In this first episode of DIY EV Chat, I speak to Jamie Jones about his adventures in EV conversion, from his son’s bike to his electric Beetle, the Bugplug. How did he get started? What were the biggest challenges? And the greatest rewards? Listen and find out. If you’re interested in finding out more about Jamie’s BugPlug, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamieJones1985. You … Continue reading Jamie Jones and the Bugplug
tl;dr: the car has passed its MOT! We are now the proud, grin-wearing owners of a road-legal, home-made, fully-electric vehicle. Continue reading Rollercoaster
So, as predicted, the car failed its MOT. But not on what I was expecting. Or rather, the stuff I was most worried about (the conversion, my welding) absolutely sailed through. In fact, Jimmy the mechanic called the conversion “impressive”. The smile hasn’t left my face since. Big issues: Tracking is massively out (not surprising since I don’t have the tools for alignment) and you … Continue reading Fail! But in a good way
Yeah, it’s all borked. So, after the little success of last time, I was very keen to get the wheels spinning. And if I’m honest, I wasn’t cautious enough. And that’s being polite about it. I was a bit of a knob. Twice. With one battery pack hooked up, giving us 60V, we put the key in and gave it a twist. The inverter came … Continue reading Back to the bench
It has been three weeks since my last update. The pace of this project has definitely slowed as work has picked up and the weather has worsened. Nonetheless, there is plenty of progress to report. Unfortunately I haven’t been great at taking photos this time around so forgive the paucity of pictures. Battery Box After my disastrous spatial miscalculations of the last update, I decided … Continue reading Boxing
Right, refreshed after a week off and time for a bit of an update. Test-fit After the last update I did indeed get the motor and gearbox into the car where they remain now. It wasn’t as hard as I expected and it all slotted in beautifully as you can see from the pics below. A bit of 2×4 was used to level it up … Continue reading Engine mounts and more
Another week or so of big progress. Tomorrow (sore muscles permitting) I will test fit the motor and gearbox for the first time. Adaptor Plate Over the last week my daughter and I have measured and drilled the holes in the two halves of the adaptor plate (marking them out with a transfer punch), bolted them up to the motor and gearbox respectively, welded on … Continue reading Making the adaptor plate
It has been another rollercoaster of a week on this project. At the end of last week I posted my inverter control board off to Jamie on the other side of the Pennines for him to test it in his setup. He found the same problems I did and set about trying to fix them. After much experimenting he came to the conclusion there was … Continue reading Rotation!
So, I’ve now ruled out human error on the inverter control board. I sent it across to a fellow OpenInverter forum member on the wrong side of the Pennines and he dropped it into his working setup. Sure enough, the DC supply voltage was all over the place. He’s kindly trying to work out why now. In the meantime, we’re cracking on. We’re making progress … Continue reading Pedal to the…plastic?