Thread: Personal EV journey.

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I just want one big red button labelled "I'M DRIVING" to press that nobbles all the driving assist.

Yeah, and that stays on permanently for all future drives until I change it.

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

Mechanically, EVs have come a long way, but the software systems still aren't up to the job IMHO. Instead of navigating multiple menus to defeat the automatic systems every time I drive (it won't retain your previous settings), I just want one big red button labelled "I'M DRIVING" to press that nobbles all the [Atto 3] driving assist.

Perhaps a 1st level menu option to override most of the driving assist options?


Personally, I find
radar adaptive cruise control to be very iffy. On the one car I've driven fitted with this "feature", the adaptive cruise control [radar distance following] failed once the rain got heavy enough. So didn't use it again.

normal cruise control. My wife prefers the Mk2 human foot. (Unfortunately, the Mk1 human foot was not connected to the human brain.)
Also, I dislike driving at night with cruise control set because I know from practical experience that it substantially increases my reaction time, and after dark you really need every millisecond you can scrape to avoid those wombats (and grass hoppers) that like to wander across the road.



around town, where most people drive, the collision avoidance measures have some value, but once you are on higher speed roads, they are mor a hindrance than a help. Especially given the number pf potholes and rough patches that really, where possible, should be driven around rather than through.

All the drive assist features can be turned off but one control that turns them all off would be handy.
Now that I've driven this thing for a month I'd still rather have most of them on than off.
Collision warning can be set to off, early, medium and late - leaving it on medium seems to work for me ATM but I will probably switch that to late soonish.
The Tesla doesn't use radar at all but 7 cameras to sense traffic and has been criticised for this, if you can see "it" then it can see "it" a little better (I think it uses some of the IR spectrum) and sooner than you can. However, "seeing it" and what it does about "it" needs some work.

The cruise control works really well, from highway down to about 40kph, and up to medium density traffic, and find myself using it all the time.. The lane assist is good down to about 70kph. It's in dense traffic when other vehicles are constantly darting in and out of gaps when it starts to leave room for other vehicles and you seem like you are going backwards.

Here are some screen shots of the menu items available for the basic autopilot that comes standard with the vehicle.
APilot1.jpg
APilot2.jpg
APilot3.jpg
That very last one is bloody handy.

Originally Posted by BobL

That very last one is bloody handy.

A lot of drivers in Melbourne would benefit from having that. Would prompt them to put their phone down and press on the accelerator pedal.

Originally Posted by jack620

A lot of drivers in Melbourne would benefit from having that. Would prompt them to put their phone down and press on the accelerator pedal.

This should be linked to detection of an imminent stop light which automatically accelerates the slow moving car that invariably just gets through on the amber and I, as the following car, don't.

Same for keeping up with the traffic so that the dawdlers between two groups on the bar road at a T intersection consistently deprive me in the stem road of an otherwise easy opportunity to turn into the bar road.

Originally Posted by jack620

A lot of drivers in Melbourne would benefit from having that. Would prompt them to put their phone down and press on the accelerator pedal.

Well, it certainly helps me - not that I'm on the phone but sometimes I get so caught up in my own thoughts, especially since Amanda died. Several times when there was no one else around I found myself sometimes sitting at the lights and completely missed the green.

Well 2 months in and I'm still smiling a lot while driving, mainly at the lights, and more recently when I go past servos and see the price of fuel, even though fuel use was not a major factor for getting an EV. I've done almost 4k kms probably because I started not thinking twice about going anywhere if I want to, unlike with my ICE vehicles where I used to save up destinations and do these in a loop to save a bit of fuel.

I'm still very easily recharging every few days from a 15A socket on the front veranda because it has been so hard to tie the sparky down whose (cheapest) quote I've accepted but he's just so busy and having to put the install date off. He did my brother's install and did a good job which is why I'm sticking with him. He says he is coming this Saturday but I'm not holding my breath. Lately I have been at home a fair bit during the day while the early spring sunshine has started to kick in and getting lots of 7c/kWhr charging from the Solar PV system. By careful driving I can get 7km from 1kW/hr works out to 1c/km and even if I put my foot down it only jumps to 1.3c.

That is the difference with an EV - you don't think twice about the costs to go anywhere. I recently changed to OVO as our power provider - they offer 8c/kWh from midnight to 6am for charging EVs, with FIT of 10c for what I put back into the grid from solar. That 6 hours at max charge rate from mains is enough to top up my EV any time I like, even if the sun isn't shining, so typical cost to run the car is $4 for 350km.....

