electricfly at The Great Vehicle Adventure

 Well - we did it! We got our handouts, business cards, and flyer's, etc. all done picked up and made it to the show by before 8 AM!

We layed them out on the table, along with a copy each of three different EV Conversion manuals we have, one from the EV Society, a copy of Convert It, and Bob Brant's book on Electric Vehicles.

We also had a sample of a ThunderSky Lithium Iron Phosphate Cell TS-LFP40AHA, - the a 40 Amp Hour cell, with a weight of about 1.5 Kg, and a voltage of about 3.2V Nominal, which I ordered in from Everspring.net. The ThunderSky Cells, are rated at 3C Continuous, so these cells could deliver 120 Amps Continuous, according to the specs, and still be ok. Beside that - I had one copy of a Cell from A123Systems, the ANR26650M1 - Like those in their Developer Kits. These Cells can deliver 30C, or 30X their rated capacity (2.3Ah) continuously, that's 70 amps, safely, and up to 50C (115 Amps) for short pulses.
These were there to show where Battery Technology is going, and where anyone could go today to buy products in this direction, instead of just sticking to Lead-Acid Batteries like the Trojan SCS-150's that I first bought. The Trojans, while OK to use for testing out wiring, and basic demonstrating runs, truly are not good for the 180+ Amp draws I need for my motor to develop great acceleration, and maintain continuous Highway speeds. that's why I think they are only suitable for LSV's but not for long range ones, though.

We had visitors both old and young, and many in between. The young ones just wanted to sit behind the wheel of everything, push knobs, twist dials, and steering, step on the pedals, and so on, but this one wanted to be 'cool' while we took his picture! Others love to honk the Horn, crank on switches, and of course - the had to close the door to complete the experience!

The Adults were genuinely interested in the idea, the technology, or the possibility - for themselves. Many people stopped buy, and of course - many took Electricfly business cards. While I switched out with Lily so I could see some of the show, I met people and in talking with them, discovered one who wants to convert a Subaru, another that want to convert a BMW Motorcycle, one who wants to know what EV Technology could do for his large trucks in the fleet, and so on. A lot of people want to know what to do to reduce or eliminate their gasoline consumption. Some to save money, others to clean up the air!

Of course the usual questions about Electricfly ranged from how far (per charge), how fast, and how long to recharge?

My current answers - maximum distance or range on a charge I have seen is 38 km, but recommend on batteries installed only about 20 km (12.4 Miles), now that I have the Woodward Display to tell me all the things the PakTrakr figures out, but only shows in two lines, versus the 38 km  (23.6 Miles)  when I just had the Voltmeter and Ammeter in Analog Gauges! That 12 miles might not sound like much - but for the local I live in - it covered about 50 - 60% of the needs by itself!

How fast - is similarly modified now - in that I have done actually up to 108 Kph (Kilometers Per Hour = ~ 67 Mph), but would say that with the new Woodward gauge I can say that these batteries are best only running 25 - 35 amps - so 25 - 40 Kph or 50 Kph for longevity of the batteries at present, but this could be improved upon simply by upgrading to the Thunder Sky Cells like the yellow one shown above, in the 90 Ah or 160 Ah Cell Size. Last of all - How long to recharge - is basically 4 - 7 hours usually, not often much longer. Also - that usually only takes 3 - 5 kWh at 13 cents per kWh, or $0.39 to $0.65 worth of electricity - after taxes, delivery, debt retirement charges, and actual 5.5 Cents per kWh electricity cost!

In a read of todays emails - I came across a link for 4-Cell Packs of the ThunderSky 40 Ah LiFePO4 Cell - in a single pack, ready to install, just add balancing electronics (BMS - Battery Management Systems), it is being sold on eBay for just $259 US - I paid $80+ for my cell, plus shipping and duty from China, so it seems like a reasonable price, and it is my understanding that he got the price due to a very large purchase, netting him a cost of $1.10 per Ah versus the $2,00 per Ah I paid (or more) for mine.

By the time the show finished at 6 PM - we had handout out quite a large number of business cards on the Electricfly, a sizable number of them on our Video Phone (on display on the table - top Picture), and a great many EV Society Member Applications and Newsletter sample pages, answered questions from a number of people, met a few select people of interest in both the EV project and the AeroCap Project, and generally enjoyed the day!

We drove out Electricfly to the pavement on the side of the front entrance, and then brought the AeroCap Pickup around to hook it up, but - it was raining a good stream so the hook up was done quickly, and off we went, Electricfly in tow, returning home still in daylight in time to make an easy unhook on the street by the apartment!

{Updated on Thursday January 10, 2013 to correct numerous Missed Typo's and add a bit of clarity. R.W.}