Welcome to the forum - please read if you're new

[Cityel]

I can't find how to upload a picture sadly..

[Kevin Sharpe]

I can't find how to upload a picture sadly..

When you're editing a post look at the bottom for the 'Attachments' tab, then 'Add files', and once the file has uploaded 'place inline'

[Cityel]

Yeah I saw that.... that's what I was pressing... and sadly.. nothing happens..

Oh well

I'm sure folk know what a yellow Cityel is .

Mine is ...yellow

[Scott166]

Hi everyone,
I’m Scott, from sunny Dorset on the south coast and I’m looking to start my project this winter.
It is a 55,000 mile 2001 Ford Cougar, most of the conversions I have seen bolt on to the original gearbox but I want to use the motors gearbox and go straight to the wheels. It would be nice to up the power from 176hp to about 250hp (or equivalent). Also tempted to convert to RWD but that may well be beyond my abilities.
My limited experience is general fixing of older cars and I was an aircraft technician in the RAF for 6 years, engines not electronics.
So if it’s broke I can unbolt it and replace it but not solder it
I am trying to learn more about electronics but don’t think I’ll get the hang of coding etc.
I’d also like to find out more about changing the v5 to electric, does that make it road tax free?
Tia and thanks for the forum, it’s great, an endless source of info and a great way to get to know of anyone nearby that’s as mad as me

[DaveH]

Hi,

This is my first post. I'm in the process of restoring my 1978 VW T2 (again - had it since '97) and I've been interested in electric conversions for many years, but was put off by the high cost of kits from people like EV West and professional converters. Then I found this forum and saw what great work Damien, Johannes and others have been doing.

I am an electronics engineer with over 30 years experience so can help with that side of things. I've also done quite a bit of software and wrote a reverse engineering application a few years ago so that we could capture CAN signals for our own crash/incident recorder for UK police customers. We built up a big database of cars and vans with parameters including individual wheel speeds, steering angle, lights, wipers etc.

I would like to hear from anyone with experience of converting air cooled VWs, especially the T2 (bay window). I would like to keep the original frame, suspension and brakes, and I'm not interested in a huge power increase, just enough to get up the hills. I have the 2 litre engine which puts out around 80 hp. Something that could replace the transaxle rather than just a motor bolting on to the rear would be great, but I want to keep things simple as well.

Dave

[SKB123]

Hi all

New member to the forum, planning to attend course Friday 4th -> Monday 7th September - Introductory Course
I'm a machinist/turner that is now a mech Engineer
Based in the northeast of Ireland
looking to learn without blowing myself up but no solid project planned yet will wait till after class.

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

[Maker_of_Things]

Hello,

I thought I'd best get on here after a long break from active EV stuff.

Quick intro:
I used to be admin on the DIYEV forum, but gave up when I needed to reset my password and get access codes every time I tried to log in as admin, and all I did was sort spam.
I cut my teeth on building a 48V electric tractor from scratch, 10 years ago, using DC components. Since then I have had a major MH breakdown, had a minor stroke, lost some memory and mental agility, and gave up teaching.
I now run a small making business as Maker of Things.

I have started a thread in projects for my 2001 Skoda Octavia Estate. Just waiting for moderation.

Alfred

[TFirenza]

I'm not far south of Manchester there must be a few of us now on the grid

[mini_mayhem]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here , I have been playing with EVs since 2013 and I really need to brush up on my CAN abilities.

Motorbikes are the medium I use as I don't have enough space for cars.

[clanger9]

Welcome

I'm one of the (relatively few) motorbike enthusiasts here. I'll look forward to sharing ideas!
Meanwhile, here's a CAN primer wot I wrote: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Getting_s ... th_CAN_bus

If you want to add/contribute, please feel free to amend my scribblings...

[slanceley]

Hello folks,
I've been using the forum a little bit more recently but only just found this thread.
My name is Stuart, I'm based in Bristol but considering a move down to Plymouth/Cornwall.

I've attended one of the inspirational courses run by New Electric Ireland and now I've sourced a Lexus GS450H transmission, 4 battery modules of Kokam cells (similar to Jack Bauer's!).

I'm begun converting my 1971 Reliant Scimitar GTE, "Grand Touring Electric" perhaps? But as you can see, it needs some work... and a passenger door!


