Geo Metro Eclectric Conversion Project

Update June 24th 2011 Electric car parking

2011-07-23T19:36:00.002-10:00

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/20110624_Electric_cars_may_park_without_fees_at_public_lots.html

QUESTION: Regarding your May 12 column on electric cars (is.gd/kokualine05122010), why are electric cars refused free parking at the city's Blaisdell Center parking lot?

Act 290 requires free parking in any state or county parking facility. However, the Blaisdell's attendant charged us $5 to park when we attended the Home, Garden & Remodeling Show. We explained that we believed the law required electric vehicles to get free parking, but the attendant vehemently demanded the $5 fee. She said she'd had the "same problem" the day before with another electric vehicle owner and that her supervisor had "clarified" that the law does not apply to that parking lot. What is going on? Also, where exactly in the Hawaii Revised Statutes is the law that covers free parking for electric cars?

ANSWER: You should have been allowed to park for free, said Louise Kim McCoy, press secretary for Mayor Peter Carlisle. "The city is aware of Act 290, but because the parking lot at the Blaisdell Center is operated by a concession, there may have been some confusion, which has since been clarified," she said.

Owners of electric vehicles that have the proper electric vehicle license plate, who attended the Home, Garden & Remodeling Show and who can demonstrate they were charged for parking, will be reimbursed, Kim McCoy said.

Act 290 became Sections 291-71 and 291-72 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

That law says private lots will also have to provide spaces for electric vehicles, albeit not necessarily free parking: "All public, private, and government parking facilities that are available for use by the general public and have at least one hundred parking spaces shall designate one per cent of parking spaces exclusively for electric vehicles by December 31, 2011. … When the number of registered electric vehicles in the State reaches five thousand, the spaces designated for electric vehicles shall increase to two per cent of parking spaces. The number of spaces designated for electric vehicles shall continue to increase by one per cent for each additional five thousand electric vehicles registered in the State until the percentage reaches ten per cent of parking spaces."

Beginning Jan. 1, those parking a nonelectric vehicle in a space designated for electric vehicles will receive a warning. Beginning July 1, 2013, doing so will be deemed a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of $50 to $100.

From the StarAdvertiser Kokua Line Re: Parking 5/12/2011

2011-07-23T16:57:00.002-10:00

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/20110512_Bus_seats_temporarily_blocked_because_of_ADA_requirements.html

Question: Regarding your April 29 column on electric cars: Can you let your readers know that both the parking provisions and the HOV provisions of Act 290 are still in effect? And, it’s not just parking in metered spaces that’s free — it’s parking in any state or county parking facility.

Answer: You are correct on both counts.

The state Department of Transportation had told us there never was a “perk” regarding electric vehicles using high-occupancy-vehicle lanes and pointed out the failed attempt in the Legislature this year to allow “EVs” that could go at least 55 mph to use those HOV lanes.

However, state Rep. K. Mark Takai, who drives an electric vehicle, said the “law is very clear” on the HOV use, as well as the “total access” to parking at state and county facilities, not just at metered stalls. The intent of Act 290 is that there should be free parking in all those facilities, including the airport and convention center, he said.

Asked again about the HOV exemption, the DOT’s Highways Division acknowledged that electric vehicles are allowed to use HOV lanes without any restriction.

“Only Section 5 (dealing with a waiver of vehicle registration and license plate fees) was sunsetted in 2002,” a DOT spokesman said.

However, “It’s important to note that Act 290 only applies to 100 percent electric vehicles that have a special ‘Electric Vehicle’ license plate attached to it … but does not apply to gas-electric hybrids or alternative-fuel vehicles,” he said.

With this special license plate, electric vehicles are allowed to use HOV lanes, as well as park for free in all state and county facilities, he said. The free parking does not extend to federal facilities.

At the end of 2010, there were 271 electric vehicles registered in the state: 152 in the City and County of Honolulu, 41 in Hawaii County, 12 in Kauai County and 66 in Maui County, according to the DOT.

