First Miles in decades !!!

   During the jack stand power up we found an issue that prevented us from going into reverse.  We had to fiddle quite a bit with the speed control tiller and mast but eventually found the magic combination.  With reverse fully enabled we were ready for a road test.

  The 1917 Detroit Electric's first road trip in years!!  You'll see a bit of accumulated dust blown off the top as we speed away.

  The car ran beautifully.  Its quiet except for the clunking of the controller when you shift gears.  Steering is fairly easy...if you're moving...not so much if you're standing still.  In subsequent testing we found that we get to about 14 mph in 3rd.  Usually, we run about 35-50 amps with an occasional spike to 100 amps when shifting.  Current goes up when going uphill or braking as expected.

YouTube Video of First Test run

 

We are only using one battery pack (48 volts) at this time.  The car would normally have a battery pack front and rear which it would switch from parallel ( 42 volts) in speeds 1 thru 3 to series (84 volts) in speeds 4 and 5.  Since we have only one pack we are limited to speeds 1-3 which is just fine for our demo rides around the museum grounds.  We installed a block in the controller to prevent accessing speeds 4 and 5.