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Following is the history of the Linux Car Project
I had wanted to build an electric vehicle since I sold the Off-Road vehicle I had built. In April 2003, I sourced a Daihatsu Max for free with the intention of converting it to electric. Using a 24Volt 250Watt DC motor I had been given I jerry-rigged a drive to the gearbox, used the 12V battery out of my car and made the Daihatsu move at a walking pace. This test used about 62 Watts of power and was a very encouraging first test.  The Daihatsu Max On the 7th of May 2005 I purchased a 48V 60A 3.1HP 3000RPM Forklift Motor for $80. This looked like it would be a tight fit in the Daihatsu.  The Motor After some research into the New Zealand rules for getting a modified vehicle certified for road use the Daihatsu was not a good base to start from as it needed a large amount of body and mechanical work before it would meet the requirements. At this time I decided to start looking for a new donor vehicle that was already road registered and in better condition. The Daihatsu was given away to someone who needed the parts to keep there one running, and the search had begun for the new donor. May 25th 2003 saw the purchase of the Suzuki Fronte - a very small sporty little car that only needed minor work to get it running and legally back on the road. After replacing bad fuel, a new battery, a new set of Hotter plugs and some minor electrical work it passed its warrant of fitness and was a useable vehicle again.  The Suzuki Fronte July 3rd 2003 was the start of repairs to the Electric motor. Two new bearings, re-surface the commutator and a good old clean and paint saw a revitalised motor ready on my birthday - July 10th. September 19th 2003 and the motor was mounted onto the spare gearbox I had for the Suzuki. No drives yet, but it was a big step towards the goal.  Motor mounted on the suzuki Gearbox October 13th 2003, the day 200KG of batteries were loaded into the back of the Suzuki and driven home. They were four 12V 115Amp/Hour deep cycle Lead-Acid batterys weighing 50KG each. These are second hand batteries from telephone exchange power supplies with aprox 80% capacity remaining. October 15th 2003, we decided to move house, so the project is put on hold until our new place is built. In the mean time the Suzuki made a great little vehicle to drive to work in. August 19th 2004, we finally move into out new house, but with no space in the workshop to do anything due to boxes everywhere the project is still on hold. Suzuki still used on occasion to drive to work. Janurary 2004 after much thought I decided that I no longer wanted to use the Suzuki Fronte as the donor vehicle due to it being a vary rare, collectable, vintage vehicle. But I still wanted to use it as a test without modifying it any way, so decided to use a Fiat 500 (Bambina) gearbox that a friend had lying around. It almost fits in perfectly. The only change needed is to shorten the driveshafts on the Fiat gearbox by 10mm each to make it bolt on to the Suzuki rear hubs. At this stage I started thinking about building a space frame vehicle.  Motor Beside Fiat Bambina Gearbox Not much happened due to work and other commitments until April 2005 when I decided that the space-frame was the way to go, as it would be specifically designed for the requirements of an electric vehicle. It would also allow for easier experimentation and changing of motors. The spaceframe could eaily use the Fiat gearbox, or easily modified to have a single rear wheel with the motor driving a planetarty gear system as the Hub. Sketchs and ideas have started to be put on paper again. July 2005 With the recent dramatic increases in fuel prices (Diesel increased from 69c/litre to 97c/Litre) the original project is back on!!! I have been offered a 7HP petrol motor and will build as a parallel hybrid electric vehicle. November 2005 After much thought and internal conflict, the donor vehicle has been put up for sale. The 1974 Suzuki Fronte GX 360cc Two stroke is to much of a collectable to modify into an electric vehicle so it has been put up for auction for a collector to purchase and restore. The project is now back to being a space frame based Electric Vehicle for experimenation and fun. In the future, when funding and time allow, I may attempt something more substantial such as a high performance (Hybrid) electric vehicle say 40kW at each wheel (160kW = >200HP) using something more modern and sporty (Toyota MRS?, MG F or similar).
The idea was to use an embeded PC (IA32 or Arm based) to monitor the batteries, power usage, motor etc and control the starting of the charging motor etc and have the data displayed on a Quarter VGA LCD display. Can easily do this in the new PIC32 from Microchip using a custom OS..... but will have to wait a while before can run Linux on it as it needs more than 1MB of execution RAM.... the external memory bus not available.... yet. If an embedded PC is used.... GNU/Linux is the best choice of operating system for this because.... With the new version it will take on other rolls such as GPS, Entertainment, Clock, Appointment calendar, wireless web and many other possibilities. |
24 November 2005 Donor Vehicle up for sale Click here for Auction 29 July 2005 Original project started again! 18 May 2005 Web Site updated
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