I'm selling a DCDC converter I don't need

2011-05-28T12:28:00.002-10:00

No Gas

2011-01-28T19:14:00.002-10:00

I was shown this car located at Interisland Solar a couple of years ago. I was back there today and took a couple of pictures. This would have been one of the first electric cars in Oahu. The Licence plate reads "NO GAS"

Electric car rally

2010-12-29T18:50:00.004-10:00

Tomorrow there is an electric car rally.
http://gogeogo.com/electriccarrallyhawaii/ I have been invited to participate. I want to give a little blurb on the car:
Project name: Geo Metro Eclectric Conversion
Car: 1993 Geo Metro Manual 2 door
Conversion time: some work most weekends for 3 months
First driven as electric: Jan 27th 2008
Motor: ES-15A Series Motor 40 HP Peak - 12 HP Cont.
Batteries: Hi-power Lithium LIFEPO4 100 amp hour 72 volt capacity 7 KW hours
Range: 30 miles

Drive train uses existing manual transmission with no clutch.

2010-09-17T19:07:00.001-10:00

Electric cars are cool now:

Featuring my Geo at the opening of GEO

2010-08-16T19:19:00.003-10:00

Green Energy Oulet, http://www.gogeogo.com had thier grand opening on Saturday. The local paper showed up and ended up putting a picture of me and the Geo in the Sunday paper.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100815_Green_means_go_as_high-voltage_vehicles_hit_isles.html

2010-06-15T21:26:00.003-10:00

I am selling my BMS charger on EV trading post. Here are some photos:

2010-05-14T19:00:00.002-10:00

Some images from inside the PSUs I am working with to make a new charger.

Electric vehicles to be made in Hawaii - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL Home

2010-05-07T19:12:00.000-10:00

This is great to see!

Electric vehicles to be made in Hawaii - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL Home

Work on new charger for lithium pack

2010-05-03T13:02:00.004-10:00

I wired up and tested the voltage on thepower supplies I got in from China. I was able to adjust the voltage to the corrct level with the power supplies wired in series.

Wind Power

2010-03-15T20:16:00.002-10:00

Found this house with a sizable vertical access wind turbin not far from where I live on Dole st.

Be great to use that to charge my car

Sticky pots

2010-03-07T10:06:00.003-10:00

I finally figured out how to simply solve a niggling problem I have had with the Metro for a long time. When the the car has not been driven for a day or more, when I first start out, the acceleration would be jerky. This is especially problematic for reversing, since it reverses fast. After I would drive a little while it would be nice and smooth. What I tried (and it worked), was to pump the accelerator pedal 20 times before turning on the car. Voila, smooth acceleration from the get go. So nice to solve this issue!

Packaging lithium packs

2009-05-20T16:42:00.004-10:00

This is an image of the plates that I had cut at Honolulu community college. They were very helpful and did an excellent job. All the corners were rounded so they were ready to be installed.

I ended up using the original angle iron to secure this pack. It was actually very easy to do all I needed to do was put one plate underneath the pack. Then I put one plate on top of the pack and secured it the way it was secured before.

The pack of 10 batteries that are In the rear of the vehicle were more challenging. I bought some metal strapping from the hardware store and then used some bolts to pull the strapping tight. The metal is a thin gauge so I used four straps. It ended up being easier than I thought it might have been. Once I tightened up the straps it looked like it was very secure and would prevent any swelling of the cells.

Now I am waiting for the replacement cell from China. It should be in within two weeks, at which point I will be able to get the car back on the road.

First time on lithium power

2009-03-15T20:48:00.004-10:00

Rear batteries

Front batteries

This is the first drive time on the lithium battteries. I finally have an outlett I can plug the car into. Big mahalo to Eric from Sunetric for wiring up the outlet. The charger draws 25 amps, so I could not use a standard outlet or extension cord. My first driving was unexentful, I do feel that the car is lighter.

There are 14 cells up front and 10 cells in the rear. I am using the same front to rear cables as before.

2008-11-09T20:20:00.002-10:00

It's been way too long since I posted here....
Big news: I ordered lithium batteries from China. They should be in within 2 months. I am hoping to get 25 - 30 mile range once I have the new pack in.

