EVCCON

16 Current EVents / November 2014
continued next page
The Smart Build Team
EVCCON14: Li-Ion Batteries, Electric Race Cars, and More!
EVCCOn 14
By Lee Gasper-Galvin (South
Wisconsin EVA) and
Brian Noto, EVTV.me
A pre-convention group of 20 EV
enthusiasts began convening at Jack
Rickard’s Electric Motor Werks in
Cape Girardeau, MO on Sunday,
August 10 to convert a gas 2008
Smart ForTwo Car to electric. Under
the direction of Celso Menaia from
“Converte” of Portugal, the Smart
Build Team quickly disassembled the
original vehicle and then assembled
the Smart Car into a working EV in
time for the annual Friday “play day”
at Cape Girardeau Airport. There the
converted Smart Car participated in
the 1/8th-mile drag races, autocross,
and dynamometer testing to measure
horsepower and torque.
EVCCON14 kicked off with a
welcoming reception and wonderful
smorgasboard of tasty treats at the
EVtv Motor Werks on the evening of
August 12th. There were 139 attendees
from 8 countries, including Portugal,
the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, New
Zealand, Australia, Thailand, and the
US. To the delight of both attendees
and members of the community, a
total of 25 electric vehicles (most were
conversions, and some were quite
unique!) rolled through Cape Girardeau
during the conference, and participated
in the special EV parade on Saturday.
Here are some highlights of the
technical presentations on August 13,
14, and 16:
Welcome Remarks by Jack
Rickard, EVCCON14 Host and
Owner of EVtv Motor Werks
Jack pointed out during his “State of
the EV Industry” address, that up to
1986 there had been, over the previous Smart ForTwo conversion in progress

November 2014 / Current EVents 17
continued page 18
EVCCOn 14
100 years, approximately 500,000,000
electric vehicles built worldwide. By
July 2010, there were 1 billion EVs (an
additional 24 years), and there were
1.5 billion EVs by earlier this year (an
additional 4 years). Currently, there are
10,000 EVs produced per month in the
US (0.66% of US vehicle production),
with Tesla selling 2500 cars/month.
Many people drive a mental image of
themselves via their car. They want
safety, environmental control, music,
and privacy—the same “control
bubble” as in their homes. The
concept of getting people to change to
different types of vehicles after many
decades of driving—developing new
brand and car style preferences—e.g.
asking someone to give up their V8
for batteries, is almost preposterous.
Therefore, acculturation through other
people is needed.
Our mission is to have 100,000 people
Smart Build Team leader Celso Menaia from Portugal, with converted Smart ForTwo
go out and build an electric car and
show it to their neighbors, coworkers,
friends—anyone! You need to realize
that 99% of the conversations held
in the world about you, you are not
privy to—therefore, you are perhaps
not aware that within your respective
communities, you are viewed more as
the EV experts than the dealerships
who sell EVs.
As it turns out, it now seems that there
is a limitless supply of oil. But there
is also no limit on the price or cost to
produce that oil.
Why to Build an EV—How to
Approach It, by Jack Rickard
There are many reasons for doing your
own conversion, including:
• A basic, light car done well costs
about $15K - $20K; if very well
selected parts, $25K
• Allows you to eliminate profit and
overhead in acquiring your EV
• CAVEAT: Realize that if you’re
looking to save money with an
EV, it won’t work out; consider
that we’re at the hobby level of
expense
• It’s an interesting serial exercise
in small problem-solving to build
an EV
• It’s an intensely personally
satisfying hobby to build an EV
Other information:
• EVs are not about cars, but about
batteries
• For every 10 lb of car, you will
need 1 Wh of energy to go 1 mile,
e.g. if you want to go 100 mi in
a 3300-lb car, you will need a 33
kWh pack
• DC motors are the cheapest ft-lb
torque you can get
• The world is tending toward
AC systems, in which you can
increase efficiency 15% using
regenerative braking
• 335 V needed with most AC
systems
• Rule of thumb: 10C maximum
battery discharge
• If 20% of us did 20% of our miles
electrically, gasoline would be
$0.75/gallon
• Bloggers are being paid to spread
paranoia and fear against EVs
• Within the past 18 months, over
500 university EV programs have
sprung up
Back to Basics: Electricity
and Magnetism, by Professor
Ralph Tate, Department of
Automotive Technology,
Southern Illinois University
(SIU) at Carbondale
SIU offers a BS in Automotive
Technology. They have a 185,000
sq ft facility with state-of-the-art
equipment and training. Many of their

