Using the Charging Stations

A few weeks ago I finally got around installing the J1772 module and last night I finally went out to test it!

And it works great!

I went to the local Chilli's in Westford, MA for dinner and they have a two port Charge Point setup. It worked perfectly and I could monitor the charge from my phone!

There are a lot of ChargePoint units around and I'm going to start using them more often on my travels.

I'm still waiting for my work to install their station, they mounted the cement stands last week and its been raining like crazy since. I'm hoping they don't charge for the stations since every other station in the state is free.

Liquid Cooling the Zilla

I've been using the EV to commute to work quite often and I recently started to log my drives to work to see how much power I was using. Well after going through those logs, I found that during the highway stretch the Zilla was getting up to 85C, and my available power would go down, meaning my ability to pass someone was minimal.

With that, I decided it was time to install a liquid cooling system. I got a transmission cooler from AutoZone and a 12v quiet pump from Amazon and tubing from my local ACE Hardware. It took about 4 hours to install, then I spent two days tweaking it and bleeding the air from the system.

There was a massive improvement with the water cooling system installed! During my commute I saw only a high of 35C during the highway stretch and I could easily pass people on the highway. It's nice that I now have performance equal to the original Civic engine and its real fun to drive.

Next on my list is a fix a water leak on the driver's side and install the J1772 circuitry. I also want to get a MIG welder and build a new battery box that will include insulation, a stronger/nicer cage and the ability to remove the box from the car trunk with an engine crane. It's going to take a while to design, but it's probably going to be my winter project.

New Headliner

Since I purchased the Civic a few years ago, one of the things that I didn't like was the headliner. It had some cigarette burns and the fabric was peeling off. And in early September it was peeling to bad that it was a distraction while driving so we finally decided to replace the fabric.

The first thing we had to do was take the headliner out and strip off the old fabric and foam.

It took about 4 hours to remove all the old glued foam using a wire brush. One of the previous owners must have been a serious smoke due to the tar we found, but the Civic itself didn't smell like smoke. I also found a ton of those Christmas tree air fresheners which is probably why.

Next we laid out and glued down the new headliner fabric we got from Joann Fabrics.

It took a while to smooth it out and get the fabric to go nicely into all the little nooks and edges of the headliner board. Once it was down we let it dry for 24 hours and then cut the holes out for the lights and sun roof.

Once that was done, installing it was easy and now the EV looks much better, and has a bit of a new car smell!

Commuting

Today is my one year anniversary at my job and I decided it was finally time to take my EV to work!

I've been hesitating for a year because of my 30 mile commute, mostly hilly highway.  Well the Civic drove great and I should have done this from the start! I used 60.1 AH and it's now charging

My motivation has returned on this project! Now I want to finish the J1772 installation and get air conditioning installed!

J1772 Installation

This past weekend was once again full of nice warm weather. With that, I was able to finally install my J1772 socket onto my EV.

I have not installed the AVC2 control circuit for the J1772 yet, but that is coming. So until then I can't use the charging stations, but I can still run off of 120v/240v circuits with my extension cords.

This week I am going to be testing different routes to work to try and find the best one to take with my EV. I'm also going to do some highway runs this week to figure out what kind of wh/mi it takes to cruise at 60+ MPH.

February Update

It's been a while since I've had time to work on my EV, but the weather was good enough today to motivate me.

Today I finally mounted the EV Display to a Pillar Pod:

I purchased the EV Display this past fall and I have had it bouncing around the cup holders while I came up with a way of installing it into the dash board. A few weeks ago I decided that a Pillar Pod would be better and I'm glad I went that way. It took me a total of 30 minutes to pull off the pillar, drill the holes for the Pillar Pod, then run the Ethernet cable and mount it all back together.

Now I now longer have to look down to see my battery stats, which is really nice. Next of my list of things is installing the J1772 connector. I've been slowly working on the mount for it but with the weather being so awful I just haven't had the motivation, or a garage to work in.

I'm also working on some way of logging data while I drive. I've come to down to two ideas, rig up a Raspberry Pi to the EV Display and Zilla, or get an Android in-dash Nav System/Radio and write some logging apps for it.

