Thursday 2 January 2014

Installation of the EX-RAY Speedometer

A speedometer with mileage odometer is needed to determine the cart "mileage" measured in amp-hours / mile or watt-hours / mile.  I ordered an EX-RAY speedometer from EVDrives.com.  This speedometer also contains a battery pack voltage measurement, air and motor temperature, and clock.

Upon opening the box I discovered that I had not specified the RXV model.  The machined aluminum mounting bracket was too small for my cart.  I called Carl and arranged for an exchange.  When the new speedometer arrived I set about installation.

The first challenge is removing the driver side front wheel.  Should be easy enough but the bolts were frozen in place.  A little WD-40 and 10 minute wait did the trick.  I used the jack from my pick-up truck to lift the front end of the golf cart.



On the RXV model the clamp that holds the magnet sensor does not have enough clearance, it requires pulling the hub and doing some grinding on the cast webbing.  Fortunately I had a 4" Makita hand held grinder.  This did not take but a few minutes.  The axle was covered with green Frog tape to keep the filings from getting into the bearings.



Next the magnet that rotates is mounted on the aluminum wheel hub.  This requires drilling and counter sinking a bolt into the hub. 


Here is the magnet and sensor in place with about 1/4" of separation.



The speedometer contains a small flat watch battery, but works best with external power (which also allows measurement of the pack voltage).  This should be from switched 48 volt system, which required some testing to find.

With everything assembled I turned on the cart ignition switch and it worked first time!  Final steps are to set the units, the clock time and input the wheel circumference in millimeters.  I measured this directly by putting a thin line of paint on the wheel and rolling the cart until I could see 2 marks on the floor (used cardboard to keep the paint off the cement).

With the speedometer I confirmed that the cart top speed is 20.4 mph.  This is a relief as the local sheriff is giving tickets for unlicensed vehicles that are caught driving over 20 mph on a surface street.

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