12D2000 Horizon batteries

Poorman's EV

Past Updates 07/05-04/06

April 15th, Took the Chevelle to the track and ran two runs without charging on the 12D2000's at 24 Volts. The time slips are at the Racing link under Arpil 14th racing. I submitted the slips for the 24V Street Conversion Class in NEDRA. The Horizon's seem to be holding up good for now. They will handle the 1600 amp launches at 48V and two runs on 24V. More time and more races will tell the story on the Horizons.

Contactors in Series for Higher Voltage

Permanent Home for the Horizon 12D2000's

April 3rd, Been Busy with complete Electrical Redesign. Installed my 2000 Amp Contactors in Series for 120 volt Operation. And two sets of these, one for 24V and one for 48V. Can later be changed to 48V and 96V. Cabled the new Horizon 12D2000's to the new buss bars. Also ordered adjustable upper control arms so I can set my Pinion Angle which changed when the Electric motor makes the tranny sit at a different angle.

Off to the Races With Chevelle & Bike

Put some Air Bags on the Motor Home

March 26th, not going to make the track this weekend, just too many little things to get done. I did make a test run on my measured 1/8 mile out on the highway though with just the two Orbital batteries and it went really good. Who would of thought that a person could drive around town in a Heavy old Electric muscle car on only two car batteries. Also my wife wants to be a World Record Holder and the two uncontested 24V classes is a really good place to start. She is going to practice driving the Chevelle this week and we plan on going to the track next weekend.

Rachet shifter, Emergency Disconnect & Drag Seats

The drag seats are coming out

Drag Shocks, Air bags & Drive loop

New Radials will help too

March 24th, Trying to get everything ready for the races this weekend. New Air Bags on the Motorhome, new tie downs from Summit Racing, change oil and filter in Generator and last touch ups to the Chevelle and Motorcycle. I might try and put the 12D2000's in the trunk area for the 24 volt attempt if I have enough time.

Battery Configuration for 24V Record attempt

Stages at 800A then launches at 1200A

New chain Primary makes for faster ride

Still have to install 2nd field weakening setup

March 22nd, Trying to comply with all of the rules of the NHRA and NEDRA. Chain guards, leather jackets, battery hold downs, ect, ect. Still plan on racing both the Chevelle and Motorcycle this weekend.

First Field Weakening setup

Activates from old horn button

March 20th, Changed motorcycle's primary drive from belt to #40 chain. Belt was always slipping and testing has went well. What a difference! Almost does wheelie now with much more acceleration. Might be getting close to the 13.7 seconds of the 24V motorcycle record in NEDRA. With the chain its geared a little bit lower.(Using the only sprockets I could find at the time) Top end is a little less at 40mph but man does it get there a lot quicker. Have not timed myself in the 1/8 mile yet. Also have field weakening on the motorcycle now that is activated by the old horn button. Yesterday's testing went like this, launch at 600 amps, drops to 200 amps, then press horn button for field weakening and amps go to 400 and then taper back down to 200 amps. This was with the two Blue top Orbitals. Going to install second field weakening step. When I hit the FW horn button, there is a good acceleration burst but tops out before the end of the 1/8 mile. Already have contactor installed for 2nd FW step, just need to figure out how to activate it. First FW step is 8" of 1/4 inch all thread, 2nd FW step will be about 2" of all thread across fields. Might be ready to race this weekend along with the Chevelle. While I am installing the 12D2000's in the rear of the Chevelle, I am running on 2 Blue Top Orbitals with one for 12V starting and then switch to the second in series for 24V running. This gets me around town. I will be trying for the 24V records in both Modified Conversion and Street Conversion before I move on up the the 48V Street Conversion and beyond.

Series charging the 12D2000's

Monitored Very Close to watch for Voltage Differentials

Motorcycle with Horizon RS1250's

18 Pound battery that is SUPPOSED to handle 1500 Amps

Mar. 10th, did some tests with the Horizon RS1250's on the motorcycle. These batteries are capable of 1500 amps. The motorcycle only pulled 600 battery amps on launch. Click Battery Tests for the complete day of tests on the RS1250's. I also charged the 12D2000's in series today.

Four 12D2000's (5500 Amp Short Circuit) in Trunk

The two smaller batteries are 18 pounds each and will crank out 1500 Amps. Going in Motorcycle.

Mar. 7th, The motorcycle is now pulling 800 amps on launch with my new gearing. Its a lot quicker, might be getting close to a record attempt. Still want to add Field Weakening to bike for better top end at 24 volts. Start cabling tomorrow on the 12D2000's.

