Go/No Go

"Maybe Flight Systems can help you"- email

On into April and early May I drove without a problem. Every chance I got. I believe for an alternative to be mainstream, it has to stand up to consumer abuse and it has to fill a void without a whole lot of upheaval in a person's routine and it has to be safe. "Safe" is a relative term. Idiots are clever people and I've seen time and time again that you can't "Idiot Proof" a product. Someone will always find a way to use something "in a manner other than directed" and hurt themselves.

Nevertheless, my EV could use a few minor safety upgrades that the average consumer should have. I'll get to that later though. I've got a whole new problem to wrestle with.

In early May, I was 3 miles from home at a traffic light waiting to go. The light turned green, I depressed the go-pedal and the car moved- all of 3 inches and stopped. NOW what the hell is wrong?

I hit the hazard lights and pushed the car to the side of the road. 1100 lbs. of lead is freakin' heavy.
I was right next to a gas station (oh the irony) so I just kept pushing until I was in the parking lot. I pulled out the only real tool you need for an EV- my trusty multi-meter. With a little book-learning, any numbskull can isolate an EV failure. You might not be able to fix it right there, but you can figure out what's wrong.

Symptom: Motor fails to run.

1. Is the pedal sensor sending the control signal to the motor controller?
a) Set meter to Ohms and check for 0-5k Ohms on the pedal wires. Yep. Next:
2. Are all battery cables still connected? This is a simple visual check. Yep. Next:
3. Is the main contactor (which connects the battery to the motor controller when you turn the key) working? Click, click. Yup. Plus, I measure 128 volts going into the motor controller.

Ok, so you have power. Power is going into the magic controller. The pedal sensor IS telling the controller what to do. Is the magic controller awake and sending any power to the motor??

4. I put my meter on the magic controller outputs and there was nothing, nada. So the controller is dead. This took me 10 minutes. It's just like figuring out plumbing. Where does the "water" stop flowing? Goes-inta's and Goes-outa's.

Yay. Simple. Except Magic Motor Controllers cost anywhere from $1200 to $2500 dollars.

Frick.