Inherited Design Components

	These are the components that we inherited with our purchase of the surplus AVS electric shuttle buses. We are trying to incorporate (as much as possible of) the original bus design into our re-design.
Solectria (Azure)	The bus utilizes two Solectria AC-55 induction motors, powered by 440TF UMOCs (motor controllers/inverters). One major problem we face with the inherited Solectria drive-train is the limited top-speed (purported and originally designed to be limited to 45 MPH). Florida recently raised the minimum highway speed to 50 MPH, and the existing Solectria drive-train has never achieved that speed, so unless we accomplish a re-design, we will be forced to the backroads in order to escape from Florida. This fits with our LSD plan, but achieving highway speeds for short duration is a design goal.
Fairfield Torque Hubs	There is a reduction hub attached directly to each Solectria motor. These hubs provide a 12.36 to 1 reduction of the AC-55's rotation. Theoretically, the AC-55 motor could provide 8000 RPM to the hub, giving us 647 wheel RPM, and with the existing wheel circumference of 104 inches, that would equate to 64 MPH. Unfortunately, Fairfield specs their hub as having a maximum input of 5000 RPM, which only gives 40 MPH (meaning a buyer of the AVS would actually have to exceed Fairfield's maximums to achieve the AVS' rated and advertized top speed).
Capstone	There is a Capstone Microturbine on our bus, providing 30kW from both diesel (a 53-gallon tank) and liquid propane. The turbine is utilzed as an auxilary power unit (the APU giving motive power in a series-hybrid configuration, as originally designed by PEI and AVS). We hope to use the turbine as an onboard 3-phase generator (stationary power for emergency support) when we recommission it back into service, while also still using it as an APU.
PEI (IDT)	Created the onboard BMS (Battery Management System) and non-isolated 10kW charger. This company has migrated away from the civilian market to concentrate on military systems, and no longer provides support. We are designing custom software to replace their products, particularly focusing on the Capstone control.
East Penn (Deka) Batteries	We inherited a set of 50 Deka gel batteries (24 8G31DT 'buddy pairs', plus two more for parallel 12V systems). These batteries are powerful, but heavy (71 pounds each). Ours are sulphated and near the end of their lives and will have to be replaced soon. We will do our initial development with what we have, and decide on the replacements after all the other re-design issues are addressed.
Avcon	There is a charge port on our bus, with an Avcon conductive inlet. We have already snipped the wires and replaced the Avcon with a simple RV 'shore-power' connector (4-wire, 3-pole twist lock). We like the Avcon, which was designed to meet the SAE J1772 standard (while its companion charge pedestals were designed to meet NEC article 625), but we are creating an RV, which utilizes the neutral line (discarded by the many engineers who collaborated on the EV charging standard. No one envisioned a need for the center-tapped neutral, because no one anticipated an all-electric RV). We will be using shore-power infrequently, as our RV will be charged by solar panels, but we include an RV inlet for those cloudy days in the RV park. We may also keep our Avcon inlet, in case the abandoned charge infrastructure is restored.

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Added Design Components

	We have already added some new components for our conversion of the AVS electric shuttle bus into an RV. As we make further upgrades we will add a link to the major stuff here.
Powerware (Eaton)	Eaton/Powerware still supports this discontinued UPS model (9150 12.5KVA) which we are using for onboard AC power. Our UPS was purchased as surplus, and was chosen because of its nominal DC voltage (288), which matches the battery string voltage from our surplus bus. With the 9150, we have an inverter which can provide us with approximately 9kw of power (240/120 in a split phase configuration), and we can also use our bus as a mobile UPS, providing whole-house (or whole-office) back-up power, while also implementing the V2G (vehicle-to-grid) concept.
Iota Engineering	In our quest for RV-like comforts, we have added some components from this company-- a 12V charger/power supply, and some lightweight power distribution panels for recreational AC and DC power. There are already two seperate 12V circuits on the bus, and we are adding a third for some of the planned 12V amenities.

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Dream Design Components

	We may blow our entire budget on just these dream components. These companies produce the SOTA in their market niche, and we hope we can afford to add these components to our design...
Sanyo Solar	We have identified the Sanyo HIT-190 solar panel as a design fit for the Metabus prototype. We are betting our proof-of-concept on these panels, as they provide the current state-of-the-art in power efficiency (at least within the range of our limited budget). We are designing the RV's roof for at least 24 of these panels, which when deployed will provide us with approximately 4.5kw of power for 5 to 6 hours each day. Several days in the sun will lead to several hours on the run...
Valence	When we replace our sulphated gel VRLA batteries, we would love to upgrade to these Valence (lithium) Group-27 batteries. The upgrade may be prohibitively expensive (at today's prices we may have to live without our lithium for a while. We are self-funding this research, and are on a low-budget), but our REV would lose a lot of weight and gain a lot of power, so we are designing for Valence's U27-12XP.
Maxwell Ultracapacitors	If we cannot afford the Valence battery upgrade, we probably won't be able to afford these ultracapcitors either. But it would make for a nice design, to be able to send solar and regenerative braking power to a bank of Maxwell's BOOSTCAPs, and parallel that power with the energy stored in the Valence U27 banks. We are dreaming, of course.
	Jim is willing to mortgage his house, but we probably still won't have the budget for all that we want.

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