[Caevlist] Cute little EV on Craigslist (2011 Think City)

[Jacob Field]

Hi Chris,

First, join the Facebook group called "The Think Tank":
https://www.facebook.com/groups/27279972050/ (Yes it's on facebook,
unfortunately it's also the most active group.)
People who know a lot about the Thinks there include Frank Smith, Myles
Twete, and Werner Cornelius (others too, but those I know of).

There's also an email list for Oregon owners:
2011-think-ev-owners-oregon at googlegroups.com (Not sure how to join it, but
that's the email group list.)

I have a lot of documentation on various bits of the car, probably a couple
GB worth, including service manuals, some schematics, software for
diagnosing issues, etc. If you're local to Corvallis, I could meet up with
you and give you a flash drive with what I've got on it. The battery pack
is pretty fully documented - wiring diagrams, CAN signals, specifications,
etc. No schematics for the boards, but we do have what they do and the CAN
messages they send - so you should be able to make your own BMS for
whatever pack you replace it with.

Let me know if that works - or I could try uploading it to Drive (if I have
enough space) and sharing it that way. I'd also like to keep posted on your
progress - I'd love to stick a 40-100 kWh pack in my Think someday (with
fast charging) so I can road trip it :)

Best!
- Jacob



On Sun, May 14, 2023 at 1:14 PM Christopher Koch <jazzjunkie.chris at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Kirk,
>
> Some photos inside the battery would be great! I'm struggling to find even
> basic information like pack configuration beyond "400V"
>
> That might help with the temptation to drop the battery out without the
> proper equipment. I found a video where someone put a big inner tube
> underneath to drop the battery gently but I'm not quite crazy enough to try
> that yet.
>
> On Sun, May 14, 2023, 12:05 PM Kirk Swaney - SHIFT Electric Vehicles LLC <
> kirk at shiftev.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> I have serviced a few thinks, owned one, and have pictures of the pack
>> opened up if you want to see what that looks like. It is a compact and well
>> designed pouch cell pack.
>>
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: Christopher Koch <jazzjunkie.chris at gmail.com>
>> Date: 5/10/23 10:08 PM (GMT-08:00)
>> To: Jacob Field <jacobtimothyfield at gmail.com>
>> Cc: Corvallis EVs <caevlist at caevclub.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Caevlist] Cute little EV on Craigslist (2011 Think City)
>>
>> Jacob,
>>
>> One of my big fears was that this was too obscure to have an enthusiast
>> community, so I'm really glad to hear otherwise!
>>
>> I hear what you're saying about how tedious an 18650 build would be
>> without some sort of automation; the only reason I would consider it is
>> because I already have so dang many of them! If they aren't a good fit I'll
>> just go with plan A which is use them to make my family a battery backup
>> for their farm house.
>> The 18650s I have are already assembled into little 3S3P submodules so if
>> the stars align and the form factor is a Cinderella fit into the stock
>> envelope that would take a lot of the work out of it.
>>
>> -Chris
>>
>> On Wed, May 10, 2023, 9:52 PM Jacob Field <jacobtimothyfield at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The Think itself is a pretty neat little car. I've got one and love it,
>>> and there's a solid little enthusiast community with a lot of knowledge
>>> about the inner workings.
>>>
>>> I have all the specifications for the battery pack, as well as
>>> information on the CAN protocol it uses to communicate with the car —
>>> building a replacement battery pack is certainly within the realm of
>>> possibility.
>>>
>>> That being said, as someone who's tried building an EV battery out of
>>> 18650s, it takes AGES. If I ever upgrade the battery in my Think, it'll be
>>> using modules from another wrecked EV.
>>>
>>> If you have plenty of time, money, and electrical savvy, I'd say go for
>>> it!
>>>
>>> - Jacob Field
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 10, 2023, 9:28 PM Christopher Koch <
>>> jazzjunkie.chris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> I don't want to start a feeding frenzy, but there is a sweet little EV
>>>> for sale right now with a worn-out battery I'm thinking about buying (as
>>>> are a lot of other people, according to the seller!)
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to gauge the depth of what I'm getting myself into if I try
>>>> to rebuild the battery.
>>>> When I was at Arcimoto I was involved with designing their
>>>> next-generation battery (sadly that project got scrapped) so maybe I'm too
>>>> cocksure about my abilities.
>>>>
>>>> I have a couple thousand 18650s lying around yearning for a purpose, so
>>>> there's a lot of hope that I might have what it takes to breathe new life
>>>> into this thing but I wanted to put it out there for community comment and
>>>> discussion.
>>>>
>>>> Is this a dream project waiting to happen, or is this 2011 EV from a
>>>> defunct manufacturer a trap to avoid at all costs?
>>>>
>>>> -Chris Koch
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Caevlist mailing list
>>>> Caevlist at caevclub.org
>>>> http://maillist.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/caevlist
>>>
>>>
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