Always something!

     We came to class today only to find that our vehicle lift was sitting in a puddle of hydraulic fluid! The lift has a leaking seal on the hydraulic cylinder. This is a big issue because we can not lift our MR2 up to work on our BMS.   We are trying now to find a replacement lift(donation) or to get this one fixed.  It is an old lift and may have seen its' better days, so a replacement may be in order.
On the plus side our batteries have all stabilized to 3.37 volts after a long charge period, essentially pre-balancing our pack for when we install the BMS.  Of course, we need a lift to do so!  Always something.

Our BMS has arrived!

Our BMS arrived last Friday and needless to say, we are overwhelmed.  The MR2 has to be totally rewired top to bottom to accomodate the new component.  The BMS will monitor all cells during charge and under driving conditions, giving us real time analysis of the Lithium batteries.  This technology will help preserve the lifespan batteries and help to keep them a balanced set.  The performance of the MR2 should be more consistent and we will have the opportunity to data  log our charge and discharge cycles.  Two students are working on a program that will create an interface that incorporates both the Synkromotive controller and the BMS parameters on the same in dash display.
  Today, we began removing all of the Thundersky batteries so we can top balance the entire set in parallel.  By doing this, we will have a balanced pack, and the BMS will have an easier job for the initial few charge cycles.

New Warp 9 install

Thanks to Bob Batson at EV America, and George Hamstra at NetGain motors, we were able to get our old motor covered under warranty.  Not only that, the motor that we received was actually the new Warp 9 with 28 improvements that will help overall efficiency!  The new motor went in without a hitch, but we seem to have noticed a new problem with the transmission that we never noticed before, a rattling at certain RPM's.  We think it was pre-existing, but we can not do anything with it until after we compete in the NEAT Rally competition next week at the NCCAR facility in Roanoke Rapids, NC. We think it may be a synchronizer, but will not know until the transmission is removed and taken apart.  We only hope it hold out until after the NEAT Rally.

Removing Warp 9 motor for repair

Wouldn't you know it, our MR2 motor has developed a very rare problem.  The balancing putty has broken off the armature and in turn has created a bad vibration within the motor.  Supposedly, this only happens if the motor has turned over 9000 RPM's.  Not likely this has happened, but nonetheless, NetGain is repairing the motor for free.  This week, we removed the motor in the MR2 and shipped it off to Warfield Electric for repair.  Of course, we have a competition November 3rd, so hopefully we will have the motor back in time to install before then.

Raffle, Raffle, Raffle. Anyone want a Raffle Ticket?

Buy our raffle tickets!! We will be selling them until December 17th when we have the drawing for several prizes including a $2800 Tempur-pedic cloud supreme mattress. Please contact us if you would like to purchase them online.  They are 1 for $5 or 3 for $10.

Homecoming 2010

The electric Ranger and Mr2 led the homecoming parade at halftime Saturday night.  Also, we had a member of the homecoming court ride in our electric Miata.  I think this would be the first time an electric vehicle was used by a student on a homecoming court!  We were also selling raffle tickets at the game.  Make sure you contact us if you would like to purchase them.  1 for $5 or 3 for $10.

A day full of display

Friday was a busy day for the EV class.  The entire Pender County Schools employees came to Topsail High School for the beginning of school Convocation.  Over 900 employees got a chance to see the EV's and ask questions as they made their way into THS for their day of meetings.  Sal was the early bird and did a great job showing the vehicles to anyone who stopped by.

  Later, we showed all three EV's at the football game against Trask.  We positioned the vehicles so that everyone entering the game had to walk by them.  Most people stopped and asked questions and were very positive about our program.

Display at THS Wrestlers car show

School is just around the corner and we took the opportunity to display all three EV's at the Topsail Wrestlers car show.  This was their second show at the Topsail High School campus and we were amongst about 75 other    cars showing off their wheels.

Kiwanis Presentation

From left to right:  Todd, Alexis, Sal, Zack, Josh, Joey, Stephen, Chris

Early Tuesday morning, the EV team made a presentation to the Topsail Island Kiwanis club.  We met at 7:00am at the Smokehouse in Holly Ridge for their weekly meeting.  Breakfast was served and we had a 20 minute presentation with a question and answer session.  There was plenty of interest from the 60 members present as they asked the team about the vehicles and the future of electric transportation.  Thanks to the students who attended, who got up very early on a lazy summer day to help promote the program.

New motor install in MR2

Today we installed the new Warp 9 motor into the MR2.  The ADC 9 motor we removed needs to have the commutator surfaced and new brushes. We will refurbish that 6 year old motor as a side project this fall.
   The install seemed to be going well until we realized the Warp9 has a different bolt pattern on the auxiliary shaft end than is on the ADC 9.  We also found that dimensionally, the Warp is a slightly larger motor overall as well.  We ended up having to make some modifications to one of the motor mounts in order to make the motor fit.  The whole process took almost 6 hours, but we had to have the MR2 ready for a presentation at the Surf City Kiwanis meeting tomorrow.