EVCCOn 14
continued on next page
John Metric in his “Assault&Battery” conversion—the world’s fastest car!
students obtain jobs with OEMs. For
more information, see their web site at
automotive.sui.edu.
Battery Testing,
by John Hardy, UK
Firstly, the final results of a long-term
test of a pack of eight CALB CA40fi
cells was reported. This test was
intended to check whether rated cycle
life for a single cell could be achieved
for an entire battery, and also to verify a
previous finding that the cells remain in
balance without active balancing. This
showed about 1700 — 2000 cycles
to 80% of original capacity. At 2000
cycles, remaining capacity was still
better than 80% of specified capacity
(when new, the cells deliver more than
their advertised capacity). The cells
were balanced on assembly and stayed
in balance throughout the test without
any form of BMS or active balancing.
This was possible because care was
taken with voltage monitoring to
eliminate the tiny unbalanced parasitic
loads which voltage monitoring usually
causes.
Secondly, a test rig was introduced
for assessing the impact of fast charge
on cycle life. Two three-cell packs of
CALB CA40fi cells were being cycled
in parallel, one charged at 3C (120
Amps) and one at 0.5C (20 Amps)
with all other factors (discharge rate,
ambient temperature) the same for
both packs. Initial results over fewer
than 200 cycles suggested that the
fast charged pack was losing capacity
more rapidly. Temperature rise at the
terminals during fast charge was of the
order of 15 – 20 degrees Celsius above
ambient. The use of dielectric grease
on the junction between cell terminal
and inter-cell bus-bar was found to
be counter-productive: it increased
EVCCON 14
Continued from page 17
the terminal temperatures during fast
charge markedly.
Thirdly, evidence of soft shorts in
CALB CA100fi cells was presented.
Thirty-eight of these cells had been
discharged to about 2.7 volts and the
voltage of each cell monitored over
the subsequent week. Thirty-six of the
38 cells showed a voltage recovery in
the millivolt range over several days
and then a stable voltage. The two
remaining cells exhibited a decay in
voltage (again in the millivolt range)
over the same time period indicating
self-discharge, probably caused by an
internal “soft short”. (A “soft short” is
a high-resistance internal short circuit
which has the effect of causing some
degree of self-discharge of the affected
cell.)
8Ah Battery Life Cycle Perfor-
mance Test, by Dave Bogard,
CO
Headway 8 Ah LiFePO4 batteries in
series of two cells each, were tested
for multiple cycles at three different
temperatures: 0, 20, and 55 degrees C.
Conclusions from the tests, concerning
the effect of temperature on aging,
were that the batteries performed best
at ambient temperature, the highest
temperature was detrimental to the
batteries, and the lowest temperature
was the most detrimentalto the batteries.
Hacking Electric Vehicles for
Fun and Profit, by Collin Kid-
der, FL
So why would anyone want to hack
EVs? You might want to take hardware
from OEM vehicles that have been
damaged and use it in EV conversions.
Or you might like to modify the
performance on OEM vehicles. And
lastly, it’s always fun to do! For more
information, contact collinkiddermfg.
com.
Lonestar EV Technologies and
Racing Applications, by Adam
Clark
John Metric’s “Assault and Battery”,
which was present at EVCCON14, is
now the fastest door car in the world, at
8.9 s for ¼ mile. It has two 9” NetGain
motors with Helwig brushes and two
Zilla 2K motor controllers, 375-V, 800

