September 25, 2008 by Rob.

With the nice weather, I’ve been driving electric nearly everyday and racking up the miles.  Today the RAVolt’s Odo spun to 150500.  The amount of gas I have not bought is adding up - hahahaha!

Even with the stock market meltdown, Laura’s impatient to get our Honda Fit….tick, tick, tick.

BTW: We’re planning to be at the 2008 Austin Maker Faire October 18-19.  The RAVolt will be in the AustinEV area while my boys have a table hacking Wii Motes - bring your mote and they’ll make the “A” button glow.  Alex is buying all the supplies out of his own $$$ with the dream of making a profit at the Faire (DIY kits for @ $10-12).  Can’t argue with that!

Posted in Daily Use, AustinEV | No Comments »

August 16, 2008 by Rob.

Last year’s Maker Faire was a must see event.  The RAVolt and AustinEV gang are planning to be there again.   I think my (lil) makers will have their own table with Wii mods - so bring your Wii mote to get it pimped.

Posted in AustinEV, Planning | 1 Comment »

August 14, 2008 by Rob.

I’m dumping more of my AustinEV threads into the blog.  I figure my audience is bigger than AustinEV (sorry guys).  In case it’s not obvious, I do not endorse, support, or affirm Joby’s POV.

Comment from Joby:

It’s easy to say “We should develop alternative energy”, but how do you propose that would happen?   The PV industry has been working hard for that cost /KW manufacturing breakthrough that would make solar cost effective for 40 years with very slow improvement.  The Wind farms only work in certain areas and they are far far away from population centers which is why T Boone wants the Feds to get into the transmission line business and even if he gets it built there still has to be a conventional power plant idling on line to back up the wing generation because sometimes the wind just stops blowing like it did for an hour this last march which triggered a capacity emergency that came very close to tripping off large interruptible customers.  As Wind generation becomes a larger percentage of the total generation mix this problem will increase without higher levels of spinning reserve.

The bottom line is that the only economic alternative to fossil fuels, Is Fission fuel. Nuclear generation combined with an effective battery technology allowing more people to use electric cars that would be charged at night when demand is otherwise low is our best hope.

My Response:

I think the answer is the same as why we do EV conversions.  Many hard problems are solved because a wide variety of people look for ways to solve them.  We only remember about the winners.  Every EV conversion is a innovation seed.  Every EV conversion is a drop of water in a wave of innovation.  You pick the analogy… the point is that lots of people thinking = break through.

If EVs were all basically the same (like ICE cars today) then that would be a true waste!  I love seeing all the innovative ways that EV converters and *new* car companies are trying to solve transportation.  If you like cars, this is a great time to be playing!

OT PS: I don’t think that there is any clear winner (e.g.: fission) for power generation at this point.

Posted in Rants, AustinEV | 1 Comment »

August 12, 2008 by Rob.

AustinEV has been chasing an off topic thread about solar that I nudged into an ROI for conversions discussion.  I’ve been (trying to) think deeply about the balance between justification / enthusiasm for driving electric and the practical benefits for people who are not green zealots.  Generally, I don’t push EVs for people unless they are very passionate and I’m wondering if that is a mistake.

I’m still cogitating, but here are my posts on AustinEV…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Solar, Alternate Fuels, Rants, Green Tech, AustinEV | 1 Comment »

August 9, 2008 by Rob.

I decided to swing by today’s AustinEV meeting and it turned out to be a good thing… there was some confusion about the date and I was the only EV owner there for an hour.  We had a big crowd of EV curious (hopefuls?) and I love a stage!  Each meeting seems to bring out more and better informed enthusiasts. I hope some of them decide to take the plunge.

It looks like production EVs are about 3 years off so the urge for conversions will *probably* start to decrease.  If that happens, I suspect we’ll go from a conversion club to an driving experience focus.

