SEVA EVUpdate Newsletter July 1995

SEVA EVUpdate Newsletter

July 1995

Editor's note: We've got some pictures with this months newsletter. They are in black and white since that's the only kind of scanner I have, but I'll try and get them in color at a later date and update this newsletter.

Presidents Message by Mark Bahlke

Hey, it's good to be back! Sometimes things will just completely take you by surprise, and guess what, your priorities are going to change. Well, most of you know I spent the last deadline period in the hospital. I am still recovering, but the good news is that I should completely recover, and it will be soon. Also, after the big ordeal of getting my car back on the road, it is still running well. As a matter of fact, I drove myself to the hospital in it. Not exactly a joyride, but that's a long story. Well, I have been a little active since then, trying to keep up, and get back in shape to join the human race. I made it to the Clean Air Awards lunch, but didn't make it to the Intel health fair..

The biggest thing to happen is that last Friday, I spent 2 hours at KST radio, debating with Anita Mangels, the anti EV "hit person" for big oil, and big business. Well. It was a lot of fun. Some of the people who heard the show said I did well. I felt pretty good for a first time. I am hoping to keep in touch with them, and see if we can't do this kind of thing again.

It was good to have a chance to size up the competition, and meet it face to face. Friends, there is a HUGE effort underway to put a complete stop to Electric Vehicle technology as a whole. I know this is not news to most of you, but after this radio show, the one thing that was obvious to me is that these people know exactly what they are doing. They know that the information they are distributing is mostly false and misleading. That is not a problem for them.

People, it is absolutely imperative that we make every effort to show people in this community that Evs are here, and that they are a practical part of the solution to dirty air, and dependence on foreign oil. The people who oppose EVs are doing it so that they can maintain a monopoly on their supply of oil to this country. They have no real interest in cleaning the air, or promoting electric vehicles. If we don't keep up the effort, then we will remain under the thumb of big oil.

OK, OK, it's been awhile since I've been on the soapbox. I'll get down now. Sorry.

Well, now it's time to get ready for the picnic. It's been an active spring, and I think it's time to party a little. I have talked to several members who are working on cars, and we should see some new vehicles for the first time at the picnic. This is really great. It is good to see us making such progress. I have a copy of the EV project board, and I am talking to the members with cars to update the information. We have nearly 30 vehicles in SEVA! Many are on the road, and many more are very nearly so. We could see a lot of them fixed up and running by the end of the summer. We should plan a fall rally to get all of the cars together.

The best way for us to carry the message that EVs work is to drive them whenever we can. Also, I should point out that some of the people I have talked to are interested in selling their EVs for various reasons. Maybe they have a new EV to work on, or they are not able to drive the one they have, but would like to see the car on the road. If anyone is interested in getting their first EV, give me a call. I would be glad to get a few more Evs on the road.

Well, I'm going to get ready for the picnic. I'll see you all out there, I hope! Have a great summer! Mark

Monthly Meeting Minutes by Bill Dean

The meeting was opened at 10am by V.P. Tim Loree. He introduced Jose Baer, who helped Global Resources Institute set up a fleet of EVs in Nepal.

Jose reminded the group that Nepal has the highest mountains in the world. Katmandu Valley, elevation 4000 feet, population 1 million, lies between two ranges, with a single outlet, a river flowing to India. The valley has temperature similar to Sacramento, but has a summer monsoon. The valley has bad air pollution, equal to the worst in the world. About 75% of the pollution is particulates from diesel emissions. Vehicles are the worst of what is available from India. The narrow, unpaved streets of the central city were not designed for regular cars. Big trucks are not allowed into the central city (pop 400,000). There is a ring road (10 km diameter) around the central city for cars and trucks.

Jose's project focused on an alternative to the three-wheeled diesel (single cylinder, poorly maintained) taxi rickshaw, holding 1000 pounds or 10 Nepali passengers, top speed 30 MPH. Operating cost is a rupee ($0.02) per km in the central city. Can the job be done with EVs?

The EV rickshaw uses the same 400-lb chassis, a 40-year-old Vespa design, imported from Scooters of India, as the diesel. The EV has a 10 HP motor, with Curtis controller, powered by 10 deep cycle golf cart battery (90A-hr Trojan) imported from Southern California. GVW is 2500 lb. The vehicle is designed for easy battery swap. In taxi operations, the battery is swapped twice during the day at the central depot. Jose imported 25,000 lb of batteries for the fleet of 10 EV rickshaws.