October Update

It's been quite some time since I updated this blog. This past summer I installed the new EV Display to use as a battery gauge and it works great. The EV has well over 4500 miles on it now and last week we installed a newer, better rear suspension system.

The Civic is back to stock ride height! I upgraded the rear springs from 450 lbs/inch to 1000 lbs/inch because the 450 lbs/inch sagged too much and caused the car to bottom out over some bumps. The car even feels better now that the rear is 3" higher than before.

I started a new job back in June and I haven't driven my EV to work yet, my dad has been using it since then. But now that I have upgraded the new springs and located a plug at work (that I need to test) I am planning on taking it to work soon.

I am also going to insulate the battery pack this weekend since the weather is getting colder. The cold weather performance of the lithiums are great, but they need to be above freezing to charge. Last winter I only charged during the day when the trunk was 45 F+ in the sun and on the really cold days I left the ceramic heater in the trunk. But this year I want to be able to charge at any time and the insulation will keep them above freezing. I might even put some small electric blankets around batteries for those nasty cold days.

May Update

I've been quite busy and haven't gotten around to updating the blog in a few months. I've putting a considerable amount of miles on the EV! I'm past the 3,500 mile mark!

I usually got 17 miles before charging, but recently I'm going 30-50 miles in between charges! It's nice not having to worry about plugging in when I want to do my normal day to day activities.

I have a few things I am doing to the Civic. First, I need to replace my rear drums and shoes. The other day my ABS came on while coming home from graduation so I need to fix that. I'm also going to install my volt and amp meters and I'm thinking about a J1772 connection so I can use all the charging stations in MA.The other day I was at Chilli's in Lowell and they had a charging station with a Volt and Prius plugged in, but it only supports J1772.

It's also time to think about getting the A/C running, these days are only going to be hotter!

I do have a new job that I am stating next week. It is just out of my safe driving range for the moment as they do not have charging stations yet. I'm going to scout around for a plug, there may be some by one of the many lamp posts. If not, once I get situated I am going to try and see if I can get something installed.

Range Testing

Over the past few days I've been slowly testing my EV to determine it's current efficiency. Last night I did a round trip of 39.6 miles on one charge. For the first 17 miles I did not have my heat on, and the remainder I did. It was also extremely hilly and the speed ranged from 30 MPH to 45 MPH for most of the drive.

As of this morning it took 15.41 KWh to recharge the pack, or 389 WH/Mi from the wall. As the charger is at best 92% efficient according to the manual, that means my EV is currently 358 WH/Mi from the batteries.

That boils down to is I currently have a 58 mile range in the winter. Not too bad for the winter, but I want more. My goal is to have at least an 70 mile range in the summer, meaning I need to get my WH/Mi down to 298 or lower. There are still things I can do that are quick to make improvements. I need to adjust the left rear camber more and I need to pump the tires up to 40 PSI, I think they are around 32 PSI right now.

I can also explore aero dynamic mods, such as grill blocks, lowering my front suspension to match the rear, wheel skirts, etc.

On The Road Again!

I have spent the past two days installing the new Can-EV Honda Civic motor coupling and adapter plate. It's a really nice design that doesn't need any fancy alignment.

 The Can-EV coupling is the same as what I had, but it is not a taper locking. Due to the variations in manufacturing of taper locking hubs (which has been my problem, 5 hubs of the same model, all with different dimensions), a tight fit slip design with 3 set screws is now used.

 The coupling also gets pressed onto the motor shaft all the way until it hits the bearing. This means that it has no where to go when the clutch gets pressed in. Add some locktite to each of the set screws and it's good to go.

After the coupling is installed, the adapter plate gets bolted to the motor. It's a nice tight fit.

 Then I installed the flywheel and tested it for any imbalances. There was no wobble or scrapping of any kind!

 Then I was able to mount the setup together and mount it into the Civic.

The Can-EV adapter plate and coupling setup was 1.25" shorter that my original setup, which made installing it very easy.

By the end of last night I had the motor in the Civic and bolted down. Today I spent the morning filling up the transmission with fluid, adjusting the mounts and wiring up the electronics.

