Temporary battery boxes and test fit

Tonight I created my temporary wooden battery boxes. These are temporary because I eventually plan on creating some better boxes with walls made from two thin pieces of plastic with insulating foam in between. For now I am going with the wooden ones to get the vehicle rolling sooner and will revisit the better boxes later.

The wooden boxes are nothing more than 1/4" plywood, with a few sections being a little thicker because of scraps I had laying around. I will probably be putting a coat of paint on them at some point. Once I had the pieces cut I secured them together using angle brackets. The boxes are a little flimsy but I am not that worried about it because the outer steel cages are what really hold them batteries in anyways.

Once I had the boxes in place I did a test fit of the batteries. One thing that is obvious to me now is that I will need some type of reinforcement to the shocks and struts. The truck's rear sags considerably when the batteries are in place. I was orginally hoping this wasn't going to be required but I guess it is.

The other 4 batteries are in the engine compartment battery box.

NetGain Charger Arrived!

My new NetGain charger arrived in the mail today. I unboxed it and took a few pics. Right away you notice the huge heat sink fins protruding from both side, the good thing is the unit has no fans so should be quiet. It is a large unit, much larger than Zivan's NG3. The size is making me reconsider how my engine compartment will be laid out.

Overall it looks like a nice piece of hardware and I can't wait to try it out. It has an included thermal sensor for adjusting the charging profile based on battery temperature. The DC side has an anderson connector and the AC side has a normal male three prong outlet plug (120V).

Battery Box Welding Complete

I have finally completed the battery box welding. It was a much larger job than I anticipated but so far I am happy with the results. My welds are by no means professional looking but I did seem to have good penetration of the metal with my beads. There are a total of four battery boxes on my truck. One in the front (4), Two down the drive shaft under the bed (2X4), and one larger one under the bed behind the rear axle (6). The truck will have a total of 18 batteries in these boxes for my 144 volt system.
The rear battery boxes along the drive shaft.

The rear most battery box.

I will now be fabricating some wooden boxes to go within these metal supports.

Charger Purchase

I have been putting off my electric vehicle charger purchase because there has been a few recent products introduced and I was waiting for the smoke to settle a bit before committing to one. When I was doing my initial planning I was going to purchase the Zivan NG3. This has been a long time favorite for custom conversions and, from what I hear, has a good track record of reliability. This charger is configured once at the factory for either 120 or 240 Volt AC input. The problem with this one time configuration is that it isn't very flexible. You either get fast home charging at 240 V or you have slow home charging but have the ability for 'in the field' opporutnity charge on a more common 120 V outlet. Another alternative is to purchase two of these chargers, one at each voltage level, and you have the best of both worlds, but this approach is cost prohibitive.

In my search for something better they guys at Pioneer Conversions told me about the Elcon PFC 3000W charger. It is still relatively new product release so real world reviews or even product information is hard to come by. I do know that it comes from China and the Pioneer guys gave me the product info PDF. Some other locations I found information on this charger are here and here. The great thing about this charger is the ability to accept 120 and 240 V input from a single unit. It seemed to be available from several resellers as Pioneer Conversions, KTA Services, Electro Automotives, and Electric Conversions could all get them for me for around $1,000. I was just about to pull the trigger on this charger when I heard about yet another one.

The Pioneer guys, who happen to be located rather close to NetGain Motors Inc., informed me that NetGain is getting into the charger market. The unit specs are as follows:

• 3kW AC draw
• ~92% efficiency
• 156/144V nominal output (lower voltages also possible)
• Various amp-hour settings
• AGM/Flooded algorithms
• Pulse charging during final stage
• Temperature compensation with included external temperature sensor
• Output isolated from AC mains
• Sealed enclosure - heatsink design without fans
• Greater than 0.98 power factor (current and voltage between 1 and 2 degrees out of phase)
• 90-260VAC input without any modifications to the charger
• Automatic reduction of power draw on 120VAC input to 1500W (12.5A), and full draw with higher AC voltages
• Input frequencies of 45-65Hz
• Weight of about 14lbs
• Short circuit protection
• Reverse polarity protection
• Automatic restart when below about 12.5V or after 30 days
• Dimensions (L x W x H): 13.85 x 6.9 x 5.5 inches, 352 x 175 x 139 mm

Aside from it being a little larger than Elcon's, the specs seem very similar. I liked the idea that it was made in USA (presumably) and supports dual voltage. I don't, however, like the idea of being the guinea pig for this new charger.

Well, which did I choose?

I went with the NetGain charger. Only time will tell if this was a wise decision. In the end I didn't feel like the Elcon charger had a better track record than the NetGain one at this point. I have also already heard a few people complaining about Elcon's lack of support for their charger. NetGain has a good reputation for their motors they sell so I am also hoping the same level of qualty has gone into their charger. The order went out to Pioneer Conversion for the unit so I hope it arrives next week sometime.