Brendon_m Moke

[brendon_m]

I actually need to go through and put a heap of glands and grommets yet.
Its all on the infinitely long "to do" list

[soyachips]

Nice Tetris skills!

On the left around the smaller cables is a thingy like those ferrite beads on monitor cables. Is that to stop EMI from the controller interfering with something? What’s it around?

[brendon_m]

The yellow thing? Because that's an inline fuse holder.
Or do you mean the square box towards the bottom, that's an ignition relay.

[soyachips]

I meant this but on closer inspection it looks like it might just be a connector or where the wires go into the controller

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[brendon_m]

Yep, that's just the plug for the controller

[brendon_m]

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Sigh...
More tests to be done but range appears to be about 35km when travelling mostly at 100km/h.
Im guessing the aerodynamics (or lack of) don't help me out much

[Adverse Effects]

take screen off and gain about 5% lol

[Richo]

So 33kW driving at 100kph.
It does sound high.

[brendon_m]

had a quick play on Sunday and only 1 half of the pack was completely discharged the other 1/2 was at ~30%.
The pack gets charged by 2 x 48v chargers so at this point I have a suspicion (or at least some hopes and dreams) that 1 half of the pack wasn't fully charged when I started running around.
Its all early days because it wasn't even one outing, the km's were clocked up over about a month when I could find time and then adding to that the dcdc is on a permanent feed so it's a constant draw(exactly how much I don't know but should really check).
Much more accurate tests need to be performed...

[jonescg]

Might want to do a good balance charge of both packs then. It's a amazing how much energy can be denied when you have an unbalanced pack (and a functioning BMS, lest you have a fire).

[brendon_m]

Time flys when you're having fun. Or more accurately when you are trying to coax reliable brakes out of an old English designed car.

To start with I replaced the rubber lines as they were looking a bit ratty.
After a couple of drives one of the rear brake cylinders started to weep a bit. So I ordered a new one and changed it out, then I tried to bleed the brakes and ended up finding there was now a blockage in the other rear cylinder.
So I replaced that and tried bleeding again using a vacuum bleeder and had a lot of trouble with air getting stuck in the system so I got one of the systems that pressurises the reservoir. And I've finally got feeling in the pedal again.

In amongst all that I've been trying to track down a matching set of rims as when I got the car it had 2 standard steel rims and 2 steel "sunraysia" rims. The moke has a special offset and an odd stud pattern because "of course it does".
I messaged a few random people that were selling their mokes on Gumtree and managed to find a few willing to part with some old skanky wheels that match my 2 standard steel rims. So I now have a full set of matching wheels (but they will need new rubber).

I've been on a few test drives now with the biggest test today, not in terms of longest distance but in terms of furthest from home. The trip today was all 60-70km/h roads about was 50km round trip. When I pulled in at home I had about 40% capacity remaining.

I don't have a method of accurately measuring used capacity but the moke is currently on charge with a power meter in line, so I'll have a vague idea of how much energy I used but if my calculations are correct it should of been close to 9kWh.

[Adverse Effects]

i vaguely remember there is a 12" rim of a Holden Torana that fit the mini

[jonescg]

I don't have a method of accurately measuring used capacity but the moke is currently on charge with a power meter in line, so I'll have a vague idea of how much energy I used but if my calculations are correct it should of been close to 9kWh.

A decent coulomb counter is a lovely thing. You can even go without air conditioning or power steering, but not knowing how much is left at any point in time along the charge-drive cycle is a bit crap. There's a few options out there, and given the low voltage system you're running, any of the 12-200 V options will be better than nothing.

[bladecar]

i vaguely remember there is a 12" rim of a Holden Torana that fit the mini

If there is, the mini wheel and the big-wheel moke are unlikely to be similar, I'm guessing.

[Adverse Effects]

i vaguely remember there is a 12" rim of a Holden Torana that fit the mini

If there is, the mini wheel and the big-wheel moke are unlikely to be similar, I'm guessing.

this was used to do a 10" to 12" rim conversion and if i recall it offset out a bit to
we did this to put disk brakes on the minis

mini and moke running gear is almost identical from memory the cones are really the only difference

[brendon_m]

My moke has 13 inch rims with a 101.6mm pcd and a bit more offset compared to the mini to get around the "suspension".
I also know the sunraysia rims don't fit on the front as they hit the calipers

[brendon_m]

A decent coulomb counter is a lovely thing.

Agreed
The one in my other car died and I've been driving blind. I don't like it.
Ive got a new one(of a different style) coming and if it checks out I'll order a 2nd for the moke.
That will make driving less stressful.
A comparison to petrol is I've currently been driving it with no fuel gauge and no idea how big the tank is

[brendon_m]

The numbers are in, 8.5kWh to travel 50km
That equates to 170Wh per kilometre. (travelling on 60+70kmh roads)
Its a 14.5kWh pack so my range is 85km, but that's every last electron.
Realistic summer range is 50-60km. Not fantastic but at 60km/h that's an hour in the moke which is long enough.