Right before lunch I was able to drive the EV! But before I put the car on the ground I did a test spin and we found noise coming from the comm end of the motor. After playing with the rear motor mount, the RPM sensor and other bolts I finally inspected the brushes and found that they were the culprit. They aren't fully seated yet so they make some noise, but after some 20 MPH cruising in 2nd gear for 30 or so seconds the noise went away. It will probably take 1000+ miles to fully break in the brushes so for the next few months I won't be pulling 1000 AMPs to the motor!

I did go on a drive this afternoon and it was the best EV drive I have ever had! It was smooth, no noise from the transmission or motor, and the drag seemed a lot less than with my last coupling setup. Tonight I am setting up a tablet PC to monitor my Zilla so I can log the drives and compare them to my initial drives early this past Fall. I am also going to use my Kilowatt Meter tomorrow night to get my Wh/Mi from the wall.

It's good to be gas free again!

Not Quite Yet

This past weekend I got the EV together and went for a test drive. It was great for 2 miles, then it went south. My coupling still slips and moved the clutch into the transmission making a ton of noise. So I got it home, jacked up the EV and say what it was doing.

So instead of messing around with my coupling again I bought a new one from Can-EV. It will be here next week then I get remove my current setup and get the new coupling and plates installed.

I just want to be driving again and getting tired of having the EV up on jacks all the time. I also hope there is any more damage from this hiccup, but I will find out in a week or so when I take the motor back out.

Installing the Warp 9

It was really nice today so I decided since I didn't have classes I would start putting my EV back together.

Last night my dad helped me move the Warp 9 from the basement to outside my EV. Then this morning I got the transmission out and mounted it to the Warp 9. Then I had to drill new holes on my rear motor mount because the Warp 9 has a different rear bolt pattern.

Then after lunch we used the engine hoist to install the motor and transmission combo into my Civic. It went pretty well, after a few minutes we had two of the four engine mounts bolted in. The rear mount is always difficult to do but my dad was able to help after he got home from work.

I also had to get a new speed sensor for the Warp 9. My old sensor was too small for the 1.125" shaft so I got a new sensor from Evolve Electrics with 2 day shipping and it arrived as I was installing the motor. It took 30 seconds to install as the Warp 9 was built with bolt holes for a speed sensor.

Now I have the Warp 9 installed, the axles in and the tires back on the EV. Later this week I am going to try and get more things installed, including better insulation for the heater pipe and batteries. I am really hoping to start commuting again in the next week, I just need the weather to cooperate long enough to finish the last 10%.

Snowed In

This past weekend was the worst snow storm in like 30 years. It was the first time since 1978 that we had a Traffic Ban in Massachusetts! We got over 2 feet of snow and lots of wind.

Anyways, due to the fact that I got snowed in that gave me time to finally seal up the transmission and test it on the Warp 9.

I dd a quick test and it really purrs now! There were no vibrations of any kind, just some extra noise from not having any transmission fluid in the unit.

It's nice out today but I still have to dig out my EV and clear around my workspace around the driveway. I am hoping to get the EV put together sometime this week, Wednesday looks good right now so I might do it then.

Transmission Rebuild

This past weekend I've been working on the new motor setup and rebuilding the transmission.
Last night I managed to get the transmission apart and inspected it.

The transmission was in really good condition, looks brand new. I did find that two of the bearings on the input shaft either had extra play or made some noise, including the Input Shaft Bearing that I expected to have issues. I found nothing destroyed, which is really good. The internals look complicated but they really aren't I spent an hour this morning taking the shafts out, replacing the bearings and just figuring out how the shifter functions.

Tonight I will put the transmission back together as I had to go out and buy Hondabond to seal the casing back up.

After tonight all I need is a nice weather day and I can drop the motor back in and get back to EV'ing!

The Rebuild

Last week my new Warp 9 arrived!

The Warp 9 have some improvements over my FB1-4001a. First it has larger brushes that allow for more current handling, and it has a better fan for cooling. It also has 1/2" terminals to handle more current.

