We call them batteries. They are both the bane and enabler of the electric vehicle. A strange paradox in personal mobility for over a century. The term “battery” derives from Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with capacitors actually – Leyden Jars – that he could use in series to achieve impressive voltages and shocking results. This series […]
The Cost of Everything and the Value of Nothing… Read More »
Busy week. I did not get a blog entry up for the show of the week of the 15th and now I already have the March 22 show up online. I had a bit of a conversation with an old friend of Boardwatch days, computer columnist John C. Dvorak. I had followed John from the
Vulcan Wallet Meld and Lithium Blood Stains on the Bedroom Floor Read More »
I first met Brian Noto in 1995, shortly before our disastrous BBSCON in the Tampa Convention Center in August. The advisability of holding a convention in August is on my mind these days for obvious reasons as I may have made the same mistake again with EVCCON 2013 scheduled for August 6-11. But in 1995
If I Only Had a Brain… and 12lbs of Potatoes in a 10 lb Sack Read More »
THis week we talk a bit about several small things. Heat seems to be a pretty simple topic. It is hardly in the ballpark with range issues – right? Actually, at least for us, the range issue is almost entirely manufactured by the media. Heat in an electric car, on the other hand is very
TORRID HEAT, BITTER COLD, and Gliding About in an Elescalade. Announcing EVCCON 2013 Read More »
We’re getting a bit sloppy around here. Part of it is reality intervention in our normal reality distortion field. Last week everything we touched turned to a mess. And I’m struggling here. The Ford Edge battery pack we just reconfigured we rather didn’t bottom balance. This is kind of interesting in that we have 28
Dyslexics – UNTIE! Read More »
Pretty good week last week. Made some progress on the test bench, got Speedster Nippon inspected for the registration process, and updated the Ford Edge which appears to be running pretty well. If you recall, we had rebuilt the Netgain 11 motor to some degree, and replaced the transmission in the Ford Edge. We also
GETTING AN EDGE IN A WAR OF STANDARDS – THE OPEN AND THE FORGOTTEN. Read More »
Part of the disjuncture in almost everything has to do with a paradox described formally in a paper that examined test subjects taking an examination on technical material and then estimating their performance. Amazingly, those with the LOWEST scores on the material always rated their performance on the test HIGHEST of the group. The “experts”
TESTING…TESTING…1…2…3…. Read More »
I regularly hear from viewers who like to watch the videos, but don’t like to hear me pontificate on political issues. This is because they don’t agree with them, but worse, my take on it generally makes them extremely uncomfortable with their own dearly held views on the topic at hand. Now as I don’t
Have Gun…Will Travel… Read More »
This week I seem to be coming down with the influenza that is not rampant across the land. Joy. I love influenza. Particularly the joy of breathing after it is over. We are struggling with Speedster Nippon. The car has been ready for weeks. We do have some licensing issues to get through as there
Battery Magic and Influenza Read More »
I got this week’s video up more or less on time. But a blog entry just didn’t happen. Christmas came early in the week. It’s Friday and we face another show deadline. And I just haven’t gotten to it. John Hardy requested a CAN tutorial and I made a weak stab at it in this
I THINK – THEREFORE I CAN Read More »
