Ugh, Blew a main fuse yesterday and got to push citicar home 1/2 mile. It pushes fairly easy.
All was well on my way to golf, and taking off from a stop sign I heard the contactor kick on like it should, then a quick poof kind of sound. That was the end of motion. I still had a good round of golf after pushing it.
Its a LKN-400a fuse. It had been arced at some point before I got it, looked like a wrench or something similar hit it. I had been using it anyways. Perhaps that weakened it, or I have a bigger problem. I have no spares yet, but to get it back uphill to my garage I did swap a cable across the fuse, and it did move apparently fine for the 100ft I had to move it, no hot cables no stuck contactors. Mysterious.
I'll be going through all my cables and connections. Something must have gone wrong... I did have one connection that was looser than it should be at the controller. Maybe that was it. I'll have my spares on friday. I should have bought spares to begin with.
For the next two weeks I still am using the contactor controller.
I've decided on an Alltrax SR-48500 to replace it. I'm going to retain the original F/R contactor. I'm losing the series/parallel contactor. I'm eating up contacts on that one, and it's not really good for my batteries to be swapping around like that. I am going to wire this like a modern cart, with a 48v main contactor, and the F/R will not be doing the main contacting any longer. It will use a new throttle input with a 0-5kohm pot for smooth acceleration. The batteries will always be in series at 48v, and the low speed resistor will be eliminated.
I'm hoping 500a should do very similar to the original acceleration, and provide a more comfortable speed control. I'll be ordering it in the next week or so.
For the next two weeks I still am using the contactor controller.
I've decided on an Alltrax SR-48500 to replace it. I'm going to retain the original F/R contactor. I'm losing the series/parallel contactor. I'm eating up contacts on that one, and it's not really good for my batteries to be swapping around like that. I am going to wire this like a modern cart, with a 48v main contactor, and the F/R will not be doing the main contacting any longer. It will use a new throttle input with a 0-5kohm pot for smooth acceleration. The batteries will always be in series at 48v, and the low speed resistor will be eliminated.
I'm hoping 500a should do very similar to the original acceleration, and provide a more comfortable speed control. I'll be ordering it in the next week or so.
That depends how much current it draws (must be insane, good thing lead acid has limits), but it will probably be better right up until the motor hits battery voltage. Maybe not for the first 10 feet, where you had no real limit, unless the low speed resistor is in play at that point...if it is, you're in for a treat by eliminating it. Be careful you don't break things!
That depends how much current it draws (must be insane, good thing lead acid has limits), but it will probably be better right up until the motor hits battery voltage. Maybe not for the first 10 feet, where you had no real limit, unless the low speed resistor is in play at that point...if it is, you're in for a treat by eliminating it. Be careful you don't break things!
That's what I liked about the alltrax vs curtis. I can program whatever I want in it easily. I can set it to not be breaking things during acceleration, while still keeping a high amp rating for hills.
As it is right now, It's up to me how terrible I want to be to it. Generally on my drives I start in 2nd speed (no resistor 24v) then around 5mph hit the 48v. If I nail it right to 48v, the contactors get angry, If I do that too much in traffic I can get my 2 gauge cables warm even. I seem to only use the resistor speed 1 in parking lots. Now, after this upgrade, the best bet for acceleration is to remove the lead acid and replace with lithium. It's already on my mind, and I know in 5 yrs my new lead acids will be old. So I'm starting to save now. Funny I've only filled my wagon with one tank since I started driving this. I am saving a ton of gas.
The city tore up the apron of my driveway to my garage for the last week, the citicar fits tires on the sidewalk and I can still get out
[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 05-09-2018).]
Reminds me of RC cars. Started with mechanical speed control, then upgraded to electronic speed controls was a big improvement. Lithium batteries were probably the best upgrade. More punch, run time, and life from them.
My motor has a cooling fan that turns on some temperature before the Hot light turns on. It made a bunch of noise and was embarrassing to drive when it kicks on. I pulled it last night to find another mud dauber nest in it. Unfortunately the bearings were also toast. I found that like everything on this "car" it used a part from something else. I ordered a seaflo 3" squirrel cage bilge fan for a boat to replace it. That's the first boat part i've had to buy for it, and it appears to be a direct replacement.
My brother in law is heading to a car show this weekend and really wanted me to come too. Its within my range (I hope), so I'll take the citicar to its first show this weekend. It's at the Wilson Barn in Livonia sunday june 10, for anyone in the area interested.
I have not blown another fuse since the incident... My wife has given the approval to get the alltrax, but for the last week or so they were out of the HD solenoid package that I will be adding as well, to eliminate the series/parallel contactor. Maybe next week.
I wanted to make your first image a little easier to view. Nice shot!
