Voltage

04/08/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FiQIT8MfCQ

Welcome back to another installment of Project Acte. My 1993 Honda Acty Kei van is being converted to electric. In this episode we're talking Tesla batteries...

16/10/2022

Here’s how I hooked up the coolant for the battery boxes.

14/10/2022

Little before and after.

10/10/2022

Sort of some crummy pictures, but here’s the box in its final resting place under the van.

10/10/2022

Sort of a crummy picture, but here’s the box in its final resting place under the van.

10/10/2022

Pt 2 of mounting that battery box

10/10/2022

Front end is 95% complete.

- New lower control arms
- Replaced tie rod ends
- New brake rotors
- New pads
- Cleaned and painted caliper assembly
- New coilovers
- Fabricated new brake line mount.

I just need to bleed and refill the brakes and we should be good to go. I’m excited to put some miles on these coilovers and get you guys all some updates on making more sets of adapters. I’ll be posting a preorder page soon so stay tuned.

16/09/2022

You may have seen me post on my story about these, but over the past few months I’ve been working on the front suspension set up for the van.

I’ve finally arrived here, a conversion kit to run Honda Civic adjustable coilovers in the Acty to achieve a 2” lift in the front. The lower cups are machined out of 6061 aluminum, and the top hats are made out of 3/16” steel and feature camber adjustment. There are a ton of benefits to this kind of set up as opposed to a traditional body lift. Here are the main benefits to this set up:

- There are no longer any new OEM struts for Gen 1 or 2 Actys. A set of 30 year old used struts go for $500+ shipped from Japan.
- There’s one manufacturer of OEM replacement struts however, they often don’t fit the knuckle due to inconsistent manufacturing. (I know from experience). These sell for $250/ea.
- Body lifts will raise the body of the car without providing any additional suspension travel. They effectively raise your center of gravity which can decrease your handling capability.
- Body lifts provide little to no adjustability.
- Coilovers allow you to adjust preload, dampening, camber and most popularly, ride height.
- Coilovers can also give you variability in spring weights which allow you to increase performance, or ride quality.
- The increased size of the Civic coilover allows for increased stroke and better suspension travel.
- The last and final kicker, a brand new set of these coilovers from the factory costs $250 all in.

07/09/2022

Current state of affairs. Everything in progress all at once. Also, look at that ball joint.

26/08/2022

The rear end is really coming together.

When you lift the rear, the stock struts aren’t long enough which is a good reason to upgrade. I went with these KYBs that are nearly a perfect fit for the 2.5” lift.

You can see the left still needs to be bolted up.

26/08/2022

The rear end is really coming together.

When you lift the rear, the stock struts aren’t long enough which is a good reason to upgrade. I went with these KYBs that are nearly a perfect fit for the 2.5” lift.

You can see the left still needs to be bolted up.

02/08/2022

What is a BMS and why do you need one?

When you’re using any battery that is composed of multiple cells you want to limit the differences between those cells which occur naturally throughout the life of the batteries. Differences in voltage between cells can not only reduce the overall life of the pack but also lead to fatal consequences when charging the batteries.

Let’s give an example, say I have a pack that has 2 lithium cells, cell A has a charge of 3.2V and cell B has a charge of 4.0V, if I plug this into my 8V charger without a balancer the charger could try and get cell A up to 4.2V (the max charge for lithium cells) and in doing so it would overcharge cell B.

Overcharging a lithium cell is what can cause it to explode, which you may have already seen happen in a notorious Rich Rebuilds video. About 80% of EV fires/catastrophes occur when charging, needless to say this may be the most important part of your conversion.

My latest blog post details the process of wiring up the Dilithium BMS management system for a 120V system.

To help illustrate the entire system wiring I drew up this schematic that shows the pin outs for the BMS and the cell tap boards. Hopefully this is helpful for anyone looking to wire up a similar system.

27/07/2022

I’ve got a new blog post up on the website about the process of installing a Dilithium BMS into your EV conversion. Go give it a read if you’re starting to wire yours up

24/07/2022

Weekend well spent. Got around to getting the motor attached to the transmission, but learned that I measured about 3/10” incorrectly for the adapter plate and now need to make a little aluminum gasket/shim to make the difference.

After figuring that out, I threw it up under the van to check for clearances and start mocking up the motor mounts. Because I’m lifting the car 2.5” I’m gonna drop the transmission down a bit so the axle angle is less extreme so I’m designing some drop mounts for the rear and right side of the transmission and then another mount on the backside of the motor to support the motor weight.

A lot to do still but progress is happening.

17/07/2022

Another trick I picked up from is using a RC battery charger/balancer to manage and slow charge an individual Tesla module.

I had one module that was way off from the others in terms of voltage, before putting the whole pack to use you want the battery to be balanced.

This little charger can manage lithium ion batteries from 1s to 6s and up to 24V. It uses a cell tap balance board which is great.

17/07/2022

What….? Ankle socks keep my feet cool ok?

17/07/2022

Before putting the drivetrain back together the transmission needed some deep cleaning. Purple degreaser and some metal brushes, and a whole lotta sweat and now, it still looks dirty. But it’s an improvement.

16/07/2022

More battery updates. Finally got around to wiring up the BMS. Ran into some issues pretty quickly that I’m writing up and will be posting on the blog soon. It involves accidentally frying a Dilithium BMSC. After getting a new one I’ve gone through the process of balancing all the modules with each other before final install under the van. You can see in the last photo a test run of the bulletproof battery box assembled. I’m going to give it another coat of paint before it goes back under so all those bolts are black.

