You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
Schematic Update · 15 December 05
The rest of life, home and work, has been keeping me busy lately which translates into less tangible work on Eve.
Still working on shoe-horning the electric heater assembly into the old A/C box such that all of the air goes through the heater cores and is safely away from the plastic side-walls. Also, before doing much of the installation and wiring of the heaters I needed to update the schematic.
Being more of a visual thinker I tend to do “what-if” designs first, sketching out schematic ideas on paper or a whiteboard. When that finally looks good it’s much easier to implement the real thing.
Well-Grounded · 12 December 05
Eve had a little bit of her wiring reworked over the weekend.
Hmm, actually it was more like:
Wiring, beeping, de-wiring, beeping, wiring, beeping, de-wiring, wiring, beeping, de-wiring, beeping, wiring…
Beeping being the sound the voltmeter makes when there’s a shorted connection. In this case it was beeping out a short between chassis and system ground.
Lot’s of bleeping beeping.
Meters · 30 November 05
With the first EV I used this E-Meter from Cruising Equipment. It shows volts, amps, amp hours, and time remaining…but only one at a time.
Along the top of the meter is a little “gas gauge” which shows approximately how much charge is left in the battery pack. It’s a rough, well, very rough estimate and can have some serious lag.
Ignition · 28 November 05
You may remember this picture from when I first pulled out the dash. It’s the main wiring harness that snakes along the back firewall behind the dash.
It’s a little bit intimidating.
When I started cleaning up Eve’s wiring this particular rat nest was saved for the very last. I’dlook at it and a little voice would taunt,
“Hey, don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!”
I’ve never liked that saying…
Smoke Test · 26 November 05
The dash wiring project was finished off this week. After a nice Thanksgiving dinner and a day off I headed into the garage to do a smoke test.
A guy I worked with once explained that electronic devices all work on smoke. At the factory they put smoke into all of the components and as long as you don’t let the smoke out everything is happy. Screw up and let the smoke out and your electronics quit working.
After removing what seems like a few miles of wire from Eve it was time to see if anything works.
And if any smoke comes out…
Have 10mm will travel · 14 November 05
This image depicts:
A) The very latest in dog fence technology
B) A dog thinking inside the box
C) The last of Eve’s fuel line, removed and then stretched out on the ground with a standard ZMU for reference.
D) All of the above
BZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!
Time is up. Put down your pencils and pass your tests forward please.
Weighty Matters · 6 November 05
This article is mostly a continuation of the wanton destruction and mindless tearing apart started in the last article. The primary difference being that we are running out of things to remove!
In between removing anything and everything in sight I’ve also been thumbing my way through the shop manual. Interesting reading, if you like that sort of thing. There’s quite a few options that this model doesn’t have: trip computer, turbo, electric assist steering, vehicle maintenance monitor and system scanner, along with various other goodies.
Less stuff to remove…
Electronics for Dogs VI · 31 October 05
