Freelander 1 Freelander EV

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Alibro said:
In case anyone is wondering why this build is moving so slowly, one of the big problems I have is my lack of experience. This has meant I haven't been able to order all the parts I'll need in advance as I'm not certain what I'll need or what will fit. The result of that is I tend to do some work, asses what I need, order the parts and then wait for them to arrive.
It frustrates me too but I can't afford to throw money at parts that are wrong or won't fit.
Click to expand...

I don't know where this self doubt has came from, but I genuinely think you are doing a grand job on a fracking ambitious project, delving deeply into the unknown, pushing through barriers and emerging victorious. A bank used to advertise on TV/Radio saying "in business you can do anything, but you can't do everything..." Projects as diverse and inherently multidisciplinary as this undertaking will highlight gaps in anyone's skillsets, as such it's important that suitable people are engaged to assist fill in those gaps. In a club such as this, it is a reasonable expectation that the community contribute, and that is an obligation I take seriously. As such I try to offer advice, but hope the advice I've proffered has never comes across as patronizing or belittling? Let me put it to you this way, were I to think you a dullard, I wouldn't waste my time sharing my thoughts & knowledge with you. And for what it's worth, you've done stuff on this project thusfar that I simply couldn't and or cannot do, such as decode canbus networks with an arduino, and at the time you were doing that I had two MEng Electrical/Electronics final years on my team.

You have so much money already tied up in this project that you could have bought a porsche and ran it for a couple of years, so that cash has to come from somewhere, and I myself live by the following homespun idiom "You can only spend a shilling once"; by that I mean if I save a couple of bux on consumables, or by buying cheaper + longer lead time items than the more readily and more expensive alternatives, especially when I'm spending my own sheckels. Even when I'm purchasing from client projects, and it's someone else's money, in a professional capacity, I still go through stage gates, purchase for stage 3 are only ratified at final stages of stage 2, with a decision being made on the merits of expediency versus efficiency relative to the expenditure. So, to me, it's logical and wise to approach the project's purchases incrementally and only part with your hard earned once you are certain on exactly what you need to purchase.

My final point is that I used to play an online computer game as part of a group, and our rules included the following phrase - "Real life comes first" - to remind you, and anyone else following this project that it is a hobby, a recreational undertaking, and as such the time allotted to it must be in line with what can reasonably be expected after work, family, rest and other social obligations. In light of that, I personally find the rate of progress on such an ambitious project in this context commendable.

TL-DR: This is a very ambitious project, with a steep learning curve, significant financial requirements, and extensive time requirements; as such is inevitable that this project will take a long time, and it is my opinion that @Alibro is doing really well with it.
 
Jayridium said:
I don't know where this self doubt has came from, but I genuinely think you are doing a grand job on a fracking ambitious project, delving deeply into the unknown, pushing through barriers and emerging victorious. A bank used to advertise on TV/Radio saying "in business you can do anything, but you can't do everything..." Projects as diverse and inherently multidisciplinary as this undertaking will highlight gaps in anyone's skillsets, as such it's important that suitable people are engaged to assist fill in those gaps. In a club such as this, it is a reasonable expectation that the community contribute, and that is an obligation I take seriously. As such I try to offer advice, but hope the advice I've proffered has never comes across as patronizing or belittling? Let me put it to you this way, were I to think you a dullard, I wouldn't waste my time sharing my thoughts & knowledge with you. And for what it's worth, you've done stuff on this project thusfar that I simply couldn't and or cannot do, such as decode canbus networks with an arduino, and at the time you were doing that I had two MEng Electrical/Electronics final years on my team.

You have so much money already tied up in this project that you could have bought a porsche and ran it for a couple of years, so that cash has to come from somewhere, and I myself live by the following homespun idiom "You can only spend a shilling once"; by that I mean if I save a couple of bux on consumables, or by buying cheaper + longer lead time items than the more readily and more expensive alternatives, especially when I'm spending my own sheckels. Even when I'm purchasing from client projects, and it's someone else's money, in a professional capacity, I still go through stage gates, purchase for stage 3 are only ratified at final stages of stage 2, with a decision being made on the merits of expediency versus efficiency relative to the expenditure. So, to me, it's logical and wise to approach the project's purchases incrementally and only part with your hard earned once you are certain on exactly what you need to purchase.

