POWERED BY UBM ELECTRONICS
We worry a lot about Moore’s Law running out of gas right about now. Now comes former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz with this piece on Harvard Business Review’s blog: “There, however, is a possible “off-ramp” to Moore’s Law that offers [...]
LOS ANGELES–So often, we get ahead of ourselves a consuming public, especially when it comes to technology innovation. Take power generation and smart-grid management. We know that electronics that drive enormous efficiency gains on the grid. After all, our smart [...]
By Malcolm Fuller, contributing writer SANTA CLARA, Calif. – You wake up in your chilly San Francisco apartment (or any chilly place for that matter), and your first instinct is not to crank up the thermostat several notches (too expensive!). [...]
By Brian Fuller We’ve written all lot about the quickening pace of innovation in automotive electronics design. And you’ll recall the centerpiece of the first part of the Drive for Innovation was an all-electric Chevy Volt, which took us around [...]
Live-blogging the Chevy Volt Teardown-Day 2
17 January 2012
TROY, Mich.–We're back at it on day two of our three-day teardown of the Chevy Volt.
8:00 a.m. EST: Coffee, bagels and camera angles. Each of the still cameras set up to record the teardown clicks a shot every four seconds. Visitors have to stay behind lights and Munro & Associates workers, wearing their trademark blue shirts, need to come back into the camera viewing field exactly where they went out.
We'll post this incredible time-lapse program in the next two weeks, so stay tuned!
8:15 a.m.: Al Steier, Munro's teardown man extraordinaire, is pulling off the wheels and hood first thing this morning so we can get at wheel sensors and get, literally, under the hood.
9:45 a.m.: John Scott-Thomas is an analyst with TechInsights, a key part of the team that will analyze for us the electronics throughout the Volt. His expertise is power management, so he's keenly interested in prying the lids off the various electronics modules we're extracting from the Volt and understanding the electronics inside and how engineers managed power, weight, size and other tradeoffs in the design phase. He's antsy. He's been here for 24 hours and hasn't gotten his fingernails dirty yet!
11:30 a.m.: The first serious under-the-hood dive-in comes just before lunch as Steier dives into the engine compartment to extract the power electronics control module. In the middle of his examination he comes across an unexpected safety feature.
2:10 p.m.: Steier and crew lift the Volt up on the hoist and get ready to take off the shielding around the battery pack. Once that's done, the next step will be unbolting (carefully) the battery pack itself!
3:50 p.m.: Steier and colleague Mark Fazi pull the battery out from under the Volt and wheel it into position for additional analysis. He lays out his game plan for what's next:
4:15 p.m.: The service disconnect plug was the first thing Steier pulled out as the teardown began Monday. But the Volt's 380V lithium-ion battery pack, divided into three sections, still carries energy in each section, potentially lethal energy. Steier grabs a volt meter to takes measurements:
See more live coverage of the teardown here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
R. Lam January 25, 2012 at 11:19 pm
I believe they chose 380 volts probabably due to both a limitation of the power electronics (maybe the IGBT's?), and it is more efficient at higher voltages than lower voltages.I hope someone else more knowledgeable can confirm and say otherwise.
Leave a Reply
*Required
-
HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000
The world’s most advanced storage platform has extended its midrange offerings, delivering effortless, efficient, bulletproof, and future proof storage to the entire midrange. Store all of your data on a single system that supports advanced features, such as storage federation and automated tiering, and which enables you to start small and grow without disruption.
-
Advantech RISC Computing Platforms
UBC-DS31 is powered by a Freescale ARM Cortex-A9 i.MX6 dual core processor, with 1GB DDR3 memory & 4GB flash onboard. It has 2D and 3D graphics built in, and supports dual displays with up to 1080p high resolution output on low power consumption.
Luiz Costa January 25, 2012 at 10:42 am
Hey fellows, as an electrical engineer I know enough at least to be dangerous!
) Here is my 10 Volts question: can anyone tell me why 380 Volts (not in the Chevy dealer parking lot, of-course)? Particularly DC!? Are they (and I imagine "they" meaning the industry, not just the formerly bankrupt GM) trying to save on inches of copper wires? Thanks for your insight.