I have a Magne Charger and a Tech 2 that I would love to lend to this project. I’m in northern Indiana. It all could be put on a pallet and shipped. This project is incredibly exciting! You have me so excited to get my batteries!!!!! So happy you got it going!!!!
Is there any reason you guys don't use LFP (Lithium iron phosphate /LifePO4) Batteries for this. 4 of them in series would be a direct replacement for a 12v lead acid battery (allowing you to use the original charger and BMS). Also, if you got the right size, you could fit 4 of them in the same space as a single lead acid battery. You should get about triple the usable capacity (around 100 miles range) and it would weigh considerably less 😉 😜 😏
A new one arrived in Chile in 1998. It is still in a very good state of preservation and is used to circulate on the street regularly. It is white like the one you have. Greetings from Chile.
The truck may be speed limited by design, either because it was limited by the military, to discourage the vehicle being abused, or to comply with the4 speed limit on the base/airport, or it could be speed limited because it's in limp mode because of a trouble code from being dead for so long.
Jared is *VERY* serious about wiring these up. It is extremely dangerous. I got hit by 600vdc from an old tube amplifier years ago. It launched me across my living room about 10 feet and into the wall behind me. I was on the phone with a friend at the time. He was still there when I came to about 30 seconds later and said all he heard was a very loud *BZZZZ* and me yelling "AHHH!" and a thud. I'm very fortunate to have survived that.
It's not the voltage, it's the amperage that does it. Each battery is probably at 700 ish amps at 12 V. You working on a amplifier "Amplified" the voltage, meaning lots of watts quickly. The potential electrical value transfered was so high and so quick your brain didn't know how to tell you and your heart went ok let's figure out how to reset this rhythm. 100 mA to 200 mA is lethal. You just got caught with something that just causes the same affect as a defibrillator.
Interesting finding one of these in the wild still. My brother in law, Jeff Thomas, had a business for years in Arizona where he reverse engineered and restored many of these trucks. He had picked up racks of the NiMH batteries from the EV-1s and had figured out how to upgrade, repair and load balance the battery packs. He spent a lot of time finding the trucks at auctions and putting them into service. It tapered off eventually as the remaining trucks started to be chased by GM and other authorities to make sure they ended up scrapped. Unfortunately, much of that information passed away with him over 10 years ago.
Back in the 2008/9 time frame I worked for DMRO on Eglin Air Force Base and we had one of those on the auction lot . It was still there when I left, most likely it wound up sold for scrap which would be sad as it was 100% complete and in perfect condition.
I remember getting to ride in the bed of a GM concept electric S10 back in 1994-1995. It was the state Science Olympiad contest when I was in junior high. Held at the University IUPUI in Indianapolis Indiana. I got in trouble for leaving my group. But oh well. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity (back then) that I still remember to this day!!! 😊
You could tow it to the top of a large hill or mountain and use the regenerative breaking to put some charge in the battery and then trailer it back to the shop.
I remember seeing two or three at the GM training center for Atlanta in around 2000. I didn’t think much of about it. They were probably Ga. Power vehicles but I learned that civilians could also purchase them although it was quite rare! These are the rarest S-10s ever built.
Wow, it's amazing to see one of those trucks 1. still existing, and 2. actually working (more or less). I remember back when those (and the EV1) came out; the S10 EV actually has a DeDion Tube rear suspension to make room for the battery box under the bed. After 10 years of wanting (and a year of searching) I finally got a 2013 Chevy Volt in late December 2023. Back in the days of dial-up I actually sent an email to one of the representatives of the EV1 program mentioning how awesome it was and 'keeping the faith' that they would start making more and selling them nationwide (she replied 'keeping the faith was right'). As I'm sure you know, it didn't exactly work out that way, but Bob Lutz realized their mistake and to compete with the Prius he knew GM had to leapfrog it in terms of what was possible...and now I'm driving the result.
Rick Waggoner has said a couple of times that he regrets killing the EV-1 program as a cost cutting measure, especailly with how it set GM back in electric car development
found this on a reddit post from 2 years ago, someone found one of these chargers still hooked up out in the wild. It was a interesting tech. More advanced than the J1772 we have today. MagneCharge had 2-way communication! The car can communicate things such as battery type and SOC% back to the charger. The original "large paddle" type used RF to do this, while the later "small paddle" type used IR. One major drawback though is the double-power conversion. AC power would be rectified to DC, and then converted back to AC at a much higher frequency. This was transferred to the car via the inductive paddle interface. The on-board electronics would then rectify this back to DC at the appropriate voltage to charge the battery. This required a lot of electronic components, and thus made the system expensive. Papers I've read quoted the overall efficiency as being around 80%. Which is quite good considering.