My final point is that I used to play an online computer game as part of a group, and our rules included the following phrase - "Real life comes first" - to remind you, and anyone else following this project that it is a hobby, a recreational undertaking, and as such the time allotted to it must be in line with what can reasonably be expected after work, family, rest and other social obligations. In light of that, I personally find the rate of progress on such an ambitious project in this context commendable.

TL-DR: This is a very ambitious project, with a steep learning curve, significant financial requirements, and extensive time requirements; as such is inevitable that this project will take a long time, and it is my opinion that @Alibro is doing really well with it.
Click to expand...
LOL, thanks for this mate, much appreciated. I didn't mean to come across as self doubting although I wouldn't be human if I wasn't from time to time in a project like this. Just making the point that every job takes 10 times longer than it would if I knew what I was doing. A stupid metal box should have taken a few days, not three months. Having learned from this one the next two should be a lot faster though.
As for the cost so far it's under £7k which wouldn't buy much of a Porsche. :confused: I will need need to add more for a BMS and I'm sure there will be other things but the finished project will hopefully be well under £9k. I could have just replaced the battery in the Leaf I bought or even just bought a Leaf complete but where would the fun have been in that. :p:D
 
Jayridium said:
I don't know where this self doubt has came from, but I genuinely think you are doing a grand job on a fracking ambitious project, delving deeply into the unknown, pushing through barriers and emerging victorious. A bank used to advertise on TV/Radio saying "in business you can do anything, but you can't do everything..." Projects as diverse and inherently multidisciplinary as this undertaking will highlight gaps in anyone's skillsets, as such it's important that suitable people are engaged to assist fill in those gaps. In a club such as this, it is a reasonable expectation that the community contribute, and that is an obligation I take seriously. As such I try to offer advice, but hope the advice I've proffered has never comes across as patronizing or belittling? Let me put it to you this way, were I to think you a dullard, I wouldn't waste my time sharing my thoughts & knowledge with you. And for what it's worth, you've done stuff on this project thusfar that I simply couldn't and or cannot do, such as decode canbus networks with an arduino, and at the time you were doing that I had two MEng Electrical/Electronics final years on my team.

You have so much money already tied up in this project that you could have bought a porsche and ran it for a couple of years, so that cash has to come from somewhere, and I myself live by the following homespun idiom "You can only spend a shilling once"; by that I mean if I save a couple of bux on consumables, or by buying cheaper + longer lead time items than the more readily and more expensive alternatives, especially when I'm spending my own sheckels. Even when I'm purchasing from client projects, and it's someone else's money, in a professional capacity, I still go through stage gates, purchase for stage 3 are only ratified at final stages of stage 2, with a decision being made on the merits of expediency versus efficiency relative to the expenditure. So, to me, it's logical and wise to approach the project's purchases incrementally and only part with your hard earned once you are certain on exactly what you need to purchase.

My final point is that I used to play an online computer game as part of a group, and our rules included the following phrase - "Real life comes first" - to remind you, and anyone else following this project that it is a hobby, a recreational undertaking, and as such the time allotted to it must be in line with what can reasonably be expected after work, family, rest and other social obligations. In light of that, I personally find the rate of progress on such an ambitious project in this context commendable.

TL-DR: This is a very ambitious project, with a steep learning curve, significant financial requirements, and extensive time requirements; as such is inevitable that this project will take a long time, and it is my opinion that @Alibro is doing really well with it.
Click to expand...

Splendid thoughts there Jay. Much more eloquent and considered than anything I could write, much like Ali's work on this project. I just wish I could contribute more, but you folks are light years ahead of me.
 
Building battery boxes is getting boring plus I painted the box and am waiting for it to dry, so I decided to look at fitting some of the under bonnet stuff. I figured the best place to start would be the radiator as this is pretty much a fixed location I don't have much choice over. I decided to reuse the Nissan Leaf rad since it's much slimmer and all the hose fittings will match the Leaf hoses which I also plan to re-use (a luxury of having a donor car).
So in classic Binky style I decided to over engineer some brackets but first I used blocks of wood to support the rad.
IMG_20210825_220025364.jpg


Then made support brackets for the bottom mounts. When I first thought about them I planned to cover the two bottom supports with heat shrink and jam them in the two holes in the front cross member but I quickly realised they wouldn't be secure so just welded them in place. I want to be able to easily move everything to a fresher car but they should be easy to cut out and re-weld.

