SoCal Branch Year 3 LEAF-Gatherings - See Year 4

[Boomer23]

OK thanks, hopefully I don't get lost since that's 77 miles already as a round trip

It's about 72 miles round trip from RSM Blvd/El Toro Road to the restaurant if you take Irvine Blvd to Culver, then Rt 5 to Rt 91 and then south on Rt 605 to South Street. If you keep your speeds at or below 65 mph you should make it fine with your new battery pack. Reset one of the two economy meters at the start of your trip and try to keep your economy near 4.0 mi/kWh. Due to elevation changes, you will probably need a bit more energy to get home than for the outbound trip. One of us can put a Gidmeter on your car to get a fairly accurate reading of your remaining charge upon arrival at the meeting place.

If you are concerned about making the return trip, there are a couple of options. There is a Nissan dealer within a mile of the restaurant, so one of us can follow you over there and provide shuttle service to and from the restaurant so that your car can charge at 240 V while you have breakfast and we have the meeting. Alternatively, the Mitsubishi DC quick charger is just a few miles away from the meeting place and you could get back to a useful charge in just a few minutes (as long as the DC QC is operational and available). Lastly, you could locate a L2 charging station on your way home and stop there on your way back.

 

[garygid]

Waidy,
That programmer is the one that is suggested in the Programming Wiki,
however, I have an already-made "Tiny" ISP USB programmer that
SHOULD work, but I have not tried it yet.

I hope to know more after the workshop.

 

[z0ner]

What do we need to bring in the line of tools? (soldering kit, wire strippers, forklifts)

 

[garygid]

We will get a list of helpful tools a bit closer to the time of the workshop.

If you bring tools that are not needed, that is very little extra weight
(except the forklift).

Hammer, center punch, drill motor, various screwdrivers, crimp tools,
soldering station and solder, various pliers, etc.

A portable bench type drill press might be useful.
A compact oscilloscope.
A VOM (volt-meter) type device.
An N-way 120v plug strip.
Things to drink.

However, do not go out and buy tools, since we are likely to have enough to share.
If you share tools, best to mark them in some way.

Chris will try to build at least one LCD display, to be able to test our units.
But he might not have time to build 8 of them.

I suspect that he will drill the internal steel mounting plates with holes
to accomodate the two cables coming out the bottom, the LCD on standoffs
at the bottom over the cables, the fuses intended to mount in the side of
the box that the cables come in, with the EVSE Controller in the upper right corner
of the box, and the relay in the upper left corner.

I do not know how he intends to use the Anderson connectors.
Presumably, the one Button would be in the cover.

This project has pictures of a similar EVSE, to give you a better idea
of what Chris is intending to have us build.

http://code.google.com/p/open-evse/wiki/EVSE_by_mwolrich" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers, Gary

 

[TurnedOveraANewLeaf]

OK thanks, hopefully I don't get lost since that's 77 miles already as a round trip

It's about 72 miles round trip from RSM Blvd/El Toro Road to the restaurant if you take Irvine Blvd to Culver, then Rt 5 to Rt 91 and then south on Rt 605 to South Street. If you keep your speeds at or below 65 mph you should make it fine with your new battery pack. Reset one of the two economy meters at the start of your trip and try to keep your economy near 4.0 mi/kWh. Due to elevation changes, you will probably need a bit more energy to get home than for the outbound trip. One of us can put a Gidmeter on your car to get a fairly accurate reading of your remaining charge upon arrival at the meeting place.

If you are concerned about making the return trip, there are a couple of options. There is a Nissan dealer within a mile of the restaurant, so one of us can follow you over there and provide shuttle service to and from the restaurant so that your car can charge at 240 V while you have breakfast and we have the meeting. Alternatively, the Mitsubishi DC quick charger is just a few miles away from the meeting place and you could get back to a useful charge in just a few minutes (as long as the DC QC is operational and available). Lastly, you could locate a L2 charging station on your way home and stop there on your way back.

Thanks, I guess I should be OK since I've been averaging 4 mi/kWh. Even if I don't charge with some of the options you mentioned, then I can plug it in on our L2 where I work in Lake Forest, which although is only about 6 miles from home, I avoid the big battery draining last 6 miles where I normally lose about 12 miles range due to multiple stop lights and a substantial rise.

