SoCal Branch Year 3 LEAF-Gatherings - See Year 4

[garygid]

About 13 or so people, 8 LEAFs, a Volt, and a cool Electric Bicycle.
A very good Gathering, indeed.

Thanks to all who made the effort to attend, and to share with us.

 

[garygid]

Gathering on November 10 looks good, but the following two
Saturdays, the 17th and 24th, are in Thanksgiving week.

So, maybe skip those two Saturdays, and do the first and third
Saturday in December, the 1st and 15th?

Then, skip the Christmas weekends, and do January 5th and 19th?

Comments or suggestions?

Where to meet on November 10th?

The Golden Corral in Industry is a few miles West of the intersection
of 60 and 57, just a block South of 60. The food there last night was
a notch up from HTB, but it is a bit far for the southernmost folks.

However, we might be able to LEAF-Frog a bit. Also, there is a QC
located somewhere near there, I believe.

In any case, I encourage suggestions.

 

[91040]

Gary, I think you are off by one day on your dates in November and December unless you are moving the meetings to Sundays.

All these dates are fine as well as any location.

 

[garygid]

Thanks, I had November wrong, but the other dates seem OK.
I corrected my post.

 

[garygid]

Gregg and I plan to eat a leisurely breakfast tomorrow morning
at the Golden Corral in Industry, from about 9 AM until about 10:30,
or possibly longer if others show up.

The GC is located just South of freeway 60, about 5 miles West of
the western end of the 57 and 60 convergence. Nothing official,
but their lunch and dinner was a noticeable improvement over HTB.

So, we will check out the breakfast.

After eating, we plan to check out the nearby QC station at SCAQMD.
21865 E Copley Dr, Diamond Bar, 91765

 

[garygid]

In general the Golden Corral was quite good for breakfast,
but about $2 more expensive than HTB. However, if you
decline the drinks, they still allow you to drink orange juice,
and a couple of other juices, and then the price was close
to HTB with drinks.

The BIG negative was that they had NO Peanut Butter!

And, it seemed to be a bit noisier than HTB.

So, we could Gather there if there are enough who want
to meet there, but I do not feel urgent to meet there.

 

[garygid]

Next Saturday, who wants to meet in Cerritos, and
who in Santa Ana?

 

[SolPower]

Sorry I missed breakfast yesterday. Tell us about the QC experience?

I'm up for wherever we meet next Sat.

 

[garygid]

Found the location, and asked to be let through the
delivery entrance gate to access the charging stations.

There was some "event" going on in the regular
(upper) parking area, so I did not try to go through
that area, but probably could have asked the
attendants to let me drive through, if I had known
about, and needed to access, the L2 charging stations.

On top of the parking structure was the solar panel
"roof" over a whole line of L2 charging stations, but
we could not access them from down in the delivery
area.

Without appropriate cards, one could only access the 120v
receptacles, it seemed, most or many of which were in use,
apparently by company vehicles.

 

[Boomer23]

Next Saturday, who wants to meet in Cerritos, and
who in Santa Ana?

I'm good with either, but I'd suggest Cerritos to be more convenient for those coming from points north, and also since our most recent meeting was at SA.

 

[garygid]

OK, Cerritos it is, at the Hometown Buffet there.
This coming Saturday, 10th of November, roughly
8 AM to 11 AM.

I hope to see you there.

 

[91040]

Planning to be there. Will provide the booby prize- 2 tickets for an 8pm performance that night!

 

[garygid]

Less than 36 hours to go - Gathering at HTB in Cerritos.

Might somebody be willing to have an OpenEVSE workshop
at your home or perhaps workplace, possibly after our
early December Gathering in Cerritos?

ChrisH would like to arrange such a workshop for
interested people in our "area" to build EVSEs with
his OpenEVSE components.

I would like to attend such a workshop, but might not have
a lot of energy, since I begin an 8-week radiation therapy
sequence on 14th November, every weekday except for
3 major holidays. Yes, prayers from all faiths welcomed.

 

[garygid]

ChrisH is considering having an EVSE building workshop on
December 1st in Cypress, about a mile from the Mitsubishi
Headquarters, if there is sufficient interest.

Still in the planning stages until we have more than just me
planning to attend, and get the location confirmed with Dori,
and the date settled with Chris.

We would have to move quickly to be able to order and get
parts for the projects, and participants would need to get
their own parts, or send in some money for parts that we
might order on your behalf. Probably Chris has some ideas
about how he wants to handle getting the parts.

 

[Kataphn]

Sending healing thoughts your way, Gary. See you tomorrow in Cerritos.

 

[tbleakne]

Sending healing thoughts your way, Gary. See you tomorrow in Cerritos.

+1.

I will be there tomorrow.
I will bring my adafruit display kit to show (unassembled). My intention is to use it in an Open EVSE portable design that would support a range of currents.

I would like to learn about techniques for soldering many chip pins on small boards without overheating. The possibility of using ovens has been mentioned.

Unfortunately I have a conflict for Sat, Dec 1.

 

[garygid]

For this workshop, there will be little or no soldering
required. However, I will try to remember to ask Chris
to explain his surface-mount soldering process.

Normally, we would need to build the LCD kit, but
Chris has suggested that he might assemble the
LCD Kits before the workshop, to speed things
along.

Hopefully Chris will be able to tell us what the group
of parts will cost, so that we can PayPal our money
to him, and he can get the orders placed in time.

 

[garygid]

Thanks for the good wishes, and see you tomorrow.
I will try to be there by 8 AM.
I need to go connect the EVSE now, before I forget.

 

[garygid]

If you purchase the parts now, we can have another
workshop later, using what we learn from this one.

 

[JPVLeaf]

And if that turns out to be the case, we could have workshop #2 / Leaf gathering here
maybe post-Holidays.