I really appreciate all the help I've had from the generous and helpful people on this forum, and also the wiki's.
It would be great to meet up with other like minded folk (once Covid allows) to share knowledge and experiences. I'm especially in need of somewhere to work on my car down there. Or at least somewhere I can bench test my kit!
My project thread (aka "How NOT to convert a classic car to electric!") is here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1212

[mayes8229]

Hi all!

New to the forum here, but I've been building an electric VetteKart for about 3 years now. I just recently pivoted from my 108V HPEVS/Curtis setup and purchased a base model LDU after I got a Gen 2 Volt pack. The LDU and a Gen 2 charger are what brought me to the openinverter forum. Really appreciative of all the hard work that has been done to reverse engineer and support the OEM products for all of us.

I'm a computer and electrical engineer by day doing hardware design for a contract engineering firm. I'd be happy to help support future revisions and new designs as needed. Most of my work is schematic/layout, PCB assembly/rework, board bring-up, test firmware, and .net test applications.

Sam

[clanger9]

Nice project, Sam!
Which Curtis inverter were you using? Would be interested to know how you got on with it...

[mayes8229]

I was using dual 1239E-7621 controllers with an AC 35x2. I never spun the wheels with them, but I had everything mounted and wired in the car. It started as an engineering senior design project when I was in college and the batteries were on loan from another university department. The way the timing worked out we had to give those batteries back before we got around to finishing the controller configuration and testing them.

They were easy enough to install, but I thought the configuration was a bit overcomplicated. We did have to do the software from scratch basically, which most people wouldn't have to do.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

Hi all!

New to the forum here, but I've been building an electric VetteKart for about 3 years now. I just recently pivoted from my 108V HPEVS/Curtis setup and purchased a base model LDU after I got a Gen 2 Volt pack. The LDU and a Gen 2 charger are what brought me to the openinverter forum. Really appreciative of all the hard work that has been done to reverse engineer and support the OEM products for all of us.

I'm a computer and electrical engineer by day doing hardware design for a contract engineering firm. I'd be happy to help support future revisions and new designs as needed. Most of my work is schematic/layout, PCB assembly/rework, board bring-up, test firmware, and .net test applications.

Sam

Welcome! I'm just south of Raleigh so hit me up if you need a hand! Though frankly, I might need your help, I'm still learning the control electronics side of things.

I'm putting an LDU in a '40 Chevy.

[mayes8229]

Hi all!

New to the forum here, but I've been building an electric VetteKart for about 3 years now. I just recently pivoted from my 108V HPEVS/Curtis setup and purchased a base model LDU after I got a Gen 2 Volt pack. The LDU and a Gen 2 charger are what brought me to the openinverter forum. Really appreciative of all the hard work that has been done to reverse engineer and support the OEM products for all of us.

I'm a computer and electrical engineer by day doing hardware design for a contract engineering firm. I'd be happy to help support future revisions and new designs as needed. Most of my work is schematic/layout, PCB assembly/rework, board bring-up, test firmware, and .net test applications.

Sam

Welcome! I'm just south of Raleigh so hit me up if you need a hand! Though frankly, I might need your help, I'm still learning the control electronics side of things.

I'm putting an LDU in a '40 Chevy.

Awesome!

[BaronVonBurgman]

Hi. Also new to the forum and the world of EV. I have recently bought a Toyota hybrid and the Tube led me to Damien's world of Yachts and Panzers.
Two ambitions; to own an electric maxiscooter that doesn't take a day to recharge and to investigate the possibilities of converting a hybrid to pure EV.
Stand by for typical noob questions but I hope it won't be too long before i can tell my Arduino from a hole in the ground...

[MartinHeijden]

Hello everyone !

Just signed up here and time to introduce myself !
I am Martin vd Heijden and i`m from the Netherlands. I have a family of three my wife and one daughter, and cars and basicly everything else that moves under some for of mechanical power have always fasicinated me !
An Ev conversion has been a bit of dream for the past few years now and recently started thiking about converting a road legal ATV to start to learn the ropes a bit.
But a friend and me picked up an old Vw polo not to long ago wich he was going to fix in the coming years but now he realised it`s kind of in the way at his place and when i heard he was thinking of scrapping it i decided this was going to be my project so the car will be delivered to me sometime soon without the engine and anything else that`s got to do with the gas powered engine.
So now i`m here trying to learn all i can and find out if all of my goals are realistic or not and to get rid of my biggest concern wich is making it all road legal again.
I do have some experience with cars in general and even did an engine swap on an old Bmw E30 a few years ago but an Ev conversion is as said still a new thing to me.

