A Quieter Day

Last night it was above zero at 4C, and with the bubble wrap on most of the windows, it wasn’t too bad.  We still got quite a bit of condensation on the large front window.  Obviously more ventilation is required.

We had to go and get a few items, including a new fuse, which sorted out the APRS.  Now we should be visible until we knock out the power plug again.

We came across another white e-NV 200.  This was being used by a plumber as his work vehicle.  An ideal use for an eVan is in a flat city like Christchurch.  

After lunch with friends, we juiced up and went out to Lyttleton.  The old town is looking a bit battered, but they are soldiering on despite the empty building sites.

Some of the EV charging sites are a little difficult to track down.  The one we used was listed as being Z Energy, 40 Moorhouse Ave.  There was Z gas station at 72 Moorhouse, and sure enough, around the back was the charging station.

Back at the camp, we were a little more polished in setting up everything for sleeping and for dinner.  In about half an hour, we were shipshape and cooking dinner.

The plumber's eVan

Lyttleton.  Note the steel bracing on the side  of the building above.

The port seems very quiet

On to Christchurch

There was ice on the grass at 7:30 pm last night, but at 5am, when bladders were really complaining, the grass just had a dew on it.

The air bed is comfortable and we weren’t too cramped.  It is a bit of a task getting in and out, but it is cosy.

Jim checked the APRS and it showed our path to Geraldine but unfortunately it was not working this morning, and he didn't get a chance to look at it today.  Something for tomorrow.

Stopped at Ashburton and was really surprised at the town.  All the major stores are represented and the traffic is pretty light.  Went to SuperCheap looking for a tap for the thread on the roof rack, but no joy.  Bought a couple of cheap tarps for the awning setup and some detergent for the windscreen.  There was a special on which included wiper blades and Bars Bugs.  The girl came and had a look at the van.  Two different wiper blades are used, a thicker one for the driver and a thin one for the passenger.  It looks like those corporate accountants have been trying to save money again.  The girl said it was quite common on modern cars.  Of course this combination blade setup wasn’t included in the special.

Also spotted at Bunnings on the way out of Ashburton, and found that the heater has a tip over cutout, so it must be sitting correctly to operate.  Tested it and it’s fine.  It wasn’t sitting on a hard surface last night.  Also picked up a set of taps and dies, that we don’t really need, but it’s the only way to get a 6mm tap and a tap wrench.

The splash and dash charging to 80% is working well.  

Somehow we turned off the Eco mode and it really drove like a normal car, but the GOM dropped by 6%.  So we are now back on economy mode.

Ashburton and Rakaia was the first places where we have seen a blue and white information sign advertising EV Charging.

At Rolleston, we were taken through some of the quieter area of town to a triple charger setup, near New World.  We would not have seen these areas of town without an e-car.  There were charging points for four vehicles, two being on the Type 2 AC charger, which is free and for which our cable does not work.

On the way in, we even saw three working trains.  Probably the of the South Island's engine stock.

In Christchurch, we had an afternoon of getting things sorted out.  Jim tapped the missing thread into the roof rack.  He assembled it a couple of times as the dimensions specified were a bit out and had to be adjusted to fit.  Now we have a fully functional and secure roof rack.

He also put up an awning, constructed from a  tarp and little else, to give us a drier entry when it rains.  Finally, using a double layer of bubble wrap, he created thermal blankets for most of the windows.  Although the temperature went to 10C, with a cold wind, tonight is going to be 2C.

The computer on the van has now recalibrated itself and is more accurate with its guesses being about one km per percent of charge.

We have decided to go to Taupo from Palmerston North, via Napier, and then to head directly from Taupo to Cambridge, rather than via Waiouru and Rotorua.  There are less fast chargers, but more camping grounds for a top up.  So now the trip has to be reworked.

You never know what you will find in McDonalds.  It's almost like being in Walmart.  Trev came to mind when we saw the onesy. 

Rakaia's famous salmon

EV Refueling Signs

Juicing up

 The awning before the wind flattened it and it was put up again.

A day of lessons

Although the hotel was fine, we didn’t sleep that well.  Must have been the anticipation of getting on the road.

At 8am the roof of the van had a gentle covering of ice on it, but the windows were ok.  We went to a local car park and got a full charge.  It appeared to be free, but we shall see when we get home.  It was great for our first charge!

Travelling around town and turning on the front window demister saw the GOM (Guess O Meter) drop from 116km down to 84km, as the heater ate up the range.

