emini

As I mentioned, the shippers put a forklift into one of my crates. The cell pictured took the brunt of the fork, and the cell next to it was slightly scuffed. The cell next to that and the 9 behind the front 3 were displaced within the crate, crushing the polystyrene on the other side. This would have required significant force. The damage doesn't look too bad, but I wonder what this means for the future life of these.

I've asked the Thunder Sky mailing list about the consequences of this damage (you have to be a group member to view the archives, you'll have to sign up if you're interested).

The consensus on the mailling list was that no significant damage was done to the cells, which is pleasing.

The cells are here, with only a little shipping damage. What you see is specified to hold 15kWh, provide 46kW continuous and 153kW for a short time (how long isn't mentioned). Calculating the maximum power isn't as straightforward as multiplying the open circuit voltage by the maximum specified current, I'll post on it later.

Someone put a forklift into the side of a crate and slightly dented 3 cells and pushed the 9 behind them into the polystyrene packing on the side of the crate. I'm going to take advice on whether to bother with insurance.

Also, crazy perspective distortion!

Are you sick of fooling with carburettors?

Do you want a nice clean, quiet, modern (?), computer controlled wonder?

Do I have the motor for you. I'm finally selling the engine out of the donor. It has a few small problems so you might get yourself a deal.

'94 1275cc SPI Mini Cooper Engine + Fuel System

If you're in New Zealand and interested in an EVision from Metric Mind then please get in touch. I'm placing an order this week and I'm happy to combine shipping. They aren't that cheap, but for what they are, I think they're very good value. While this isn't mentioned on the website, the metric version that reads Wh/km instead of Wh/mi is now available.

If you're interested in a Brusa charger, a 9% discount would be possible if we get two more chargers into the shipment.

Last weekend Mike Laba, Jens Rekker and Adrianne Jones held a public presentation at the Otago Polytechnic. By all accounts it was a huge success, filling a 110 seat lecture theatre and turning a similar number of people away. Interest in Electric Vehicles is obviously very strong. A video of the talk is apparently going to be made available.

Mike Laba had his Mini in attendance. Yes, there is another electric Mini in New Zealand! Mike has had an electric mini for about 10 years, and recently installed the same batteries I'm using. He has 30 90Ah cells from Thunder Sky, while I'm planning on more than 100 40Ah cells (but space & weight issues have not yet been addressed). Mike fits all his batteries on the floor behind the front seats, which I presume makes the car a two seater. One of my design goals is to have 4 seats, I believe I can fit everything into the car and keep the seats, but I may have issues with the maximum weight. I will have to balance the performance of the car with how badly I want more seats. More cells in the battery makes for faster acceleration and more range, but less passengers.

Mike is using a Curtis 400A controller with a 6.7" series wound DC motor. He's driving the standard mini gearbox clutchless using the standard transfer case and an extra idler gear (the petrol Mini motor sits on top of the gearbox and the power is transferred via 3 gears, Mike has added a 4th gear to the train). This is smaller, lighter and presumably more efficient than his previous solution which involved half the cast iron engine block and a large belt. If you want to buy the earlier setup, it's for sale.

In February I bought 120 Thunder Sky LFP40AHA 40Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate cells. I got a very good price by standing on the coattails of another Auckland EV builder who was piggybacking on a much larger order arranged by Blade Electric Vehicles in Australia. Today I received word that they've arrived in the country, they have to clear customs and then I'll be heading over to Steve's to collect them.

Some people have had very bad experiences with Thunder Sky batteries and I'm well aware that this might be money down the drain. If they last 2 or 3 years I'll be disappointed but I won't be crying myself to sleep either.

I'll be doing capacity and load tests on each cell just as soon as I build a suitable tester.

I printed out the scan I made yesterday and it matches the bellhousing. Progress! I used inkscape to draw a simple curve around the bellhousing which will be the outside perimeter of the adapter plate. Tomorrow I'll drop it into QCad, put the motor outline in the middle and then I'll be almost ready to send it off to be cut in MDF.

So old school schooled me on how to transfer the bell housing through an A4 scanner and into my computer -- he suggested painting the face and using it like a giant stamp.

I only had white paint and white paper. I should have spay painted the paper black first. I didn't want to wait for the white paint to dry again so I sprayed the back (it was quite thin) and got enough contrast. I didn't cut up the paper, I had it hang out the sides of the scanner and let the lid press it to the glass. I think stitching came out within 1mm, we shall see. Even after spraying the back, the image didn't come out very well, but I only need the outline so it should be ok.