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Silicon Valley EAA Chapter (select "Silicon Valley Chapter" aka "SVLY")
Regular meetings on 3rd Saturday of each month, 10am - noon
All meetings open to the public (membership is not
required )
Normal meeting location is HP at 3000 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94034 Directions
(Any changes to the meeting location or times will be noted with the individual meeting
topics below)
July 17, 2010 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Kaneshka Salehi,
founder of AE Motor Corp.
Kaneshia will talk about the EVs that his startup is developing. They are a new player in the EV
market, should be interesting.
August 21, 2010 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Tim Collins,
founder of KleenSpeed Technologies.
Tim will talk about the EV racecars and drive-train components that they developing.
This promises to be something a little different from the normal consumer vehicle.
Past Meeting Summary
June 19, 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Felix Kramer,
founder of
CalCars.org.
Felix has been the champion of the Plug-In hybrid concept which is finally being accepted by the
major automakers who once rejected the idea. Toyota has announced a Plug-in Prius, and GM
is finalizing the plug-in Chevy Volt.
So CalCars declared SUCCESS and is now focusing on another plug-in direction. Felix will
be talking about CalCars' "Big Fix" campaign, and his latest proposal to Washington for a
"Drive Star" program to jumpstart a global conversion industry.
More details are at the following two webpages:
Drive-star
and CalCars News.
May 15, 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Michael Worry, Founder,
OptaMotive.
To date, only 1/3 of the teams which began in the X-Prize have survived to qualify
for the 'shake down' phase of the competition. Of these, OptaMotive is the only one that has a
background building combat robots. Their robot "Ziggy" has been the undefeated champion for four
years running.
The founders switched to building EVs because "while building the RoboGames robots is extremely
fun and rewarding", has much greater social impact".
Michael will talk about how the E.Rex re-purposes the existing design of the Canadian 3-wheeled
Campaigna T-Rex using off the shelf parts, but also has a unique battery management system which
optimizes performance. If time allows, there will be rides in the E.Rex vehicle. Ziggy will
also be on display.
April 17, 2010
* NO MEETING - Due to many Earth Day
events this month.
Show your support for the environment by attending other local events in April, check out our
Events page for some ideas. Thank you.
March 20, 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Jim Castelaz, CEO, Motiv Power Systems.
Jim will talk about Power Management systems for electric-drive trucks and buses made by his company.
February 27, 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Special Venue: All-chapter meeting,
Electric Auto Association.
This meeting is the annual all-chapter meeting of the EAA with audio hook-up with chapters from
accross the country. Summary of past year's activities of EAA world-wide organization and awards
will be given to recognize the efforts of key individuals towards the EAA mission.
February 20, 2010
* NO MEETING due to time conflicts.
January 16, 2010 10am - noon at HP,
Palo Alto
* Guest Speaker: Warren Winovich.
Warren will speak about the performance of Tesla roadsters using published data and his analysis
based on many years of experience with EVs. It should an interesting look at current technology
in this high-end EV.
Also the annual election of officers for the Silicon Valley chapter. Please attend to show your
support of the current officers and to cast your vote for 2010 candidates. Volunteers to run for
positions will be accepted at the meeting.
December 19, 2009 10am - noon at HP, Palo
Alto
*
Guest Speaker: None - Holidays Movie Matinee
And now for something completely differentt!! A morning of movies and popcorn. Take a break from
holiday shopping and join us for some EV-related videos.
The first video will be an episode of American Chopper on The Learning Channel. The show is about
the adventures of a grumpy old motorcycle builder, Paul Teutul, Sr. and his sons in the family business.
This time they are building an electric motorcycle. Their customer is Siemens (Europe's answer
to General Electric) who has a windmill factory here in the US. They show some nice footage
during the factory tour and there is an impressive line-up of flatbed rail cars outside the plant
with a long windmill blade on each one.
