- Printable fastener tools and gauges over at Bolt Depot.
- The Energy Blog has a good post on Flow Batteries that is worth a read. Future updates are promised.
- JC picked up on one of the better quotes I’ve read lately: “Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence – that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.”
- Now this is an on-board computer! Hooks to another microcontroller that gathers engine data (in Czech?)
I did an electric car design for an engineering class in 1976. For the batteries, I chose Sodium-Sulphur (NaS) because it had the highest energy density of all the electrocouples I researched. The battery operated at somewhere around 700 F, but on the other hand, once the electrodes were allowed to cool and solidify, there was zero charge leakage. It also had 4-wheel independently controlled direct-drive series-wound motors mounted between the wheels and connected through drive shafts and CV joints (to keep the unsprung weight down) set into a mcpherson strut suspension. BTW, I got the battery ‘technology’ out of an electrochemistry library book that was printed in the late 19th century.
The only thing new in the World is history you don’t know. – Harry S Truman
Here’s a slightly unrelated question:
Does anyone know about gear oil and gear oil additives with a view to reducing the friction (and possibly noise) of my gearbox. It doens’t have to withstand high temperatures or high loads but I’d love to get a little extra efficiency here.
Hi Dan,
When you say “design” does that mean you actually got to build it too? Sounds like a fun project.
Back in ‘95 when I was researching our first EV I went to an EV show in Rhode Island and got a ride in a Ford EV (converted Taurus I think) which used sulphur batteries. Hadn’t heard much about them since until I read this article yesterday.
James, I’ve seen the guys on the EVList mention replacement oil, but can’t remember what the name was. Maybe something geared towards racing?
I didn’t implement the NaS battery. I vaguely remember NaS promising a W/lb performance improvement over Pb/H2SO4 of roughly an order of magnitude, but only half that of gasoline (of course, motor efficiency made the EV superior).
I did build a working scale model of one wheel/motor/suspension. For the rest of the car, I had 3-view drawings showing internal components, and performance calculations/graphs including a comparison to ICE for reference.
I wish I could find that stuff now. (sigh)