System in an Electric Car?

[skittlesRgood]

interesting for sure! that would make sense having 2 different power sources..... 1 for driving and such, and 1 for accesories..... i wonder if therer would be a way to tap into the driving batteries and stepping down voltage to like 14-16v. like if someone was to get their hands on the battery bank needed to power the motors and design a voltage stepdown for bringing it down to 14-16v.... that would probably leave a HUGE amount of amps to pull before voltage drop occurs.

that would be crazy expensive to even try but would be interesting to see.

There would be so much power loss in that step down you'd probably cut the car's range in half lol. you have to burn off 286v

If I did this right, for a 1000w amp at 14v you would need a 2.86ohm resistor rated to 900w. 818w would be burned off and wasted.

[Herokight]

Jesus. Sounds like we'll be some of the last people using gas powered cars then. Unless the technology advances.

[ThreehundredC]

just wont go as far with some 18s in the back ,,what if it was reverse the amps ran on gas id be broke

[Beanz]

But then we can always run some of those high voltage tara amps that are like 200 volts and what not.. Only scary thing is that you'd need like a electrician or something to install those. 240-600v is no joke to be messing around with..

[CortezDTV]

I think you'd just deplete your battery reserve. I'd be interested in the specifics on a system in an electric vehicle too. I don't think that all electric cars are on a 12V operating system.

This

Ours has a step down midule that powered the entire cars 12v system including the stereo

Main batts are 20 6v in series making beast voltage over 120v and you charge it by plugging into 240 and dialing the amperage in; lets just say its a wild contraption

[Jessica]

One thing to consider is, if you have an electric car and the motors are a/c voltage then you will benefit in the long term. Battery technology will improve and so will motor technology.

The real benefit that some of you are missing here is it would be easy to build an amp that runs on 240v or 360v AND, this part is the coolest, you no longer have to convert an d.c. voltage to a.c. voltage for the output stage of the amp.

You eliminate that step and the amp is basically a home audio amplifier, you may one day see amps and subs for cars that are all 8ohm.

Plus the higher voltage means less amperage drawn, more efficient amps and maybe even more power. Things like a 5k amp maybe be in the price range of 1k amps now.

[rusty959]

interesting for sure! that would make sense having 2 different power sources..... 1 for driving and such, and 1 for accesories..... i wonder if therer would be a way to tap into the driving batteries and stepping down voltage to like 14-16v. like if someone was to get their hands on the battery bank needed to power the motors and design a voltage stepdown for bringing it down to 14-16v.... that would probably leave a HUGE amount of amps to pull before voltage drop occurs.

that would be crazy expensive to even try but would be interesting to see.

There would be so much power loss in that step down you'd probably cut the car's range in half lol. you have to burn off 286v

If I did this right, for a 1000w amp at 14v you would need a 2.86ohm resistor rated to 900w. 818w would be burned off and wasted.

You did not do that right. Things like dc/dc switching power supplies exist so that you don't have to just burn off power. Now this may not be cheap, but is probably not far off of what it would take to get rid of the heat from a process as you describe.

However, as others have stated it would be a much better idea in concept to just run the amps off of the full voltage of the batteries. However in practice, this is a very dangerous idea. While you can touch across 12v with no problems and the n00b that accidentally bridges them will probably just create some sparks, multiple hundreds of volts is no joke. Anything in the neighborhood of 50v is enough to kill you. (its the number ive always heard) Talking anything more than that is never going to be something a diy guy should touch. One slip and you die.

One guy at my school accidentally bridged a couple hundred volts I believe it was with a torx wrench a few weeks ago. The end of the torx wrench where it was bridged became a melted stub and the gloves he was wearing were blackened. He was ok due to the protection he was wearing, however having up to date and safe protection isn't something you can trust the general public to.

[Emmet]

interesting for sure! that would make sense having 2 different power sources..... 1 for driving and such, and 1 for accesories..... i wonder if therer would be a way to tap into the driving batteries and stepping down voltage to like 14-16v. like if someone was to get their hands on the battery bank needed to power the motors and design a voltage stepdown for bringing it down to 14-16v.... that would probably leave a HUGE amount of amps to pull before voltage drop occurs.

that would be crazy expensive to even try but would be interesting to see.

There would be so much power loss in that step down you'd probably cut the car's range in half lol. you have to burn off 286v

If I did this right, for a 1000w amp at 14v you would need a 2.86ohm resistor rated to 900w. 818w would be burned off and wasted.

You did not do that right. Things like dc/dc switching power supplies exist so that you don't have to just burn off power. Now this may not be cheap, but is probably not far off of what it would take to get rid of the heat from a process as you describe.

