Thursday 25 September 2008

Workshop Manual for Hilux.

There is a workshop manual for a 93 Hilux / Tacoma availabe for download http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/


Gotta love the internet!

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Sparky Bro going nuts on my balancing scooter. aka segway

We had a very pleasant visit from Sparky Bro and his family this evening and enjoyed discussing EVs and industrial AC conversions in particular. Before leaving he had to have the mandatory ride on my scooter. :)


50 x balance systems.

Here are a few snaps of my battery balance system construction. they consist of 2 x terminals, 2 x 6.8v Zeners and one 4.7 Ohm resistor. Each series is encased in clear heatshrink.



Under construction. The wooden block is a jig for aligning the pieces for soldering
Completed units - no heatshrink
Completed units, with heatshrink.




Monday 22 September 2008

Batteries Arrived - port and final costs.

I picked up my batteries from the port last week.

3 tips if you go to the ports.
1. Wear a fluro vest
2. They don't load vans with a forklift
3. You are not supposed to break down packages for loading.

None of this was a problem but I will keep it in mind if the is a next time.

So... the final outcome

55 batteries AU$2290.48
Bank Fee AU$ 20.00
GST and Duty AU$ 423.77
Customs Agent AU$ 137.5
Port Fees AU$ 248.05
TOTAL AU$ 3119.08
or $56.72 each. 

They came in Under $60 so I am happy.

Now  to call about my battery box.



Tuesday 9 September 2008

Donate button

Not to be outdone by Kearon of EV Capri I have added a donate button.

Instead of paying money to offset your greenhouse emissions to an anonymous company, how about donating it to me. :)

Comments please?

I figured out why no comments were being left. The option was turned off.

Please comment all you like!

De-Bogan

I have removed the tinting from the windows to make the Hilux look a bit less bogan. I can see into the windows now. When it was on the road I would wave at friends and they wouldn't even be able to see me.

It was not has difficult as I had expected. After using a blade to peel off a corner, the rest peeled of reasonably easily. Then  I had to remove the sticky. The trick is a good blade handle designed for scraping and lots of sharp blades. I used about one blade per window. 99% of the sticky was removed this way. For the last few smears, I washed the windows with a cloth dampened with eucalyptus oil, and finished with window cleaner.

The rear windows demister didn't work anyway so I scraped the elements off at the same time as removing the sticky. I found and aftermarket demister on eBay that I will probably install.

More photos to follow.

Friday 5 September 2008

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Heater Install

Here are the details of the heater install.

The heater is designed to run 4 ceramic elements in parallel at 240VAC

I will be running the 4 elements in series at 600VDC. If they were purely resistive this would amount to about 800W.

But these are PTC so I expect the output will be a bit higher.

The element has been installed in high temperature RTV compound into the main air duct from the fan.

The relays for the heater are only able to be energised when the fan is on.

<<30072008.jpg>> <<30072008(002).jpg>> <<23082008.jpg>>

A thermal cut-out on the heater, connected to the relays coil will also be installed for protection in case of over heating.

Parts for battery balancing

Here are the parts for the battery balancer.

They are all available from http://www.rockby.com.au

For the 50 batteries, there are:

·       100 x 5mm Terminals

·       100 x 6.8v 5W Zener Diodes

·       50 x 4.7R 1W resistors.

I will make up a jig to assist soldering them all quickly and accurately.

After completion they will be encased in heat-shrink.

<<12082008.jpg>>

A few notes

  1. My batteries are on a ship on their way from China. Should arrive mid October.
  2. Spent Saturday installing the dashboard and stereo. Gotta have good sounds!
  3. I have located all the important wires in the loom and designed the necessary opto isolating interface. (Reverse, Tacho and Speedo)
  4. I have permanently wired the brake vacuum pump to the ignition
  5. Sent plans for battery box to Geoff for fabrication.

Daddy's Helper

With toolbox in hand.

Engine Mount and Driveshaft installed.

This is the view looking up from under the vehicle.
The aluminium block holds the inductive pick-up. (Thanks Geoff)
The drive flange is the grey part.
The Universal and sliding spline are bolted to the drive flange.

I spent ages looking for 10mm x 1mm pitch bolts. I should have gone to Toyota first. They were just a couple of dollars each!



This is the rear mount that attaches to where the gearbox used to attach.