under the hood #1: adding a GPRS module to TW231

a few years ago, with the arrival of the new dreifels controller, modern micro controllers employed within offered many benefits: handling complex charging scenarios more and detailed vehicle data overall better vehicle performance …and a few optional hardware extensions to extend overall vehicle usage comfort. one of these options is a sms module, which – three years ago – i think TW560 was the first one to have officially. the module (in its current release 1 feature level) can help alleviate problems ev-drivers experience when charging: unauthorized unplugging during charge, missing power from the grid, knowing when exactly the charge […]

visting new dreifels HQ

dreifels, the company founded by the three people responsible for creating the vehicle in 1986 have recently moved from sissach to gelterkinden, switzerland. their new hq (see above rendered picture, since i forgot to take a picture myself) is, obviously, an extremely energy efficient building. they combine many interesting technologies plus an avangarde-style bus-based management system which even controls which kind of music can be heard in any given room. anyway, i wasn’t there for sustainable architecture 😉 during the last few years, founders peter, ralph and christian have been very open towards my requests / questions / challenges / […]

TWIKE club general assembly

once a year the TWIKE drivers’ association twikeklub organizes its general assembly and invites all interested to a full day centered around sustainable mobility and obviously the TWIKE itself. whilst the activities are different every year, the assembly itself follows a structure mandated by swiss law for clubs and associations which charge their members for membership. since there are more and more TWIKE pilots from germany nowadays, the club decided to conduct the 16th general assembly in rottenburg, southern germany. pilots from switzerland were invited to drive in a convoy starting at möckli elektrofahrzeuge with prearranged charging stations along the […]

you might have noticed that i’ve not been posting in a while. there were personal reasons for this. things are on the mend and i will start posting new entries soon. these entries will, however, be posted retroactively on the timeline > so any entry after november 12 is a new entry.

a new home for emissionless.ch/emissionslos.ch

you might or might not know that emissionless.ch/emissionslos.ch (among many others) is hosted at my home. everything is based on linux and i run my own dns server. apache is my good friend on the webserver side. up until now the setup was based on a single 1u poweredge, non-redundant and my RTO was basically undefined. (not good!) today thu, may9, i’ve undertaken the task to upgrade the infrastructure: redundant server setup better hardware: hp DL380’s dual physical quadcore with 8 gig ram etc. UPS for about 3 hours coverage when power is down Check Point 2070 firewall for extended […]