i know it’s been a while since WAVE 2011 in india, but i recently stumbled across a selection of news clippings which i thought would be interesting to anyone who had followed our blog in the past. interestingly, most clips feature the TWIKE with either me or jc… click the images for higher resolution versions. enjoy!
visiting fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer
after a good nights’ sleep, i rise refreshed from yesterday’s marathon drive across germany. i have a nice balcony on which i enjoy my breakfast, looking down on rosenthal. breakfast over, i head to fine’s HQ… after chatting with some employees, i head for lunch with fine’s ceo, martin möscheid, his brother and the first official twike2fly (in german) partner from morocco, silvia brutschin (a.k.a. twikezora). after lunch, martin möscheid took some time to explain the history of how TWIKE production was transferred to fine mobile after swisslem went out of business. he filled in many blanks i had and […]
halfway through germany in one day
faster than expected the day has come to drive to rosenthal. i’m really looking forward to meeting the guys at fine mobile. some last minute changes to the route and a decision to add a quick 30 minute charge in wurmlingen and the usual preparations regarding my travel cabling kit. so, here i am, 4:40am. TW560 is fully charged, about 14°C and a sliver of dawn forming on the horizon. although i am used to long-distance >450kms day-long drives on our tours, we seldomly go over 300kms/day. View > rosenthal in a larger map above is the route i will […]
under the hood #2: water + batteries > combine at your own risk!
i’ve had problems charging the TWIKE recently. after driving in wet conditions, charging led to FI failures. i was, however, always able to charge using the two external onboard chargers i added to TW560 for fast charging. charging on normal fuses was no problem and since i normally charge the TWIKE during the night on a 6A non-FI secured line, it took some time to discover the problem… the problem had to be with the internal charger and internal electronics. thomas from moeckli elektrofahrzeuge agreed to have a look and this blog entry documents what we found… TW560 was one […]
TW560@TWIKE HQ > visiting fine mobile
since i’ve got much more time on my hands nowadays, i’ve arranged to visit fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer june 6-7, 2013. for months now, fine’s marketing department and i have been corresponding on what can be communicated on new developments, options for current TWIKE models and so forth. i felt that i was necessary to see for myself how TWIKE’s are assembled and what status TWIKE 5 has and maybe get a rare glimpse into the design process of this new vehicle. first and foremost, this visit will be for me personally. however, since i am also vice-president of […]
under the hood #1: adding a GPRS module to TW231
a few years ago, with the arrival of the new dreifels controller, modern micro controllers employed within offered many benefits: handling complex charging scenarios more and detailed vehicle data overall better vehicle performance …and a few optional hardware extensions to extend overall vehicle usage comfort. one of these options is a sms module, which – three years ago – i think TW560 was the first one to have officially. the module (in its current release 1 feature level) can help alleviate problems ev-drivers experience when charging: unauthorized unplugging during charge, missing power from the grid, knowing when exactly the charge […]
visting new dreifels HQ
dreifels, the company founded by the three people responsible for creating the vehicle in 1986 have recently moved from sissach to gelterkinden, switzerland. their new hq (see above rendered picture, since i forgot to take a picture myself) is, obviously, an extremely energy efficient building. they combine many interesting technologies plus an avangarde-style bus-based management system which even controls which kind of music can be heard in any given room. anyway, i wasn’t there for sustainable architecture 😉 during the last few years, founders peter, ralph and christian have been very open towards my requests / questions / challenges / […]
TWIKE club general assembly
once a year the TWIKE drivers’ association twikeklub organizes its general assembly and invites all interested to a full day centered around sustainable mobility and obviously the TWIKE itself. whilst the activities are different every year, the assembly itself follows a structure mandated by swiss law for clubs and associations which charge their members for membership. since there are more and more TWIKE pilots from germany nowadays, the club decided to conduct the 16th general assembly in rottenburg, southern germany. pilots from switzerland were invited to drive in a convoy starting at möckli elektrofahrzeuge with prearranged charging stations along the […]
a new home for emissionless.ch/emissionslos.ch
you might or might not know that emissionless.ch/emissionslos.ch (among many others) is hosted at my home. everything is based on linux and i run my own dns server. apache is my good friend on the webserver side. up until now the setup was based on a single 1u poweredge, non-redundant and my RTO was basically undefined. (not good!) today thu, may9, i’ve undertaken the task to upgrade the infrastructure: redundant server setup better hardware: hp DL380’s dual physical quadcore with 8 gig ram etc. UPS for about 3 hours coverage when power is down Check Point 2070 firewall for extended […]