ProCart
Peter KG6LSE
Posts: 1,383
Propane............
I was Gonna do a Senor project on LED lamps.. * yawn.....*
Then I had a Idea after looking at the Extra Golf cart in the lab .... The one the Dept Head used to get places on campus .
Hybrid golf cart ..
Hey Why not ! if Chevy can make a over Priced over complicated car called the volt . Why can't I make a tricked out Golf cart .
So yesterday I got the Green light to make it happen captain!
There are 2 kinds of hybrids . Parallel ( prius ) and the Series ( Chevy Volt ).
The Volt like a Diesel train is a Series system .. It uses a prime mover to Mech run a Gen set of some kind ( AC or DC ) and then feeds it to the Drive train motor(s) .
This system is really just a EV with a onboard charger .
Rather simple to build and maintain .
I kept the stock Drive train on the cart as I don' really have any need to mod it .
That said the batts are in VERY poor shape and need to be replaced .
So ill be building a better pack for it in the long run .
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Yesterday I did the 1st light of the propane conversion .
Today I made a better base for it and made a carb for it .
The evaluated the Rear end of the doaner .
It has a ton of open space . Good!
This afternoon I picked up the propane accessorys .... heheh propane ....
POL nipples a Regualator . a needle valve and a 1/4 Inch ball main valve .
For now Its gonna be made to run on 16 oZ bbq cans ..
But I did pick up a hose that had the POL to Mini tank on it so that I can later on add a normal tank
I still need to get a solenoid valve to let me do auto start ..
Where does parallax fit in this .......
I need to sense a long term voltage drop. and have the brains to charge and run the Hybrid subsystem .
a BS2 is ideal . its all I need to get the job done .
ill be using a BOE as I can later on use the mounting area for a PropBOE !
Cause I want to not just Run the cart but have a 4 Inch LCD tell me what the voltage is and where power is flowing ..
Like a prius !
more to post as the project presses onwards
so far I have spent 8 hours ...
Peter
Comments
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Please excuse the paint job ...
Today did a 1st light of it running with Just propane to run the entire cart .
VIDEO #1
[video]http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterthethinker/7009964381/[/video]
it works ! ( note to self ... weld a muffler )
Video #2
[video]http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterthethinker/6863857260/[/video]
Peter...
so I got me a Alternator to a 1978 ford LTD 100 amps and no REG and its 94 USD .
I then got a shaft couper from mcmaster . 18 USD
today I made the frame to join the alt to the engine.. The nice part about a alt is I can excite the rotor to just the right voltage to make the stator pump out the right voltage for the cart . and not over charge and its not tied to the RPM of the engine .Attachment not found.Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
Yea I might have added tooo much gold ...
some data .. I did a test . and at 600 RPM and 3V on the rotor I got a constaiant ov 66 RPM per volt . about 2600 RPM is ideal ,, easy for that engine . with more V I can do anything .
now to get a new magneto and be back in biz .. I do need to devise a charging system
My Idea is to use a Micon OR do it in op-amps . the latter is more fun ! ( more of a challange )
I would take the RPM of the shaft and use that to create a constant to make shure that if I have a RPM sag the V going in to the next stage ..
then with that de-rate I would have it check for too many amps with a shunt OR a hall effect ( latter is more easy ..
Really I need to devise some fuzzy logic to have it some what tied to the overall throttle so that at full gas I can have it do max charging
its funny as in my head I know what needs to effect what .. but its not easy to do in a digital world ..
On the whole the hard part IS the software .
the Mech and the E part is easy as pie ..
-dan
Peter..
Peter...
OK today I did a small thing for the project,,
I re-rigged the amp out of a old flat screen TV to drive some speakers .. now I can add a dedicated sound system in it .
Sounds good too!!.
12V Draws Avg of 200mA
Some bad news for the cars system ... I am gonna have to Neg GND the Drive system as the alt is tied to chassie GND.
Its OK as its just 36V
but for real EVs you NEVER GND the pack anywhere.. Ever !.
I need to develop the 12V sub system..
12V lights ect .
Peter
peterthethinker
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:53 am
On the 12th
VIDEO
http://www.peterthethinker.com/FORUM/download/file.php?id=192&sid=6e915a0f24a37a78f8eab8d43083634c
Here is how I got the ALT to excite !!
OFF the same 12V bus that feeds the starter I ran a wire From it to the input of a relay .. then that relay goes to the input of the Rotor on the ALT
this rotor then ties to GND .
If I need it I can also run the ALT blower fan on it too so that its on when the ALT is on .
This relay is triggerd by the ALT in the engine .... its a 2A rated one for charging the starter batt. but as there is NO starter bat It is just used as a trigger..I made a guess and reckond that at low RPMs the internal ALT wont put out enough V to Trigger the relay .. and I was right !!
under 600-800 RPM the voltage is too low to sustain the pull in needed to key on the relay .. One glitch I saw was this smaller ALT used a single diode to produce DC ( very crude ) so one issue was contact buzzing at the rate of the RPMs of the motor .. NOT good .. so I grabed a cap and just shoved it across the relay coil to smooth the DC ..... BINGO! it works .. and well!!
I may use a Op-AMP and a MOSFET to trigger it some time later to a PWM RPM sensor .. but for now its rock solid .. Yet Crude ..
VIDEO
http://www.peterthethinker.com/FORUM/download/file.php?id=193&sid=6e915a0f24a37a78f8eab8d43083634c
On the 13th I added a Roof .