The second video is from a website called EV-TV featuring and a "mature gentleman", Jack Rickard
who has a very nice work shop, lots of EV know-how and he even wears Crocs like Jerry Pohorsky
(don't hold that against him). He has a weekly show discussing some very nice EV conversions,
technical info about use of Lithium batteries in EVs, etc. He drives a Porsche 356 EV convertible
and is also converting a MiniCooper Clubman. We are hoping to have the episode where he takes
apart a ThunderSky battery so we can see what's inside the case.
Please contact jerry Pohorsky if you can bring popcorn or other treats. Other ideas for videos
are appreciated also, we will play whatever the crowd wants to see, join us for some holiday fun
(educational too).
November 21, 2009 10am - noon at HP, Palo
Alto
*
First Guest Speaker: Eric & Steve Schmidt.
Eric & Steve will briefly discuss the Lithium Battery Booster which they built to charge individual cells
in their traction battery pack. It is a form of DC-to-DC converter than can be used on the road when
their battery monitor indicates a low voltage in one of the cells of their converted MG.
*
Second Guest Speaker: Peter Holoyda, Renewably First.
Peter will briefly discuss the mission of Renewably First, a 501(C) 3 not-for-profit organization.
Primarily, Renewably First is interested in getting zero emission vehicles and the infrastructure
to support them on the road. Their goal is to go further than advocacy to aggregate orders and
reduce costs to get more vehicles on the road.
*
Third Guest Speaker: Doug Schwartz, ELV Motors.
Doug will discuss Electric Light Vehicle products sold by ELV Motors at their store in Santa Clara
and through their web site. This includes Electric Bicycles, Electric Scooters, Electric Motorcycles,
and others. We will wrap up the meeting with test rides of some Vehicles in the parking lot.
October 17, 2009 10am - noon at HP, Palo
Alto
*
Guest Speaker: Jerry Pohorsky, eeVee Motors.
Jerry will discuss High End EV Conversions. Most EV Conversions use a DC motor and lead acid batteries.
While this is the most affordable combination of components, the performance leaves a lot to be desired.
Some conversions use Lithium batteries and a DC motor while others use and AC motor with Lead Acid batteries.
It is relatively rare to find a conversion with both Lithium batteries and an AC motor. This
combination gives the best range and offers regenerative braking - the same features typically
found in the best commercially produced EVs.
EeVee Motors was started by a small group of EAA members to offer this type of conversion EV to
the public. Jerry Pohorsky is a part of this group and will give more details about the conversion
and the design decisions the team made during the process. Particular attention will be given to
the eLithion battery management system used in this conversion.
The eeVee Motors 2001 Honda Civic will be on display after the meeting.
September 19, 2009 - No Meeting
The normal monthly meeting for September was cancelled due to
conflicts with other events.
August 15, 2009 10am - noon at HP, Palo
Alto
*
Guest Speaker: None
This meeting will be used for final planning of the 2009 EV Rally.
Organizers and other volunteers helping with the Rally should plan to attend. Thank you for your
support.
July 18, 2009 10am - noon at HP, Palo
Alto
*
Guest Speaker: Mark Z. Jacobson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford
University.
Professor Jacobson will speak on "Evaluation of
Energy Solutions to Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Security"
This study reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air
pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions,
such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, water
chemical pollution, and nuclear proliferation. Nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel
options are considered.
The electricity sources include solar-photovoltaics, concentrated solar
power, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and
storage technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic E85.
To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, his examines their comparative
abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology vehicles, including
battery-electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles , and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85.
A paper on this work is
available here.
June 20, 2009 - NO MEETING
The normal monthly meeting for June
was cancelled.
May 16, 2009 10am - noon
* Guest Speaker: Rob Means and
Brian Howell, Electro Ride Bikes and
Scooters.
As gas prices approached their true cost last year, interest in Light
Electric Vehicles (LEV) spiked. Twelve-year veteran of the LEV industry, Rob Means, and his
associate Brian Howell will provide an overview of LEVs ranging from electric bikes, scooters,
Motorcycles, NEVs (traditional and new 35mph vehicles), up to three-wheeled commuter cars including
the innovative, Freeway-capable TriTrack that is scheduled for delivery later this year.
