Freelander 1 Freelander EV

[Alibro]

I'd love to have the first drive video up but unfortunately I've managed to corrupt the SD card so presently trying to recover it.

 

[Nodge68]

I'd love to have the first drive video up but unfortunately I've managed to corrupt the SD card so presently trying to recover it.

SD stands for secure digital, but I've had corruption on SD cards in the past too. It worries me a bit, because I've got terabytes of images on some kind of electronic storage, not all in the same place, but lots spread about.

 

[Alibro]

As a computer engineer my mantra has always been "If it's important keep a second copy"
It was as I was trying to make the second copy it corrupted.

After spending hours trying various Free Apps only to find they have limit of 500Mb or so before charging £60 or £70, I used my head and checked for Panasonic specific software and found a wee app called AVCCAM. It's working as I type.

 

[Alibro]

It turned out the Panasonic software was a bit rubbish. I eventually got most of the files back however I had to remake the 'First Drive' video. I'll edit and post it later.
Only issue is I have a very nice glass of red in my hand so it might be a bit slow.

 

[Alibro]

First drive on the road
Kinda.

 

[Freddie17]

First drive on the road
Kinda.

Just. Bloody. Brilliant!
That is cracking and well done. At one point I was watching the video thinking Jesus man, you are red-lining the engine something rotten…. Then I remembered…!

I think we should all now have a whip-round for you, so you can get new SD cards

 

[Alibro]

Just. Bloody. Brilliant!
That is cracking and well done. At one point I was watching the video thinking Jesus man, you are red-lining the engine something rotten…. Then I remembered…!

I think we should all now have a whip-round for you, so you can get new SD cards

LOL, thanks mate, it was a LOT of fun.
At one point I tried to drive while it wasn't in gear and it revved off the scale. It's something I need to be careful of.

The SD card is fine, I got most of the video off and can format it again but I know what happened to screw it up. I put it into my Laptop that has an SD Card reader which I remembered afterwards screws up SD cards.

 

[GrumpyGel]

Quality Ali.

Mind you its not a Land Rover... 20 miles of the production line without any issues

In the vid, you say it can pull from stand still, or very close to it in 3rd, but would that put a lot of stress on the gearbox?

 

[Alibro]

Quality Ali.

Mind you its not a Land Rover... 20 miles of the production line without any issues

In the vid, you say it can pull from stand still, or very close to it in 3rd, but would that put a lot of stress on the gearbox?

Yes mate, I can pull away in 3rd but I suspect it would stress every part of the drive train as well as drawing more current than necessary so I'll be starting off in 2nd most of the time. It is just so much more efficient and easy to change gear anyway.
I guess if the car was moving slowly it would be similar to pulling away using 2nd in a normal car so I'm sure that will happen.

 

[Nodge68]

First drive on the road
Kinda.

That's excellent Ali.
Performance doesn't seem slow to me. You have to remember that a standard TD4 had a 0-60 time in glacial 12.8 seconds on a good day. Your EV looks to do the same dash in around 10 seconds, going by how quickly the speed built up in the video, so I'd say it's more than acceptable.
I like the low range that first will now give you too, ideal for moving heavy trailers and off road.
I figured ABS would work, but suspect that TC will require throttle position feedback to work, that same might be true for the HDC.

Can I ask? What does the rev counter show, as it's not directly tied to road speed. I did wonder if it moves in response to power output, a bit like the power display on a Rolls Royce.

 

[Nodge68]

Yes mate, I can pull away in 3rd but I suspect it would stress every part of the drive train as well as drawing more current than necessary so I'll be starting off in 2nd most of the time. It is just so much more efficient and easy to change gear anyway.
I guess if the car was moving slowly it would be similar to pulling away using 2nd in a normal car so I'm sure that will happen.

You have to remember that the gearbox is designed for a diesel engine, which makes torque in a constant stream of heavy thumps, 2 per engine revolution. Compared to that abuse, your smooth electric motor is very gentle, dispite having a similar torque output. Compare a diesel engine output to that of a hammer drill on a wall, and an electric motor as the same drill without hammer action turned on. Which drills the hole in a wall faster? the hammer action does, simply because is thumping at the wall. The gearbox should last much longer now it's not being thumped to bits by a hard hitting diesel engine, even though it's transferring a similar torque.
I'd not be worried myself.

