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Why not stick your leads for the ammeter under the screw in the background?
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Apr 5, 2019 15:04
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Platystemon posted:If the analogue ammeter didn’t exist so you had nothing to disagree with the battery monitor, what do you suppose would have been the first sign of trouble? Battery monitor giving weird readings? Battery monitor suddenly dropping out? DC–DC failure leading to dropping voltage on the 12 V system? Terminus Est posted:Why not stick your leads for the ammeter under the screw in the background? bawfuls fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Apr 5, 2019 |
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Apr 5, 2019 15:59
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bawfuls posted:They are actually. The leads on the front (now 3 in 1) are for the charger, dc-dc converter, and voltage prescaler (for battery monitor) The 3 in 1 lead that you have under the main lug, why not stick that under the screw with ammeter leads? It seems the more you have under that main lug, the more opportunity you have for a poor connection and resultant melty terminations especially if you are having 50+amp rolling through there.
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Apr 5, 2019 17:09
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Short answer: that would make the screw in back too crowded The one ring terminal on the front lug should be fine. Since it’s just one, and it’s now the correct size, I’m able to torque the hex bolt down properly. The contact between the heavy 2/0 gauge lug and the body of the shunt underneath it is what matters most and what needs the pressure. That connection carries up to 600 amps under heavy acceleration. The 3 in 1 ring terminal carries 20 amps max, if I’m charging at 220V.
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Apr 5, 2019 17:22
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New suspension bits arrived today from Ground Control! (New KYB shocks, new springs, coil over sleeves, and camber plates just in front) Took me four hours solo this afternoon to disassemble the old and install the new up front. GC did a nice job on the camber plates getting the S30 profile in there. No cutting nor welding was required today. As you can see in the last pic, front end looks MUCH better now, and I’ve still got room to go lower if I want. Tomorrow I’ll tackle the rear. Hopefully I can finish by 4pm, when I have an appointment to get the new tires on the new wheels and have the alignment done. SO stoked to finally be getting the suspension dialed in and fresh rims/rubber on the car!      
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Apr 18, 2019 05:50
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After wresting with the rear end for hours today, I finally got them out and was ready to start assembling the new setup around noon. Because of the not-so-convenient way the rear is designed, I had to disconnect the axles (and the brake lines, and the sway bar, and the parking brake cable...) and pull the control arm to get the strut out: Once I started assembly though, I ran into a problem. The sleeves that Ground Control sent me for the rear are 6" (unlike the 4" front ones) so they are too long for the strut housing. This is a show-stopper, because the threaded cap that holds the shock down in the strut housing is too wide to fit inside the sleeves. So unfortunately I don't get to joyride today.  When I got in touch with Ground Control about this, the guy apologized and explained that he forgot I was doing this without cutting and welding, hence the long rear sleeves. Of course, it was their idea in the first place to do this without cut and weld, but whatever. GC says they will try to overnight me the sleeves I need but didn't sound too confidant about it. Tires are being mounted on the fresh rims right now, so that's progress at least. edit: new poo poo looks sooooooo much better! 
bawfuls fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Apr 19, 2019 |
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Apr 19, 2019 00:17
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Do the spring rates account for the reduced weight on the front end? I would expect some handling weirdness with a higher natural frequency compared to the rear.
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Apr 19, 2019 14:29
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They do yes. We'll see on the handling (hopefully today if these sleeves show up on time...). But regardless it is going to handle MUCH better than it did before the suspension upgrades. Shouldn't properly functioning shocks mitigate some of the issue you're talking about?
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Apr 19, 2019 20:51
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Car looks loving fantastic now. Didn’t have a chance to bleed the brakes yesterday so I haven’t given it a proper drive yet on the new suspension, but that’s on the agenda for today.
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Apr 20, 2019 18:27
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This is the coolest eco-friendly daily driver, and I can't wait for you to post a burnout video. I read through the entire thread but forgot, what did you end up doing with the original inline six?
