Tag Archives: Public Charger

Charger, Door, Front Royal Town Square, Motor Controller

Late Night Pizza

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Teddy and I hopped into the CitiCar for some night driving on a pizza run Friday night. With 30 minutes to spare, we headed to the town square to kill some time, only to find it was packed for a major event. Apparently we stumbled upon a political rally. I decided to execute operation “Outlaw of the Squeeze”.

The little CitiCar can fit in most places where other cars can not

The two spots in front of the portable toilets where open. I was able to park the car far enough away so that everyone still had plenty of room.

Door Windows

I took the door windows to Dixie Plate Glass & Mirror. They recommended popping out the panes. They had 50 contract orders, and wouldn’t be able to get to it until after Christmas. I went home and popped out the window panes. Unfortunately the aluminum frames cracked. There was a lot of glue on the panes, and it was difficult removing them.

Door windows with panes separated

I continued on and traced everything. I took a few measurements and brought everything back. Unfortunately they don’t carry anything that is 3/16″ thick. They order the materials in bulk for large contracts. If I could find the material myself, they could cut the parts for me. I’m having a tough time finding acrylic with safety glazing.

CitiCar sliding pane templates laid out on 22″ x 28″ white poster board
CitiCar fixed pane templates laid out on 28″ x 22″ white poster board

The car is much quieter driving without windows. It feels like I’m driving slower. All of the noise seemed to have been amplified with those windows.

I’ll need windows soon. It’s getting colder and I can’t drive in the rain anymore. Locking the vehicle while parked is pointless.

Cup Holder

The Colonel is first in line to test out the new cup holder

Drive-through restaurants weren’t really that big in the 70’s. McDonald’s opened it’s first drive-through in the year prior to my CitiCar being built. That’s why the creature comforts in my car are an ash tray and a cigarette lighter.

I went ahead and ordered some cup holders. I didn’t’ realize how oversized they were. They hang perfectly onto the defroster vents, but I’m often tilting the drink against the window to slide it down into the holder.

Charging Stations

Jack Evans Chevrolet

A CitiCar tucked next to the service center while charging

I went back to Jack Evans Chevrolet while it was staffed during my lunch break. I talked with one of the service men by the other charger to see what the guidelines were on using the charger. They just said pull up and charge.

Being in front of the garage door, it feels like the car is in the way. The charging station is in a fairly odd spot. I pushed the car as close to the wall as I could to keep it out of the way.

A CitiCar packed at a public charging station

TownePlace Suites

A penny for your thoughts

A hotel was just built outside of the city this year. It has a public charging station – but it has a fee. I was curious to walk through the process. I tried it out and was able to test charging. In my four minute experiment, I was charged a penny. I thought it would bill me for the full hour. For now, I’ll stick to the free charging station across the street from it.

I liked how the charger had a screen giving you the current status and statistics during the charging processes.

Being charged by time, rather than the amount of energy consumed seems a bit off. I’m consuming about 20% of the rate that other vehicles can consume – which means I’m paying five times more than everyone else.

100~240 Car Battery Charger

A 12v battery charger arrived that can run on between 100 and 240 volts. At this point, all of my CitiCar onboard chargers now support both standard house power and the voltages found at public chargers. Using the ST-3000 EV charger power converter, I was able to confirm that both chargers were able to charge the car when supplied with 240 volts. At this point, only the J1772 adapter is needed on the converter.

Motor Controller

Fabricating mount for motor controller in CitiCar

Most of the day was spent installing the motor controller and switches. I continued to evaluate multiple aspects of where everything would be located once the powertrain was fully replaced.

Fabricating the mounting hardware was fairly simple. A while back, I picked up four strong-tie A311 A Angles that are usually meant for fastening posts down to concrete. Part of the fun was tracing parts and drilling a mirror image by clamping two fasteners opposing each other.

The contactor switches and motor controller were fairly heavy, and caused the angles to wobble. I settled on having two separate mounts.

Forward/Reverse contactors on separate A Angles from motor controller and main contactor.

Charging CitiCar at a paid charging station
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Burrell Brooks, Eastham, Fantasyland, Front Royal Town Square

Park Crawl

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Eastham Park

A little resting area by the Shenandoah river in Eastham park

Teddy and I slept in today and woke up late. After grabbing a meal, we headed out to Eastham park in the CitiCar.