IMG_20210826_220228261.jpg

IMG_20210826_220203324.jpg

IMG_20210828_135007875.jpg


and for the top brackets I did something similar. I removed the plastic rivet support thing, cut a short length of pipe to use as a spacer and bolted them in place.
IMG_20210829_112525271.jpg


A quick spray with undercoat and black stone chip.

IMG_20210830_180034307.jpg

IMG_20210830_180056220.jpg
 
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So I painted the battery box with the Bonda Primer as recommended by @Nodge68
https://ebay.us/tHFN9i
Then with white Rustoleum which in my experience is much better than Hammerite.
https://ebay.us/2bIBKj

IMG_20210831_173523090.jpg

IMG_20210831_173613880_HDR.jpg


The inside is still to be painted white.
In case you're wondering why use white? I had some. :D
And since this will be well out of site I don't care about the colour. More visible boxes will be black. ;)

Also mounted the radiator after painting the brackets.

IMG_20210831_180155418.jpg
 
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kernowsvenski said:
Now we're getting there. ;) Fantastic stuff!
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Thanks mate. Appreciate it but in reality this is a very small step.
There have been developments on the software side as the Damien Maguire has upgraded his new system for controlling these inverters. I still need to confirm if I can run the new software in my Gen1 Leaf VCU so I'm hoping to do some work on that soon but I want to sort out the location for the Inverter first.
 
Alibro said:
Thanks mate. Appreciate it but in reality this is a very small step.
There have been developments on the software side as the Damien Maguire has upgraded his new system for controlling these inverters. I still need to confirm if I can run the new software in my Gen1 Leaf VCU so I'm hoping to do some work on that soon but I want to sort out the location for the Inverter first.
Click to expand...
I hadn't even thought about the micro electronics side! Another big job, however, based on what I've seen so far, you'll approach with great aplomb. Fascinating stuff!

I know you've talked about costs from time to time - but not ever suggested an issue there obvs. Have you thought about a little crowd funding? You're putting an awful lot of time, effort and expense into this and whilst I have a great interest in the project (along with others here), unlike more learned others, I have limited ability to contribute on the technical front. I'd like to be able to help in a modest way.
 
kernowsvenski said:
I hadn't even thought about the micro electronics side! Another big job, however, based on what I've seen so far, you'll approach with great aplomb. Fascinating stuff!

I know you've talked about costs from time to time - but not ever suggested an issue there obvs. Have you thought about a little crowd funding? You're putting an awful lot of time, effort and expense into this and whilst I have a great interest in the project (along with others here), unlike more learned others, I have limited ability to contribute on the technical front. I'd like to be able to help in a modest way.
Click to expand...
To be honest it never occurred I should ask others to pay for my fun.
That's a great idea. :p

I should put more videos up on Youtube as I get a few pound back from them but I'm fortunate enough to be able to fund this myself for the moment.
Some people spend their money playing Golf or going to footie or going to the pub and some buy expensive cars that depreciate like crazy but this is my vice/entertainment/madness.

Something I should have said ages ago is the support, advice, encouragement and friendship I'm getting here is worth it's weight in gold and never taken for granted. :) Thank you all for everything.
Now lets get this stupid thing done!!! :D
 
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Great work mate - it's coming along very nicely.

Even if you worked on this full time (who's got time for that unless you are a professional YouTuber?), it would still take you at least three times longer that you'd think to get even the simplest thing done. Look at Project Binky - like Rome, that was not completed in a day. It generally takes Nick a day to complete one bracket - and that car is a true bracket-a-thon! LOL

Looking forward to seeing the batteries mounted next :D
 
I think you're doing great Ali.
I can't wait to pop over to see the finished vehicle.
I thought me and the wife could make a long weekend of it, as we've never been to NI.
 
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