Earthday festivities

2008-04-22T20:20:00.002-10:00

I took the car up to KCC for their sustainability festival. Here is the news story which includes a couple of clips of the Metro:

Battery tests

2008-04-19T07:28:00.001-10:00

One of the folks at DeltaQ (where my charger is from) was kind enough to forward me this battery testing procedure. I am going to try it out today:

- The battery packs health can be determined with these tests:

1) Charge pack until green LED is on solid, then wait a few (>2) hours and measure the voltage of each battery. Voltage level indicates state of charge. i.e. Lowest voltage indicates battery with lowest charge.

2) Drive car around for a while to drain the batteries a bit, then wait a few (>2) hours and measure the voltage of each battery. Voltage level now indicates a batteries capacity. i.e. Biggest voltage drop compared to readings taken in step one indicate which battery has the least capacity.

3)Load batteries by turning on heater or minimum throttle and measure the voltage of each battery. The drop in battery voltage indicates internal resistance. i.e. Battery with biggest voltage drop compared to readings taken in step two has the highest internal resistance.

Batteries with lowest charge/least capacity/highest resistance are the weakest ones and should be replaced if performance is subpar, however, replacing all batteries at once for matched performance always gives the best chance of extending the life of each battery.

Pretty Plates

2008-04-08T20:05:00.003-10:00

I got all my ducks in a row and picked up my "ELECTRIC VEHICLE" plates.
I needed a new saftey inspection, the new weight certificate, and the paper from the DOT certifying the car as all electric. Went down to the satellite city hall and got set up. I wonder how many other cars in Oahu have these plates??

I got

Weighing in

2008-04-02T22:31:00.002-10:00

As part of the registration process I needed to have my car weighed. Here I am at the Toledo scale. The other part of the process is a new safey inspection and a a document from the DOT stating that it has been verified as an electric vehicle. I have that document. Now all I need is safety inspection.

Inside, in the AC comfort you can see that she comes in at a very trim 1840 lb. Only 90 lbs heavier than what is shown on the registration (1750 lbs)

Longest trip

2008-03-16T22:36:00.002-10:00

I went 27 miles on a charge, but I had to stop to let the batteries recover, and limped in at about 20 mph max speed. Seems like anything over 22 mies is pushing the limit. Otherwise everything is running good. I am working on a vacuum system for the brakes.

The stats

2008-02-24T08:31:00.001-10:00

I created a spreadsheet to track the energy use of the Metro. It can be viewed here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pqkXLgw4FcoLQX9v1NgZjbQ&hl=en

What the.....

2008-02-19T20:05:00.003-10:00

What you see here on the right is a relay. On the left is a 1000 ohm 10 watt resistor. It's wired so that when the key goes to the first position the circuit across the contactor is opened through the resistor. That way there is no sudden rush of current through the contactor when I turn the key to the second position. I did this because the contactor had stuck a couple of times.

I'm on the third charge cycle. After 21 miles my hydrometer read 1.185, which would normally be about 45% charge. This may be close. I could have up to about 9 KWH of capacity in my battery pack. I put 5.54 KWH of juice in on this cycle. That = .26 KWH/mile. I will try to go around 30 miles on the next charge, monitoring with the hydrometer, and see how it goes.

I'm figuring out the shifting. I'm driving mostly in 3rd, then at about 30 I can pull it out of gear and it slides easily into 5th.
It has good pick-up and is fun to drive.

How much per mile?

2008-02-11T22:48:00.000-10:00

Here is my preliminary calculation;
I used a device called a "Kill-o-watt" to measure how much Juice came out of the wall.
After a full charge I drove 9 miles. Then I did another full charge. the meter said that I used 2.55 kilowatt hours.
My electric bill says I pay about 20 cents/kilowatt hour. So the 9 miles used about 51 cents.
So around 6 cents a mile.
If I got 40 miles/gallon at $3.30 gallon that would be 8.25 cents a mile. Not a huge difference.

Moving out

2008-02-11T22:39:00.000-10:00

Saturday
We wanted to build a box for the rear batteries and install the on board chargers before the final move out. Here is the box open:
and closed:
Matt found a great place to install the on board charger on a plate at the front of the engine compartment.Can you see Matt's fingers, putting in one of the final bolts?

