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Domain: veva.bc.ca
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Comments · 10
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Deja vu all over again
The nonsense about electric cars is no different. It's just attempts by the lobbying department of interested automobile makers (the ones who aren't adapting to the 21st century) using bribed republicans and regulatory capture to try to create artificial barriers to adoption against their competition.
A very long time ago steam was the proven technology, electric cars were considered quiet and civilized, and gas engine cars were the noisy, dangerous, smelly upstarts. The gas engine car manufacturers engaged in a major FUD campaign against electric cars. They were dangerous! They were so quiet you couldn't hear them coming...
We have an active electric vehicle club here in Vancouver. The loudest noise their best conversions make is the whirr of the tires, sometimes with a slight groan from their power controllers. They have a 1912 Detroit electric car, and it's almost completely silent.
Our bus system has one of the larger fleets of electric trolley buses in the western world. They too are very quiet, but people get used to looking for them before crossing the street.
...laura
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Deja vu all over again
The nonsense about electric cars is no different. It's just attempts by the lobbying department of interested automobile makers (the ones who aren't adapting to the 21st century) using bribed republicans and regulatory capture to try to create artificial barriers to adoption against their competition.
A very long time ago steam was the proven technology, electric cars were considered quiet and civilized, and gas engine cars were the noisy, dangerous, smelly upstarts. The gas engine car manufacturers engaged in a major FUD campaign against electric cars. They were dangerous! They were so quiet you couldn't hear them coming...
We have an active electric vehicle club here in Vancouver. The loudest noise their best conversions make is the whirr of the tires, sometimes with a slight groan from their power controllers. They have a 1912 Detroit electric car, and it's almost completely silent.
Our bus system has one of the larger fleets of electric trolley buses in the western world. They too are very quiet, but people get used to looking for them before crossing the street.
...laura
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Re:Depends on the area
We have an active electric vehicle group here in Vancouver.
Vancouver must be pretty cold. How would you go in an electric vehicle in the Canadian winter? Would it be too cold to drive?
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Re:Depends on the area
We have an active electric vehicle group here in Vancouver. Their cars are almost all DIY conversions. We don't have Boeing jet engine starter motors, but we have an active group and cheap electricity.
The cars are all usable on the road, 100+ km/h top speed, none of this golf cart neighbourhood vehicle nonsense. The range varies from 70 km per charge for lead acid batteries to 200+ km per charge for the fancy stuff. Since my commute is 10 km each way, I have followed this with interest.
...laura
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Re:Damned inefficient
It's important however to understand *why* gasoline won out however. External combustion cars required anywhere from half an hour upwards before they were ready to creep, and required considerable maintenance. Internal combustion cars were ready to go within a few minutes and required much less maintenance.
Yup. That advantage came with the development of kettering ignition. Prior to that most internal combustion engines used glow ignition, where you had to heat the external part of the ignition system with a blowtorch until it was hot enough. The same sort of system is still used in model airplane engines, but their electric glow plugs make them a lot easier to start.
The local electric car club have a 1912 Detroit, albeit with modern lead-acid batteries replacing the original Edison cells. I've ridden in it; it feels like a telephone booth on wheels. But except for a slight whirr from the driveline, it's silent. These were the cars that made people like Henry Ford nervous.
...laura
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Re:Damned inefficient
It's important however to understand *why* gasoline won out however. External combustion cars required anywhere from half an hour upwards before they were ready to creep, and required considerable maintenance. Internal combustion cars were ready to go within a few minutes and required much less maintenance.
Yup. That advantage came with the development of kettering ignition. Prior to that most internal combustion engines used glow ignition, where you had to heat the external part of the ignition system with a blowtorch until it was hot enough. The same sort of system is still used in model airplane engines, but their electric glow plugs make them a lot easier to start.
The local electric car club have a 1912 Detroit, albeit with modern lead-acid batteries replacing the original Edison cells. I've ridden in it; it feels like a telephone booth on wheels. But except for a slight whirr from the driveline, it's silent. These were the cars that made people like Henry Ford nervous.
...laura
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Radio-control mowersI know you're interested in autonomous mowers, but I found these links to radio-controlled mowers which may be useful for ideas for the mechanical bits.
Homemade Radio-Controlled Lawn Mowers
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Re:Sparrow
This picture of a sparrow has the same dimples on the wheel arches as can be seen in the moophus's third photo.
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Impressions
I've test-driven an Insight, and have ridden in a Prius.
The Insight was very much the sporty two-seater. I noted that the electric boost gauge on the dash acted much like a turbo boost gauge, except for no lag.
A colleague at work drives a Prius. I marvelled at how quiet it was at idle, until I saw the display on the dash. A taxi company here in Vancouver run Prius taxis. Haven't heard anything about them, though I see them whirring by every now and then.
My car is a 1986 VW Jetta. It's smooth, comfortable, and economical (about 6l/100km on the highway). I suspect it's also the last purely gas-engined car I'll ever own.
There's an active electric vehicle club in Vancouver. Lots of conversions, ranging from grotty to really nice.
...laura
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Re:Lifespan of a drag race electric motor?
Berube was/is running lead-acid batteries, but "plain-old" might be a bit of a stretch... I think he was running Hawker Genesis pack previously, but I think he may now be running the Johnson Controls "Inspira" batteries which are currently popular among the top vehicles.
1/0 cable is a bit on the wimpy side for the drag racing crowd though... at least 2/0 is more probable, with multiple runs between the controller and motor. 400-600 amp draws are common for typical on-road (DC) cars, with higher performance ones running on up to 1200A or more.
Don't have much info on Berube's car, but Wilde's Maniac Mazda was running 4 1200-amp DCP motor controllers at the Woodburn drags last August. (Each of these controllers can deliver upto 1800A to the motor, and this car runs a pair of controllers on each of its 2 motors.)
Roger.