Another great day. We grabbed a bench and watched a few people float by on canoes. Front Royal was designated as the “Canoe Capital of Virginia” in 1999. We are often seeing people in canoes when we walk along the river. One couple had a dog with them, but Teddy wasn’t paying much attention to its parking.

We headed down the trail and I let Teddy loose for a little bit in the dog park. Afterwards we continued down the path until we reached an area that comes down to the river itself. Teddy drank a bit of water and dipped his toes in, walking around for a bit. Afterwards, we head back to the car.

Oddly enough, the GPS speedometer couldn’t get a clear signal. We drove for roughly a half mile before the speedometer started working. With a clear sky, this is a bit concerning. I may have to move the antenna to the outside of the car.

Panoramic view of a little resting area by the Shenandoah river at Eastham park

Charge

Charging at Jack Evans Chevrolet

I had a goal this weekend to see if I could find and use the level 2 charger downtown. It is in a certified pre-owned Chevy dealership. On a Sunday in rural America, the place was fairly empty. I found the DC fast charger, but I didn’t see any compatible plug to charge the car.

I looked at a few photos and reviews and found that they have three separate charging stations scattered between two buildings. I found the one I needed with the J1772 plug was by the main entrance. I plugged in, heard a click, and saw that the CitiCar was charging away.

I decided to take a walk over to Main Street while the car was charging.

Confederate Monument Controversy

Controversial Confederate monument

I took a look at the Confederate monument in front of the court house. I saw it was on the ballot last week when I showed up to the registrars office for early voting in the presidential election. There is a vote to move it to another location. I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, or even knew of its existence. It appears that it isn’t of any specifically recognizable general.

I Want Candy

Store front on Main Street of I Want Candy in Front Royal, Virginia

I saw that a new shop was opening up on Main Street yesterday. The storefront is fairly unique compared to other buildings in Front Royal in that it has a curve to it that wraps around the corner. Teddy and I went in today to have a look around.

Pick your favorite candies and pay by the pound

They have a bunch of bins where you can pick a variety of candy and pay by the pound. I kept seeing different candy that I had long forgotten about when growing up. I had to stop myself and consider that I could leave some candy for next time.

C&C Frozen Treats

Carousel horse themed entrance to C&C Frozen Treats

We went into C&C Frozen Treats next. There are many murals around Front Royal, and the owner of the shop had someone decorate their entry way with the carousel horse theme found inside their shop.

There were only two dairy-free flavors left, and the only one that was safe for Teddy was the spiced cake. I ordered a scope for both Teddy and myself.

Town Square

Dairy-free ice cream for two in the park

Teddy and I headed across the street to the town square. Teddy was looking up at me on the whole trip over to find a seat. He knew he was going to get a treat at any minute.

I poured out some of the candies on the checkerboard table and started having a meal fit for two kids at the ripe age of seven.

Teddy will do anything for a treat, and he put on a really good show for everyone watching. The comments I most often hear is how people wish their dog could do what he does. People are often surprised that he knows the difference between his right and left. One of my favorite tricks is to trop a spoon full of ice cream, and then look away and start eating. Teddy will keep focused on me until I say “release”.

Burger King

After having our desert, we headed back to the CitiCar. We were almost up to a full charge, so I decided we could continue our little joy ride and cruise on up to South Street. We were stuck in the Burger King drive-through for about twenty minutes. By time we got our food, I was ready for a change of scenery and eat somewhere else.

Burrell Brooks Park

The charge from the dealership gave us a lot of battery to run around town with. I decided that we could take the CitiCar to Burrell Brooks Park. I hadn’t taken it there before because it’s simply too far.

The park has a small walking path with fitness stations peppered along it. There is also a playground, music playground, and basket ball court. It looked like a Childs birthday party was going on at the pavilion. Teddy and I found a bench at the far end of the park away from everyone else. The meal was satisfying. I took Teddy on the path around the park before we started heading for home.

Fantasyland Park

It was starting to get into the twilight hours and I was debating if we should go home, or stop by Gertrude Miller Park. I didn’t’ have an accurate reading on the batteries state of charge, and I knew I could recharge at a pavilion. Along the way, I turned on the lights and after a brief moment, they went out.

