Zippy's First Two Months

During the months of October and November we took fairly detailed notes on our use of Zippy the Zero.  October was not a complete month because it took time to get our Kill-A-Watt and we didn't ave the car for the entire month.  However, here are some statistics from those moths:

1. KM driven in Zippy over the month:
• October: 526 km
• November: 1044 km
2. Electricity Consumed to charge Zippy during the month as measured by Kill-A-Watt:
• October: 135 kW.h
• November: 220 kW.h
3. Costs will vary because of the way BC Hydro bills me. These calculations are based on the average cost that I paid during the majority of the month in question.  (I am billed every two months on the 9th.)
1. October: $0.0895 /kW.h = $12.08 for the month or $2.30/100 km
2. November:  $0.0979/KW.h = $21.55 for the month or $2.06/100 km

On average I was getting 111 km per full charge (extrapolated) during this period; I was using the heater on most trips for some period.  The heater reduces the range that the on-board computer calculated by 40% (aprox).

More stats are coming.  Oct-Dec were bad months for comparing gas consumption and EV usage as we were sharing the two cars between my Dad who was visiting, and my family.  January will be the first good month for that.  

So far the EV experience has been fantastic.  We have never been forced (by the level of charge) from not going somewhere in the EV that we wanted to go.  We have ventured further afield than Zippy's range would permit only once, which means our assumption of using Zippy 75% of the time was an underestimate.

Recommended Sites:

• PlugShare: A site and mobile phone application for finding charging stations.
• Misubishi Motors Canada

Zippy the Zero

The latest addition to the family's tech is a Mitsubishi MiEV electric car.  The plan is to use the car to split the driving tasks and thus reduce our annual transportation expenses.  Zippy is only really suitable as a city car.  The published range is about 150 Km.  

The decision to purchase the car was based on the following assumptions:

• 20 000 Km driven per year
• 75/25% Electric/Gas driving
• $1.35/l gas price
• 150 km per charge and 8 amp draw over 22 hours to charge
• $0.067 per KwH
• Some realised savings from the elimination of a second gas powered car

 According to these assumptions we should save about $210 per month in gas, some savings from the elimination of the second gas car should make the project 'revenue neutral' in the first year considering the new monthly payments.  When gas price inflation vs electricity inflation is factored in and the reduced wear and tear on the remaining gas vehicle the project should be positive in terms of monthly cash flow.

I've purchased a Kill a Watt energy meter that is connected to my charging cable and I will be tracking things fairly closely. 

We have output

I have reworked the wiring in accordance with the instructions at the Bildr Blog.  The wiring makes a hell of a lot more sense.  With some small modifications the code found on the site I was able to get a reading from the compass. 

My goal has now become to get the compass reading into NMEA0183 format.  For the most part I have been able to get the correct output, but I can't get the checksum to calculate in order for an NMEA listener to recognise the data and use it. 

New Project: Arduino NMEA Compass

Today I have officially begun work (not just dreaming) on my Arduino NMEA Compass project. 

I soldered some headers onto a HMC6352 compass sensor and have begun trying to get the Arduino UNO board programed to interface with the sensor.

So far I have based my research on the Matrix Mariner project.  It is certainly the guide, but the code has not been all that I dreamed it would be.  Also the wiring doesn't seem to be correct.

Tomorrow: re-wiring and coding.

Where are the basic Phone Applications?

After going through the semi-regular review of our mobile phone plans, the coincidental semi-regular Canadian frustration also set in.  My phone-service provider has a decent plan system, however, the basic services of caller ID and voicemail are ridiculously expensive.  Here is the math: $7.00 for one of those services and for a great bundled price of $10.00 per month you can have both.  Considering that I once paid $18.99 not so long ago for a physical answering machine. This is a complete rip-off.  I know the phone companies will never-ever make these features inexpensive.  By refusing to pay their insane prices, I know that I am in the minority

There must be an application that can do some of this for you. 
 

1. Who are you:  This is billed as a free caller ID.  It really is not.  It provides valuable enhanced caller ID information, but cannot substitute for not having caller ID service from your phone company.   
2. You Mail Visual VoiceMail: Doesn't seem to be available for my phone/country

There are ways of getting around some of the locked features of Android Market to try things like YouMail, which holds great promise. Market Unlocker, is an application that promises to  break those pesky geographic blocks.  The problem is, that it needs a rooted phone, which I have yet to attempt. 

Getting root access will be my next project.

HTPC Cleanout/AV Update

Now that the software is running well inside Windows Media Centre and Media Browser, it is time to clean out the inside of the HTPC and update some of the AV connections/hardware that makes the whole system work.  This involved taking all of the AV Components out, opening the guts of the HTPC and then dusting and cleaning.  Everything inside looked good and the cable management was more or less intact.

The Next Chore was to clean out the cables and wires behind the Media Components.  I got rid of an old NAD510 CD player that had been collecting dust.  It was replaced by a slightly less old Hitachi DVD Player.

Now the System runs an HDMI out from the HTPC to the Receiver with a second audio out via SPDIF.  The second audio path is required because Video is displayed on a 1080p Projector, which is not always practical to have on; when it is off, a 7 inch USB touchscreen display is used.  Unfortunately when the touchscreen is on the HDCP pathway is compromised and the HDMI shutsdown.  The DVD player is connected via a component video/coax audio feed.  We also have a phono connected.

All of this feeds the Yamaha Natural Sound HTR 6280 Home Theatre Receiver.  The Speakers are the weak spot, but everythings sounds and looks quite good. 

HTPC Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Intel Core 2 Due E 8400 @ 3GHz
ATI All in Wonder HD with HDMI out
4 GB DDR2 Dual Channel RAM
ASUS P5QL/EPU Mother board
Server Connection via Gigabit LAN and 802.11 N wireless
BluRay ROM

HTPC UPDATE

It has been a long time since I sat down and sorted through all of the plugins and settings in the HTPC. It has been running very well, but every so often its time to go through things and make them better. Here are some of the things that have been updated

Media Browser
Mkv support
New theme
Radio Plugin

Canadian Internet Radio Content:

It has not always been easy to get a simple internet radio interface to work with Canadian radio content. There are often all sorts of IP/Geographic blocks or very complicated interfaces that require complex setups. I stumbled upon the Tunein Radio plugin and it seems to be working very well. It has several ways of searching including a geography based catalogue of stations that has all the stations I was looking for.
PLUGIN RECOMMENDATION: TuneIn Radio Time