OT The dream client

I seriously hope it will do at least 70mph or he might get killed in the attempt. The stretch from Eugene to Portland is generally accepted to be the most dangerous part of I-5.

There's a little company in Eugene called Nevco (the website says they're restructuring the company, but the office is still there) that made an electric car called the Gizmo. A friend of mine interviewed there a few years back. Seemed like a neat idea for closed campus's or meter reading, but absolutely suicidal for regular use. The local electric utility bought some of them, but I don't think they are still in use.

I have yet to hear an acceptable explanation of how rechargeable cars are to be integrated to an already overloaded power grid.

I'm still waiting on that Searl Effect Generator...

Chris

That's almost humorous, or maybe ludicrous. The folks who made the declaration about the Eugene - Portland stretch of I-5 have never driven it south of San Francisco.

I was the one who made the "declaration" because both ODOT and the US DOT have it listed as such. It's constantly on the news due to the absurd number of fatalities on that stretch of road. It's been under construction for almost two decades and is underpatrolled due to a lack of funding for the Oregon State Police. Truly a psychotic place to try driving an experimental electric car.

As far as my lack of I-5 experience, I travel between Eugene and Chandler on a regular basis (have for nearly 20 years) and would consider the area you're talking about to be the easiest driving of the whole trip! Once you hit Stockton the hardest part is staying awake...

Chris

cite.

All US power grids have a large variation in load over a typical day. For example, here is a link to today's load prediction for California.

Scheduling a plug-in rechargeable system to fit into the periods of low grid use would barely be difficult enough to qualify as a high- school senior project. Adding wireless control might raise the difficulty to the college-freshman level.

Christ>I seriously hope it will do at least 70mph

Mr. Pessimism? Living in 1999?

The hardest part of hitting Stockton, is often the stockyards.

I looked through the ODOT and USDOT records and could find nothing substantiating your comment; only a few accident notes scattered through many years. Perhaps you can give a link or two.

From my recollection, there was a long span of time ending by 1980 I think when, north of Albany, stupid drivers often drove full tilt into a fog bank created by water vapor from a paper mill. Many killed themselves, which is acceptable, but they killed innocent people while doing it. The mill's reduced emissions have not created a problem since then.

I've driven the Eugene - Portland section about every three weeks for many years. I began driving I-5, but less frequently, as sections of the highway were opened, allowing the transition from US99.

The "two decades" of being under construction have been multi-lane additions and similar improvements. They are sometimes bothersome, but not unsafe.

Don

Sounds like the same guy who is asking questions about regenerative braking on rec.autos.tech. Someone told him that a diode will determine the direction of power flow into/out of a motor. So he's all set to solder a diode in somewhere (as long as someone shows him where) and hit the road. No concept of basic EE fundamentals, electromagnetics & motors. etc.

Is his name Radar?

Nope. Its 'lethaldriver'.

I have a friend who had a client like that once... it usually turns out badly: When the guy runs out of money, he's very likely to turn around and accuse people of not being upfront with him, advising him of the technical risks, trying to "steal" his money, etc., even if all along you've been trying to say, "look, this isn't going to work without a miracle or funding equivalent to the Manhattan Project... are you SURE you want to continue?"

For what it's worth, he's not planning on driving _between_ Eugene and Portland; I just couldn't remember which one he said at our initial meeting, either Eugene or Portland. Actually that's the only two city names I know in Oregon anyway. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

My guy isn't _this_ dumb. :-)

Luckily, my part is a closed-ended project - I get the final payment when I deliver the plans.

And like I said, as long as he's got cash, the customer is always right. :-)

Cheers! Rich