Controller Update

I spoke with Jim, the owner of LogiSystems this afternoon and thoroughly discussed my controller issue. First I will say that Jim has always been very polite, straight forward, and accessible through all of their problems. I have also heard this same thing from quite a few others who have called him about their failed controllers. I truly believe that he has the same goal as I do, which is to have a working controller in my car. I feel no need to be irate with him over this situation.

He did a post-mortem on my controller and found that it had a catastrophic failure. Duh! He said that it was the most badly damaged controller he has seen, even among the ones they have deliberately failed as test units. He did learn that the control board that was the source of the prior LogiSystems problems had not failed - which is a bit of good news I guess. He said that about 100 defective controllers had been repaired with no failures except mine. I have heard of no other failures and several other successes with the repaired controllers, so I do believe him. My controller was too badly damaged to know exactly what went wrong, but he said it looked like a direct short of full battery voltage/amperage across the main busses - which should be impossible in the controller.

At his request, I had also sent him a copy of my wiring diagram. He said the diagram was great and we discussed several aspects of my wiring with respect to how the controller works. We agreed that there should be no reason for this type of failure due to my wiring. So the end result is that we really have no idea what actually went wrong - not such good news. I was hoping for a definitive answer to this problem.

At this point, my thought is that if mine is the only repaired controller that failed, that is only a 1 percent failure rate among the prior defectives, and a much lower failure rate among all controllers they have shipped. This failure rate can probably be expected. I am going to assume that I am just the unlucky bastard who got a bad component or some other unfortunate defect with the last controller. I will further assume that the replacement unit will work as expected. I requested last week that they upgrade my controller to a 750 amp version, which they did and it was shipped out today.

So, I will put on my steel underwear and give Logisystems another try. Perhaps I should sell tickets this time and make an event out of it. In addition to getting my fire extinguisher refilled, I should probably pick up a fire suit and helmet for the next test drive.

FAIL

LogiSystems controller #2 blew up causing a small fire. There was no damage to the car or other components.

Honestly, I don't even know what to say at this point. Words cannot adequately express the array of emotions I am feeling. After all of the hard work, long hours and money I have spent on this project, all I have built is "character" - which is precisely what I need to rely on at this moment.

I Have Control

Two months to the day after blowing up my LogiSystems motor controller, the repaired unit has finally returned to me. In recent conversations with LogiSystems and in the blogosphere, I have heard of no failures and a couple of successes with the latest round of repaired controllers, which is certainly encouraging. Hopefully all of the company's controller issues have been worked out and I can now get the Duster on the road to do some serious test driving.
I have to work the last of 7 midnight shifts tonight and then have several days off. The weather will be warm tomorrow so I plan to reinstall the controller and see what happens.

End of Year Update

As 2008 comes to a close I am still in waiting mode. The Duster is sitting in my shop without a motor controller while I work on other projects around the house. Granted, I have not been extremely motivated to work on automotive projects since the coldness of Winter has set in.

I have heard that LogiSystems recently had a " breakthrough" in diagnosing and repairing their controller design. I have spoken with them a couple of times in the past two weeks, and it seems that they have returned to production mode. I have not heard of anyone getting their repaired controller back yet, so have no reports about the effectiveness of the repairs. I am supposed to find out next week exactly when mine will be repaired and returned to me.

Even though I have a new Curtis controller at the ready, I am content for the time being to wait a while longer to see how the LogiSystems situation plays out. If that is not resolved by the time the weather starts to warm up, I will rewire, install the Curtis and continue on from there. In the mean time, I continue to plan for the eventual testing of the Duster, and applying what I've learned to the next, even greater, EV project.

Update II - Saw The Writing On The Wall

Judging by other peoples' experiences, LogiSystems controllers obviously still have problems. Even if I get mine back in the near future, I don't feel like I will be able to put much trust in it. I decided to bite the bullet and spend another $1700 to get a more reliable Curtis 144 volt controller. Thinking that with this latest news about LogiSystems there might now be a rush of people trying to grab the few Curtis 144 volt controllers that are readily available, I purchased mine online last night. I have since gotten confirmation that it will be shipped today.

This opens a whole new chapter in the story of the Electric Duster. I now will have to remove two batteries to make it 144 volts. I honestly do not know if that voltage will be able to deliver the top speed I was shooting for in my heavy car. At least I will be removing 130 pounds of battery weight. And, at least I will be able to get the car on the road. Who knows how long I would be waiting if I held out for LogiSystems.

This change entails a little rewiring of course. In addition, I will have to adjust the voltage of my battery charger. I'm so glad I went with the Manzanita Micro charger that would allow me to adapt to a different battery pack.

Update: Good News & Bad News

The good news is that replacing the $15 fuse in my battery charger has fixed the problem. My battery pack is now fully charged and waiting.

The bad news is that at least two repaired LogiSystems controllers just sent back to other people have already failed. This does not sound good for my controller. I NEVER would have thought that my project - so close to being finished - would be halted by lack of an available working 156 volt motor controller. I am very disappointed to say the least.

Excellent Timing

I thought that this graph was a very interesting commentary on the way things happen for me. Crude oil prices, and thus gasoline prices, have undergone a historic tumble since I got fed up and and motivated to undertake the challenge of converting a car to electric. Interestingly, after I invest in a stock, the chart looks alarmingly similar. When I purchase a house, the same chart could be titled 'Real Estate Values'. How about 'Collector Car Values'? Same chart!

Smart people would be wise to do the OPPOSITE of what I do. Perhaps I should publish a newsletter: 'What Bruce is Investing in Now', so that people could profit from doing the opposite of what I do. Hmmm.

