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, April 29, 2014

Tailshaft Vibration Massively Improved

Well the homebrew balancing paid off.
I couldn't feel any vibration at all at 60 km/h and it didn't become evident until I hit 77 km/hr - even then it was only just detectable on a smooth road.
The vibration must have been my speed limiter when driving a I had to watch my speed very carefully on the way to work.
So it's definitely the tailshaft so it looks like I have to find someone who will do an ultimate balance.

The hugely diminished vibration and the new rear sway bar link bushes I put in a week ago (sorry not blogged) made for a very pleasant trip to work.

I have also sealed the front windscreen across the top in the body-to-rubber interface so I'll see how that goes this week. I have had some minor leaks. (I have a tendency not to use any sealant unless I absolutely have to.)

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Some Home Brew Tailshaft Balancing

I finally devoted some time this weekend to attempting to improve the vibration issue with the Vogue's tailshaft.
I had bought a 3 axis accelerometer from eBay a few weeks ago and on Saturday I added some connectors and wires so I could select any of the 3 axis to test. I choose the 'Z' axis output set to high-sensitivity, and added some orange bluetack (yes, really)  to the bottom of the PCB to hold it on the motor frame.
The bluetack colour got washed out on this picture as and appears white.

Up the Vogue went onto axle stands with the rear wheels removed for safety.
I cleaned some road dirt off the motor frame and stuck the accelerometer on.
Then  I limited the motor speed to 3500 RPM which is 87 km/hr so that the tests would be repeatable - all I have to do is floor the accelerator.
I dug out my 38 year old 12V power supply and the CRO.
 
First trace. There was a lot of motor controller PWM noise but the vibration waveform was clear. I later added a 500Hz single pole RC filter which cleaned up the motor PWM noise - sorry not shown here. So the start point was 100mV P-P.
I wrapped some masking tape around the motor end of the tailshaft and marked it in four sections. Then I applied a stainless steel hose clamp and tried all four sections to see if there was a change.
Results:
1  200mV
2 30mV
3 160mV
4 175mV

Then I tried in between but I couldn't do better than the result in number 2.
I increased my test speed to 4100 RPM (102 km/hr) and tried all again. The vibration increased to 50mV with the clamp in the best spot - about 1.8.

Picture here is with the clamp at about position 2.5.

I tried adding a small washer but there was a slightly worse result.
I tried cutting off 5mm of the protruding part of the clamp, but if anything, the result was slightly worse. It was hard to tell.

So I left it at position 2.

Conclusion: It is possible to significantly improve the vibration problem.
Curiously, position 2 is where all the balance weights are currently welded.
Not sure what to do next - thinking...
I'll drive it tomorrow.