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

[RA35GT]

Hey,

I watched a show last night on foxtel called Gadgets Electric Garage. Dood takes normal cars and converts them to electric. (Nice SS Camaro on last night, super silent burnouts LOL)

[CrUZida]

I watched the 2nd half of one of those episodes ages ago.
Can't remember the car, but it was green (american muscle) and it was for Chris Cornell (?), lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave.

Never saw another episode though.

[woggin]

wat time and wat channel is it on rudi? is it a series? or one off episode? i should tape them!! IQ FTW!

[brett_celicacoupe]

we need an update

[VA61DETT]

Been on holiday... be back at it tomorrow.
If al goes well should have a test drive video

-A

[brett_celicacoupe]

madness!!!

im really keen to see mileage figures etc.

i think ill be buying a DC motor for the datto 1200 some time in the imminent future (3 months holidays)

[RA35GT]

wat time and wat channel is it on rudi? is it a series? or one off episode? i should tape them!! IQ FTW!

oops, missed this.

I cant remember which channel or what time it was now. and i havent seen it again...thought it was a series maybe not?

[VA61DETT]

Update
Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Was hoping to take it for a test drive yesterday, but had a few wiring gremlins with the 12V stuff.
Something was causing the ‘ignition’ line to latch on, so I was unable to turn off the system once it was started (not good for tests!)
After a couple hours of screwing around chasing the fault I tracked it down to the EFI relay, removed it and all was well, no need for it anyway ;p

I built a little (temporary) circuit to drive the check eng and batt waring lights, as the Zlla uses these to indicate error codes.
The circuit also incorporates a throttle limiter relay, which shunts 2k across the TPS if a fault condition is detected by the battery monitor box, effectively limiting the power output to about 20% for a ‘limp home’ mode. There is also a buzzer that sounds if a fault is detected, fortunately it hasn’t gone off yet (fingers crossed).
The additional temperature and battery monitor gauges are now installed on neat little Velcro mounted brackets on the dash hood, again somewhat temporary.

Pics!

Gauges


Somewhat-completed wiring, & driver box thingy (lower left)


Eventually the little driver circuit will also provide tacho signal processing & a warning output in case of the small cooling pump failure, but for now just the essentials.

Test drive this afternoon for sure!!!
Stay tuned.

-A

[Cuzzo]

Hell yes.
Good luck mate.

Watch out for the oil companies trying to force you off the road.

[TERRA Operative]

Should hook the temp gauge in the dash to the water cooling for the zilla.


Looking good so far!

[VA61DETT]

Good point TERRA_Operative

That it another thing for my to-do-list, course I have to mod the scale for the sender.
As normal temp will be about 40C, over temp being greater then 70C.. shouldn’t be too difficult.
Also would like to get the fuel gauge to indicate state of charge, (bit more difficult though).

-A

[brett_celicacoupe]

so how did it go

[VA61DETT]

6:13:43 PM
Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Initial test run - SUCCESS!!!

Did a short test run up and down the drive way, then a quick boot up to the end of the road and back, with a bit of wheel spin powering round the culdisac

Noting caught fire, no bad smells!

Few problems though.
* Can only select 1st and reverse, something is miffed with the shifter cable set-up.
* Throttle control is horrible, jerks around, revs up when you back off the throttle. (prolly dirty contacts on TPS)
* Power steering pump gets ridiculously hot for some reason, dunnow if that's normal??
* Couple of small grind noises under heavy acel / decel

Things to do, other then post Video (will be up tomorrow!)
* Set-up & Calibrate battery fuel gauge
* Hook up power to vaccy brake pump
* Switch front and rear springs ;p (front looks like there is no engine in it, rear is a little low)
* Could prolly turf the power steering all together, need to do some tests.
* Rigup Climate control stuff
* Tidy up wires and the like
* Do engineering / license stuff...
* Rip massif skids
* Sit back, admire work & drink beer, wait can tick that one off

-A

[trdee]

this is super fantastically awesome

awaiting videos of silent skids

[VA61DETT]

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Ladies and Gents,

The test drive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbm56UDuNZ8

-A