SoCal LEAF & EV Gathering - Sixth Year Ended - 20 Aug 2016

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We had about 10 people and three "babies" in a stroller attending last Saturday.
Lots of good conversations, with EVSEs and Solar power systems getting a lot of attention.

Our next Gathering is on Sagurday, June 4th, meeting again at the Golden Corral in
the City of Industry. They open for breakfast at 7:30, but we "start" at 8, with a few
of us getting there a little earlier to get tables set up in their meeting room, if possible.

CU There.
 
Gather for breakfast at the Golden Corral next Saturday, June 4th, at about 8 AM.
The GC opens at 7:30, and I plan to be there about 10 minutes before 8 to get
all the good stuff ... and arrange for tables for us ... in the meeting room, if possible.

Good food, wide variety, very reasonable price. The no-drink price includes some
juices and plain or chocolate milk. The buying the beverage adds coffee, teas, and
a variety of soft drinks.

This GC is better than most, and is located just South of I-60, about 4 miles West of
the 57 freeway. The North end of the big GC parking lot actually borders the I-60 freeway.

See you there, Gary
 
Just 4 days to go ... good food, good company, and a great EV Gathering.
Be there and become tetrahedral ... or simply remain ... perhaps triangular.

How many sides does a triangle have? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9?
You might bring something triangular with you, if that is not too difficult.

Cheers, Gary
 
…two bits! (Roger Rabbit reference)

I can't resist a staight line. This is an album my friend made, playing only triangles.
http://www.cdbaby.com/m/cd/scotthiggins

My favorite is track 6, "I Saw Celise." The CD, unfortunately, is packaged rectangularly and is itself, circular.

Now what was this thread about…?
 
Triangle music ... is totally tubular, and very cool. Thanks.

For those planning ahead, I suggest this schedule:

------ 72nd month Gatherings ------
Gathering #72a: 6 Aug 2016 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #72b: 20 Aug 2016 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 71st month Gatherings ------
Gathering #71a: 9 Jul 2016 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #71b: 23 Jul 2016 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 70th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #70a: 4 Jun 2016 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #70b: 18 Jun 2016 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.
Gathering #70c: 25 Jun 2016 a special potluck ... canceled, hopefully to be recheduled.

Cheers, Gary
 
I am on Tesla Road trip and will miss the breakfast this Saturday June 4th sorry.
Previous road trip year and a half ago did circumnavigation of sierra Nevada mountains clockwise with no superchargers on 395. This time I can do the trip counterclockwise using new superchargers at Inyokern Lonepine Mammoth Lakes topaz Lake and 2nd SC Truckee. Nice motel in Bishop had level one charging and parking. Charging at Mammoth Lakes enabled Sidetrip from Lee Vining up 3000 feet across Tioga Pass and out to Olmsted point where I got beautiful view of backside of half Dome dome.
After visiting cousins at Truckee up Highway 89 to Lake Almanor to visit college friends.
Leave them tomorrow morning after full charge from 240 V outlet in their Wood shop. Tomorrow expect to get CHAdeMO charge at sierra Nevada brewery and continue on to bed-and-breakfast in western foothills with H PWC.
This is also first Mountain trip with Tesla trip planner feature that includes predictions for range loss as a function of altitude. A big help for Tioga Pass side trip. Will drive carefully.
 
Sounds like a wonderful trip, hopefully you are getting good pictures.
We will miss you on Saturday, but hopefully see you on the 18th.
Thanks for the call and the good description of your trip.

I get to go to the dentist tomorrow.
Cheers, Gary
 
Thank you for the trip report, Tom. I've missed chatting with you and sorry you couldn't make the May meetings. Looks like you're having a ball in the red T and enjoying the expanded SC network.

We had a touch-and-go experience yesterday in Carlsbad, trying to DC charge the BMW at an EVgo dual unit station. I managed to charge after about ten attempts. The first tries were thwarted by an "unable to connect to server" error. Trying the second charger of the pair, it failed repeatedly during the "communicating with car" step. I'm pretty sure the Frankenplug was damaged. I finally succeeded with the first unit after waiting for someone else to finish a successful session on it. Reported to EVgo and Plugshare. Frustrating. I almost had to limp home partly on the 2 cylinder genset on a freeway that was wide open and running at 70 to 75 mph, which would likely have been a substandard experience. Looking very forward to a longer range EV, hopefully with reliable Supercharging, in my future. Can I wait two years-plus for my TM3? Not sure.

