This site is still documented here to help anyone interested in EV conversions. I have sold the vehicle now after over a decade (started in 2008) and used many of the parts for another vehicle a EV Four Wheel Drive S-10.
Traveled only 40 miles and battery pack was weak driving home. Charged the pack and today tested each battery. See chart of numbers. Number 41 and number 44 in the center area were Zero volts with the other 45 rest voltages running from 3.34 to 3.68. I have only 2 spares left so will rotate them into…
The Saturn has been holding up fine the past year or two. I did have to replace the controller a few months ago in July 2015. I had a used spare one I picked up earlier. Otherwise it has been trouble free 2015. Now coming up it looks like the sensor/relay for the vacuum pump is…
On August 6 the Elcon PFC 5000 Battery Charger quit charging. I brought in the QuickCharger SCPX 220 which is my backup. It is not (in my opinion) as reliable in keeping a even top voltage full charge. I contacted some people who have run Elcons and they experienced a $800 and up repair, and…
Had a low battery event on Christmas Eve. Towed home and a few days later I checked voltage and balanced the back. Chart below. The Quick-Charger brand charger is not working correctly I believe and the pack was past due for balance. December 24 Battery Low Voltage Event, Vehicle towed home and Voltage checked a…
The analog voltmeter has not worked for a year now. I really need to see what the voltage fluctuation is to get some bearing on the state of charge and the charging system. Would like a easy to read with a glance meter. LED digital volt meter with Red glowing digits will be the next…
Doing major upgrade to this website. Drupal is a powerful content management system. Both Drupal and WordPress are developed and maintained by a community of thousands. The reason for going through all the trouble is a web site will get out of date, you can’t just leave it unattended (wish I could) security holes are…
Drove the Saturn 2 days and over 68 miles without a charge accidentally. Although I have a watt meter and usually record the overnight kwatts this time I did not. The second day of driving was without a charge. Almost home on second day the Saturn ran low of power, parked it and towed it…
This evening I had a Struggling Saturn as I rolled the last 5 miles with reduced power. My dash voltmeter has failed and I have not replaced it yet so I cannot record the voltage results nor did I have the cell log connected. Running through each battery and testing the results at rest are…
2012 from January to August has been without EV events, well except in January Elithion cell board failure when I installed the cell log and removed the BMS from Elithion. On January 1, 2012 the Saturn had 184644 miles and the KWH meter showed 3135. Now on August 10 the mileage is 187888 and KWH…
CellLog 8S Cell Voltage Monitor & Logger [[http://saturn.lynnautorepair.com/node/518|I installed the CellLog]] a couple of days ago. I logged 7 of the 48 CALIB 130 amphour LiFePO4 batteries both while driving and again during a charge cycle. The log data is very impressive and informative. When I first opted to go to the CellLog I had…
I installed a Cell-Log8S on the center battery box cell # 47 (the most negative) to #41. That is 7 batteries. The Cell-Log will monitor voltage only, not amps in, amps out or temperature. It will do some things that the Elithon would not. Store a log of the monitored cells see http://saturn.lynnautorepair.com/node/519 Display the…
Purchased a Elcon PFC 500 a 5000 watt HF/PFC battery Charger for about $1500 from EVA a couple of months ago. Installed the charger into the trunk of the Saturn and have been pleased with its charging quick and even voltage of pack after charge. Some likes about the Elcon 5000 The top…
A few days ago I was checking the battery pack voltages and noticed that 5 of the cells were reading over 4 volts and fail code warning. Upon further investigation #31 through #35 cells were not sending information to the controller of the Elithion Lithiumate BMS. The over 4 volts probably was a default reading.…
The BMS (battery management system) controller has two 12 volt inputs. One when the key is on (load power) and the other when the vehicle is being charged (source power). The [[http://saturn.lynnautorepair.com/BMS%20Elithion%20Lithiumate|Elithion BMS]] needs to know which condition or mode it is in. Mastech and RoadPro AC/DC converters During charging, it will, if commanded control…