2000 Kilometers as an EV

The Vogue Odometer passed 2000km on the weekend.
This picture was taken later in the week.

Rear Windscreen Sealed - back driving the Vogue

I finally got to the Vogue on Sunday afternoon and sealed up the rear windscreen glass-to-rubber interface. It took a whole 15 minutes. I drove the Super Snipe to work Monday (yesterday) as I don't like to put it away after only running it for a few minutes (rust out exhaust) - so I swapped cars as soon as I got home. With my wife's car and daughters car - and my two, it's not that easy to change over the Vogue and Super Snipe to/from the garage. Most times I have to move three cars (anyone seen "The Castle"?). I'm back in the Vogue today. It will be raining off and on for most of this week so I'll keep an eye on the rear windscreen.

The accelerometer arrived (eBay) yesterday and I had a quick play - it looks like it will do quite nicely. I had to decide whether to keep the Vogue in the garage for another week so I could do the axle stand thing or drive it this week. Based on my poor track record last week (nothing but the rear windscreen done) I decided to drive it. I have to make up a little bit of electronics to trigger the LED strobe from the accelerometer anyway so we'll see how I go with that!

Vogue off the road for a few days

I'll be driving a dinosaur to work today. It doesn't slow down all by itself - I have to press the brake pedal. Then the engine keeps running even though I have stopped. Going down a big hill, instead of adding to my range, It drops brake pad powder on the road and heats up the brake disks and drums. Acceleration is weird - it loses torque in stages (gear changes). All truly archaic.
Yes, I'll drive the Super Snipe to work today.
Why? Do I have more distance to travel than the EV can manage today? Is there an electrical malfunction with the Vogue?

Nope. The rear window leaked with the massive rain we have had over a past week. I noticed it yesterday in the work car park - the rear window was foggy on the left hand side so I investigated.

When we installed all the glass in the Vogue I took counsel that having a velour headliner might be a problem if any water got under the rubber seals - so I was very careful to use Butyl Mastic between the seals and the bodywork. The seal to glass interface - not so careful. I did the corners, but not across the bottom

The front is fine but the rear window is leaking where the glass goes into the rubber seal. It's no problem to fix but I have to dry it out and clean it before sealing it with Mastic - so it's out of the rain in the garage today.

I have circled in red where the water leaked in. It was quite easy to see water seeping over the top of the rubber seal on the inside. I'll remove the rear parcel shelf mat and board and dry them out as well. 

This will also give me a chance to work on the Vogue at night next week. I might even get the heater back in. If my accelerometer arrives early next week I'l try to get my home-balancing system working as well.

I also have a new configuration to put in the controller that is different enough that I should put the car on stands to try it. The new config has more ramp elements to make regen cut-off at 1km/h gentle and some other refinements.

First step toward building an on-vehicle Tailshaft Balancer

I alluded to this in my previous post and I realised that I should elaborate on my intentions regards tailshaft balancing.
The final straw of getting help with the tailshaft issue came after I rang a Ford service manager and enquired into on-vehicle tailshaft balancing. I had read on a couple of Ford forums that some Fords required the final tailshaft balance to be done on the vehicle.
The service manager was very helpful and pointed out that the balance is done in conjuction with a diagnostic tool that plugs into the car's ECU (that's not what I thought but he was adamant that it only worked with Fords). No hope there.

So, I have bought one of these off eBay. It's a three axis acceleometer with analogue outputs.

It claims to be highly sensitive. (So is our dog [the rag stealer] but she hasn't helped. She's only allowed on the bed if she has just been washed and someone is sick - special times).

I'll be making up some simple electronics to detect one of the output signals and flash a high-intensity LED at some repeatable point. It then should be a matter of:

1. Secure the accelerometer board to the motor frame.
2. Shine the LED at the tailshaft
3. Run the car on axle stands

Of course nothing is ever simple so I'll start by looking at the signals on a CRO and seeing what I've got.

I'll use hose clamps initially and place one on the tailshaft to deliberately mis-balance it so I can calibrate it all.

Then the whole shebang should tell me where to place the balance weight. From there it's should be just a matter of varying the weight to minimise the vibration.

I make a big effort to blog this as I go, success or not!

On other matters - we had a really nice storm last night and the Vogue was the last car home so had to be charged in the pouring rain. No problems. The plug was dry when I unplugged the EV "special" extension cord. In fact I was more concerned about leaks in my new rubber seals (windows, doors) throughout the car - also no problems (hmmm - see later posts).

This week's economy

Figures for week ending 2nd August 2013
Monday: 8.34 AH for 39.42 km => 127 Wh/km
Tuesday: 6.36 AH for 30.84 km => 124 Wh/km
Wednesday: 8.94 AH for 40.4 km => 133 Wh/km
Thursday: 8.37 AH for 36.38 km => 138 Wh/km
Friday: 9.24 AH for 42.84 km => 129 Wh/km

All battery to wheel.
I increased the available regen torque to 45% of forward torque this weekend.
I doubt it will make much difference but may slightly increase my overall trip speed as I can slow down faster.
We'll see.
Still waiting on my eBay accelerometer so I can do my own on-vehicle tailshaft balance.