Sorry I missed the Industry meet today guys. Mrs. Boomer and I had a previous social engagement. But glad to see that the Santa Ana meet will now be on the 18th since I can make that one, though I'll have to miss the potluck on the 25th.
 
The potluck, tentatively on the 25th of June, has been postponed until
another as yet undetermined date ... thus canceled for now.

We had 10 bodies at the GC yesterday, but most did not show up
until after 9, so I was beginning to think that it was going to be a tie
for our smallest gathering.

I am planning to attend the June 18th Gathering in Santa Ana.
Cheers, Gary
 
A report of my Tesla road trip below. Sorry to hear Boomer had serious difficulty with fast charge, and that the problem might be damage to the Frankenplug. Tesla Supercharger connectors also get damaged, but it seems much less frequently, and there are always more stalls to try.

Trip Report:

I just returned from a 1400 mile Tesla road trip circumnavigating the California Sierras counterclockwise. I have previously done this circuit clockwise with some difficulty because of the lack of SC along Highway 395. With the recent opening of the Reno SC, 395 is now fully connected.

I used SC in the following order: Inyokern (brief, the mini-market is grim), Lone Pine (nice 15 minute movie at the film museum is just right), Mammoth Lakes, Topaz Lake, Truckee on the way north, plus I received overnight L1 charge at the Creekside Inn in Bishop, a nice motel recommended by another Tesla driver. The manager told me they are getting several HPWC installed end of June.

After charging at Mammoth Lakes I had plenty of charge to drive into Yosemite from Lee Vining as far as Olmsted Point, to see Half Dome from the back, and return to Lee Vining and continue up 395 to charge at Topaz Lake SC.

Tip for mountain travel: While I still had connectivity outside the park, I built a route to Olmsted point by locating it on a map, zooming the Tesla GPS to the same point on the road, marking the location with a hand touch, and recording the round-trip predicted usage back to Lee Vining. I zoomed the display back out to show the full route and moved the display slightly so it would not refresh. This way you can maintain your view of your progress on the map without connectivity inside the park.

From Topaz Lake SC I drove to Truckee to stay overnight with cousins. The next day I drove highway 89 to Chester CA, Lake Almanor, near Lassen NP was my furtherest point north, staying with friends and charging from a 240V 6-15 outlet in my friends' wood shop. Very green meadows along this route.

On my return trip on the west side I first drove down the Feather River gorge, which is very pretty, with lots of water, followed by a great lunch at the Sierra Nevada Brewery. I was going to get some QC at the brewery, but I didn't notice on Plugshare that they had a CCS fast charger, not CHAdeMO. I charged at Folsom SC, and drove to the McCaffrey House B&B on the Sonora Pass road. After charging overnight at their HPWD, I drove into Yosemite from the west, took pictures of the major falls in full glory flow, and drove up to the awesome view from Glacier Point.

Another tip: neither the Tesla GPS nor my iPad would recognize the Glacier Point road, so I could not get an accurate round-trip usage prediction, which led to some (unnecessary, as it turned out) range anxiety. So I set the route to my destination in Oakhurst for that night, and turned off the voice directions. That way as I drove the road to Glacier Point, I got continuous updates on how much range margin I had to reach Oakhurst. I was prepared to turn around if that margin dropped below 15%. I actually reached Oakhurst with about 25% margin.

On my way out of the Yosemite, I stopped to check out the charging at the very nice Tanaya Lodge. Only 2 L2 hoses, but the Operations Manager told me they are planning to install 8 HPWC !, hopefully by this Fall. I told him I was very impressed that they would make that kind of infrastructure commitment. Contrast that attitude with the lodge at Sequoia, that has no EV charging at all.

After dinner at the historic Wawona hotel, I charged that night on a HPWC at a Best Western Plus motel at Oakhurst. Oakhurst, at less than 3K ft altitude, was very warm.

On my last day I visited the Forestierre Underground Gardens in Fresno before charging at the new SC station at Buttonwillow. It has 10 stalls and a nice Starbucks, so I was surprised that there was only one other Tesla there, given that it is close to Tejon Ranch and they are always crowded. A steady 108F in the valley; fans going full blast in the car while I was charging. Despite not sharing a stall, I was getting only 50 kW of charge. I moved to another stall on a different charger and the power rose to 80 kW. Perhaps the first charger had become overheated from a previous charge session in the heat.

From Buttonwillow I avoided the San Fernando Valley by driving over Tehachapi to the Mohave SC. Along this nice divided highway I passed a car transport truck carrying a load of Tesla MS and MXs.
From Mohave I could reach home in Claremont driving the Pearblossom Highway. This used to be a bad road, and it still has bad spots, but they are actively widening it.

