EVCCON 2014 - Day 0

Today was the last day of the free-for-all Smart Car build and the official start of registration and the opening evening reception for EVCCON 2014.

We got a lot of work done on the Smart today.  We ran the AC cable from the J1772 charging port in the right-rear fender up to the charger in the front of the car.

Here's the big whiteboard with our 4-point project plan.  Notice the multiple in/out of the motor and battery pack.  Luckily it only took one try to pull the gas engine.

In the "Insane Methods of Transportation" category, I give you two vehicles that showed up today.  This one is an electric motorcycle whose rear wheel is driven by a chain from a small DC motor under the seat.  The front wheel also has a chain drive, but only to operate a tiny disc brake.  It tops out around 20 mph but can almost float.

Here is the bike's motor controller.

And the battery pack.  It will eventually get a shroud to protect the rider from leg shocks!

 Back to the Smart car, I mounted the AVC2 charging controller board and wired it up to the J1772 charging port.

We zip-tied up the cabling under the body to the motor controller and J1772 charging port.

Here is the beautifully-crafted J1772 mounting bracket.  Unfortunately, the entire bracket will be covered up by the Smart bodywork, leaving just the hole for the charging plug where the gas filler used to be.

Here's the second insane form of transportation.  It's a highly-modified Power Wheels car, now featuring imminent death.

The back of the Smart now has a radiator and water pump for the motor cooling loop.

The battery pack has been populated with actual batteries and is now mounted under the car!

And the view of the battery pack from the front of the car.

Almost all of the attendees are here now and they've brought a great selection of home-converted electric cars.

This is Jack's new-today Nash Metropolitan.  The car was restored 21 years ago and looks like it just came out of the shop yesterday.  It is destined to be converted to electric sometime in the future.

This is the demonstration platform from the Hi Performance Electric Vehicle Systems (HPEVS) company.  This Porsche 911 has dual AC35 motors on the same shaft.

More electric cars, including Jack's Tesla Model S.

We enjoyed great catered food and an open bar for the reception dinner.  I'm spending most of my time telling people how much I'm enjoying my new life in Thailand and have found several people who want to come back with me.

The convention officially kicks off tomorrow morning with the keynote speech and the start of the sessions.  More tomorrow.