Brian “Lasso” Lasseter rescued the meeting and we expanded the topics beyond just conversions to larger market trends.  I also got to see the excellent job he did with his Saturn SL conversion.  Very clean!  He chose 18 batteries (and gets 50 mile range) and also included an AC compressor.

Posted in EVents, Electric Vehicles, Pictures, AustinEV | 3 Comments »

July 30, 2008 by Rob.

Wow…quick response from the AustinEV team!  Thanks.

From Brian:

It’s Cupric Sulfate.  It’s formed by the reaction of Sulfuric Acid (in the air, bubbling off from the battery) with the exposed copper of the battery wire lugs. On the plus side… It’s no longer reactive after forming Cupric Sulfate, so it will not hurt anything.  And another positive, is that it’s the copper lugs that are corroding… and they can be replaced
much easier than the lead battery terminals.  

I do not think it’s a big problem.  If you were really concerned, you could re-tin the copper lugs, or put some waterproof paint over the lugs and terminals.  Waterproof paint would make it much more annoying
to change / remove your wiring at a later date though.   :-/

From Mike:

Try coating the exposed surfaces with vaseline.  It will keep the air and
moisture off and greatly reduce corrosion.  There are several brands of
spray on corrosion preventative, but from past experience vaseline works
just as well, cleanup is pretty easy, and it is cheap.

From Roy:

I get that a lot too, it does not effect conductivity for me.
I usually brusk off the powder with a stiff nylon brush and vacume it up.

Posted in Safety, Daily Use, Improvements, Electric Vehicles, AustinEV | No Comments »

July 29, 2008 by Rob.

I was watering the RAVolt’s batteries this weekend (as usual, 1 basterfull per cell) when I noticed that one of the battery terminals is corroded.  The powered is bluish and there is no acid splash around the terminal.  I’m not sure what to do yet, just reporting the problem.  I’ll ask AustinEV for help.

Corroded:

Clean:

Posted in Safety, Batteries, Daily Use, Parts, Pictures, AustinEV | No Comments »

June 11, 2008 by Rob.

This concept Euro-EV trike was posted on the AustinEV list. Specs include 90 miles per charge and >60 MPH speeds, but the price starts at $40k. That’s a lot of green for an micro car when ICE Smart ForTwos are just $12k.

It reminds me of the Myers NMG trike, but has seating for 2.

One interesting question raised on the EVDL it about having hub motors for drive. Conventional wisdom is that all cars will eventually be hub motors, but the physics of unsprung weight will have to be addressed first.

Posted in Electric Vehicles, AustinEV | 3 Comments »

May 31, 2008 by Rob.

This was posted to the AustinEV list:

You and your family are invited to join us at Ramsey Park this Sunday (43rd & Burnet – Central Austin) from 10a til 2p for an art project, play-day, picnic, and parent social:

“Green Tips from Great Kids.”

We’ll have ice water, lemonade, ice coffee, lots of shade, art supplies and a huge park to play in, plus special guests: Spiral Scouts, Future Craft Collective, GaGa, and Austin Eco School. *coffee provided by Pacha Coffee, biodegradable cups by GoodCommonSense
Please visit this link for more info: ttp://greentipsfromgreatkids.com/junefirstevent.html

What is it?
We’re inviting children and students aged 4 to 18 to flip the paradigm! Give adults advice, for once! Tell us what we should do about the environment! Be creative! Bring your words, your crafty skills, and your art! (Art supplies provided).
We are collecting work for possible publication in a book.

More info available via the website: GreenTipsfromGreatKids.com–

FUN! FREE! ELECTRIFYING?

Posted in EVents, AustinEV | 2 Comments »

January 31, 2008 by Rob.

The RAVolt and I blew a couple of hours as part of AustinEV’s showing at a Clean Tech event at the UT Business School.  I’m not sure what happened, but the outside part got very little traffic.  I think UT should change something if they are considering asking for future time investments.

Posted in AustinEV | 1 Comment »