During this trip I saw others Teslas at SC as follows: Lone Pine: 3, Folsom: 3, Buttonwillow: 1, . All the others: zero, even though I was charging at prime times in mid morning or afternoon.

It was a good trip and I got to talk to a number of folks about Tesla.
 
Fantastic report. I really enjoyed reading it.

You are getting to be an outstanding trip planner and Tesla operator. I'm very impressed with your workarounds for areas lacking connectivity and map coverage. Well done and thanks for sharing. You must be ready for some rest and relaxation at this point.
 
Bad News:
1. At night, while parked in my driveway, my Tesla was hit by another car!
A hit and run, but a jogger passing by discovered the other car a few blocks away.
Nobody hurt, but a major effort and inconvenience to get it fixed.

I took it to the local Tesla approved body shop yesterday, but the repair they suggested seems ... that the cure is worse than the disease, so I will drive
my S85 to the shop in Burbank tomorrow for a second opinion.
 
So sorry to hear about your Tesla, Gary. I hope that you can get it repaired and back to being beautiful with a minimum of trouble for you.
 
Sorry Gary.

Did police investigation determine whether it was drunk driving or just distracted driving?

Pretty rare to end up in an accident parked in your drive way.

But wierd things happen.
A drunk driver crashed into my car parked near a diner on the street 15 years ago.

And neighbor tore the driver's mirror off my mother-in-law's car parked on the street in front of my house a few weeks back.
He was driving truck with four year old unsecured in front seat and the kid opened the door.
Could have easily been killed.
If you have young children they should always be in a properly installed child seat and not in the passenger seat.
Even when making a short 1000 foot drive in your subdivision low traffic street.
 
Thanks all, for the good thoughts.

Yes, it is a major inconvenience to deal with this damage.
It appears that I will be dropping "Nicolas" off for repair tomorrow,
but I could easily be without my dear car for several weeks, most
of that being waiting for parts, it seems.
Perhaps I will "get lucky"?

See you this coming Saturday in Santa Ana.
 
My B was rear ended by a distracted girl. Fix Auto did an excellent job but all of the parts had to come from Germany. The whole repair took over 3 weeks.

Parts take time on a limited production car. At least I had a free accent to drive. After several weeks I got back my $500 from State Farm. It cost 4K for a minor rear ender. If you use a recommend body shop the job should satisfy you. I have used Fix Auto in the Anaheim dealers lot next to the 57 freeway twice. Once on my Leaf and once on my Mercedes. Both times I was worried but they dis an excellent job.

Good luck, You will likely be fine.
 
That's no fun Gary. Hope it's a quick fix.
Coincidently, I was out on a jog last week, quiet residential neighborhood around 10 am on a Tuesday and I saw a car just smack into a parked car about a 50 yards away. The person backed up and took off!
I was ready with my cell phone and clicked the shutter just the car was getting out of view. Well, I thought it was the shutter. Turns out it was the "Off" button... doh.
The parked car was pretty badly damaged, bumper split and hanging as well as the rear quarter panel bent.
Of course with my personal gear, I could take a picture, buy stocks, get the offender's 0-30 time while checking my heart-rate but I had nothing with which to write a note. Knocked on the door of the house, no one home.
Came back twice more and both times the car was gone and no one home in either nearby house.
Called the local cops and just left a report (color make and model of hitter) with the with a genial desk-guy. Not very satisfying.
Sounds like your jogger was much more competent than me.
 
My phone's camera function has a quick-on function, but I think that I should try
using it several times to avoid that too-late feeling. On my LG G3, I think that briefly pressing
the power button on the back might even take a picture, when in camera mode.

Everything in life seems to be more complex that it used to be. In the olden days,
we had just one garbage can, and phones only made phone calls ... if you woke up
the operator by turning the crank. Now ... I have almost outlived my knowledge base.

But, some good news. The repair guys at Spectrum Collision (in south Irvine) took
apart my S85's trunk from the inside, to expose the bottom, side, and back panels
that would need replacing, made a parts list, and put it back together. Now, they
will order the parts, and we will wait ... while I still get to drive the car! Very Well Done.

Saves me 3 weeks, plus or minus 2 weeks, of driving a rental ga-ass blaster.

See you all this coming Saturday at the Hometown Buffet in Santa Ana.
With good fortune, I should be there by 8 AM.
Cheers to all, Gary
 
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