Feb. 28, adjusted auxilary contacts on side of contactor in the Chevelle's 12V circuit. When I floor the pedal in the Chevelle, a 12V relay energizes that opens the 12V contactor and closes the 48V contactor. I have the ground for the coil of the 48V contactor going through the auxilary contacts of the 12V contactor so the 12V contactor has to open before the 48V contactor closes. I just adjusted the aux. contacts so there would be less time between the switch. I want to have a make before break so the motor never looses voltage instead of the micro second absence of voltage when the switch occurs. It will involve momentarily shorting out the batteries but can be controlled. Just haven't figured out how to do it with contactors yet. No problem on my manual switcher.

Feb. 27th, this evening the Horizon 12D2000 battery was at 12.835 Volts after being off charge for 24 hours. A couple of cycles must have helped it. I ordered 3 more today. They should be here this weekend. For the present, I am going to run 1 Orbital up front for the 12V circuit and the 4 Horizons in back for the 48V circuit. The orginal gas pedal switches between these two circuits.

12D2000 Horizon Battery in Chevelle's 12V Circuit

Handled 800 Amps with ease and charged fast

Feb. 26th, Finally got to test my Horizon battery. If you saw that poor video of the Chevelle in park with motor running you saw the voltage dip to 10.2 volts with just a 200 amp load and then 9.8 Volts with 300 amp load and field weakening. Well that was the Wal-mart Everstart battery. Until today that is the only 12V battery I have had in for the 12V slow speed circuit. When I put the Chevelle in Low and held the brake the amps went to 600 amps and the voltage went to 7V. Today, first, I put the Orbital Blue top in and took out the Everstart. The Orbital with a load of 200 amps went to 11.5 volts and held for a couple of minutes of motor running in park. Then I put the Chevelle in low and held the brake and pressed the gas pedal and amps went to 800 amps. This I held for a few seconds while Orbital voltage sagged to around 10.5 volts. The 800 amps suprised me because I thought the amps would be 600. I guess the Everstart was giving all it had at 600 amps but the motor had more to give. Good test on the Orbital, the Horizon has a lot to live up to. So I took out the Orbital and put in the Horizon 12D2000. I press the pedal and loaded the Horizon with 200 amps and the voltage held at 11.5V just like the Orbital.(Now this was with the Horizon at a starting voltage of 12.757V. The Orbital's starting voltage was 13V. I have yet to get the Horizon to an off line voltage of 12.9 or better like the Orbital's do) Anyway, after a minute of 200 amps and voltage holding at 11.5V, I put the Chevelle in low and held the brake and pressed the pedal and the Chevelle really raised up and pulled 800 amps and maybe a little more. (Have to look at both ampmeters). The voltage sagged to 10.5V same as the Orbital. I then ran the motor in park for a timed 5 minutes on the Horizon with Voltage going no lower than 11.3V. I thought this was really good. I then recharged the Horizon. It seemed to charge really fast at 40 amps. I then took the Chevelle out for a spin on the 12V Horizon(Using 12V Circuit only at slow speeds) and went up and down hills around the house and even at 300-400 amps climbing hills the Horizon never dipped below 10.6 volts. I have never climbed that hill with the Wal-mart battery. So one good test for the Horizon 12D2000 today. I just sold all of my solar equipment so I think I will buy some more. But first after a few cycles I want to see if I can get that offline voltage up to where the Orbital's stay around 12.9V to 13V.

The Poorman

The Chevelle

1964 Chevelle Malibu

48 Volt Modified Converson World Record Holder

Feb. 25th, Got my new white walls put on the Chevelle. (235/75/R15's on rear & 205/75/R14's on front) Rained all day so could not test batteries. Changed motorcycle pulley to a smaller one on motor for better lower end acceleration. Will test tomorrow. Got my new Oakley Sunglasses for being one of the first 10 Record Holders in 2006.

Video of Electric Motorcycle Throttle Control (1.2MB)

Throttle Control that turns Contactor on/off

This combined with shifter from 12V to 24V gives good control of Motorcycle

Feb. 24, Yesterday I took the motorcycle around town for the first time. Its really nice around town with a top speed on level ground of 38mph at 24V. Everything went perfect and got back with batteries at 12V. (50% discharged) The shifter worked really nice. Its a must for slow speeds at lights and through town. The contactor on the throttle worked well also. Its going to be a good dependale EV. Nowhere near the record of 14 seconds in the 1/8 mile. The best I could do in the 1/8 mile was 23 seconds. Going to need a tranny if I want to come close to that. I am going to try and gear down for quicker takeoffs and then field Weakening for better top end. But for now its a good riding bike. I am going to put the bike on the back burner for awhile and concentrate on the Chevelle. My new white walls should be in today. Do a quicky paint job and it should look pretty good. Also sold most of my solar equipment and might be able to get a posi and 3.08 gears pretty soon. For the 2.56 gears , the carrier is different and is harder to get a posi so I am going with 3.08 gears for now. Maybe more of the Horizon (2400 amp for 5 seconds, 1776 amps for 1 minute) batteries as well. IF they do well in my discharge tests as compared to an Orbital. If anyone out there ever reads this and would like to be a sponsor, just holler. My contact email is at the bottom of the home page. What I need most is a paint job. That is the hardest for me to do at home.