I posted two links but it looks like youtube is removing them. I found a site with owner manual and installation manual, as well as TSBs, and found possibly one for sale for $70. probably not legit but if you want the links I can email them to you
Just checked my tech 2 and it has the option for vin H ln1 electric. In theory it should be able to communicate with it. I also have a charger for it too but it's not working. My friend does have a working charger at his house. Not sure if we could help somehow unfortunately we are in Kalamazoo Michigan so not close. Love the truck!
@Jared I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so happy to drive so slow! Lol love it I remember these EV1’s as well as the ranger ev’s from my childhood. Love seeing them still around and kicking
O'Reilly IS crazy cool for offering up the batteries to make this experiment work. Truly the automotive hero we need. I Always enjoy a Robert Dunn Cameo, you guys are like long time school bodies. Also if Editor Duane is the one choosing the music for the time lapse footage, great choices!
Gotta Say I haven't heard of you until Robert sent me this way, but I really enjoyed the video! Oldschool non computer EVs are really neat and I'm glad to see this one roll a few miles and hope it sees many more.
Awesome! “…fixed one wire!” So excited for you! You and your channel is a testament to problem solving and collaboration. Thanks for brightening my day 😊
In late December 2023 I got a 2013 Chevy Volt (after wanting one for 10 years and searching for a year), it really is amazing how things changed and improved in that time.
14:49 i just realized that this is the equivalent of putting a gas tank in your passenger seat well and pulling a hose from it to the engine bay. 23:06 called it!
You know, I’m genuinely impressed none of the control modules had failed. Any car of this age could well have had moisture or dust find it’s way into the computer and kill it, so for them to be working is genuinely impressive, especially as it is all low volume prototype equipment.
It's weird because now that it's working in a somewhat "original" way....I almost wish it would stay...as cool as the tesla swap stuff sounds...there's just something about getting all those original components hooked back up and working. I love it!
I have worked on these before. Your truck is stuck in limp mode. It happens anytime the voltage falls below a certain threshold. Nothing will bring it out of limp mode except resetting the low voltage code with a tech2(the aftermarket such as hp tuners, efilive, tuner pro etc… may work these days). I’ve tried using other hand held scanners that were available to me back in 2005-2008 and they wouldn’t reset the low voltage code. I got stuck on the i65 going through Franklin TN in one that went into limp mode. Was able to get off at the mcewen exit and make it back to the shop which was downtown. ‘Twas a “capital A” adventure.
@@TheQuestionableGarage it would be interesting to see what you could access with a vcx nano and universal patcher. I believe that combo of tools may be able to not only reset the code but also turn it off so that it doesn’t go into limp mode for low voltage. My issue with that low voltage limp mode code was that as the battery age the voltage will momentarily sag below the threshold under hard acceleration and go into limp mode even though there was still plenty of battery life left. I have to think you will experience this condition sooner in the battery life as they aren’t “ev” or “traction motor” batteries. I have a quite a bit of experience doing what you’re doing right now, even building an electric s10 conversion myself 15 years ago that is still running around Nashville area. We experienced back in the day trying to use different platform batteries. Our test bed at the time was a GEM car. Starting batteries or marine deep cycle both saw about a 50% loss of range even with a similar rating than the original “ev” batteries. I miss working on EVs unfortunately I think we were a bit ahead of the times. 15-20 years ago it was a joke, even Elon’s roadster was barely getting noticed either.
I was going to suggest buckling the seatbelt. I worked for a power company that had an electric service vehicle for running errands around town, It wouldn't engage the engine until you buckeled the seatbelt.
Thoroughly enjoyed this episode, especially your excitement when it moved. The Magna Charge is interesting. Apparently the large paddles used an RF connection for the car to talk to the charger, while the small paddles use an infrared connection. The large paddles are 5 1/2" wide, while the small paddles are 4 1/4" wide. Which one does the S10 use?
I can’t wait to see this project as it progresses. I was obsessed with the EV1 and am a proud owner of a 2017 Bolt EV. After owning a EV for 3 years, I don’t ever want to go back to Gas. It cost me ~30$ a month to run my car 50 miles a day, 5 days a week.
