Tag Archives: Butterfly

Battery, Charger, Radio

Two aught

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I reached out for help regarding battery cables with other d-car owners and enthusiasts. Along with the advice that I got, one of the locals that I met in the CitiCars maiden voyage was willing to help out with supplies and tools leftover from his EV conversion project. Teddy and I hopped into our little car and zipped downtown to the town square.

We met up and with more understanding of the parts of an EV, I was able to have a more knowledgeable conversation this time and had a lot of questions to ask regarding his setup. learning a bit more about how the guy upgraded his pickup truck. I paid more attention to his setup and had my eye on his use of project boxes to keep things segregated, organized and protected. He had quite a bit of advice when I asked about wiring harnesses and thoughts regarding a themed car that could be easily reverted without damaging the body. His thoughts were to look into Plasti Dip and a brand for “Painless wiring” for quality cables/connections where cables are labeled and easy to install.

He had a large box of thick battery cables and two bags of battery lugs. The box was heavier than I had thought and caught me off guard for a moment. Along with the box of cables, I was able to borrow some wire cutters and a gigantic crimping tool. I opened the CitiCars back window and we stuck everything in with plenty of room to spare. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the wire cutters…

Teddy grows some wings

Teddy and I enjoyed the park and took a stroll down main street. We went through Inklings, posed in front of a mural, and grabbed some ice cream from C & C Frozen Treats. Teddy had some mango while I ordered a quart of brownie ice cream.

Teddy, Lewie, and The Chez CitiCar

By time we left, it looked like a bunch of antique cars were arriving into the town square for a little car show. I had to bail before the rain came. I didn’t make it home in time, and the rain was coming down pretty hard. I kept the wiper on the lowest setting and didn’t run into any problems blowing a fuse this time.

Running 120 volt AC via J1772

The replacement Level 1 & 2 electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) arrived today. I verified that it was operational and setup the CitiCar to charge it’s batteries through a J1772 port. I don’t know if the folks at Sebring-Vanguard had ever imagined such a thing, but I am now able to recharge the car at a public charger. Here is the setup in order from the wall to my cars batteries in my little experiment:

  • 120 volt (5-15) outlet in wall
  • Level 1 & 2 EVSE (5-15 & 6-20)
  • EV Charger Power Converter (from J1772 to 120v & 240v)
  • Power strip
  • Five 12 volt battery chargers
  • Four deep cycle batteries for the motor and one small accessory battery
Displaying how I’m charging lead acid batteries with power supplied via J1772

I was loosing a tenth of an amp with the EVSE and power converter. To add more fun to the experiment, I decided to let the car charge to full capacity through the J1772 setup and see how much the total energy is affected.

Cable Inventory

Battery cables

Later in the night I started going through the battery cables I received to get an idea of what I had. The cables can be called either 00, double zero, 2/0 and pronounced as “two aught”.

I started taking inventory, measuring inches from the center hole of each lug.

LengthQuantityLengthQuantity
5½19½1
6710¾1
6¼413¼1
6½213½1
7113¾4
7¼1142
7½114¼4
9¼114¾1
Cables with flat lugs at each end

Some cables also had a 90 degree lug at one end, but the shorter ones didn’t have a lug at all on the opposite end.

Missing LugTwo Lugs
57½
49¼
312
12¾
13½
Cables where one end has a 90 degree lug

Two long cables were included that were 13 feet, eight inches, and another at fourteen feet, 11 inches. The longer cable didn’t have a lug on one of the ends.

There are quite a few good cables that I can use. The longer cables alone may be enough on their own. Many of the smaller pieces can be used for jumps between switches, fuses, controllers, and such.

Battery cable connected to two Chevy Volt battery modules

I found that I could barely use the 10¾” cable to connect two Chevy Volt battery modules next to each other. I have four cables that are 13¾, and four more at 14¼ that I could use with more slack between the batteries. It’s preferable to have a shorter length to reduce voltage drops. Although with the length of this circuit, the drop would already be fairly minimal.

Corroded lug
Wire brushed lug

I spent some time cleaning up one of the most corrosive lugs. I first tried to do it by hand with a wire brush with some progress. I then grabbed my angle grinder with a wire brush attachment and cleaned it up fast. I was finding that I was chasing some of the corrosion down under the heat shrink around the lug.

Things are coming along great. I have many cables that I can clean up and use once the motor arrives. I have the supplies necessary to make my own custom length of cables as well.

Tiny Radio

One of my tiny car radio modules came in the mail today. I actually ordered three different kinds because it was difficult to judge how big they were. This three dollar radio was originally just for a side project to stick on a repurposed 8-track tape. The idea was to give my 8-Track radio some modern features to play music from a blue tooth device as well as micro SD cards.

Bluetooth MP3/WMA decoder USB/Micro SD/Aux FM radio module

I was originally set on installing an 8-Track radio and an Android media entertainment center for navigation in the CitiCar. I’m having a difficult time determining where I should put them. I don’t have much space available on the dashboard to mount things, or the support to mount anything with some weight. I’m considering using one of the little radio modules instead.

