Self-Parking Legos

If Legos can do it, so can our car :)

Some links

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Regulations Oregon does not seem to require anything in particular -- but they will require a VIN inspection if they think the vehicle does not meet these standards.
PART C - INFORMATION, STANDARDS, AND REQUIREMENTS Not sure if this will be helpful or not.

ASSEMBLED, RECONSTRUCTED OR REPLICA VEHICLE CERTIFICATION Not sure if that form will be appropriate or not...

Street Legal?

What does it take to qualify as street legal? I assume you'd have to get the license plate, have air bags (or something), etc... but what are the actual requirements? How do we find out? Do we wade through all the DMV logs? Is there an easier way?

Oregon DMV 2005 Vehicle Code Book

While it is hard to narrow down specific requirements because of things like the law stating that a standard must be made (but not what such standard is) there are specific comments about EV.

Page 23 of Chapter 815 (Vehicle Equipment Generally) says in 815.300#9 that EV are exempt from the pollution control system requirements.

I did find some more information in Chapter L. Vehicle Types:

Passenger vehicles are titled using the VIN from the frame (or an MCO if it is a New Passenger Vehicle).

Electric vehicles are registered as per ORS 803.420
(looking that up, it is $27/yr)

Electric vehicles are subject to residency/domicile, financial responsibility, and odometer requirements. If a vehicle is manufactured without an odometer, the Exemption from Odometer Reading Requirements, Form 735-6745, must be completed. Electric vehicles are exempt from DEQ requirements (ORS 815.300)

ECU: Engine Control Unit

Howstuffworks points out that the ECU in most cars is only 40-50MHz. Since we do plan to add quite a bit more functionality, I think we should go with something faster - though preferably something low-power that stays pretty cool. In fact, we may want to consider having more than one CPU so that it can fail-over if need be.

Newer cars use the CAN (controller-area networking) at up to 500Kbps. These modules might send data over the two wires hundreds of times per second. Maybe we should use something newer. Maybe a multicast approach would allow modules (like HUD/dash modules) to auto-respond to what the other modules are reporting.

Maybe we should start with Open Cores, Open SPARC, or something similar. In fact, an OpenBIOS and OpenBoot/OpenFirmware approach could be very interesting when most of the devices are car modules.

A Better HUD?

So one of the ideas that I have played with over the years was having some of the information actually displayed on the windshield instead of in the dash. I mean, why should I take my eyes completely off the road to see if I am speeding? Or even better, why should the nightvision that shows me I am about to hit something be placed in the console of all places?

With advances in OLED and transparent transistors, maybe we could have a thin layer over our window, completely transparent, but that is able to overlay details, nightvision, etc for us. If we had this technology in place, I am sure our car computer (and a few new sensors) could really create something interesting for us.

In fact... If the engine isn't in the front... and if the dash has no gauges... maybe the windshield should be taller and get rid of the dash (for the most part)? Maybe that should be revision 2.

Reserve your Tesla Motors

Well, the 2007 Tesla Roadsters are already sold out, but if you have $100k, you can configure and reserve yours now... $50k deposit if you want to be next in line; $30k deposit if you want to let others cut in front of you. Wish I could afford one.

Car Auctions

At the court house today, we noticed a few places that offered auctions...

1. Sergeant's Towing
2. Nine-T-Nine Towing
3. Pro Tow
4. Newhouse & Hutchins Towing
5. Cop's Garage and Towing
   

Potential Car Toolkit Items

	First, how about a reusable flare (or 2 or 6)... Only downside is that they use 2 AAA batteries... hope you have some charged... Actually, our EV should keep a "set" of batteries charged at all times for just such things.
	And how about a couple wrenches for working on the car?
	Or maybe we would rather not stand in the rain to give someone else a jump (or get one ourselves)...
	Maybe we would rather not have to expend any energy to determine if the tire pressure is at 32 psi or at 36 psi?
Now this one we will skip though - cuz we are going to have heated/cooled/massage seats... who was it that does it now? Lexus or someone?
	This could be... well.. fun. I mean, what would you want your car to say if it could change on a whim?
	If we could find a good space for it, this could be a good emergency item.
This could make it easier to see when working on the car... but... we should TRY to design the car not to need something like this...
	We probably could do with a built-in unit, but... a wireless temperature and compass could be OK...
	Ok, this and might be going a little far ;)

Local Auction: Sergeants Towing

Auction listings will be updated as soon as possible. However, they will be listed no later than 6:00pm on Wednesdays prior to the auction

I also saw this ad:
Police Impounded Vehicle Auction
January 5, 2006 -- Portland
Seized Vehicle Auction CARS PICKUPS RV'S BOATS MOTORCYCLES THURSDAY, JANUARY 5. Preview: 8am, Auction: 10:30am 12175 N PORTLAND RD 503-283-6282 See our posted auction list at www.sergeantstowing.com
FROM: http://www.all-oregon.com/auctions.htm

Slashdot: Hydrogen Won't Save Our Economy

Bookmarked and Unread

MIT Nanotube Super Capacitor

This is a followup to our previous Super Battery article.

