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Ze062 EV Corvette

23K views 207 replies 11 participants last post by  428RC 
#1 ·
today I officially started the conversion of my 1962 Corvette on a tube chassis with C5 suspension. For the planning details see my introduction thread here

The introduction post pretty much lays out the plans and configurations so I wont repeat those in the first post but I will bring each portion up to date and fill in details here as it is built.

first off is the battery conversion from 3P to 2P. I pulled apart the first module by using a chisel to cut the battery tab spot welds away from the bus bars. this confirmed the construction was as I had imagined as well as demonstrates the way to move forward. The tabs are also welded to each other, but I do not have to separate the tabs on side opposite the terminals since they are common polarity. I will have to separate those on the other side as well as flip one of the battery packs to make the polarity common. the sketch below shows the configuration of the 6 cell (in 3 housings) groups. I was able to separate the tabs by cutting the tabs right at the weld line. this leaves enough of the tab for several reassembly methods I am considering.

initial volt measurement shows these cells are fully charged so i am being careful to avoid any unwanted connections. the +/- cell arrangement in the single plastic housing has presented a special handling challenge so i am working on a way to separate these in the initial tab removal from the bus bars.
 

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#88 ·
I ended up working on the bathroom today, but I went out tonight to do a trial scan. it lost it place a couple times because I was trying to lean in and I had the scaner at arms lengths, but even with that this is what I got in a few minutes. I think once I get the technique this is going to work pretty good. I will try again standing in the engine bay tomorrow so it will be steadier. this is using my samsung flip 4. the one 6T I had hoped to use could not keep up
Hood Automotive lighting Motor vehicle Automotive tire Automotive exterior
 
#90 ·
I started experimenting with the scanner this morning, trying different phones from the old but not broken pile and also using my laptop. definitely works better tied to a laptop. I used wifi, but I suspect it will be even faster tethered with a usb cord which is included, but I like the wifi mobilty so I will press on with that config. so now I need to have a laptop for scanning, I decided to take some time and put together a crude laptop cart for scanning. I have some steel plate dollies for moving machines and they are really heavy, so I bolted on a generic HF grinder stand upside down and added a piece of 3/4 plywood for a table top, one of the 3 legs also has the lag bolt for a 4x4 riser to mount a HF tv wall bracket. I had an old large computer monitor for my obsoleted security cameras so that will be my monitor. I may change this out later for a hi-
def tv if the screen size proved too small. the software displays three windows and results in smaller than I like graphics so I will see how the larger monitor works. old tech, the <$200 tvs are better than this likely $1K older monitor ( i got it used) I will likely add a couple lumps of steel (divider head and mill vise) to the base to add some counter weight but it is surprising stable now even with the monitor so high
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#91 ·
worked on the scanner cart tonight. I got power wired up and connected the dock. found an old keyboard but still need to find a mouse. top is not quite big enough but I think it will be good enough. I also added a spare backup power supply, the laptop is old and the battery perished ages ago. I could not seem to get the graphics window sized right, definitely a huge bug in the scanner windows software. It seems to not be able to scale, even on the laptop monitor, it works one time then not again. if shut all the way down it works one time again. also windows decided to download an update, so since you can no longer turn those off I came into the house. I did mange to scan a tail light housing for my first scan.

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#92 ·
set up the cart next to the corvette body tonight and made my first serious attempt to scan the engine bay. this is not as easy as it appears. I need to figure out how to put my monitor on a camera jib because it is imposible to scan without the monitor in front of you. I was trying to stand in the engine bay and twist around to see the montor, but that caused me a small movement and it lost its place. I likely could get netter results with targets, but i want to try to hillbilly it for a while because I really dont want to stick those all over the car. i have to see how well they can be combined because you can be perfect and have 3/4 of it scanned, then its slips and overlaps and I cannot find a way to remove the overlap and the entire thing is lost. I guess I will get it figured out but its tricky. it did a great job on the tail light lens so it really is about the tracking I think
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#94 · (Edited)
yeah, I am trying to keep the cost down but I agree a tablet may work. I really need to have the display right in front of me and my eyes are not the greatest either. I have a chicom tablet I bought a while back I was hesitant to use because I assume it will just funnel my info. that is why they sell them cheap I think. If I really wanted to spend money the best would be a set of AR glasses. I am hoping that targets will make up for the display issue, I am trying to figure out a reusable target strategy. magnets would be great, but not so much on the corvette. will work well on the frame though.

Likely the best solution is to use the solution I already have which is the cart. I need to get the frame out of the way and move the body to a spot where I can roll the cart all the way around the body.
 
#96 · (Edited)
thanx D&VsEVJeep, I did some wandering around a few websites and the one that has me intrigued is the AESUB target net. this is a fantastic idea but I do not think they are selling them yet

AESUB target net: With pre-assembled reference points

I am thinking of making some simple suction cup targets for the vette, for the frame maybe magnetic. I dont think the adhesive dots will work on rough fiberglass or rusty steel. I may 3D print some little pucks and put the targets on those.

