Author Topic: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive  (Read 26530 times)

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Offline Legit-Design

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #25 on: July 31, 2013, 06:34:16 pm »
I've turned on youtube image stabilsation in this video, please tell me what you think.
I have to decide whether or not to keep it. I think I have 24 hours to revert back, otherwise I'm stuck with stabilised version.

Really weird effect, it is charging the field of view all the time. Stretching the edges/corners. Doesn't work too well with almost stationary shots, in moving scenes didn't notice anything weird. Maybe try Deshaker plugin for Virtualdub instead?
 

Offline sagdahl

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #26 on: July 31, 2013, 06:53:24 pm »
Dave,
Nice video. Interesting and relaxed.
But you really kill us when we see what the Sydney weather is in the winter.
In Sweden we have -5 to -10° and snow during 2-3 months and then rain and 10-15° 6-7 months.
Now in the summer we are lucky if we got around 20°C.
It is a mystery why anyone want to stay here....
/Roger
That, that is, is. That, that is not, is not. Is that it? It is!
 

Offline Wytnucls

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #27 on: July 31, 2013, 07:01:00 pm »
Yeah, but look at the bright side, at least you don't have to worry about skin cancer... 8)
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #28 on: July 31, 2013, 09:10:50 pm »
Sydney winter is like Durban, but we do not have the assorted dangerous spiders. A few venomous snakes that is all, and of course the largest production of a certain plant...........

Summer will be different though, a lot more humid.
 

Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #29 on: July 31, 2013, 10:35:32 pm »
I was once tasked with fitting a set of flasher lights to a C5 the lights were the crappiest possible very flimsy and poorly made
So just like every other Sinclair product then... they always cut a few too many corners
Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs
 

Offline Zad

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #30 on: August 01, 2013, 01:21:09 am »
A huge shame really, he consistently came down just on the wrong side of the price <> quality trade-off. Just a few extra pennies spent here and there would have made for much better and more reliable products. The ZX80 voltage regulator heat sink was too small and caused it to overheat. They got it pretty much right with the ZX81, but then made the same mistake on the first issue of the ZX Spectrum. All for the sake of a piece of aluminium that should have been a bit bigger, and must have ended up costing them a small fortune in replacement.

Micro Men is a surprisingly good film. Even though the disclaimer says it isn't all true and scenes were inserted for dramatic purposes, a lot of the details are spot on. Even the chap they got to play Rick Dickinson, the industrial designer, looks a lot like him. There is a nice cameo near the end, the landlady behind the pub bar is Sophie Wilson, half of the ARM design team.

Offline sagdahl

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #31 on: August 01, 2013, 05:46:22 am »
I have to take out my ZX80 from the closet and measure some voltage regulator temperatures.
Never had a problem with it.
That, that is, is. That, that is not, is not. Is that it? It is!
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #32 on: August 01, 2013, 06:37:48 am »
Dear old Clive believed his own publicity & didn't have the patience to handle product failure.

For instance,I've never heard of anyone getting his "D class " amplifiers to meet their supposed specs.
Sinclair just washed their hands of them & went on to something else.

That sounds familiar---maybe Sir Clive is advising the Chinese Electronics industry now! :D
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #33 on: August 01, 2013, 07:12:16 am »
Found the original commercial:

The larger the government, the smaller the citizen.
 

Offline Stonent

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #34 on: August 01, 2013, 07:16:56 am »
I was once tasked with fitting a set of flasher lights to a C5 the lights were the crappiest possible very flimsy and poorly made
So just like every other Sinclair product then... they always cut a few too many corners

Colo(u)r screen?! Bahh! Who needs that? The ability to see the screen while instructions were running? Luxury!
The larger the government, the smaller the citizen.
 

Offline amyk

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #35 on: August 01, 2013, 07:41:55 am »
Surprised to see a ULA on the display board; I was expecting something more off-the-shelf, like maybe an LM3914. Perhaps they were cheaper?
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #36 on: August 01, 2013, 07:44:54 am »
The C5 might have got a bit of traction if it had been introduced in the 1960s..----it looked like something out of El Cheapo British science fiction of that period.

They could have got "Twiggy" or someone to drive one & picked up free publicity.
After all that was the time of the "Swinging Sixties" when all sorts of crap appeared,& maybe sold a few items.

Anyone remember the "Moulton Bicycle"--it had tiny wheels which were supposed to have some benefits.

But the '80s---I don't think so!

Many Brits of that time were not sure where their next quid was coming from,let alone forking out 399 of them for a "car",which after you "had a look under the bonnet",looked like something you could put together in your back shed.
You could probably have picked up a reasonable old motorbike for that,or an "Old Banger" car!
« Last Edit: August 01, 2013, 07:48:20 am by vk6zgo »
 

Offline RupertGo

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #37 on: August 01, 2013, 10:31:10 am »
Oh man! That's made my day. Let me take you back... back... back...

I worked for Sinclair Research in the mid-80s as a snotty-nosed teenaged Z80 programmer. I joined the day the C5 launched and worked initially in Sinclair's London office (a tiny place with just Clive, his secretary, his father and me - it's a long story...). So I came out of work and there outside the office was the C5 that Clive had been driving at the launch event - widely covered on the telly.  But, nobody knew what to do with it - it was a Friday afternoon, it wouldn't fit through the doorway into the office and you couldn't just leave it there. So light, someone could have picked it up and walked away with it.

"I know!" I said. "I'll drive it home and look after it over the weekend!"

Clive looked dubious "Are you sure?" he said, "It's rush hour, it's London..."

