Friday, April 30, 2010

Still working on it...

In high-tech manufacturing terminology, it can be said that I am in the process of creating the subassemblies that will go together to make the car. The high-current fuses and hall effect current sensors have been mounted on phenolic blocks to give them mechanical stability. The controller liquid cooling radiator has been mounted in an aluminum frame so that it can be positioned on the bottom plate of the motor compartment. Of course to do all this it would take too long to use a hacksaw, so I got me a new bandsaw (thanks Harbor Freight) (again).

Whenever I get a spare couple of hours contiguous (not common during girl's softball season) I set up a little production line in the garage.




I have also installed the hall effect accelerator pedal. I noticed that it's the identical part to the pedal assembly in my wife's Highlander Hybrid (and probably the Toyota Prius too).


Hey look, the cable runs down the original throttle cable tube. Cool huh.

The rear battery box is installed and bolted in, and the front battery box is mostly done. The four liquid-tight conduits running under the car from the front to the back are installed. I did a cable-pulling test (actually cable-pushing test) with the 2/0 orange welding cable and it snakes through easily. I built my first high current cable, about one foot long 4/0 between one motor terminal and a hall effect current sensor (in the armature/field loop of the motor) to test my cable-crimping abilities. A lot of crimping force is needed but it's not unmanageable. Shelley was fascinated by the heat shrink process.

Rear battery box: