but a lot more expensive at this point in time!) but with variable frequency inverters/induction motors you can get better efficiency and regen all in one package. There's a lot of neat stuff going on right now in EV's.