[ausev] Power steering pump continuous operation

[Aaron Choate]

Brian doesn't actually run the ps continuously. He has a switch in the  
cabin so he can turn it on or off at will.

A solution to manage the pump depending on vehicle speed would be even  
cooler.

/Aaron

On Nov 18, 2008, at 6:20 PM, Michael Bonard <mbonard at gmail.com> wrote:

> According to Brian Lasseter(see below), his power steering pump  
> seems to
> continuously use a lots of power.
>
> Question for the group: why do we have to run the power steering pump
> all the time? Power steering is really needed at rest and at VERY low
> speeds. I was told that some high end cars shut down power steering at
> higher speeds too provide more precise force feedback to the driver I
> presume.
>
> I suggest that we look at this question more closely! A switch  
> triggered
> by RPM the of the electric motor could be shut down the power steering
> pump above lets' say 10 mph. Ideally the switch should be triggered by
> the car speedometer, if and when the signal is accessible.
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> Michael Bonard
>
> NEON 2000 conversion (in progress)
>
>
>
> Brian Lasseter wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Marc Kohler  
>> <mkohler at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 2. Colder batteries need a higher charging voltage to get  
>>> completely charged
>>> (so the charger may not be doing as much as it used to), therefore
>>>
>>
>> Really?  Colder batteries need a higher charging voltage?  I'd never
>> heard of that issue.
>>
>>
>>
>>> #1 and #3 can be resolved by adding battery heaters or insulating  
>>> the box
>>> (if there is room).  Not common here in Texas.
>>>
>>
>> Yeah... I wasn't really planning on heating the batteries or  
>> otherwise
>> doing anything about the situation... I was just curious if there  
>> were
>> indicators I could look for that my batteries might be giving out
>> quicker.
>>
>>
>>
>>> 700W load just sitting around?  Seems like a lot.  What is pulling  
>>> that
>>> much?
>>>
>>
>> Yeah... that is a lot.    The power steering pump pulls 400W or so
>> just sitting around, and the cooling fans for the air conditioning
>> pull 168W.  The rest of it is general 12V car electronics being fed
>> from the DC/DC converter.  (I hope to make a switch on the A/C  
>> cooling
>> fans so that they are only on when the A/C is on soon.)
>>
>>
>>
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