EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

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coulomb
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by coulomb »

woody, from the EV Run to Canberra AGM 2009 topic wrote: Congrats David, awesome trip.
Yes, seconded!
The Brisbane/Sydney/Canberra routes converge at Hay, NSW about 625km from Adelaide.
According to Google Maps, there isn't so much as a toilet stop for 133 km to Balranald. So the vehicles attempting this had better have 150 km range.
We should at least be able to drive from there in a couple of days.
655 km (per Google maps; why does it disagree with other maps? Maybe it's just more realistic), is almost as far as Melbourne to Canberra, which David did with 2 overnight stops (each way).
A lesser plan would be to drive about 5 cars from Sydney with a car trailer - 4 on the trailer charging with one driving at any one time - would be a fun road trip.

Heh. Initially I thought you meant that each EV should be capable of towing the other four, plus trailer.   Image   But I see now that you mean a diesel truck set up as a 4-car trailer with a honking great alternator that can charge 4 EVs at once... is there such a thing? And the other e-vehicle drives behind it. Maybe the truck could charge one EV at once, or more conveniently, charge all four turned down to about 1/4 or less of their usual rate. Actually, I saw what I thought was a 3-phase outlet on the Home Ice Cream truck today, so maybe significant charging is possible. Of course, that means the EVs are mostly charged from diesel. I guess the truck is the support for the fifth EV: if it runs into trouble, the sick EV is swapped for one of the others and the convoy continues, rotating through the 4 running EVs (or back to 5 if it just needed charging).

I think that the flaw with that plan is that it's surely a significant hassle to shuffle cars on a car trailer. Not the sort of thing you'd want to be doing every 100 km on a 1400 nkm journey. Still, it's probably quicker than waiting for a charge from mains. Also remember that David had two chargers (one for each pack chemistry?), so he probably managed almost twice the speed of charge that most EVs would get.

Brisbane to Adelaide (2025 km) isn't much further via Sydney at 2299 km (via Mt Colah is similar at 2292 km, via Canberra 2363 km, via Melbourne 2413 km, via Geelong 2467 km). So *if* we Brisbaners were nutty enough to attempt this, we could possibly tow to one of these cities (Sydney/Mt Cola, Melbourne, Geelong, Canberra, or Hay) and go electric from there. We could leave the tow and trailer in that city. Woody: how big is your back yard? Image

More crazy thoughts: the tow (and trailer?) could be a "support vehicle", if you have two drivers. The EV (well, the MX-5 at least) could race ahead to the next town and plug in, with the support vehicle arriving 10 minutes later. The support vehicle could rescue the e-vehicle in the event that something went wrong.

For nutty Brisbaners with a Solar installation business (Weber?), I wonder if it would be possible to drag along some solar panels and make it a really green journey? Maybe the trailer when not towing the e-vehicle could have a couple of panels on it, storing energy in a small battery that could somehow transfer its charge to the e-vehicle. It's a pity that the tow vehicle would be burning a lot of oil, and the MX-5's boot could store maybe 50 W of panels... Image I'm guessing that only about 1 kW of panels would be practical (with a tow and trailer), which would be a pretty slow charge. Of course if solar charging, you'd drive at night and rest during the day.

The trip to Adelaide is probably not one for solar charging; it's more for a leisurely holiday and with a larger e-vehicle capable of towing a trailer (so not the MX-5).

Well, it's fun to dream.

Admins: feel free to move this to an appropriate home, and convert to an announcement thread if deemed appropriate.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by weber »

So long as we're dreaming, here's my dream long-range solar charging trailer. It is 1.6 m wide and 4.8 metres long and 750 mm high and has 3 layers of SunPower 215 watt PV modules. 6 in each layer, 18 total. That's nominally 3870 W and the modules would weigh 270 kg.

Two of the 3 layers would be on tracks so that when the trailer is stationary one layer slides forward and the other slides backward and they are supported by adjustable feet. You'd drive only in the early morning or evening and park it for charging between say 8 am and 4 pm.