   Thanks to the following students who showed up at 8am to work.  Fouty, Todd, Alexis, Sal, Stephen,  Joey, Tony and Kevin.  It was a long and challenging day, but it was worth it in the end. The install was also a very good troubleshooting exercise.

Classy Chassis car show at Poplar Grove

We took the opportunity to show the truck at the Classy Chassis car show at Poplar Grove today.  The car is out of order right now awaiting a new motor, so we just showed the truck.  There were almost 200 cars there, mostly classic pre-1980 cars, so the attendance and exposure were great.  It was hot and muggy, but still great to get out and allow the students to display the truck and gain experience in showing the public our program.

  Thanks to Sean, Stephen, Tony, Kevin, Marissa and Zach for showing up and helping to promote our program.

p.s That red 1961 Bug belongs to Mr Garrett.  We should convert it to EV!

News story on local station WECT TV 6 wilmington

WECT story on Topsail EV program

Extreme Makeover, Electric Edition!

Seems like a good time to show the before and after pictures of our newest conversion.  There is some confusion about this truck.  First of all, it is a new conversion.  This truck is not the old Ranger without stickers, we sold that truck last spring.  Yep, "Roscoe" is a newly converted 2001 Ford Ranger Edge.

Below is a picture of our previous 1996 Ranger we owned for 8 years.

Seven time National Champions!

The EV class traveled to Raleigh this weekend and emerged victorious again.  We collected 11 trophies including first and third overall.  This was the seventh year in a row that we have won first overall in the SMARTT Challenge competition against high schools from as far away as Iowa and Miami.
  The new Ford Ranger conversion took top honors.  We finished the truck just two days before the competition and really felt this was our best effort to date.  Being our fifth conversion, we used our knowledge from the past to help us to make the very best conversion we could do with the budget we had.  All of our hard work paid off with a $1000 check for first place!
  The Toyota MR2 placed third and brought home first place in the Autocross competition, a feat we had not yet achieved. We also earned $500 for third place

Our Overall trophies were:  
1st Overall (Ranger truck
3rd Overall (MR2)
2nd School initiative

1st Website

Our Truck team:
1st Range (Josh Parmeley, Jeff Harris)  53 miles
3rd Troubleshooting (Josh Parmeley, Ryan Stone)
3rd Oral presentation (Aaron Hackett, Sean Bullock)
1st Vehicle Design
2nd Autocross (Ryan Stone, Josh Parmeley, Aaron Hackett)

Our MR2 team:
1st Range (Aaron Hackett, Marissa Ruehle) 32 miles, could have gone 50, but we had already won)
6th Troubleshooting (Ashley Counts, Dakota Adcock)
4th Oral presentation (Arik Jones, Adam Markley)
4th Vehicle Design
1st Autocross (Dakota Adcock)

Its' alive!!

"Roscoe" the Ford Ranger electric conversion rolled out of the garage on its' own today for the first time.  Plenty of tweaking to do before the final event competition this weekend.  Details to come, stay tuned.

Open house and raffle drawing

Today, we held our first ever open house for the EV program.  The turn-out was more than we expected.  Many students, parents and interested community members showed up to inquire about the vehicles and also to watch as we drew for the fundraising raffle.  Several of our sponsors made an appearance, including Mrs.Castoro of Hampstead Furniture and Ms.Adcock of Modren Woodmen. There were speeches from both showing just how valuable the community is to our program, We couldn't do it without you guys!

Battery wiring and bed prop

Today, we continued working on wiring the main battery pack.  Most of the batteries are wired and loomed.  We still have to finish the wiring as it moves to the controller.  We also finally got some gas charged struts that help to assist the bed lifting experience.  For years, with our old truck, we had to hold the bed up and place a prop rod in the right place in order to hold the bed in position.  Now the assist is a very nice feature to have and it also makes the lifting experience much safer.

We have Power...steering that is.

Dakota finished mounting the power steering pump today.  All we have to do is plumb and wire it up for 12 volt operation.  Since we removed the gas engine and all components, the power steering had to be revisited.  We bought a 12 volt pump out of an MR2 that should do the trick.  The only issue we will have is the current draw can be as high as 75 amps, so we need to design a circuit to limit the current draw under certain circumstances so as not to tax our DC/DC converter.

Long day, double duty

 

    Today we had two events to participate in, our raffle fundraiser at Ace Hardware, and Earth Day in Hampstead.    Six students showed up at various times to help sell raffle tickets and to show off the car.  People were very interested in the MR2 conversion and most were surprised that it was done by high school students.
   We have passed the $1250 mark for raffle sales indicating were are half way to our goal.  Next week we will be at Harris Teeter in Porters Neck from 9am-5pm.  We also will be heading to the Topsail Kiwanis club on Tuesday to sell tickets before their program begins.  All this and a truck to convert makes for a busy week!

We have batteries!

Our batteries were delivered today.  We are breaking from tradition this year and will be using US Batteries instead of Trojan batteries.  The Trojan representative never returned our seven messages therefore we decided to go with a manufacturer that would provide us with a quality USA made battery and excellent customer service.  The US 145XC specs out exactly like the Trojan T-145 we have used in the past, they look great too!