I have been working on balancing the batteries packs and have got the heater working we have taken out one bad batteries and replaced it with a good one.

This week we've been working on the final touches on getting the vehicle ready to drive to drain all the batteries down to bottom balance them.  I have figured out the problem with the power steering the two purple wires coming out of the ECU plug need to tied together and the attached to the purple in the new controller.  The same has to be done with the pink wire.  The other thing I did this week is strapping down the front battery pack to keep them in place to do that since we've added insulation to it is to drill new holes for the bolts to go through on the side instead of on the bottom how it was originally designed

Me and dathan have been working on finishing the car. I have installed the heater extension cords and have tested all of the batteries, blocked the middle heat vent and started to put the back of the vehicle together

battery packing

This week Victor and I have been working hard and putting overtime on getting the new batteries packed to be installed into the front battery box.  Aside this week Victor and I also were changing the back callipers on the school van.  Victor and I also changed tiers on Rays truck.

Front Bumper and Wiring.

These past couple of days I spent my time in class cutting poleaxe glass to fit in the front bumper to act as air damns. I got the measurement of the hole that was going to be covered by tracing it onto cardboard then cutting the cardboard to size and then transferring that to the poleaxe glass sheet. The first couple that I did weren't great but it got way easier as I did more. After getting them cut to size we used a black silicone seam sealer to hold them in place and make it an air tight fit.The next day I spray painted the glass so that it was a clean look and wasn't blotchy. As you can see above the painters tape gave me a straight edge that I had to follow so that it had the best and cleanest look possible.  

After that I worked on finding the bad connection in the front left hand light. It ended up just being a bad connection with the ground connector so I got it fixed up pretty quick. I got all the wiring re wrapped and put back in the plastic tubing to make sure that it wouldn't come apart over time with weather wear.

This week I have been working on adding metal to cover the cracks in the floor in the back so far I have two cut out of four and one secured. I have also been working on putting the battery packs together with Dathan. To day I was putting new brake callipers, break disc and pads on the school van.

This week I secured the charger port to the car. I also started to attach a cover for the back which will be welled to the car. I was also testing the batteries voltages through out the pacts, and we charged the packs for the first time with the charge port.  

This week I continued working on getting the batteries into packs of 5 and then I connected the 45 batteries to recharge them.  I am waiting for the new straps for the pack of 5s so I have little to do this week but to float around and give a hand when someone needs it.

Constructing the battery box

After deciding on the amount of new batteries we need somewhere to put those new batteries and so I have taken on the job of constructing the new rear battery box. The box is constructed with one inch angle iron and is cut so they sit flush as you can see below. Once the frame is constructed we will fit aluminum sheeting to cover the bottom and side holes followed by half inch sheets of insulation to keep the batteries at a more consistent temperature. In the diagram below you can see how the angle iron is cut so they sit flush and you can also see a rough layout of the box.

Last week I worked on finish installing the power steering control.  We had a little bit of a hard time to find a place to put it we finally ended up putting it on the it beside the air control.  Another thing I did was put all the lose wires into bundles so the wires aren't able to get damaged easily and put all the inter covers on.  The last thing for the week I started on making packs of 5 of batteries for the new battery compartment.  Since we don't have any connectors for 5 packs so I had to make the connectors.  To make them I had one end pre-made for getting the other end bent and drilled the holes the put the boults through to attached to hold the batteries in place.

I have been working on implementing the mag switch for the fuel door, I have added aground near the inertia switch, I got ride of some useless warning lights in the cab. I have installed the socket of in the fuel door and the wires associated with it.

Battery decisions

Through alot of reserch and discovery the current decision for the extra batteries is that we will be adding 16 batteries to a new bigger box in the tunck of the vehicle. Due to limitations on the controller we will be removing one battery from our new box and replacing it with a dummy peice so that in the future modifications and upgrades will be simple. The motor has a recomended limit of 170 volts but appon further investigation 192 volts is acceptable. The controler however has a 200 volt failsafe that it will not allow for electricity to flow through if it detects an amout exceeding 200 volts, this is the reason for the dummy battery. When the batteries are at 3.2 volts each the pack voltage reads 195 volts but when freshly charged single battery voltage can raise to 3.3 volts but will alost imidiatly fall down to 2.2 when a current is drawn. At 3.3 volts the pack voltage exceeds 200 volts which may cause problems. The controler issue can be resolved but at the cost of what we beleive to be 500 dollars, it does not seem iminantly important to pay for such when minor modifications can be made. With one less battery the pack voltage at 3.2 is 191.8 volts and at 3.3 it is roughly 98 volts. Lets hope that no more major modification will need to be made.

