# the intro of crack monkey



## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

Very cool old buggy body! Your goals sound very do-able. I have a buggy with about a 20 mile range. You can see some pictures here and here.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

wow... your buggy looks great! almost exactly what i want to build.


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## nedrapr (Mar 9, 2011)

Hey Ryan. Sounds like a cool project. Since you are in Hagerstown, you should come out to our Power of DC EV racing event June 11 and 12. AutoCross at the Valley Mall on Saturday and the National Electric Drag Racing Association event on Sunday at Mason Dixon. There will be plenty of EVs to see there and KTA-EV is one of our sponsors.
http://www.evadc.org


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

nedrapr said:


> Hey Ryan. Sounds like a cool project. Since you are in Hagerstown, you should come out to our Power of DC EV racing event June 11 and 12. AutoCross at the Valley Mall on Saturday and the National Electric Drag Racing Association event on Sunday at Mason Dixon. There will be plenty of EVs to see there and KTA-EV is one of our sponsors.
> http://www.evadc.org


 i am all over being there on the 11th! do you know that there is a cruise in at the mall on Saturday evenings? What time do things kick off?


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## nedrapr (Mar 9, 2011)

Great you can make it out! We start arriving at the Macy's parking lot near Golden Corral at 9 am and start racing at 10 to 10:30. It will go on till about 3 or 4. I've heard there's been a Cruise night at the Mall Saturday evenings which is on the other side of the Mall.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

nedrapr said:


> Great you can make it out! We start arriving at the Macy's parking lot near Golden Corral at 9 am and start racing at 10 to 10:30. It will go on till about 3 or 4. I've heard there's been a Cruise night at the Mall Saturday evenings which is on the other side of the Mall.


 actually the cruise in is in that same lot.. doesnt usually start until 5 and goes until 9ish. it is a good time. 300-400 cars show up every week. $2 to park the car and you see everything from Morgans to Toyota Tundras. I go just to wander around and look for design ideas.


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## nedrapr (Mar 9, 2011)

Sounds like that lot will have a busy day.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

went over and watched the autocross event yesterday..... that was pretty cool. 

I had a good time


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## Tatsushige (Mar 24, 2011)

Sounds like a fun project, will be watching. I like projects like this that are original.


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## EVfun (Mar 14, 2010)

My motor suggestion depends more on how much tail the car has than needed size. If it won't stick out to far an old Presolite MTC motor looks real nice with its fancy finned end bell (just over 17 inch in total length.) It is only a 7.25 inch motor but that is plenty large to push a sub- 2000 lb. car around. If you are running a little short on length (feel something longer wouldn't look right) you can opt for the WarP Impulse 9 motor (just over 15 inches overall.) It attaches to adapters designed for the ADC 8 motor. The ADC 8 is between the 2 in length at just over 16 inches. All 3 of the motors have similar performance specs and will work fine. I've been running a Prestolite MTC motor in my Buggy for 11 years.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

gottdi, i agree with you that if it can go faster it will look better and be a better promo vehicle. I think as long as it preforms as good or better than a standard bug... i will be happy. since i am pretty new to the ev thing i am setting my expectations a little low..... although after watching some of the cars at the autocross this weekend, i def have more respect and hopes for this project.

the motor i am looking at is from Raymond Equipment Co., Syracuse, NY. Serial #579-206/100. dont know the size of it off hand. it is a forklift motor.

the tail of my buggy is really nice it comes out far and angles down. here is a shot of it


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## Tatsushige (Mar 24, 2011)

What Make of Buggy is it?

I was looking at Buggys in the UK for a EV a few years ago. But dropped the idea to work on the car design.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

i dont have the motor yet..... a guy i know has it and i am currently trying to get the funds together to pick it up. he was going to do an EV but decided to go gas. 

just discovered the rear windows in my basement are leaking and when i pulled off the siding i found lots of mold rot.... not the thing you want to see in a place that is not even 5 years old yet. so funds may be redirected (again)


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

oh and it is a mantaray II kyote. made by dean jefferies.... if you have ever seen the monkees movie 'head', there is one in there.

here is a pic of a proper one


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

sort of an update. Today i started an internship at a local solar instalation company. they have a GEM car that has been out of commission for the past few years. there is a parade in early october they want to take their TDI beetle, GEM, and their new Leaf (more on the leaf in a second.) Back to the GEM. it is cool it will give me some practical EV experiance before i get to really tear in to the buggy. the batteries are shot the front charging plug doesnt work and who know what other issues I will find since it has sat outside uncovered all this time... yeah the cover was stored nicely in the rear trunk ha ha ha. Anyway, i am really excited to tear into it. 

On to the Leaf. I saw it the day after they got it a few weeks ago when i interviewed. Today it has just over a thousand miles on it! Rode shotgun to lunch with the boss. On the way back he let me drive. It was my first time driving an all electric. Felt like a regular car that had run out of gas. with a regular car you get the slight hum of mechanical feedback but in the leaf there was nothing to give that feedback... pretty wild. i feel it is a bit odd that you have to choose 'eco' mode. i would think it would automatically be in that and then if you want more pickup, switch to regular 'drive' .... but oh well. pulling out on to the road in drive you could get the wheels to struggle to not spin and the traction control would flash for a second. when you get low on miles it will let you know. the interior materials are my biggest complaint. I am just used to a higher quality. overall it is not bad. a good step in the right direction


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

I picked up the GEM car yesterday from the company that I am doing my internship with. it was quite an adventure getting it home but it is here. just waiting on the new batteries so i can figure out what else is wrong with it. 