There is a WIKI page with some interesting tidbits... among those tidbits is this one:
IX. Open-Source conducive
MIT would want royalties, and other people's patents might be involved in the manufacturing process. MIT takes the position that it wants to make royalties, but its primary goal is to disseminate IP, not to restrict it.

There was also a link to the page of Prof. Joel Schindall (Inventor).

Build a Kit Car

Number	Episode Title	Last Air Date
BKC-101	History of the Original Cobra® and Cobra-Replica Kits	10/05/2002
BKC-102	Cobra® Replica — Body Prep and Engines	10/12/2002
BKC-103	Cobra® Replica — Engine Preassembly & Balancing	10/19/2002
BKC-104	Cobra® Replica — Engine Assembly	10/26/2002
BKC-105	Cobra® Replica — Painting and Final Assembly	11/02/2002
BKC-106	History of the Original Cobra® and Cobra-Replica Kits	05/30/2005
BKC-107	Cobra® Replica -- Body Prep and Engines	05/31/2005
BKC-108	Cobra® Replica -- Engine Preassembly & Balancing	06/01/2005
BKC-109	Cobra® Replica -- Engine Assembly	06/02/2005
BKC-110	Cobra® Replica -- Painting and Final Assembly	06/03/2005

If metal body, options other than painting?

I was thinking about how the fiberglass bodies aren't going to be as safe as a metal body... then I started to think about my Global Chess set...

What about Anodizing [DIY] or Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation as an alternative to (or addition to) primer and paint?

Schematics (including chargers)

Quite a few different schematics.. the battery chargers could well be the most useful ones...

Super Battery

Ok, this is the battery I want...
And I quote MIT:

"It could be recharged many, many times perhaps hundreds of thousands of times, and ... it could be recharged very quickly, just in a matter of seconds rather than a matter of hours," he says.

The idea is to make capacitors (instead of chemical batteries) with nanotubes on the metal filaments

Things to Consider

I expect this post to get modified and repeated often. Think of it as a post-in note... We will never be able to list everything that has to be looked into, but why not list some things to give us a start next time...

1. GPS / BlackBox
2. 2-Wheel vs. All-Wheel
3. Lexus Auto-Park feature
4. one motor per tire or not?
5. AC vs. DC
6. Regenerative Braking
7. Heated and Cooled seats (and steering wheel?)
8. Are there more environmentally friendly tires?
9. OLED or Holographic dash instruments
10. Battery packs
11. Kit Car, Custom Fiberglass, or Rebuild
12. Backup(reverse) cameras w/ collision-aversion
13. Speed sensitive sound
14. Hands free cell phone integration
15. Media - CD, DVD, MP3, whatever
16. Car should talk (per Dino) ;)
17. Personalized settings (a'la Pontiac Banshee)
18. Radar detection
19. Lexus night vision
20. WiFi hotspot
21. adjustable cup holders
22. Spider Spikes and place for them in trunk
23. better headlights - fog, rain, snow, sun, etc
24. in-dash touchscreen
25. Sue Sue
26. A name for the car
27. licensing and registration
28. street legality


ok, I guess that is enough for now...

Oregon Electric Vehicles Association

I don't really know anything about this group, but I am considering checking out their meetings. Maybe they could give me some tips about what would or would not work (or why)...

Strip or Kit?

So it appears that the most common way to make your own EV is to take a standard run o' the mill car, strip everything off of it, steam clean it (hopefully you remembered that step), and then build it up.

I am wondering if it might be better to do a Kit Car instead. There seems to be advantages and disadvantages to both... Let's take a look at a couple of them...

1. Kit Cars are (usually?) fiberglass.... Pro: Lighter weight = more efficient for EV. Con: more likely to cost a LOT of money if you get into an accident.

2. Kit Cars come with very limited pieces... Pro: The few they come with should be most of what you need, and they are already clean. Con: Realistically, a used car is generally going to cost less than a kit car, unless you count labor into the cost.

3. Kit Cars have to be put together.... Now, while you may think that I would have to do the conversion of a standard car (and thus that would count as putting it together) -- the fact is that a used car already will generally roll, etc... kit cars will take a lot of effort to get them usable at all.

It sounds like I am really opposed to kit cars... I am not. I just really want to find a reasonably priced one... Take this one for example. That is a damned sexy car. However, for $20k, I can't justify buying that car body. Hell, for that price, we could get a used Delorean.

So I think the first part of the decision is going to come down to whether or not we can find any reasonably priced kits. If we can, I will seriously consider buying an already clean body that doesn't contain all the crap I am going to toss anyways.


Of course, based on this picture, maybe I should have him make me a body... :)

Welcome

Until recently, I had been all gung-ho for hydrogen cars... Then I watched "Who Killed the Electric Car". Now, I am completely opposed to internal combustion engines. I am opposed to everything from how the auto manufacturers sell you poor equipment that you have to replace regularly to how dirty you get working on said engine.

I don't have much automotive background -- but at this point I think I want to make my own electric vehicle. Partially to help the environment, partially so that I don't have as much hassle to keep my car running well, and partially so that eventually my kids might have a better world to live in.

This blog is originally going to be keeping track of ideas, notes, links, etc... Eventually, hopefully, it will also chronicle my first effort at making my own EV.