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

[Christopher Koch]

That's great, Jacob!

I am local to Corvallis so sneakernet sounds like a good option.
What part of town are you in?

Currently, my plan 'A' is to build a pack out of the cells I have, but
rather than replacing the existing battery it will pump energy onto the
main traction power bus — supplementing the main battery and keeping it
charged.
Think of it as a mobile battery-powered fast DC charge unit that's always
plugged in.

On Sun, May 14, 2023, 3:14 PM Jacob Field <jacobtimothyfield at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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