EVCCOn 14
almost no effect during the traction
limited period (but may help later in
the race), shifting weight to the back
has a moderate effect, raising the car’s
vertical center of gravity has a big
effect, and improving tire/track grip
has the biggest effect.
See more information on John’s
“Assault and Battery” at http://www.
ampahaulic.com.
EVtv.EU and Electric Boats,
by Anne Kloppenberg, Am-
sterdam, The Netherlands
In addition toAnne’s “boat conversions
to electric” business, he has now also
become EVtv’s supplier in Europe.
All the canal boats (approximately
200 boats) taken by tourists through
Amsterdam need to be emission-free
by the year 2020. This requirement will
create a perfect business opportunity to
introduce electric boat conversions.
SeeAnne’s two web sites, one for EVtv
Europe, http://evtv-amsterdam.eu/,
and the other for his boat conversions
business, called New Electric, http://
www.newelectric.nl.
“Electric Boats” Panel Dis-
cussion, by Anne Kloppen-
berg, Brian Seymour,
and Jeff Southerland
A variety of interesting points were
made during the discussion: There are
thousands of lakes where you can no
longer have motor boats on the water
(concerns about oil pollution, noise,
etc.), so electric boats may be more
acceptable alternatives on these lakes.
Further interest in converting boats
may be fueled by the inflated cost of
diesel on the water: $11/gal for diesel
in Amsterdam, and $5.50/gal in the
US. It doesn’t take much power to put
a boat through the water at low speed;
Kevin Smith with his “Illuminati”, featuring a unique car body that he custom built with
an AC
hp, 2200 lb, and does 0-60 mph in 1.5 s.
Opportunities for race cars include:
use materials science to lighten the
cars, connect electric motors to turbo-
chargers, develop advanced energy
management software (i.e. software
and code writing—a lot of power
is being unlocked by code writing),
make aerodynamic improvements, try
great new battery ideas, remove the
superfluous “stuff” in the packaging of
batteries, and add supercapacitors.
For more information, visit the web site
at http://www.ampahaulic.com.
Innovation in Motion—HPEVS
Hi Performance Electric Ve-
hicle Systems—Powered by
Electricity, by Brian Seymour
Brian discussed a number of projects,
including conversion of a Reinell
runabout boat to electric, the design
of Acuity Functions BMS primarily
for lead acid battery packs, and the
HPEVS oil-cooled motor production
release planned for early September.
The reasons for oil-cooling a motor
include: the type of oil being used
(i.e., purified mineral oil) pours like
water, and is a dielectric oil that has
successfully been used in transformers;
it gives better transfer of heat; the oil
is in direct contact with windings,
rotor, and stator core; it lubricates the
bearings; and the oil allows for higher
operating temperatures (up to 130
degrees C).
See Brian’s web site at http://www.
hpevs.com.
High Performance from Stock
Parts—Part 3, by John Metric
John has been tweaking his “Assault
and Battery” EV race car to maximize
its racing performance. He concluded
that changing the weight of the car has continued on page 20

EVCCOn 14
Glenn Brown driving his converted 1967 Ford Shelby Cobra
continued on next page
however, if you are traveling fast, the
power needs increase exponentially.
Electrical noise in a fiberglass boat is
a nightmare—e.g., lacking the huge
metal ground shield, one may need to
trail ground straps through the water
and embed a stainless steel screen in
the fiberglass.
Converte, by Paulo Almeida
and Celso Menaia, Lisbon,
Portugal
This presentation was about the
development of a “new” battery
meter. Most EV conversions at
EVCCON have small displays that
show instantaneous readings of volts,
amps, and amp-hour, but they cannot
show historical data. So Paulo and
Celso invented a device, which they
call “JLD505”, which can measure V,
A, Ah, W, and Wh, and transmit all of
this data via 3 different ports: through
a USB serial port, a Bluetooth serial
port, and a CAN interface.
Paulo and Celso work at ISEL (Lisbon
Superior Institute of Engineering) and
have created a brand name “Converte”,
which is dedicated to conversions and
products related to conversions.
Next Generation Battery
Monitoring System (“You’ve
Got to be Kidding!”) aka the
EVtv BMS, by Ed Clausen,
Paulo de Almeida, and Jack
Rickard
This is a device being developed that
can predict the early demise of cells
under very heavy load. Jack’s theory
is that if you measure the voltage of
each cell, you can observe that if any
cell is about to fail, it would sag further
than the other cells in approximately
the 8C to 10C range. The device has
EVCCON 14
no power electronics of any kind, and
it won’t balance anything; the “M” in
this BMS stands for “Monitoring”, not
“Managing”. For more information,
visit the http://EVtv.me web site.
The Myth of the No-Mainte-
nance EV, by Brian Noto
At some point in time, you are going
to have to work on your converted
vehicle—don’t make the wiring so
tight and so neat that you can’t get in
to repair it. When you build your car,
think about how things will vibrate
during travel. Think about how you can
get individual components back out,
not just how to get them in.
Tom Brunka (Helwig Carbon
Products): EV Motor Improve-
ment
Helwig produces brushes for all brush
type motors using materials such as
electro-graphite, metal graphite, and
graphite. Their best grades of brushes
for EVs that are street driven are
designated H38 for those with battery
packs of 230 V or less, and grade H60
for those with battery pack voltages
greater than 230 V.
For EV racing, they offer their H49
“race only grade”, which will wear
abnormally fast when used at low
average current levels, such as during
idle or coasting, and therefore is not
good for street applications. Helwig
makes recommendations (e.g., to
minimize wear, wind your brush
springs an extra ½ turn, because EV
applications need a lot of extra spring
pressure) and designs their brushes
to minimize grooving, mechanical
wear, electrical wear, voltage drop,
and arcing. Ideally, brush seating on a
new motor (with the H60 grade) should
be carried out for 7 days, 24 hours/
day, at 3000 to 4000 rpm. See more
information on Helwig’s brushes at
http://helwigcarbon.com or call Terry
Ewert (customer service technical)
at (414) 362-6252 or Tom Brunka