Today the wife and i went to dc to check out the 2011 solar decathlon. while we were there we caught a ride in a 6 seater GEM car. So at least now i have riden in one and know what it should be like when i am able to get cracking on the one here. 

I have to admit that i am kinda hoping that once i identify the issues and report back to the boss that they decide not to fix it and i can pick it up from him..... i think it would be a cool base for my buggy project


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

was out today and pulled the batteries out of the GEM









it is amazing how simple this vehicle is. had to remove the rear body work to get at the last 2 batteres and it all came off with 6 bolts. 

Im thinking aobut talking to my boss and see if he wants to sell it. it would make a good base for the dune buggy


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

I finally got to look at the Gem more. I think the controller is toast. I could sometimes get it to turn on, but if I hit any buttons or the brake it would shut off like I was tripping something... Then after a few seconds it would try to turn back on. It would cycle on and off until it would stay on or give up. I was hearing a clicking from the area of the contactor in sync with the cycling. At one point I got it to move about 3 mph but as soon as the brakes were hit 'click' and nothing. The other thing is that the charger doesn't always see the battery pack. 

its odd, if anyone thinks it is not the controller please chime in.


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## bjfreeman (Dec 7, 2011)

crack monkey said:


> I finally got to look at the Gem more. I think the controller is toast. I could sometimes get it to turn on, but if I hit any buttons or the brake it would shut off like I was tripping something... Then after a few seconds it would try to turn back on. It would cycle on and off until it would stay on or give up. I was hearing a clicking from the area of the contactor in sync with the cycling. At one point I got it to move about 3 mph but as soon as the brakes were hit 'click' and nothing. The other thing is that the charger doesn't always see the battery pack.
> 
> its odd, if anyone thinks it is not the controller please chime in.


if it is the controller, the question is why.
Normally Solid state, if design properly, will fail with in 72hrs. if it does not fail in the time it will work forever.
So I would first put the wheels up in the air and connect to the motor through a fused cable to see it is works.


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## bjfreeman (Dec 7, 2011)

Oh and disconnect the controller from the motor first.


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## Coulomb (Apr 22, 2009)

crack monkey said:


> its odd, if anyone thinks it is not the controller please chime in.


Does it have regen? If so, maybe the battery is high internal resistance, so a little regen current will overvoltage the pack, and the controller could be turning off the main contactor due to overvoltage. (It should of course just do less regen, but maybe it's too slow and some sort of "outer loop" reacts to a way too high pack voltage with an emergency disconnect.)

It should be easy to test that theory; just monitor the pack voltage. If you already are, and it seems to be fine, then obviously this is not the problem. Just a thought.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

this thing hasn't been operated in a few years. They said something happened to it and they just parked it. So it was sitting in the elements until I drug it home to try and fix.

yeah it is a regen., all gems are from what I understand.

I have been watching the voltage while messing with it and it is steady and consistent between the voltage at the pack and at the contactor. 


I hope they just sell the thing to me. I would make the whole wiring set up much more simple.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

so I've been pouring over a parts book for the gem... And then went out to check something.

could this be a condition caused by the dc to dc converter failing? I got it to turn on I grabbed a hold of the panel that holds the dc to dc converter, contactor and fuses. Then hit the light switch. The contactor 'clicks' and there is actually another 'click' I can feel and after getting closer hear the separate sound. It is coming from this panel. I started reading on here about the converters and started wondering if this might be part of the problem.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

well here is an update on the GEM. Still broken.

sent the controller of to get checked out. Ended up needing to be rebuilt. So I got it back and put it in. Nothing. Not even the minor stuff in the display. 

I decided to pull some stuff out and tear it apart to look for burnt stuff. Checked the main board. It looks fine. The dc to dc converter is one piece so can't take that apart. But I was able to verify that voltage is getting to it. 

still, no power to the display. No movement. 

the magnet that operates the contactor doesn't get power to activate. (followed the wires and they run back to the controller.) 

ah I don't know. Getting a bit frustrated, but it will work at some point. Might be easier if I found wiring diagram, no success finding one yet.


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

was out messing with the GEM again today. Still no closer to getting it moving. I am stuck. I have power from the batteries to the contactor/the board... But nothing further. I checked the motor by briefly going direct to the batteries.... And it is good to go. Just no power getting to it. 

the boss says to buy whatever it needs but at this point I don't know what that is. I could buy another board for 800 but I don't know that it will fix it....I'm considering telling him that we just need to take it to the dealer and have them go at it... fdont know.... It would be nice if anyone had a wiring diagram... Polaris doesn't for some reason


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## crack monkey (May 30, 2011)

been a long time since i updated anything in this thread and this i only a small update... but still an update.

GEM is long gone. took it back to my former employer before I left to start my own company 

Just picked up the motor and controller for the project. it is a curtis 1209b controller and a Raymond 72v forklift motor. it will all sit around for a while until I can get some other parts.... hopefully in the next few months.

Still sticking with 72v of lead. There are some solar people out there with Residential battery back up systems using lithium but I am going to use what I know on this project. Plan is still to have the pack recharge with a solar array that travels with the vehicle. 

That is the current unknown... the vehicle. I still have the buggy body, however it is pretty rough (you can see the pictures in this thread). I have also started to consider going to a full length buggy because the solar array will fit better on the roll cage.... third option is a WW2 Jeep that I saw at a potential clients home. This vehicle will be used to help me promote something I do with my company.... we take some profits from our regular installations and use it to donate a solar array to disabled veteran and place it on their home. So an Army Jeep would be pretty cool. I dont know and have plenty of time to worry about that later. need to get more parts first.

here is to hoping that the next update is sooner than 2 years


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