EV

On Tuesday, Greg Frenette, manager of Ford's Global Electrified Fleets, came to UCF with a prototype Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid Electic Vehicle (PHEV) to show off their new solar EV charging station. I had received an invitation via Facebook, and I planned to show up early and charge my home-built EV in the new spaces. I figured I'd be available if there was a problem, and Silent E would likely get a picture with Ford's prototype. I had even washed and waxed her for the event.

Unfortunately, one of my children got sick, and I had to take her to the doctor. I didn't have time to attend the photo-op, but I did go to the lecture.

And thus began the adventure.

Today I went out to fix my car. Tomorrow is my approximate birthday, and we'll have some sort of event, so I won't have time then. On March 2nd UCF unveils its Ford Escape plug-in hybrid and solar recharging station, and I want to bring Silent E. So this is my last chance.

I started trying to find the short by tracing the wires from the contactors all the way around to their origin. Since the car is low to the ground, and I'm 6'2", this is back-breaking labor. I kept at it for about an hour and a half, verifying with the multimeter that I was looking at the right wires.

Having found that the ignition wire was ground all the time, I went to the dashboard. In minutes I had ascertained the problem.

A combination of cold, work, and family events has prevented me from working on my car lately. After Kayla dinged my nice paint job with the door of our other car, I cleaned out my side of the garage and moved Silent E where she'd be safe.

After a quick 1.5A refresh charge, I figured I'd take another shot at rescuing my two leftover batteries. They'd gone bad when I had my motor disaster, as you recall. Sometimes, if you use high voltage and low current, you can get the battery back.

The first battery seemed to work overnight! It was at 13 volts the next morning. I may be able to up my range a little, or replace that one battery that's driving me nuts! I plugged the second battery in and left it overnight.

The next morning I kept waking up, wondering what the horrible smell was. I thought a cat had been incontinent right in the room. It was terrible. Eri woke up once, too; she asked if I had been farting. When she mentioned it smelled like rotten eggs, a light went off: sulfur!

A friend of mine, Clark, is really impressed with my EV. He's been telling all his friends about it.

One of his friends runs RubeLab, an environmental invention club. When they put in their solar charging station, I really wanted to be there, but I couldn't make it: they're all the way in Eustis.

Apparently, they're having an EV rally on March 20th. There will be a 15-mile scavenger hunt, with charging at the stops. The director called me at home to ask if I could attend.

I accepted, of course! Now I just need to get a hitch on my van so I can tow Silent E there!

Yesterday was not a good day for Silent E. We were stopped in the bumper-to-bumper single-lane rush-hour line inside UCF when she quit on me altogether.

Oh, did I mention it was raining?

As I gently pressed the pedal to start creeping, I heard the contactors open and saw the "check engine" light come on.

I never wired the check engine light to anything. Clearly, the car was mocking me.

Luckily a policeman stopped to help out before the traffic backed up behind me became violent. We pushed it up a nearby driveway. He wanted to give me a jump-start. I assured him that none of the things that work for a gas car would help me and that I would be fine. Then I called Eri to explain that I would be late for dinner. Before calling AAA for a tow, I broke out my trusty voltmeter and started debugging.