Electricity in Nepal comes from hydropower. It costs $0.08/kW-hr, same as here. Quality is lousy. Voltage ranges from 150 V to 300 V. Load shedding occurs every other day.

Estimated operating cost for the EV rickshaw is 1.5 rupee/km. This is 50% higher than the diesel cost. However, new diesels are banned. If the fleet can demonstrate a 1.5 rupee/km cost in coming months, investors will jump in to build 100 more EVs. Over time EVs can replace the fleet of 450 diesel rickshaws. Pete build 10 EVs in three weeks. He estimates that he could build 100 in three months.

Tim announced the picnic next month. Seven members said they would drive their EVs to it. The club discussed the upcoming radio talk show debate between SEVA's Mark Bahlke and Citizens Against Higher Taxes (funded by oil companies et al.) on KST 650 AM. Tim circulated a clip board for sign up to the telephone tree. Someone anounced a web site for Greenwheels, http://www.greenwheels.com. Arthur Cartwright announced the Clean Air Commutter Awards. He has received some applications turned in by hand. Doug Johnson announced that he is moving to Pasadena and selling his EV. Board members and visitors introduced themselves.

The meeting was adjourned at noon.

Monthly Board Minutes by Bill Dean

Missing in action. Will try to locate and post at a later date.

Basics of the Electric Boat by Eckart Schroeder

Considering that our group is mainly interested in electric cars, but not boats, it may be ill conceived to write something about electrically driven boats in this publication. However, since the interest in electrically driven vehicles is based on a genuine concern about air pollution, the theme of electric boats is not that remote to our affairs. In fact, in addition to preventing air pollution, electric boats do not pollute the water as most gasoline engines do.

There is one other commonality with electric cars: It requires a special mind set or philosophy to decide to shift from internal combustion engines to electric motors for boat propulsion, given the limited power and radius of action which electric propulsion dictates. In order to overcome these limitations, the designers of electric cars as well as electric boats, must observe a number of specific design principles. And that will be the object of this article as it concerns boats.

First of all, there is a book that describes quite well the basics of electric boating, as well as the pleasures of it. The title is: "Electric Boats" by Douglas Little, International Marine/McGraw Hill, price &17.95. The "Electric Boat Association of America" is a group similar to the EAA, address: P.O.Box 11197, Naples, FL. 33941, Tel: (813)774-3773.

The power limitations dictate that the boat must be of the displacement type, in contrast to an internal combustion engine driven boat which is almost always of the planing type, at least when comparing boat sizes feasible to be driven electrically by batteries. The difference between these types is as follows: the displacement type drives "through" the water, the planing type more "on top" of the water, after a certain minimum speed has been reached. The water flows around the displacement type hull, being separated at the bow and flowing together again at the stern. Minimum flow resistance is achieved by introducing a pleasing streamlined underwater body of the hull The resulting hydro-dynamics produce a wave system in the water, consisting of a bow wave where the water is separated by the hull and a stern wave where the water flows together again.

This wave system determines the maximum speed which a displacement hull can achieve for the following reason: The speed of propagation of water surface waves is a function of the wave length, i.e., the distance between the two peaks of the wave train. Since the distance of two peaks of the boat-generated wave train is determined by the boat's length at water line level, the speed of a displacement boat is a function of its length. The longer the boat, the faster it can go. The maximum speed of a displacement boat is equal 1.34 x square-root of length, the speed in knots or nautical miles per hour, length is at waterline level in feet. Multiply knots with 1.15 to obtain statute miles per hour. In order to go faster the boat has to climb over its own bow wave, an act that is practically impossible for a displacement hull shape. A planing hull can do it, provided that enough power is applied. It's flat surfaces and cut-off stern, like a cut loaf of bread, provide the basis for the hydro-dynamic forces to lift the planing hull over its bow wave. After the hull has reached the planing condition the power can be reduced somewhat and that is the most economical speed of a planing hull. If one drives a planing hull below planing speed, the fuel consumption is sky-rocketing due to the partially submersed flat stern, creating hirlpools of water (lost energy) behind the boat.

