The goal of the EBaja project is to transform a 10 horsepower mechanical baja vehicle and changing it into an electric vehicle by replacing the gas engine with a battery pack, an electric controller, a permanent magnet motor, and an electric ignition.
Client: Dr. Vankata Yaramasu and Professor David Willy
EE Team Members: Salman Abdulrahman Alshammari, Nasser Thani, Megan Hanevich, and Noah Gelacio
ME Team Members: Andres Parra, LeAlan Kinlecheenie, Fahad Alhowaidi
The battery pack is a collection of 10 3rd Generation Nissan Leaf Batteries totaling about $660. These batteries were in the market from about 2013-2015. Each battery is 222mm x 300 mm x 34 mm and weighs about 3.7kg or 8.16lbs. Additionally, they each have 4 holes, 2 at the far top far corners and 2 more about a half inch from the outside, each 9mm in diameter. The holes allow for the user to put rods through them to ensure stability. Each 3rd Generation Nissan Leaf Battery comes with 3 ports at the top, a positive, a ground, and a central terminal. Each Battery contains four energy cells, two in series and two in parallel, and we connect each of these batteries in series to get the full output of energy. Each cell has a nominal voltage of 3.75 V and 32.5 Ah, therefore totals that each battery has a nominal voltage of 7.5 V and 65 Ah at its max capacity.
The BMS cost totalling about $129.25 for one unit.The BMS has a charging current 50A and 100MA of balance current. The size of the BMS is 14cm for the length, 7cm for the width and 1.7cm for the thickness. It has a detection range 1V- 4.6V, accuracy less than 5Mv for single cell voltage. Also, It has bluetooth connection that works on Android phones. Applicable battery type lifepo4 li-ion Lipo LTO. The BMS comes with a small LCD screen so that we can read data from the LCD. However, we are going to place the BMS on the top of the batteries because of the wiring.
The controller we are using is also from ThunderstruckMotors, it is a Curtis Brushless Controller with a 48-80V range. This motor can produce approximately 3000 rpm at 72V. The controller is rated for 450 amps peak with a 60 min rating of 185 amps continuous. This controller costs $645. As you can see below the controller is responsible for enabling all the many different electrical components connected to the battery pack.
The motor we are using is the ME1616 IPM Water Cooled motor from ThunderstruckMotors. It is used for 96 VDC Battery systems and 250 amps continuous. The motor has a max rpm of 6000 rpm and weighs about 55 lbs. The motor also comes with a 7/8” keyed shaft and cost $1050.