Aug 20 2009
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Meeting this sunday at 3pm. everyone is encouraged to come! event detail is here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144621618857#/event.php?eid=147925656557
Aug 19 2009
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Hello Everyone, as you may see, this group is growing and with interest coming from many different parties. Several people had personally messaged me about wanting to be an active contributor to this project, and I feel it’s time for everyone to write a quick intro about themselves so we all can get to know each other better. I’ve made a post in the discussion.
I’ve also talked to an local start-up today who is very interested in partnering our project with his to compete in the X-Prize competition. If we partner with him, chances are, we will no longer need to worry about the cost of the project.
Aug 18 2009
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here are some more useful links. Courtesy of Fardin
http://www.veva.bc.ca/books/index.php
http://www.veva.bc.ca/links/index.php#technical
Aug 17 2009
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Here are some interesting links to online resources.
Waterloo’s new Lithium Technology!
http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Media-Media/ImpactStory-ArticlesPercutant_eng.asp?ID=1015
Vancouver Electric Car Association
http://www.veva.bc.ca/home/index.php
DIY Electric Car (many people who converted cars into electric)
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/
EVworld
http://www.evworld.com/news_notes.cfm
V is for Voltage
http://visforvoltage.org/
Electric Forum
http://www.electricforum.com/
“An electric car uses about 60 cents in electricity every 40 kilometres. Figuring in the batteries also, the cost is more like $2.40, about the same as the fuel bill for a Smart car. However, there is no engine maintenance – no oil changes, timing belt, plugs, cooling system, pollution equipment, exhaust, fuel system, gas tank, engine replacement – all those things that break the bank and make your car worthless after awhile.” -VEVA
Interesting quote that Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend four hours sharpening the axe.”
Aug 16th 2009
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Hello everyone. After evaluating on the potential complexity of this project. I was looking at Microsoft Groove to help us coordinate and become more productive when the project takes off. here is a demo of the program. I encourage everyone to “get” it.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/HA101672641033.aspx
Also I’ve posted the list of teams there will be in this project couple days ago (scroll down to see). There will be a team leader for each team and he/she should be nominated (self nomination is acceptable). We will hold a meeting soon for nomination and nominees will hold a little speech on the reason why have what it takes. Taking on the role of team leader in each team will help you gain project management skills and leadership skills. You will have the decision making authority for your team (my advice is delegation balance with some autocrat to ensure productivity). This way you can focus on particular interest and gain much out of it. However, with greater power comes greater responsibility. There will be greater burden on your shoulder for the progress of the project and I only suggest taking the position if you think you are going to be very dedicated to that particular position.
This is going to be a very fun and exciting project with great opportunities to learn hands on practical experience, build up resume, and gain leadership. It’s only been less than a week and there has been many parties and students that shown interest in making it happen. I believe we have the ability, technology, skills, and drive to make it happen. You think you have what it takes?
Aug 15th 2009
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Today I met some members from Vancouver Electric Car associations and looked at their cars. One of their member named Rob Shaw was especially informative and insightful. We talked about the industry and technologies of electric cars, as well as potential funding sources and partnership that we could work with. One potential partner I met was the director from Kemetco Research Inc. He was interested in potentially using our vehicle as test beds for their development of a brand new nanotech carbon foam acid battery. I will e-mail him later tonight. I also found out about this competition called the X-Prize. It has a $10million dollar prize for the winner. The registration for the competition is closed but I believe we can still register for demonstration part of the event. There is also a potential for us to participate in the actual competition for that I got a contact to a guy who has a spot registered in the competition locally who we might be able to partner up with. But I will have to talk to him first. I also indirectly met the man who gives out government money towards green technology research. I will further look into that and see what we can do.
Aug 14th 2009
Here is a break down of different sub teams.
1. Administration Team
2. Motor Control Team
3. Automatic Transmission Control Team
4. Mechanical Design and Construction Team
5. Battery Design team 1: Battery Layout and Construction Team
6. Battery Design team 2: Battery Charging and Balancing
Aug 14th 2009
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Here is the link to a bunch of related books in most general to most specialized order(right click and save as):
Electrical Vehicle Technology Explained(Read this first):
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/ElectricsVeichleTechnology.pdf
The Electric Car: Development and future of battery hybrid and fuel-cell cars
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/The%20Electric%20Car.pdf
Electric Vehicle Battery Systems:
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/Electric%20Vehicle%20Batteries.pdf
Lithium-ion Batteries for HEV/EV and other industrial Applications:
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/LithiumIonBattery.pdf
Energy Efficient Electric Motors
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/Energy%20Efficent%20Electric%20Motors.pdf
Power Electronic Control of AC Motor
http://rickygu.com/projectee/books/Power%20Electronic%20Controll%20of%20AC%20Motors.pdf
Proposed Design Specification
Aug 13, 2009
Project Electric Eel
Construction
Layout: Front/mid engine RWD Roadster
Frame: Tubular space frame with integral backbone
Roll cage: 3 point, structurally mounted 2 in. DOM Tubing
Sub-structure: Aluminum paneling riveted and bonded to frame
Restraint System: 4 point Simpson Harness
Body Style: 2 door Convertible
Engine: 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor
Fuel capacity: 50 kW•h (Li-ion battery)
Electric Range: 300km
Suspension
Front suspension type: Independent double arm
Rear suspension type: Soild Rear Axle 3 link with Panhard Bar Shock-Springs Bilstein coil over with ride height adjustment
Steering: “Drive by Wire” Electronically Controlled Steering
Brakes: Vented 13/11.65 disc f/r Power assisted ABS
Vehicle
Weight: 2500 lbs
Weight Distribution: F/R 50/50 (%)
Wheelbase: 90 in.