It did feel a bit strange pulling into a servo in the EV recently though - still need to fill up the diesel container for the tractor

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

It did feel a bit strange pulling into a servo in the EV recently though - still need to fill up the diesel container for the tractor

I've been once to a servo with the Tesla to check tyre pressures in the first week I got the vehicle after I swiped a kerb with those low rims. The computer reported that the wheel that struck the kerb had lost 4 PSI, I topped that tyre off and it has been good ever since.

I have since bought one of these inflators and a 6Ahr battery that I use to check pressures.
https://www.totaltools.com.au/179443...r-skin-dmp181z
I have a 4HP 240V compressor but it's way down in the she and can't get the vehicle around the back.
Besides I can take the inflator with me and apparently the 6A battery is good for at least 4 complete tyre pump ups - with suitable rests in between to cool down.
I did have a 150W 12V compressor but I gave that away and bought a 480Wer when we got the 4WD but that draws too muck power for the 12V outlet on the Tesla.

I still have the HiAce and have used it twice since I got the Tesla but haven't bought any fuel for it. My family uses it every few weeks and they almost always leave it topped off with fuel.

Well its only taken 8 weeks to happen but Ive finally got my 7.2kW EV charger installed at home which should fill my completely empty EV battery over night compared to 3 times slower on a 10A Mains socket.

The reason it took so long was it took weeks to get quotes, 2 sparkies got back to me within 48 hours (both were expensive) and the one whose quote I eventually accepted took 3 weeks (although he did say he was on holidays for 2 of those weeks) and one sparky never responded. Then to get the sparky to come took another 4 weeks!

They, two apprentices did the job (the sparky was here for an hour at the beginning and half an hour at the end) came yesterday and theytook from about 10am to 3 pm to do the job. It was not just installing the charger but completely replacing the breaker box which was already too small and starting to look untidy, and the mains switch had to be replaced by an RCBO.
I could have done this all myself but while that might be semi-OK in the shed I dont usually do this high current stuff on the house.

Here's a before shot.
The white box above the breaker box is the Solar PV monitoring system - my PV system uses micro inverters - one on each panel.
Oldbreakerbox.jpg

The breaker box installation proved a right PITA to install as none the earth wires would reach the earth bus bar inside the box and had to be lengthened by soldering on extensions and heat shrink insulation.
This is what hit looks like now,
Breaker1.jpg

Outside the charger on the front veranda looks like this.
The connections make it look like 3P but its only 240V/32A single phase and for that high a current a 3P isolator, socket and plug are required
The plug and socket are so's I can take it with me if I ever move.
Charger1.jpg
The reason its up so high is to reduce the likelihood of young visitors playing with the cable.
The carport itself is quite narrow so the side of the car where the charge port ends up is very close up against the veranda railings, and about level with the charge point so I can connect and disconnect while standing on the veranda.


It looks like it's standing out a bit too much, but a carefully placed tallish pot plant covers it up a bit.
Charger2.jpg

I supplied the actual Tesla charger (which is capable for up to 11kW if you have 3P - but I don') which cost $750 (ouch), and the quote for the total install job (charger, and breaker box replacement) was for $1500 but that did not include the 3P connector or the Main switch RCBO which were late add ons. The other 2 quotes were for more than $3k!

Bob

It looks as though the job grew with time as the limitations of the existing power supplies became evident. i am sure you won't regret the bigger charger. As you say, charge completely overnight when necessary.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Bob

It looks as though the job grew with time as the limitations of the existing power supplies became evident. i am sure you won't regret the bigger charger. As you say, charge completely overnight when necessary.

Regards
Paul

Cheers Paul.
As I can control the amount of charge that the car takes on board, it also means I can direct all of my unused solar PV straight into my car battery.

Bob,

I was doing the same when I first got EV, with charger (Zappi V2) set to only use excess solar - so charge rate goes up and down a bit up to the max 5kW we get from our solar system. Do you get much choice of power suppliers over there, i.e. are there any with EV or solar plans? Over east we have OVO, who offer 8c/kWh from midnight to 6am for EV charging (at max rate your charger/car can handle), but FIT of 10c. Hence I can charge my car up overnight for a total cost of about $4 (to go from 15% to 100% charge), and get a better return from solar put back into the grid during the day. Atto 3 can be programmed so that the car controls the charging time, so just program it to suit the OVO cheap period, set charger mode to "FAST (i.e. max rate, or 7kw for me), plug in, and it will then only start taking charge from midnight.