This week I have been working on installing the power steering control witch allows you to control how much steering assistance it gives to make it easier to steer.  I've also been working on the getting the inter components working (the interface, the battery meter, and the RPM gage).  The interface communicates what inputs are active such as the throttle position, what the motor is doing and the traction pack voltage and amps.  We've also tested the system that everything is working and running smoothly and has no shorts.

Upgraded battery pack

One of the goals for this project is to increase the overall range of this vehicle. After charging and discharging to see the amp hour and voltage values for each batteries we are left with 41 working batteries.

41 batteries
V: 131.2
Ah: 100
Kwh: 13.12
weight: 3000
56.31 km range

41 + 12 = 53 batteries
V: 169.6
Ah: 100
Kwh: 16.96
weight: 3099
70.45 km range

41 + 24 = 65 batteries
V: 208
Ah: 100
Kwh: 20.8
weight: 3183
84.13 km range

41 + 32 = 73 batteries
V: 233.6
Ah: 100
Kwh: 23.36
weight: 3239
92.85 km range

Saturn Modifications!

These Megan Racing lowering springs are one of the bigger modifications that I will be doing to the Saturn Vue. They are going to be the biggest mod to improve the Saturns aerodynamics. These coil springs are going to lower the Saturn 2" in the rear and 2" - 2.25" in the front. Lowering the car is going to give it better handling and steering as well as make is a much smoother ride around the corners and even on the highway. Another upgrade that we will be doing to the saturn is putting a belly pan across the bottom to help increase the aerodynamics. This is going to redirect the air away allowing it to go down the road with less resistance and making it a smoother ride. I am also going to put an air dam in the front grill which is going to do the same thing as having the belly pan under the car. It will redirect the air giving it less resistance allowing you to go farther on a charge. There aren't many upgrades that can be done because of the model of can and also because we have to stay within a budget and I believe that Nico will be buying more batteries to increase power, efficiency, and giving the car more Km to drive on a charge.

I have been working on changing wire connector ends so this way they will beadle to handle higher amperages to suit the new charger. I have also cut the plastic cover so the charger can fit. I have also made cords so that the charger can be charged by multiple types of outlets. 

Repairing Dolly

Nico and I worked on welding this car dolly because when we were bring the vue into the shop it fell off and bent the cart. I had to hammer it flat and then reinforce it with metal that I would eventually have to weld on and then drill a hole to bolt the wheel back on. 

The finished project after welding, grinding and bolting the wheel on.

Nico and I are also working on removing the old battery box so that we can redesign a new one and weld it together so it fits the batteries better and is able to hold  more. You see Nico removing the old box trying to scrap off the compound used to seal the box and keep it from moving around and falling off. While he was doing this I was looking at ways to redesign the car to make it more aerodynamic and more efficient. I am thinking about lowering springs, a belly pan, side skirts, grill guard and possibly better tires. 

Today victor finished installing the back board for the charger and is now ready to install charger. Dathan was organising wires and redoing some in the frond dash. The car was turned on using the 12 V battery today.

Feb. 22nd 2016
Today we did some review on what the BMS did to the batteries.  We used the first 30 minutes getting people up to speed about the electrical system.  Than we continued on getting the batteries ready to be bottom balanced.  As Eric and Nico did that victor was fabricating the new mount for the charger.  I continued on figuring out what still needs to be finished on the inter electrical.

Throughout the week Nico and I were working on taking apart the battery packs and taking out the dead cells and replacing them with good ones.

Dathan and Victor figured out the correct wiring needed to connect the batteries and the electrical components within the Vue 

Dathan figuring out where the power for the dashboard has to be connected

The cleaning of battery terminals continued throughout today. The charging port head was removed and the hole cut in preparation for a new charger. Two battery were set into the middle compartment for test fitting yesterday but they were removed today in preparation for fitting a battery heading pad. The battery's continue to be charged and discharged to measure amp hour ratings.