March 31, 2007 by Rob.

Alex and I had some time on Saturday work get the RAVolt ready for the open garage. I’m in a sort of limbo until I can start on the battery boxes, but there is still some prep work to be finished.

Today’s prep work included pulling out the old power steering pump (unfortunately, the p/s steering system still leaks when I turn the wheel). I also taped out the floor cut for the rear battery box (more about that later) removed the gas fill line (look ma, no cap), and took of the spare tire (if only it was so easy on my waist line).

The biggest prep item, putting the drive axles back in, is still waiting. That’s become a high priority and will take at least an hour of effort.

Posted in Pictures, Storyline, Conversion | No Comments »

March 30, 2007 by Rob.

This item is from the local press, but many in the EV community have been tracking EEStor’s progress.  They are making a super capacitor.  While a battery uses a chemical reaction to store electricity, a super-cap is more like an electron sponge that relies on an electric field to hold the energy.  Capacitors store energy at very high voltage and can discharge very quickly so there are some engineering challenges to having them be practical in EVs.  In theory, they should rock the house.

Posted in EV News, AustinEV | 1 Comment »

March 27, 2007 by Rob.

Just to hammer home my thoughts about cost of hybrids not justifying the benefit.  BusinessWeek says that hybrid sales are declining because consumers are not seeing the ROI from the extra $3,000+ added cost.  I believe that the hybrid’s that look like regular cars will not sell as fast as the Prius.  Consumers who pay the premium want “green geek” vanity.

Posted in EV News | 2 Comments »

March 27, 2007 by Rob.

I’m excited post that I’ve been in touch with Larry E.  I’ve had a link to his 97 RAV4 conversion blog for a while.  I’m hoping that he’ll give me to OK to post some/all of our conversation and his pictures.

Larry’s got a TON of EV conversion experience and made different large scale decisions for his conversion (AC, AGM, etc), but he is very similar on the details like MR2 p/s and brake system.  Hopefully he can help me tune my decisions based on hands-on experience with the RAV.

One big suggestion from Larry is to use RAV4-EV springs to improve the suspension.

Posted in Storyline, Planning | 1 Comment »

March 27, 2007 by Rob.

I managed to read the WSJ article (full text from Northwest Florida Daily News) from my last post. I think this is exactly the type of PR that EVs need. There is a powerful economic motivation for EVs if you are able to buy power cheap and sell it back at peak. Wow - your car battery could become an energy arbitrage. How would you factor that into your MPG calculation!

One gripe: everyone seems to be hung up on Li batteries. I consider Li batteries on par with a sports car engine: great for special performance requirements, but not required for most users based on the added cost. Lead-Acid works fine for my application w/ daily charging. I’m not trying to get a 200 mile range. If my household was 100% EV, then I could rent a deluxe car on long trips and still have $ left over from the non-Li savings.

Posted in EV News, AustinEV | No Comments »

March 26, 2007 by Rob.

The Wall Street Journal featured Austin’s plans to enable an EV fleet.   What a great place to live!

Posted in EV News | No Comments »

March 25, 2007 by Rob.

I find this CCSU editorial inflammatory, but basically correct: the added costs of the Prius greatly dilutes it’s value.  Of course, if I did not agree with that then I would have bought one instead of converting the RAV.

I’m posting as general interest and to illustrate the point that it will take some more out of the box thinking to solve the car economy problem.  The Prius is an awesome piece of engineering that gets great MPG.  One day we’ll be comparing it the last of the steam locomotives: it adds lots of complexity when we really need to redefine the problem.

Posted in EV News, AustinEV | 1 Comment »

March 23, 2007 by Rob.

It looks like we have lots of AustinEV interest in a welding demo.  I’d make sure to get a welder lined up.

Mike D’s advice about welding:

If you are going to buy a wire welder get a Millermatic 175, or a least a
Hobart.  The Miller has a much stronger wire feed mechanism than the
Lincoln, plus it automatically adjusts your wire feed as you adjust your
amperage.  Try to avoid using flux core wire, break down and buy a bottle
of 75/25 because the cleanup on the weld is a lot easier and you can get
paint to stick to it later.  And finally, get a 220 volt machine instead
of a 110 even if it means you have to make an adapter to use a dryer plug,
they really weld that much better.

Posted in Storyline, AustinEV | 1 Comment »

March 22, 2007 by Rob.

The objective will be to mount the motor and start building the mounting for the battery boxes.  I’m planning to get some metal supports and a welder before we start.  I’d also like to cut out the floor in RAVolt’s cargo area (pictures coming).

I’ll post my address closer to the actual event.

Posted in AustinEV, Planning | No Comments »

March 22, 2007 by Rob.

There is an active discussion about data logging on the EVDL and I wanted to capture some of the interesting links here.  A recent post included a reference to a IOTech A/D Card.

Posted in Computer, EV Tech | 1 Comment »