Spot Festival

We had the MR2 on display at the Hampstead Spot Festival again this year. Usually this is the most exposure we get with our program, but this year the rain kept people home and the crowds were light. We displayed on Saturday and the team volunteered their time with the festival on Saturday and Sunday, parking cars, picking up trash, hauling hay, and breading fish in the Spot fish dinner tent. I was pleased that all of my team showed up for their shifts and represented the school well. Hopefully next year will have better weather.

Homecoming parade a washout

We took the freshly washed MR2 to the homecoming game on Friday night only to have the parade cancelled due to bad weather. So we just displayed the vehicle and made the best of the situation. On a bright note, the Pirates won! On the the Spot Festival tomorrow and hoping for good weather.

P.S. No, we are not promoting gangs here...it is just the guys showing the "EV" sign with their hands...clever.

DC/DC Converter installed!

We finally got around to installing the Iota DLS-45 DC/DC converter this week. The unit was installed under the car in the tunnel that previously housed the gas tank. So we would not any issues with the converter turning on before the controller, we used a small contactor that is activated at the same time as the main battery pack contactor. We found out the hard way last spring that if the auxiliary battery is low on charge and the DC/DC turns on before the Raptor controller, it tries to charge the battery and pulls high voltage through the controller thus destroying the pre-charge circuit. So this time we did it right and ....no smoke!
One benefit of the work this week was that several new students were able to gain a better understanding of the vehicle schematic. Knowledge is power.

Storage a plenty

The EV garage is in the process of getting a makeover with the addition of shelving in the storage room. We never really had time to organize and make the garage our own last year since, by the time we moved into the new school, we immediately began the MR2 conversion.
The EV10 team took control with Ryan Stone in charge and within a day, the shelving was erected. Thanks to Jim Stone for the lumber donation and to the students who took the time to help complete the project(see photo). Now it is organization time!

EVcast.com interview (Podcast #270)

We were interviewed Saturday by Nikki Bloomfield from aminorjourney.com about our EV program. Two students and myself fielded questions for an hour during a conference call over Skype. Marissa and Arik did a fine job with the questions, answering honestly and with candor. Nikki was very impressed with the program and did a great job of promoting what we are doing and making it known that fundraising is a crucial part of our program. Looks like the Topsail EV team has gone international!
You can catch out Podcast by going to EVcast.com

It's back!! Up and running again with new Raptor.

We received the rebuilt Raptor controller this week from Peter Senkowsky and installed it during class with the new EV10 students. I must admit, I was apprehensive and nervous about firing it up, but we managed to not let the smoke out and all is well. I have not driven the car enough to determine if this one is "peppier" since it does not have the"mild" chip that Peter had in the loaner controller, but I will keep you posted.
The EV10 students seem very eager to learn and to participate, hope this enthusiasm continues throughout the year as we embrace a new conversion. Next up, installing the DC/DC converter.