Feb. 23, Just got a new camera and playing around with the video's to see if I can capture my load tests.

Top two Ampmeters are each one half of load.

Bottom Right Ampmeter is Field Weakening Current.

Left Volt meter is Motor Volts. Right Voltmeter is Battery Volts.

Clock is between Voltmeters. Red push button is Field Weakening.

Video of meters with Chevelle in Park running on 12V battery with Field Weakening (9.6MB)

How a Poorman builds a Controller

Feb. 22nd, Going to try the same controller as the motorcycle video on the Chevelle but with a couple more shift points. So the Chevelle controller will go like this:

Press gas pedal just a little for 12V for slow speed and backing.

Press gas pedal a lot(floor it) for switch to 24V with contactors.

Move big lever by shifter for change to 48V, 72V & 96V with device as in the motorcycle shifting video.

I used to install equipment that transfered 10,000 amp loads at 48V with this type of device. So my little 2400 amps should not be a major problem.

Video of Hand Shift Electric Motorcycle

Feb. 21st, I charged the 12D200 (1776 amps for one minute supposedly, we will find out) again last night for a few hours and this morning still at 12.858V. I guess it's not going any higher. Time for a load test. I got some answers back from Horizon yesterday for some of my questions and was not impressed. Their web site says the 12D2000 is an AGM, he says it is not an AGM, it is a lead acid battery. He says one should NEVER equalize the 12D2000 and NEVER go above 14.5 Volts. (Even though their site says 14.9 volts) Pretty sure I was commuicating with a salesman trying to CYA and not an engineer of the battery. All I am asking of it is 2400 amps for a few seconds.

Feb.20th, the 12D2000's voltage this morning was 12.858. I sent an email to Horizon yesterday about charging the 12D2000. He responded today saying to call him. We talked about the 12D2000 for awhile and said he would take some of my questions to the engineers. I asked him about sponsorship and he said some Other Electric Drag Racer had contacted him about Sponsorship. Small World, Huh? Anyway, just about ready to load test the 12D2000. Might do the Wal-mart battery tonight.

Inverted fuse block for shifting from 12V to 24V

Just like my old Hand Shift Harley's I used to ride

"Electric Shock" 24 Volt Motorcycle

Will be racing in 24 Volt Class very soon

Feb. 19th, After a few hours of charging yesterday at 15V the new Horizon battery was 12.782 volts this morning. Will charge today a few more hours at 15V and see if we get her up to 12.8-13 volts off line. Its been too cold to work outside here in North Texas so I have been working on the motorcycle. I put a hand shift (Just like the old Harley's I used to ride) on the left side that shifts from 12V to 24V. I took it for a test 1/8 mile run yesterday and it got up to 38mph in the 1/8 mile. The world record for the 24V motorcycle in NEDRA is 42mph.

Horizon 12D2000 Terminal connection

Might have to get rid of the little plastic ridges to get a buss to connect two 4/0 cables to

Feb. 18th, Received my new Horizon battery yesterday. The one that is supposed to supply 1776 amps for 1 minute. Its a good looking battery and was packed well in a wooden box. The terminals are 3/8 female threads with what looks like silicon bronze. There is a small plastic ridge that might have to come off in order to get a 4/0 cable in there.

The Voltage was 12.472 when it arrived. One would think that it would take some current to get up to 15 Volts. The most current it would take was 1.2 amps, so I left it on charge at 14.9 volts for about 3 good hours. The specs say charge no longer than four hours. This morning after sitting all night the voltage was 12.612. I am charging it again today at 14.9 volts for a few hours.

Specs say to charge before using so I want to get it to at least 12.8 off charge before I load test it. In the Chevelle right now for my slow speed battery I have a Wal-mart Everstart Dual Service 12V battery. This is what I use to warm up the motor and tranny and for slow speed manueverving. When I hold the brake with Powerglide in low, the motor pulls 600 amps. This is what I use to load test batteries and check things out with.

I am going to load test the Everstart battery while monitoring the voltage for 1 minute, then a Blue Top Orbital, and then the new Horizon battery. I will try and video the last few seconds of each test. All will be fully charged when test starts. The off line voltage of the Horizon seems a little odd to me but we shall see. I can not really test it at the 1600 amps until I get four of them. So if I am impressed at the Horizon on the 12 Volt test, I will get 3 more.

Feb. 15th, Check out the specs on this battery. I was going to put two strings of Orbitals in parallel to handle my 2000 plus amp Launches when I found this battery. I have ordered one to play with.