A CitiCar parked at Fantasyland Park

I was debating if I should go strait home without any lights, since it wasn’t too dark out yet. I pulled off into the Advance Auto Parts parking lot and decided to play it safe rather than be sorry. I pulled out the voltage meter and looked for a 30 amp fuse. I already knew which fuse to check, and how many amps it should allow. After two minutes, we were back on our way.

Rather than stopping at Gertrude Miller or Lions Park, I decided to go for the parking lot in between the two parks. I parked the CitiCar under a large tree next to Fantasyland Park.

We didn’t stay long. I took Teddy over to Happy Creek and let him wade a bit in the water. We walked around for a little bit before hopping back into the car.

Back Again

Just as we were almost home, one of our neighbors walking their dog waved at us. I turned around and zipped on over. Although he was stuck in the car, Teddy and his friend were super excited to see each other. Although the car sounds fairly noisy to me, my neighbor commented that it sounded like someone on a bicycle. This revelation came as a bit of a shock to me.

Teddy is exhausted from having too much fun

We said our good byes and I zipped back to the house and guided the CitiCar into the driveway. Teddy was a bit exhausted. We had been to one park after another, and a few stores the entire day. When I see him twitching in his sleep, I imagine he is having wild dreams chasing squirrels and rabbits through the woods.

In Other News

  • From the advice of other C-Car owners, I’m considering changing the button for Secret Hyperjets to be red.
  • A 12 volt charger arrived that works on both 120 and 240 volts AC power
  • I didn’t make any progress on the window this weekend…
Front Royal Eastham Park
Front Royal Town Square, Lions, Rockland, Trips

Rockland Park

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The CitiCar on its first trip to Rockland Park with a clear view of the mountains along the horizon

A trip to Rockland Park is (or was) the next major milestone travel destination. Although the round trip is within the range of the CitiCar, there are many hills along the way, making the trip impossible.

There are two things going for me that make the trip possible. First is that there is a public level 2 charging station on the way. The second thing that helps is that the new Lester charger recharges batteries four times faster than what I was previously using. I had the day planned out earlier in the week.

The weather was a bit cool and looked like it may rain soon. A quick look at a local weather forecast indicated that it had rained in the morning, and that it should be clear for the remainder of the day.

A CitiCar with Spunk

On our way over to the charging station, I noticed rite away that the CitiCar had a bit more pep to it. I was getting speeds up to 35 mph under its own power. I’ve not seen that before in this little car. It’s almost like she is showing off, up for the challenge ahead of us. I’ve got a bit of a hunch that maybe the batteries were overcharged last night while I changed over to the new extension cords, restarting the charging cycles.

As I was about to plug the CitiCar into the charging station, someone stopped their car in front of us and asked how it does on gas. I replied that I don’t buy gas, and pointed to a sign on the building behind me that said Electric Vehicle Charging Station. They looked a bit shocked. I don’t think they realized that charging stations existed.

Teddy and I headed over to the walk-up window at checkers and got a small order of fries. With bits of French fries as a reward, Teddy gave people going through the drive-through lanes a show.

Pushing the Limits

This was it, we were about to go off further out of town than we had ever been in the little CitiCar with more hills to conquer and a small trek through a 55mph zone. Thankfully it was a two lane highway, so I wasn’t holding anyone up. The road to turn off towards the park felt further away than I had expected. Every hill and valley feels like a challenge. Turning onto the road, I went up a hill that just kept going on and on.

I hadn’t driven over railroad tracks before. I was getting a bit anxious about how well the car would take it. I think the car behind me was getting a bit of a kick watching us slow down and take the rails at a slow speed. It was worth it. The suspension and small tires on the CitiCar don’t do well crossing tracks.

Once we crossed over, we turned down the road into the park and everything was easy going after that. Although the limit was only 25 mph, we coasted as much as possible to preserve battery power since no one was behind us. There is a bit of a hill once you enter the park that wasn’t all too bad.

Rockland Park

We parked by the fitness equipment with a clear view of the mountains along the horizon. I led Teddy over to walk past the pavilions and a playground to get to the walking path.

Benches are peppered along the asphalt walking path through the woods

One of the things that I like about Rockland Park is the blacktop walking path. You’ve got a hard, flat, and level surface that even strollers could be pushed along without any obstructions (except getting to it). There is a Disc Golf course peppered throughout the woods. Smaller dirt paths through the course cross over the main path, and often have benches at various crossings.