Thanks! I must have not resized those when I uploaded them
This was a great show, with some great guys and a diverse selection of cars. The fiero would not have done as well there. There was a red notch there with some extremely nice additions that would have made mine look shabby. I'm not sure if the owner of that won anything, but it could have.
The citicar at a show offers a neat experience. I have a luxury lawn area behind it since it takes up so little room.
[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 06-11-2018).]
Hard to describe how much better it is to drive. It's a totally different car! I get to pick what speed I want to go!
Here is a shot of the accelerator. The one on the left is the original, and has a cam that activates 3 microswitches as it turns. My new one, of course goes the other way so I had to make a bracket.
here it is in the process of mounting and wiring
I got to toss the monster resistor/ battery waster, along with over 12 ft of 2 gauge wires.
My new main contactor runs on 48v. My system uses 12, so I re-purposed the relay used to connect that monster resistor, mounted it up front and I uses a 12v coil to switch 48v to the footswitch and main contactor.
I am however a little lost with my gas gauge. It works fine, but does not act the same as it did with 3 power levels for acceleration. It is as variable as the gas pedal, and I have to get used to it to accurately predict how long I have till empty.
The software on the alltrax is awesome, and I can adjust pretty much anything including the torque/speed curve and accelerator response. It has two programmable users, and I used an unused ACC switch in my dash to select between normal, and insane acceleration.
The 600a, is extremely close to what my original setup could do. It was a perfect choice, and I'm glad I saved up a little more for it vs the 500a.
I have no idea if it has affected range yet. I'll be bringing it to the woodward dream cruise in a couple weeks. So if you are there in a fiero and a guy in a trapezoid is waving at you... you know who it is!
How does your fuel gauge work? just a plain old volt meter, or does it actually show your amp-hours?
It's hilarious really. It's a volt meter attached to 18v (3 batteries). So if you are used to it, based on your speed, throttle and flatness of ground you can extrapolate about what you have left. I went for a long ride to the river in wyandotte yesterday and have a good handle on it now. The range appears to have gotten possibly a tiny bit better. My top speed should not be affected, but I'm showing a +2mph increase. Maybe the wind was with me both ways. That's a 25 mile round trip and I still was able to hit 35 when I got home, but my fuel gauge was showing a slow recovery when accelerating. on level ground holding full speed at full throttle I estimate empty to be about half gauge. I might still move, but that would be too far on the batteries to last a long time. If I hit a big uphill from a stop at that point, I might have some problems.
I've considered making something more modern that can give better data, but it sure would look out of place. My best fuel gauge is my odometer and seat time. at 30 miles at a time, I'm not sure it's worth adding something like that.
I just ordered some brand new tires yesterday for $28 a piece. Real radials not trailer tires. 145/80r12 lol smaller than my pop up camper tire.
Amp-hour meters for lower voltage systems aren't too expensive....but they're not totally necessary with plain old lead acid. Cheap LED meters that are based on nothing but voltage would work too.
You could keep the volt meter you're using and just muck around with ways to make it more accurate. A diode, resistor and a capacitor, for example, could stop it from swinging wildly every time you accelerate or take your foot off the gas(it would show you a more average voltage, rather than an instantaneous one). The right use of diodes (or zener diodes) could stop it from even showing over "full", so it would just hold at "full" until the voltage actually starts to sag from use.
Made a 20 mile trip on 60% battery yesterday. Dummy me plugged in the citicar, but forgot to plug in to the wall. It's usually on all the time, but from the spring work, I was using the outlet. I still had at least 5 miles to go remaining in my pack at the end of that journey so maybe I could pull 35-40 on a full charge. I was impressed! So my car spent the night at my friends house in preparation for the woodward dream cruise plugged in ready for a fun weekend. He is close to 11 mile and I'll be using that as home base during the cruise, this evening and tomorrow. See you out there.
[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 08-17-2018).]
I feel exactly the same as that guy does when driving it. I still giggle every time i press the "gas". Mine however has the 6hp motor and a dana axle vs the 3.5hp and terrell axle in his from the video. My gears are WAY quieter in comparison. I do wish the fiero got anywhere near the positive attention that citicar does, and maybe it will when it reaches the same age. I did enjoy watching his video though, thanks for posting it! RWDPLZ, if you're ever around dearborn I'd be glad to give ya a ride.
[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 10-07-2019).]
My armature shorted and sent 48v through my speedometer cable and ground system. It was ugly! but now a new motor, lots of ground wires, and a speedometer cable later and I'm back on the road! I got the motor from D&D motor systems in Syracuse NY. They were great!! Speedometer cable from Bobs speedometer in howell MI. They were awesome too!
[img]ht tp://images.fieroforum.com/userimages/gen2muchwork/20200430_152048.jpg[/img]
How's the D&D motor doing ? Is it more powerful ?
