It's been a long while since the last update. Seriously, where does the time go? 2016 was a crazy year for our group and 2017 is already looking to be batshit as well (but in a good way). We have been making more progress on the car then the ECU, but hopefully that changes in the next couple of weeks. Some progress has been made on the project and I will catch you up on some of it.
First let's take a look at the last mock up of the unit that I can show you.
Lookin' pretty, right? I agree but this is the pre-abuse photo. I can't go into detail regarding the post-abuse photo at this time, but I will show you some of the damage done. Here is a shot of the inside of the door.
Notice the bar is screwed right into the back board and a foreign object is coming out of a hole also drilled into the back board? Normally we are over protective of the parts but this was a mutual decision and we had fun with it. One day I will elaborate on it further but for now I can't. Anyways, we decided it was best if we went ahead and just cut out a new back board. It needed to be slightly bigger and the other one was warped.
So, here is a shot of the new one.
We had a fun build that day. It was smiles all around. As much as it sucks having to go back and repeat this part a third time, it's for the best end result. I am not going to go back and do it again. This is it.
Before we could finally mount the door, we had to triple check all of our measurements in-door to make sure everything lined up properly. Remember, we have got to make sure the door closes.
We had set everything up and went over the measurements. Now it was ready for mounting!
We needed to use the bit router to countersink portions of the frame so the hinges could lay flush.
This was a little bit tricky to do and we had to make sure the hinge was spaced properly before we drilled. Everything was going great and we mounted the aluminum door!
Next step was to measure where the door thingies had to go. We got our measurements and we were pleased that we were going to move onto the next step. However, that's when upon closing the door we discovered it didn't sit flush. Serious!? The culprit ended up being a warped frame. Sonofa... The project for the most part has remained outdoors in the dark. We live in the desert and subjected to outrageous temperatures. We made the decision to go ahead and built Mark III. This time we are keeping it indoors and good thing too because it has not warped at all. At this point, it doesn't matter if it does because its full steam ahead and we are not going back. So, here it is:
We were thrilled with the results and we were able to change some measurements we knew were wrong. So, here is right about where we are at minus the cover (which is cut out and waiting to be mounted).
This concludes the building aspect of the ECU but that's not everything. Here are a few little things I guess are worth mentioning.
We found the actual microamperes meter! Yaaay!
Then we got our hands on the right thyristors for the heatsinks.
As far as the jackplate goes, this was the last picture I have received of it.
Apparently this is a very hard part to fabricate. It looks simple but without the right setup, it's a nightmare. I put together a backup plan though and this is the first 3d file I have designed.
I designed it as a reference and possible backup. I decided to check prices to see how much it would be to print in either aluminum or stainless steel. The cheapest price I got was $2,250. HAHA, NOPE!! I also designed this part too.
Pretty proud of myself as it only took me a couple of hours to figure out how to do it. What a learning curve it is!
Before I go into the last part of this update, I want to talk about our plans for this unit. I get asked a lot about them and have been spending a lot of my free time working on them. It's going to be fairly detailed and quite large. That's if you want to get similar results to ours. I know you can do it in less time then its taken us and that's ok. You won't need to do all of the experimenting like we did. Anyways, here's a bit of a teaser of the cover.
I get it. It's like an old, in-company manual. It will reveal all when it gets released! With that said, the next thing I am going to go into will be revealed in those very pages too. Keep that in mind.
I know a lot of this stuff in this update isn't very exiting since we've done it twice already. It's kinda the reason why I have held off on an update for such a long time. Something exciting and different did happen recently and it was the push we needed to complete this project and put it behind us. We want to see this project completed this year and I know you do too.
Finally, remember that cool and confusing diagram matching labels up on the Ecto-1A? Well, it's a happy day today because that list has been updated...
Now, I don't know if that's the right company for the bumper label but it's a damn close match and that company only makes synchronous motors and has been around since 1977. I am doing more research on it and hopefully make a match. This is something I will post in the old bumper thread if I get closer. For now it's a promising lead. The other labels are now found! I am trying to locate them in the wild.
In conclusion, I am going to purchase a drill press soon for the project. That will give us the opportunity to move forward with this project. If we don't move onward, I give you my word that I will drill a hole in my head and paint the unit with my brain matter.