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Apr 20, 2019 18:46
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Sold it on Craigslist for $350 to a guy who’s putting it into a 260Z. Not sure I can do a burnout without a line lock on this car but we’ll see.
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Apr 20, 2019 18:56
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bawfuls posted:Sold it on Craigslist for $350 to a guy who’s putting it into a 260Z. Not sure I can do a burnout without a line lock on this car but we’ll see. You've got all the torques at 0 rpm. Tell your controller to give it the beans from nothing, and it'll break loose. If you can do a burnout on a forklift, you can absolutely do a burnout on this car.
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Apr 21, 2019 15:14
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If you don't mind me asking, how much are you into the conversion for now? I'll absolutely be doing something like this when batteries become more common here in Sweden.
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Apr 21, 2019 17:08
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Now that I've driven ~70 miles on the new suspension, first impressions. Overall the ride is on the stiffer side for a daily but hey, it's a 40 year old sports car. The front end does feel a bit... bouncier than ideal, and that makes me wonder about User Error's concern above. Handles fine at freeway speeds now, and is easy in traffic as expected. It's a lot more fun on winding roads now that it feels confidant around a corner. Charging on 110V at the apartment for the first time. It's a trickle but it doesn't matter, I can let it sit for 12 hours and I don't need much to get back to the shop. 
bawfuls fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 01:11
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Did you ever figure out what the vibration cause was? New stance is great.
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Apr 29, 2019 17:35
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Not really. After separating and mating the motor-transmission interface like 5 times over the course of a few weeks it is better than it was but still apparent at 5000+ rpm.
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Apr 29, 2019 19:31
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I don't see how a steel lockwasher in an otherwise brass/bronze fastener setup could possibly work correctly, I remember seeing large current (15kVA) panel backplanes done with all the same materials for fasteners, washers, and the nuts. For the bounciness, consider dropping the front tire pressure, especially if it differs from the factory weight on the front.
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Apr 30, 2019 00:49
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re: lockwashers, are you referring to the ones on the shunt? Those are the same material as the shunt that they came with. I may talk to ground control and see if they'll swap me some softer springs, as the ride overall is stiffer than I'd like for a daily driver. In the meantime I'll try letting some air out of the front. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Apr 30, 2019 |
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Apr 30, 2019 01:15
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How's this thing working out? Still vibratey?
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Aug 12, 2019 21:15
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Yeah that vibration never went away on its own and I haven’t been able to track it down. I tend to just shift at 3500 or so and live with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Since my last post, I got the alignment done and have been driving the car pretty much every day for about 3 months now. Handling is good with everything dialed in, but I did end up having to raise everything towards the upper end of the range to avoid hitting the bumpstops frequently. In other news, EV West’s advice that battery cooling would be wholly unnecessary was a bit ambitious. It is easy to get into warning light territory (battery temp >50C) driving the car hard or for a long time on a hot day. Plus it doesn’t cool down naturally very well, so drive to work -> park in the sun -> drive home tends to push it during the summer. To address this in the near term, I’ve installed a battery temperature gauge so I can see real time temps instead of just waiting for the warning light to come on. This required some creativity since the BMS doesn’t output temps on the CAN BUS. I programmed an Arduino to mimic a laptop over the BMS serial connection, periodically request battery temperatures, and drive an analog custom gauge from Speedhut. Install is nearly complete, just waiting on my buddy to 3D print the spacer I need to mount the gauge in the dash properly. Arduino is hidden under the false floor of the trunk:   Gauge is in F, was cheaper to let Speedhut use existing artwork they had for an intake temp gauge and just replace the label. My existing warning light comes on at 122F, and 140F is “danger danger car might catch fire” zone.   I’ve driven it about a week with the gauge connected. Typical day it will be around 80-85 when I leave the house, raise to 95-100 by the time I get to work, still be around 100 when I leave work, and hit 110 by the time I get home and park it in the shade. Then it cools off to 85 or so again over night. Cruising on flat ground, temps are stable when pulling <100 amps but anything over 200-300 and the temperature starts to creep up. With the gauge, this is manageable but any really spirited driving needs to be planned (ie don’t spin donuts and then need to drive 15 miles home on the highway). Basically it is easy to run the battery temp up pretty quickly but it takes hours and hours to cool down again. If I had know it would be this close to the limits I would have planned for and plumbed up cooling using the existing cooling loops in the battery modules. But now it’s too late for that, they’re sealed off and some permanently damaged from the install. So at best I could rig up a forced air cooling of the battery box, which might help manage temps a little while it’s parked. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Sep 4, 2019 |
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Sep 4, 2019 00:28
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I know on the Leaf there are a lot of complaints about the battery cooling. They just ended up bodging on a fan, but I think the Toyota system actually uses the HVAC from the car to heat/cool the batteries.