In Brisbane, Perth and places north it should provide around 14 kWh per day average, in an unshaded location. Unfortunately that's probably only good for about 70 km of travel at 100 km/h.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by woody »

coulomb wrote:Woody: how big is your back yard? Image
I'm trying to figure out where to put a garage on our property, backyard is inaccessible to vehicles, maybe 2 cars by crane anyway (previous owner built a granny flat and now it's a dodgy strata title subdivision) but there is plenty of street parking since the only thing nearby is houses and they all have carports / driveways / garages.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by woody »

In other news, this topic seems to appear in every forum.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by Kimball »

Hi Coulomb,
Dave has 2 on board chargers but they both charge the lithium pack.
The Lithiums feed the lead acid, which power the motor and protect the lithiums from excess discharge.
The total capacity should give 100km maximum range, but he was getting over 130km, so there is some sort of synergy in the set-up.
(He might also have been discharging the Lithiums more than he should)
Dave's original plan for up to 6 EV's going to Canberra was to have a truck tow a commercial generator (bio-diesel)and stage the arrivals for re-charging. You also need to pre-arrange charging at points like caravan parks, schools and motels taking into account your range.
If the truck was a car carrier it could also act as a recovery vehicle.
All up we considered 3 support vehicles, a lead ICE or hybrid car, the truck towing the generator, and a following ICE towing a car trailer as a recovery vehicle.
Keep thinking good thoughts - cheers Kim

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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by djsharpe »

Charging statement is not quite right. Both batteries are in parallel and are both charged & discharged in parallel. I have 46 LFPs & 12 AGM. At the end of a 100k run battery voltages were about 140-144 V so I dont think I was abusing the batteries. For the run from Melbourne to Adelaide I will be sporting 4 chargers and use mostly caravan parks as these have "clusters" of 15A outlets for powered sites. O'night charging will use only one charger. An average speed of 33kphr would be possible, still very slow. I think I could cycle faster, however the point of the trip is to get the car there without trailering. Im not going to try & organise something like for ACT but if anyone wants to go EV to Adelaide I will share my charging stops info. I also know people in Balranald who will help with charging, Syd & Bne EVers. You will need mutiple chargers. DS
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by evric »

Hi,
Our EV Festival website has now been updated to include details of accommodation.

Website

Eric.
Last edited by evric on Fri, 23 Jul 2010, 12:15, edited 1 time in total.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by djsharpe »

There is no charging at the Treasury Hotel or the parking venue. Im going to look for somewhere to stay at Glenelg & get the electric tram into town. DS
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by djsharpe »

If anyone wants cheaper & with charging & sharing please contact me in the next few weeks & Ill find something suitable. DS
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by LightningEV »

I wanted to drive to Adelaide, I figured It would take 3-4 days to travel the 1650km. But I hit a snag, The $24,000 Certifiaction fee for an LEP-2-ICV-EV.

Anyhow I'll be going In My Old MightyBoy EV with a Generator in the Back. If there is anyone Traveling from Sydney I'd Like to meet up with them on the way.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by woody »

LightningEV wrote: I hit a snag, The $24,000 Certifiaction fee for an LEP-2-ICV-EV.
Ouch! Is this for the first of a type, or only because you want to make more than one?
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Post by LightningEV »

Actually.

ICV = Individually constructed Vehicle

This means that there is a massive headache for the engineer who has to deal with the ADR Board, whom although still supporting ICV's in Australia don't want them, The ADR make up the rules as they go even though rules have been published that we must abide by, they Include their own "Interpretations" which creates a very drawn out process and numerous tests which exceed that given to the Automanufacturers.

Due to it being an ICV this process must be repeated for every single unit built, I had Initially hoped to build and sell them for $75,000AUD But in Reality that would be what it costs to build..

Sorry for the hijacking, I am still Interested in traveling in My Mightyboy EV to Adelaide, Anyone Interested in meeting up on the way, let me know.
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by djsharpe »

Ill be going but route is via Ballarat & Horsham
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EV Run to Adelaide AGM and Festival, 2010

Post by coulomb »

coulomb wrote: So *if* we Brisbaners were nutty enough to attempt this ...

I meant to post about this a week or two ago when we made the decision; Weber and I won't be going to the AEVA AGM and festival this year. Mainly, the MX-5, despite somewhat heroic efforts on our part, has hit a number of snags, and just won't be ready. Most regrettably; we'd both love to be there.
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Patching PIP-4048/5048 inverter-chargers.
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