Update: TDIN2016 – one week to go

Quick update on TDIN2016: The final version of our route is ready. My youngest daughter and I will be leaving from Zurich late Friday afternoon and drive to Italy for our first overnight stay just across the border in Sondrio Province. TW560 will be crossing the Splugen pass for the second time this year. We’re also going to be visiting some Italian friends in northern Italy on the way. Both me and my daughter are very much looking forward to this trip. The trip we’ve planned has some stunning stretches of road in store for us – see for yourself: […]

Update: Compact 3.7kW charger project

Picking up after where we left a week ago: After some debugging, I’ve been able to start communicating with the charger. Assuming the hardware-related problems I had to solve before successfully receiving my first CAN packet are rare, I must say that the steps required to actually get packets from the bus and on the bus are quite simple. Every car today relies on a CAN bus and has 70-150 CAN-nodes. Listening to and manipulating these values is not only interesting but can also unlock hidden features and make your car more run more efficiently. I strongly suggest anyone interested […]

TDIN2016 – TW560’s second 9-day 2016 adventure

As you might already know, the Austrian part of my family meets up once a year in Styria for a few days of catching-up, eating good food and drinking Styria’s very drinkable white wine. We from Switzerland have been taking part for over a decade now and wouldn’t want to miss this event for nothing in the world. (Teenage daughters insisting on coming is a good sign 😉 ) TW560 has also been to Styria a few times and it has always been a very memorable trip. This year, my youngest daughter and I will make our way to Styria […]

Solar TukTuk & TW560

For some time now, I’ve been following a very interesting project: Tejas, the Solar Tuk Tuk. Naveen Rabelli is driving his DYI-conversion of an Ape three-wheeler on a 10’000km trip from India to England. On his trip he is proving that very simple sustainable technology can be as reliable as mass-produced conventional technology and at the same time connecting people involved in sustainable technologies. Switzerland wasn’t on Naveen’s route originally. I was extremely happy when I was unexpectedly added to a chat-group on a popular mobile chat platform supporting his trip from southern Germany to France via Switzerland. I was […]

New Project: Compact 3.7kW charger & configuration

After installing TW560’s latest battery pack and testing it thoroughly, one of the points I definitely want to address is reducing full-charge time. With a potential maximum of 18.9kWh having to go into the batteries, my current setup with 6.8kWh peak charging capacity means I’m charging for at least 3 1/2 hours. Adding chargers is simple, but there are some limitations to consider: Weight: my current chargers are at about 12kg each, adding more isn’t really an attractive option Price: Each charger cost me CHF 960, extra chargers will not be substantially cheaper if I insist on a hardened automotive […]