Farmers and urbanites used these Chevy S10 EV's in California in the 1990's. There were hundreds of them on California roads before the first hybrid Honda insight or Toyota Prius were even invented. It is a shame that at the end of the lease they were all re-claimed so that Chevy could claim "people never bought them" when they were only available for lease.
I remember about 20 years ago there was one of these trucks for sale online auction from McGuire AFB in New Jersey. I don't remember how much it sold for, maybe 1500 or so, but even then I knew it was extremely rare. I don't think they got a charger though.
Such great memories! Our friends had one of the Ford Ranger EV's. They bought it for the wife's commute vehicle which was only a few miles in downtown traffic. The lease was $150 a month and she was then exempt from parking fees which were over $200 per month. A win win for a couple of years.
I absolutely love that O'Reilly Auto Parts is always on board for everything. Jared: Makes request for his latest Frankenstein's Monster he's questionably putting together. O'Reilly: Yeah, that sounds nuts.....so when can you be at the store? We got you! Love those guys.
I wanted to put in some new spotlights on the garage and I didn't know which breaker it was on, was trying to figure that out, dad said, 'Oh just hook it up live.' 🤨 I'm like, ..uh no. ....this man has a phd, among other things.
Oh man you gotta throw some Tesla m3 modules in there and turn that into an ultra reliable work truck for the shop. Get the tesla model 3 long range modules, you can pit them in a false floor in the bed and it'll give you like 250 miles of range for $5k in batteries Im ev converting a 71 Corvette right now so of you got questions i got answers
Hello Guys, Great Job...! I want to say that the marine starting batteries have some ability to operate as deep cycle batteries. Perhaps not as good as deep cycle marine battery but I believe you have a reasonably good "Energy" batteries there thanks to O'Reilly's...! I was the systems engineer for the EV1 battery pack. I picked it up after the 4.0 LPF (limited production fleet) and "productionized" it. Those were the 5.0 (PbA) and 5.1 (NiMH) battery packs. We had a lot of the documentation but a couple years ago someone threw it all away. Yes, no way to change the SW, it is what it is. Also, I understand that it is a good idea to replace the HV bus capacitors in the inverter. You can roll the dice, but if they pop, chances are the inverter is toast... GOOD LUCK GUYS...! Loving it...!
that smile when you got it working and hearing it in your voice when you got it to move bet Aging wheels will be super happy to get his chance to drive it hope you find the scanner and charger you need to get it to the next step this is a special one such a neat little truck. one of 5 is a neat club
The S10 Electric we used at the Navy Shipyard in Pearl Harbor Hawaii back in the late 90s would only max at 25mph. Glorified golf cart. Don't recall it having AC either. Great Vid Guys!
@jared, if regen is working, use this to charge the batteries! No need for the repaired battery charger... All you need to do is drive the wheels somehow. :D
There's one of these sitting in a buddy's father's garage for the last 20 years. Was there in the early 2000's and just sat because they couldn't figure out a way to charge it.
I was at NH Tech Institute in 95/96 and they had an electric S10 and I believe a Cavalier along with a solar charging station. I don't know if they were factory or a product of the Science department that was building solar race cars for the Tour De Sol.
I had a 1983 S-10 that I converted to electric. I used a 48 volt DC motor from a gov't surplus store and 12 deep cycle 6 volt golf cart batteries. The top speed was about 50 and the range was 20-25 miles depending on the terrain. I drove it like that for a year then added 12 more batteries to get enough range for daily commuting. Two years later I traded it for a diesel VW Rabbit so I could take a cross country road trip.
Thank you for the upload!! My rare weather induced day off has been a bore so far! Love the steady delivery of different content man it never disappoints!🤘
From memory, the electric Rav4s, used the same charger... Interestingly the charging station actually had proper(ish) i/o communications, RF in the large paddle and a little IR transceiver in the small one. If you want to try and spoof the output from the charger into the paddle, look up IEEE J1773, which is the standard it used. The reason the charger is so huge and can only output 6.6KW is because it goes from AC to DC then back to High Frequency (I think like 400hz-sh) AC for the inductive charging. If you tap into the charging circuit behind the trucks onboard rectifier (gonna be a pretty chunky little box downstream of the charging port, but before any batter management equipment) and put in 208V at say 25-32Amps you might be able to get it to clear the codes.
As good as these two very knowledgeable gents are, today they are being overshadowed by Duane the editor! Especially the choice of music during time lapse... fantastic!