 

[Freddie17]

That's excellent Ali.
Performance doesn't seem slow to me. You have to remember that a standard TD4 had a 0-60 time in glacial 12.8 seconds on a good day. Your EV looks to do the same dash in around 10 seconds, going by how quickly the speed built up in the video, so I'd say it's more than acceptable.
I like the low range that first will now give you too, ideal for moving heavy trailers and off road.
I figured ABS would work, but suspect that TC will require throttle position feedback to work, that same might be true for the HDC.

Can I ask? What does the rev counter show, as it's not directly tied to road speed. I did wonder if it moves in response to power output, a bit like the power display on a Rolls Royce.

After I woke up and realised that the rev counter was not showing the engine speed (duh!), I assumed it was showing the battery power output. I have a BMW iX3 (fullEV) and it shows exactly that, in place of the rev counter.
Though that shows it as a percentage - could you calibrate the rev counter for 0-100% Output?
personally, I think it’s fun just watching it red-line

 

[Alibro]

The rev counter is supposedly showing motor rpm as it shows similar to the rpm gauge in the VCU app but it needs calibrating. It might never happen.
As for starting in third I'm not so much worried about the gearbox but more the excess electrons consumption and strain on the coupler. In my ebike with a Bafang mid drive the manual specifies it must be ridden in the correct gear for the speed or the warranty is invalid. If you try to start a bicycle in 10th gear it is hard and you need to strain to get it moving, I figure the same logic applies here and as changing gear is so easy I'll stick with starting in 2nd.
I'm pretty sure Nodge and I had discussed the ABS years ago and figured it should work so I'm not surprised it does. TC doesn't but this will be a Mall Crawler so I don't care.
As for performance, it's adequate for an auld fool like me.

 

[kernowsvenski]

Looking great. I found myself watching the rev counter alot! Looking forward to your post tomorrow to let us know how it's gone!

With the test coming up I've been wondering, the sound is interesting, and you may have mentioned it before but I can't remember, have you made an assessment on low speed noise and the need to emulate a sound for pedestrians being able to hear the vehicle coming? Apologies if you've already discussed this and I've missed it.

 

[andyfreelandy]

It'll be fine, they'll hear the power steering coming !

 

[Nodge68]

The rev counter is supposedly showing motor rpm as it shows similar to the rpm gauge in the VCU app but it needs calibrating. It might never happen.
As for starting in third I'm not so much worried about the gearbox but more the excess electrons consumption and strain on the coupler. In my ebike with a Bafang mid drive the manual specifies it must be ridden in the correct gear for the speed or the warranty is invalid. If you try to start a bicycle in 10th gear it is hard and you need to strain to get it moving, I figure the same logic applies here and as changing gear is so easy I'll stick with starting in 2nd.
I'm pretty sure Nodge and I had discussed the ABS years ago and figured it should work so I'm not surprised it does. TC doesn't but this will be a Mall Crawler so I don't care.
As for performance, it's adequate for an auld fool like me.

The rev counter can't accurately show motor RPM, as this electric motor spins at up to 12k RPM, which is round your rev counter over 2 times. If using it for motor RPM, maybe a recalibrate scale would be more useful?

You're right about keeping the drive current as low as possible, simply to reduce stress on the batteries, cables and inverter. I'm still hunting for a DC to DC converter for your PS, as having extra batteries to run it seems easy one more complication to deal with.

 

[Alibro]

The rev counter works well enough as an indicator of RPM even if it's not accurate so I'll probably just leave well alone.
The PS could easily be sorted with a Zafira PS pump driven off the 12V system so there is really no need for an additional dc to dc. The reason I went the way I did was to have the pump a bit quieter but it turns out it may not be much better.
I kinda wanted this car to be a bit different in some way to other conversions and this achieves that even if it doesn't make much sense. Think Mazda ****el Rotary!
I had a few unexpected issues today and spent most of the day trying to overcome them. Hopefully I've done that but will check again in the morning.

 

[andyfreelandy]

MOT or not MOT that is the question!!

 

[Alibro]

MOT or not MOT that is the question!!

MOT.

 

[andyfreelandy]

Yaahhhh!! Well done.

Ist chapter complete.

Now to next one !!