Still a bit of work to do - but it is running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdgCjrbbvs
Got my Audi A2 EV working
Congratulations! I've often thought the Audi A2 would make a great basis for an EV conversion.
My new book is out: The 2011 Electric Car Guide is available from Amazon and all good bookshops.
- geekygrilli
- Posts: 325
- Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:56 pm
- Location: London
- Contact:
Brilliant, well done!
Nice area/roads too! God, I hate London.
Nice area/roads too! God, I hate London.
Last edited by geekygrilli on Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yes, my other car is a Por... er Prius.
Hand throttle is now swapped for more conventional foot operated system aka pedal. Mounted the pot on the front of the original pedal pot, seems to fit rather well, activated via a push(well, pull) rod.
Since first run I have made a few adjustments and improvements, notably pedal above and attached a 3rd mount point (4th in fact) for the motor, from bottom of diff to engine mount frame, which not surprisingly takes a bit of the slack out of the system
On this front I feel that that motor is a little loose on the (original) mounts, any opinions about stiffening it up? I get a slight wobble and hesitation as I accelerate through about 4000rpm, feels to me like there's a bit of kind of harmonic resonance/vibration that isn't there at low revs and high revs. Not much, just a bit of hesitation and wobble, I back off the accelerator and it goes and then I can accelerate through (I'll try and video it).
ABS works fine, got the brake lights going when regen activates too (around here rather important since most Italians drive about 2m off yr bumper at any speed 10 - 160 kph). The acc/regen is really neat, probably cuts down braking by 90% and much simpler than above mentioned Prius which hasn't got enough regen torque in my opinion. Overall performance isn't noticeably different from the original A2, assuming one drove around normally and didn't try to race. Plenty of torque up hills, I've taken it to 90kph so far and runs smoothly. However, I want to get some batteries forward to improve the half shaft geometry which is too angled for the moment, front is 5cm higher than original.
My most wanted improvement now is to get the power steering working again, this was operating via the CAN. Am planning to hack in to just activate the pump bypassing the CAN (which is totally absent since I have removed the poor A2's brains, its ECU). Might have some kind of relay to cut it out about 30kph or so. Any suggestions?
Hand throttle is now swapped for more conventional foot operated system aka pedal. Mounted the pot on the front of the original pedal pot, seems to fit rather well, activated via a push(well, pull) rod.
Since first run I have made a few adjustments and improvements, notably pedal above and attached a 3rd mount point (4th in fact) for the motor, from bottom of diff to engine mount frame, which not surprisingly takes a bit of the slack out of the system
On this front I feel that that motor is a little loose on the (original) mounts, any opinions about stiffening it up? I get a slight wobble and hesitation as I accelerate through about 4000rpm, feels to me like there's a bit of kind of harmonic resonance/vibration that isn't there at low revs and high revs. Not much, just a bit of hesitation and wobble, I back off the accelerator and it goes and then I can accelerate through (I'll try and video it).
ABS works fine, got the brake lights going when regen activates too (around here rather important since most Italians drive about 2m off yr bumper at any speed 10 - 160 kph). The acc/regen is really neat, probably cuts down braking by 90% and much simpler than above mentioned Prius which hasn't got enough regen torque in my opinion. Overall performance isn't noticeably different from the original A2, assuming one drove around normally and didn't try to race. Plenty of torque up hills, I've taken it to 90kph so far and runs smoothly. However, I want to get some batteries forward to improve the half shaft geometry which is too angled for the moment, front is 5cm higher than original.
My most wanted improvement now is to get the power steering working again, this was operating via the CAN. Am planning to hack in to just activate the pump bypassing the CAN (which is totally absent since I have removed the poor A2's brains, its ECU). Might have some kind of relay to cut it out about 30kph or so. Any suggestions?
Simon
I have been looking at the ways of controlling an electric power steering pump from an ASTRA H this is also Can bus controlled, and is ver similar to the one you already have in the A2. There seems little way apart from getting a Canbus signal to kick in the electronics. I have taken the case apart and its actually a rather simple permananet magnet brushless motor. SO it may be possible to discard all the electronics and substitute a brushless DC controller. I have yet to look at this further, but worth consideration.
Grumpy-b
Grumpy-b
Return to “Cars,Vans and other road vehicles”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests