Moved

I moved!
Out of the apartment complex, across the street, and 5 houses down.. not bad eh?
A converted attic that gets way too hot, but a portable AC helped fix it..

I actually had to go to the ER about a month ago for an infection which slowed me down a bit, but not much has actually been done to the car.. still thinking about prototype electric motors to build..

Last night I went to the bike shop down the street and asked help to push the car from a guy for some beer, and he shows up with 3 others! Fairly funny initially, guys taking selfies inside the car and saying that it smelled like their dad.. which is probably not far from the truth..

It is now in a gravel driveway, which isn't great for working on, but I was still given permission since it doesn't use oil (I'm a great salesman, eh?).. Three 25 year old females live under me, and luckily with this not moving we wont have to shuffle too much.. I have yet to get a reaction from one of them (due to working.. I'm on-call again so sort of stuck at home) regarding how macho it looks, but I am sure there will be conversations in the near future with them and their boyfriends.

SPICE and On-Call

Being on-call this week made it so I could not spend time in the car (pretending like I am driving) because I do not get reception in the underground garage. Which brings me to another point.. part way through the week I got my lease renewal. They want to charge me 35% more per month on a year lease. I spent some time searching and emailing some people that may let me do more of what I want to do.. which I have been able to do here, more or less, but hopefully for less money. Plus being more secluded is nice and all, I haven't really used downtown San Jose like the university kids do.. I also emailed about 40 acres in the mountains, but the requested deposit is just too much.. On top of that I would still have to build a quick structure, like a yurt..
Anyways, here's a slight modification to the previous simulation, which now is essentially a bifilar (two windings, say, on a rotor of a motor)

This is going to be the main circuit I'll be working on. The 'difficult' part is that I will need a big IGBT module (or several depending on how many ampres) for each winding I plan on pulsing.. luckily that is only 2 or 3, with the same amount of stators that I should be able to wind up in series/parallel and thus only use a single IGBT per winding..

More circuits to come..

Electronics Review

Haven't posted in a couple days, because not much has been done..
I've taken apart the controller and essentially analyzed the circuitry. Nothing major, they have one chip of their own brand, but essentially it's a PWM with two quad op-amps for error compensation and the accelerator input.. oh, and it's all hand drawn from the late 70s.. Retro

No ground plane, as they typically are not found on old circuit boards..

With some light.. on the upper right, the left is the PWM chip with the two quad op amps in the middle and far right.. Nothing really interesting is going on in here.. it's old..

I was able to dig up some 'old' LTSPICE files I had on my linux box (I run it using wine) and got the basic ones I was after to run on my work laptop (mac)..

So.. what is this circuit you may ask? It's a Back EMF Collector.. essentially it will be used as part of the controller.. an optical (rotary) encoder will tell me which phase to send a pulse of current through, when I am not sending a pulse, I can drain the induced current that is in it to do something useful rather than creating heat. The one downside to doing this, beyond needing to have the control circuitry to handle high voltage spikes, is that if there is no remaining induction taking place than the inductor (motor winding) has to start from 0 to charge up again, and comes across lots of resistance. you can see in the graph that the green line starts to taper off when it gets saturated.

Current pipe dream: Take some super capacitors, put it through a flyback with some feedback from the accelerator cable to get the right voltage.. hooked up with the rotary encoder to specify what rotor/stator phase to pulse, through some IGBTs, and when not pulsing take the current back in, buck it down to a charging/working voltage of the super capacitors, and feed it back in..

Oh.. this may become an electronics blog for a little while, and I'm okay with that. 

Gift Certificates and Renting Tools, pt 3

I hauled the final 4 batteries (minus the one accessory battery still in the front) to the auto parts store, having a difficult time after an intersection because of more buckling to the service cart. relieved, I accept my gift card and rent a tie rod puller to attempt to get the bearings out.. come back, but it doesn't fit, I take it back and try to get a puller of the right size, but it appears to already be rented out. so.. done for the day..
BTW, one of the bearings, the smaller on eon the commutator end, does spin a bit more than the flywheel end, which means it does not have as much grease or is already worn out, and should be replaced..
I am looking into materials needed to build (at least a small test) my motor design.

Gift Certificates and Renting Tools, pt 2

I move everything out of my way, including a giant 36"x18"x24" unused vivarium, out of my way so I can stroll the service cart to the balcony and pile one 4 more batteries. When I move it inside I hear the same sound as buckling/bending sheet metal back and forth, but shrug it off since everything seemed okay, probably just caught it at a bad spot. Through my living room and kitchen, out to the walkway, down there, right past the elevator, another right, a left, then to an elevator that actually has street access. Around the corner and down 3/4 blocks to the auto parts store. He asks if I have my gift certificate with me, must've forgot it, so I get another, this one with $20. He has me bring them in the back as there was a better shelf there to load them up on, good thing no more tonight because my arms are feeling it. I then 'rent' the 7-ton puller, which has a bigger reach, to attempt to pull off the bellhousing. This guy is ~$70, and was told that it's a 48hour 'rental', and no late fee, you just buy it at that point. I told him I'll be back in a half hour.

