Lights, Camera, Action!

Our new school year is now underway, and one of our first tasks was to lead the homecoming parade.

Although the game didn't turn out in our favor, the vehicles were a big hit, especially the new lighting system we have added to the car.

We are busy adding a similar system to the truck, and hope to have another surprise in store before this weekend's Spot Festival.

We hope to have both vehicles in top condition before our first competition, the NEAT rally at NCCAR on October 18-19.

Introducing the Voltswagen!!

We are proud to announce the completion of our latest vehicle, a 1961 VW Bug, the Voltswagen, just in time for Mr. Garrett's 50th birthday!  The car belongs to Mr. Garrett, our former instructor, who was just named Executive Director of the EV Challenge.  In addition to everyday use, he will use this vehicle as a tool for recruiting new schools to participate in the EV Challenge. 

Some students stayed late into the night to get it finished!

The front battery box; charger is underneath.

The rear battery box, on the package shelf.

Plugged in and charging!

She's ready to go!

The Motor, controller and DC/DC converter.

Details of the car are as follows:

44 100 Ah Thundersky Cells
Lithiumate Lite BMS
Elcon PFC 1500 Charger
DCP Raptor 1200A Controller
ADC 9" Motor
Battery heaters
Range:  75 miles projected
Top Speed: Faster than stock
Acceleration: MUCH faster than stock

Coupler, Battery Boxes, and Charger

The past two weeks have been very busy in the EV shop, as we are working on all three vehicles at the same time.  We still have much to do, but are on track to finish in time for the EV Challenge next month.

The coupler to mate the electric motor with the transmission has been machined by Mr. Sholar at Cape Fear Community College.  The next step is to install the motor.

The new coupler

Thank-you cake.

Also, the battery boxes and heaters are being installed in the Volkswagen.  Next, we will install the cells and wire everything up.

Bolting in the rear battery box.

Matt wiring the battery heaters.

With the Ranger, we have mounted the new charger.  It will be back on the road as soon as the controller is repaired.

Brady securing the charger.

On the road again!

The battery transplant is now complete and the MR2 is back on the road, thanks to seven long hours of work on Saturday by some dedicated students.  Re-wiring the Orion BMS took a lot of time and patience (and a call to their ever-helpful customer support line), but it is now working to equalize our new battery pack.  There are still some final details to attend to, but now our attention can shift to the Volkswagen and preparing for the EV challenge.  Check out the pictures of our progress.

Drilling out holes for the battery straps.

The front box, ready to go back in!

Moving the bug out of the way, so the MR2 can get on the lift.

Since the new cells are smaller, we need new holes for the battery cables.

The back box is almost finished...

Everything is in place up front.

Synkromotive controller installed in MR2

We finally got around to removing the Raptor 1200A and installing the Synkromotive 900A in the MR2.  The Raptor has served us well over the last 9 years, making appearances in three different installs.  It is a very powerful controller, but that is all, it does not allow for programming or data logging.  The Synkromotive controller has been working flawlessly in our Ranger for over a year, so we decided to install one in the MR2 as well.

  Initial observations are the MR2 with the Synkro has a tad bit less acceleration.  On the plus side, gone is the horrible accelerator delay we had with the Raptor.  This issue reared its' ugly head in Auto Cross events where you had to press early on the pedal in anticipation of the power surge....not fun.

  Now to drive the MR2 and data log the results.  The data logging will really help us to track the performance of our Lithium pack as well.

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.

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.

Electric Miata donated to our program!

Today we took delivery of a 1991 72 volt electric Mazda Miata conversion.  The car has 12 miles on the conversion and the overall mileage is only 105,000!  The car, converted by local businessman Irving Smith, will be used as a rolling learning platform for troubleshooting and project development for the EV class.  Mr. Smith and some of his friends converted the Miata "just to see if they could do it".  After the successful conversion, Mr. Smith decided to donate it to the Topsail Electric Vehicle class so it could go to a good cause and a worthy recipient.

  We will now begin planning the future of the car as a learning tool for the EV class and others interested in electric vehicle conversions.  We are very grateful to Mr. Smith for the donation and promised him the car would become an integral part of our program.

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.

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.

The transplant is a success!

Today we installed the WARP 9 electric motor by attaching it to the Ford transmission. The coupler went on the transmission shaft as smooth as silk. We bolted the adapter plate to the transmission and ran the motor with 12 volts to see if all was well. If there were any problems, the motor would vibrate or the transmission would not rotate the rear wheels when in gear. Everything was fine and so we began the process of attaching the clamp motor mount to the frame of the truck.  Our battery boxes and batteries should be delivered today, so keep in touch!

Slimmer and trimmer

The truck has lost some weight this week with the removal of the V6 engine. We had an initial weight of 3247 pounds. We removed the unnecessary components such as the engine, gas tank, radiators and hoses, leaving it at a svelte 2460 pounds! Dropping the 800 pounds will be a good thing as we begin the conversion and put back approximately 1400 pounds. We need to stay below the gross 4600 pound vehicle weight to avoid disqualification. We should be fine, but the lighter the better!

Engine extracted!!

We finally have removed the last hurdle in our Ranger conversion , the engine. After making sure all wires and lines were disconnected, we loosened the motor mounts, attached a strap and hoisted the V-6 from the engine bay. Now, the conversion process can be broken down into several tasks and assigned to student teams for design and implementation. Next week, the thinking begins!

Ahead, Warp factor 9!

In preparation of our new conversion this year, the team decided to begin collecting the needed components. We already had a Warp 9 in the Toyota Paseo, so out it came. The motor was removed along with the coupler and adapter plate. After inspection, it was determined that the motor bearing was fine and the brushes were in very good shape. From this point, we will need to begin the design process for a new coupler and adapter plate. Of course, we do not want to put the cart before the horse, so we probably need to acquire a truck to convert first!

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.