Since inland water ways many times do not permit speeds above 5 to 6 miles per hour, much below the minimum speed to achieve planing condition, there may not be too much sense in buying a fast planing speed boat for such areas. The electric boat provided shining performance with their completely noiseless and clean operation. Lake Natomas as an example is one of the areas where gasoline outboards are not even permitted, however, electric boats are acceptable.

These pictures show a boat suitable for electric propulsion. The difference to a standard outboard speedboat should be obvious. I had built it from a kit which by itself was fun.

I drive it with an electric outboard motor which cost me $200-. The battery is of the deep-cycle type which can be acquired for approximately $60., size 80 or 100 ampere-hours. The nice thing about this boat is that it is a very easily driven hull and thus great for rowing as well as sailing. The type is called a New England Wherry and was used as a tender to big yachts or fishing trawlers at times when rowing was the standard propulsion for boats. Over the winter I made a sailing rig, consisting of mast, simple lug-sail, rudder and leeboards instead of a centerboard. Thus, I have a very versatile boat and have had a lot of fun so far. It can carry 3 adults within its 14-1/2 foot overall length. With 2 persons on board I logged about 4-4.5 miles per hour, and the battery was still performing admiringly after 2-1/2 hours continuos operation on 100% power. Operation can be prolonged considerably if one does not always operate at 100%.

Such an outboard motor (brand name MINN KOTA, model 65Ta) is also used as a trolling motor for fishing in addition to a standard outboard engine. It has a thrust of 36 lbs., and calculating the power from the electrical data, I can estimate that 1/2 HP may be delivered into the water, very little admissibly, but sufficient for the easily driven hull.

The book which is mentioned previously shows many other types of electric boats, including canoes, kayaks, dinghies, launches, even houseboats, some can be bought, some boats can be built and equipped with available electric drives. But all have one thing in common: They are not speed boats. Here comes again what has been mentioned at the beginning: It is necessary to adopt a specific philosophy in order to be content with an electric boat. The ability to listen to the sounds of nature when gliding silently through the water can assume priority to the thrill of speed, only obtainable by listening to the din of an outboard motor. Besides, the thought is comforting that all this is gained rather inexpensively and by neither polluting air nor water.

Tech Tidbit, Finding Battery Ground Faults by Jeremy Phillips

You've come out to your car in the morning, and during the night the GFI equipped charger (like a K&W ) has tripped off. Apart from having to determine the state of charge of the batteries to see if you can get to work, you have to clear the ground fault, so you can use your charger. Sound Familiar? Then read on.

The method I use *relies* on having an *auto-ranging* DVM. The kind that Radio Shack sells for $34 works just fine.

Some basics:
Before doing the test, turn off your breaker and ignition switch (isolating the pack as much as possible).

In theory (and practice) your battery pack should be floating from the car chassis (certainly when using a K&W...) so for the purposes of this post we won't argue that point, will we.
Set your meter to read "DC Volts" which will encompass millivolts to hundreds of volts.
In an ideal world if you put one lead of your DVM anywhere on the battery string, and the other to the car frame (pick a known good ground, *not* the top of a MacPherson Strut bolt or the like... ) the meter will "hunt". In otherwords with no good "reference" ( because the pack and the frame are well separated.. ) you should see the meter-reading quickly oscillating, but generally in the millivolt range. It's picking up "noise" beacause there is no "good" voltage to read.
Now take the case where you have a ground fault... In this case you can view the battery pack as being "referred" to the car frame at the point ofthe fault. It could be "referred" at any point in the pack. So for instance if you have a 108 volt pack and a fault exactly in the middle, you would read +54 at the positive end of your pack and -54 at the negative end.
So instead of the "ideal" case described above, you should see something like this: With one lead of the meter well attached to the car frame, touch anywhere in your battery string. You should read a relatively steady voltage (say -36 V). Continue moving along the string and the voltage will either increase or decrease. Move along the pack until the voltage reading is about zero. This will normally be a "strong" zero (or there abouts) not the "hunting" described above. You've now found your main or strongest fault, the point where the battery pack and the carframe are "connected" by the fault.
Now clear the fault. If you have a strong Zero it's probably around the terminals of the two batteries either side of the measuring point you've just found. If you have a small (-) or (+) reading like 1.5 volts it could be tracking from a cell cap intermediate in the battery. Look for acid spray residue on the battery surface, or crusty corrosion buildup, etc. Often a "track" accross the battery top will head for angle iron or all-thread or other car-frame grounded support members that may be in touch with the battery tops.
Just because you have found one fault doesn't mean it's the only fault. Wait for the distilled water and baking soda, (or whatever you used to clean the first fault), to dry and then repeat the test. If you're lucky the meter will "hunt" and the K&W will be happy. But, it could also be the case that you now have a "new" reading, pointing to another location. That's your "second biggest" fault. So find it, fix it, and reiterate until your pack is "cleansed" of faults.