"You've just been on the TV telling everyone how safe it is," I said (teenagers, eh?). "What can go wrong?"

"Errr... OK" he said. What else could he have done?

So I drove it from Chelsea to Chiswick through the London rush hour traffic. Got a lot of attention - after all, it'd had been on the TV all day - and it felt really good.

Until I got to Hammersmith, about three miles from the office and about two from home, when the battery ran out. The advertised range was not quite working out... peddling it (with no gearbox) all the way home was not nearly as much fun.

"Yes," said Clive on the Monday. "There may be some bugs to work out..." Can't remember how we got it back - I think by van.

Some more background on it: it was designed by a couple of chaps at Milton Hall, home of Sinclair Research's Metalab in Cambridge, in conjunction with various suppliers. The P. Newman who co-authored the Unofficial C5 document is Perran Newman, who became my boss at Sinclair after I moved to Cambridge; we worked together on a few projects, including the Pandora portable Spectrum (yet another story).

The "washing machine" motor was in fact a variant of one used for electric torpedoes. The ULA was a typical Sinclair component; the Ferranti ULA in the ZX81 was the first such in any consumer device, and Sinclair had a preference for them over other solutions. It was possible - although I never took part - to put two batteries in series and go very fast indeed, I think the unofficial record was 30 MPH, if you didn't do it for too long. Sinclair engineers were an eccentric bunch, and did things like go jousting in muddy fields in Citroen 2CVs.

But so much on it was just too pared back - the nylon gears that stripped, the batteries that were just too wimpy, those brakes... and, yeah, the British weather. There was a sort of cagoule which clipped around the front of the driving space, but that made you look even more like Davros than before.

Happy days.But it was a doomed project... now, the C10...

 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #38 on: August 01, 2013, 11:50:35 am »
Wow, great first hand story, thanks for sharing!
 

Offline peter.mitchell

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #39 on: August 01, 2013, 12:15:00 pm »
Man, that thing has so much potential, the main problem i see is how steering is handled; you can solve the nylon gears, the battery, the motor, not being able to see behind you all easily, but how the steering is done, not so much :(
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #40 on: August 01, 2013, 12:50:46 pm »
Man, that thing has so much potential, the main problem i see is how steering is handled; you can solve the nylon gears, the battery, the motor, not being able to see behind you all easily, but how the steering is done, not so much :(

Actually, the steering works pretty well (provided you are the right height) and is quite natural. You instantly feel comfortable with it. That is the least of the issues.
 

Offline Slobodan

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #41 on: August 01, 2013, 02:45:13 pm »
Will you be able to make a video with Nissan leaf than?
 

Offline Slobodan

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #42 on: August 01, 2013, 02:46:37 pm »
This one made in China looks a bit more comfortable, less nerdy and the rearview mirrors are standard.  :-+



Overall dimensions(L*W*H)mm2150×950×1700
Wheel base (mm):1450
Rear tread (mm):750
Motor:72V2000w brushless DC
Controller:72V80A
Battery:72V45AH (lead acid)
Charger:72V/6.5A
Max.speed:65 km/H
Range:70 km
Climb ability:25°
Front Tire4.00-12
Rear Tire:145/70-12
Brake:Disk


What is the price?
 

Offline KTP

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #43 on: August 01, 2013, 04:45:58 pm »
If I were going to take a three wheeler on the road/freeway, I think I would go for this slightly higher performance model:

http://spyder.brp.com/spyder-st/overview
 

Offline Winston

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #44 on: August 01, 2013, 09:50:54 pm »
If I were going to take a three wheeler on the road/freeway, I think I would go for this slightly higher performance model:

http://spyder.brp.com/spyder-st/overview
Not electric, though.

Here's a trike that's supposedly the "epitome of pedal-electric vehicles," the 2012 Pike's Peak Hillclimb pedal-electric champion:

Top Speed: 40 mph
Range: 165 Miles / 111 Miles (with / without pedaling @ 20 mph)
Power: Three selectable modes: Assist (750 Watts), Economy (2100 Watts), Power (4200 Watts)

http://www.outriderusa.com/Outrider-USA-422-Alpha-p/transition422alpha.htm
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #45 on: August 01, 2013, 10:36:02 pm »
Will you be able to make a video with Nissan leaf than?

I am currently in talks with Nissan to get a hold of a LEAF.
 

Offline ivan747

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #46 on: August 01, 2013, 11:14:35 pm »
So Dave now becomes an electric car reviewer  :-+

Just don't ruin the car during the teardown  ;D
 

Offline SpiderElectronics

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #47 on: August 02, 2013, 09:27:50 am »
In the 80's Sinclair was big on Z80 based devices.

In the Z80 Processor the mnemonic for the op-code C5 was 'PUSH BC' - Could that be an inside joke by the C5 team do you think? (PUSH BC ~ PUSH BICYCLE)

Probably not, but it makes me smile. :)
 

Offline Slobodan

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #48 on: August 02, 2013, 09:35:18 am »
Will you be able to make a video with Nissan leaf than?

I am currently in talks with Nissan to get a hold of a LEAF.

What, sarcasm? Your mate mentioned in the video that he owns a Nissan Leaf, or did I misunderstood?
 

Offline LapTop006

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Re: EEVblog #501 - Sinclair C5 Electric Car Teardown & Test Drive
« Reply #49 on: August 02, 2013, 11:18:32 am »
On the display board what were the yellow strapped components with the resistors? If they were black strapped I'd have assumed zero ohm links.

Some odd diode package perhaps?
 


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