Electricvolvo

Electricvolvo is complete. It is driving!

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:40:24 +0100

After more than 2 years working on the Electricvolvo, finally on June 24 a major milestone was reached: the very first test of all systems and turning the motor. With success!

With the MES-DEA Auto-Tune function all motor parameters were perfectly automatically fine-tuned and set.

After the first run, some final work has been done, including the final mounting of the battery box covers with rubber seals, reinstalling the dashboard panels to nicely cover the cabling and under dash components, replacing the old tires with brand new Michelin Energy Savers, installing a new 12V battery, reinstalling the mud guards in the rear wheel arches, and several other completion activities.
Electricvolvo also has been washed, and polish waxed.

3 October was finally the Big Day: the moment that I was looking forward to for more than 2 years: making the very first real test drive with my Electricvolvo.

Fantastic! Proud! Beautiful!

The petrol era has finally ended. Electricvolvo is complete, it is ready. Created by me as a tribute to the legendary Volvo 240. This beautiful fundamental Volvo model, which now evolves with us to the new revolutionary era of electric mobility.

Under the hood

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:00:37 +0100

Contactor box

Sun, 3 Jul 2011 01:00:48 +0200

The contactor box is tailor made for the Electricvolvo and is an important central element of the electric system.
The construction and further refinement of the architecture of the box took several iterations before it met all requirements, so it took a while to complete it.

Wat is the contactor box for?
The large relays in the contactor box will switch on the 300 Volt system after the driver has given the start command via the contact key, and after the computer system has completed several security checks. Also the precharge circuit is installed in the contactor box and is controlled by the computer system. The copper coloured elements are the two precharge resistors connected in series.

The contactor box also contains the shunts that measure the operating load (drive and regen) and source (charge) currents, and several electronics that collect and provide data to the computer system.

Finally the contactor box contains a number of fuses, besides the main plus fuse, also one for the DCDC-converter, the electric heater, the charger, and the two pieces of electronics in the box.

Fuse box as new

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:40:06 +0200

The original Volvo fuse box has been cleaned. All corrosion has been removed from the copper fuse holders and then they were cleaned with contact spray. Finally all fuses were replaced by new ones.

Interior

Mon, 2 May 2011 00:29:03 +0200

Most parts of the elegant blue Volvo interior have been reinstalled now: the floor carpet, tunnel console, center console, drivers seat and several panels.
Also the instrument cluster is back in its original location behind the steering wheel. In it the fuel and temp gauge has been replaced with a digital display for monitoring several EV data.

Main control box

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:37:47 +0200

The past days a lot of wiring and connections to the main control box have been completed.

This is the ‘central nerve center’ of the Electricvolvo. It contains several additional relays, fuses, and the BMS controller.

Motor connected

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:34:16 +0200

Today the three phase cables (U,V,W) of the electric motor are connected to the inverter.
Also the signal wires for the temperature sensor, encoders, and thermoswitch are connected now.

We also prepared the supply cables from the contactors which connect the battery plus and minus to the inverter.

The contactor box will soon be installed above the inverter on a small frame. Which will complete the electric system.

Radiator

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 23:28:26 +0200

A tailor made aluminium radiator, made by Hartgers Radiateuren has been installed below the front bumper.

It cools the watercooled electric motor and inverter. Two electric fans are mounted to the back of the radiator which are automatically switched by the motor control system in the inverter.

I have mounted an aluminium wire frame to the back of the three holes in the front spoiler to protect the radiator against stones, leaves etc.

Cable harness preparation

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:22:56 +0100

This is one of the many cable harnesses that are added to the standard Volvo cabling system to facilitate the conversion to Electricvolvo.

This particular cable harness runs from the various signal connections that I prepared below the dashboard to the inverter and it is connected to it with a 42-pole automotive connector.

This cable harness integrated several of the original standard Volvo systems with the key switch circuits, the various added controls and LED-indicators, the electronic throttle pedal sensor, the control of the electric drive (TIM 600) and the several security systems that are part of it.

TV appearance

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:17:42 +0100

Today the Dutch news program ‘Heart of The Netherlands’ by SBS6 broadcast company visited our workshop to record an item for this news show.

The same evening already Electricvolvo appeared in the early ‘Heart of the Netherlands’ news show in an item about the high fuel prices. The Electricvolvo was shown as an example to show that driving electric can be a good solution for the (near) future.

BMS, fuse, connectors

Wed, 2 Mar 2011 23:10:39 +0100

The Battery Management System (BMS) is now completely installed and all cabling to and between the batteries has been completed.