12D2000 Battery Performance Spec

Nominal Voltage	12V
Nominal Capacity (C/3)	85 AHr
Maximum Dimensions (in / mm)
Length	30.22 / 767.6
Width	5.05 / 128.3
Height	4.75 / 120.7
Weight (lbs / kg)	57.6 / 26.1
Terminal Type	3/8" Bolt-on Terminals
Reserve Capacity	200 min (BCI Test: 25A discharge at 80°F to 10.5 volts cut-off
Constant Current Capacity @ 80°F
Discharge Time (min)	1	5	10	30	60	180
Capacity (AHr)	30	41	47	59	68	85
Constant Current (Amps)	1776	493	284	118	68	28
Power
0°F CCA	> 1500 Amps (BCI Test)
32°F Cranking Amps	> 2000 Amps (BCI Test)
80°F Diesel Engine Crank Test	> 2400 Amps
Temperature Limits
Storage	-40°C to 60°C (-40°F to 140°F)
Operation	-40°C to 60°C (-40°F to 140°F)

Feb. 13th, been thinking of way to make the Chevelle faster. The old GE motor is not intended for ultra high rpm's but can handle large currents pretty good. I have bench tested it at 24 volts with no load and let it get up to 4000 rpm and it was still climbing with no vibration, so I know it will do at least 4000 rpm with ease. I have been using the calculator on my "Racing" link and punching in some numbers and see that a gear change does more than anything else. If I stay with my 30 inch tires(I have found some new DOT legal 820-15's Drag slicks with whitewalls on ebay) and change the rear end gears to 2.56 (Have 3.36 presently), the calculator says I will be going 142 mph at 4000 rpm! That's the latest plan, I am bidding on some gears and a new differential case on ebay and plan on changing them out in the near future. Still working on Controller as well, and motorcycle.

Feb. 5th, More than the high clutch hub broke on Race night. The input shaft also broke. The 3/8 bolt I was worried about breaking held but was bent. I had the input shaft Welded to the adaptor this time and believe it is straighter and stronger. This is not permanent, but will get me by until I can come up with something better. Transmission is back in car and tested. I modified the high clutch drum with four grooved frictions and removed the wave steel and set clearance for .100. The first test went very well. It shifts quicker and crisper(which it is supposed to do without the wave steel) and seems to produce less heat and draws less amps.(Because of the extra clearance in the high clutch drum, which the racing Powerglide books recomended)_Might race again this Friday along with my electric motorcycle if weather is good.

Used Powerglide Clutch Hub after 4 races

Email "dragracerbsmith@netzero.net" for all your Powerglide needs

Jan. 27th, The High Drum Clutch Hub exploded in the Powerglide. A common problem with racing Powerglides. I ordered a Lightened Steel Clutch Hub and a Roller Bearing Tail Housing for the Glide and should be here Monday. Also going to the machine shop and try and get the wobble out of my adaptor shaft.

Jan. 26th, Removed Transmission. I did not have to remove front clip and motor and everything else like I thought I would. I just pulled the motor forward and then had enough room to pull tranny off splined shaft of motor. (After removing cross member) I have not taken it apart yet, but when I removed the input shaft, some small pieces of broken metal came out with it. I will know tomorrow what went wrong.

Jan. 22nd, I took the Chevelle to the track Friday night to try and best the 15.093 seconds of the current 48V street conversion world record for the 1/8 mile. It didn't start out very good. I forgot my two 12V chargers (70 amps) that I charge the single 12V battery with. This single 12V battery supplies 12V to the motor for getting to the lights and back to the pits and for staging. I hold the brake with the motor pulling 600 amps for plenty of back EMF before I hit the toggle that switches to the 48V pack. After the first run the battery was about dead and all we could do was charge from the U-haul truck that I brought the car with. This put a little into it between each run but not much. I will go more into the runs at the "Racing" link. The shifter I put in the day before worked on the first three runs but somehow got out of adjustment on the fourth. When I got off the line and then shifted to drive it sounded like gears stripping. I think it was in between low and drive but have not yet looked at it to be sure. Anyway I made it back to the pits and on to the trailer with the powerglide making lots of weird noises. I could barely get it to shift to reverse, but finally did to get it off the trailer. (I just went out to look at it and it seemed like it was still adjusted right, so I guess something in drive just went out) Anyway, motor and tranny has to come out. This was my first time on the dragstrip and was a learning experience. I simply could not get off the line, it just spun the tires. I had to go through the water that all the other racers used to do burn outs and could not get any traction. It worked fine on my testing on the highway but the track is a little different. I might change it to take off at 24V and then switch to 48V. Also thinking about trying the 16V batteries and using 16V for staging, 32V for launching and then switch to 48V. I never really expected the Powerglide to last as long as it has since it was my first rebuild and first modification of direct drive without a torque converter. Can't wait to tear down the Powerglide and see what happened.

