My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck

[Gregski]

doin' noffin' is hard work

[Gregski]

Charging for the first time using a first gen Chevy Volt onboard charger, for now it's a manual process where I have to use the laptop to close the contactors and start the charger, but that soon will be automated

I have no idea how long it will take to fully charge yet, but I will be finding out soon.

the charger is water cooled and also charges the regular car battery

so this is what the simple Charger Menu looks like, I just wanted to show it to you guys, it is so easy to use:

Electric 71 Chevy Truck Charging For The First Time

[Gregski]

a bunch of Science went down tonight

[Gregski]

pointing to a thin orange wire to make myself look smart

[yuccales]

I like your test light.

[DoubleDubya]

You need some blue sparks jumping around like in the old science fiction movies. And your dungeon looks a little too nice. Your assignment is to go watch Young Frankenstein again.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by yuccales

I like your test light.

ha ha, and that's the smaller of the two

[Gregski]

1971 stock Chevy C10 wire harness going back in, slightly thinned out mind you, I ditched the starter wire, the alternator wire, this was a factory AC truck so I deleted the AC (won't put an electric back in cause this is a Hot Rod and I'm dumb) also deleted the heater, I may put an electric one in possibly out of a Volt some day

the goal was simply to have brake lights, but for that these trucks need the headlight switch, and that needed the fuse block, and of course the brake pedal sensor switch, so the dominos started falling

[Gregski]

somehow went from not being able to find one ignition switch to tripping over three !!!

yup found this tool, my buddy loaned me, right after I tapped her in with a dull screw driver

[D.B]

Originally Posted by Gregski

somehow went from not being able to find one ignition switch to tripping over three !!!

yup found this tool, my buddy loaned me, right after I tapped her in with a dull screw driver

Ok, my question is "How long did you had your buddy's ignition bezel tool". I take it "Long enough to forget you had it". LOL

[Gregski]

and that headlight switch, yes for tail lights and brakes, I don't make this stuff up

[Gregski]

no more manual toggle switch, now we have an ignition switch (think key starts will really take off some day)


Electric Chevy Truck Gets Its OEM Wire Harness Back video available

[Gregski]

maybe some of you will find this wiring visual helpful when considering wiring up a "classic" car EV conversion

the nice thing about this design is that it does not bastardize the OEM fuse block in any way, it simply uses it's expansion slots as intended

I plan on revising this when I add the water cooled Charger, it adds a tad of complexity and clutter so I intentionally omitted it in Part I

[yuccales]

UNO. My favorite candy bar! All the other terminology is way above my head!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by yuccales

UNO. My favorite candy bar! All the other terminology is way above my head!

LOL yeah you and me both (fake it till you make it) ha ha, GOOGLING UNO candy bar, man I never heard of it, and I went through a serious teeth rottin' phase in my pre teen years, Snickers, Rolo, and just yesterday the wife and I were talking about Charleston Chew

[Gregski]

installed the ambient temp controls, basically just to fill the hole now

[Gregski]

so here is how I plan to wire my first gen Chevy Volt onboard battery charger so that I can charge in the ACC (turn key to the left) position

I like this method because it has some built in fail safe features:

1. It is physically impossible to turn the key to the left (charge) and to the right (drive) simultaneously so in theory I can't power on the Charger and the Inverter at the same time

2a. the software running on the VCU will check for the presence of the Charger ID "0x212" on CAN.1 if present it will set the ChargeMode=True flag
in addition the software will look for ACVoltage>100 from the wall socket in order to turn on the Charger

2b. the software running on the VCU will check for the presence of the DC-DC Converter ID "0x1D4" on CAN.1 if present it will set the DriveMode=True flag


keep in mind I am not currently using a J771 charge port and plug, that will be implemented in later versions

[Gregski]

I am pleased to report that this ELECTOP Fuse Block appears to be of very good quality, it feels hefty and not flimsy for starters

the reason I got this one is because of the dual isolated power inputs (the two studs on the bottom) the left side can be operated independently of the right side

[Gregski]

I was very excited and wanted to install it straight away but it was still 90°F in the garage at 9:00 PM last night with high humidity so I watched Damien Maguire's EVBMW YouTube Channel instead, lol

then the next morning at 0600 it was labalization time

got the turn the key in the ignition switch to the left aka the ACC (Accessory) side for charging all labalized, it's a tedious process and if you're not careful you might even stick one on there straight

[Gregski]

remembering that perfection is the enemy of progress we inch forward, the goal simply being, rewire everything so that when we turn the key to the left we charge automagically (without a laptop) and when we turn the key to the right we drive automagically (this part we have already automated)

the fuses are just a random bunch I had, may be fine, may be too small

[Gregski]

the truck has 3 circuits, and this USB charger panel is hard wired to the always on Red Circuit (the On/Off switch on the panel is a nice touch)

[Gregski]

so all the EV related wiring is done, finally, wires still need to be shortened and loomed, but all the capability is there


I do wish the Lexus GS450h ver 2 VCU hardware had 2 PWM output pins instead of just one so that we didn't have to use a separate Arduino UNO little box just to tell the Tesla Model 3 water pump to slow down, ha ha


the green thing is a 5 pin relay that simply turns off the Charger when I turn the key to the ON position (this is needed since the Charger is wired to the Accessory side which is part of the Key On power, without the green thingie the charger would always be on)

[Gregski]

a short clip demonstrating how I plan to switch between "Drive mode" aka Key On and what I call "Charge mode" aka ACC in this old rig


The Electric Chevy Truck Gets a New Fuse Block

.

[Gregski]

Reason #7 why I like to buy the factory OEM wire harnesses: you get to harvest quality automotive grade wires out of them and recoup some of your moneys


this was a grade score, 9 ten foot long wires in a variety of colors

[Gregski]

with the charging automated, there was no more need for the laptop, so how will we see the charging progress?

Time for a Nextion display