 Fits snug.. Yes, I know I did not configure it for the 3 jaw correctly.. This is how it was out of the box, and the one I would have to adjust to make it a correct 3 jaw was tighter than what my fingers could get off, and my appropriate size wrench was 20 ft away. So I did what anybody would have done, I made it work.

 And work it did!

The full rotor, without the mess of the bellhousing. I attempted to nab the bearings, but I think I would need the smaller size again, which I might try to do tomorrow when I bring the "last" load of batteries (there is still one for the accessories in the car). Even though the bearings seem pretty good(less than 1500 miles good), I just want to examine everything. I can see rust on the shaft near where the bellhousing came off. and I am pretty sure there should not be conduction between all of the windings, which there is: that is actually my main concern.

I'll examine the rotor a little more tonight, but nothing much beyond that.

Oh.. the current plan is to manufacture the motor I've been designing for the past decade, and not re-use this one.. I am sure it will go to some Bradley (GTE?) fan that either needs/wants a replacement, or someone building one up.. nothing better than original parts when restoring; I am reconditioning, two very different ways of completing the same problem.

Gift Certificates and Renting Tools, pt 1

It's Tuesday, and no call back from the manager of the auto parts store by the time I get back home,which was relatively early because I was in at work by 8:30am and ate lunch at my desk. So, I change out of my button up shirt and slick pants into jeans, running shoes, and an old black RedHat tshirt, while still wearing my Speedmaster, and head on down a few blocks to check in with them. When I arrived the same guy who I dealt with was at the counter and we caught up fast on what I've done so far, etc, we followed up on the batteries and he went in back of the new batteries where his manager was chillin' at and talked for a minute or two, came back, and said no more than 5 batteries per day, but he can give me a gift card today worth the 8 batteries I brought in so far. After having issues with one card reader for 5 mins he jumped on another box and that seemed to work well, and I had a $40 gift card. I also "rented" a puller for the flywheel adapter. "Rented" means you pay full price, but get a full refund from them upon return.. something like $41, I told him I'd be back in a half hour..

 This puller had two different settings on the arm, via moving a bolt, and could be either 2 or 3 jaw..

 I soon discovered the 2 jaw worked out better for a single person. The difficulty was with the size of the adapter. I actually had to start it by prying it out a bit jus to get a good grasp on it, but using this tool was much better than a flat head.. a hammer pry or crow bar would have worked, but I have neither (my frog shelves are built using dovetails, so I used a mallet and chisels.. yeah!). Took less than 20 mins to get the thing off. It looks like the key is a separate object (common, and is usually one of the hardest steels you will ever find) but seems stuck in place (probably from the massive amount of torque)  on the shaft, I didn't play around with this much. I tried pulling the bellhousing off, no luck.. tried using the puller to get the bellhousing off, and it was just a tad too small for this. I return the current puller and let the guy know that I got the adapter off, but the bellhousing is still on there, so when I bring my batch of 4 batteries tomorrow, I will "rent" the same kind of puller, but for flywheels, at the same time to try and get this thing off.
Should be all for the night, I might pry at the bellhousing a little bit longer, but if there is a right tool for the job, use it!

DC Motor Uncased

I continue to work on the motor.. but not much more because my arms are feeling the days of abuse...

With the covers removed I have access to the brushes and sight of the commutator..

These springs that hold the brushes down were fairly interesting.. held in place by a little tab, and push it down and out and it pops out, giving access to...

The brushes.

Some (12?) bolts on the bellhousing allowed me to pull the motor out. I thought it would have let go of the bellhousing, but upon pulling that out pulled..

The motor!

The case with internal stator coils.

Great progress so far.. now I need move everything to cook dinner.. Beyond that, I need to really look at the motor more.. because it almost seems like there are no coils in it, just copper bars, which strikes me as odd... Sure, it can take the most current.. I just was not expecting this.. as I said, I need to take a closer look.. and then also at the stators because it may be a coil of bar..

I am not disappointed, but I do like the idea of more voltage through turns of wire, versus more current with bigger wires.

Interesting..

Clutch and Flywheel Removal

That was easy..
I didn't need the flywheel locking tool, which works by holding the flywheel by the outside teeth, usually used for the starter - something that this car does not have nor need.. I didn't even need to use a a flat head screwdriver to hold the thing set.. just a half inch socket, I don't think it had a good metric fit, most things on this car so far are SAE..

Clutch came off easy

exposed is a lockring with a spider to not come unscrewed.. which was held down really on one tab, maybe half on another.. flat pryed them right up and unscrew with my fingers

 And After some prying with two flathead screwdrivers on opposite sides..

like butter

and what remains..