The park has one major detriment to its serene atmosphere. Although Rockland park is large, you’ll always hear the humming and crunching sounds of the power plant nearby. The sound of children playing at a music park often brings more peace to the park, overcoming this background noise.

The path that leads down to the Shenandoah river will take you under some power lines

I was in such an adventurous spirit that I decided to take a path that I have always avoided. It goes under some high power electric lines. Listening to the air heat up around the electric lines gives me a fright with thoughts of being struck by a bolt of electrons, or having a device malfunction. I figured if everyone can walk through without damaging their phones, I should be fine. I just kept my focus on Teddy and we kept going.

A fork in the path makes you question yourself as to which way to go in life

The path had some nice views of the Shenandoah river. It went down to a fork and a little bench where the asphalt ended. Teddy and I headed left, as it looked like it would take us closer to the river. Sure enough, we got to the end with a little spot where we could sit on some old concrete blocks. The area could use a bench to sit back and enjoy the view.

A small spot was found to kickback and rest for a moment along the Shenandoah river

We watched a few boats pass and wave at us. Teddy would get a bit focused when each boats wake would reach the shore, making sloshing sounds in various places around us.

Teddy makes walking small paths a bit less intimidating and warns animals to stay away

We headed back on up to the fork. Teddy seemed to be leading the way, excited to come back the way we came. We continued down in the other direction. I could hear golf balls being hit. It eventually brought us to a golf course where the path becomes shared with golf carts. I looked on a satellite map and couldn’t see if any of the paths would lead around, back to the park. Instead, Teddy and I headed back to where we came from.

On the way back under the power lines, I felt more confident walking under them. We continued on our original path on the main loop and walked up onto a white tailed doe on the path. The deer just looked at us. After Teddy started barking, she took off.

Charge

We got back to the CitiCar and headed back to the charging station. The battery was down to 70%. A person came up to ask about the car just as I was about to get Teddy out. We are getting stopped often to talk about this car. I went over some details of how I am able to charge an antique car from the 70’s at a public charging station. I got a combo meal at Checkers while we waited for the car to recharge.

Main Street

It was time to go back home – or was it? There wasn’t much else to do today and the battery meter was reporting a 100% charge. I decided to head over to Gertrude. Along the way, I made another split decision to run on up to the town square instead. While walking around, I noticed a new store is opening called, I want candy. I also grabbed a photo of some painted garden poles outside The Studio – A Place for Learning.

Painted garden posts are on display next to the studio on Main Street

After walking around for a bit, I decided to stop into Lions park and let Teddy have a little walk and quick drink out of Happy Creek. We were shortly on our way back home.

The total cruise was a whopping 15.7 miles – 41% further than the CitiCar’s previous record! With free charging, the average price per mile was brought town to 2.1¢.

DestinationTripAH returnedCharge Time
Home0
Charging Station2.86.800:23
Rockland5.5
Charging Station8.08.900:31
Town Square12.0
Gertrude13.1
Home15.754.603:29
Total70.304:23
Views of Rockland Park

In Other News

Moving the GPS receiver from the dashboard to the front, under the CitiCars’ “hood” area has greatly reduced the time it takes to acquire a signal. It appears that the aluminum frame does play a big part of disrupting GPS signals.

Speedometer

Charged

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I suspected the last time I went to the charger, it stopped supplying power because I may have turned off the power strip. It was time to give it another go.

Five battery chargers for 12v car batteries in the back of a CitiCar

I moved the battery chargers into the back of the CitiCar. I zip tied wires going to the outlets, and made sure I could see them all face up. Everything is setup for a quick change between J1772 charging, and charging from a standard house outlet.

Teddy and I hopped into the CitiCar and took off for the charging station. Driving around with the new turn signal switch, things felt much simpler. Who would have imagined how much luxury a fully operational turn signal switch would add to a car?

The thing that got to me was that after all of the care I went through to align the steering wheel correctly yesterday, it still wasn’t aligned. I couldn’t wrap my hands at the 10 and 2 positions, and my mind kept wanting to level it off. The car pulls to the side when hitting the breaks, making the problem worse.