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Sep 7, 2019 10:21
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Somebody just linked this from the EV thread so I binged through the whole thread. Awesome project, car looks loving sick! It's pretty amazing how old cars could be electrified and kept on the road, especially once the EV equipment gets even more commodified. At least if you live somewhere with nn snow and everything doesn't rust to poo poo in 20 years  Seat Safety Switch posted:I know on the Leaf there are a lot of complaints about the battery cooling. They just ended up bodging on a fan, but I think the Toyota system actually uses the HVAC from the car to heat/cool the batteries. Yeah apparently the 1st Gen ones just murder the batteries. Tesla had water cooling though from the get go IIRC, so that might be possible to reuse. But even a fan could be good enough, some forced air could make a huge difference for cooling. As it is, the batteries seem to be sitting in an insulating box 
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Oct 25, 2019 11:10
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Maybe have a radiator fan pull air in from the cabin and exhaust it back out the side of the box? If you do this, you should definitely put an exhaust tip on the pipe.
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Oct 25, 2019 18:59
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Yeah my battery box design was not well optimized for cooling, based on advice from EV West that it wasn’t necessary for my application. I have a battery temp gauge now, and it’s fairly manageable to keep away from the danger zone. I don’t care too much about long term battery health, because in ~5 years or so when their capacity is degraded, I’ll end up buying newer cheaper batteries and re-doing the drive train anyway. I’ve got enough capacity that I’ll still be able to commute even if it’s reduced 30% or so.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:27
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bawfuls posted:
I love that this is your daily driver, that’s great
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Oct 26, 2019 05:07
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Total charging cost is <$40/month btw for anyone curious. My commute is about 36 miles round trip and I generally charge just at work during the day (rate is ~$0.19/kWh and it's mostly solar input mid-day). Long term goal is to buy a place and do a semi-diy solar+battery install at home, and the car will then run 100% on the sun. Really need to replace the seats though. The driver's in particular is stiff and pretty rough on my back. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Oct 26, 2019 |
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Oct 26, 2019 05:40
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Try a Miata seat until you get a chance to rebuild the stock Z seat. They're really common, small enough for 70s cars, and should be easy to adapt.
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Oct 26, 2019 06:03
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New seats who dis? I picked up these seats on Craigslist back in the fall for a song, but fitting them in the car was a bit of a challenge and I got busy with other things for awhile. I found some adapter plates/brackets meant for the S30 chassis which works ok, though it adds some height. I’ve had more time to work on projects during quarantine though, so this weekend I finally got the driver side seat in comfortably. The car is so small and new seats are tall, so I had to remove the rails to fit it in. Lucky for me the seat position is nearly perfect without rails. As you can see the upper portion of the seats are a bit wide. Ideally I’d like to shift the driver seat inboard about an inch, but that will require modifying the trans tunnel and a cut & weld of the bracket. In the meantime, this is way more comfortable and the lateral support is much better.  
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Apr 22, 2020 17:33
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I'm way late but; whoa this is awesome!
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Jun 12, 2020 03:01
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That reminds me - I forgot to ask: what are those seats out of? Aftermarket?
