Post by jeffthewalker on Dec 3, 2015 7:14:49 GMT 11
I got back to the farm at Beaudesert last Friday (30th Nov) and have taken a while to settle in. Doing a few chores and just winding down.
My last post was from NRMA Darlington Beach Resort about halfway between Coffs Harbour and Grafton. I'll repeat that it was very friendly and lots of things to do within the park. I will certainly try such parks again in the future.
Then on to Maclean Riverside Caravan Park for a charge in a spare bay. The $5 fee was fine and caravan parks will also be on my futures list. There was nothing doing at this park so I took a stroll around town for several hours.
The stayover at New Italy was good but once again I was there after 4pm so the cafe, museum and gift stores were all closed. There was a bad accident on the highway several kilometers away and the highway was closed so I was not going any further anyway. Even at 6am in the morning it was still contra flow with considerable delay.
I was able to hook up the the outside GPO at the Rainbow Power Company at Nimbin at 8.30am and was away again just after noon. Walking around Nimbin is always "interesting".
I got to Colin's factory at Burleigh on the Gold Coast around 3pm and although he was not in, his neighbour has a remote to open the roller door so I let myself in. I stayed overnight in the factory taking on a full charge and talking tech to Colin who manufactures LED lights (I do a bit of programming for him).
On Friday morning, I drove to Southport for a quick visit to friends and pick up some mail (it is my "official" address for driver's license etc [long story]) and then back "home" to the farm.
In summary, it was about 3,000kms in total and a great trip to introduce myself to driving a restricted range electric vehicle. Feng, I will definitely be doing this trip again as I have rellies along the way and I will also be off in other directions as well which I will continue to report here if the interest is there.
I got my OBDII device (thanks jcan for your advice and demo) and, being a numbers guy, I have drooled over the info available. It has made me rethink how I will be reading the GOM, ODO etc in the future.
Charging up back here on the farm is a chore (albeit a pleasurable one for me:-). At the main camp I have just over 1000W of solar but a huge amount of battery (old 6V 600AH X 8). I can suck 2.2kW for about an hour which is about 100A at 24V through a 3000W pure sine wave inverter. But then have to give it a rest for several days to catch up.
At Mitch's place (500m away) there is now nearly 3000W solar and 5kWh of battery. With a clear sky I can draw 80A from the solar array and 20A from the batteries. But the batteries get to 50% after about half an hour so I wait for half an hour. But if cloud comes over I start to draw 90A from the batteries and 10A from the solar. This is not good for the batteries (too big a draw) so I have to be on standby to turn off when the cloud comes over. And yesterday it was cloudy all day so I had to top of with the 6KVA petrol generator for 2 hours:-(. And I have to gauge the afternoon weather to allow enough solar to fully charge Mitch's batteries to get him through the night (late cloud beat me twice this week and he had to start his genny at midnight [very naughty Jeff]).
When I leave the farm it is to Brisbane or the Gold Coast and either way I like to have at least 100km in the tank.
Today I am booked into Moorooka Nissan (Brisbane) for the one month service (now 3 months and just on 5,000kms) so I had to have a full(ish) tank to get me there. I have been informed that they will be doing a software upgrade as well as kicking the tyres.
Life is interesting with an (all) electric vehicle when living off-grid.
My last post was from NRMA Darlington Beach Resort about halfway between Coffs Harbour and Grafton. I'll repeat that it was very friendly and lots of things to do within the park. I will certainly try such parks again in the future.
Then on to Maclean Riverside Caravan Park for a charge in a spare bay. The $5 fee was fine and caravan parks will also be on my futures list. There was nothing doing at this park so I took a stroll around town for several hours.
The stayover at New Italy was good but once again I was there after 4pm so the cafe, museum and gift stores were all closed. There was a bad accident on the highway several kilometers away and the highway was closed so I was not going any further anyway. Even at 6am in the morning it was still contra flow with considerable delay.
I was able to hook up the the outside GPO at the Rainbow Power Company at Nimbin at 8.30am and was away again just after noon. Walking around Nimbin is always "interesting".
I got to Colin's factory at Burleigh on the Gold Coast around 3pm and although he was not in, his neighbour has a remote to open the roller door so I let myself in. I stayed overnight in the factory taking on a full charge and talking tech to Colin who manufactures LED lights (I do a bit of programming for him).
On Friday morning, I drove to Southport for a quick visit to friends and pick up some mail (it is my "official" address for driver's license etc [long story]) and then back "home" to the farm.
In summary, it was about 3,000kms in total and a great trip to introduce myself to driving a restricted range electric vehicle. Feng, I will definitely be doing this trip again as I have rellies along the way and I will also be off in other directions as well which I will continue to report here if the interest is there.
I got my OBDII device (thanks jcan for your advice and demo) and, being a numbers guy, I have drooled over the info available. It has made me rethink how I will be reading the GOM, ODO etc in the future.
Charging up back here on the farm is a chore (albeit a pleasurable one for me:-). At the main camp I have just over 1000W of solar but a huge amount of battery (old 6V 600AH X 8). I can suck 2.2kW for about an hour which is about 100A at 24V through a 3000W pure sine wave inverter. But then have to give it a rest for several days to catch up.
At Mitch's place (500m away) there is now nearly 3000W solar and 5kWh of battery. With a clear sky I can draw 80A from the solar array and 20A from the batteries. But the batteries get to 50% after about half an hour so I wait for half an hour. But if cloud comes over I start to draw 90A from the batteries and 10A from the solar. This is not good for the batteries (too big a draw) so I have to be on standby to turn off when the cloud comes over. And yesterday it was cloudy all day so I had to top of with the 6KVA petrol generator for 2 hours:-(. And I have to gauge the afternoon weather to allow enough solar to fully charge Mitch's batteries to get him through the night (late cloud beat me twice this week and he had to start his genny at midnight [very naughty Jeff]).
When I leave the farm it is to Brisbane or the Gold Coast and either way I like to have at least 100km in the tank.
Today I am booked into Moorooka Nissan (Brisbane) for the one month service (now 3 months and just on 5,000kms) so I had to have a full(ish) tank to get me there. I have been informed that they will be doing a software upgrade as well as kicking the tyres.
Life is interesting with an (all) electric vehicle when living off-grid.