Now I have been having a slight problem with my coupling. I designed it to use H bushings and I ordered up 4 new H bushings and when they arrived I found they had slightly changed! Their diameter was 0.005" smaller which meant they didn't lock onto the shaft when I tried to install the coupling.

So after a few days of research I found out that there is a replacement to the H bushing, the QT bushing. It has a slightly different design of having a single split down the opposite side of the key way. It was also the correct dimensions and it installed perfectly.

Here is where I finished off last night:

I got the coupling and flywheel mounted down and did a test spin yesterday and it looks pretty good. There is a very very very slight wobble but I could only see it at low speeds. This afternoon I am going to try some little adjustments and then break in the brushes using a 12 volt battery while I work on my transmission. With any luck I'll be ready to put the EV back together by the end of the weekend, once I get another good sunny day.

Going Over the Carnage

I have spent the past few days going over my coupling and motor shaft. There really wasn't anything severe done to the coupling, although it had some surface rust on the inner taper locking piece and it was not fully locked, allowing it to become loose.

I did order a new Warp 9 yesterday and it should be in next week. I do have the option of repairing my motor for $615 but I passed for the moment as I need to disassemble the motor to check all the internals.

Once I get my new motor I am going to do all the flywheel and coupling alignment done on the bench before going into the car. I also had the machine shop at my university modify the coupler to allow use of the pilot bearing, which I should have done from the beginning but didn't know I even needed it.

Down for the Count

For the past few weeks my transmission has been making noises and I determined that the Input Shaft Bearing was the culprit. So after receiving my transmission rebuild kit my dad and I took apart the EV to get at the transmission.

However, I got a real unpleasant surprise:

As I was pulling the transmission out I saw some wear on the face of the motor. Then I found that coupling to be loose! After pulling it off we found the inner coupling and the motor shaft destroyed. I don't know if it somehow got loose, or it was misaligned, or what but right now I am a real unhappy camper and now on the hunt for a new motor and answers.

Winter Fun

Today my dad and I went Christmas shopping and decided to take my EV. Well, not only did we end up driving 41+ miles on one charge, we had the heat running and it was snowing out!

I am quite happy with the performance on my EV. Last night I ended up doing my first highway drive by accident! I went out to a Christmas party and used my GPS and I was driving on the highway for 20 minutes doing 60 MPH before I even realized I was in my EV! It drove excellent and I am thinking about increasing my battery amps from 2C (360A) to 3C (540A) to give me more power on the highway.

Improving Things

I've been extremely pleased with my EV over the past few months. I have nearly 1700 electric miles on it and I have no really no problems. I do have a small issues with a bad relay on my heating system that doesn't always turn on or off, so I have to replace it with a better quality one.

I've had a few run ins with snow, but the EV has done well with driving in it and with keeping the windshield clean.

I am also slowly improving the efficiency. The new chambers gave me a 4% improvement in efficiency and I am going to inflate my tires more to help more. Right now I am at 291 WH/Mi from the wall and 268 WH/Mi from the battery pack with the heater off. My goal is to get it under 250 WH/Mi with the heater off so I am slowly working towards it.

Rear Cambers

I have the opportunity to have the use of my neighbors garage for the next month so I started this weekend by installing new adjustable rear cambers.

This picture is a little fuzzy, but here is the new camber installed in one of the rear wheel wells.

And here the old next to the new. It was pretty quick installing these, although I have not done a proper alignment yet. I took a good guess at how far out I should be and I think I did pretty well. 

And this is what the wheel looks after the new cambers. Before it really did look like there was 600 lbs in the trunk and the wheel was bent in considerably. 

I probably will adjust the cambers again towards the end of the week bu for now I am happy. I also installed the stock splash shield and did an efficiency test.

For the past month my driving styles have yielded a consistent 302 Wh/Mi figure from the wall using a KillAWatt meter. Well my last test showed it is now down to 291 Wh/Mi! I usually have a 16.7 mile commute which is 75% at 40-45 MPH and the rest is stop and go with 30 MPH tops if I'm lucky. I still need to add more air to the tires, I found 38 PSI+ for my last EV showed improvements in efficiency.

To put it into perspective, my previous 96v lead EV was 450 Wh/Mi from the wall!