ev

Time to Look at Curtis Cooling

December 9, 2008

Although mentioned previously, we’ve had to put it aside while working out where everything else is going to fit. As you know, the Curtis has a bunch of MOSFETS inside, ‘sinked’ to the base of the housing. Although efficiency can be improved in a controller design, simple immediate solutions can involve better cooling. Some folks [...]

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Hard Pressed to Get the Message Across

December 5, 2008

That being the press this time, but you have to hand it to them for making the effort to grasp the latest technologies without adding pre-conceived cynicism in a minefield of broken promises and dead-end projects that seem to litter the EV horizon. The better end of town, namely the professional technology arena as well [...]

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Power Steering & Air Con Drive Test

December 2, 2008

After painting everything nicely, Nathan finalizes the positioning of the support posts and tightens all the nuts and supporting spacers on our retro-fitted belt-driven power steering/air con ‘module’, as we like to call it.

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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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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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[Video] Electric Starion at the AEVA Electric Car Show

October 23, 2008

Now Drivable – but early days yet… The Electric Starion is now at a drivable state and we take her for a spin at the annual electric car show in Sydney.

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Power Steering & Air Conditioning Mounts

October 13, 2008

Naturally I’m not going to have just a basic EV, the complete picture just like any other car is required and this includes air conditioning and power steering. From Video#3 you will have seen the AC driver motor for the power steer and air-con. The following images show the metal-cutouts and fit tests where it [...]

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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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[Video] Battery Management & Rack Construction

September 23, 2008

It’s taken a bit of preparation time, which is essential rather than diving in to find something we’ve done is not quite right – both Nathan and I have been guilty in the past of making stuff only to discover a better way of doing it….

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