Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Winter time...

And not much to do on the car itself without a garage that is at least somewhat insulated against the cold temparatures and the wind. I'm still driving the car with it's ICE and enjoying the luxury of the car. But every time I have to fill up, I somewhat regret not having spent these 120.- CHF on EV parts instead. It uses about 9l/100km - just way too much.

So, my main EV related activities currently are limited to:
  1. Catching up 3 years of evtv.me (within 5-6 months)
  2. Collecting data on batteries, motors, controllers, chargers
  3. Planning a renovation of a shed into a garage (one needs a place to work)
  4. Looking for a car lift
  5. Reading the S80's service manuals
  6. Reading, reading, reading.
My favourite option currently is a HPEVS-75 or -76 as proposed by Jack Richard. Might be a tight fit in the engine compartment but it sure would be a powerful beast to move the sturdy S80. The installed clutch and gear-box should be able to deal with 350nM to 400nM. This should suffice for the AC-75.
I do want to go with AC because of regen. Not that I expect much improvement on range but because there are many hills and mountains here. Driving down a hill for 5min or more would certainly get my brakes smoking.
There are a few interesting things installed in the S80. Going with a modern car with lots of electronics seems to have its advantages and disadvantages. I will have to fake some signals to get the ECU and other parts into thinking that the engine is running. Also picking up the gas pedal signal might be tricky. It is digitally transmitted to the ECU which in turn controls a throttle step-motor. In order to get cruise-control working, the signal from the ECU has to be used as input for the controller - somehow. But other parts like a vacuum-pump or a ceramic heater elemet magically already are available. Very convenient.
One thing I think most about is the 12V power supply. I would like not to have to install a 12V auxiliary battery - but still I need enough power for the ABS motor in an emergency in case the fan is blowing at full power, the seat heater is on, rear-window defogger is on and the wipers, turn-indicators and head-lights are on. Probably requires some current measurements.

Unfortunately no one is interested in the original engine or other parts. Well, did you ever hear of a Volvo engine fail? Well, neither did I. In the worst case I'll mount it to the garage wall as a trophy :)

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