Misaligned steering wheel

Just like the last time, we saw the red Tesla and parked next to it. I connected to the charging station and confirmed everything had power before we headed over to Checkers for some lunch.

After picking up our food, Teddy and I sat on the grass in the shade of a tree. It was a great day. Nice weather, light breeze, with sounds of people and nature in the background.

The CitiCar was still charging afterwards, which confirmed my guess as to why the charger stopped supplying power the last time. It wasn’t due to a low power draw – but rather, I bumped the power strip to the off position.

I proceeded to take Teddy for a little walk. When we headed back to the car, the Kill A Watt meter showed that we got 0.2 kWh in 47 minutes. That is almost a mile added to the car. I now have a baseline to improve charging speed.

We drove over to Lowe’s and picked up some stud fasteners as a possible solution to bolt our switches and the motor controller into the car.

When I got home, I made sure the car was driving in a strait direction. I took a look at the steering wheel. I found an easier way to remove the cap without any tools. Once I took off the wheel, I rotated a plastic ring on the switch to line up with the steering wheels bolt, and placed the wheel back onto the steering column in the correct position.

Speedometer

The speedometer that I installed in the CitiCar came with a button to switch between the trip and lifetime odometer. I hadn’t installed the button yet. Instead, I’ve been resetting the trip odometer by grounding the end of the external button wire with the edge of the cigarette lighter. It looks like I’m trying to hot-wire the car when I bend down to grab the wire and line it up.

Grounding out speedometer external button wire on cigarette lighter

I decided it was time to make life simpler on myself and install the button that came with it.

Now that the charger is no longer bolted inside the car, I can stick my head in the area and look back up at the dashboard from behind. I was able to confirm that there weren’t any wires on the bottom right of the speedometer. I drilled out a 15/32″ hole, fairly slowly. The aluminum dashboard panel in the CitiCar is fairly thick.

The tricky part now was to connect the button up. The metal tabs are small. The spade connectors that I have are too large. My goal was to solder some wires onto the switch and put spade terminals on those wires.

Terminal melted off of a plastic button

Not every goal is met. I’ve been out of my thin soldering wire for some time. The terminal melted off when I began to heat it up with the tip of my soldering iron. I looked at a few videos online and found that I should have threaded the wire through the hole first, then twist it tight, and proceed to heat up the wire instead.

I found the same exact 12mm waterproof momentary push button switch and ordered aa pack of 15 with five colors. I’ll be able to make 14 more mistakes before I order more.

For now, I plugged up the hole with the defunct button. I’ll continue to use the cigarette lighter to reset the trip odometer.

GPS Speedometer with an external button
How to remove the steering wheel cap on a CitiCar

Trips

Public Charging

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CitiCar at an EV charging station parked next to a Tesla

Teddy and I hopped into the CitiCar and left town for the first time. We took a little lunch break just outside of the city at Riverton Commons shopping mall. An EV charging station is located there with four Tesla destination chargers, and one J1772 charger. I pulled up and parked the CitiCar next to a Tesla.

I fumbled a little, connecting the EVSE to the converter, but I was able to get it. The Kill A Watt meter showed that I was getting voltage. I proceeded to hook up the chargers to the batteries and saw the usual 333 watts being drawn by the five 12 volt lead acid battery chargers.

Teddy and I grabbed a bite close to the station at Checkers. When I got back to the car, I saw that the chargers were no longer getting any power. One of the C-Car owners on the forums mentioned that some charging stations required at least a kilowatt of power to continue operating. Looking back at some video footage, I saw that the power strip was upside down. I believe I may have turned it off when I started spreading out the chargers so they weren’t all setting next to each other. I’ll have to make another attempt to verify.

While I was there, the owner of the Tesla came out and talked about a Comuta-Car he had owned for awhile. He ad a few questions and we chatted a bit before I left.

The whole trip was 6.0 miles. It was shorter than I had thought given that I always looked up directions to the Walmart in the same shopping center, but would have added an extra mile to the round trip. This trip was mostly going up a gradual hill in a 45 mile zone on the way up. I held the throttle down for most of the trek.

As the efficiency of the car improves, more locations become accessible. I now know that I can make it to the two plazas across from each other with the newer big-box stores out of town. I can visit a grocery, hardware, coffee, pet, and craft store as well as a bank ATM.

