no problem about it, it was only a sugestion of an user!i hope speaking english does not create confusion on your portuguese site!
i give a site were he can translate!
thank you!
no problem about it, it was only a sugestion of an user!i hope speaking english does not create confusion on your portuguese site!
hi sergio, thank you for contacting uqm technologies. we have developed a
new dc-dc converter product called the dc12-120l. it's specifications are
attached. i've also attached the powerphase 75 system specifications. the
dc-dc converter sells for $2200 in sample quantities, while the powerphase
75 system sells for $20690 in sample quantities. please feel free to
contact me with any additional questions.
thanks and best regards,
andrew roberts
sales engineer
uqm technologies
http://www.uqm.com
(303)215-3497
more informations please click on the link!the car is nowhere near finished just yet but that's no excuse to see how it runs in real world conditions.
i wanted to see what happened, what got hot, what didn't work, what went "clunk" etc before i prepare the car for it's inspection in auckland and the only way to do this was to test drive it up and down the street.
i waited for the road to be completely empty before taking the car for it's first test drive on that calm evening of friday the 23rd of november, 2007. i turned the ignition on, turned on the headlights and crawled down the driveway. i noticed the brakes are a bit crusty after not being used properly for several months. they should wear in again soon.
our quiet street was still empty in the nighttime air so i turned the car upwards and pressed gently on the accelerator. the curtis 1231c whined into life and pushed the car gently up the hill. gradually the car increased in speed. i noticed the road noise is louder than in my nissan.
after i reached the crest of the small incline 50 metres from our house, i pressed down harder on the accelerator to see what would happen.
wow! i didn't expect such a rush of power! this thing can move!
i regained myself, turned the car around at the end of the street and brought the car safely back home. i then picked up the camera-man (rob) and did the same thing again. still no odd noises other than the noise of the transmission. i'm not sure if it's louder than normal, as i'm not normally able to hear a transmission over the noise of an engine.
the acceleration is smooth and well controlled. there are no spikes or rough surges, just complete control from the accelerator. just like a gas powered engine. obviously we were pretty excited at this stage so i suggested rob have a drive as well. i pulled over and we switched seats. he didn't hesitate to put his foot hard down right away! the batteries delivered a surge of amperage while the tredia quietly raced up to 55 km/h (35mph) in about 4.5 seconds in second gear! he was gob smacked! neither of us were expecting that sort of acceleration from a car running on nothing but electrons!
after we came back down to earth, we brought the car back up the drive and into the garage for it's post-test check up.
we noticed a few things. the controller was only mildly warm after 3km of standard driving with some surges. this was good. the aluminium heatsink should prove sufficient when it actually gets the chance to properly warm up.
we noticed a problem with the albright (replica) contactor however. it refused to disengage after driving. it was easily popped back with a touch from a (high voltage gloved) finger but it's something i'll have to ask the professionals about. it doesn't have that problem when driving very slowly, but can stay closed after high amperage draw. interesting. the circuit breaker works perfectly of course. it breaks the circuit with just a gentle little pull.
the next peculiarity was that the high pedal lockout doesn't work. the high pedal lockout should stop the controller from doing anything if i turn on the ignition with my foot down on the accelerator. this is interesting that it doesn't work as it's built into the controller. perhaps it has something to with the connections on the pot-box? i'll ask the professionals about that as well and try to sort it out this week.
finally, the last of the teething issues is that one battery in particular drains voltage much faster than the others. for example, while other other 11 batteries range in voltage between 12.7 and 12.8 volts after a few runs up the street, one battery plummets down below 11 volts after the same drive. this is very bad as it means that battery will be the first to die. the circuit is completely balanced and no single battery has any separate load on it so the only explanation is that the battery must be faulty off the shelf. luckily my twelve-charger recharging system will bring all batteries up to the same voltage individually, but i'll still have to remove that one battery and get a replacement. i might try swapping it with another from the same pack this week and see what happens.
other than those three teething problems, the tredia is running perfectly so far.
as i mentioned before, the conversion is certainly not finished yet. i have to fix these small problems before i can get the back of the car repainted, then i have to find a way to transport the car to auckland for it's ev inspection.
once the car gets it's low volume vehicle certification, i'll be out there driving my heart out without paying for a single drop of fuel! i want to do more than a handful of short runs in our empty street, i want to drive everywhere. but alas, i must stick to the rules - as hard as it may be!
so, next step is to create the charging system and fix the teething issues, then find a cheap car painter! (help! anyone in new plymouth?)
update!
thanks to nick smith (again!) in auckland for supplying me a copy of a circuit diagram to set up the high-pedal lockout! by using a normal 12v relay and the pot-box connections i can control the high voltage ksi relay. i'll install that as soon as i have more than $0.06 in my account and can afford a $7 relay!
i'm still waiting to hear back from hcb technologies about a replacement battery.
oh, and keep checking the site over the next 7 days... i have a little surprise for everyone. it involves a car transport trailer, a private road and a tv camera crew. i'm not giving you any more hints than that!
until then, check out the video of the car's first trial run!