Electro Ride Bikes and Scooters 1421 Yellowstone Ave Milpitas, CA 95035-6913
408-262-8975
April 18, 2009 10am - noon
* Guest Speaker: Hanif
Gangji
Hanif Gangji has recently completed conversion of his 1990 Honda CRX to EV. The
car is powered by 37 ThunderSky Li-ion batteries, 3.2v at 160Ah each using a battery management
system of his own design with an individual BMS circuit board mounted on each battery. He will talk
about details of the conversion project, the design of the BMS and experinece so far with the
ThunderSky batteries.
March 21, 2009 10am - noon
* Guest Speaker: Glenn Forslin
(President) and Adi Merschon (VP Sales), Automation
Solar.
They will give a presentation about the basics of roof-mounted PV Solar
Systems. Including Various technologies in common use, the essence of grid-tied NET Metering,
discuss a case study with contribution to the environment and potential savings and Cash Flow for a
typical system.
Automation Solar recently installed a home system for Jerry Pohorsky
consisting of 28 Sharp panels (175 watt each) and 28 Enphase 240 VAC micro-inverters. The Enphase inverter is unique in that they mount under the
panels on the roof, eliminating long runs of heavy DC wires to a convential inverter at the utility
breaker panel. The output of this system can be monitored via a web page that will be demonstrated
live at the meeting.
February 21, 2009 10am - noon
* Special Venue: All-chapter
meeting, Electric Auto Association.
This meeting is
the annual all-chapter meeting of the EAA with audio hook-up with chapters from accross the country.
Summary of past year's activities of EAA world-wide organization and awards will be given to
recognize the efforts of key individuals towards the EAA mission.
Dan Reuter (President of
Ethical Approach Auto Sales) will bring some of his
ZAP vehicles to the meeting. The cars will be displayed in the parking lot so people could see them
after the meeting. Dan is the new ZAP dealer in San Jose on Stevens Creek near Saratoga Ave and he
has been a vendor at our rally for the past 2 years.
January 17, 2009 10am - noon
* Guest speaker: Ron Freund
(Chairman of the Board), Electric Auto Association.
The guest speaker for our January meeting is Ron Freund who is Chairman of the Board for the
Electric Auto Association. Ron will give a presentation on the topic of Electric Vehicle-to-Grid
technology (V2G).
Since most cars are driven under 2 hours per day, V2G takes advantage of excess energy stored in
the on-board battery while the electric car is parked and feeds it back into the power grid during
times of peak demand. Enough power will be left in the vehicle to allow the driver to make it back
home again if this is done while they are at work. It is envisioned that the driver will earn income
from selling his excess battery power to the utility while the utility gains access to these energy
reserves and so avoids the use of expensive "peaker" power plants.
The driver charges the car back up late at night when power demand and rates are low. Of
course, thousands of cars need to be V2G equipped in order to make it worthwhile for all involved,
but that is the direction the technology is moving.
Also at our January meeting, we will have an election for the 2009 officers for our Silicon
Valley EAA Chapter. Nominations for President, Vice President and Treasurer will be solicited at the
beginning of the meeting.
December 20, 2008 10am - noon
* Guest speakers: Fraser Murison
Smith (CEO) and Jon Derickson (CTO), ElectraDrive.
Winner of the Transportation Prize
in the 2008 CA Clean Tech Open, ElectraDrive is commercializing an invention to enable
existing cars and light trucks to be rapidly and inexpensively adapted to electric traction. The
invention, ElectraMount, is designed to adjust and bolt to a vehicle's mounting attachments vacated
by the gas engine and transmission, which are removed. ElectraMount represents a previously missing
link between electric drive technologies and the mass market of existing vehicles.
ElectraDrive is initially targeting fleet customers with an integrated, extended-range electric
drivetrain, bundled with ancillary services. With electric miles around one-sixth of the cost of
gasoline miles, ElectraDrive carries very low operating costs. It enables the service life of
existing vehicles to be extended, thereby also deferring significant energy and resource costs of
vehicle manufacture.
The economics of ElectraDrive are similar to rooftop solar, although with a somewhat shorter
payback, at no regulatory risk. ElectraDrive presently is raising investment for product
development, with initial deliveries scheduled for Q4, 2009.
ElectraDrive is an EAA member.
November 15, 2008 10am - noon
* Guest speakers: Jerry
Pohorsky, EAASV.
Jerry will present video highlights from the October 2008, Kick
Gas Festival at Barona Drag Strip near San Diego. This EVent was jointly sponsored by the EVAOSD
(San Diego EAA chapter) and NEDRA (National Electric Drag Racing Association). www.kickgasfestival.com
Grand Marshall for the EVent was Chris Paine (Director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?"). Chris
was there filming for his upcoming sequel tentatively titled: "Revenge of the Electric Car".
The Kick Gas Festival attracted a wide variety of vehicles - ranging from an electric ice
chest to Dennis Berube's "QUICK EV", a lithium-powered S-10 that beat a Camaro. Also on hand was the
first solar powered electric car as well as Jerry Asher's "Spirit of DC" plug-in hybrid that is
visiting all the EAA chapters in America.
We will be presenting souvenir DVDs of the 2008 EAASV Electric Car Rally and Show to
volunteers who helped organize that EVent. We gave away a few copies at our EAASV meeting last
month, but not everyone was present. If you were a volunteer for the event and did not get your free
copy last month, please come by and get yours this Saturday. Additional copies will be for sale at
$5 each.
October 18, 2008 10am - noon
* Guest speakers: Rolf Schreiber
and Alec Proudfoot, RechargeIT.org. They are part
of Google's RechargeIT.org project that has a small demonstration fleet of plug-in vehicles.
- Brief introduction to RechargeIT: how it started, what's been done, where it's going
- Overview of their home-grown data logging system: hardware, data flow, website
- Lessons
learned from the data
They plan to bring a plug-in Prius to the meeting so you can see the
system up-close after the presentation.
September 20, 2008 10am - noon
* Guest speaker: Quin Garcia,
Project Better Place. Project Better Place is working
to build an elecric car network, using technology available today. Founded by Shai Agassi in 2005
they have a bold plan to solve EV infrastructure in Israel, Denmark and elsewhere.
Quin will present thier vision and progress to make it real.
September 17, 2008 (Wednesday) 7pm -
9pm
* Guest speaker: Bill Lofft, CEO ZuumCraft. Bill
Lofft, CEO of ZuumCraft will tell us about their new product, the Zuumer. This three wheeled scooter
is perfect for those short trips where you don't need a car and don't want to work up a sweat
pedaling a bike or walking. You just step on it and go. The scooter has a unique leaning feature
that allows is to slalom turn just like a two wheeled scooter but it stands up by itself when you
are stopped. No need to put your foot down for balance.
Check out the video clips at their
website
August 16, 2008 10am - noon
*
Guest speaker: Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technology.
Coulomb Technologies offers the ChargePoint(tm) Network, a family of products and services that
provide a smart charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles.
Richard will talk about their technology and company plans.
July 19, 2008 10am - noon
*
Guest speaker: Bernadette Guimarin, EVIN. Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Network,
Inc. (EVIN) is a company developing infrastructure for extending the effective range of electric
vehicles through a replaceable battery platform and a network of battery exchange stations. More
information about the company can be found at their website, EVINNOW.
They are now converting a Saturn to an EV using their technology and plan to
have the finished car at the meeting. They will talk about the conversion project and their vision
for EVIN.
July 17, 2008 7pm - 9pm
* Guest speaker: Louis
Palmer, Solartaxi. This special meeting as he drives around the world on his mission
to bring awareness to EV solution to global warming. See more on his travels on the Solartaxi page.
June 21, 2008 10am - noon
* Guest speaker: Warren Winovich. Warren will speak about calculating expected EV
battery life.
May 17, 2008 10am -
noon
* Guest speaker: Jorg Brown,
Google. Jorg is the owner of the second production Tango (serial number 002) from Commuter Cars. He will bring his Tango into the meeting and
give a short presentation about his expeiences with the car so far. There may be rides for lucky
members of the audience if time and sufficent charge permits.
A short video about the Tango, narrated by Rick Woodbury, CEO can be seen here.
April 19, 2008 - NO MEETING
There will be no regular meeting this month due to conflict with the "Get your
Green On" event at the Los Gatos High School. See EVents for details.
There are several events of interest in April. Please show your support at these events, thanks.
April 17, 2008, 7:00pm to 8:30pm - EV
Conversion Overview Class
Doug Brentlinger and Jerry Pohorsky will be giving an EV
conversion overview class at the Green Building Exchange, 305 Main Street, Redwood City, CA 94063.
Come learn what it takes to convert your vehicle to electric. This multimedia
workshop overviews the process of converting a gasoline car to an electric vehicle. You will hear
tips on selecting a conversion-ready vehicle, compare many of the trade-offs of different conversion
options, and receive links to resources and information. The workshop also outlines financial
incentives and other alternative vehicle options.
There is a $15 fee to attend the workshop which can be paid by check at the
event or by online reservation for an entra $.99. See the Green Building Exchange website for more details. Click on Calender button
on top of the home page and scroll down to the date to find workshop description and
regristration.
March 15, 2008 10am -
noon
* Guest
speaker: Warren Winovich. He will be talking about using batteries to provide emergency power at
home. Warren was without power for over 3 days in February and used a 12 volt battery and a 400 Watt
inverter to run his TV and some living room lamps. Warren was able to calculate how long the battery
would power his equipment, using a formula for a given load.
Inverter prices are very low these days and just about everybody has a 12 volt
battery in their car, so this exercise can benefit anyone in an upcoming emergency such as an
earthquake.
Warren's formula is also useful to determine the range of an electric vehicle.
Many of us with EVs never drive to the point where we are completely out of range and we may be
curious to find out just how far our vehicle could go in case of an
emergency.
February 16, 2008 10am - noon
Annual
all-chapter meeting of the EAA with audio hook-up with chapters from across the country.
January 19, 2008 10am
- noon
* Guest speaker: Richard
Hatfield, Lightning Motors. Those of you who were at the December meeting saw his
Lithium powered Yamaha 1000 electric motorcycle. He will describe the design of this motorcycle
which includes ThunderSky 90 Amp-hour Lithium Ferro Phosphate batteries and a Zivan charger. He'll
also discuss Lightning Motors' plans to offer these bikes to 'beta testers' and their plans to offer
AC drive conversion kits to those who prefer cars. Here is a related LA Times
article that was reprinted in TreeHugger.
December 15, 2007 10am
- noon
* Guest speaker:
Bill Dube, KillaCycle. Bill has the fastest
electric motorcycle on the track (over 160 mph). The KillaCycle made drag racing history at Pomona
in November when it became the first electric-powered vehicle to make a seven-second pass in the 1/4
mile. Watch the video here.
November 17, 2007 10am
- noon
* Guest speaker:
Eric Fisher, U.S. distributor of Silicone
Batteries. Eric has installed a set of these batteries in his Solectria Force and put them
through over 2,000 miles of driving so far with good results. His commute has an elevation change of
a couple thousand feet. These batteries solve some of the inherent problems with lead acid
batteries. He will bring some sample batteries to the meeting.
October 20, 2007 10am
- noon
* Guest speaker: Dr. Ron
Morgan, Faraday Motor Works. He will discuss
these topics. - Who is Faraday Motor Works Inc.
- Some thoughts on habitat destruction
- Description of our first vehicle
- Design of the vehicle
- Propulsion system
- Power
supply
- Charging alternatives
- Future direction of the company
September 15, 2007
10am - noon
* Tour the TechShop in Menlo Park.
The TechShop is a fully-equipped
open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own
projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise
equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks.
Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the
TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help
them with their projects.
TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is
perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs,
youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able
to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills.
The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the
open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and
plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing
machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities,
tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you'd
ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.
Special
Meeting: Tuesday Aug 14th, 2007 at 7pm.
* Guest Speaker: Michael Kadie.
Michael will show off and talk about his Electric 65 Coupe which he is
taking on a US Tour and challenging White Zombie for the NEDRA Title. See ssi-racing.com for details of Michael's plans.
NOTE: This meeting will either be at the HP facility in Palo Alto (our regular
meeting place), or the HP Cupertino Oak Room -- stay tuned for further details.
June 16, 2007 10am -
noon
* Guest Speaker: Warren
Winovich. Topic: Electric car efficiency study. Specifically
Warren will talk about a member's AC Propulsion Saturn Coupe, which has performance similar to the
EV1. AC Propulsion is well known for their tZero electric sports car and more recently for their
e-Box Scion Xb conversion. Come find out more about this one-of-a-kind EV and see how Warren
calculates the power consumption of the car under various driving conditions.
May 19, 2007 10am -
noon
* Guest Speaker: Neal
Saiki, Electricross, Inc. (http://www.electricross.com). Topic: Electric motorcycles intended for off road use and motocross racing events. Neal
will bring one of the motorcycles to the meeting.
April 17, 2007 10am -
noon
* Guest Speakers: Warren Winovich & Bill
Palter. Topic: 40 years of the EAA. Come hear Warren and Bill
share insights and a little history of the EAA. This is the 40th anniversary year for the EAA. The
EAA was formed after an EV Symposium at San Jose State in 1967.
March 17, 2007 10am -
noon
* Guest Speaker: Tom Gage, CEO AC Propulsion. Tom talked about
their new lithium powered eBox among other topics. They recently delivered the first eBox to actor
Tom Hanks. This is an encore presentation that Tom gave at the March 10 UCSC EV Symposium. See a
copy of Tom's presentation.
Feb 24, 2007 10am - noon
This will be the annual meeting of the
EAA, complete with audio hook-up with chapters from across the country.
Oct 21, 10am - noon
* Guest Speaker: Jim Larson, Clean Air Transportation Group, PG&E. Jim's topics will be the promise of VTG
(Vehicle to Grid) technology and Plug in Partners. PG&E is a member of Plug in Partners, a group
of utility companies that is lining up "soft orders" for EVs and PHEVs (Plug in Hybrid Electric
Vehicles) by offering financial incentives for customers. This is a win-win situation since it makes
the purchase of the new technology vehicles more affordable for the consumer and also builds a
network of vehicle battery packs that can be used to store off-peak electricity to help the utility.
While this may sound like magic, there is solid engineering behind it and you can come to the
meeting to find out more about how it works and how you can benefit. * Review of the Sept 30 Rally
Nov 18 , 10am -
noon * Guest Speaker: Representatives
from GreenEmotors. They will conduct an informal forum to find out what kind of electric
vehicles our members and guests would like to see and buy in the near future. They are planning a
trip to Taiwan and mainland China to visit with manufacturers and see what new Electric Vehicle
products are available. Our input will help them pick and choose which vehicles to import. They
already sell and service affordable 2 passenger scooters that were on display at our recent EV Rally
and show, but they are not just a scooter supplier. If you want an enclosed electric vehicle that
can go on the freeway, here's your chance to come and let them know. Few of us can afford a Tango or
Tesla roadster, but there are other options being developed in Asia that will soon hit our shores
and you can come and help determine which ones make it. After the meeting, Brian
Howell will be there with his new Myers NMG (Sparrow). Brian has developed a relationship with some
Lithium battery suppliers and is working on boosting the range of this 1 passenger enclosed 3
wheeler to over 100 miles per charge. Brian was also a vendor at our recent Rally and Show and
offers a line of custom electric recumbant bikes - some with Lithium batteries.
Dec 16 , 10am - noon
* Guest Speaker: Bill Dube. Bill has the fastest electric motorcycle on the track (over 150 mph), www.killacycle.com.
