Battery Vehicle Society

I cheated slightly, in that the vehicle in question is not a pure EV, but a Toyota Prius hybrid. However all models of the Prius use pure EV to pull away, as the ICE is not ever directly mechanically coupled to the output shaft, so it's relevant to this discussion. In the Prius, the ICE is connected...

I actually got my motor and controller from Justin Lemire-Elmore at http://www.ebikes.ca as he had some on sale as surplus to requirements. I know that several people here in the UK have purchased direct from Tongxin, though.

Jeremy

The thread on high voltage versus low voltage, plus Malcolm's timely reminder on the IoM thread about the power to weight ratio of brushless model motors, has got me thinking. We're used to thinking in terms of a single big motor, or perhaps a set of wheel motors, as being the preferred approach for...

There are now well over a million vehicles driving around the highways of the world, with no clutch and a directly coupled electric motor to final drive. Their controllers use direct motor current measurement and pass the strictest EMC regs. What's more, they run at high voltage too, using IGBT swit...

I only quoted that device because I happened to have the datasheet for it in front of me. I've just checked, and just as I thought, the higher voltage members of the same family have similar fast switching times, so my hypothesis still holds true. Anyway, the IGBT times I gave were for a 500V device...

The difficulty with high voltage systems (above 144 volt) is of getting a suficciently PWM short pulses whilst making sure you turn the power device fully on to minimise heat generation. You start having to do other tricks like a lower switching frequency (Curtis 1221/31 - C) or random pulse skippi...

Available power out is way way higher, at least from the more reputable suppliers (A123/LifeBatt), so for any lightweight fast vehicle they are a must. A 50Ah pack of lifebatts can supply over 500A and still hold its nominal voltage. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree about LiFePO4 being much better for...

I'm sorry if I sound negative a lot of the time, but there are many ways for things to go anoyingly, expensively, or dangerously wrong with an EV and I've seen and heard a lot of them. That includes cases invoving the destruction of a house and one of spending several hours in Hospital due to burns...

I'm not sure that it's ever truly possible to design out the "numpty factor". No matter how many safeguards you put in, I'm reasonably sure that a truly creative numpty would find a way around them. It could be argued that creating safeguards just adds to the problem, by allowing complacen...

I know they go flat after a day or two with smaller cells - that could be a drag any views to back this up with bigger packs ? I'm not quite sure what you mean above. The self-discharge rate of NiMH is fairly high, but usually less than about 1% or so per day. The useful range of a couple of 1300 w...