I was able to wire the little radio up to work with both five and 12 volts, as advertised. The radio works, Bluetooth hooked up without a problem, and I was able to get MP3 files playing from a micro SD card. One thing of note is that I definitely need an amp. The little radio can put out a signal, but any speaker I try is so low, it is difficult to hear. The voltage supplied to the radio does not make a difference.

WAYPOINTODOMETERDISTANCE
Home1,134.1
Town Square1,138.03.9
Home1,141.93.9
Total7.8
RECHARGEENERGYCOSTDURATION
RatekWh9.85¢0.46 mph
Total2.21 kWh22.4¢17:00
Per Mile283 Wh2.9¢02:10

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Trips

Custard Greenway

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CitiCar with a fact sheet on the rear window

Today is Sunday. It’s another beautiful day. We’ve been having brief showers throughout the weekend. The air is fresh, and it felt like a great day to go on another adventure.

I got some tape and put up a little fact sheet on the back window. I also added a QR tag and the URL to this blog so people could learn more about the car, my adventures, and the history behind the car.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Front Royal town square.

Details on the back window of the CitiCar
The Royal Shenandoah Greenway

Teddy and I took a walk along the Royal Shenandoah Greenway. Its a little path that goes around the whole town. It runs along Happy Creek, down to the Bing Crosby stadium. It also goes through a few parks and along various roads. We took our time casually strolling along the trail. I let Teddy sniff around at his own pace. He would often lead me down toward the creek.

Happy Creek Arboretum Sign

We walked through the Happy Creek Arboretum on a side path with more shade. It’s made up of a few trees, various plants, a side path of mulch, a picnic table, and a few plaques. There is a water fountain for both people and dogs, but it was out of service. The bench looking out over the creek was also occupied, so we continued on.

Footbridge across Happy Creek

We made our way towards the footbridge nearby to cross the creek. The two of us often like to watch and listen to the water below. Once we crossed, Teddy made a beeline for another open area leading to the river and startled a group of butterflies.

I let him wade in the creek for a little bit. He was thumping the water with his paw, as if he wanted to swim, but it’s just not deep enough for him. After a few minutes, he came back up the bank and we were off onto the Royal Greenway again.

Teddy and Lewie share some Custard

We made it to our final destination for B & L’s Custard. Teddy got a “Pup Cup”, and I went with a small cup for myself. It was the perfect weather for setting outside in some partial shade along with a light breeze. As always, I had him do a few tricks for a treat beyond his wildest dreams. After he licked his cup clean, I let him lick mine clean as well.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Teddy found something stinky on the way back and had to stop to rub it all over himself. After bringing the side of his face down onto the spot, he rolls onto his back and wiggles around.

We saw the butterflies again on our way back, and I was able to stop and grab some photos before letting Teddy wade in the creek again. They appear to be Canadian tiger swallowtail butterflies.

DC Fast Charger for CCS and CHAdeMO

When we got back to the town square, I took a closer look at the public charger. It offered both CHAdeMO (DC) and CCS Combo (DC). In other words – DC fast charging only. I’ve been starting to take an interest in public charging stations while researching how I can modernize the car.

On the way home, we had a couple people honk their horns and wave at us, and I would honk back. We can’t go far, but it’s been a blast driving through town again.

Charging Time & Voltage

I love making spreadsheets. I measured the voltage and kept a closer eye on the chargers as they topped off the batteries. I now have a few extra metrics to keep track of.

On an 11 hour 41 minute charge back to full, a 7.2 mile trip charged at 1 hour and 37 minutes per mile (0.66 mph). For reference, I can casually walk about 1-2 miles an hour. I suspect this is a low rate of charge for a sealed lead acid battery. It is either due to the batteries themselves, the quality of the chargers I am using, or the fact that I’m using four chargers on separate batteries that are still wired in series.

In addition, the 2.6 voltage drop from my trip comes in at about 0.36v/mile. This gives me a general idea about how much range the car has in its current configuration. Forgetting temperatures, accuracy, resting time, calculating parabolic curves, amps, hills, etc. We are working with ballpark numbers here.

Returning home with a voltage of 48.5 is almost on the nose of a 50% SoC. Ideally, I don’t want to go below a 30% charge at 47.84v. So…

(48.5v SoC – 47.84v minimum)/0.36v per mile = 1.83 miles

From this, it seems the car can go a total of 9 miles (7.2 + 1.8) before the batteries get down to 30%. A dead battery sits at around 46.04v. From the same calculations, I would have 6.81 miles left for a total range of 14 miles. I doubt I would be able to get that far unless it was all downhill.

I’ll continue to monitor the charging time and voltages to see if the total miles has an effect on the average volts per mile and charging duration. For now, I can set a timer to turn the chargers off based on each trips total miles driven.

miles driven * 1 hour 37 min

If the car isn’t charged fully by the next morning, I can simply turn the chargers back on.

WaypointOdometerDistance
Home1,077.0
Front Royal Town Square1,080.63.6
Home1,084.23.6
Total7.2
CitiCar odometer readings for a tip to the town square and back
RechargeEnergyCostDuration
RatekWh$0.09850.62 mph
Total2.08 kWh21.1¢11:41
Per Mile289 Wh2.9¢01:37
Cost to recharge the CitiCar batteries