Tabwelder Setup

Tabwedler setup

Ok so we finally got the tab welder to do some constant OK welds. I am not 100% satisfied with the quality, but I give them a 80%... so it's not so bad. Either we stick with this quality or buy a new tab welder. To date this tab welder is far from being the best! We don't have much experience with tab welding, but we seem to have so much problems with it. We can't weld copper, we can't use tungsten rods, it's very hard to do constant welds on thin materials! We have a good setup and we will keep it.

I think the best solution is to do more welds per battery and we will be fine.

Next, I will be reviewing the nickel tab design to include a fuse in between each cell. It's a simple design solution and doesn't cost anything more. The guys that are converting a another Porsche from MIT documented this process. Pretty cool project they have! I also need to check how to machine does tabs... Laser or waterjet??? hmmm.

Quick note on our setup: We made up a rack to hold the welder higher off the ground, like this the battery packs can go underneath the welder. It is easier than making long and complicated extensions from the electrodes holders.

Transmission measured, Thanks to WME and SPGdata3D

FARO ARM_Transmission

A couple of weeks ago I started to work on the motor mount and coupling and found that ElectroAuto was making custom adpator plates with a very nice design! After confirming that they could do the custom work for me. It was time to either send the transmission or take the measures myself. However, do to critical alignment of the motor with the transmission, I couldn't get enough accurate measures with a simple caliper.
So I looked and CMM shops and found SPGdata3d and WME near Montreal that could probably help me!
They were so helpful and quick to respond. By Sunday night everything was done! They used a FARO arm to take accurate measures of each mounting holes and the transmission shaft. Take a look at the pictures to see the setup!

Thanks a lot to both Dan Popovici and Jim for the great help, I'll be sure to contact you once the car is done!

Next step! Finalize my design to mount the rear battery rack on the adaptor plate!

Battery Pack Update!

Battery_Pack_update

Quick update on the battery pack!

We received 55 meters of nickel from our Chinese supplier! Very fast delivery! Its 101mm wide and .254mm thick(.010")

We received 300 A123 Batteries and the RIM1000 IR tester to test the internal resistance to make sure they are OK! To date all are good but I only tested 20.

We simulated the packs with some pressed wood to see how well they would fit in the car. It still needs some fine tuning, but it looks for now! It was long to find a good setup to fit those 3420 cells. The pack is devided in 14 sub pack each have 30 cells in parallel and 8 in series to make 24V packs. 10 packs will go in the back and 4 in the front!

I will post more info on the battery pack as we go along.
The next step is to validate that the batteries are all good to go as they are not new. But should be within 98% of there initial capacity. Only time will tell!

Cool Artistic photos!

Artistic Photos by Linda Ross

Last weekend while we were working on the car, my very friendly neighbor Linda passed by to take some pictures! Take a look at the result! It's amazing how she made great photos with the mess there was. She has the eye of an artist!!!