[winzeracer]

Originally Posted by ricklearned

Good luck on your final.

Come down to Hermosa Beach sometime and see my bug.

Thanks for the good luck, it worked I got an A! Be in touch soon.

[ricklearned]

I made some progress this week. I installed the motor, and completed the battery boxes.

In the first picture you can see my temporary plywood breadboard. I have already moved things around a bit and it is a tight fit for the controller. I eventually will mount everything on a 1/4" aluminum heatsink but for now the plywood serves my purpose. I ran the motor at 100 rpms just to check my initial wiring. The PB 8 trottle is in the grey box at the bottom and the Spyglass display is sitting on top of it . The open grey box in where the throttle wiring connects to the controller wiring and serves as a pass through for the controller wiring that goes to the dash. (Spyglass display, menu button, forward and reverse switch)

The second picture is the passenger side battery box that will be beneath the seat. The notch is for the Scat seat bracket and that will limit my battery capacity in those boxes. ( I have a similar one on the drivers side) There are 8 12 volt 12Ahr batteries in there temporarily to test the system. Some came from a early bicycle project and the others came from a backup power supply that I charge from my solar system on my roof. I am probably two months away from acquiring the 100Ahr Calbs that I intend to put in those boxes and other places.

It has been a good week and it was great hearing the click of the contactor, the hum of the controller and the whine of the motor.

[ricklearned]

I have mostly been working on my 12 volt wiring the past two weeks. I decided to abandon all the old wiring, so I am starting from scratch. I intercepted the key switch wires and used them to power a relay that distributes 12 volts to devices that are on when the ignition switch is on. That would include the contactor, and some displays. It is an interesting thought process to go through the circuits and decide which are powered by the ignition switch and which are always on. There are some typical uses out there. For instance the brake lights are always on, I presume for safety reasons.

I have another 12 volt distribution that powers things that are always on such as the EMW EV Display. I made a box to house the Hall effect sensor and ran the wiring for the bluetooth sender to the front of the cockpit. the following picture is before I connected it up.

[ricklearned]

My schedule for acquiring batteries changed significantly this week. As a result of this thread I jumped on an opportunity to buy some Winston batteries at $1.10 per Ahr.

I picked them up this morning in Harbor City, California, a short drive from Hermosa Beach. I have tested and inspected them and they all tested at 3.31 volts. 30 of them had sequential serial numbers and were in their original shipping container which was in very good shape. Six others were packed with the hardware. I purchased copper straps for an additional $3 per strap. The bolts and washers were included.

[ricklearned]

Not much to report in the past few weeks. Did a little more on my 12v system and ordered a fuse and some braided straps from evtv.me and some more 2/0 cable and terminals from another vendor so I can assemble and hook up my pack and take a test drive.

Currently in Northern California enjoying a visit with family and friends.

Best to everyone on the Fourth. Looking forward to spinning a few bolts on my return.

[ricklearned]

It has been a challenging few days. I returned after a great 4th of July holiday seeing friends and family in Northern California, and began connecting up my battery pack. I got it hooked up and wanted to see the wheels spin while they were still on jack stands. I was too lazy to connect up the 12volt system to my keyswitch and thought I could just push the spade connector onto a source of 12 volts. It worked a few times but my hands weren't all that steady and I could hear the internal relay/contactor on the Curtiss click a few times as I tried to make the connection.

Apparently, this shortcut welded my Tyco, because I got the error code #38. I checked it out with my DVM and sure enough, without any power to the Tyco it had 111volts on both sides. I guess the Curtiss won't let the motor run when the contactor is welded so I was out of luck and out of pocket for approximately $100. I ordered a new Tyco contactor this morning from KTA and it should arrive in a few days. In the meantime I am going to make sure my 12 volt system is hooked up so I can use the key switch to turn on the contactor. I might also install a small toggle somewhere discrete so I can turn on the Curtiss when I am too lazy to go get the keys to the ignition.

I will take this opportunity to finish the installation of the controller and other peripherals. I had previously mounted them on plywood so I could fiddle around with locating everything. In the meantime I have read that some form of cooling for the Curtis might prolong the life of the electronics so I went to my metal supplier and bought a piece of 1/2" aluminium to mount the Curtis and provide some kind of additional heat sink.

Today was more rewarding than yesterday as I began working on my permanent controller installation. I will provide pictures later, but there is room for a chill plate and/or some heat sink fins if I need more cooling. I live in a beach community and it rarely gets above 75 F so I hope I will be ok with this approach to keeping the controller cool.

[Ziggythewiz]

Don't forget the precharge. It's the lack of a precharge, not a key switch that welds a contactor.

[ricklearned]

Originally Posted by Ziggythewiz

Don't forget the precharge. It's the lack of a precharge, not a key switch that welds a contactor.

IIRC, the Curtis controller is supposed to take care of the precharge inside the controller. They just didn't anticipate that someone would turn the key switch signal on and off repeatedly, like I did while trying to fit the spade connector on the source of 12 volts. I don't think one could repeat that on off cycle with a physical switch as fast as my shortcut did.

[Ziggythewiz]

Oh, okay. Forgot you're on AC. I don't have one, but I know some people have the KSI tied in with the pedal. I suppose having the controller go on-off while driving wouldn't be as bad as the initial powerup as the caps would be charged, but it seems strange the controller would allow enough juice to weld the contactor.

[ricklearned]

Originally Posted by Ziggythewiz

Oh, okay. Forgot you're on AC. I don't have one, but I know some people have the KSI tied in with the pedal. I suppose having the controller go on-off while driving wouldn't be as bad as the initial powerup as the caps would be charged, but it seems strange the controller would allow enough juice to weld the contactor.

I think the microswicth on the PB-8 prevents starting the motor with the pedal depressed. I think that is taken care of in the controller and is a safety factor. I just wired them according to the schematic and it works.

Yes, I don't know the specifics of what might have happened, but I'm not going to take that shortcut again. My new contactor arrives tomorrow and I am going to have the key switch relay working by then. I have designed a lot of relays in my system so I don't put much current through the old VW switches.