You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
Motorheads! · 18 January 06
I get a regular flow of email from this site and the first conversion diary. Much of it consists of folks who are thinking about maybe trying out an EV conversion, but just aren’t sure.
Sometimes it’s an email from someone who already has or is in the middle of their conversion. Being a bit of a gear-head it’s always interesting to hear about other people’s projects, to see how they solve some of the same problems and to learn from their unique ideas.
Orlen sent along an email with a couple pictures of his current conversion project. I don’t have all of the details yet, but from what I understand he’s working on a ‘91 Aerostar extended body van conversion.
Yikes!
- Printable fastener tools and gauges over at Bolt Depot.
- The Energy Blog has a good post on Flow Batteries that is worth a read. Future updates are promised.
- JC picked up on one of the better quotes I’ve read lately: “Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence – that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.”
- Now this is an on-board computer! Hooks to another microcontroller that gathers engine data (in Czech?)
Comment [4]
Surprise! · 17 January 06
I was out in the new garage installing a garage door opener when a horn sounded outside. Hmm, wonder who that could be?
Turns out it was my friend Brian and his brother, along with:
A NEW, ELECTRIC CAR!
(said in your best game show host voice…)
- Take one cap bank (210uF 20kV 16kJ), attach to a 4 1/2 turn helical coil, aluminium sheet from old case, mini spanner (8cm). Remove children and animals, charge to 4.5kV (2kJ), pull firing cord, Serve hot: Magna-forming
- Firefly Energy is working on new lead acid battery technology. “The Firefly battery replaces the the heavy, corrosive, traditional positive and negative lead plates, which comprise up to 70% of a typical lead-acid battery’s weight, with smaller and extremely low weight non-corrosive composite plate material.”
- Darin is investigating the latest pulse and glide gas saving techniques.
- Lots of information and choices for supplemental vacuum.
- Sandia researchers seek ways to make lithium-ion batteries work longer, safer. “Current hybrid vehicles use nickel-metal hydride batteries, but a safe lithium-ion battery will be a much better option for the hybrids.” (i.e. we’ll make money)
- New York’s Governor has unveiled a plan to encourage the production and use of renewable fuels.
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- The Great Hybrid Cover-up of 1974. “I went to various showrooms in New York. I looked under the hoods. The Buick Skylark seemed to have the most volume. And not knowing exactly how much space we were going to need, I wanted a car with the largest volume under the hood.”
- PriUPS, turning your Prius into a backup power supply for the house.
- Bowden’s Hobby Circuits, over 100 electronic circuits.
- Electronics Schematics (and for sale kits) for hobbyists.
- HOBO Data Logger Modules
James and the EV, IV · 15 January 06
Time for an update on James May’s EV. Last time I posted he was on the brink of his first test run and then…silence.
Uncomfortable silence…
And then he started posting in the comments section on the site, so we knew that he was still alive. Thanks for leaving us hanging, James!
Still, the comments didn’t let us know how alive the EV was.
- The EPA and MPG: The wrong debate. “The EPA’s proposed ratings downshift does nothing to require that auto makers increase the fuel efficiency of their cars and trucks. ... The average fuel economy for today’s new cars and trucks is lower than it was 20 years ago.”
- Jim Husted has a new Website. Jim rebuilds DC motors, notably those for EVs.
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- Korean C-Zone electric golf car. Probably not something you’d drive on the links, more of a NEV?
- Vellman electronics kits, here’s their automotive category including the little code lock kit. Sold at parts express and KitsUSA.
- Buying and running your business on wind power. “Or, to put it another way: The purchase – in terms of the environmental benefit in displacing conventional fuels – is equivalent to taking 60,000 cars off the road or planting 90,000 acres of trees.”
- If you have a Mac be sure to check out the very cool drawing app, SketchUp. They have a new plug-in to integrate drawings into Google Earth.