great build kiwi
and great videos. a little more light at times would be nice but still. also a shame that the embedded youtube clips can't be viewed in fullscreen like they can on youtube.com. just looking at all the work being done is scary though
I hope to cut down on a lot of it though by using a donor car that doesn't need work.
what kind of controller will you be using?
and yes the electronics for en EV is way too expensive yet. horrible. hopefully that will change soon. several working on good diy solutions
regarding your recharger hack, does that actually work without having to separate the batteries from the chain?
The rust repair I so passionately attended to is beginning to come back in two places. Arrghh. More work. More importantly, more bloody sanding.
I'm hoping to scrounge enough money together for a 500 Amp (max) Curtis 1231C controller for "Treddles". I reaaaaally wanted the Zilla Z1k 1000AMP controller but I can't afford it, and I'd never get 1000 Amps out of standard lead acid batteries anyway.
That's a good question regarding the battery charger idea. I couldn't figure it out myself when I first heard of it. I threw endless stupid questions at another user of this method.
The bottom line is that it's perfect for my situation as I'm using a 24 pin disconnecting plug for the recharging point, and when the plug is pulled the 12 v connections to each battery are broken so there's nothing for the power to short out across while driving.
As long as I set up one charger for each battery, the power won't leak into the other charger so I won't need to disconnect each battery.
How it works is that (for example) the Positive from charger number 5 isn't interested at all in the Negative from, say, charger 4 so even though they're connected to each other, there's no power leaping around the circuit.
The circuit will be open as well when charging.
Man I must make that sound very complex. It really isn't because if it was I wouldn't use it!
Another big benefit of this method is being able to watch the charge of each battery. Makes finding battery faults a bit easier and conditions each battery separately, saving me from buying an expensive battery conditioning/monitoring system.
The MAIN reason behind this choice when it all comes down to it is cost. It's reaaally cheap and I can buy everything locally down on this end of the planet which helps when things need to be replaced under warranty!
Ok, I'll go now. I've put everyone to sleep.
