Can this be made into all electric and really fast too?
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Hello Electrified Miata and Formula-Mazda-E Fans! Last weeks goals on the Electrified Miata were to create and install studs in the large battery pack so the plastic covers can be installed. On the Formula-Mazda-E, we were finishing and verifying the battery holder design. Join us on the journey to make both of these vehicles move quickly and quietly through the power of magnets and electricity, mixed liberally with blood, sweat and tears. Electrified Miata news! Last week Joe received our first batch of 30 Revision 3 BMS boards. He's currently working on another project which is taking most of his time, but managed to spend a few hours on this project too. Joe got the boot-loader running, and after that loaded our software on the board. Our software currently has minimal functionality, but the board does respond to the serial port commands which is a large step forward. Thank you Joe for making time in your busy week to verify the hardware is starting to function. My week was abbreviated since I spent a 4 day weekend with my wife, (and editor) Teresa celebrating our wedding anniversary. We played with adding chemicals to our campfire to make different colored flames. Both of us laughed when the internet listed lithium as the source of reddish-magenta flames, as we've seen this first hand. My work week was further shortened as I gratefully received my second Covid shot and suffered the next day flu like symptoms. Lucky for me, the rest of the team was there to continue making progress. Sawyer jumped in during the week, making more studs by tightening two nuts against each other. He also helped position the large battery (weighing ~100 lbs) on it's side so we could start installing the studs. Both the Electrified Miata and the Formula-Mazda-E project will benefit from having batteries that can spin our Leaf motors. We decided to have car night in my garage this week to finish the batteries. The Formula-Mazda-E batteries currently have a 12 week lead time, so the Electrified Miata will have a battery pack available much sooner than that. After re-positioning the battery to the corner of the table where two people could safely work on it, Bruce and Brian spent the entire night, 2.5 hours, installing studs, washers and nuts. By the end of the night, we had all the studs in and the top plastic cover secured. This is a huge step forward on the big battery pack. Thanks to Bruce and Brian for getting this project over the boring big battery hump. Since only two people could work on the large pack at the same time, Dave started prepping the fifth and final battery pack. He disassembled the two prototype packs which will be combined into one medium sized pack. These prototype packs have lots of studs, to support the battery in a vertical orientation, installed in the front of the Miata. How do you know there are a lot of studs? When you need a few more lock-nuts, and I pull out another bag of 1000 8/32 nylocks. What is the best remedy for combating the flu-like symptoms of the Covid vaccine?
Car night! The guys came over, positive attitudes, ready to solve the problems and get things done. Even though I didn't feel all that great, and frankly, was a little bit 'out of it', car night went so well and we got a lot accomplished. I was humbled and amazed that this team of extremely talented guys would spend hours working on a crazy, and frankly somewhat dangerous project. I'm so grateful for your precious time spent transforming dreams (and 2112 18650's) into the ability to burn rubber! Thanks!!! Formula Mazda. The battery tray design has been completed and verified. The coupler between the motor and trans-axle has also been verified. We need to do more work to get the final numbers so we'll the best fit on both spline ends. Next week, for the Electrified Miata, we'll remove the nuts from all the studs on the large battery and install the bottom cover. We'll also work on getting the 5th and final battery assembled. Some of the time will be spent charging the 40 new cells to be added to the 5th pack so the voltages levels match. For the Formula-Mazda-E, we'll be ordering material for the next phase, building the battery trays. As always, thanks for reading!
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AuthorBill likes cars that understand the 'go fast now' pedal. Archives
May 2022
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