Overview of Early Electric Cars • Hacker News Board

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#101

Post by Gibbon1 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 4:43 AM UTC

fy20 wrote: post #39

Does anyone have any reading material on the history of control systems of electric vehicles? Today most EVs use AC motors with a inverter - a bunch of power transistors - that convert DC to AC, adjusting the frequency as required by the motor (that's what the hum you hear is). However obviously that wasn't the case 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago when electric (trolley) buses were still used in many parts of the…

You use a brushed DC motor where the field coil is in series with multi tap resistor bank controlled by the throttle. That's how it was done with electric golf carts before 1990.

Article on 'speed switches' for old golf carts.

http://www.golfcarcatalog.com/golf-cart-blog/golf-cart-speed...

Wiring diagram.

https://wiringall.com/1984-ezgo-marathon-resistor-wiring-dia...

Basically you use resistors to control the current in the motors field coil. Because the field windings have a lot of turns the current is much lower than in the armature. The armature is connected directly to the battery via a forward reverse switch.

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#102

Post by rini17 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 8:04 AM UTC

Hypx wrote: post #97

rini17 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You conveniently omitted the storage vessel factor from the energy density. And it's definitely not comparable to natural gas in other respects too, such as hydrogen is corrosive and needs special alloys or nonmetal materials. Superconducing wires are already and increasingly used in practice. Even without superconductors we can just keep raising the voltage and use copper, there are new silicon carbide power transis…

From a theoretical standpoint, you don't need to worry about that. You can conceive of metal hydrides or other forms of dense hydrogen storage. Even as LH₂, you're still looking at around 2700 Wh/L of energy. That's well beyond any known rechargeable battery. And the "special alloys" really just mean certain types of steel alloy, and "nonmetal materials" really mean certain types of plastics. This is not a big challe…

From theoretical standpoint why not jump ahead to antimatter? :)

Electricity is a solved problem, most obstacles to additional power generation and transport are bureaucratic in nature.

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#103

Post by Hypx » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 8:33 AM UTC

rini17 wrote: post #102

Hypx wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a theoretical standpoint, you don't need to worry about that. You can conceive of metal hydrides or other forms of dense hydrogen storage. Even as LH₂, you're still looking at around 2700 Wh/L of energy. That's well beyond any known rechargeable battery. And the "special alloys" really just mean certain types of steel alloy, and "nonmetal materials" really mean certain types of plastics. This is not a big challe…

From theoretical standpoint why not jump ahead to antimatter? :) Electricity is a solved problem, most obstacles to additional power generation and transport are bureaucratic in nature.

As soon as everyone agrees to build more nuclear power... We're not anywhere near ready to use anti-matter, but the next best thing faces extreme opposition for some reason.

Hydrogen is pretty much a solved problem too. Most of the critics are just stuck in 2010 or earlier.

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#104

Post by rini17 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 8:52 AM UTC

Hypx wrote: post #103

rini17 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From theoretical standpoint why not jump ahead to antimatter? :) Electricity is a solved problem, most obstacles to additional power generation and transport are bureaucratic in nature.

As soon as everyone agrees to build more nuclear power... We're not anywhere near ready to use anti-matter, but the next best thing faces extreme opposition for some reason. Hydrogen is pretty much a solved problem too. Most of the critics are just stuck in 2010 or earlier.

I did not have primarily nuclear in mind, but obstacles to extending long-distance electric grid to support renewables. But hydrogen pipelines are going to have even worse problem with this. And you did not really debunk any of my "stuck in 2010" criticism.

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#105

Post by Hypx » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:10 AM UTC

rini17 wrote: post #104

Hypx wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as everyone agrees to build more nuclear power... We're not anywhere near ready to use anti-matter, but the next best thing faces extreme opposition for some reason. Hydrogen is pretty much a solved problem too. Most of the critics are just stuck in 2010 or earlier.

I did not have primarily nuclear in mind, but obstacles to extending long-distance electric grid to support renewables. But hydrogen pipelines are going to have even worse problem with this. And you did not really debunk any of my "stuck in 2010" criticism.

Hydrogen pipelines are a solved problem. We have been doing it for decades[1]. I could have said "stuck in 1930" but that might be overdoing it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_pipeline_transport

Re: Overview of Early Electric Cars

#106

Post by canadianfella » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

dvh wrote: post #89

agumonkey wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You tried it yourself ? (just curious)

They don't sell it in my country :( Traditional car manufacturers simply don't want our money. It needs new companies like Tesla to actually make and sell the damn product.

Don’t want our money? What are you talking about?