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 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.

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

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

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.

Length	Quantity	Length	Quantity
5½	1	9½	1
6	7	10¾	1
6¼	4	13¼	1
6½	2	13½	1
7	1	13¾	4
7¼	1	14	2
7½	1	14¼	4
9¼	1	14¾	1

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 Lug	Two Lugs
5	7½
4	9¼
3	12
	12¾
	13½

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.

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.

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.

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.

WAYPOINT	ODOMETER	DISTANCE
Home	1,134.1
Town Square	1,138.0	3.9
Home	1,141.9	3.9
Total		7.8

RECHARGE	ENERGY	COST	DURATION
Rate	kWh	9.85¢	0.46 mph
Total	2.21 kWh	22.4¢	17:00
Per Mile	283 Wh	2.9¢	02:10