So you will be seeing me around alot in the coming few years and any input will be greatly apriciated !

[johu]

Just noticed, anniversary for all nerds - 2^15 posts

[EV_Builder]

[whereswally606]

Lurked for a long time since finding Johannes and Damien via the YT and from a tenuous link on the Lebowski based FOC inverters.

Recently Dalas&Damiens vids on CCS retrofits has spurred me to signup and attempt to contribute in some form, even if only for moral support but I hope I can be more than that.

Had a long time interest in electric cars, used to own a mk1 Honda Insight before my kids came along and had mike Dabrowski's mima installed with the help of Peter Perkins.

Since then I've owned a 2011 leaf (which has been to the Netherlands to Muxsan HQ twice) and is extended in range and a 2013 jap leaf which we sold to replace with a 2014 outlander g4xhs. The hope here is that with enough tinkering both cars can be made future proof such that it will be unnecessary to buy anything newer.

I've made many ebikes, put lifepo4 in an emax scooter, designed 3D models for my bike and built an mpcnc for making stuff. My main occupation was programming c++/c# but I really would like to get more hands on with my cars. To this end I've set myself the task of replacing the heaters in our remaining leaf with diesel and AC electric ones, replacing the broken bits (at the moment the sway bar linkages) and repairing the squeaky parking brake. Thankfully I have good and seriously competent friends who are also enthusiastic about EVs.

My philosophy on EVs is they are great but they shouldn't be just available to those with deep pockets. Id like to see as many good running cars as possible converted/extended and enhanced, safely, economically and reproducibly.

I am also intrigued by the possibilities of v2g using chademo, solar power retrofit using either a 48v intermediary battery or an inverter such as the one made by james of solarcars on YT.

Sorry if that was a bit verbose, tldr

Regards Andy btw i'm based in South Manchester UK

[dukbilt]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to joining this forum, but have been following it for a number of years.

I'm in Australia, and have a Nissan Leaf (the 62kWh e+ variant). I'm also helping a friend fix their 'Blade Electron' (a Hyundai Getz converted from new to EV), but their Blade has been butchered and needs significant repair work to get it running again).

The information on this forum is excellent, so thank you for the hard work you've collectively and individually put in!


Regards,

dukbilt

[mikesail]

Greetings from Southern California,
Where they ask us not to charge cars late in the day due to power shortages!

My background is as an electrical engineer designing analog integrated circuits, have worked at many companies and many varied projects for 35 years or so, been retired for about seven years. Radars for fighter planes, disk drive chips and cell phones were quite fun, ethernet, wifi and BT chips as well. I grew up with mainframes and mini's, stayed away from most programming during my time. Several start up companies, never got rich though.

I've wrenched on my many cars and motorcycles for decades, Still have Jensens, Saabs and Studebakers hanging around, currently race at Bonneville as well. Have an ocean going sailboat, though not active there much these days. Also have a nine month old German Shepard puppy under development!

I am currently prepping a Tesla SDU to go into a Porsche Cayman which blew it's engine. Have the V7 board installed and running on a workbench.
Have a large number of SPIM08HP pouch cells to make about a 20kwh battery pack, voltage TBD. Current rating over 1200 amps.
I do recognize the SDU inverter will be a limiting factor.
A gas generator for range extension is likely to be added later.
Planning on making my own BMS, thinking to use a charge sharing scheme to balance without loss.
Thinking of making a dedicated solar farm to directly charge battery without any AC involved.
Hope to start motor brackets and axle mods in the next week or so.

Cheers, Mike

[espriev]

Hello from Central Florida!
I have been running a converted 1987 Mitsubishi Mighty Max Pick-Up with a Mars traction motor and Curtis controller for some years (looking to upgrade from GEL to L/Ion soon) and have recently obtained a Tesla SDU for a new project.
I have ordered the built inverter controller board, looking forward to getting it running in a test bed configuration soon!

[johu]

Welcome! Feel free to create a build thread in the projects section.