Should be fun

 

[garygid]

Today's Clustering at the QC Dedication in Southern
San Juan Capistrano was great, Thanks, Angus!

At least 13 of our group were there, Phil, Dori, Allen, Gary H,
Robert, Gregg, Mike, Jeanne and husband plus 2 kids,
Gary G, Tom, and...?

Many tried the ChargePoint FQC (Fairly-Quick Charger) which
seemed to work without any problems. Apparently it is limited
to about 60 amps, or about 24 kW output. However, when
it becomes part of a chain of rE-fueling stations along I-5,
it will greatly facilitate travel from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Good showing Group!

 

[Boomer23]

And much appreciated support, even from EV drivers who can't use the CHAdeMO quick charge format:

Two Honda Fit EVs driven by keijidosha and Chuck, two BMW ActiveEs, one driven by Peder Norby, well known EV advocate from San Diego, a Tesla Roadster and Tony Williams in his new Rav4 EV.

 

[hill]

. . . . And one white IMIEV ( which DOES use the quick charger) - lest we forget

 

[JPVLeaf]

And thank you to Gary for the impromptu upgrade of my Gid-meter to f1.09.
The power-on is noticeably faster, and it's interesting having the "Real SOC"
as another piece of data.

 

[garygid]

One week and two days until our next Gathering.
Meet for breakfast at Hometown Buffet in Cerritos.

Immediately following the Gathering, those attending the
OpenEVSE workshop will go about 8 miles to Dori's
(kindly provided) location, about a mile from the Mitsubishi
Headquarters location.

In the meantime, have a great Thanksgiving day, as we
celebrate all of our blessings. I am thinking of you all.

 

[Kataphn]

Thinking of you, too Gary and very thankful you came into our lives in this very improbable way...via the LEAF!

 

[garygid]

Remember to plan for our next Gathering, on December 1st,
at the Hometown Buffet on South Street, just East of 605
in Cerritos.

Immediately following, we will meet about 8 miles away
for the OpenEVSE building workshop led by Chris.
We have 8 builders, and a few observers and learners.

I am looking forward to next Saturday.

 

[garygid]

Reminder:
Just 3 days until our Saturday Gathering and Workshop.

I intend to be at the Cerritos HTB very near 8 AM on
Saturday morning, to "fuel up" for the nearby workshop.

We will be building at least 8 of the OpenEVSE units.
See you all Saturday.

 

[JeremyW]

Take pictures!

 

[garygid]

One goal of the workshop is to document the build
process with lots of good pictures, to greatly
encourage and facilitate DIY and more workshops.

Chris has put a lot of effort and work into preparing
for this workshop, even doing pre-fabrication of
some of the parts. I will try to get pictures of everything,
even if I have to delay my own OpenEVSE assembly.

24 hours and 14 minutes until the Gathering at the HTB in Cerritos.

Be there, or be "cubic".

 

[richard]

51 photos from today's OpenEVSE workshop. Thanks to Gary for planning these HTB gatherings (this was my first), and to Chris for setting up the workshop. It was very educational.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kf6oak/sets/72157632146039517/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Feel free to use these photos in any way.

 

[abasile]

Thank you for the photos! I appreciated seeing some familiar faces, particularly as I haven't been able to make it to a LEAF gathering in a long time.

 

[garygid]

About 20 showed up for our Gathering this morning,
a really great turnout. As usual we had a great time.

The manager from the Santa Ana Hometown Buffet was there,
and said that the Santa Ana HTB would reopen soon, after the
remodeling is finished. I told him that we look forward to
seeing the new look, and will be Gathering there on Dec 15th.

Thank you, my many new and dear friends, for adding
your special warm, kind, and loving touches to my life.
It makes me happy to have come this far.
Sincerely, Gary

 

[Boomer23]

Here are my pics from today's build session. Many are similar to Richard's, but there are a few with different details for the more technically oriented members.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71336612@N00/sets/72157632151341902/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Boomer23]

I left around 1:30 pm. How late did y'all stay? Did everyone finish their EVSE to the level they wanted to finish it?