Filming

The transmission removal attempt was a bust... We will borrow the airport's air tools tomorrow.  We will also begin filming for what is destined to be a most excellent senior project!

What's Been Happening

Sorry for the period of inactivity.  I can assure you that we have been very active!  We have the title now and are beginning the process of registering the car.  We are currently hunting for a transmission locally, but may have to resort to an ebay purchase.  More on the transmission and registration next week!

Minor Upgrades

Aidan and I went shopping for the Corolla yesterday.  We bought a charger (thank you Middle Peninsula Golf Carts) and then raided the clearance table at Advance Auto Parts.  I bought fuzzy dice and a can of metallic grey paint to replace the fading green grill paint, while Aidan bought headlight restoring stuff and a grease gun.  We then repainted the grill and plastic thing that says "Corolla" on the back, wired in the new charging port, and "restored" the headlights.  Great success!  Next on the to do list is to replace the transmission...

Problems Solved!

We solved the potentiometer issues, and Stan of Middle Peninsula Golf Carts wired up a charging port and let us borrow a charger.  It turns out that we had the forward/reverse control wires coming from the potentiometer wired to the controller.  We simply plugged in the other white/black wires running from the potentiometer and our problem was solved!  Thank you very much to Middle Peninsula Golf Carts for advising us, wiring up the motor controller, and allowing us to borrow a charger.

We later drove to Mr. Joyce's house and Marshall's house.  After the trips, the Corolla was almost completely dead, so it received its first charge!

The First Drive Under Electric Power

Today, Aidan and I had a very exciting day. We left school early to pick up a trailer so we could tow the car. It turns out that the trailer was too much for the poor little Discovery, so we rented one from uhaul. We then towed the electric car from w-burg to our friends at Middle Peninsula Golf Carts. There, they wired up the control and told us how we could program it at home. Well, after some trial and error, we wired everything up properly and were able to connect the controller to the computer through the antiquated "Comm port." Well, we are immensely pleased. We have to sort out the controller's current on/off nature and perhaps, later, the transmission issues. The videos speak for themselves!

Wiring up the car

We are at middle penninsula golf carts wiring up the car.  It's a bit different, so they are using the time tested trial and error method.  We had to rent a trailer that was self braking, so we could tow it with the discovery.  Thank you to Mike, though, for offering his trailer.

Buying more cable

Aidan guestimated wrong, so we bought 13 more feet of cable!

Wiring!!!!!

This weekend, I used the aforementioned cable lugs from NAPA and wired the battery pack together. We still need to wire the pack to the solenoid, the solenoid to the controller, and the controller to the motor. I also mounted the potentiometer box so that the cable throttle can now be translated into electric motor controller language. We are almost there. The only thing left to buy is the charger. After that, off to see if we can get a paint job donated as the paint looks really sad.

Cable Lugs and Solenoid

Today we picked up 25 copper cable lugs from NAPA that will connect the the cable to the batteries!  We needed 23 but figured that 2 more wouldn't hurt.  We also bought a solenoid from Middle Peninsula Golf Carts.  We'll probably wire it up sometime next week!

Mounting the Batteries... Part Deux

We finished mounting the batteries!  Two days and 20 pounds of angle iron later, we have a nice setup that evenly distributes the weight.  We are so clever!  The mounts look rather simple, but they took so much effort.  We had to construct and support the trays.  We then had to "massage" (cut bits off of) the grill and headlight so that the batteries would fit.  We also moved the horn a few inches.  Now that it is shoved up against the grill, it makes a very endearing little squeak.  Anyway, now all of the heavy lifting is done.  We just have to buy some wire, buy a charger, and visit Middle Peninsula Golf Carts so they can help us wire it up.