But that's if I remember to charge it.
Before my trip yesterday I decided to charge the car to full. I had only used it to drive round a friends place (about 4km away) but it also had been sitting with the dc-dc chugging away the last few weeks while I sorted brakes.
Turns out that was a good idea as the dc-dc is a bit thirsty and chewed through around 7.5kWh of energy
I left the dc-dc on all the time to stop the 12v battery going flat but I might start hitting the isolator as replacing a flat 12ah sla sounds a lot better than the whole traction pack

[brendon_m]

I got the new coulometer /fuel gauge for my other car (sirion) and installed it, works beautifully so I ordered a second for the moke. Then the coulometer in my sirion let the smoke out... 140vdc went down the 12v supply line and also the 5v line that goes to the hall sensor and the display. Long story short, it's a dead stick. So the second one has gone into the sirion and I have a third coming now for the moke
On the plus side I have a nice picture of what happens to a standard blade fuse with a 140vdc short across it.

Top is a 12v short, bottom is 140v

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I've been driving the moke around when I can and it's a heap better then it ever was on petrol although it's definitely not going to be a cross country tourer.

If now fitted up the bottom covers on the battery boxes.
I was a bit worried about sealing the cells in a metal box and cooking them with the poor ventilation (Nissan leaf style) so I went for a drive yesterday with one cover on and one off. Turns out the cells with the cover ran cooler by about 6°C (32°C vs 38°C on a 30°C day).
I'm guessing it was because the white cover reflected back all the heat radiating up from the road.
Before

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After

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[jonescg]

Very nice! The radiant heat is substantial. Now that the Prelude has a sheet of 6 mm plate aluminium for a base, and a thin layer of FR4 between it and the base of the cells, the temperature can climb rapidly. We need to paint the base with that bituminous tar to act as a bit of a barrier. However the A/C does a good job of dropping cell temperatures by 6 degrees within 20 mins.
And that fuse clearly did it's job. Over and above I say

Edit - had to do a quick double take to see you hadn't pumped a dozen Tek screws into the base of the cells there

[coulomb]

On the plus side I have a nice picture of what happens to a standard blade fuse with a 140vdc short across it.

Um, what was a blade fuse doing in a 140 VDC circuit? [ Edit: they're normally rated at 30 VDC. ]

If it's in the coulometer, I don't want to be associated with it

[jonescg]

On the plus side I have a nice picture of what happens to a standard blade fuse with a 140vdc short across it.

Um, what was a blade fuse doing in a 140 VDC circuit? [ Edit: they're normally rated at 30 VDC. ]

If it's in the coulometer, I don't want to be associated with it

I'm guessing an unintentional crossed wiring. The Cycle Analyst would take full pack voltage in and divide it internally. For anything over about 140 volts it needed a separate voltage divider.

[brendon_m]

That fuse was actually on the negative of the 12v supply (lucky I went over board and fit a fuse on positive AND negative).
The cycle analyst module measures the 140v pack voltage but it's internally powered by a separate 12v supply (well 6vdc - 80vdc). However the negatives of both voltages are linked internally, effectively grounding the pack to the chassis of the car. Now in the short term this is not desirable but it's also not catastrophic. But when you add in a temporary short of pack positive to chassis through a reverse light input to the motor controller being chaffed on the contactor (hypothetically...) things get a bit 'arc'y through the ground loop.
It is now isolated fully above ground (like I should have done originally) by powering the module through an old isolated wall wart power supply, giving the module it's very own floating 12v supply that it can link to pack negative all it likes but it's isolated from the rest of the car.

Oh, and I fixed the short

[brendon_m]

Another range test drive done, aerodynamics are definitely not the mokes strong point.
I pootle'd around last night doing lots of 60-100kmh work to try to get some power consumption figures. In the end I managed 50km of range going from ~100% down to ~20% but if I stay off the highway it'll definitely go further.
60kmh = 8kW
70kmh = 9.5kW
80kmh = 12kW
90kmh = 20kW
100kmh = 35kW
It was not a perfectly level and straight test track but I took readings in many different places and going in both directions etc.

Top speed was 110kmh, however I have the motor controller currently limited to 75% of max power and it was slowly creeping up in speed anyway but over 90kmh is a scary place to be in an open top brick with lumps of rubber for suspension so I didn't spend a lot of time there. Regardless, it's a higher top speed then before and even with no clutch for changing gears I can get there faster now than the ice ever could.


In other news I've put new tyres on that's the correct size which made the Speedo read accurately rather than 10% out as it was

And I've also installed a fuel gauge other than the voltmeter in the sevcon display

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[jonescg]

Haha, those are terrible numbers
As you say, the aero is the #1 source of grief because it's not weight and it's not drivetrain inefficiency. Although the iMiEV battery blocks are probably a bit saggier than they were 10 years ago. If you're feeling game, come up the hill for a drive. Plenty of sunshine on tap.