Access to more locations is fairly important at the moment because my other two vehicles are disabled. The SUV was fixed two weeks ago, but had broken down on Sunday with the same problem. The hybrid car simply needs a new battery and an inspection. I also need to reattach a plastic rock/air-drag guard that is dragging along the road under it.

Trip Log

WAYPOINTODOMETERDISTANCE
Home1,214.0
EV Charging Station1,217.03.0
Home1,220.03.0
Total6.0
RECHARGEENERGYCOSTDURATION
RatekWh9.85¢0.78 mph
Total1.53 kWh15.5¢07:39
Per Mile254 Wh2.6¢01:16

In other news

I haven’t received the Zero to J1772 adapter needed for the lithium battery charger that I purchased in July. I hadn’t heard a reply from three weeks ago when I inquired about the status of the order. From other C-Car owners I’ve talked to, this person is very responsive, but another C-Car owner was going through the same issue as I am. I decided to contact Tucson EV via PayPal communications.

Tucson EV got back to me the next day and stated that they thought it was already shipped, and that the adapter will be shipped tomorrow morning with a tracking number.

J1772 AVC2 Module by Modular EV Power LLC

I suspect the mixup was due a shortage of the J1772 active vehicle control modules (AVC) available at the time . These are small PCB boards (AVC1) enclosed in a plastic box (AVC2) that do all of the communications for you if you want to wire up your own custom made adapter. Everywhere I looked, these things were out of stock. I found EV West had them and ordered one at the end of July. They quickly notified me that it was out of stock. It was later shipped on September 1st.

CitiCar at EV charging station
Trips

Off by a mile

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Before leaving the house today, I took the garage opener out of my car and put it into the CitiCar since that’s the only vehicle I park in the garage now, and it saves brakes and battery by avoiding a trip of walking into the house to close the door once I exit the garage.

I was ready to go, but nothing happened when pressing the accelerator. The contactor was engaged. I tried engaging/disengaging the parking break. The shift switch was in reverse. I looked at the wires that I fixed yesterday and everything was connected. I then realized that I hadn’t attached the throttle rod back onto the cam when I was installing the pot box throttle. Reattaching the rod, I was ready to go.

I was feeling even more emboldened today after making it to the dog park yesterday in the CitiCar. I even decided to take the steeper hill out of the subdivision, but soon realized it wasn’t as steep as I had thought, and it was shorter. I’ll be taking that “short cut” out of the subdivision more often now. I decided to put the car to the limit and drive the loop to Mc Donald’s and back.

Public Charging

We took a stop at Gertrude park along the way, parking close to the entrance this time to reduce the power consumption. I’m often parking closer to entrances and walking further to consume less energy.

I saw someone had plugged in their laptop the other day at one of the pavilions. Just before we left, I decided to give it a go and charge up. We were already at 80% charge, so the charge would have been fairly slow in the absorption/equalization stage.

Teddy and I sat by Happy Creek for a little while. He would wade around, drink some water, and just lay down enjoying the light breeze and watching people. I walked over and read the Kill A Watt meter. We only consumed 0.2¢ – about 1/15th of a mile added.

Mc Donald’s

We took off and zipped along, coasting when we could, avoiding the use of brakes, and using gravity and the lack of traffic to our advantage.

A CitiCar parked in the shade at Mc Donald’s on a warm sunny day

The drive-through at Mc Donald’s was so long that there was barely enough space for the CitiCar to queue at the end without blocking traffic. After picking up our food, we were able to make a sharp enough turn into the parking lot without having to loop around the building like most people and avoided waiting for an opening going through the drive-through line.

The ride home was the same as usual. No one was behind us for the most part, so we were able to coast often. We took the longer hill back home since it doesn’t have a stop sign at the bottom of the hill, and I have a goal of coasting home without pressing the throttle once I start going down. I haven’t made it yet, but I’ve come very close.

Odometer Readings

At the end, I looked at the odometer and saw that the trip was only 8.5 miles. A previous trip this way registered as 9.5 miles on the old (inaccurate) speedometer, and that didn’t include the stop at Gertrude and the additional length of a full loop rather than back-tracking via the shortest path. Mapping out the trips on Google maps, the GPS speedometer is under-reporting by 0.3 miles while the original speedometer was over-reporting by 0.9 miles.