Lesson 1.   Don’t use the heating system unless you really, really need it.

Then back to Bunnings to get a step to use to work on the roof and put things in the roof bag.  Finally off to Warehouse Stationery.  I phoned the WS central office and they told me that the order had been delivered yesterday.  In fact only one of the three items ordered arrived yesterday.  The local staff took the others from stock.

Getting out of Dunedin you have to climb some nasty hills and in a short time the battery charge dropped to 50%, but we made some up with regenerative braking on the downhill..

Lesson 2.   Electric Vans don’t like hills.  They can climb them but the battery charge drops with a rush.

We were in the economy setting all day.  It’s quite okay but limits the power to about half maximum.  No complaints on the performance down here with the light traffic.

At Waikouaiti we found that we were 39km from Hamden, (by GPS), and the GOM showed that we had power for 41km.  It just wasn't going to work.  We found a local campsite.  The office was unmanned, so Jim phoned the after hours number.  The lady who answered was in Dunedin, but she told him to charge up and leave the money ($2 per hour) under the mat.  In about 90 minutes the battery charge had risen by over 30%, thanks to the charging cable with a caravan plug on that Auto Court had provided, and we had a nominal 68km on the GOM.  We needed most of it.

While at Waikouaiti, Jim started to prepare the roof rack for fitting to the van.  He discovered that one hole in the Australian made kit, had no thread, so will now have to find a 6mm tap and tap wrench, otherwise, it will ride in the back all the way home.

Going into Hamden, the battery percentage display disappeared when the GOM registered 22km in the tank.  We arrived with just 20km left, so we would never have made it without the caravan park charge.  There we charged and had lunch at a local cafe.  Lunch cost far more than the power.  

After that we topped up wherever we came across a fast charger.  Some like Oamaru are handy to a charity shop, so that whiles away the time.

Lesson 3.   Never go past a fast charger without topping up.

At Waimate, the charger would not read the RFID tag that is linked to our credit card.  Jim rang the ChargeNet service desk and they remotely kicked off the charging process and set things up so that every time we charge, he gets a text with all the details.

The temperature ranged around 2 or 3C most of the morning.  It may have briefly risen to 10C in the afternoon, but it was a rare event.  It had dropped down to 3C again by the time we arrived at Grumpy's Holiday Park in Geraldine and he reckon it would bottom out at -2C overnight.

Jim parked near a double power pole.  He ran one cable to charge the battery and the other to power a small fan heater.  

It took him quite a while to empty the back of the van, stack bits and pieces under the van or in the front cabin, blow up the air bed and get everything ready for bed with blankets and pillows.  

Lynette, meantime, prepared the evening meal.  The camp kitchen facilities are great.  You just need to bring your own food and everything else is there, along with a good heater.  That's where this blog was created.

The van's speedo is about 5kph too fast from 50kph onwards.  Initially we travelled at an actual 90-95kph, but then dropped down to 85-90kph and seldom need to pull over to let faster cars by.

The fuel bill for 245km was about $36 which about 60% of what we would have to pay for the Suzuki.  Not great, you may say, but in that charge, we are paying a connection fee, which is about half the charge, so at home, on our own power, we should be paying less than 30% of the Suzuki costs.

The other noticeable thing was the brakes, or the lack of use of them.  The only time we actually used brakes was when we came to a stopped vehicle or traffic lights.  Using the B (for enhanced regenerative braking) mode, when you lift your foot off the accelerator, the regenerative braking kicks in and slows you down.  It's like driving with only one foot.

With today's long haul travel, the van's computer has finally figured out our driving habits, and one per cent of battery charge is almost one kilometre of travel, but 70km per charge is a good number.  Lesson 3 above applies!

The final lesson was to Be Flexible.  Because of Lesson 2, we now don't believe we could make it from Mangaweka to Waiouru until the Taihape charger is working in a couple of months time, and going from Waiouru to Turangi could also be a bit of a challenge.  That means we will need to plan to go via Napier, as the Napier to Taupo road has a one fast charger and a number of camp grounds along the way that offer slower charging.  So it's back to the drawing board.

Here's a few photos from the day.

Our first charge (above and below.)

The van being charged.   The left socket is the fast charge DC connector.

Lynette found the above memorial at Waikouaiti 

Below the e-Van in the caravan park

Murals at Waimate

Day 1, the Pickup

A beautiful day in both Auckland and Dunedin.