A further note: At the beginning I said you should open your breaker and ignition contactor ( to simplify the problem and isolate the area of interest). You can also try closing them and repeating the tests... I once found a mild ground fault through the dangling DB-9 connector on my Cruising Equipment meter... and of course there are possible locations other than the battery pack for faults... But when the charger trips, the most likely culprit is the battery pack. If you have a fault with breaker on, but not off, and with ignition switch off you may have a fault in your instrumentation. But the same locating principles apply.

I've had people try this, not do very well, show me what they were doing, and noticed that they are measuring resistance instead of voltage... If you have trouble understanding the underlying concept, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail... This technique has proved invaluable in isolating some gnarley and otherwise hard to find faults. jeremy@electriciti.com

Editors note: I pulled this off the EV Discussion List on the Internet and I want to thank Jeremy for allowing us to publish it.

Editors Corner by Tony Cygan

I seem to be getting to this newsletter later and later every month and when I do get to it I'm finding out that an article or a picture I need is on my PC at work and not on the one I have at home. It makes for an ugly time doing the newsletter when that happens since I must then drive back and forth between those locations to gather my materials. Maybe it's the fact that summer is here and I don't want to think about working on this thing or maybe it's just that I'm busy working on other item's that peak my interest more right now, like finishing my EV.

AHH, my EV. That's the ticket. I've been busy working on my electric Porsche 914 and maybe, just maybe I'll be done with it by the picnic. Well it may be driveable by then, though not exactly finished. Finished will come when the body work and paint is done and it's ready for the general public to see it marked as an electric vehicle.

I'll be writting up my final articles of the conversion for next months newsletter so I hope you'll stay tuned. If I don't make the picnic with the car I will have it driving to future meetings starting in August for sure. Maybe even painted.

Mess of the Month Picture
NEW!!! Send us a picture of something nasty done by an ICE vehicle and we'll print it.
This ones from Steve Smith. Pretty darn disgusting if you ask me.

Upcomming EVents

SEVA Activities --
     o No Regular Meeting for July !  Instead come to 
        the 2nd Annual SEVA Picnic on SUNDAY, July 9th.
     o Board Meeting, Monday July 10th at 7pm.             
     o General Meeting, Saturday August 12th at 10:00am.
     o Board Meeting, Monday August 14th at 7:00pm.
     o General Meeting, Saturday September 9th at 10:00am.
     o Board Meeting, Monday September 11th at 7:00pm.

Bay Area & Modesto EAA Activities --
     o East Bay EAA Chapter Rally , Aug 12th
     o Silicon Valley EAA Chapter Rally, Sept 16th

National/International EVents --
     o Sun Sprint of the Rockies, July 11th
        Call Zach Keele 303-872-3882.    
     o Cleveland Electric Formula Classic, July 22nd
        Call Todd Schneider 216-447-3200.
     o REDI Conference, Aug 11-13
        Call 707-459-1256 for info.

Member Want Ads

FOR SALE: 1986 Ford Escort Conversion. Wagon model with new batteries (1st set ran 3 1/2 years). 4 roof top solar panels, AM/FM cassette. Call Dan Field at (916) 536-0828 home; or (916) 522-4135 pager. Available in March.

FOR SALE: 1980 VW Pickup - Excellent Body Condition. Ideal for an electric conversion. Make offer; original owner ! Call Jim Wilkersin at 916-753-5642.

FOR SALE: 15 Hp - 400 Amp DC Aircraft Generator - $300.00; 400 Amp - 24Volt Cutler Hammer Contactors - $25.00 each. Call Dave McGuire at 916-823-2469.