Rear Battery Box

The traction battery pack for the X7 will be LFE 160Ah at 144 volts made in China by Thundersky. As I will be going for 144V and each battery is 3.2V then I will have 45 batteries. Now I cannot fit them all in one place so I will split the pack into three. One of 27 batteries in the rear and two of 9 batteries in the front either side of the motor. To reduce weight I've had the rear battery box made of aluminium so to ensure that my batteries will be safe I've had the box made by local industries and not try to do this myself (that would be a very bad thing).

Not knowing who to see as I am relatively new to Brisbane I looked in the yellow pages and approached Alfab for the job but they said that they do mainly boat windscreens and windows but they could do the welding and suggested Lewden Sheetmetal to cut and fold the box.
So I saw Tony at Lewden Sheetmetal and he said he could do it by cutting the sides but folding the box along the long edges to maintain strength. Which he did very well even keeping to a tight set of diamensions.

Then it was back to Alfab where I spoke to Clyde where the welding was done. I don't know the name of the guy who did the welding but he did a nice job. I decided to put in gussets at the corners which will increase torsional strength, you can see these in the top photo. Eventually I'll have a lid made of plexiglass so the batteries can be shown and carpet over top of the plexiglass for normal commute.

As you can see in this photo the box will have plenty of clearance. You can just see where the body is cut away for an exhaust.

I've promised both Tony and Clyde that when the project is finished I would bring the X7 over to show them. Thanks for your good work guys.

The motor has arrived

The motor has arrived! I was at work and had to wait a few days to get home before I could see it. The family was pretty good and they didn't open the package while I was away. When we did open it (within 2 minutes of me getting home) we were pretty well impressed that the physical size is quite a lot smaller than an internal combustion engine (ICE).



I suppose I should give some specs.

Netgain Motors Inc
WarP 9 motor
Series DC motor
Weight -- 70kg
Length -- 508mm including shafts (Body is 405mm)
Diameter -- 235mm (9.25")
Class H insulation
5500RPM
70HP @ 120 volt 435 amps

This motor is purpose built for electric vehicles (EV's) and has:
Larger commutator than normal
Larger brushes and heavier duty brushgear
Heavier guage wire for windings

Why is it called WarP 9? The '9' is for 9 1/2" diameter. To explain the 'WarP' here's an excerp from the owner's manual:
"We are not 'Trekkies', but we do enjoy Startrek. However, that had nothing to do with the original name selection for our motors. The name was a natural way of differentiating our motor series, and also showed that we intended on incorporating new and advanced thinking in the enhanced design of the motors we planned on building. The War portion of the name comes from Warfield Electric Motor Company. Jerry Warfield was instrumental in our original designs (and subsequent designs, as were John Wayland and numerous others ...). The capital P at the end of the name is also significant. It stands for Phil Brown, a close friend and supporter of our original electric dragster concept vehicle. Unfortunately, Phil was taken by cancer prior to the project gaining momentum. We intend to maintain this method of honoring Phil in the naming of our ImPulse motors as well."

Having been an electrician for over 30 years predominantly in heavy industry I've been exposed to a lot of motors both AC and DC from the tiddlers to having headaches with 2.1MW motors. On first inspection I would say the WarP 9 is of good manufacture and should last many years with proper maintenance (which is minimal).

At present we are taking measurements for the adapter plate but first we are sorting out the coupling between the gearbox and motor. Hopefully we should have this resolved in the next week where we will post our results. Also the rear battery box is being finished, we are putting a few gussets in to increase the strength at the top - not needed but I've opted for extra strength, again we'll post some info on the completed box. Things are starting to come together and once the adapter plate is done, then comes the paint job for the body, then it's time to piece everything together to make a viable vehicle. Bear in mind that this is a restoration as well as an EV conversion but I am looking at a finish date about Easter?

In Startrek they would travel at warp factor 4+ ... I've never had a speeding ticket but can the X7 do warp 9? How fast is warp 1?