In all seriousness, I am still 100% committed to this project and the idea of electric vehicles in general. Although my primary reason for doing this conversion was financial in the beginning, my motivation has become so much more. Now it is mostly about accomplishment and FREEDOM. Even though oil prices are comparatively low right now, does anyone really doubt that the price will someday (probably sooner rather than than later) be as high or higher than it was last July? I want to be free from having pay whatever price I am TOLD to pay because I can't live without it.

We have to remember what killed off the electric car the last time there was enough incentive and motivation to develop and sell or purchase one. Oil prices became astonishingly low and the market for alternative modes of transportation and energy disappeared. People have such short memories! It makes one wonder if the current low oil prices are really a form of CONTROL to once again kill off the competition and keep us completely addicted to oil. I don't believe that this concept is outside of the realm of possibility. Other types of businesses have done it in the past.

Well, I for one vow to NOT forget this time. I want to end my addiction to oil, and quit providing support for all of the world turmoil that that addiction perpetuates. Therefore, smart people, the first edition of my hypothetical newsletter will be entitled 'Bruce Is Investing In ANOTHER Electric Vehicle When The Duster Is Complete'! If you like the uniqueness and coolness of this project, just wait until you see the next one. Stay tuned!

Welcome December!

This month is beginning on a good note (aside from receiving the first snow of the season this morning). I spoke to Rich Rudman, the owner of Manzanita Micro. He had me pull the cover off of my charger and test a couple things.

Visible at the bottom left is the internal fuse that was referred to in the charger documentation. That is blown, which I was fairly certain would be. However, Rich told me the fuse is basically only to protect against a fire from (idiots) wiring it backwards. The charger circuitry is protected by an expensive power diode which, if blown would have to be replaced at the factory and cost about $250. After verifying the fuse was blown, Rich had me test the diode. This passed the test! It was like finding out from your doctor that the suspicious lump that grew on your body is not cancerous.

Rich said not to feel bad about hooking it up backwards - he gets four or five a year back because of that. I did not suggest that maybe it's because you have to look so hard in all of the documentation to find the wiring instructions. No, I just considered myself lucky that my stupidity is only going to cost me $15 and a few days instead of much more - at least this time.

November Sucked!

The month of November began with me working very hard to get the Duster ready to test drive. For some reason, things started to turn against me.

First I discovered that one of my main contactors was defective. Because of the slow response from the vender it took quite a while just to purchase a replacement. I still have not heard anything back on the defective one I returned to them.

After I installed the replacement contactor, I encountered the perplexing problem of voltage from my 156 volt battery pack finding its way into the chassis of the car. It took a full day to finally diagnose and rectify that little issue. The cause was my steel battery restraints that I had worked extremely long and hard to fabricate and install. I removed most of them to alleviate the problem but will still have to correct them in the future.

So I finally got to a point where I was satisfied that everything was working correctly and safely, and took my first test drive. Of course that is the day I discovered (with a bang) that LogiSystems had been sending out defective controllers. That unit has been sent back to LogiSystems but I am still uncertain if they have corrected the issue with their product that precipitated this disaster. I have made no decision yet as to how to proceed. Rather than spend another $1600, I am giving LogiSystems a little time to make things right if they can.

If November wasn't bad enough already, I capped the month off with a mistake purely of my own making. I had already connected my Manzanita Micro battery charger but had never used it. Being in 'waiting mode' I wanted to at least charge my battery pack. I plugged it into a 120 volt outlet and the charger came alive. However it wasn't putting out any voltage.

In trying to diagnose the problem, I wanted to verify that I had at least connected it correctly. I went through all of my documentation and absolutely could not find any paperwork or instructions on which DC wire was which. I had connected it a while back and could not remember why I connected it the way I did. Even though I had already downloaded several files pertaining to this charger, not one of them instructed which DC wire was positive and which was negative.

I had to go online again and find and download another file at the Manzanita Micro website. Then I had to find a way to open the file since my computer did not have Microsoft Word installed on it. Finally, after quite some time I found what I suspected. Yup, I had connected the DC leads backwards. In this installation file, I also found the words "...something will be destroyed in either the car or the charger. The charger warranty does not cover this installation error".

Oh crap! I have been so careful and deliberate on this project, I don't know HOW I could have made such an idiotic mistake.

Of course my phone call and email to Manzanita Micro have not yet been returned, since this occurred on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Interestingly, I also found this on the newly downloaded installation and setup file: "The charger is protected from reverse polarity installation by an internal fuse". Hmmm, that's kind of contradictory to their prior statement of "something will be destroyed". Maybe what it means is that I have to send it back to them, wait weeks and spend hundreds of dollars for them to replace an internal fuse!

I'm so glad this is the last day of November. I am not going anywhere near the damn car today.

Update on Failed Controller Problem

I am faced with a few choices to get the Duster back on the road.

1. Stick with LogiSystems and hope they can send me a working controller
2. Purchase a Kelly controller rated for 156 volts
   
3. Remove 2 batteries and purchase the industry standard Curtis 144 volt controller

Choices #2 and #3 would cost me over $1500. Choice #1 may never occur.

I called LogiSystems Controllers this morning. I was told that they have a redesigned board that they are currently testing. If testing is successful, they will have more of the boards produced and repairs to defective controllers will be their first priority. Repairs will consist of putting entirely new components into the existing case and should take 2 weeks.

I did hear from another source that LogiSystems has been trying to solve controller "issues" for over a year. Still, because of the amount of money involved, at this moment I am inclined to wait at least until I find out how the testing goes at Logisystems before spending another chunk of cash.

I guess I can wait a few weeks. There is no real reason I need the car on the road at this time. Winter is almost upon us so I would not likely be driving it too much. In addition, I still have other work to do on the car to complete the conversion.