Battery Pack Monitor Boards

I have finished making these little boards. They "watch" the Battery Management Systems in each pack (12 of them) and tell me if something goes wrong. The red sleeved ring terminal goes the battery pack positive, the spade terminal goes to the modified Headway BMS. The bright blue LED is mounted through the side of the battery pack.The LED will go OFF on any pack that signals a fault. I can keep driving then get out when convenient and check which pack has let me down. The board electrically isolates the packs from an alarm system (opto-couplers) that will tell me if there is a fault. As mentioned previously, all this is because the 48V packs were never designed to be placed in series to make a higher voltage system. These boards take a 12V input to enable them so they do not draw any current from the packs when the car is not in use. The 12V signal is also used to reset them if a fault occurs (off then on again) - after I have had a look at the LEDs of course.

The one in black is a finished unit which will now be installed in a battery pack. The uncovered board shows how I stopped the component leads from piecing the heat shrink (after I made 2 and had this problem). Basically a cut-up folder cover is placed on the back of the board then heat shrink covers it all.

The lead entering the photo from the right shows the four pins ready to go through a cable gland in the pack then be plugged into the connector housing that is them wired to my little monitor "bus".

Motor is in!

A little bit of work last night and the motor mount is in place. As per yesterday's post, I lifted the rear of the motor from inside the car with rope and young Will shoved some blocks of wood under the rear of the motor frame to allow a jack under it. Then we jacked it up to the correct position and bolted it in.

View from the side.

From in front of the car looking through where the radiator used to live.

Looking from the windscreen towards the front of the car. The existing engine mounts are at either side. It clears the front cross-member by about 15mm. Three battery packs will sit on this part of the frame.

Engine bay view.

From inside the car.

This view shows how much space I have for the main terminal box. About 30mm at the worst point.
I will have to remove the motor mount again to finalise the terminal box but I knew that would have to happen. It's pretty quick to get in and out.You can see the strange shape of the top of the transmission hump - it's not at all symmetrical and slopes down to the right as well.

Motor Mounting Almost Finished

The complete Motor Mount. The orange thingy is my hoist - the motor mount is the black bit.

Motor mounted on frame. The chosen method of installing it all in the car is to drag it back under the car with a piece of rope going under the car up the back. For that reason I removed the terminal box again. I have about 310mm from the car's front cross-member to the floor (car is on 4 x 100mm chunks of wood under the tyres). The motor is about 285mm without the terminal box.

Once under the car, I reached down and lift the front of the motor frame onto the front cross-member and drag it forward a little bit. Resting on rags so as not to scrape any paint.

Now here's the hard bit. I was going to use a jack but I could not get it under the motor far enough back to do any good. Since I still have the covers off the transmission "hump", I used the same rope around the rear cross-member and, making sure I could lift it OK... stopped for dinner.

I should get it bolted up tonight. Then I'll check how much REAL space I have for the terminal box and hack that into shape - again!

Steering Box and Heater Blower Installed

The renovated Steering box and Heater blower are back in the car.
Not a huge step, but significant for me.

Weight Removed and to be Added

We went away for a 8 day holiday/break last week but now it's time to get stuck back into the EV.
The final weight of the car is pretty important. If it's too heavy I will have trouble getting VicRoads approval. So far it's looking good. About 10kg lighter than original.
The cells in beige are ones I haven't weighed yet or haven't made/purchased yet. Now what have I forgotten?