Charger Install

I have been making slow progress as parts arrive.  This week I got my charger from China.  I always planned to put it in back laying flat where the spare tire normally sits.  After looking at the large hump where the spare sits I had two choices, 1. get the cutoff wheel out and start some modifications or 2. find another location.  I chose the latter decided to mount the charger on the back sheet metal of the car.  The spare still does not fit but the jack and all the other tools that come with the car fit.  If I get a flat it will be a call home for someone to bring me the spare or a call to AAA for a tow.

I wired the charger through a 250V 30 amp plug and outlet in the car which gives me the option of using an extension cord and standard outlet rather  than a J1772 charge station.

The rear interior parts have been modified to fit around the charger.  The charger should be able to cool alright with half the fan above the floor and half below.

Having the full baggage area available to groceries or whatever else need to be hauled should make the car more practical that having the trunk filled with batteries.  I'm still going to have to do some interior work to cover the battery boxes, thinking some gray fabric will get them to match and blend into the rest of the interior.

I also got my J1772 charge station from Home Depot on-line.  I plan to hard wire it into the garage electrical at some point later when I have time to pull a permit and have it inspected.  For now I have it wired into an existing 240 Volt outlet and hanging on a spare 2X4.  

I like the look of the J1772 plug on the old gas cap hole.  The fight was a little close but everything clears without touching.  Note for anyone installing a J1172 plug in a car, the latch side need more clearance.

To test the charger I had to get all of the batteries strapped together   Since I bought the batteries from Jack at EVTV they came with the braided straps, stainless bolts and Nord-lock washers

With the pack all connected I was able to start testing some of the high voltage parts of the system.  I got the JLD404 meter programmed, but ran into a problem.  The shunt inputs and voltage inputs have a common negative input.  I wired the shunt to the most passive terminal of the battery pack so the volt meter reads negative.  Not sure what I will do, or if I will do anything. 

The second problem I ran into was the heater not putting out enough heat.  I reused the temperature switch that came with the heating element, but I think it has a shutoff temperature of about 115 degrees F.  I get heat but I think it would take forever for it to clear frost off the window.  I ordered a new switch that had 210 degree shutoff temp, that should get the water close to what the engine would have been putting out when it was warmed up.  If this does not work, the dash will have to come out and I will go to a ceramic heater element.

Solition, Heater and Gauges

Been a while since I have updated the Blog here, I have been making some progress but I seems very slow with lots of standing back an thinking things through.

I did get my Soliton 1 controller from EV West along with 40 feet of 2/0 orange cable and various size lugs.  The controller is mounted in front of the battery box.  To keep this beast cool while controlling a 1000 amps it requires liquid cooling.  I got a overflow tank from Summit Racing to use as a reservoir.

Tucked down under the battery box is the pump that will circulate the coolant through the system.  The pump is normally used for solar water systems.  I have a transmission cooler that I will use as a radiator to keep things cool.  The pump will run off a relay triggered by the Soliton controller when it starts to get hot.

To run the big cables between the front of the car and the back, I am using a 2" plastic conduit under the car.  It is bolted with a couple of clamps from the EV section of Home Depot.

Since I live in Iowa and plan to drive the TT year round, I will need heat.  I started by seeing what it would take to replace the heater core in the car with ceramic heater.  After reading some horror stories on the Internet about people spending weeks to replace the stock heater core because the entire dash has to be removed I started looking at other options.  I ended up with a parts from a on demand electric hot water heater.  The heating element is a 3.5KW version, I added a contactor to control the DC high voltage and another small water pump along with various plumbing adaptors to connect everything and get 3/4" fitting for hoses going to heater core.

I mounted the heating contraption to the back of the battery box.  I had planned on putting it all in a box but I'm just running out of room.  I'm thinking if this does not produce enough heat or when it fails I will go back to the ceramic heater idea to clean this mess out of the engine compartment. 

Inside the car things are also moving along, I installed the pack cutoff switch in the back seat, this is more for making the car safe to work on than an emergency cut off switch but it can be easily reach from the drivers seat if needed. 

Inside the battery box is a Zeza fuel gage driver.  The Zeva used a hall effect sensor to count amp hours in and out of the battery pack and drive the stock fuel gauge.  It will also be used to send a signal to the controller to limit the controller output when the battery pack gets to low.  This little circuit board also can drive the tachometer to display amps being used, not sure if I will use this function or not but I have the wire run under the dash just in case.

There is also a 800 amp shunt connected to the disconnect switch for another meter.

The amp meter that is connected to the shunt is a JLD404 from Light Object and supports a bunch of functions.  It will display Amp, Volts, Amp Hours and has two relays that can be programmed to open or close based on any of the inputs.  I will use the Amp Hours to calibrate the Zeva, use the Amp meter while driving and the volt meter and relay during charging.  Although the charger will be programmed to shut off at a specified voltage, the relay will be a backup to kill power to the charger should it go over the programmed voltage by more then 5 volts.  The gauge was mounted in the back of the little hiding box that is part of the center console.  The lid slides back to cover everything.

I'm still waiting on my DC-DC converter and Charger to show up.  That should be close to the end for big parts.  I will try to update soon but I'm getting excited to get things moving and forget to take pictures.