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Friday
Apr302010

The shortest test-drive ever.

 

Last week I was one of the lucky few to get a ride in a REAL 2011 Nissan Leaf - but sadly not behind the wheel. (More on that later) - but for now, here’s my very quick review of the Nissan Leaf Test Mule. A Test mule is something that automakers do to test out the drivetrain of a new vehicle by putting it in an already existing model. 

 

I had fun. And I went round the course a bit quicker than the guy who was meant to take me around to show me just how fast it could go. I also didn’t knock over any cones like the BBC Click team ;) 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Monday
Mar082010

TWiE Episode 14

It’s terrible of me - but I’ve been lapse here on aminorjourney.com. 

I’m re-jigging a few projects, but in the meantime, please do watch last week’s TWiE - which was a great episode. You can see the full selection of episodes at www.thisweekinenergy.tv. 

In the meantime, please feel free to watch the episode below. 

 

 

Sunday
Jan102010

EVcast 310

EVcast 310 - A great show with Michael Craner, Michael Thwaite, Mike Boxwell and held together by Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield.
Sunday
Jan032010

A bit of open source EVing...

So, 

I’m working on my EV, a 1985 VW CityStromer. I’m hoping to get it up and running again by Easter. Right now, she’s off the road with a bit of Motor Bother.

Over the Winter Tigger has not been getting a nice time of it. I haven’t been able to store her indoors, and the weather has been really wet. As a consequence, some of the damp from outside has got inside. So I’ve resorted to heating the car with a little 200W heater. Not exactly what you’d call ideal, but it’ll do for now. 

However, I’m hoping that the new year (Happy New Year, by the way) will bring good things for the VW EV I own. I’ve already got a garage full of spare parts, including a tow-bar, a rear bumper, a front bumper and even a quad-light grille. Oh yeah. I’m talking serious fun. It’s also occurred to me that the VW logo is about the right size to hinge up and reveal a 16 A charging inlet. I’ll think about that one some more, I think. (I’d also thought about casting a plastic VW grille badge in see-thru plastic and then hiding LED lights behind it so that it lit up while charging. We’ll have to see…

But I digress. This isn’t the purpose of my post. The purpose of my post is that I’ve started to work on a little coding. Now, I’ve never coded before really, and my Wife is a professional programmer. She took one look at my code this morning and re-wrote a whole lot of it. Finally, it’s starting to make sense. So I thought I’d share it with the world. 

Take a look, and please let me know what you think! (No-one has de-bugged yet, and it’s a work-in-progress)

At the moment, the code controls the car’s ‘boot up’ sequence. I want to introduce safety measures on Tigger the Ev so that she doesn’t just start up as soon as the ignition is on. (With kids on the way, I figured that would be kind of dangerous… I’ve also had a silly moment when I accidentally drove away with the car still plugged in. This code will, hopefully, eliminate that! )

The file is attached at the end of this post. It’s written for Arduino. If you can code, let me know what you think! 

 

 

 

VWEVstartup

Sunday
Dec132009

Mitsubishi iMiev EVcast

Yesterday I was one of the lucky folks to be at the Mitsubishi iMiev launch, covering the event for the EVcast

I was joined by Robert Llewellyn, Mike BoxwellLance Bradley (MD of Mitsubishi Motors UK) and Neil Butcher, Associate at the Arup Vehicle Design Group.

At my flickr page you’ll find some photos of the event, and below is the video from the EVcast, which was live from the event. 

 

 

 

I was also lucky enough to get a ride from Mike in his new iMiev…

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Mike for that! It was great fun. I’ve driven an iMiev before, but never been a passenger. I just wish I’d have been given one. (Much sadness!)

I also managed to get a (very shaky) video from the launch speeches. 

 

 

 

Don’t forget that the EVcast is live three times a week. I host the Saturday show. You can subscribe to the shows on iTunes!