January 5, 2008 by Rob.

I found the keys to the RAVolt’s roof rack during house cleaning over the holiday and was able to give the RAVolt top trim.  Hopefully, that will reduce my drag and improve my range.

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November 29, 2007 by Rob.

The RAVolt appeared sufficiently repentant to take a short drive so I played electric bus today by driving our middle school carpool. Considering the fragile cargo, I thoughtfully preheated the car. This handy box heater with thermostat was just what the electrician ordered! It’s amazing how warm the car stays if it’s been preheated and equally amazing how fast it cools off when the kids are unloading with the doors open.

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November 29, 2007 by Rob.

I’m thinking through why my batteries died yesterday and my current theory is that cold batteries do not charge well. I already know that cold batteries produce less power, but I suspect that they may not charge as well too. I’m going to dig around a little and see if I can verify that.

BTW: recharging over-used batteries stinks, literally. The RAVolt got that strong sulfur battery stress smell during charging today. That means that tonight is the perfect night for double helpings of Laura’s famous 12 bean chili.

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November 26, 2007 by Rob.

I bought myself a little heater / defroster from Fry’s last week. It was just $10 and has already proven to be valuable. It’s not very powerful, but it does the trick to defrost the windshield or warm up my hands.

I especially liked that Fry’s sticker described the heater as “for heat w/o engine.” I’m certain that they did not mean it was a heater for cars without engines, but it describes my application perfectly! Fry’s can caulk up one sale due to poor English.

Note: That little heater is pretty minor so I’m considering putting an AC box heater in the car to warm it up on cold mornings. That would make it nice and toasty!

Posted in Daily Use, Parts, Improvements, Pictures | 1 Comment »

November 8, 2007 by Rob.

My super deluxe battery caps came last week.  Kate snapped pictures (and forced me to make hand gestures) while I installed the caps and watered the batteries.  I hope they reduce my water loss because I’m adding a lot more water than I expected.

Leaky, dangerous before and dry, clean after:

Note: the before picture clearly shows leaking from the old caps.

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October 24, 2007 by Rob.

It’s no surprise that sulfuric acid is nasty, corrosive stuff; however, it’s disappointing that so much of it is spraying out of my batteries and onto the RAVolt’s sensitive skin.  I was not expecting to see this for a while, but I’d rather see it so I can fix it. Visible corrosion on a replaceable non-structural component is about as good as bad news can get.

The solution is to replace the el cheapo (that’s Latin for inexpensive) caps that come with the Trojans with some high grade Water Miser battery caps. These caps have premium organic lotus-scented bath beads that trap the escaping battery acid in a luxurious spa experience convincing them to remain within the confines of their downtown mixed-use condo. That reduces both my watering frequency and the RAVolt’s corrosion risk.

How much to treat my batteries to this lavishness? Just $22.50 per battery or $260 for the whole pack. But who can really put a price on inner peace?

Note: Special thanks to Erik w/ AustinEV for the tip. He’s using these caps and highly recommends them.

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October 19, 2007 by Rob.

Today was 11th hour Maker Faire prep day.  There was plenty to do:

• Install the stranded charging cable so that I could actually roll it up.    In the process of wiring the plug, I accidentally connected by 120 VAC leg across the 240 VAC input.  I skipped the “measure twice” part of installing, but the billows of smoke from my auxiliary charger served as a substitute volt meter.  Walmart was happy to sell me a new improved model.

• Finished labeling all the RAVolt’s parts (Danger!  High Voltage)

• Make a display sign

• Wash and shine (no helpers, so picture)

• I also found an official cigarette lighter battery monitor ($15).  It called to my inner EV geek: I had to have it!

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October 10, 2007 by Rob.

A few weeks ago I decided to get a volt meter based on my past auxiliary battery woes. Instead of running new wires from the actual battery, I realized that I could just tap off the cigarette lighter to get the voltage. From there is was a quick hop to buying a lighter plug at RadioShack for my multimeter. I don’t leave it plugged in and it’s definitely not a permanent solution. Yet, it’s an easy way for me to spot check the battery. On the plus side, the terminal looks like an Imperial Star Cruiser: oops, here comes a cease & desist from George Lucas!

Some of you may have noticed in the photo (10.22 volts vs. 12+ volts) that my auxiliary battery is still not all the way back to health. Part of the problem is that I did not plug in the auxiliary charger while charging. Without the auxiliary, the vent fans run off the battery (4+ hours) while charging.

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September 22, 2007 by Rob.

Today was a mini-work day to clean up some loose ends in front, back, and behind the RAVolt.

I neatened up the some of my wiring to show better at the Maker Faire. This classifies as “lipstick on a pig” but that bacon sure is tasty!

A front battery cover keeps acid from splashing the hood. I’m out of yellow paint so Laura’s sign is more proudly displayed. Maybe I should get another can of paint…  [note 9/27: I found some paint and it’s much better now]

And a new battery charger with 1.5 amps of umph to teach my auxiliary battery some proper respect. Note to self: cheap chargers = poor results.

Posted in Improvements, Pictures, Conversion | 1 Comment »

September 21, 2007 by Rob.

I had a really good time showing off the RAVolt at the CleanTech grid vehicle forum.  Unfortunately, I could not stay for the panel because I would like to hear what they had to say.  Hopefully someone from the AustinEV group will post some minutes and I’ll include a link (hint).

We had a good turn out and I was happy to see many familiar faces an also make some new friends.  I’m getting comfortable explaining that the RAVolt was not designed to be a “show EV” and my goal was to get on the road quickly and cheaply practically.  I hope that makes it more approachable and I’ve stopped pretending that everyone could do (or would want to do) a project like this.

After the crowd went inside for the panel, Erik and I got to do some serious EV geek speak.  He was so full of great suggestions that I’m going to schedule an open garage to review the RAVolt and get more tuning ideas.  Some of Erik’s gems include:

• Building an “oh shit” 110 VAC recharger using a rectifier.  It would need to be monitored, but rectified 110 VAC become 150 VDC pulses.  That’s perfect for charging my 144 VDC pack!  More designs to follow.
• Adding a auxiliary battery volt meter (amen to that!)
• Upgrading the cell caps on my floodies to reduce water loss.  Between the heat and speed bumps, I’m loosing a lot of water.  The caps would also make it easier to water my couple of batteries with cables running over the cell covers.
• Looking for ground faults from the traction pack.  I’ve been getting a little “zing” when I touch some components and that’s from a very small short with the traction pack.
• Grounding the car chassis when I’m charging.  The traction pack is supposed to be isolated, but it is nice to be extra safe.  I’ve got the ground wire available, it’s just not connected.

PS: It’s great to meet people who are reading the blog!

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