The Electric Car LIVES!

[KiwiEV]

Yeeeeehaaaa!
It's not only alive, but it mooooooooves!

Here's a video of the first drive right here!

For those who can't watch the video, I've included some photos of the first test drive. Not quite the same though...

There's one big EV grin!


Looking good on the road, sounding even better!


Says it all really!

I never knew driving could be this much fun again! I've owned everything from soviet off-roaders to british sports cars to convertibles to V8's and THIS is by far the coolest mode of transport I've EVER owned!


As you can hear in the video, after the trial run I've discovered three things I need to fix.

1: Battery 9 has one very sick cell even though it's brand new. I'll get that replaced under warranty.

2: The high pedal lockout doesn't work. Not sure what the cause is at this point. Perhaps I've forgotten to wire something in? I'm not using the pins on the pot box because I can't figure out how it would help using only one contactor. Suggestions anyone?

3: The contactor sticks "on" after drawing high amps. With normal driving under 300 amps it's fine. Go over that for extended periods and it has the chance of sticking, allowing power through the circuit even after you've finished driving. Flicking the ignition on & off a few times unclicks it. There's a very mild abrasion on the silver terminals but no damage. Any suggestions? Faulty contactor, wired incorrectly?

Otherwise, once I have those I'll get a new 28 pin plug for my charging system and get the back painted. Then it's certification time!!!

[Ioku]

Very cool, glad to see you got it running, and it looks rather fast too.

[Greenflight]

WAY TO GO!!!!!!! That really rocks. It's great to see all that hard work pay off. That's the one thing I always tell people who look at my car: it might not be the fastest car I've driven, but it's by far the most fun.

My truck does something funny with the contactors that may or may not be related to your issue- after turning off the ignition, my contactors stay closed for about a second, and then open. I've always assumed it was something to do with capacitance inside the controller, but now I'm not so sure. My controller's a Raptor 600.

And it took me a second to figure out why you were sitting in the right seat...

[pandaran]

That's amazing! Congratulations! And it sorta answers one of my questions, too! I've read people saying they drive mostly in 2nd and 3rd gears, but I wasn't sure if they meant they started off in 1st and then spent the rest of their time in those gears, or what. How does skipping 1st gear entirely not hurt anything? And how are you switching gears without a clutch pedal?

[Mr. Sharkey]

Good going, Gav. It's been interesting to watch you gain experience and confidence over the course of building the car!

Make sure to replace the defective battery promptly, it's important to have all of the batteries in your pack have the same discharge experiences, and running with a weak cell will mean that when you do replace the bad battery, the rest of the cells in the pack will have different discharge histories, which will have a ~huge~ impact as the pack ages as a whole.

As for your contactor, are the contacts clean, no oily residue, etc? It would be possible to connect a digital volt meter across the contacts to measure the voltage drop under heavy load and see if there is any resistance showing up that would explain arcing/heating of the contacts. Another problem that is better fixed before it gets chronic

Your'e into the debugging stage now, clean up the fiddly bits and you'll have a reliable daily driver.

I guess you got the heater working? You look nice and warm, and didn't need a heavy coat for the trial run...

[Greenflight]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sharkey

I guess you got the heater working? You look nice and warm, and didn't need a heavy coat for the trial run...

Well, he does live in New Zealand... Aren't they in the middle of summer about now?

[Mr. Sharkey]

Originally Posted by Greenflight

Well, he does live in New Zealand... Aren't they in the middle of summer about now?

Yes, lucky sods, that's why I made the comment. I almost didn't get a shower this evening because the water line from the spring had just begun to freeze. Flying south for the winter looks better every year.

[houseoffubar]

Originally Posted by pandaran

That's amazing! Congratulations! And it sorta answers one of my questions, too! I've read people saying they drive mostly in 2nd and 3rd gears, but I wasn't sure if they meant they started off in 1st and then spent the rest of their time in those gears, or what. How does skipping 1st gear entirely not hurt anything? And how are you switching gears without a clutch pedal?

Pandaran, I wouldn't trust his opinion about gear selection, and such, as I don't think he knows what he is doing. After all he clearly put the steering wheel on the wrong side when he re-assembled the car

The car looks great!!! Good luck at Cert. Eric

[rbgrn]

Just watched the video. Nice work, Gav!! I'm very excited for you!

[david85]

Originally Posted by rbgrn

Just watched the video. Nice work, Gav!! I'm very excited for you!

Diddo, You managed to give ME an EV grin just by watching that, see - .

Looks like it has some torque too, I can't wait to see you open that car up on those "proper" roads you mention. Very nicely done.