Jan 19th, I keep going over the NHRA rules and the NEDRA rules and keep finding things I need to do. I am running an automatic so I need a positive locking shifter. My colum shifter just didn't get the job done. So I installed a Hurst positive locking, racheting shifter. Tested it last night and all went well. It was more difficult than expected because I had to take the tranny pan off and rearrange the shifting linkages inside the transmission. Still need to get a red triangle light to turn on when I turn on the master cutoff in the rear. Still trying to make it to the track this Friday. Lot's to do yet.

Jan. 14th, Getting Motorhome ready for Racing this Friday. Instlled 48V Charger in Closet, Air bags on rear of motorhome and change oil and air filter in generator. Also checked brushes on Motor in Chevelle. Had not looked at them since I was breaking it in. I will go into it more later but I can see where there are little pits on the top half where the Field Weakening was left on during Launch or too much Field Weakening. (Both are now fixed). The actual seating of the brushes looked a lot better than when I started a few months ago. I ran that motor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a couple of weeks to seat those brushes that I tried to sand by hand. I learned what not to do with brushes. I also sanded the commutator with heavy grit sand paper to try and get rid of part of the comm that was not even touched by the brushes. Its probably out of round, and that is why I got it so cheap. I would really like someday to tear that motor down and make sure the comm is true and put really good brushes in and band the comm and insulate better for higher voltages, but for now, its doing really good without all of that. Still pondering about the resistance of my field coils. I put in a new link for "emails" , some that people send in that really makes sense or something someone can learn from. But if the size of my tires really effect the amps drawn on Launch, how can one determine the resistance of the field coils by the amps on Launch? Also used some formulas to determine the rpm of my motor at the end of the 1/8 mile. At 45 mph(which my GPS says) and with a 3.36 rear end and 30.65 diameter tires, my electric motor is running 1650 rpm at 45 mph @ 48V. At 4000 rpm(which I know it can do, because I bench tested it @ 24V with no load over 4000 rpm) the formula's say I should be well over 100 mph. I will put a link in for those formulas asap.

Jan. 8th, Finished rear battery top support, front battery support, made Field Weakening switch a momentary push button, removed onboard 48V Charger, replaced 48V contactor with 24V contactor, installed master cutoff switch on rear of car (this cuts off the 24V supply to all contactors, an NHRA rule), and neatened up all wiring with plastic split tubing.

Jan. 6th, Made another run today. Took a buddy along to time the run with a stopwatch. When I tried launching the first time I blew the 650A circuit breaker at the batteries. That was a first, must have not let go of the brake soon enough. Second launch went good and off we go.....but, when it came time to pull the field weakening switch, I realized it was already on.(I had used it warming up the motor in 12V mode) So I launched in field weakening and shifted to drive in field weakening. Tomorrow I change the FW switch to a momentary on where I have to hold it on and it releases when I let go. I knew something was wrong, it didn't sound right. But, still went 43mph and 14 seconds in the 1/8 @ 48 Volts.

3/8 all thread added to Field Weakening Circuit

Keeps Field Weakening Current to Controlable range with nice little increase in speed

Jan. 5^th, I did a couple of runs today. First, I added some resistance in my Field Weakening Circuit. I used 14 inches of 3/8 all thread inserted between the FW Contactor and the 4/0 cable to the fields. The 3/8 all thread adds good resistance and has good current carrying capability. First test was in 12V mode. With transmission in park and 12V mode contactor closed, again the motor draws 200 amps. Now when I pull the FW toggle just 100 amps goes through the FW circuit and total only increases about 50 amps to 250A total, with about the same increase in speed as yesterday. Now on to the 1/8 mile test. I made two runs on the same charge; the new video is the 2^nd of the two. Both went like this, 1600A launch, drops to 1000A, shift to drive, back to 1200A, drops to 1000A, pull FW toggle, back to 1200A with 400A going through FW circuit. And a nice increase in speed. And the all thread resistance is adjustable really easy. That’s what I wanted, to keep my FW current in the readable range on the 500A meter. So now that I am somewhat happy with my FW, on to installing mini spool, drive line loop, rear cut-off switch and change out 48V contactor to 24V contactor. A couple of really nice runs on 48V. I did not time nor check speed, just wanted to watch amp meters.

Jan. 4th, My 24V 1200 amp contactors that I bought off ebay came in today. One is for the motorcycle and one is going to replace the 48V contactor that engages the 12V mode. Now all of my contactors are 24V and I don't need a separate 48V supply and I can run the 24V Class in Nedra first.