Jan 20 , 10am - noon
* We viewed highlights of the
movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The chapter has a copy of the DVD for members to borrow.
|
Aug 5, 2006 JB Straubel, Chief
Technical Officer of Tesla Motors, was our guest speaker.
JB shared information about the new Tesla Roadster and brought one along to show the nearly 200
people in the audience. In case you missed this meeting, come to our Sept 30 EV Rally to see a Tesla
Roadster up close, or check out some of these pictures from Tesla's July 2006 unveiling.
Read more about it at: http://www.energybulletin.net/19430.html.
July 15, 2006 Ed Ang of Air
Lab gave a presentation about a new EV power management solution, the GAIA I (Green AIR Lab
Intelligent Array). June 17, 2006 Brian Howell is pushing
the envelope when it comes to electric bikes. While many electric bikes have a top speed in the
10 to 20 MPH range, Brian's bikes can hit speeds of 35 MPH. He is working on a prototype bike that
he hopes will do freeway speeds. How does he do it? That was the subject of our June 17, 2006
Silicon Valley EAA meeting. Our audience of 28 was peppering Brian with non-stop questions, but he
answered them all and gave us a great insight into what it takes to make bikes go fast. One
of his secrets is Chinese Lithium batteries. Another one is aerodynamics. He said that for electric
bikes, wind resistance is much more significant than tire rolling resistance although he does use
some special tire techniques. To minimize wind resistance, he uses a fairing (long windshield) on
the front and a wedge-shaped tailsock on the rear. Brian is a great believer in recumbent
bikes and multiple motors. His fastest bikes have a hub motor on both the front and back wheels as
well as a "mid-motor". He uses a chain drive to couple the mid-motor to the rear wheel. The bike
pedals are also connected to the mid-motor. This gives the rider very good tactile feedback for how
hard the motor is straining. Surprisingly, although the motor does most of the work,
electric bike riders often pedal - because the pedals are there. This extends the range of the
batteries and also provides exercise for the rider. Brian has lost 30 pounds since getting his
bikes. He has several different bikes and brought a few of them to the meeting along with a couple
of electric scooters. After the meeting we had fun riding the bikes and scooters in the
parking lot outside. Brian said that not only has he lost weight from pedaling along with the
electric motors, he feels much healthier and never gets sick anymore. Rob Means is a
distributor of electric bikes and scooters and assisted Brian with the presentation. Brian has
modified the bikes extensively to achieve the higher performance he described at the meeting and is
one of Rob's best customers. Here are a few links for photos and further information.
April
15, 2006 Guest Speaker Ian Wright; topic: X1 Racing Car (www.wrightspeed.com). Great presentation and demonstration
rides. DVDs available for $5 (includes shipping). Contact Jerry Pohorsky via email. March 19, 2006 Guest Speaker Warren Winovich; topic: Electrathon Racers. These are the EV equivalent
of a "soap box racer". In other words, there is a well defined set of regulations that define
what is allowed and what is not allowed. This makes winning a race more a matter of ingenuity
and clever design than merely using more batteries or a bigger motor. If you would like to see
some pictures of these racers and other information, go to the website: http://www.cloudelectric.com/homepage.html&
nbsp;and click on the "
January 21, 2006 We got off to a great start this year with two guest speakers and a surprise
guest. Rich Hilleman arrived in his Spyder EV and gave a Power
Point presentation about a new hybrid vehicle he is designing.His hybrid uses a novel concept based
on an AC Propulsion drive train and a high speed turbine engine that will run on a variety of fuels.
