This blog documents the restoration, and conversion, of a 1965 Humber (Singer) Vogue to a fully electric vehicle. The Vogue will be powered by an 11kW(modified), 3 phase industrial AC motor, controlled by an industry standard Variable Speed Drive (VSD) or Inverter. To be able to produce the 400 volts phase to phase the VSD will need about 600 VDC of batteries. A big thanks to the contributors on the AEVA forum: http://forums.aeva.asn.au/forums/

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Heater Modifications

I have been doing a fair bit of work on the house so I have had to keep any car related jobs small for the moment.
Once I had pulled the heater out of the Vogue I discovered that the heater core I was planning to use was not going to fit. The Vogue heater is 230mm wide and 83mm deep. The extra depth I thought I had, is taken up with a duct that runs up the back for the window demister.
Here is the original water heated core in the heater box.


The ceramic heater core out of the Heller heater is 91mm at it's narrowest dimension so it doesn't fit. I played around with trying it on different angles but nothing really worked very well.
This is the ceramic heater core as it started life.

Enter my trusty hacksaw, then a tube of high temperature RTV silicon (red high temperature gasket maker from SuperCheap auto, rated to 315 degrees C). Now it's about 215mm wide and 45mm deep (I'm calling it deep because that kind of how it fits in the heater box). The aluminium section is 200mm wide - the lugs add an extra 7mm either side. This new shape lends itself better to the airflow through the heater box as well. I removed all the spade terminal lugs and remounted them 90 degrees to give better clearance to the sides of the heater box. I had to use the old ones as they were stainless steel and since they were mounting on aluminium, I figured that I shouldn't use copper lugs. The center (top to bottom) sections of aluminium are joined (left to right) under the silicon mess in the middle to minimize wiring.

Next I made up a little timber frame 228mm x 83mm (internal). An old number plate surround (strange the things you keep) provided a perfect profile for mounting the core once it's finished. I cut the surround to make 2 of 225mm aluminium strips.
Here, the core is ready to complete "potting". I will use a tube of clear RTV silicon I already have to finish it. The clear stuff is only rated to 230 degrees C but that should be fine. (Hmm, the tube I "had" is as solid as a rock. Seems it doesn't last 10 odd years - even unopened.) That will have to be the subject of another post.

 

Saturday, February 20, 2010

I have the Battery Packs

This is a bit retrospective as I have had the packs for about a week now. They are the same as the one shown earlier in this blog except that they are black AND they are 48V, not 60V. I will be using 12 of 48V20AH packs making a 576V total.
I immediately pulled the lid off one.
Sorry about the poor phone quality photo - I'll update when I take my camera to work. That's where I'm storing them for now because it's pretty much always below 22 degrees C. The charger for one pack is next to it.
I have to modify the way the pack cells connect to the terminals on the pack. I won't document it here as I am already running a thread on it on the AEVA forums here. It's on the technical side so don't bother looking unless you want the gory details as it also involves changes to the BMS (Battery Management System) electronics boards. (Edit: 16 Dec 2013 Fixed link to AEVA post)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Motor Terminal Box Height Adjustment

I have a problem that the terminal box on the motor is too high, preventing me from placing the motor just where I want it (See Motor Positioning a few posts ago). I bought a diecast box from eBay but it really doesn't fit well - I would have to modify it.
Someone suggested that I cut down the terminal box I have by clamping my angle grinder. Off to Bunnings (large hardware store) for an aluminium cut-off wheel. The orange plastic let me slide the terminal box easily.

The bucket in the background is because the terminal box got VERY hot. I had to dunk it in water after each side. I left the corners slightly intact until the sides were cut through. I made a huge mess - aluminium shards and dust everywhere. (I cleaned it up before taking this photo - sorry!)

 
  
The lid will be too large now so I will get some 2-3mm aluminium sheet and make a new one.
 
 
 
 I will have to fill the old cable entry gland holes with epoxy and drill & tap new holes for the cover (and make a cover) but at least the really messy part is done.