No pistons, no fuel, no worries! Toyota Sera EV Conversion begins…

[woggin]

your gna have a tacho??? on an electric motor?? i'd swap it with a gauge that shows how many killawasps your putting out!!

[TERRA Operative]

Just uploaded the Sera wiring diagrams. They're in Japanese (I'll translate them later) but they're still useful.

www.jdmlevin.com scroll down to the reference section.

[VA61DETT]

-TERRA Operative

Cheers M8, got some good stuff on your site!

-Woggs
Funny you say that, the controller can actually output the motor AMPS to tacho ( x1000)

-TC1600
Back a couple of pages, I am using a ceramic heater element in place of the heater core.

-A

[VA61DETT]

Updates!
Friday, 30 October 2009

Soo close to a test run!

Been very busy over the last couple of weeks, here is the current addition list:

Built & installed crank angle sensor, basically just a magnetic chopper which will provide a tacho output & allow the speed controller to detect ‘stall’ conditions.

Modded pully with cut-outs & magnetic pickup (scavenged from an old industrial printer)


Installed Assy


All the low voltage / signal connections to the Zilla go through a single modular connector (ex-aircraft comms)
The vehicle side is completed.

Zilla connector!


The Zilla controller requires a small water cooling rig to keep everything happy, I picked up this nice little Thermaltake jobby, it pumps about 500L / hour @ 12V DC.
Slight mods to the fittings & I was in business.

Pump:


To remove the heat, we have a nice little transmission oil cooler, (E-bay special).
This will be bolted in behind the A/C condenser, If need be I will add some thermal monitoring & control of the condenser fan to assist air flow.

Cooler, Note re-cycled ally from my old water cooled PC rig from a few years back.


I also made up a nice little coolant reservoir, I couldn’t find a suitable tank, so PVC it was!
Couldn’t find fitting in 3/8 either… so made them too.
Bit of black paint, smick as!

Tank


Nice shot with all the bits installed, the clear pipe is for a quick visual check on the state of the coolant.


Clamped up all the hoses, n gave it a test run with some distilled water.

Coolant system test


No leaks whoo!

TBC…

[Draven]

so very impressed

[VA61DETT]

Update Continued…

I purchased a complete vacuum system from evsource.com, this consisted of a freekn heavy direct drive 12v VAC pump, 2L air tank, pressure switch & a bunch of pipes, relays, fittings etc…
It was fairly straight forward to install, pump is a bit noisy, but works good (may get rubber mounted later).
The vac switch means the pump only runs as required.
Under testing I found about 10 seconds every 2 complete pushes of the brake pedal (once the initial vacuum is pulled).

Pump installed, just off to the left edge is the textured black vacuum tank.


Righty, fun pedal.
The Zilla is accepts a 0-5K input for the throttle, valad ranges are <150R for %0 throttle to >4.5K for %100 throttle, over 7K will flag an error.
Conveniently this is very close to Toyota TPS units, so to save the hassle I used a spare 5M throttle body and sensor, (I think I accidentally turfed the sera one)
A little bit of modding the TB and we were in business!

Not pretty, but dose the job!


Onto the instruments,
The all important battery fuel gauge will be installed on the dash.
Being a difficult curved shape there is no convenient mount point, so I made up a small 3 leg bracket which will be screwed down to provide a flat point for the gauge, the lot will be painted black or grey to blend in nicely.

Gauge mount under construction


Test running,
Before I go the effort of putting the dash back in, I rigged up a ‘terrorist’ spec ignition system.

CLICK, CLICK, ?


Look for the mushroom cloud over the hills some time this weekend!... (hopefully not…)

That’s all for now!
-A

[Jaemus]

water cooled ESC, thats insane
i should water cool the ESC in my combat robot

[Scuzzy]

Being a difficult curved shape there is no convenient mount point, so I made up a small 3 leg bracket which will be screwed down to provide a flat point for the gauge, the lot will be painted black or grey to blend in nicely.

Bit of fibreglass or plastic work and you could have something like this

http://www.questpower.com/sera/sera_meter_hood.JPG

http://www.questpower.com/sera/sera_motions.htm

Edit: you could also use an aircon vent hole, but realy sera's need all the aircon vents they can get

[VA61DETT]

- Scuzzy
I like that dash mod... My look into something like that down the track, I think they are the same gauges I have in my supra, & yes a/c vents are ultra premium! ;p

-Jaemus
Killer robot pix pls!!

[TERRA Operative]

Be careful about drilling into and hacking up your dash, you'll NEVER find a replacement dash......

Couldn't you hook up the system to the fuel or battery gauge, maybe have the digital gauge in a din pocket?



Oh, don't feel too bad about throwing the Sera TB out, it's only two on/off switches anyway (one on for closed, the other on for WOT)

[VA61DETT]

-Terra Operative

Yer I am some what reluctant to drill into the dash for that reason.
My just Velcro the gauge in for the time being & make a nice moulded fitting for the dash hood, as that is easy to remove.

-A

[Viper]

Very nice progress.

A note on the TT pump. They are known to fail quite randomly and quickly.
So make sure you have some sort of monitoring just incase. Otherwise VERY well done!

[TERRA Operative]

Yea, Velcro would be a good idea. I just can't bear to see a rare part like this with holes in it.

Make sure to use proper 3M stuff, so it sticks well.

[Tweak]

Look for the mushroom cloud over the hills some time this weekend!... (hopefully not…)

That’s all for now!
-A

More like " Whats that Humming noise and why is thee a blueyish glow over that hill"

[Tweak]

-Terra Operative

Yer I am some what reluctant to drill into the dash for that reason.
My just Velcro the gauge in for the time being & make a nice moulded fitting for the dash hood, as that is easy to remove.

-A

See if you can find a fiberglass guage pod from autobahn or ebay and modify it to fit