TDIN2016 – Day4: Process Excellence & Good News

After not sleeping much for another night, we pack and get ready to be picked up by a medical transport arriving directly from Switzerland. I was expecting them to arrive with Swiss precision at 11am sharp…Which they didn’t because of heavy traffic around Milan that morning – my insurance called me around 9am and apologized profusely for the delay and inconvenience caused 🙂 This delay wasn’t an inconvenience at all – Felice insisted on making me a quick-fix Italian favourite: Spaghetti all’Amatriciana since it would be unacceptable for me to drive to Switzerland and arrive famished. When the medical transport […]

TDIN2016 – Day3: Ticking off my bucket list

After not sleeping much during the night, with a swollen leg and pain levels still high, early morning I decide it’s indeed time to go to the hospital. Felice takes me there and we enter the typical chaos of an Italian hospital. I cannot imagine how someone could get any treatment at all here without being able to speak Italian. Some of the nurses and doctors even go as far as complimenting my Italian and say that they wouldn’t have known how to communicate with me if we would have had to get by in English. That morning, none of […]

TDIN2016 – Day2: “How bad is it?”

I haven’t been updating TDIN20160’s travel-log on a daily basis as usual – in this entry, find out why! But first, back to Day2 of my much-anticipated trip to Austria, via Italy and Slovenia with my youngest daughter. We sleep very well with fresh alpine air and the cozy smell of all the wood in our chalet room.   Madesimo is between Seasons, we’re the only ones at our Bed & Breakfast and seemingly the only ones in the village – no-one else was to be seen as we leave the village. Today, we’re going to travel to Brescia, a […]

TDIN2016 – Day1: 14.7kWh to Italy

Today’s the day: My youngest daughter and I are on our way to Styria via Italy and Slovenia. After a very normal hectic last day at work spent making sure everybody knew what needs to be done during my absence, I meet my daughter outside my office at 4.30pm.   We leave Zürich and hit heavy traffic on Switzerland’s motorways – Zürich’s schools close for a two-week autumn holiday period today and we’re not the only ones with the brilliant idea to drive towards Italy 🙂 As usual, here comes the traditional TWIKE-team picture:   There isn’t too much to […]

Update: TDIN2016 – one week to go

Quick update on TDIN2016: The final version of our route is ready. My youngest daughter and I will be leaving from Zurich late Friday afternoon and drive to Italy for our first overnight stay just across the border in Sondrio Province. TW560 will be crossing the Splugen pass for the second time this year. We’re also going to be visiting some Italian friends in northern Italy on the way. Both me and my daughter are very much looking forward to this trip. The trip we’ve planned has some stunning stretches of road in store for us – see for yourself: […]

Update: Compact 3.7kW charger project

Picking up after where we left a week ago: After some debugging, I’ve been able to start communicating with the charger. Assuming the hardware-related problems I had to solve before successfully receiving my first CAN packet are rare, I must say that the steps required to actually get packets from the bus and on the bus are quite simple. Every car today relies on a CAN bus and has 70-150 CAN-nodes. Listening to and manipulating these values is not only interesting but can also unlock hidden features and make your car more run more efficiently. I strongly suggest anyone interested […]

TDIN2016 – TW560’s second 9-day 2016 adventure

As you might already know, the Austrian part of my family meets up once a year in Styria for a few days of catching-up, eating good food and drinking Styria’s very drinkable white wine. We from Switzerland have been taking part for over a decade now and wouldn’t want to miss this event for nothing in the world. (Teenage daughters insisting on coming is a good sign 😉 ) TW560 has also been to Styria a few times and it has always been a very memorable trip. This year, my youngest daughter and I will make our way to Styria […]

Solar TukTuk & TW560

For some time now, I’ve been following a very interesting project: Tejas, the Solar Tuk Tuk. Naveen Rabelli is driving his DYI-conversion of an Ape three-wheeler on a 10’000km trip from India to England. On his trip he is proving that very simple sustainable technology can be as reliable as mass-produced conventional technology and at the same time connecting people involved in sustainable technologies. Switzerland wasn’t on Naveen’s route originally. I was extremely happy when I was unexpectedly added to a chat-group on a popular mobile chat platform supporting his trip from southern Germany to France via Switzerland. I was […]

New Project: Compact 3.7kW charger & configuration

After installing TW560’s latest battery pack and testing it thoroughly, one of the points I definitely want to address is reducing full-charge time. With a potential maximum of 18.9kWh having to go into the batteries, my current setup with 6.8kWh peak charging capacity means I’m charging for at least 3 1/2 hours. Adding chargers is simple, but there are some limitations to consider: Weight: my current chargers are at about 12kg each, adding more isn’t really an attractive option Price: Each charger cost me CHF 960, extra chargers will not be substantially cheaper if I insist on a hardened automotive […]

My first 35E-week – a recap

Installed on August 8, the first week saw the new 51Ah pack being put through its paces: Normal commuting, every day usage Capacity testing, hypermiling Quick dash to Austria and back Overnight stay and slow TWIKE-style traveling Let’s see how my TW560-usage for this week looked like in detail: Drove to Dreifels from my office in Zurich: 35E pack genesis. Very relaxed return home – percentage counts down very, very slowly. Day at home, some quick trips to Bülach. Same, same. An additional trip to Eglisau. How much capacity does my battery have? After this day, we know it’s 17.77kWh! […]