15/07/2022

I’m excited to unveil a new face for this page and project as this page is solely dedicated to project Act-e.

I haven’t been posting as much because I’ve been head down working on the van but hoping to share continual updates as things happen, but first a new coat of paint on the ole instagram look.

Also, if you’ve forgotten here’s some more info about the project, I’m converting my 1993 Honda Acty kei van to electric. I’m calling it the Act-e. It’s going to be a 2000lbs 4WD electric micro van. The van is powered by a three phase AC Induction motor. The HPEVS AC50, which produces up to 74hp, or peak 56kw which will be more than enough for this little guy.

The motor is only half the power plant, I’ve put together a 120V battery pack from 5 Tesla Model S modules. These use 18650 lithium ion cells. They’re being shoved into custom built battery boxes that are mounted underneath the van between the axles to give better weight distribution and a lower center of gravity.

The van is getting a 2” lift to accommodate for the lower ground clearance from the battery pack, it will have progressive springs mounted on coil overs (TBD).

The brake master cylinder is from a 2019 Honda CRV, needless to say it’s an upgrade. It’s a Bosch Gen1 iBooster, which is also used in Tesla vehicles.

There are a bunch more bits and bobs to share and talk about that are going into, or coming out of the van. I’ve made a significant amount of progress the past few months and I’m excited to share more
of it.

04/12/2020

Doing an electric vehicle conversion might be easier than you think; depending on what car you choose.

https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/how-to-convert-a-classic-car-to-an-electric-vehicle

Converting an old car from gas to electric may not only give you more power, but also extend the life of your classic for years to come.

02/12/2020

Did you know driving an electric vehicle can lead to fewer heart issues?

That's one of many of the benefits of driving an electric vehicle.

I collected a list of 44 other reasons to consider.

https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/45-benefits-of-owning-an-electric-car

There are economic, environmental, societal, and personal benefits to owning an electric car. Now that they are becoming more popular there are many options to choose from.

01/12/2020

Lucid Motors and Tesla have been going back and forth competing to make the most powerful, longest range ev in 2021. Just last week Tesla announced their extended range on the Model S which has upped the ante.

But is that enough to keep people from moving to Lucid? It may not be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e553tnpv4Ok&t=1s&ab_channel=Voltage

30/11/2020

Polestar has announced the winners for their annual design competition. There are some really inspiring projects that have come out of this competition.

Check it out!

Which is your favorite?



https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/polestar-design-competition-winners-announced

Here are the winners of the 2020 Polestar Design Competition.

27/11/2020

Although electric vehicles are getting cheaper, they still cost more than their internal combustion engine counterparts. Have you ever wondered why?



https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/why-are-electric-cars-so-expensive

It would be a lot easier for all of us to switch from gasoline to electric if these electric cars weren’t so expensive. Why is it that way, and when can we expect them to be more affordable?

25/11/2020

I think quarantine is making more people want to electrify their old clunkers. Now Chevy has announced that it's going to get a lot easier to do that.

Chevy will be offering a 200hp electric crate motor with batteries for DIY electric vehicle conversions.

This is such a great step for recycling old cars.

What would you put this crate motor into?



https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/chevy-is-making-electric-vehicle-conversions-quite-a-bit-easier

Chevrolet has announced they’ll be selling an electric crate motor for electric vehicle conversions. The motor is the Bolt EV Motor with 200hp and a 60kwh battery pack.

19/11/2020

The Lucid Motors Air Dream Edition has 1,000+ hp, can do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, and can do a quarter-mile in 9.9 seconds.

Is this the most promising car of 2021?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e553tnpv4Ok&ab_channel=Voltage

The Lucid Air is one of the most anticipated electric vehicles of 2021. With over 1000hp, and over 517 miles of range co...

13/11/2020

What car would you convert to electric if you could?

Here’s another wild one. You may never have heard of this car before. I sure hadn’t. This is the Enfield 8000 which actually was originally an electric car before it was swapped to have a much larger drivetrain, upgraded suspension, and so many more features.

I put together a list of a bunch of these crazy conversions I’ve found around the web. Check them out!

https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/10-crazy-electric-vehicle-conversions

12/11/2020

With the release of the new Hummer, I’ve got to thinking about all the other options out there:

Tesla Cybertruck
Rivian R1T
Atlis XT
Bollinger B2
Lordstown Motors
A supposed electric F150(?)
Neuron T-One

What would you take? Here’s a list with some more details:
https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/all-the-electric-pickups-competing-with-the-cybertruck

The race is on for all-electric pickup trucks, there may be a few more out there than you’re aware of.

12/11/2020

A while ago I posted about the E-Lander, the electric powered Land Rover Defender, it reminded me about another electric SUV that I can’t stop thinking about.

This is the MWM Spartan, which you can’t get unless you live in Europe but if you’re in the states you can dream about it.

Check this thing out.
https://www.onvoltage.com/articles/i-want-this-russian-electric-suv

The UAZ-469 is being reenvisioned by Czech automaker MWM as the Spartan 4x4. The offroader comes in 56kWh or 90kWh packages. The company hasn’t released a lot of information about the car, nor will this car be released in the US, but we can still admire the cool looking 469.