SoCal Branch LEAF-Gathering Year 2 - #24c: 25 Aug 2012

[garygid]

Good J, see you there.

 

[tbleakne]

Thanks to Boomer23, JeremyW, and 91040 for coming up to Claremont to support my Earth Day celebration. Their comments were really valuable. The projector's image was almost invisible in the sun, and only a few other folks saw my pitch, but one of them was key, my HMC physics professor friend Richard, who is a major environmentalist for Claremont. He liked the talk, is seriously considering a LEAF, and I was glad to do the presentation.

I will be at the April 28th breakfast. I am glad gascant is joining us.

I have found an iPad App, TopoProfile, which generates a very nice interactive altitude profile along a route. I am using it to feed into my spreadsheet, which still needs some calibration. I will show TopoProfile at the breakfast.

On three recent occasions when I have plugged in for public L2 charge, my charging session has overlapped with a Chevy Volt. It is great to see the Volts getting out there. At least for many of the Volt early-adopters, it seems they are about as wiling to seek out public charging as we are, because they want to avoid having their gas turn on. Their demand, when added to our own, should help justify more L2 installations.

The Volt I saw last night at Caltech had been charging on the next Chargepoint for over 3 hours, but its wall-power charge rate had tapered down to 3.1kW, so it probably was near the end of its charge. It would seem likely that Volt owners will be more likely to drive their batteries from full to empty, using the full allowed charging range, than LEAF owners, because they know their gas can kick in. Perhaps Chevy has designed in larger margin limits at the high and low ends of the battery in anticipation of this possibility.

 

[garygid]

I will bring a prototype "LeafCAN" (an "soc/gid" meter with a 2x16 LCD).

I will bring CAN-Do with GPS logging to show.

I also hope to bring a LEAF Logging System (3-channel 3-CAN) to show.

1 day, 11.45678 hours to go.
See you there, at HTB on 17th St. in Santa Ana.

 

[gascant]

At least for many of the Volt early-adopters, it seems they are about as wiling to seek out public charging as we are, because they want to avoid having their gas turn on.

Richard Blumenthal, CTO of Coulomb Tech, calls that "gas anxiety."
Looking forward to joining you all on Saturday!

 

[Boomer23]

At least for many of the Volt early-adopters, it seems they are about as wiling to seek out public charging as we are, because they want to avoid having their gas turn on.

Richard Blumenthal, CTO of Coulomb Tech, calls that "gas anxiety."
Looking forward to joining you all on Saturday!

I was thinking of giving you some suggestions on how to recognize us when you arrive, but I think that LEAFers can recognize each other pretty easily most of the time. :lol:

See you Saturday and have a great trip south.

 

[garygid]

We are almost the only non-Mexicans in the place. :lol:

 

[gascant]

Looking forward to joining you all on Saturday!

I was thinking of giving you some suggestions on how to recognize us when you arrive, but I think that LEAFers can recognize each other pretty easily most of the time. :lol:

See you Saturday and have a great trip south.

LOL, yep. Especially when people are wearing LEAF tee shirts.

 

[EricH]

This is my first trip to a Santa Ana gathering - it's the HTB just east of 5 Fwy on 17th?

 

[garygid]

Yes, 2 blocks East of I-5, just West of the train tracks.

 

[garygid]

Just 23 hours until our Gathering!

 

[linkim]

Richard Blumenthal, CTO of Coulomb Tech, calls that "gas anxiety."
Looking forward to joining you all on Saturday!

I think you meant Richard Lowenthal, who we met at a SF BayLEAF meeting in SF. Anyways have a good time with the Southern Cal LEAFers at HTB. Report back on the meeting and the food.

Kim

 

[Boomer23]

Richard Blumenthal, CTO of Coulomb Tech, calls that "gas anxiety."
Looking forward to joining you all on Saturday!

I think you meant Richard Lowenthal, who we met at a SF BayLEAF meeting in SF. Anyways have a good time with the Southern Cal LEAFers at HTB. Report back on the meeting and the food.

