Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you using only 2 connections to the pot (one end and the wiper)?

So what if you took a pot with 300 degrees of rotation moved it only 1/6 of the way to 50 degrees and stopped? In that case wouldn't a 30K pot work?

The next trick is finding one of those ;) .
https://www.elexp.com/srp_s30k.htm

I know you can get a 50K pot at radio shack. 0 to 50 degrees would be 8.3K. Is that bad? Worth testing? Or wait for that $0.90 30K one :D

Yes, instant is nice.

Some ICE cars have instant heat too. I don't know about the US market cars, but the last generation Echo hatch that I test drove had a honking big resistor in the heating duct that you could light up as soon as you started the car. It didn't feel "hot", but warm air did come out of the vents within a few seconds.

But man, the BTUs coming out of an ICE heater once warm is pretty hard to beat with ceramic heaters.

Even the EV1 had a lousy heater, from first hand reports I've read. (Though it was a heat pump, not a ceramic resistor.) Efficiency, efficiency...

Nope, I need all 3 wires for the Curtis. (Otherwise the existing pot in the potbox would work.)

The amount of time I've spent looking for a deal on the right pot, I could have just done some work and earned enough $ to buy several at list price. :D

But it's the principle!

(I even considered making my own wire-wound pot, but couldn't find any decent resistive wire around the workshop ;) )

I even took apart the Playstation analog controller to see what pots it has.

I don't think that's weird at all. One time my brother was in need of some kind of high wattage variable resistance for an impromptu project and used a piece of ham he had lying around. :eek: He had wires stuck in at different points. :rolleyes:

Kids, don't try this at home. :D

You're telling this to someone who picks up brown recluse spiders and used to break lightbulbs and stick the tungsten filaments in electrical sockets as a kid.

Hmm: https://www.fsipcatalog.com/p-4053-mo...ntiometer.aspx

0-5k ohm, says an email from the vendor. Diagram shows 3-wires. It's a slide pot, but that doesn't really matter. Looks like it may also have microswitches built in.

$14 plus shipping.

https://www.fsipcatalog.com/images/Pr...m/MODEL810.jpg

I was thinking that slide pots are notorious for getting dirty and flaking out, but after looking at it, I think that one may be pretty well sealed. :thumbup:

Well, I got some advice & encouragement from an experienced EVer...

Nice work Darin. :cool:

More pics:

Very, very nice. I am properly impressed. You do make it look easy. :thumbup: :)

(Is it news to say "no news"?)

Nothing to report this week/end. Didn't get a welder. The weather has put a serious crimp in my desire to do a quickie road test. And I have a cold.

Spent a little time looking for angle iron for battery trays. A free bed frame would be nice (though I know some EVers say "proper", thicker angle iron is preferred). Had a couple of leads through the local freecycle group, but nothing just yet.

Creative
 

Nice job :thumbup: it looks like it's coming together! Any thoughts of mounting some batts in the rear for weight distrib?

RH77

Yeah, definitely. Remember the batts we have are 6v, so those 4 in the front represent only 24v of our 48v goal. So we'll be putting 4 in the hatchback, or under the rear seat if there's enough room - we're thinking of making a batt box that extends down into the space that the gas tank will be vacating. Probably not enough room though.

Bed frame sounds perfect to me, good reuse of materials and plenty strong.

I did that once and learned afterwards to make sure the angle iron isn't plated with zinc or something before starting to weld; it can produce poisonous gases.

Yes! I actually learned about that this summer when researching building my bicycle trailer (from zinc coated electrical conduit).

Breathing the fumes can give you "metal fever".

It's better done outdoors, with a good breeze. (Or not at all.)

where abouts in easter ontario are you? ive got an old bed frame laying around. if you're not too far away i wouldnt mind seeing the forkenswift in exchange for the frames. i could bring my mig welder along too if need be.

PM'd you, Nathan.

Hadn't talked to Ivan for about a week or thereabouts.

Turns out while I was tracking down a bed frame (got one this week) he was too. (Actually he got some thicker angle iron).

Word is he's already cut the pieces for the front batt trays and he's going to try to have a friend weld them together tomorrow.

Ah well, we'll likely still be able to use the bed frame metal for the rear tray.

Supposed to be working on the batt trays

Front battery trays

Picked up 2 more batteries from

Still no welder to finish the battery trays.

This evening: wired the 36v string togeth

This evening: wired the

When's the first go at?

I can hear those dueling banjos already... :D

Squeeeeal like a Curtis! (If you get that, well. Yep.)

The go attempt will be this weekend, if not before. (What month is this? It's September, still, right? Are we on schedule?)

We could try in the evening this week, but I want to document the milestone, so it needs to be light out.

PS - SW - how's the Healey?

Have you ever geared up the FS website?

Yup, I get it. Speaking of banjos, I'm trying to make one (as in banjo-bolt fitting). I think I finally figured out how to get oil pressure before turning the engine.
The only trouble is the thread is 3/8" X 28 (ever heard of it?) So I'm tinkerin'

https://www.forkenswift.com exists, but it mostly points to other places (like this thread). I don't think I'll work on fleshing that out until the car is further along. Let's say after the pack is properly installed on racks & cabled, and the controls are complete and mounted. And that would be some time in... September?

SW: You got me - never heard of it. Glad I'm not the only one tardy with the garage projects though!

I believe only the 1231C models made that squeal.

Unfortunately for Curtis, the model that squeals appears to have become a "brand identity" thing among hobbyists. (The golf cart controller we have is actually a Cursit, and it's quiet as a mouse. About as powerful too.)

how about posting a build log on that site similar to something like i did on my mantaproject.com site? It is easy to do, every day you work on the car take some pics of your progress and dump them in a dir on the webserver and update the index.html to point to the new page and later on when you get time you can add text and a description of the pictures.

Works pretty good for me that way since I get lazy sometimes doing my updates and I can just dump the pictures into the dirs and fix up the html as I get around to it. The program that makes the image map thumbnails I use on that site is also free and takes like 5 seconds to use generating the basic html page for you that you can edit later as you feel like it.

Well, this thread is my build log :)

I see what you mean though. Cool site - I love the factoid about "Shaky Jake". Classic.

The plan is to eventually copy bits of this thread to make the "conversion diary" part of forkenswift.com and point back here if people want to talk about it/comment.

(Matt, you are backing up the server right?)

Just noticed the two YouTube vids of the motor power-ups have been viewed over 5000 times. 5314 to be exact. Amazing.

feeding the ForkenSwift
 

Remember a while back I said the used floodies