A few moments before we left home, Lynette spotted a mouse that one of the cats had brought in as a going away present.  That was caught and quickly dropped outside.  Who knows what extra food they will have accumulated by the time we return.

A pleasant ferry, train and bus trip to the airport.  Air NZ left about half an hour late. (Some things just stay the same......)  At Dunedin it was 10C, fine and sunny with long shadows.  We had booked a shuttle into Auto Court and were the first to be dropped off.

Bob had the van ready for us so we loaded up.  He told us that the hills north of Dunedin would use a fair amount of battery capacity, but going down to the sea on the other side would definitely regenerate a significant amount.  

We started to pick up the bits we had ordered as Click and Collect.  Supercheap Auto had our goodies ready, but Warehouse Stationery and Bunnings had not received the orders from their central warehouses.  We cancelled the Bunnings order and went shopping and will try that with Warehouse Stationery tomorrow.  We went to the wrong Warehouse, but when we went to the right place, everything was there.  The hotel also had the roof rack in a large carton, waiting for us.

The back of the van now looks like the inside of a gypsy caravan, so situation normal.  It will take a couple of days of tweaking and unpacking to get things under control.

   Lyn's e-Van, Jim and Bob Woodford of Auto Court Dunedin

More Background Information on Electric Vehicles

This blog has raised a few questions with people, and here are a couple that have surfaced.

Gearbox?

This Nissan motor has a single speed transmission that contains a differential to drive both front wheels, so that you simply push your foot on the gas pedal and it goes from Whoa to a maximum of about 120 kph.

Reverse is achieved via electronics rather than a mechanical mechanism.

There is an advert on the NZ TV where a couple of retired gentlemen beat up the streets in an electric vehicle.  It is a late 1950's Chevrolet that has had an engine transplant and now uses an electric motor.  In this case, it still has the full automatic gearbox attached to the engine.

Heating and Cooling

Unlike Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) vehicles, a vehicle with an electric engine does not generate a lot of waste heat, so the vehicle cab will be cooler than an ICE car.

To overcome this issue, electric vehicles are usually fitted with a heat pump and small radiator to heat or cool the passengers.  The amount of battery power this function uses impacts the mileage that can be covered.  From what can be viewed on YouTube, the main problem seems to be fogging of the windows, so hopefully airflow will reduce that.

The e-NV200, being a van, has a much larger volume of air to heat or cool than a car, so Nissan have fitted a transparent plastic sheet behind the driver and passenger, to reduce the heating requirement to just the front of the vehicle.  They also decided that it was more efficient to heat the vehicle passengers rather that the air, and have fitted both front seats with individual seat heaters that have high and low settings.  The driver gets a bonus with a heated steering wheel.

About APRS

APRS (Amateur radio Position Reporting System) is a simple tool that lets people track the position of any amateur radio operator (ham) who has the hardware to make his position known.

In his vehicle, the ham has a transmitter, a GPS receiver and a small computer that sorts out the time and position and generates a coded signal to feed into the transmitter, which then sends it off to a receiving site.  The transmissions can occur at regular time intervals such as once every 20 to 30 minutes or when the position changes or the direction of travel changes by so many degrees.  A stationary unit won't be transmitting much, but a mobile one can send a brief signal every few minutes or so.

Our unit is a simple box about the size of a pack of cigarettes, with connectors for a transmit antenna, the GPS receiver and power.  Both the antenna and the GPS receiver magnetically mount on the roof of the vehicle.

Up and down the country, other hams have set up receiving stations on the APRS frequency.  These are unattended receivers on a fixed channel.  When a signal is heard, a small computer decodes it and sends the information over the internet to a database in Finland.  I guess it's there in Finland because the guy who started this off probably came from that country.

Anyone who wants to track the ham concerned simply goes to the web address https://aprs.fi   That web site will pop up a Google Maps view and a box on the right side for entering data.

If you enter zl1lc-9 in the top Search box and click on Search, it will report our last known position.  If you then go below and set the Show last box to 24 hours, and the Track tail length to 24 hours, you will see our path over the last 24 hours.  The database holds information for several years.

Below is a screen shot of a ham using his id of zl1nl-8.  Each one of those dots in his trail has information as to which site picked his signal up, the time and the speed of his vessel.

So enter zl1lc-9 into the box and sit back and see where we have been.

Sometimes the reporting is spasmodic because our transmitter power is only 10 watts and in many places of NZ, there are not hams about with receivers set up for APRS or there are lots of hills in the way between our vehicle and their receiving site.  But persist and you should be able to track us up the two islands.