However, as others have stated it would be a much better idea in concept to just run the amps off of the full voltage of the batteries. However in practice, this is a very dangerous idea. While you can touch across 12v with no problems and the n00b that accidentally bridges them will probably just create some sparks, multiple hundreds of volts is no joke. Anything in the neighborhood of 50v is enough to kill you. (its the number ive always heard) Talking anything more than that is never going to be something a diy guy should touch. One slip and you die.

One guy at my school accidentally bridged a couple hundred volts I believe it was with a torx wrench a few weeks ago. The end of the torx wrench where it was bridged became a melted stub and the gloves he was wearing were blackened. He was ok due to the protection he was wearing, however having up to date and safe protection isn't something you can trust the general public to.

No it isn't. Voltage won't kill you. Get hit by a 1000v and you might not die if the current is very little. Current is what will kill you. Crack open your chest and put 50mA across your heart however and it will stop.

I think you guys are on to something though, given the state of electric cars now and how technology is improving I think companies will start designing amplifiers that run at much higher voltages. Take sound digital for example http://www.soundigital.com.br/produtos/amplificadores/sd30kdhv-smd/

That amp is said to run up to 435 volts. I haven't seen any real world tests but the idea is there. Imagine an amp that makes 30kw on single inputs.

And with supercaps the ability to store energy will only get greater.

[rusty959]

interesting for sure! that would make sense having 2 different power sources..... 1 for driving and such, and 1 for accesories..... i wonder if therer would be a way to tap into the driving batteries and stepping down voltage to like 14-16v. like if someone was to get their hands on the battery bank needed to power the motors and design a voltage stepdown for bringing it down to 14-16v.... that would probably leave a HUGE amount of amps to pull before voltage drop occurs.

that would be crazy expensive to even try but would be interesting to see.

There would be so much power loss in that step down you'd probably cut the car's range in half lol. you have to burn off 286v

If I did this right, for a 1000w amp at 14v you would need a 2.86ohm resistor rated to 900w. 818w would be burned off and wasted.

You did not do that right. Things like dc/dc switching power supplies exist so that you don't have to just burn off power. Now this may not be cheap, but is probably not far off of what it would take to get rid of the heat from a process as you describe.

However, as others have stated it would be a much better idea in concept to just run the amps off of the full voltage of the batteries. However in practice, this is a very dangerous idea. While you can touch across 12v with no problems and the n00b that accidentally bridges them will probably just create some sparks, multiple hundreds of volts is no joke. Anything in the neighborhood of 50v is enough to kill you. (its the number ive always heard) Talking anything more than that is never going to be something a diy guy should touch. One slip and you die.

One guy at my school accidentally bridged a couple hundred volts I believe it was with a torx wrench a few weeks ago. The end of the torx wrench where it was bridged became a melted stub and the gloves he was wearing were blackened. He was ok due to the protection he was wearing, however having up to date and safe protection isn't something you can trust the general public to.

No it isn't. Voltage won't kill you. Get hit by a 1000v and you might not die if the current is very little. Current is what will kill you. Crack open your chest and put 50mA across your heart however and it will stop.

I think you guys are on to something though, given the state of electric cars now and how technology is improving I think companies will start designing amplifiers that run at much higher voltages. Take sound digital for example http://www.soundigital.com.br/produtos/amplificadores/sd30kdhv-smd/

That amp is said to run up to 435 volts. I haven't seen any real world tests but the idea is there. Imagine an amp that makes 30kw on single inputs.

And with supercaps the ability to store energy will only get greater.

We aren't talking static electricity here. You can't touch something that is 1000v and be all, well, I think im only going to let 10mA through me today. Ohms law applies. You touch that 1000v from a source with low internal resistance like something intending to power a car and you are fucked. Even with dry skin you are going to burn right through which could also expose what you are touching to your lower resistance internals.

Edit: additionally we aren't talking about ac which at higher frequencies can pass through a human without harming them due to the skin effect. DC will not do this.

[Herokight]

High amperage is what kills you, but I'd have to say shocking yourself isn't really good at all.

One thing to consider is, if you have an electric car and the motors are a/c voltage then you will benefit in the long term. Battery technology will improve and so will motor technology.

The real benefit that some of you are missing here is it would be easy to build an amp that runs on 240v or 360v AND, this part is the coolest, you no longer have to convert an d.c. voltage to a.c. voltage for the output stage of the amp.

You eliminate that step and the amp is basically a home audio amplifier, you may one day see amps and subs for cars that are all 8ohm.

Plus the higher voltage means less amperage drawn, more efficient amps and maybe even more power. Things like a 5k amp maybe be in the price range of 1k amps now.

I never even considered that... Hmmm... That is a very interesting concept. So AC power = more effeciency + more wattage?