EVCCOn 14
Glenn Brown from Iowa City, IA won “Best of Show” with his converted Cobra
continued on page 22
was really special to witness the “EV
Grin” on people’s faces--especially on
first-timers who may never have driven
a custom electric vehicle!
The first event was not the racing, but
a weigh-in of all the EVs. The Lightest
Build this year went to the Twike,
a 704-lb purpose built vehicle. The
heaviest vehicle had to be Al Gajda’s
1939 Dodge Bros pickup.
Al was also instrumental in making sure
the drag race went off without a hitch.
The EVCCON laid out a professionally
timed 1/8-mile drag strip right down the
airport ramp. The best Elapsed Time
(E.T.) of the day of 8.02 sec @ 82.52
MPH went to John Metric with his 2002
Mazda Miata.
Over at the SOLO course, run by the St.
Louis Chapter of the Sports Car Club
of America, they were having a blast!
Michel “Mikey” Bertrand in his in his
triple-motor 1988 Porsche 911 captured
the best SOLO time of the day with an
impressive 57.593-second lap.
As the evening progressed, a tractor-
trailer made its way to the hangar and
Track Lab set up a mobile dynamometer.
They were able to test motive power,
horsepower, and torque of the vehicles.
Some of the numbers were quite
impressive but the winner, John Metric,
showed off with 584.34 ft-lb of torque.
And a final race…
On Sunday the attendees that were
still around headed south to Sikeston,
to Dyno Dom’s Drag Strip. The 1/8th-
mile strip is actually one of the oldest
in the U.S. and a real treat for the
attendees to make runs down. Last year
5 new National Electric Drag Racing
Association (NEDRA) world records
were set in a number of classes. 2014
saw three more broken.
(engineering) at (414) 354-2411 x285.
“Playday”
All hands were on deck when the
EVCCON took to the Cape Girardeau
regional Airport on Friday. No one
lagged behind or showed up late for
the all-day motor sports extravaganza.
“Playday”, as it’s come to be known,
began around 9:00 a.m. with coffee and
a light breakfast. Then the attendees
were given their marching orders for
the day and a little speech about the
spirit and purpose of the event, as
well as safety (there’s always time for
safety!) for the drivers.
The purpose of Playday was for
everyone who had brought a vehicle to
get a chance to see how their vehicles
perform down the 1/8th-mile drag strip
and the Sports Car Club of America
SOLO road race event. The spirit of the
day was more about sharing. Everyone
was encouraged to share their riders
with other attendees whether or not
they were able to bring a vehicle. It

EVCCOn 14
Brian Noto and Jack Rickard presenting at the technical session
EVCCON14 technical session
EVCCON 14
George Grant III, who wasn’t an
attendee, but heard about the race and
travelled some 700 miles, set the record
in the DMC/H Class with his Electron
Rush motorcycle. His time was 7.402
sec @ 80.64 MPH.
The PS/F Class went to Michel
Bertrand in his 1988 Porsche 911 with
a time of 8.836 sec @ 77.09 MPH.
Brian Noto smashed last year’s record
setting run, establishing a new record
in the XS/C Class of 9.364 sec @ 74.17
MPH.
Another non-attendee Terry Hatfield
driving up from Springdale, AR
brought “Shock Therapy”, a NEDRA
record holder, attempting to hit the 100
MPH mark and gain the title of World’s
Fastest Golf Cart”. He missed it by 1
MPH!
Playday set the standard again for fun
and friendship, competition, and hard
work for everyone in attendance. It was
a great finish to a great event, the 4th
Annual Electric Vehicle Conversion
Convention.
Plan to join us in Cape
Girardeau, MO for
EVCCON15!
Brian Noto announced that there will
be an EVCCON15 in September next
year. The conference dates will be
September 29 – October 3. Write to
info@EVtv.me to get signed up for the
early bird rate of $349 by April 1, or at
the regular rate of $595 after April 1.

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