August 31, 2008 by Rob.

Alex and I watered the RAVolt’s batteries yesterday.  I’m right on schedule, but the cells were very dry (4+ oz instead of 3) due to Austin’s relentless heat.

I can tell when the cells are getting dessicated because it cuts down my range (to about 18 miles).  That leads to sphincter tightening when my batteries start to sag uncomfortably and I’m a few miles from home.

Post-watering, I did a 20 mile ride and the batteries were still nice and bouncy.

image source

Posted in Daily Use | No Comments »

August 27, 2008 by Rob.

I got an email from Kurt B today asking about lessons learned.  I’ve been meaning to post this for a while so I thought it would be good to recap. The “improvements” category also flags posts with ideas.

1. get 110 VAC charger instead of 220
2. get a better DC-DC converter that can trickle charge the aux battery and has a choke voltage instead of just shutting off
3. upgrade the rear suspension
4. skip the power steering pump work - it’s not needed.
5. weld supports for the front battery box to the frame. My box rests on part of the engine mount and I’m not crazy about that.
6. learn to weld (buy a welder). I did not need much welding, but it would have been nice to be independent.

Added 8/31: I’d also put the volt meter higher on the dashboard so that I did not have to look away to read it.  The analog meter is fine - I’m very happy with that.

Posted in Improvements, Planning | 1 Comment »

August 20, 2008 by Rob.

Sure it’s hot - that’s what fans are for.

Posted in Daily Use, Pictures, Storyline | No Comments »

August 19, 2008 by Rob.

SCAM WARNING!  Do not mistake this post for an endorsement - this is a warning to stay away from these kits!

I’ve been wondering if those ICE water conversion kits could actually work.  I have never met ANYONE who installed or got benefit from these kits.  The only people who claim they work also sell them.  BEWARE.

I was pushed over the edge by back-to-back twitter SPAM follows that are clearly just link hounds.  They have “bogus234″ handles with cheerleader pictures and a single twit linking back to their shell web site.   It that does not scream out SCAM then please wire me some money so that my work-from-home Nigerian uncle can liquidate his day trading fortunes and make you a viagra millionaire! It’s a sure thing.

Posted in ICE Cars, Rants | 1 Comment »

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.

Today I got to watch (and photograph - belated sorry to other drivers on Bee Caves) the RAVolt turning over four zeros!  That’s a huge milestone for the glider and over 3,400 electric miles.

An, yes, the old gas gauge is covered with a sticker that says “Outta Gas! Running on E-”  I simply can’t resist EV geek jokes (non-geek translation E- = electrons).

Almost…   Spinning…

There it is!

Posted in Daily Use, Pictures, Storyline | 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 »

August 9, 2008 by Rob.

I just saw an announcement that Austin based ActaCell (don’t bother w/ the site, it’s a 1 pager) raised $5.8M of VC money from DFJ Mercury Includes Google.org, Applied Ventures and Good Energie.  They plan to hire key technical talent and to further develop ActaCell’s innovative lithium-ion battery technology for commercial purposes.

ActaCell, Inc. on 2105 Donley Drive 78758 

Posted in Batteries | 1 Comment »