The front and rear battery can be disconnected from eachother with an Andersen connector with quick release, in the rear of the car, easy to reach just below the charger unit.

On the side of the charger mounting frame a fusebox with the 250A negative fuse is located. The positive fuse will be located in the front, in the motor bay.

As such, both the circuit is double secured, and the front and rear battery separately.

The manometer with filling nipple for the air filled shock brakers is also installed now.

Mounting components

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:05:56 +0100

Above the motor a steel frame has been installed with an aluminium mounting plate on top of that. This plate holds the DC DC converter, the inverter and the main contactor box.

The vacuum pump has found a nice place on the underside of the mounting plate.

Also the electric heater unit has been installed.

Rear battery installed

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:38:27 +0100

The construction work on the rear battery box is now complete and all cells are installed.

The orange coloured high voltage cables are mounted to the bottom of the car.

The battery charger is installed on a specially machined aluminium mounting frame which very nicely fits in the Volvo 245 right rear wheel storage area.

All connections to the charger are made. Also the communication between charger and laptop has been succesfully tested. Almost ready to charge the entire battery.

Charging socket

Sun, 7 Nov 2010 16:52:20 +0100

The former fuel filling location now features a Mennekes charging socket.

This socket fits the double secured charging cable which is equipped with a Mennekes plug. This plug is the new Dutch/European standard for charger plugs, which has recently been adopted in October 2010.

With a Mennekes plug it will soon be possible to use any public charging station in the Netherlands; all electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the Netherlands are intended to conform to this standard.

The Mennekes standard ensures that the charging station will automatically recognize (in Modus 3) the required charging current (16 of 32 Amps) and the number of phases.

With an optional so called Modus 1 cable it is also possible to charge with a regular European 220V plug instead, at 12.5 Amps, single phase 220V; this allows for simple charging at home or when visting friends or family who only have a regular 220V socket at their homes.

With the Mennekes standard, there is no need anymore for adapter cables or plug adapters.
Just one single plug serves all charging needs.

Rear battery box installation

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:46:08 +0200

The tailgate is fully assembled and the rear light clusters now feature LED technology.
We are now working on assembling and installing the rear battery box below the original cargo floor, in the location of where the fuel tank and muffler were.
The picture currently shows the raw material and only a portion of the frame. Soon we will publish an image of the end result.

Electric nose

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:35:12 +0200

The grille has been restored with a new Volvo logo and 'Electric' logo.
The headlight houses are renovated, with new glass, new wiper arms and new wiper blades. The corner light clusters are new and equipped with LED lighting.
The front is now finished, except for the spoiler which will be mounted later.

Center console prepared

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:34:10 +0200

In the lower part of the center console an additonal switch panel has been installed. It contains several switches and control lights for several EV-specific functions.
The switches are in original Volvo 240 style and look very good.
A cable harness with 8-pin connector has been made which connects to the rear of this switch panel and makes installation and service easy.

Main control box installed

Sun, 5 Sep 2010 21:18:00 +0200

The past period the main control box has been designed, prepared and installed, as well as all interior 12V cabling for the EV-specific components and integrating these with the original Volvo electric system, and testing all subcircuits. I have designed the main control box specific for this project. It contains several relays, a fuse panel, a small switch panel, and the BMS main controller.
This main control box is the center point in the car where almost all EV components are connected with eachother and with the original Volvo electric system.
The relays control the following circuits:
- start circuit, start control light and BMS power provisioning
- brake lights via inverter, and brake light control light
- bell circuit
The small switch panel contains the following switches:
- alarm reset inverter
- firmware upgrade inverter
- firmware upgrade lader
- power limiter inverter

Bluetooth radio and new loudspeakers

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:00:53 +0200

A new Kenwood Bluetooth car radio has been installed with an integrated handsfree car kit. The microphone is nicely mounted between the sunblind and the rear view mirror. Also the loudspeakers in the door panels have been replaced with new speakers with a deeper, nicer sound.
I wanted to keep the orginal Volvo speaker covers, which looks very nice. In order to make this possible I had to cut the old speaker out of its metal frame, which served as the retainer for the speaker cover, and fit the new speaker in this metal frame.

Seat heater repair

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 20:49:39 +0200

One of the nice extras on the special Volvo 240 Classic version is the standard seat heating in both the drivers and the passengers seats. However, they turned out to be defective in this car. The solution was simple: replacing the thermostats which can be found just under the cover of the seat. Very nice to have seat heating in winter time in an electric car!