My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Blue GMC

Another question what is the hp and torque you are expecting to get out of this set up?

according to the Wiki the MG2 (Motor Generator #2) alone is rated at 147 kW or 197 hp, keep in mind there are two motors in that transmission, MG1 and MG2.

MG1 does not spin the output shaft in it's stock OEM implementation (so there are no hp / torque spec readily available for it) it is also smaller than MG2, but even if it is only half as powerful then both motors combined in my EV Conversion spinning the output shaft would yield 300 hp minimum

I will try to get the torque numbers

[Gregski]

I also scored a BMW 530e hybrid battery pack

although it is small at 9.1 kWh (killer watt hours) compared to the Nissan Leaf for example of 24 kWh it is what I call full voltage since it can deliver 351 volts, (pronounced: Awesome)! perfect for testing and experimentation and may make a great power wall for a home solar panel project later on

think of kWh as gallons, as in fuel tank capacity, so a 9.1 gallon tank is smaller than a 24 gallon tank

I actually paid $700 for it, but since I wanted the original OEM battery high voltage orange cables, the price went back up to $900, but I was fine with that

drove 7 hours to Los Angeles to pick it up

[Gregski]

so this battery pack actually has six 60 volt cell modules inside of it

think of cell modules like regular car batteries, technically a car battery is a cell module made up of six individual 2.1 volt cells or something like that maybe higher

[Gregski]

so let's talk range, we leased a 2013 Nissan Leaf for three years and loved it, it came with a 24 kWh battery pack and provided 85 mile range consistently, often times 90+ but we will go conservative and use the range that is on the Wiki of 75 miles

so we take 75 miles and divide it by 24 and that gives us 3.125 miles per kWh

then we take 3.125 and multiply it by my battery pack size of 9.1 and we get a range of 28 miles

now I can easily reconfigure my battery pack and shove one in the engine bay and two more under the bed, if I choose to use this technology, I may get a Nissan Leaf 30 kWh battery pack instead, don't know yet (that one has a range of 107 miles according to the Wiki)

keep in mind that the range is not a hard cap, you come home from work plug it in and the car charges while you eat or shower, then you jump back in it and drive, if you go shopping at Target, you plug it in to charge while you are at the store for 45 minutes and you top it off again, go to dinner, charge it while you eat, this is not hypothetical either we did just that, we charged while watching a movie in the movie theater

[BigBird05]

But the truck has a lot larger coefficient of friction.

[Gregski]

FUN FACTS: Daily miles of travel per driver in the United States between 2001 and 2017

This statistic shows the average number of miles driven per day in the United States per driver between 2001 and 2017. On average, American drivers today are moving their vehicles considerably less than they were sixteen years ago, but they still totaled an average of 25.9 miles per day and per driver in 2017. The average driver also made more trips in 2001 than in 2017, when 2.7 daily vehicle trips per driver with an average length of 9.6 miles per trip were recorded. In 2001, the average driver made 3.4 trips with an average of 9.9 miles.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by BigBird05

But the truck has a lot larger coefficient of friction.

True, and the aero dynamics of a brick. Yes I know we are comparing apples to bowling balls, that's why I am using a factor of 3x instead of the widely accepted 3.5x

and I am a firm believer in doing and testing, I don't like assumptions and speculations, so we shall wait and see

[Blue GMC]

28 mile range is great for bench testing but we both know you wont be hyper-mile style driving this truck. Can you run two leaf packs in tandem or a larger option that is not a $$$ for the final version. This is where I get hung up as I am trying to figure out a source for larger range.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Blue GMC

28 mile range is great for bench testing but we both know you wont be hyper-mile style driving this truck. Can you run two leaf packs in tandem or a larger option that is not a $$$ for the final version. This is where I get hung up as I am trying to figure out a source for larger range.

I totally hear you and stick around as I am lagging behind on the battery research, I am knee deep in motor testing and wiring harnesses at the moment.

and I know I will sound like a broken record but as an EV driver you have to retrain the way you think, for example my work is 11 miles from home, so I get in my fully charged truck with a range of 28 miles and I drive to work, I get there I have 17 miles left of range, I plug in and sit at my desk for 9 hours, when it's time to go home or run some errands once again I am fully charged and have 28 miles of range, (so technically I can drive 39 miles that day) see how that works, it's really tough to adjust your thinking at first, but that's just how it works

[Dieselwrencher]

If you do leave the engine out of the engine compartment, just leave the radiato, and ram horns hooked to parts of the old exhaust. That would be funny. People see there was an engine there but there isn't now.

That part about plugging in at work. That wouldn't happen around here. You can't just plug in to a normal 110 outlet can you?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That part about plugging in at work. That wouldn't happen around here. You can't just plug in to a normal 110 outlet can you?

Of course you can it's how we charged our Leaf for 3 years. It is the most common way to charge and it is called a Level 1 charger. You just plug it in to any standard 120 volt 15 amp house outlet. All Electric vehicles come with one of these portable charger cords.

[Dieselwrencher]

Oh, well that makes it easier.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Oh, well that makes it easier.

Ah yup, wanna charge twice as fast, plug it in to a washer and dryer 240 outlet, I talk about how I plan on using my Tesla battery charger here:

I bought a Tesla Model S Gen 2 Charger - Now What?

[Gregski]

arguably the most important piece of the puzzle is this Lexus GS450H VCU Controller circus board, ha ha the brain of the entire operation that replaces the OEM Hybrid Vehicle ECU

this was reversed engineered by a group of guys from all over the world, if you have difficulty sleeping, I highly recommend their Lexus GS450H VCU Support Thread on the Open Inverter org site

this is an open source type of effort, where although one of them sells the semi finished product, they offer all the documentation needed for you to go out and build the PCB on your own, and a lot of guys with Electrowizardry degrees choose to do so (me NOT being one of them) I see a kit and I click BUY, and $361 bucks later it's at my door step

[Gregski]

obviously a board like that needs a place to hide, so

[Gregski]

so yeah, we're gonna shove the PCB in there, well after a few gentle mods

[Gregski]

do to the pandemic there is a tremendous electronic parts shortage, so my board did not come with the 40 pin header connector I had to go full on MacGyver on this

[Gregski]

nothing my 2D printer couldn't handle

[Gregski]

No Peg, No Problem

[Gregski]

one down, one to go

[Gregski]

over on the precision laser guided cutting machine

[Gregski]

next it was time to shove the board inside the box and see if it would slide all the way in... nope!

[Gregski]

five minutes later.... and it fits !

[Gregski]

then it was time to slightly modify that cover, and for that we went over to our organic outdoor water jet plasma cutting facility

[Gregski]

like a glove...