The Maiden voyage

2008-01-27T20:51:00.000-10:00

Saturday

We have the batteries secured in the front and are preparing to wire the final cables.Looks like rush hour around the controller with all the wires and cables.
The safety recommendations are to place plywood over areas not being worked on to prevent accidental shorts.
Also to be safe, before the final wiring we put the car up on blocks: just in case something unpredictable happened.
OK, all wired up, everything double checked. Key in the ignition, turn the key: NOTHING. The contactor did not close the 72 volt circuit. We got out the volt meter and tested the current to the contactor. It had 12 volts. We had tested the contactor before installing, and it made a healthy click when wired to 12 volts. We are scratching our heads. We gave Wilderness EV a call, and were lucky to reach them on the weekend. They said to test the circuit with a light bulb. Luckily Matt had a light probe in his bag of tricks. We tested the wiring we were using and sure enough, not enough current to light the bulb. We then started testing other unused wires, until we found one that lit up the light probe nicely. We wired the contactor to the good wire.
Maiden Voage take 2: Key in the ignition, turn the key: volt gauge reads 72 volts. Put the transmission in 2nd gear, push on the accelerator pedal, the wheels turn. High fives!!
We take the blocks out clean up and get ready for the first drive.
Here we are breaking the bottle over the bow before it slides into it's first trip.
We climb in, buckle up. Turn the key, 72 volts on the meter. 2nd gear, let out on the emergency break. Push on the accelerator, and start gliding out of the carport in almost total silence. Our trip starts with a steep downhill. The brakes without the vacuum pump need a lot of force. Then a stop sign, total silence. Pull away smoothly. The controller is functioning nicely with the motor. We cruise around for about 5 minutes, on the uphill the Amp guage goes up to about 300 amps.
On flats about 50 to100 amps. We reverse it back into the car port. The reverse seems a little trickier to control.
I turn the key off. Still have 72 volts. uh oh! For some reason the contactor is not releasing the 72 volt circuit. We unplug it, still 72 volts. we take of one of the cables to break the circuit, and then remove the contactor. We test it and now it seems to work.
Well almost a completely successful test drive. I am contacting Wilderness EV to see if they have a solution for us.

Sunday:
We spent the morning getting the rear battery rack ready. We will construct a plywood box to go over these batteries.

Secure batteries

2008-01-22T13:01:00.000-10:00

We used some threaded rod and various bits and pieces to secure batteries. On the right you can see the new battery for the 12 V system.
We were able to reuse this gromet to protect the wires where they go through the firewall towards the 3 batteries in the rear.

Moving right along

2008-01-20T07:53:00.001-10:00

Saturday morning we jumped right in to more wiring.

This is the throttle box , which I just finished mounting on the left side of the engine compartment behind the battery rack on
We ran the 3 wires from the shunt to the guages through the fire wall. We used the same grommet as the other wires coming from the cabin. One of the wires will be connected to the negative side of the battery string.

This shows the wires coming from the throttle box (black and white) and one wire from the shunt(red/black).The next sequence shows us preparing the terminals.

Strip the cable and insert it into the terminal.
Place it in the crimping tool.
Pound it with a sledge hammer until the gauge on the tool shows it is far enough down.Heat shrink tubing applied.
Here you can see the cables for the motor installed on the controller.

What's under the hood

2008-01-18T17:15:00.000-10:00

I have had a few people ask about what components I am using.
Most are from a kit from Wilderness EV:
1. ES-15A Series Motor 40 HP Peak - 12 HP Cont.
2. Alltrax 7245 (72 vdc/450 amp) controller
3. Adapter Plate
4. Shaft Coupler
5. 0-5k Throttle Box
6. Contactor - Kilovac EV200 (2000 amp rupture 200 amp cont.)
7. 0-150 VDC Volt Meter
8. 0-500 Amp Meter
9. Gauge Holder Bracket
10. 50mv - 500 Amp Shunt
11. 32 ft of #2/0 ga. Wire Cable
12. 12 - High Current Ring Terminals
13. 24-Battery Cable Terminals
14. Fuse - 500 amp slow blow
15. 12 Volt Battery Charger

From Canadian Electric Vehicles:
QuiQ™ 72 V Battery Charger

From Sam's Club
6 29-DC 12 volt lead acid batteries
1 small 12 volt deep cycle sealed lead acid battery

Donor Vehicle
93 Geo Metro 2 door

Batteries are in

2008-01-17T22:25:00.000-10:00

Here are the new batteries still in the trunk of the Benz.