I am going to try something. I am going to run the 1/8 mile I have marked off on the highway beside my house in 12V, 24V, & 48V and record the Time, Speed, Launch Amps and Field Weakening Amps to test a theory. Some say that when the Voltage is doubled the power is Quadrupled. I have read it elsewhere also. I have done the math and can not see it. It might also help me see what the Chevelle might do at 96V & 192V. (Besides burn up the motor) ...............Just got back from a run since I wrote this earlier in the day. I wanted to make a highway run before I changed out the 48V Contactor. I did something different this time since this was the first asphalt run since I paralleled the fields with buss. I took off in 12V mode and then hit the 48V mode switch instead of doing it off the line. Even when moving the tires spun when it went to 48V. Its hard to see my GPS but when I looked I was over 40 at the end of the run. On the way back I got up the nerve to hit the 48V toggle while sitting still and motor running in 12V mode with brake held and drawing 600 amps off a single Wal-mart battery. The tires spun more with good acceleration. The smell I have been smelling might have been from the rubber of the tire burning because the rear is open. One thing I did not like with this run was the field weakening. In 12V mode with tranny in park the motor pulls 200 amps. When I pull the Field Weakening switch the total goes to 400 amps with 200 of that going through the Field Weakening shunt. Just like I planned it. Make the Field Weakening circuit the same resistance as the fields. This gives the motor a nice little increase in speed. (In the 12V mode) Now in the 48V mode while running the 1/8 the motor again pulls 1600 amps on Launch, then backs down to 1000 or so, then I shift to drive and amps go back to about 1200 or so(Its hard to see all this, still working on video of runs) and then again backs down to 1000 or so and at the end of the run I hit the Field Weakening Switch. This is what I don't like, the Field Weakening Shunt pegs, which means there is way over 500 amps going through the Field Weakening Circuit. I couldn't tell any increase in speed to notice, maybe a little. So I am going to change the 4/0 to 2 Ga. that goes from fields to the field weakening contactor. Should give me more resistance in the FW Circuit. Anyway, lots to do and learn.

Field Weakening Cables go to the Left Contactor

They connect across S1/S3 to S2/S4

Jan. 3, I finished cabling my second string of Wal-Mart batteries to the rear buss where four 4/0 per polarity take it to the motor. Couldn't resist, had to take it for a test run. Dam!!!! Its never been that fast, can't wait to time and check speed. Still 1600 amps on Launch, but much quicker and NO SMELL. Its must have been the Orbitals overloading. Now they have a little help. I wonder how many amps are coming from each string? Might have to put me a shunt in there to find out. Tonight I need to reconnect field weakening and put a top support on the new battery string. Before I try and take it to be inspected I want to rig the gas pedal with a 48V relay to energize the contactors for the 12V mode to 48V mode switch. Right now I have to hit a toggle on the dash. I made the test run in the field and I am now getting the one wheel hop. I think it is time to install the mini spool to lock the differential.

Two strings of 48V batteries in Parallel

Four Orbital Blue Tops and four Everstart Extreme Starting

Jan. 2nd, Installed 2nd string of 48V batteries in Chevelle. These were the Wal-Mart Everstart Extreme Starting Deep Cycle Batteries with the 550 Cold Cranking Amps. I used these in my Electric Kia (Which I sold), and now in the Electirc motorcycle. I have one of these up front in the Chevelle for 12V mode and 5 in the rear. One for accessory battery and four for extra 48V amps.

But a lot of the day was spent on the Electric motorcycle. Trying to get both ready to take to the track soon. Last night when we first tested the bike on 12V the belt just slipped a little and then took off. When we went to 24V today the motor had too much torque and slipped all the time. So we had to add an idler pully to keep the belt tight. This worked fairly good. The belt still slipped a little on take off but did quite well and stopped slipping once up to 10mph or so. We had the bike well over 40 but did not want to push it until further testing. My test pilot even had a humbling little crash. Took his hand off the handle bars to turn off the breaker while coming up a hill sideways and the front wheel turned and caught. Not much damage, just a head light bracket and the belt cover. Batteries and everything held in place, good test. Now I will be working on a two speed belt tranny for the bike. If I could get a good take off and then switch to the high gear, I feel I could really increase my times in the 1/8 mile.

Also on the Chevelle, I switched my 24V and 48V supplys to the contactors to the wet cells instead of the Orbital AGM's. I could write a book on what I have learned about Charging and Balancing the AGM's. Might have to do that some time for the poorman out there so they don't have to spend $50 extra for each battery for AGM Management, but still like to use the AGM's.

My 24V (At this Time) Motorcycle

Built in Two days with Stuff I had laying around

Jan. 1st, Worked on Motorcycle all day and took first test ride on 12V with 150A circuit breaker straped to gas tank for Controller. Man, was it nice to ride again! 12V got me about 30mph so 24V should be able to beat the 41mph record for the 24V motorcycle class in NEDRA. Everything worked perfect, just as quiet as could be. I have a belt drive primary and it sort of slips on take off and acts like an automatic drive. Once up to speed it no longer slips. Planning on the gas twist grip to engage 24V contactor for speed control. I can't even leave 12V on all the time because my speed gets too fast so I have to cycle the breaker for speed control. My contactors will be in Thrusday of this week. Everything that went in to building the motorcycle drive was just stuff I had laying around the house and everything is bolted, nothing had to be welded, same as the Chevelle.

