Robert Bruninga via EV wrote:
Old Honda Civic EV conversion troubles (after 2 years of abandonment).
Hi, Robert. These all sound very normal.
1) PbAcid batteries are stll hissing 8 hours after the first charge in a year was removed? All ten batteries were between 13.5 and 14.5 under charge when I stopped for the night at 6 amps. Some hissing was still there in the morning.
Old sulfated batteries will have a lower than normal end-of-charge voltage. The charger doesn't correct for the lowered voltage, so it overcharges them and they will indeed gas a lot more. It's a good idea to unplug the charger early (when the voltage stop rising), as too much of this is hard on the batteries.
Amphour capacity will be quite low at first, but will gradually improve with each successive charge-discharge cycle. But depending on how long they were left dead, you may not get all that much capacity back.
2) Darned Brake ligths are on all the time. I assume it is a switch on the brake pedal and not a pressure switch somewhere...
Probably a corroded switch. Nobody out-cheaps the auto companies on electrical things. :-(
3) I have no schematic. Controller is a brick the size of a shoebox and no label. 3 terminals plus a 2 wire accellerator pot and a microswitch. But it appears the HV contactor has a pre-charge resistor across the open contacts. Measures 1k ohms. And there is about half the pack voltaqe across that resistor . But 60v across 1k is 60 mA and that should be 3.6 watts... Hummh, ill remember to touch it next time to verify it is hot.
That's a very common setup. The controller is probably a Curtis, or a clone of it. The precharge resistor should NOT be left on all the time, for exactly the reason you outlined. A) It leaves the controller powered all the time, and B) It will run the propulsion pack dead just while sitting!
The better setup has a switch or relay contact in series with the precharge resistor. When the key is off, this switch is off. When you turn the key on, this switch closes to connect the precharge resistor. A few seconds later, the controller's capacitors are precharged, and it's OK to turn on the main contactor.
The Main contactor's coil is wired through the switch on the accelerator pedal, so it only turns on when you step on the throttle.
But should the controller be drawing that much with accellerator off and main contactor open (except for precharge resistor).
30-60ma is normal for Curtis controller.
I know how to troubleshoot these things, but it is easier to sit here and type about them than to contort myself under the console for the brake light problem and try to troublehoot in the driveway at night...
Luckily, this stuff is far easier to debug than the wiring in a modern car. :-) For one thing, you can test the controller on the bench, with a light bulb in place of the motor, a 5k potentiometer for the throttle pot, and a simple DC power source for input power.
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