The Kogan Agora Android phone dosn't have an accelerometer!

The Kogan Agora Android phone doesn't have an accelerometer! This means some of the augmented reality apps wont work to full advantage and I can write my EV performance calculator.

I think Google should specify a minimum hardware specification for devices to ensure all the apps work properly.

Might cancel my order and a t-Mobile G1 in the US if I am there before it appears in Australia.

arrg

CO2 output and charging using Coal Power Generation

We have to be very skeptical when reading reports from 'experts' and 'scientists' to check the author does not have a conflict on interests. 

I did the math on this a few months ago and here are the results. 

In 2006 Munmorah generated 1,416Gwh of electricity, the most since 1942. Given that Munmorah emits 1.065 tonnes of greenhouse pollution for every megawatt hour of electricity generated, it would have produced about 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 in 2006,about 1% of NSW’s total. 
Munmorah power station old and very inefficient is http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/australia/resources/reports/climate-change/switching-from-coal.pdf 

FYI only - Redbook figures are in = gm/km. 

Thermal efficiency of coal Australia 33.3% in 1988 
Newer plants are 53% for UCC generation. 
http://www.australiancoal.com.au/cleantechAus.htm 

Greenhouse gas emission could be reduced by 20% by modernization. 

1.065 tonnes of ‘greenhouse pollution’ per megawatt hour 
= .000001065 tonnes of CO2 per watt hr 
= 1.065gm/Wh 

If my ute does 200Wh per km = 200*.000001065 = 213gm/km based on coal generation. 

Mitsubishi i-Miev 123Wh/Km = 123*.0001065 = 130gm/km based on coal generation. 

Compare that to a rough average of about 2.3kg/L 
http://www.comcar.co.uk/newcar/companycar/poolresults/co2litre.cfm 
-> 230gm/km for a 10l/100 vehicle 

Conclusion: an EV charging from power generated from Munmorah will have about 8% less CO2 output. 

This excludes transmission losses are about 7.2% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line so we are about on par. 

If you charge using a modern coal fired power station, you are winning with your EV, if you use real green power you have won. 


Petrol energy = 31.2 MJ/l 
If my hilux ICE did 10l/100km 
then it would use 312MJ of Petrol 

According to Google, 1 megajoule = 0.277777778 kilowatts hours 
so I have used 86.6kWh of Petrol to travel 100km 

My EV Hilux will use about 200*100=20kWH to travel 100km 

Sanity check. 20/86.6= 23% efficient ICE. A bit high but in the ballpark. 

Abney park Christmas Album

I just bought the Abney Park 'Dark Christmas' album. http://www.abneypark.com/shirts/darkchristmas/index.html

Fuses, lots of fuses.

This weekend was spent making up fuse boxes. I purchased 60 FHM3AG fuses from Pacific Components .

26 of these are to connect to the outputs of the 13 chargers. These (actually 24) of them are mounted in 2 ABS boxes on clear acrylic. The final 2 will be inline as they are only +-12 volts.

Each alternate fuse has 48 volts between them so before inserting the fuses I will glue some clear plastic sheet between them so they don’t short when fumbling with fuses.

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I started test charging one set of batteries and unfortunately the charger let the magic smoke out of the output electrolytic capacitor and a diode also ruptured. I have replaced the cap and diode, but the charger still has some problems. Back to e-crazyman on eBay if I cant fix it.

Another smaller ABS box has 6 fuse holders for the heater and the 12 volt power supplies to charge the accessory battery.

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