This keyed flywheel adapter.. I might need a puller for this, doesn't seem to what to come off with slight prying with flat heads, and I really don't want to mess this part nor the threads up..

Motor Removal

Sunday, July 27th

Today!

Sorry I have not started a blog regarding this yet.. but here it is!

Also, this motor was not very difficult to remove..
4 bolts to the tranny, two up top had nuts facing towards me, vice versa on bottom..

Used the jack for the first time, was able to successfully remove the motor, while almost dying only once..

Before

Two jack stands was a good idea.. to start with..

After a bit of fiddling it came down and evolved to this..

And after almost dying, once.. I got it out!

Look, I can see the floor!

And back up to my kitchen area so I can disassemble it and and see what needs rebuilding. The bearings feel real smooth (what can you expect, only 1350 miles on it) but the commutator and brushes are worrisome, if stationary for too long.

I thought I would take a shot with the charger, so you could get an idea of how big the charger was as well..

Electronics Removal

Saturday, Jul 26th
Later that day..
I put on my crumy clothes again and head back down to see what kind of damage I can do regarding thee electronics..

I managed to pull
the relay: easy
the controller: simple once you remove the fat wires
the charger: OMFG this thing weighs a ton, and was INSIDE.. add a long cable that does not disconnect but weaves in and out, and is even held in place at some point by the suspension...

"remembering" the wires for the accelerator box

PMC was bought by Curtis in the 80s.. you see lots of people buying Curtis chargers nowaays

The charger cables held in place by the suspension

The charger's previous location, where the backs eats would have been in a VW.. 

Retro means old, but cool

Screw you, charger..

But...

Look at that view!

 Fuse/ Temperature sensor.. most likely..

Later in the night, while watching TV, I opened up the controller and took a peak inside, sorry, no pics, but maybe later.. it is essentially a PWM controller hooked up to 3 big ass Motorola darlington transistors and 3 big capacitors.. as far as I can tell, there is no inductor, like a traditional buck/boost controller would use. The battery in line.. well.. the block of metal.. had the darlingtons mounted directly to it, going to another bus bar where the caps are touching those and the common ground.

smal edit:
I forgot to mention about the blower fan hooked up the motor and the raised fan for the controller.. both of which have been removed. Before I got (more) tools I removed these.. I was astounded that the air for keeping the motor cooled was fed by a blower fan.. what a waste of electricity. Seriously, it should be a ram fed scoop/duct.. grantid it wont work when idling, but the motor should not get not neither. No filter on it.. just a squirrel cage fan with some ducting.. I will definitely redesign this to use a scoop, maybe a side one like a GT40 where the fake vents are, but will try not to copy it too much or at least make it look like it fits, as well as at least some kind of cheap filter..

Battery Dump

Saturday, July 26th
I woke up waaaaay to early.. and still feeling the batteries I removed the night before, and smelling them for that matter.. I make my way to a coffee shop down the street and wait till 8am for the auto parts store to open to ask them about my 16+1 batteries I need to get rid of. Dude was saying that he can only give me store credit ($5 ea) of 4 of them, per day.. I explain I just need them out of my place, I don't care if I get credit, it would be nice though. he said the he would have to contact his manager regarding the high amount from one car, whom is not there that day. He gives me the OK to bring the 8 I have, and I told him that I want to bring the rears as well..

I head back to my place and stop by the leasing office to ask for updated on my tadpole system leak.. no real update, as work is still being done. I bring up the fact that I did get my electric car and I have begun work on it, and ask the young lady, who gave me permission to work on an electric car, if I could have such in writing.. she said to email her the request, I couldn't find her business card so I have yet to receive it, but I have plenty of verbal (even call backs from her) regarding approval. Part of my selling point was saying that electric cars dont use oil...

I load up the service cart with 4 batteries, 3 on bottom to distribute the weight better, 1 on top.. and I stroll down 3 or 4 city blocks to the parts store and dump them on the dude, he had this neat tool that grabs batteries.. I need one of those.. but.. even with this tool he struggled with the first one.. yeeeeaahh.. heavy.. he looks at me like I'm crazy..

I head back and bring back the second round.

He told me he can't accept any more today, and that I must wait until Tuesday for his manager. I ask if he could call his manager, but no dice... how rude, made me stop working on my car because I bring a ton of batteries to you?
..

it's not even 10am at this point

I head back down with my tools to get the rear batteries..
These were a little easier, knowing that the cart can only hold 4, I took 2 from each side to distribute the weight better, and took them up to my balcony so they can chill in the California sun.

Cables get removed..

First batch removed..

and finito!

I thought I measured the car before the batteries to be 46 inches to the roof.. I was obviously incorrect because that's what it is now..

this looks much better than before.. I might do a before/after, but that will just waste my time

The other GTE guys on the internet mentioned this strip of wood that held the batteries in place..

The batteries get taken up to my balcony an I take a shower...