New CALB battery pack
One of the great success stories of Seven has been its batteries. In an EV world filled with dire warnings about the hazards of Lithium Ion batteries, our LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) cells made by CALB have been rock solid from the beginning. We’ve: welded next to and over them, burning gauges in their plastic cases drilled holes through them Read the full article…
Regenerative Shock Update
Some of you know that we’ve been working on an energy recovery idea for awhile now, in an attempt to recoup energy normally lost as heat to the damper on a vehicle. Well, here’s a little bit more on that story, where/when it started for us and how it’s coming along. In the early 1990s I was working with a Read the full article…
Adding Park to the transmission
The transmission work continues. Last year, while in the car, discussing possible ways of making a parking pawl for our transmission with John Frana (the maker of Seven’s custom gears and differential), the ring and pinion gear broke…which was terrible and great at the same time. Terrible for obvious reasons and great because it allowed us to brainstorm many more Read the full article…
Powerex IGBTs
Wow! WOOT! Holey Efficient Switches Batman! In case you didn’t catch on to my elation at the results from the upgrade we recently made to Seven by installing Powerex IGBTs; I’m very impressed with their performance. So, to give you the whole story in a Twitter size(ish) bite: Reading Charged Electric Vehicles Magazine: New IGBTs 40% more efficient than just Read the full article…
Kyle’s Rewire of a 110 Volt EVSE into a 220 Volt EVSE
City Car Kyle was helping a friend who had somehow managed to chop the cord and plug off his only 110 volt EVSE for his Nissan Leaf. This left him with no way to charge his only car. Kyle gave him a EVSE in trade with the home of converting it from a 110 volt to a 110 or 220 Read the full article…
Adding an air filter to the intake on Jen’s Wheego LiFe
Jen’s 2013 Wheego LiFe has over 15,000 miles on it and is running OK. Like any small production vehicle, it has its quirks, but overall has been an OK electric car. It has an HPEV AC50 motor, Curtis controller, 3 Delta Q charger(s) (two of those pulling double duty as DC-DC converters) and some type of BMS all packaged into Read the full article…
Seven’s new dashboard
The new dash and console for Seven is progressing slowly. The Molex connectors used liberally throughout Seven’s wiring harness were never really meant to be used in a car for every connection. I have my doubts whether they were meant for much of any use in a car other than temporary. They are not automotive-grade connectors; they aren’t sealed from Read the full article…
The Smart Electric Drive open source/hack project
As many of you know, we’ve been working on open-sourcing a drivetrain from a 2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive. We can control the DC-DC converter, the AC unit, the charger and make the motor turn. It was time to move from our complete drivetrain test assembly to a workbench assembly where each of the components are set up and wired Read the full article…
Open Source Documentation for Smart ForTwo Electric Drivetrain
We’ve been working on reverse-engineering a Smart ForTwo electric drivetrain with the goal of open sourcing the vehicle components for general electric vehicle conversions or other hobbyist uses. There are four main components in the Smart’s electric drive train: DC-to-DC converter, AC system, vehicle charger, and the drive motor with controller. The DC-to-DC converter has the same function as an Read the full article…
Hack-a-Thon 2016
This weekend members of the Illuminati, new and old, emerged from their long winter’s slumber and gathered from across several states, some in the physical and still others in the virtual, at IMW headquarters to commence our first official Electric Smart Car Drivetrain Hack (or Hack-a-Thon). Saying that we’ve been slumbering since our last update is a bit misleading, it makes it Read the full article…