The hybrid can run in EV mode from onboard batteries for shorter trips while the turbine generates
electricity for longer trips. Rich plans to use an existing 2 seater race car chassis for his
design. Next we heard from Lawrence Rhodes who arrived in
his bio-diesel Mercedes. We saw a video of Lawrence taken by a local news broadcast showing him
playing his bassoon and also working on and driving his EV truck. Lawrence brought one of his
"Gemini" (twin) electric scooters that he modified by adding a second motor and controller to handle
the hills of his San Francisco neighborhood. He also showed some photos of a Schwinn Stingray
that he outfitted with a fork lift motor. We all enjoyed his happy-go-lucky approach to low
cost EV conversions. Our surprise guest was Ian
Wright who arrived in his X1 racing car that has the AC Propulsion drive train. We saw a video of
his car leaving a Ferrari and a Porsche in the dust at Infineon Raceway. Ian and his car will
be back again as our guest speaker on April 15th. Ian's website is: www.wrightspeed.com and there is a link there to the video we
showed. We also held our chapter elections. Jerry
Pohorsky was re-elected as President and Kim Rogers was re-elected as Vice President. Our
newly elected treasurer is JoAnne Sarro. Congratulations and "welcome aboard" to
JoAnne. Many thanks to Michael Skinner for his service as treasurer in
2005. He will be participating with the San Jose EAA chapter in the future since that chapter
is much closer to where he lives. July 16, 2005 Bruce Katz from PolyPlus Battery Company gave a presentation about Li
Batteries -- past, present, and future. March 19, 2005
Tom spoke about what is going on at AC
Propulsion and about the EV market in general. AC Propulsion is
still planning to produce an EV - most likely based on the Scion platform. He shared the results of their survey to see what type of body style people
want in an EV. Tom also explained why the project has been
delayed and talked about the other cars they have worked on in the meanwhile. A couple of these cars won at the Michelin Bibendum challenge recently held in
China. Tom also gave details about their Hybrid Jetta that
has all electric drive and 30 miles of EV-only range. He has
driven the car all the way from Los Angeles to Sacramento. There was so much information given in his 2 hour talk
that it can't be adequately covered here. Fortunately Tom made his slides available to us.
The presentation was video taped and will be
available on a DVD for a nominal cost. Please contact Jerry Pohorsky to order a
copy. January 15, 2005 Outgoing chapter
president Will Beckett opened the meeting and announced that elections for officers would be held.
As an incentive for new officers to step forward, Will made a motion that officers will not have to
pay membership dues as long as they continue to serve. The motion was seconded by Chuck Olsen and
approved by a majority of Silicon Valley Chapter members. There were 25 men and one woman in
the audience. Jerry Pohorsky was elected as chapter president and Kim Rogers was re-elected as Vice
President. Michael Skinner was elected as Treasurer. Al Atwood gave the outgoing treasurer's
report - we are in very good shape financially. Many thanks to Al Atwood and Will Beckett for their
tireless service to the EAA Silicon Valley Chapter. After a few announcements and a brief
report of the Consumer Electronics Show by Chip, a couple of videos were shown. One video was a
program from TV station KVIE (http://www.newvalley.org) and
featured segments on solar power, wind power and the biofuel, corn. You can even buy a stove that
burns the corn kernels (http://www.burncorn.com/). Also
featured on this video was a brief interview with Chico EAA president Chuck Aldrin. It showed him in
his RAV4-EV and also showed an EV conversion he had. The second video was from San Jose
EAA vice president Mike Phillips. It showed his Max Wedge Robot fighting against other Radio
Controlled robots in various competitions. The robot is microprocessor controlled, has two motors,
and weighs 120 lbs including the 24 volt battery pack. The video of the robot combats was quite
exciting and drew applause form the crowd. For more details check out the following
links: Also a google search on "Mike Phillips Max Wedge robot" will give some more links. Mike
agreed to bring his robot to an upcoming meeting. After the meeting we went outside and
popped the hood on a couple of recent EV purchases. Congratulations to Frank Chapman on his S-10 EV
from www.evbones.com ($12K) and Jerry Pohorsky on his Escort
EV ($2K) the former "MegaVolt" - http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/221.html
Our next meeting will be the national EAA members meeting in February (conference call).
Also the first 3 days in May will be the 5th annual EAA all chapter invitational meeting in
Austin, Texas. Air Fare is under $250 round trip on American Airlines and free lodging is offered to
visiting members. There will be a Texas-style BBQ and a bus excursion to San Antonio Texas to visit
the "Green Building" event. |