Judebert.com (Entries tagged as batteries)

Silent E for Sale

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:47:38 -0400

For Sale: $5000

Would you like to buy an 'O'? Round, and neat: a nearly perfect circle, tidy and complete...

Seriously, I'm selling my EV. I'm moving, and I don't have the time to fix it up and take it with me.

The entire saga of Silent E's rise and fall are detailed on this very site. It's cost me more than $9000 to make, with around $7000 dollars of good parts in it. Not to mention a new paint job. I'm asking $5000.

More details? Sure, read on.

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Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Decommissioned

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:29:00 -0400

I still haven't fixed the batteries, and insurance is expensive, so...

Today we decommissioned Silent E.

I'm saving up for a lithium-ion pack. Maybe I can get some of those new ones, with the polymer anode, that store six times the energy. That would be awesome.

I haven't turned in the plate yet, but we've cancelled the insurance. Yes, I "Killed the Electric Car".

BUT! She will rise again!

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Third Birthday

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:26:00 -0400

I've always considered Independence Day to be Silent E's birthday.

This makes it her third, and I'm sorry to say it hasn't been a happy one. The most recent battery problem has sidelined her while I decide what to do next.

Obviously, the right thing to do is to replace the battery pack. But the original pack suffered from two problems: insufficient capacity and clamp-on terminals. I believe -- without much evidence, I must admit -- that the clamps to the 2/0 wires are the source of a lot of heat, and it's killing batteries. However, switching to higher-capacity batteries means rebuilding the battery boxes. And switching to screw-on terminals means rebuilding all the wires. And returning to 144V means buying a bunch of new regulators (I've blown up a bunch of mine).

If I'm going to go to that expense, I may as well go for some serious range. I'm considering large AGMs, or even lithium. I've run some numbers, and I've discovered that about 200Ah in a 144V battery pack will get me close to 100 miles.

All I have to do is sell all my spare internal organs. Or make it big with an iPhone app in a difficult economy.

Well, happy birthday anyway, Silent E. I promise to get you back on the road as soon as I can afford it.

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Meltdown

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:05:08 -0500

I lost another battery; I'm down to 8, the bare minimum. (My voltage converter will reportedly die if I try to run it under 96V.) This one literally melted.

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Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Stink

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:35:00 -0500

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!

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Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Burning Plastic

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:24:19 -0500

Lately I've been smelling something burning. At first I thought it was the dust on my heater core, since I've been using it a little bit lately. But no, the smell persists even with the heater off.

Then I realized that the smell started when I opened the rear battery box. Sure enough, some of my homemade coroplast terminal protectors are melting.

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Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Smart Charger vs. Dumb Batteries

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:23:00 -0400

Because I built for reliability, I invested about $2000 in a battery management system (BMS). It includes a "smart" charger (the PFC-20) and regulators that monitor the state of each battery, communicating with the charger when unusual conditions occur. This system keeps the charger from damaging the batteries with improper charging (especially overcharging).

But everything needs to be set up and calibrated to work properly. And I'm having problems accomplishing that.

Maybe it's because of a dumb operator, but I'm blaming it on dumb batteries. Read the rest of this (very long) entry to see what I've been doing for the past three months now.

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