147: Thursday 15th July 2010

Yesterday we had the Ford vehicle enthusiasts day at the research and engineering centre where I work. There were lots of cars brought in by the employees and I got an award and trophy for best in the Green class. That was unexpected as I did not know they had a Green class. It was nice to be recognised for the hard work. I have all the LEDs to finish up the instruments, then I can remove the motor controller programming unit. I have some reworking to do for the state of charge display as the bar graph driver is working from the general 12v supply and seems to read a lower level on hot days. I shall rewire this to the constant 6v supply that was originally for the fuel gauge, rework the LEDs to 4 red, 1 blue and 5 green, and recalibrate it to work with the 6v supply. This only involves adjusting the multi-turn potentiometer screw until I get sensible readings. Then I shall build up the Amps gauge. I have made a board layout for the circuit, I need to build the circuit and mount the 9 ultra-bright blue LEDs behind the numbers of the rev counter and then fix the current hall effect sensor on the main battery cable to the motor controller, a little bit of calibrating and that will be ready too. Next job after this is the graphic display and I have a new design now. I have been researching the parts to make this display and have to thank Gordon Stalling for his dialogue and circuits etc. I hope this display will be the next evolution of Gordon's design, but one of the big considerations has been cost and I should have it all built for under £50. It won't look cheap though.