July 25th, 2021

Hello Electrified Miata and Formula Mazda-E fans!  Another milestone reached.  The wheels are spinning!   Join us on the journey to make these vehicles go quickly and quietly through the power of electricity.

The wheels are spinning.  Now I really want to know how that torque feels on the road.   Will it break traction in second gear?   Now is not the time to rush as testing  requires batteries that are securely mounted, not thrown in the trunk.  This is a dangerous time for me, as haste has made waste in the past, and I *like* to push the limits.

But there are some crude tests we can perform right now.   The display for  inverter temperatures, motor temperatures and motor amps is not installed in the Miata yet, so  I'd need another person to help.   Bruce was free Wednesday night and we gave 'Eve', the Electrified Miata's name,  her first test.   Bruce stood on the brakes and gently used the accelerator pedal while I monitored temps and amps.   We can tell the temperature sensor in the Leaf inverter is mounted right on or in the power stage as the temperatures rise immediately when power is requested. Temperatures also go down nearly as fast as soon as the system returns to an idle condition.   The exciting news is that even in fourth gear, the throttle can overcome the rear brakes.  This isn't quite fair as the drivers side caliper and pads have been replaced and the pads are not bedded yet.   However, both rear brake rotors had significant amounts of heat when we finished testing.   We reached a top temp of 100 degrees from the inverter (it reports about 70 degrees in the garage so the scale is not quite reality) and 100 phase amps.   This is great considering no active cooling at this point.   I love the simple efficiency of this Leaf motor.

To push Eve further, I'd like the cooling system connected and enabled. On car night, Broch Evans came bearing gifts.   Dave Evans had found and ordered 1" to 3/4" adapters which are used to connect to the radiator in the Miata.  Bruce carefully isolated the starter battery lead so we could hook up the 12 volt battery, with no 'zappies' as Nolan would say.  Next we located via the wiring diagram the two relays
that control the two cooling fans.  I doubt we'll need much cooling, but re-using what came with the car lowers the cost and time to fabricate custom brackets.  With a straight pin, we were able to connect to the relay coil wires and activate each fan!  Yay!  We also located the air-conditioning clutch relay, which will be re-purposed to run the electric water pump.   Progress!

Next week, we'll focus on designing brackets for the accelerator pedal and the water pump.   We also need to find fused power sources for the Pi's and locations to mount the Pi's so they can be cooled, but protected from the elements.    We're still waiting on part for the Formula Mazda-E but should be able to make progress on welding the battery tray's soon. Thanks so much to everyone who helped get us to this stage. As always, thanks for reading!