I have driven and worked on one of these. It was converted to standard batteries and it had a angle iron frame under the bed that held all the batteries. Our Magna charger didn't work either. It would power on and charge for about 5 minutes and shut off. We were basically stonewalled at that point as there is no information on the vehicle. We had to disconnect the batteries and charge them 4 at a time. We never got it practical to use.
Outstanding video! I always like to see this sort of project come together. Hope you can put together a more modern battery pack and really put that S-10 on the road.
I have two of them. You can see my videos I converted mine updated Batteries and BMS system, etc. Second one is functional, but I kept it mainly for spare parts.
I had a customer when I worked at O’reilly’s in the Tacoma, WA area that had one of these electric S10s. His ran but he was saying it needed a new battery pack and he could only go about 7 or 8 miles on a charge at about 10mph. But when he got it from Ft Lewis it would go about 40mph down the road and 20-25 miles.
I drove a 2002 Toyota RAV4-EV about 60K miles over the 12 years from 2009 through 2022. Uses the same paddle-based Magnecharger (unfortunately on the other coast.) NiMH batteries. Very exciting vehicle for its time. Congrats on getting to a similar place. Consult with various emerging EV conversion companies for additional advice.
I was a buyer at the factory GM auctions and I’ve seen several of these S-10s sell to Chevy dealers . They brought good money compared to gas trucks. I never bought one but I did drive one around the sale site.
I'm familiar with the EV-1 story, but didn't know they also made an electric S10. Loved the video and watched it all the way through. Instant subscribe to see how the project progresses.
The battery size was part of the problem with the EV1, it was bigger and heavier than GM wanted. It was a standard agreed with I think the Japanese EV program. I'd recommend getting hold of a copy of "The Car That Could" by Michael Shnayerson. He was given access to the program during the development of the EV1.
I remember back in high school shop class we had two elecric vehicles. Circa 1995-1997. We had a ranger or s10 cant remember the other was a Datsun 280 if memory serves. They both were alot of work and they let high schoolers drive them lol. Recipe for failure. The datsun i believe rear ended someone. The truck was totaled by a older lady who left her turn signal on. Student looked left right...then pulled out and boom end of that program.
Yes, Ford had an electric Ranger and they were handing them out like candy to various govt agencies... and perhaps schools? I recall seeing on in daily operation at a NY state campground. They never went into full production and only made a few thousand.
The EV1 was amazing. Nobody wanted to give them back after their lease was up. Reminder, it was a lease-only vehicle. Maintained by Saturn at the time, I think... The BMS sounds scary, but it won't be that difficult. You could just get several CALBs as well and wire them up. 100 of them would get you up to 100-150 miles of range.
I had to take the GM training on the S-10E because the dealership owner was going to try to get one or more of the S-10E's. When it came to the hands-on part of the training in Detroit, There was NO vehicle at the facility to be trained on. Passed anyway. Never got to see one of them, but hey, I'm "Factory Trained" on them.
4months ago I found out about the 97 chevy S10 Ev . I've couldn't find one for sale. This is the first video I've seen rebuilding S10ev. Thanks bro. By the way this is Clean 97 S10
Awesome Glad to see if move under its own power, Congrats, cant wait for you to get a custom battery pack an get it up to speed. Always a great watch keep it up
OMG i cant believe you have one. I got to work on one for a little while, way back when i went to auto school. Im not sure but they might still have it if you need spare parts
Tech 2's should be relatively easy to find. When I worked for Saab/GM, the ofdice I was in was moving to a new location and the sent 5 (4 after I liberated one) of them to the electronics crusher. Never found out why, unfortunately I let mine go when I sold my Saab.😢
To help with the charging and truck. Two channels have worked with EVs. RU-vid channel 'Rich Rebuilds' works with Tesla cars and projects. And 'Legit Street Cars' worked on at prototype concept van he called the 'space van'.
Thank you for the deep dive into this, seeing you tackle this absolute unknown, makes the task of my old Honda less daunting. I appreciate the content!!!
Several years ago, I sold a 2000 Ford Ranger EV to a guy who shipped it over to Germany. Supposedly he also had a running and driving S10 EV in his collection. I don't remember how exactly the guy got in touch with me when I had the Ranger advertised for sale, but I might be able to see if I can figure out how to get ahold of him. Maybe he would have some useful insights into what your limited power issues are?
Regarding the wireless charger.. If you now what voltage comes out of the wireless adapter you should be able to inject that voltage by the wires that are on the truck..
I gotta say, I'm 19 and I'm still old enough my mind went to the 90's lightning when they talked about hot wiring it to the s-10, was so confused for a while😂