One batt for 12V mode & motor field coils parallel

A lot less weight and a lot more room. Don't have to worry about cables getting hot .

Buss bar is 1/2" thick and 2 " wide

Four 4/0 cables to A2, buss from A1 to S1 & S3, buss from S2 to S4 to four 4/0 cables for negative

These four Orbitals supply 48V @ 1600A Launch

Other 12V battery is for 12V lighting and accessory

Dec. 30th, Finished removing 360AH 6V batteries and series to parallel contactor setup and installed parallel only buss on motor. Also installed one 12V battery for 12V mode. Testing went really well. Small 12V had plenty of power for backing and slow moving positioning of the EV, the switch to 48V with the motor bussed in parallel and a 1600 amp draw made the Chevelle really jump and no series to parallel switch to throw, just shift to drive. Which needs to be one of my future projects, install a good shifter where I don't have to worry about hitting nuetral. (Which I did once already) One thing that does concern me is a smell that occurs when I go to 48V and the 1600 amp draw occurs. At first I thought it was the neopreme on one of the 3/0 cables when I had the series to parallel contactor set up in, but, the smell is there when the 1600 amp draw occurs with the motor bussed. It is not a burning smell like a motor and I don't recall it when I had 3 strings of 48V batteries. So my best guess is that I am over drawing from the Orbitals and they are gassing. 1600 amps is a lot to ask of one battery so I am going to add another string tomorrow and make a few more runs and see if the smell is still there. A lot of weight came out when I took out the 360AH's and the 3 contactors and base and all associatied cabling so I am sure my times will be quicker. As soon as I determine where the smell is coming from I will time some of the parallel runs.

Dec. 29th, Started on Electric Motorcycle mounting motor. Found an old Kawasaki for $100 on ebay with title and an old 11HP, 165Amp, 60V, 5500rpm motor for $100 at a golf cart place. I thought I might as well race a motorcycle the same time I race the Chevelle. The world record for the 24V motorcycle is only 41mph. There is a link at the bottom of the home page to get to the Electric motorcycle page.

100 Watt Siemens Solar Panel on Trunk

Charges 12V Accessory Battery and 12V Mode Battery

Dec. 28th, My 100 Watt Solar Panel mounted on trunk is keeping the 12V Accessory battery fully charged with just a little sun time so I made a switch to charge the 12V traction batteries in the front once the 12V Accessory is full. I really like my Dual Battery System Controller (DBSC). In 12V mode I can back, move foward slowly (10mph), and all my parking functions. Its so nice to have back up, if the main traction pack is dead or near dead, I can go slowly back to base or just get off the road. No telling how far I could go on the 360AH of 12V, but so far they have not even got below 6.3V each. And now I have a Solar Panel to top them off. I want to keep the 2 360AH 6V's for my around town driving and make a quick change out to 1 Orbital for racing.

Dec. 27th, Made a couple of runs in Parallel (Field Coils) only. Everything seems to work fine. Backing and slow foward in 12V mode, Launches and high speed all work well in parallel only mode. I am going to remove the series to parallel contactor setup and beef up the wiring for parallel connections to the field coils. At the present, with just four Orbital blue tops in the trunk area the Chevelle is pulling 1600 amps on a parallel launch. After a couple of launches the Orbitals are just slightly warm and so are the double 4/0 connectors that connect the Orbitals in series. So now I know for certian that the 900 CA of the blue tops can be pushed to 1600 amps. Also I am going to remove the 2 360AH 6V batteries up front and replace them with one blue top Orbital. This should make the Chevelle about 200 pounds lighter. And I am going to remove the 48V 50A charger from the rear which will lighten it another 100 pounds. Getting ready for race day. Still waiting for 3/8 bolt to break between tranny and motor. I practice my emergency disconnect action frequently.

Top 1000A Guages are 1/2 of total each

Bottom 500A Guage is Field Weakening, Digital Voltmeter is Motor Voltage

Video of Guages in 12V Mode

Dec. 25th, Mounted Solar Panel on trunk to keep 12V Accessory battery topped off. Messing around with video of gauges.

Dec. 24th, I made 6 runs today with just the 4 blue top Orbital batteries. I recharged each time at 50 amps with charger set at 13.5 volts and 50 amp current limit. Exide says to keep max current to 35 amps but I wanted to see if a 50 amp recharge current would harm them. The new video is one of those runs. The 50 amp recharge only lasts for a minute or two before it backs down. I only timed one run and the best we could tell my time in the 1/8 mile is about 16 seconds @ 39mph. The world record is 15 seconds @ 41mph, so we are close. I did try one parallel only launch but did not time that one. No problems, nothing got hot. Motor has still never even been warm to the touch. More runs coming, going to try and video the gauges on a run.

