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.

Cyclic test result for 20Ah Greensavers

I have cycle tested the Greensavers and plotted the capacity. The results were disappointing HOWEVER please see the explanation from Greensaver. It seems I over discharged them. I probably incorrectly assumed the 100% discharge point was indicated by the "Discharge Characteristic Curve" in the data sheet. (see previous post for data sheet)

Director of R&D, Greensaver: "Two comments on the cycle life test result: (a) The cutoff voltage was too low. Overdischarge will cause low cycle life. It is suggested that the depth of discharge is limited to 80%, and the cutoff voltage is set at 11.4 ~ 11.5V.

(b) The average discharge currents were relatively high. In this case, the recharge current is suggested to choose the same rate of high current to improve the cycle life of batteries."

Point 2 would be difficult to implement due to the cost, size and primary current of chargers.


The capacity is normalised to 1Ah discharge as varying discharge currents were used. This eliminates the effect of the Peukert factor at different discharge rates. The 'waves' are caused by slightly different end point volatages at different currents.

The Driveshaft

Here is the assembled driveshaft.

The shaft is a 2 piece unit. The forward section (closest to camera) has been extended and a sliding yoke fitted.

The near end attaches by 4 bolts to the drive flange on the motor.

Motor installed

The motor is installed on the mounting plate.

<<19072008.jpg>>

Batteries Ordered

Last week I ordered 55 x Greensaver SP20-12 batteries. 50 to install and 5 spares.

I need to design and build the battery box next!

Cost per battery should be a little under $60 each including landing taxes.

Drive Flange and speed sensor

Thanks to Geoff O'Toole for your fantastic machine work.

Here is a photo of the drive flange assembled with the inductive pickup (AE1-AP-4A) from AutomationDirect.com.au.

The speed sensor is used to provide feedback to the controller for closed loop operation.

<<18072008(007).jpg>>

The Drive Flange has been machined, drilled and tapped to accept a Hilux universal joint.

Greensaver battery inter cell balance - After Discharge

To satisfy Tuarns (and my) curiosity, I discharged the battery to 11.5v at 20A, let the battery rest, then measured the individual cell voltages. Following are the results.

+
2.0919
2.0966
2.0994
2.0985
2.1004
2.0957
-

Average = 2.097083
Standard Deviation = 0.003079
Range is from 2.0919 to 2.1004 difference = .0085 volts (0.406%)

Again the battery seems to be well balanced.

Thanks Dom

Actually I am waiting to get the engine mount back from the sand blasters and painters, bit it looks good hanging there. :)