electric vehicle

Brakes: Positioning the Vacuum Pump

November 11, 2008

This has been sitting around in the garage for some time now begging to be installed. When we rushed to prepare for the EV demo, the brakes weren’t finished – they were hard-pressed to slow down one could say. As most cars have vacuum pumps for power-assisted breaking, it’s a must-have for my car too, [...]

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Battery Management and the Not-So Fat Controller

November 11, 2008

It’s finally arrived after a long, long wait for this thing in which the supplier admitted in a text message to me that he accidentally ‘blew it up’ when trialling it in his Mazda sports car (when I should have had it in my hot little hands by then). Oops, but that’s okay – the [...]

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Time To Get The Accessories Sorted and Install Safety Breaker

October 30, 2008

For accessories, a DC to DC converter (such as the Curtis 1410) is used to buck down the 144v (actually higher on peak charge) from the Thunderskys to an isolated 12-14 volt source for accessories such as lights, radios, airhoon, ahem I mean horn etc (which an alternator would otherwise handle in a gas car). [...]

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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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Engine Battery Layout Update

September 30, 2008

This has been somewhat of an issue as we have to fit in other components. The battery arrangement may now look like this, simply so as to fit the required batteries in the available space….

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Cool DC motors for Electric Vehicles – Kostov Elprom-EMS in my Starion EV

September 26, 2008

A lot of people are asking me where they can get the DC motor known as the Kostov. If you’ve found it difficult to obtain a Kostov, then you’re in luck; Elprom-ems, a Bulgarian motor company who have long been making fork-lift motors are stepping up their production of AC and DC motors specifically for [...]

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Thundersky Battery Management Has Arrived (Well, Almost)

September 15, 2008

What I mean is I’m still waiting for the master controller unit! The waiting-for-parts thing has been a big thorn in our sides. I sometimes wonder if this may be because our interstate supplier might like to corner the local market and serve his customers there first with their EV conversions. Ah, but perhaps I’m [...]

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Of Time & Its Distance: The Debate over Batteries & Range

September 12, 2008

I often get queries from people wanting a car conversion that’ll take them for hundreds of miles between re-charges. While technically it is possible with the latest batteries, we’re not quite there yet when it comes to cost-effectiveness and space. For day-to-day average driving, many folks do about 50-80 miles which is an achievable thing [...]

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[Video] Battery Assessment & Ripping Out the Dash

September 3, 2008

It’s been a long wait, but the Thundersky lithium 144v 160Ah batteries finally arrived! Now we have to set about determining the best configuration for the batteries in the engine bay and rear tank.

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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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