Kim

LOL, I can already tell you that the food is nothing to "write home about", a saying which is particularly apt in this instance. At least it is plentiful and fresh.

 

[Kataphn]

Love those triangular tater tots!

 

[linkim]

I can already tell you that the food is nothing to "write home about", a saying which is particularly apt in this instance. At least it is plentiful and fresh.

We have a HTB nearby in San Jose so perhaps gascant can report back if the food is better down south. In any case, the company will be great so that's the important point. Have a great meeting.

 

[garygid]

About 16 or so people, including "gascant" from the SF area,
and "Kat", returned for a dose of "tater triangles" (?).

More description to follow, by others.

How about May 12th in Cerritos and 26th in Santa Ana
for our next Gatherings?

 

[Boomer23]

Agreed, Gary, a wonderful meetup this morning in Santa Ana.

Scott, a BMW ActiveE driver brought his new white ride for us to see and Jeannie even got a test drive. Hopefully not the last non-LEAF EV driver to join us.

Gascant brought some Power Points to show us with news about Nissan's announced future enhancements to trip range prediction accuracy using topography and current road speed data, all following on from suggestions from the Bay Leafs group. Great to meet Howard and hear about how the Bay Leafs are getting on.

91040 met a fellow LEAFer at the Main Place Clipper Creek EVSE and bummed a ride to our breakfast while 91040's LEAF charged up. So we had a new LEAFer to meet, and he seemed to have fun.

We were happy to see Kataphn back for her second meetup since her recovery. She brought some great LEAF bags to raffle as well. Thanks, Kat!

Lots of other friends, both old and new to meet and greet. Great to see everyone!

 

[Kataphn]

Actually bags were a gift to us from gascant. I was merely the raffle hostess! Thanks, Howard and it was great to meet you. Thanks to you all for your good wishes for me post illness. What a great group!

 

[gascant]

Yes, a great meeting today. It was good to meet the regulars from SoCal with whom we've had so many virtual interactions. The stuff that I showed today about SOC and Range prediction originated in Southern California (this group) and everyone should feel proud that Nissan has taken it seriously and done something with it. How many other car companies would do that?

As for the food, I didn't have much of it as I was recovering from, shall we say, an evening of overindulgence. :mrgreen:

And yes, linkim, it is Richard Lowenthal the CTO. I was in such a hurry when I wrote about gas anxiety that it got away from me :lol:

Thanks to Gary for organizing the group--some great conversations today. Hope to catch you again in person on a future trip down to SoCal.

 

[surfingslovak]

Scott, a BMW ActiveE driver brought his new white ride for us to see and Jeannie even got a test drive. Hopefully not the last non-LEAF EV driver to join us. Great to meet Howard and hear about how the Bay Leafs are getting on.

Wow, sounds like a great meeting. Congrats! Great to hear that Howard had an opportunity to visit.

 

[linkim]

Yes, a great meeting today. It was good to meet the regulars from SoCal with whom we've had so many virtual interactions. The stuff that I showed today about SOC and Range prediction originated in Southern California (this group) and everyone should feel proud that Nissan has taken it seriously and done something with it. How many other car companies would do that?

As for the food, I didn't have much of it as I was recovering from, shall we say, an evening of overindulgence. :mrgreen:

And yes, linkim, it is Richard Lowenthal the CTO. I was in such a hurry when I wrote about gas anxiety that it got away from me :lol:

Thanks to Gary for organizing the group--some great conversations today. Hope to catch you again in person on a future trip down to SoCal.

Gascant, I'm happy to hear you had a great time. Sorry to hear you had overindulged the night before the meeting. I assume you didn't suffer from gas anxiety at the meeting. Look forward to hearing about the visit.

My wife and i will be in Anaheim (staying across street from Mickey Mouse's home) on May 12 to attend our niece's wedding. I wonder if I can sneak away to attend a LEAF meeting in the morning. Hmmm....