Don't they look prouder in an Electric Vehicle ? Putting some heat shrink tubing on a battery terminal.
Here is a before and after of the cable.

Controller goes in

2008-01-13T20:05:00.000-10:00

We secured and wired the contrller shunt and contactor in place. We made bars of copper to wire them as we thought this would be more solid and compact. We wired the contactor to the coil wire so that it will get 12 volt current when the Key is switched on.

The batteries are ordered and will be ready for pickup on Monday.

Laying cable

2008-01-07T18:32:00.000-10:00

On Sunday we put the final touches on the throttle by fabricating a part to hold the cable, images will follow soon. We then started to pull out the center console to see where we might run the cable to the rear batteries. Then we realized it was a bigger project than we realized, and there was allready a nice hole in the firewall we could use. After lunch we took the 2 free ends of the 2/0 cable and ran it under the carpet, and under the back seat into the trunk area where we will have 3 batteries. It went much quicker than we expected.
One other item we took care of was connecting 2 of the contacts on the motor that need to be connected. We hammered out flat one of the copper connectors, drilled new holes in it and bolted it down on the motor. one more little detail taken care of. To finish up we shared the nerd joke of the day: "We are getting down to the wire".

Devil is in the Details

2008-01-05T13:50:00.000-10:00

On Thursday we looked at how we would put the guages in and made some final adjustments to the battery rack. The clearance between the rack and the motor mount plate was a little tight, so we ground some material off the mount plate. We also fixed the hood release, it needed to have a spring replaced.
On Saturday we finished the mounting of the plate that will hold the controller and we mounted the gauges in the dash and ran the wires for their illumination. We tapped into the dimmer control wires. Our first attempt gave us unintended results. When the dimmer was low the lights were bright, and visa versa. We had to change the wires we used, then it worked fine. We went nautical with the right hand gauge green (starboard) and the left hand gauge red (port).
Then some 2 sided tape to mount them in front of the old gas and temperature gauges. They are looking good!!

It's a puzzle

2007-12-30T18:51:00.000-10:00

It's a puzzle, but the pieces seem to be coming together. I rounded up some scrap metal from 3 old bed frames to use for battery racks. On Thursday Matt and I sized up where we could put battery racks. We cut the pieces and positioned it in a place where we could use existing bolt attachments in the frame.

I am using a skill saw with a grinder like blade to cut the angle iron:

We had thought about welding it, but were worried about having enough power for the welder. I picked up nuts and bolts and a cobalt drill bit and on Saturday we bolted it together. We then added a another peice of angle iron closer to the firewall to hold one more battery. So at this point we are ready for 3 batteries. Three others will go in the back.Matt had a hitchhiker on his tool bag:

Sunday: Ready to figure out where to put the controller. I got a piece of aluminum to serve as both a heat sink and a place to mount the controller. We tossed around many ideas, and finally decided to mount the plate on the rear angle iron and use one of the bolt holes in the firewall as a third point. We are also planning on mounting the contactor and the shunt on the aluminum plate. Here is where we will mount the plate:We also spent a lot of time figuring out where to put the throttle box. We actually never did figure out where to put it, but we decided to incorporate the cable holder so that we can place where we want as one unit:

We got busy

2007-12-23T08:10:00.000-10:00

On Saturday we started out by trying to remove all the clutch components. We were able to take out most of the components but not the shaft that drops down into the bell hosing. We will be welding that into place so that it cannot move.
Next step was trying to get the shaft coupler to slide easily on to the shaft. We cleaned up the shaft, greased up the parts and slid it on. It stopped at a certain point like the week before. Then we tried rotating it. Bingo, it slid right on. So we just noted the angle so that when we were ready to slide it on with the motor attached it would slide right in.
We bolted the adapter plate to the motor with 4 bolts.
We then measured how far down the electric motor shaft we would position the coupler. We put a stack of washers at the bottom of the adapter plate so that we could slide the coupler down that distance.
We next attempted to put the key in the keyway.
The Key was too big, just barely. We decided too try so sand it down a little so that it would fit:
To our surprise we were able to sand it down enough so that it would fit. (After 2 sanding sessions). We then slid the coupler down the shaft and tightened up the set screw.
With everthing in place we slid the motor into place. We found that we had to come from underneath to get enough clearance.
The motor was in place but the bolt holes did not line up. OUCH!

There is one bolt that sticks out of the transmission. We decided the best option was to make that hole bigger.
We took the motor off, and went to town with the dremmel with a little grinding tip.
Next attempt with the motor had 2 of the holes lining up nice and one still a little off. We decided to go with this, and use a smaller bolt in the hole that was not lining up.
We took the original engine mount arm and put it in position to see how we might be able to use it to secure the electric motor. Lo and behold with some small modifications we could bolt on the motor with some extra washers. We drilled 2 new holes, which was fairly easy through the cast aliminum.
We bolted in the modified mounting arm and now the whole transmission motor unit feels very solid.
Wow, we made some solid progress today. We were at it for about 5 1/2 hours.
Next up battery racks.

At long last.

2007-12-16T12:31:00.001-10:00

At long last we got the shipment of parts in, although we are still missing the "contactor". That will be arriving soon. We were hoping to get the motor hooked up today but we ran into a couple of snags. We found that the shaft coupler (see photo and video) would only slide onto the shaft so far and then stop. We are checking with Wilderness EV to see if this is normal. We also needed bolts to attach the adapter plate to the motor. The other snag is that the motor mount that was sent from CEV was the wrong size.

We ended up cleaning up the transmission and getting the gauges ready, figured out what sizes of bolts we would need and called it a day.

More ICE components ripped out

2007-10-21T13:46:00.000-10:00

We got another early start this morning. We removed the gas tank. 4 bolts hold it in place and several hoses. Nothing overly challenging. We jacked the car up and put it on blocks to get underneath it. Then supported the tank on the jack while we removed the bolts. Then lowered it down, and poured the remaining fuel into a Jerry can.

We then removed the exaust system. We had to break out the Dremmel grinding tool to get the rear joint appart.
I now have an engine in both the front and rear of my Mercedes. I am ready to take that puppy to the iron recycler. One more picture is what it now looks like in the engine compartment.

ICE engine out of there

2007-10-17T12:27:00.000-10:00

Last night we tackled removing the ICE engine. At one point it felt like it was tackling us. First I had to make a run to the hardware store for a cheater bar and a socket to remove one of the bolts. Then the engine just did not want to squeeze out of there. We finally removed one of the mountings of the trans axle in order to pull it out. Where does it go? Ace Iron, to get melted down. We had the help of a couple of neighbors, Noa and Nelson to move the engine away from the vehicle, big Mahalos, guys! I have the kit ordered from Wilderness EV. It has to ship through California so it will take a while to get here.

My other car is a Mercedes

2007-10-15T22:28:00.001-10:00

Ever see one of those bumper stickers?

Well in my case it's actually true. I drive a 1981 240D which runs on waste vegtable oil.

Check out my video on youtube:

The project begins

2007-10-14T14:42:00.001-10:00

Matt and I brought the car to the car port where we will be doing the conversion. We got an early start, broke the tools out and started preparing to take ICE engine out. Things went petty smooth, we realized we did not have a 10 mm socket that slowed down things a bit.
. We have a Chilton manual and were more or less following the directions there. The major roadblock we hit was taking off the exhaust, as the bolts would not move. We eventually resorted to breaking out the Dremmel and cutting through the bolts.
We have a block and tackle set up so next time we are going to pull out the engine. Guys, wipe those grins off your faces, this is supposed to be hard work. We put in about 4 hours today.