Overall length: 158 in.
Front Track: 58.5 in.
Rear Track: 58.5 in.
Overall height: 48.0 in.
Overall width: 70.5 in.
Ground clearance: 4.5 in.
Aug 13th 2009
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Today we went to the library and took out a bunch of books. We have succesfully picked out about 1600 pages of info to electronicize on electric cars in general, electric motor, and batteries. I will upload it on my web server for anyone to view for educational purposes.
Also there is an “Electric Car Show” from the Vancouver Electric Car Associeation this saturday at 4th and Cypress. I will be going to talk to some people. Feel free to tag along.
Aug 12th 2009
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We will be meeting a the lobby of kaiser building at 11am thursday morning(starbucks). message me back if you think you can come.
I’ve also made some design sketches of the over all vehicle layout, motor + transmission drive train layout, shifting control system. as well as deigned the statemachine for gear control and drawn out the motor controll circuit in their most basic form.
note* there have been a great interest in developing green technolgies and millions of dollars of government funding are going towards research groups. This project has the potential to gain a great amount of publicity and government funding as well as sponsorships. It will also earn us a great amount of knowledge on energy management and electromechanical systems.
Who knows, maybe a billionair will invest in us to become a multimillion dollar company once we are making promising results. Keeping mind that Tesla Motors was funding in 2003 and by now they have received over $500 million in fundings from many different sources. They’ve also sold over 500 cars in 1 year at $100,000 each. thats $50 millions of revenue in a year or so. They started by a small group of engineers as well.
Aug 11th 2009
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Hey people! Another day of research(I finished a 250page book on electric cars) and I’ve gained a lot of new found knowledge.
This project is going to be more than just a project. It’ll be partly a green technology public awareness campaign. partly showing off the skills and knowledge of UBC engineering students, partly to develope an car that can revolutionize American Muscle Gas Guzzling into American Green Muscle.
My vision for this project is to go big and attract big players in the industry such as BC Hydro, and even the Canadian Government to fund us on this project. I’m thinking of at least $100,000 in funding. There was also something that I found really interesting that can give electric cars the edge over Gasoline cars in both power and range:
In April 2006, a group of scientists at MIT announced a process which uses viruses to form nano-sized wires. These can be used to build ultrathin lithium-ion batteries with three times the normal energy density
In the September 2007 issue of Nature, researchers from the University of Waterloo, Canada, reported a new cathode chemistry, whereby the hydroxide group in the iron phosphate cathode was replaced by fluorine. [6] The advantages seem to be two-fold. First, there is less volume change in the cathode over a charge cycle which indicates a possibility for longer battery life. Second, the chemistry allows the substitution of Sodium or a Sodium/Lithium mixture for the Lithium in the battery (hence their reference to it as an Alkali-Ion battery).
In April 2009 a report in New Scientist claimed that Angela Belcher’s team at MIT had succeeded in producing the first full virus-based 3-volt Lithium ion battery.
with 3 times as much energy density, a Car with the same size battery as the Tesla Roadster will be able to travel up to 1000km on one single charge! I have be looking into alternative energy storage aside from battery and after I talk to Leo I will talk to some professor from the nanotech department about potentially keeping the car backwards compatible with a more advance energy storage system once it’s available.
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Some insights:
I did a quick research and a AC Cobra with Ford 427 weights 2100lb. The engine alone weighs around 700lb according to Wikipedia. I think that is a dry figure of the engine alone. Minus all fluid, radiator, hoses, tyranny, driveshaft, diff etc… I estimate the rolling chassis to be somewhere around 1000lb, probably even less.
The Tesla roadster weighs 2700lb. Its li-on battery pack weighs 900lb, AC induction motor weighs 110lb, minus bunch of misc parts, its rolling chassis is probably 1500lb. Looking at only an estimated weigh of two vehicles, the cobra has a 500lb advantage. 500lb is a huge difference when it comes down to energy consumption and acceleration between two cars.
There are many cobra replica kit car companies out there that will supply a frame and body for very cheap compare to the all carbon fibre construction of the Tesla Roadster, which gives the cobra a huge cost advantage. After all, one of the most important fact I’ve learned about engineers is that engineers must build the best product with the least amount of money.
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Aug 10, 2009 again
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- Just got back from the library doing some research. Here is a list I’ve came up with about the things to do: I wll update the list as I do more research.
heres my design notes:
Design notes
1. Locate manufacture that can supply large Lithium Ion Batteries or build one to our specification.
2. Locate manufacture that can supply powerful 3 Phase AC induction motor
Battery (lithium Ion) and Motor:
Using specific power to specific energy to maximize battery efficiency according to usage (Ragone Plots)
- Calculate the most efficient battery specification to drive at 100km/hr constantly.
- Calculate the most efficient battery specification to operate at least 200kW (higher the performance, more attractive this project is to sponsors/investors/funding).
- Plot graphs to determine the characteristics of different battery size/design to different load on the motor
- Calculate the charge efficiency VS battery size
* Maybe design electric motor our self, then build it here after research and calculation if no good solution is found.
If anyone have some idea of what I’m talking about here and find it interesting, feel free to give me some input or even join the team.