I was also wandering if a get one of those laser pointers that cast a pattern of dots, would the scanner pickup a laser? I am searching my junk drawers for a pointer to see if it would work, that would be the best solution for me. would need a sturdy mount but that seems do-able

100mW Dot Pattern / Starry Pattern / Multi-Patterns Focus Green Light Laser Pointer Pen Silver - Laserpointerpro

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I am putting fine talc on the body of the vette and that helps the scan, I tried using a finger dipped in water to remove spots of the talc to give reference points, but it was not enough contrast to pick up easily :). might work on a shiny surface though
 
#102 ·
is a good thought as well. not sure I have access to the inside of the body in a lot of places though. I have ordered some 1mm elastic cord and I am going to design a puck that can have a target on one side and provision for a magnet. similar to the net listed above. i tried a red dot laser tonight and the scanner sees it perfectly, but the more I think about it the less I like the idea of getting lasered in the eye.
 
#104 · (Edited)
I've watched accident scene reconstruction by the Sheriff's office here (I was low on SoC so could not make it up the mountain using the 10 mile detour, so I got a front row seat). They use a dodgeball-sized white ball on a tripod and place four (I think it was) in the scene and fly a drone to do photogrammetry (I'm guessing - not sure it would be lidar).

So the ping pong balls, fixed in space should orient the scan as long as three (I'm guessing) are always visible and they are irregularly spaced.

So, ping pong balls (vs golf balls) on a thin rigid rod that you can bolt down to the body in places where bolts/nuts already go may be worth a try. Just heat the rod and poke the ball with it...it should fix itself to the rod, I'd think. They're made of (nitro?)cellulose, though...

Looking forward to what Mr Cheap comes up with since you are several months ahead of me and I was planning to use the expensive-as-all-getout sublimation spray....don't like the idea of talc getting into joints, bearings, etc, including it getting under new primer/paint and having an affinity to harbor moisture forever.

Given your grief, the spray seems most viable to me so far. Fun to watch your thought process, though, so thanks for the out loud thinking and sharing...

👀 🍿

edit: I think a cheap as mud 1.3 GHz Android tablet can handle your point cloud if you have enough memory, or it has external storage that can work while the scanner is plugged in.
 
#105 ·
thanx Remy, what I am finding in the internet reference library is that the scanner needs a boatload of points. so while 3 PP balls makes logical sense, I think the scanners needs to see multiple points within the scanner pickup range, not over the project range. the range window is quite small and it expects a lot of overlap to maintain its location fix, so that increases the point requirement again. it looks like the net has 4" grids from the pictures, so I infer from that picture that it is likely the point density needed
 
#111 ·
#113 ·
that is what I hope to find out :). I already tested the red laser I have and it is bright in the color image, not sure if the scanner sees it, but if I set it to scan in color then I am assuming it takes that into account, but I have been wrong more times than I can count...... I have a lot of scanning to do, so I am really searching for a faster and more cost-effective method for doing this. I plan to do the entire bottom, most of the engine bay and partial of the firewall and dash. so far it has taken hours to get failed scans on a portion of the engine bay.
 
#114 ·
If it ends up working (btw make sure there's a way to "freeze" the grid so it isn't a light show all over the place confusing the scanner) it'll be of immense help to superfastmatt who's using a higher end but similar technology scanner

In fact I wonder if it'll work with my photogrammetry scanning setup? I've been looking for a way to digitize my fenders....
 
#115 ·
I played with it a little today on a smaller item. I think the Revo Range is not suited for small stuff. anyway, it did work for the reflector so I tried the lens today with mixed results. i got a scan, but tried several times and then added markers. It seems a little better with marker but even this amount was giving insufficient marker errors. I had to do two scans and merge them, which worked ok the second time I did it.

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#116 · (Edited)
still thinking about targets, so I looked how to make a net. I have some 1mm elastic cord, and I have the stick on targets, so i sized a puck to fit that and a 6mm diameter 2mm thick neodymium magnet. I was going to also put felt on the back, but the felt is too thick for the magnet. so I started building these and was in a quandary thinking about what is the most useful, one large net or multiple small nets. taking that line a little farther, to me anyway, the most useful and by far simpler to make is an single line. I am thinking 5 ft long and I want to space the targets at 3". so with 21 targets I get a line 5ft long with a magnetic target at both ends and spaced every 3". I will likely leave a loop at each end to attach to a future hook or other. so I printed 64 targets and started playing with the configuration. I made the original 64 with a 1mm printed hole, and I ended up drilling all of those holes to 1.8 with a pin vise. the next set of 100 I printed at 1.8 which saves me the hand drilling. I am going to leave these on the raft for now as it may end up making the cord threading and magnet pressing much easier.

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#118 ·
some feedback on the various ideas previously discussed.

xmas lights, green red and both. it could not pick them up in target or color mode
post-it note dots, did not pick up
string targets, work very well with the multitude shown (thrown on) didnt seem to pick up the string at all
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