[dtbaker]

mmm, I had to lower my brake vac to about 13 in-hg to prevent my pump (Gast) from trying forever... I live at 7000 ft, so it is de-rated.

[shoup]

I got my charger on Ebay. It is a Netgain 3000W charger, but I think it is the same as the Elcon. I wanted to see how much energy it was using and the curve so I hooked it up to a WattsUp power meter. These things are great, but I think there are cheaper meters out there. Here is my charge curve:



The curves look like I expected them to and I'm pretty happy with my $500 purchase.

I have been using about 586WH/mile. Seems high to me, but that takes into consideration all the inefficiencies from the wall to the tires. I typically drive 45-55mph on my daily commute.

My car is running on the sun. I had a solar installation put in last year and right now my production is about 23kwh per day. I was only using about 14kwh/day before I started driving my car. Most days I use between 4 and 10 kwh to charge the car depending on how much I drive so I'm still breaking even.

Based on discharge vs. mileage I think my max range is around 30mi. I have not pushed it much past 20mi though. Most of the time I drive 8-16mi/day.

[breadly]

Your build is really nice! I'm working through the idea of converting my e30 and yours is a bit of an inspiration.
I'm curious about a few things -
What kind of acceleration performance you get with your 1000A controller at 156V? Do you ever push max current through your Warp 9? What's your rear differential ratio? What gear do you run the car in most of the time?

Thanks in advance for any response.
-b

[shoup]

Originally Posted by breadly

Your build is really nice! I'm working through the idea of converting my e30 and yours is a bit of an inspiration.
I'm curious about a few things -
What kind of acceleration performance you get with your 1000A controller at 156V? Do you ever push max current through your Warp 9? What's your rear differential ratio? What gear do you run the car in most of the time?

Thanks in advance for any response.
-b

The E30 works great as an electric car except for the brick-like aero.

Right now my current is limited to 400A and ramp up is slow to save my drivetrain. Acceleration is not an issue for everyday driving (0-60 is about 18s). I have not pushed 1000A through the Warp, but I am sure many have. The Logisystems controllers are not very robust and I am pretty sure if I pushed it to 1000A it would burn up. I think I can make it last by keeping the current fairly limited.

I have the 3.73 differential. I start in 2nd and keep the car in 2nd until I reach 50mph. 3rd is good up to 75mph.

[shoup]

Last weekend I went to a E30 BMW gathering in Asheville. It was the farthest I have taken my car and at the limit of my range. I charged the car while I was there and was able to make it back home. About 30 or so cars showed up. The car was a hit and quite a few people were very interested.



This inspired me to finally wire up my J1772 receptacle so I can extend my range. I wanted the J1772 receptacle to be rigidly mounted to the car and also keep my NEMA receptacle. I did not have a great spot to put it that was accessible from outside the car so I put it in the trunk. When I am charging with J1772 (very rarely) I will just rest the trunk lid on the cable. I wanted to be able to switch between the J1772 receptacle and the NEMA twist lock. This prevents the second receptacle's leads from being hot while the other is charging. The switch I used is a ON-ON switch that breaks both lines. Looking back I wish I had used an ON-OFF-ON switch, but it really doesn't matter. To turn off the charger I just change the switch position to the other receptacle. I used a 1N4003 diode and 880ohm resistor between pin 4 and ground.

I found these links to be good references for the J1772 wiring:

EVTV
etischer
bruceme good reference, but I really think you should have a switch for connecting/disconnecting your charger



I also got my gauges properly mounted. I took a scrap piece of aluminum I had lying around, used a hole saw to make some 2" holes, bent the ends and wired everything up.



Since my gauges moved out of the radio slot I put a CD player in. Now I have something to listen to on my commute.

[shoup]

I finally made it to downtown Asheville to charge my EV with a J1772 connector. My setup worked great thanks to the guys at BiowheelsRTS/BrightfieldTS who have worked to setup several free charging stations around the Asheville area.