battery

Safety Last?

July 23, 2009

When it comes to EVs, some back-yarders may well be up there with the Harold Lloyd types, dangling on a high voltage precipice. What am I on about? You’ll recall my expensive BMS master controller I griped on about some time ago – it handles the high current charging brought into the car via a [...]

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Peak Lithium 2015?

June 18, 2009

Mitsubishi knows full-well that it may be a possibility, as they themselves have stated recently that lithium demand will outstrip supply as early as 2015. While we all expect and hope that prices will fall as production and popularity of EVs increase, prices could possibly rise instead, forcing us to other automobile alternatives (air-compression technology [...]

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Ya Gotta Love Panel Beaters

June 18, 2009

The guard on my car needs a fix after a bump – oops – a simple job one would expect, but shopping around for a good panel beater is difficult as most don’t want to guarantee their workmanship on anything that could bring on the slightest hint of rust. I have a spare guard but [...]

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My Breaker Broke :-(

April 11, 2009

My Airpax breaker, the main breaker switch, now has a busted switch-arm (I’ll save you the painful images). Just a few test throws under tension, the supposedly strong Bakelite switch arm shattered. The Airpax breaker is expensive, and we’ll have to see if it’s still under warranty as I paid for this some time ago. [...]

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Echo and the Funny Men

February 5, 2009

While my car waits for some final parts, the Echo conversion is progressing well and we hope to have it drivable very soon. There’s an EV show coming up and the Echo will be perfect for it, taking pride of place amongst the smaller vehicles and some funny guys riding funny go-carts etc – yet [...]

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Hey, What’s the Problem, Jackass? Gas Prices Have Chilled!

November 5, 2008

Funny how some humans have such short term cerebral attributes. Maybe it’s because we’re all so busy worrying about today (nothing new there). Yes the price of gas has gone down and yes the global economic downturn is responsible. Hmmm…, conundrum, which came first; the oily chicken or the oily egg?

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Battery Balancing Time – and ‘Why Thundersky?’ Someone Asks…

October 10, 2008

A few people are asking me why I have chosen Thundersky Lithiums over conventional lead-acid deep cycle batteries. Firstly, lithium phosphates are lighter than deep-cycles, and Lithium polymers are even lighter again, approximately half the weight of the phosphates, making them useful for a variety of applications other than just electric vehicles, such as electric [...]

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Battery Assessment, Rip out Dash & Install Heater Core

September 2, 2008

Determining Battery Installation Now the batteries have arrived we can get down to determining installation configuration. Thunderskies have ribbed sides for a reason; so when stacked there is airflow between the batteries. Some configurations I have seen ignore this and batteries are staggered flat together which is not cool as they can get warm!

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Battery Delivery Delay, Rear Battery Tank Construction Progresses

August 15, 2008

They Charged Me for Batteries, So Where Are They? The shipping container has arrived in the country, but apparently (and not surprisingly) other people have similar orders, so distribution across this large ‘continent’ will take a bit of time (the Olympics had already added some delays). When they arrive I’ll add to the next video [...]

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Rear Battery Tank Welded

July 23, 2008

Partly Completed Now the welding is partly completed for the battery compartment and positioned under the cut-out as shown below. As you can see, the mounting lip is yet to be done and welded to the hatch area floor. The tank should sit at the same drop-depth as the original gas tank, as shown in [...]

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Tire Well Removed, Ready for Battery Tank

July 21, 2008

Holy Hatch! Gas tank removed at last! Nathan’s now cut out the tire well for the battery compartment. It’s quite large. You can see from the image how the wheel arches affect available space. The beauty with the Starion is that there is a more room to play with for housing batteries, a charger unit [...]

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The Batteries I’ll Use

July 12, 2008

Thundersky Lithium Batteries After looking at various battery types such as deep cycle lead acids, I decided to go with Thundersky Lithiums as on spec they provide stability, longer range and a much longer cycle life. Hope to get over ten years of life with proper battery management. News about the nano-titanate batteries are promising [...]

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