# Christchurch Suzuki Alto Certified and road legal



## John (Sep 11, 2007)

Congrats on the certification. Thanks for putting up the info about the battery box. I have wondered about the difficulty of getting a battery box sunk through the boot floor certified.


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## djmjnewton (Aug 14, 2008)

Some more nuggets that might be interesting and of use.
On Board charger regulations turned out to be interesting as well. An Electrical WOF needed to be issued in NZ. The EWOF assumed the car was a caravan so the 240V into the car had to have a Code of Compliance issued by a Registered Electrician. A 15A round caravan plug male fitting needs to be on the car and then a three core flex runs to a meter box that has an Earth bar and RCD in it. I also put in a kWHr meter $75. A domestic interior three-pin plug is then run on the box into which the chargers can be plugged. I used a 10A capable multibox as I needed to run two chargers and a 240-12V transformer to connect the negative leads of my battery chargers as the SEVCON controller specify that chargers can not be permanently connected to the batteries or damage to the controller can occur. Using the transformer allows the four horn relays to connect in the negative charging lead when charging but when the 240V supply is disconnected the transformer loses power and so the relays disconnect and the SEVCON is no longer connected to the charger. The meterbox has an Earth bond wire connected to the chassis that must be a minimum mm2 (6mm?) and the wires must be protected against chaffing especially where they penetrate the chassis. Once the Code of Compliance is done an electrical inspection is done by an Electrical Inspector. Mine charged a flat fee of NZ$50 and wrote out the Electrical WOF when he had seen my 10m caravan charging cord. It lasts for 4 years and then needs to be don again. He stated that it was highly dangerous and illegal to use a 10A capable three pin domestic plug as a charging point as the spade earth sometimes splayed too wide for the Earth connection to be successfully made, hence the circular shape of the pins on the 15A capable caravan plugs. The inspectors instructions from his professional association was to cut up any three pin to caravan plug adaptors he saw, as they have been responsible for deaths in NZ in the past. I would have thought the advent of RCD protection at the wall socket end might alleviate this but it is illegal. Three pin plugs are only capable of outputting 10A continuous especially if they are themselves protected by an RCD thus each is capable of 10A X 240V or about 2400W output which would seem to limit the maximum size of the charger power output as well as the charging speed able to be gained from using a domestic three pin plug circuit and thus should be a design criteria. 

Switch to stop car being driven off when charging. A $10 microswitch with a long metal tail bent appropriately so it turned on and off as the fuel filler cap opened succeeded in breaking the circuit that turned on the relay, which then turned on the main contactor. It was necessary to put in this horn relay as the switching voltage for the SEVCON was pack voltage (72-84V) but I wanted to turn it on using the ordinary 12V car key ignition switch. Thus I ran a lead off the wiper motor feed that accomplished the switching task and wired in the three other safety requirements into the same 12V circuit as follows. An inertia switch from a BMW fuel injection system (most if not all fuel injected cars have them. mine $15) so in the event of a crash the relay holding the power on to the main contactor is interrupted. The wire to the filler cap micro switch then earthed to the chassis. A green light on the dash was placed in parallel to this circuit (after the filler cap loop) earthed to the chassis. Thus if either of the two safety switches opened current to the dash light as well as the main contactor is interrupted. 

Red Dash Light indicating Reverse engaged. I used the Alto's gear box and mechanical reverse gear so I took a parallel feed off the reverse lights circuit to the dash light which was a simple mechanical make and break switch under the gearbox.

DC-DC Converter without battery back up. I used a Kelly and fed it from just before the main contactor and then to the common negative on the controller. This meant I had 12V available to switch on the main contactor circuit and the cars ordinary safety circuits "operated preferentially to the traction circuit" A red light on the dash indicates the 12V circuit has power. This is interrupted by the "mechanical operated isolation switch within reach of the driver". Mine simply cuts the negative return to the back 3 or 4 12V batteries using a battery isolation switch (400A) and is let through the chassis in the muffler arch just between the gear lever and the Hand brake. In the arch a plastic pipe conduit carries the main cables that connect the rear battery box with the front tray area. The conduit is 40mm diam plumbing waste pipe clipped at 200mm centres. The 90-degree bends and Tee work well though tight for 70mm2 welding cable.


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## linz (May 18, 2008)

Congrats on certification and finishing the conversion. Thanks for putting up all the info. It would be interesting to see some videos of it inside and out and on the road...?


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## djmjnewton (Aug 14, 2008)

I do have a set of videos on the conversion but the 10 minute UTube limit is a pain. I saw a video uploaded for the Sustanable Energy conference at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3313836270310047660 I am trying to use this facility and upload some stuff. It took too long on my broadband so will try next month.


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## djmjnewton (Aug 14, 2008)

I wasnt happy with the effect regen my SEVCON controller does has on the drive train of the old ALTO. It makes it shudder and shake to a stop which with the direct drive cant be good for it. I turned it off so it now simply free wheels like I presume a series wound motor does. A much nicer driving experience. It will be interesting to see what effct it has on efficiency. (currently on across town driving with repeated stops and hard accel as normal ICE car eqivalent doing about 550 Watts per mile with regen)


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