Dec. 20th, I was thinking about wiring the field coils on my motor in parallel only and eliminate the contactors and the switch from series to parallel. I just can't get it out of my head that it would be eaiser on the motor. In a series 2000 Amp Launch, there is 2000 Amps going through EACH field coil. In Parallel there is 1000 Amps going through EACH field coil. (IF my Ohms Law is correct) How would this be hard on my motor? Why did I even want to go from series to parallel? Because there is more torque in series? But don't I need more speed on take off than torque? When would one know when to wire their motor for a series to parallel switch? When it stalls in parallel? Two things I am going to know for certian in the next couple of weeks while I have a little time off. What 96 Volts will do for the Chevelle and if if will harm my 36V motor, and how stable the parallel only launches are.

Dec. 16th, The Track cancelled the race for Friday night so no racing till after the 1st.

Dec. 12th, Problem with field weakening was not the shunt. It was with the contactor. Still fine tuning for Friday Race day, looks like weather will be good enough for them to open. Lot to do, don't know if I will make it or not.

Dec. 6th, Took out the 400 lbs of Wal-Mart Everstart Dual Cycle Marine batteries and tried 3 launches in series in my yard. Amperage on launch went down to 1400 amps. The Four Orbitals handled the amps with no problem and were not even warm. On charge they only took 15 amps of my 50 amp charger.

Dec. 1st, Today's question that I am pondering is if a single string of Orbitals can handle a 2000 battery amp launch? It would really decrease my weight if I took out the two other strings of Wal-mart batteries. The 2000 amps does not last that long before it backs down to 900 or so. I think they will, but do not know for certain. I want to know for certain. I think I will try it.

Nov. 30th, My Field weakening quit working the other day. I use it for warming up the motor and tranny so I needed to find out the problem. When I press the gas pedal, a contactor puts 12V on the motor, with field coils in series. Just enough for a nice idle speed while in park. Also just enough for backing and moving slowly in parking lots and such. And I can hold the brake and it acts exactly like an automatic should. But while in park when it is cold I like to put the motor in parallel to increase the speed and then pull the Field Weakening switch for a further increase in speed. Just guessing but it seems like a 20% increase from series to parallel to FW at each step. A nice high idle to warm everthing up. (Just like an autochoke) The series to parallel switch is accomplished by pressing the gas pedal further down. This energizes a relay which opens the series contactor and closes the parallel contactors. The FW will remain on a switch on the dash because I don't expect to use it that much except for racing in Full Voltage mode and in the 12V mode. When I floor the gas pedal another relay opens the 12V contactor and energizes the 48V(or 24V or 96V or 144V) contactor and away I go, wheels spinning. Anyway after a little troubleshooting I found that the FW 500A shunt was defective. Even in 12V idle mode there is 150A(300A total on main shunts) going through the FW contactor that is monitored by the 500A shunt. The other day when I shifted to drive while in FW mode, there must have been quite a load on the FW shunt that caused it to go bad. Going to upgrade to a 1000A FW shunt. Its hard to watch all the meters while watching for cops so I think I will put a video camera on the meters for later analyzing. I need to get the Chevelle painted and inspected before race day.

Nov 29th, I got the idea " Why take off in Series and then switch to parallel if my motor is stout enough to handle taking off in Parallel " ??? So I tried it! Amperage went up to 2000A and launch was quicker. There is so much I don't know and no one available to teach me, so I will learn as I go. May have to rebuild the motor at some point (Planned anyway), but I will know with certainty what can, and can not be done with an electric motor. Planned race day is December 16, at Denton Dragway, an NHRA sanctioned 1/8 mile track. Still debating weather to go for the 24V or 48V record. Probably start with the 24V.

November 14, Finished Field Weakening and tested. My test run went like this, 1, Launch in Series, 2, Switch to Parallel, 3, Switch in Field Weakening, 4, Shift to Drive. I need to modify this procedure. When I shifted to Drive there was a large increase in current(Expected). Also there was a sound like something lightly sparking and a slight burning smell. (Unexpected) I believe this was the brushes arcing when the large increase in current came with shifting to drive. My next test, the procedure will be, 1, Launch in Series, 2, Switch to parallel, 3, Shift to Drive, 4, Switch in Field Weakening. Its really doing well and tranny is holding up, for now. Can't wait for 96 Volts and beyond.

November 6th, Installed some 265/75/R15's (31" Tall) on rear of Chevelle. This increased battery amps on launch to 1600 amps at 48 volts. Also installed Air Bags and Drag Shocks. I want to finish the series/parallel field coil setup before I check top speed.