You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
Baby Steps · 29 July 07
I realized the other day that if gas prices keep going up there’s going to be a big shake-up in the baby raising “industry.” Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to, including my Mom, says that they took their baby for long drives whenever it was colicky. What to do when gas prices go north of three bucks a gallon? Long walks? Simulated cars (think rumble seat on a treadmill)? Fewer babies?
“Our baby is only getting 18mpg!”
Maybe continue the car ride therapy using smaller, more efficient automobiles? I imagine a baby would snooze just as well in an electric car as in any other; there’s still road and tire noise, potholes, and jostling. And it’s not like you need hundreds of miles of range to put a baby to sleep.
Usually.
Doug's PakTrakr with Zaurus · 4 July 07
Back in May we featured some Electric Vehicle Links to the new PakTrakr and to Doug’s Karmann Ghia conversion site. As coincidence would have it Doug wrote back recently that he’d gone ahead and purchased a PakTrakr for his Ghia EV.
Not only that, but he got out his old Sharp Zaurus, dusted off his programming tools (well, I don’t know if they were really all that dusty, just trying for a poetic effect here), and set to work on making a cool display for all of that lovely PakTrakr data.
- 200 MPH in a steam powered car? Welcome to the British Steam Car Challenge. More details here.
- Teresa Hertz’s electric ZAP Zebra. “My father, who loves me very much, said, ‘You know, if you get hit in that thing, you’re dead. Please get the most obnoxious color,’” Hertz says, revealing the inspiration behind her choice of bright green over mellow blue. “It looks like a little aphid.” As for the price of commuting? “I’ve only noticed a $10 or $12 difference in my power bill — practically nothing,” she says.
- From the mailbox (thanks!): Building a company: 0-60 in 4 seconds about Tesla motors.
- James sent along a link to the news regarding Firefly’s future batteries. You can read more about their technology here.
- Interesting read, The Truth about Recycling.
- Boggles the mind…
Ray's EV Motorcycle Schematic · 19 June 07
Ray passed along a schematic for his EV bike a while back and it has been rotting in my in-box ever since. Sorry about that Ray.
Also mildewing in the in-box is a newer shot of the bike assembly.
- A boy and his EV motor! Congrats to Gavin on receipt (and installation? I’m late in posting…) of his ADC motor. You can start at the beginning of his conversion from the KiwiEV homepage. (Gavin, that shirt isn’t conductive is it?? :) )
- James sends along a link to the Build It Solar web site he ran across the other day.
- From the in-box also comes a link to Richard Marks’ EcoVElectric website.
- Article on Sparky, Mike Phillips’s S-10 EV.
- Gas prices are going up, which means more news/speculation/research/(and kooks) with alternate fuel production, storage, or consumption techniques. Among the latest:
- Heat -> sound -> electricity device
- Solar cells may finally break into the realm of 40% efficiency
- Analysis of switch-grass ethanol production
Baby Zane · 21 May 07
I’d like to introduce the newest member of our family, Zane. Zane popped into the world last Tuesday the 15th just after 5pm. He’s a healthy, happy little fella.
In EV news (yeah, sorry for the lack of updates: see first paragraph) our EV friend from Italy, Pietro Cambi, was featured in the countries largest newspaper. Here is the article (in Italian).
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LED Bargraph battery monitor - part 1 · 18 May 07
Hello everybody,
About 6 months ago I wrote an article here . The idea was that I would be able to avoid my nemesis, unequalised batteries , and have early warning of bad connections like the one which caused this terminal failure in my car.
Argh!
- Mike Chancey sent along a link to a new battery pack monitor that he’s ordered: PakTrakr. It looks like a very nice unit and the price isn’t too onerous. It comes as either a 6 or 8 battery monitoring system with the ability to expand using remotes for up to 24 batteries being monitored. There’s also optional PC interface and data collector, along with a current sensor.
- SHPEGS is an open source style Solar Heat Pump Electrical Generation System. Haven’t been able to pour over the whole site yet, but I’ve done some reading of geothermal heat pumps lately and this looks interesting.
- Doug sends along a link to his very nicely done Karmann Ghia EV conversion site. Lots of pictures and a few schematics along the way from gas to electric powered automobile.
- I’d post a couple more links but my wife just let me know that her water broke…gotta go!
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