TripOdometerTypeGoogle
Custard Package Drop-Off9.5 milesEddy Current8.6 miles
Gertrude McDonalds8.5 milesGPS8.8 miles

New Record

After the batteries reached a full charge, the energy consumption was the lowest recorded at only 233 watt hours per mile.

Mailbag

Mailbag

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A few packages arrived over the weekend for modernizing the CitiCar. The majority of items that arrived support the 12 volt accessory power supply using the batteries that drive the motor, instead of a separate battery.

Fuse Block

The majority of fuse blocks look the same to me. It all comes down to choosing between having a standard number of six fuses or twelve. The car has seven fuses, so I went with the larger size.

Some of the features I like are that the LED’s will turn on to indicate that a fuse has blown. Another thing I like is that the negative terminals are all at the top. It came with a variety of 24 blade fuses, stickers, and a cover.

12-Way Fuse Block With ground, 12 Circuit ATC/ATO Fuse Box Holder with negative bus, Protection Cover & LED Light Indication, Bolt Terminals, 70 pcs Stick Label, For Auto Marine, Boat,With 24 pcs Fuse

Voltage Reducer

I previously purchased a Buck Transformer that could supply up to 5 amps at 12 volts. It worked, but the amps were lacking in what I needed.

I found a DC-to-DC power converter that could step voltage down anywhere from 48 to 120 volts, and bring it down to 12 volts. The output current is rated at 30 amps.

Besides the amps, I like the ability to disconnect the power easily with the connectors that the provided, and the added feature of having a key switch turning it on so that it doesn’t drain the battery while the car is not being used.

Pro Chaser DC-DC 120V 108V 96V 84V 72V 60V 48V Volt Voltage to 12V Step Down Voltage Reducer Regulator 180W 15A for Scooters & Bicycles Golf cart (30A 360W)

Power Switch

I wasn’t too happy when I saw sparks in my previous experiment with converting a high voltage to 12v using the buck converter. In turn, I found this power switch that I can press to toggle it on and off.

I’m going to see if I can run two different voltages through it if the LED terminals are separate from the switch terminals. I’ll wire up the LED directly to the Buck 12v output, and let the switch terminals control the 48v feeding it.

I picked out this switch because it came with a wired harness that could be disconnected easily, and the LED lights up. From what I saw, the LED and the switch could be wired up in multiple ways.

Quentacy 19mm 3/4″ Metal Latching Pushbutton Switch 12V Power Symbol LED 1NO1NC SPDT ON/OFF Black Waterproof Toggle Switch with Wire Socket Plug (Blue)

Portable EVSE

I’m setting up the vehicle so that it can recharge and public charging stations that support J1772. This EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) takes power from a 120 and 240 volt wall outlet and provides a Level 1/2 power supply to my vehicles onboard charger.

At 240v and 16 amps, I could charge up to 3.84 kW. Using just 120v over 16 amps would be 1.92 kW. My current battery setup takes 12 hours to supply 3 kW. However – they are lead acid. With the new Chevy Volt batteries, I’ll be able to charge much faster, and have a demand for more watts to be supplied.

Being portable, I can put this in the back of the car and charge up at a friends house or a friendly business willing to let me have a few kilowatts.

I got this specific kit because it came with a case, supported 120 & 240 volts, had an adapter to work with both NEMA 5-15 and 6-20, hook to hold the cables, and a holster to hold the end of the plug when not in use.

Megear Level 1-2 EV Charger(100-240V,16A) Portable EVSE Home Electric Vehicle Charging Station Compatible with Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, Fiat, Ford Fusion (NEMA6-20 with Adapter for NEMA5-15)

Dash Cam

This one is a bit of an experiment. I’ve been interested in dash cams for a few years with all of the odd things I see on the road, but never jumped into actually getting one.

This camera was fairly cheap and I figured I’d try it out as a learning exercise. I don’t expect much from it, but for using it with the CitiCar, I think it might be perfect. If anything, I’ll have a few videos to post on YouTube.

Besides the cheap price, it seems to have gotten good reviews on YouTube and the quality appears to be reasonable.

AUKEY Mini Dash Cam 1080p Full HD Dash Camera with 1.5” LCD Screen Car Camera with 170° Wide-Angle Lens, G-Sensor, WDR, Motion Detection, and Clear Night Recording

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