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Jun 12, 2020 17:37
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I got the seats on Craigslist. They are some kind of aftermarket seat the guy had picked up years ago for a project and then never used. No idea what brand. For $200 on craigslist they were a worthwhile upgrade, even though fitment isn't perfect.
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Jun 12, 2020 19:07
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This thing is awesome, I'm really happy to see more electric swaps these days. BTW, I'm gonna third or fourth the comments on those BMS connectors with the chopped up PCB, the real answer is to desolder the connector and then solder it into your own PCB, but I... ehh... guess it works how it is. It offends me professionally since I'm an electrical engineer, so it's like a Catholic priest looking at Piss Christ, but it does seem to work. I'm kinda disappointed professionals would tell you to do it that way though. Everything else looks pretty awesome, I would have recommended a different hydro crimper since they're all about the same price and a Best Choice Products 15 ton off Amazon goes up to 225mm2 cable but yours clearly did the job just fine so this is academic at best. On the drive vibration, what happens if you clutch in while driving and coast at the same speed, with the motor at the same RPM? Does the vibration go away or stay? If it stays, what happens if you let the motor slow down while coasting? That might help you narrow down whether it's the motor+flywheel+pressure plate vibrating, or the mating of the flywheel/pressure plate/clutch/trans.
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Jul 5, 2020 05:01
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Yeah, the chopped up PCBs is jank as hell, I'm not sure why they'd suggest this. Far better would be to just make a breakout PCB to the same dimensions and have it convert to a Molex connector or similar. I'm sure EV West have the capabilities to do this. Hell, if I had a board right here I could have design files done in a few hours. Boards would probably be about $2 each, with the Molex connector about the same price. If the Tesla connectors are unobtainable (doubtful, I've only seen them use OEM connector so far), then these could be recycled from the original boards.
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Jul 5, 2020 13:25
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A lot of dudes from the older generation are seemingly convinced that custom PCBs don't cost two dollars and arrive in a week from China.
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Jul 5, 2020 15:23
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Even if you want US-made boards, places like OSHpark can crank out pretty purple ones for about the same price. Not a benefit to me, as I have to ship them internationally either way. If someone sends me one of these boards, I'll make an open-source version available. I've got plenty of time this year, what with my industry being shut down until 2021 and all.
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Jul 5, 2020 15:47
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A custom board with a molex connector would be the better route and I have since learned there is another shop in the area which makes and sells them for Tesla batteries (of course they charge $30 each for this plug and play board: https://stealthev.com/product/tesla-model-s-x-battery-module-bms-cell-tap-board/) I commuted in the car daily for a year before COVID shut everything down and haven’t had any BMS connection issues in that time so I’m not going to mess with something that works for now. When I eventually do a refresh/upgrade, these batteries will get used as home energy storage for solar (at least that is my goal) and that’ll be a good opportunity to redo BMS connections.
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Jul 5, 2020 17:58
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Cool, good to know that a product already exists. Not sure what those PCB connectors are, but it looks like these guys have found out, and that they are avaiable. That board is like 100% what I would have done. Good for them!
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Jul 5, 2020 21:15
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Those red connectors are some weird thing only found in Tesla modules, hence the price tag on the StealthEV boards and the reason I couldn't just order new connectors on digikey. I assume StealthEV salvages the connectors from Tesla boards they remove during pack breakdowns. The vibration remains even when the clutch is disengaged. I could have sworn this was not the behavior a year ago when I was troubleshooting but whatever. I'm inclined to live with it for the foreseeable future as I have for the past year. Long term I'll do a drivetrain refresh and go to a direct drive setup with a higher voltage motor that doesn't need the transmission. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 22:36
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With the motor at high rpm clutch disengaged or with the motor back at low speed? One would lead me to think it's trans and driveshaft related, the other motor balance. I hate it when connectors are impossible to source like that. Worst thing ever.
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Jul 6, 2020 23:15
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The vibration is never noticeable at low motor rpm. It grows in proportion to motor speed.
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Jul 7, 2020 07:41
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