November 2007 Archives

With all of the hype surrounding hybrid vehicles today, I thought I'd do some research and post my findings on the next generation of fully electric and plug-in hybrids.  The fully-electric EV has had a bad name in the past, mostly due to insufficient battery technology, politics, lack of performance models and other factors.  Starting this year with the Tesla Roadster, the EV is going to take on a new form in the eyes of John Q Public.  Quiet, efficient EVs will start to become commonplace in the next few years as major manufacturers go into production with the newest generation of vehicle sporting more powerful motors, efficient generators and the latest battery technology.

Today's project while I was waiting for the controller to come was this little baby from Oatley Electronics; its an 18 Super-bright LED (24V) kit, modified for use in the Eeeveedub. After mistakenly ordering one module instead of two I decided I would be brave and split the printed circuit board into 3 sections. The first was the part that controls everything, including the switches and indicator light, and it is going to sit up on the 'dashboard' (well sort of clip onto the body near the steering wheel but you get the idea) in a jiffy box. The other two sections are the LED's in two lots of nine. Without going into too much detail, the board was actually made up of three lots of six LED's in parallel so splitting them involved some creative wiring. This is the third kit that I have put together now and I perhaps was overconfident in my approach in moving away from standard but I thought that 1.8W worth of LED's is probably enough on a little kids car. So I took a deep breath, made sure I checked and rechecked where everything was going and prayed that after hours of soldering my patience would be rewarded with glowing bliss. And the result? Success!!!

It's been a while between posts, life's been busy and I've been waiting for parts, but here's where I'm up to now. I've bought a bunch of gear- Motor assemblies, batteries, charging kits, throttle, soldering station, fuses, an LED headlight kit and an Amp Meter, most of it came on Thursday and I bought some today. I built the first battery charger kit today, it testing my soldering skills, but it seems to charge the battery which is a good sign. I need to work out a more permanent plug system for between the charger and the batteries (any suggestions?). I also have a key ignition and 24V controller in the mail. I've revised the wiring diagram making it cleaner and with more features, take a look: