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New Software Implementation – What Do You Need to Know?
WHENEVER YOU start using new software, some questions and problems may arise. Some features seem too complicated to use, the team is not trained to work with new tools and the analytics get overwhelming.
To avoid problems and disappointment in the software implementation phase, it's essential to begin thinking about your requirements for the new software already before you buy it.
Find the right software by answering 8 simple questions.
What are the best practices for software implementation?
Scoro's team has advised thousands of users and helped them with implementing new software.
There are common problems to solve and tasks to accomplish during the first month. This comprehensive guide will take you through the key points of the implementation process and helps you get everyone and everything efficiently working.
If you'd like to get more specific information on helping new users onboard, see the guide of generating user acceptance in new software implementation process.
Organize multiple training sessions
Never underestimate the power of a good training session. Software providers often ask whether you'd like a beginner's training session to get started with new tools and features.
Sadly, there are many users who turn down the opportunity and later discover that they have trouble getting the software work as needed. Also, refusing the initial training session might lead to poor understanding of all features' full potential.
It's best to first pass an admin training where you're explained how all the features work.
In addition, you get an overview of all customizable settings and how to manage them. Later, when inviting everyone to work with the new software solution, organize additional training sessions explaining how the tool works.
For more tips on keeping your teamwork organized, see this article about team collaboration tips and tools.
By keeping admin and user trainings separate you can avoid confusing lower level employees that only use several features.
Skipping the training sessions leads to less-efficient work and learning on your own leads to many hours and money lost.
Request or organize multiple training sessions for yourself and the team. It's essential that every person working with the new product participates at trainings as it's difficult to later explain them how all the features work.
The admin training session should include:
- Overview of all features
- List of tasks that can be implemented with the new solution
- Step-by-step guide for implementing important tasks with the new software
- List of initial implementation steps you need to take, eg. inserting data
- Guide to finding settings and customizing the tool for your needs
- Guide to importing and exporting data
The employee training session should include:
- Login guide
- Overview of all features
- List of tasks that can be implemented with the new solution
- Step-by-step guide of implementing important tasks with the new software
- Guide to finding all required information
- How to find the help center
Don't hesitate to ask questions throughout the training session, it is better to understand everything at once rather than start asking multiple unrelated questions later.
Tip: Ask whether you can record the training session so that everyone can catch up later.
2. Customize new software for your needs
Every comprehensive software solution includes several customizable settings. Meaning that you can organize your software site according to your needs, adding new categories or hiding unimportant features.
You can either manage all the custom fields and settings yourself or ask the software provider for additional help. In Scoro, we already include additional customization advice and help to our onboarding program so that you'll be ready to use all the features in no time at all.
All the tools and software have different customizable settings, here's an example of what you can customize with Scoro:
- Dashboard set-up according to important KPIs and custom reports. Learn how to set up Scoro dashboard
- Building PDF templates for quotes and invoices and. Adding invoices in Scoro
- Adding email templates for example for sending quotes, orders, invoices, invoice reminders
- Adding custom fields for almost any feature
- Choosing default views for calendar, tasks, contacts, quotes
- Customizing product/activity categories, user profiles
- Team access rights
! Note that at this stage, you should keep lesser-experienced users away from the system as all settings aren't properly set up yet. Ask for someone tech savvy to help you customize and test the new software.
3. Import your data
It's so much easier to begin working with new software when you have some information already inserted. Be it customer data, calendar events or your product list, you're going to need this information at some point. Also, it's easier for new users to navigate and work efficiently with existing data.
One way to import data is to export it from the existing tools and solutions as an Excel file and import it to the new product.
Keep in mind that you must organize the Excel file according to the new software's import requirements so that all information is aligned to the right columns and marked by the right categories.
You can also enter your data manually if there are only a few products/contacts. When working with large volumes of information, manual work is inefficient and a waste of your company's resources. Learn how to add a new product in Scoro.
4. Integrate with existing tools and software
Integrations enable quick two-way information exchange between two software products. For example you can use Google Calendar on your phone and see all your events in another scheduling tool on the desktop.
An important reason why you should integrate all the existing tools and software is the analysis and reporting capabilities it enables. It's highly important when working with sales and marketing software as you need to gather data from multiple tools.
When starting to use Scoro, you can integrate Google Calendar, iCal, MailChimp, Quickbooks, Xero and many more tools within one central control hub. This allows you to manage all your information and business processes from one software solution and at the same time your business departments can continue working with other specific tools.
If the software provider doesn't provide the integrations you need, there's always the possibility to use API (application programming interface) to build custom integrations with less-known tools and software for your company.
5. Make sure everything's working
After customizing the software according to your needs, importing all the data and integrating with existing tools, it's time to check whether everything is working as required.
Create your own workflow, including all the features you're going to use and ensure they cooperate with other tools. If the software involves sending emails or quotes, send some test emails to your own account.
When working with a time tracker, ensure that it synchronizes with your calendar, task management, billing and reporting functions. Also, double-check that all the data required for implementing various tasks has been inserted.
Before you start creating accounts to other users in the company, determine whether the software's customized to respond to every department's needs.
For example, with Scoro you can build custom dashboard views for multiple teams, projects and departments. Meaning that everyone can view KPIs and bookmarks that are relevant to their work. Also, ensure that everyone working with clients has the right contacts visible under their account.
6. Invite everyone to use new software
Only after you've ensured the new software is completely ready to be used, create an account to everyone who's going to work with the product.
When working with a comprehensive small business management software that provides features for CRM, task and project management and financials, you might have sensitive data that is not permitted for everyone to view.
Before anyone starts working with the new software, distribute access rights according to people's work tasks.
When inviting new users to use the software, attach a getting started guide to the email. Also, add a link to new software's help center and ask whether they need additional training sessions.
Read on: 43 Best Project Management Software and Tools
7. Ask for everyone's feedback
No matter how much you like the new software solution, it's essential to ask for other users' feedback during the implementation process. If some departments find that the software is missing important features, there are two possible actions: stop using the software or ask for additional features.
It's critical to understand the new product's shortcomings at the initial phase as you can still stop using it during the trial period without too much money and time lost.
Also, asking for honest feedback demonstrates how many people are qualified to use the new solution and whether there's a need for additional training sessions.
As the the couple of first months of implementing new software pass, you'll be able to learn more about all the features and techniques that work best for your business.
Be patient and remember that the learning process will continue as users become accustomed to using the new tool.


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Construct of a diagonal scale:
During construct of a diagonal scale of RF = 1/48, displaying yards, inches and feet to represent a maximum length of 7 yards. Scratch a distance of 7 inches and 3 yards on this scale.
(a) Acquire the length,
L = 1 × 7 × 36 inches/48
= 5.25 inches
(b) Scratch a line AB, 5.25 inches long, and divide it into seven equivalent parts to display yards.
(c) Scratch the first part into three equivalent divisions.
(d) Scratch 12 equidistant or about 3 millimeter apart parallel lines above AB and make the rectangle ABCD. Join D-2 and scratch parallel via 0, 1 and 2.
Distance PQ represents the length 7 inches and 3 yards.
During construct of a diagonal scale of RF = 1/4000 to signify meters (m) and long sufficient to measure 600 meters (m). Mark a distance of 387 meters (m) on this scale.
(a) Length of the scale = (1/4000) *× 600 × 100 centimeter
= 15 centimeter
(b) Sketch a line AB 15 centimeter long and divide it into six equivalent parts to represent hectometers.
(c)Divide the first part into ten equivalent parts to represent decameters (dm).
(d) Sketch ten equidistant or 3 millimeter apart parallel lines above AB and make the rectangle ABCD. Join the first sub-division in the direction of the left from the zero on the line AB, to the second division on the top or 10th line, hence completing the diagonals. On these diagonals, the least count is 10/10 = 1 meter (m).
PQ signifies the distance of 387 meters (m).

subset: commoncrawl


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The Ohio Supreme Court recently broadened the workers' compensation immunity protections afforded to subcontractors on selfinsured projects, by stating that enrolled subcontractors are immune from work-related claims by their own employees and claims by employees of other enrolled contractors on the same project.
On April 19, 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court decided the case of Stolz v. J&B Steel Erectors, Inc., Slip Op. No. 2016-Ohio-1567, answering the following certified question from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio: "Whether Ohio Rev. Code 4123.35 and 4123.74 provide immunity to subcontractors enrolled in a Workers' Compensation self-insurance plan from tort claims made by employees of [other] enrolled subcontractors injured while working on the self-insured project." 2016-Ohio-1567 at 8. The Court answered yes - broadening subcontractor immunity on self-insured projects.
In Ohio, employers are required to pay premiums into a state insurance fund for the payment of workers' compensation claims. Certain eligible employers may instead self-fund their workers' compensation insurance rather than paying the state's fund. Employers participating in either arrangement then are generally immune from claims for damages by their employees for "any injury, occupational disease, or bodily condition, received or contracted by any employee in the course of or arising out of his employment." R.C. 4123.35(A).
In addition to enrolled and self-funding employers, an employer working on a construction project may self-insure the project if the project is scheduled for completion within six years and is estimated to cost more than one hundred million dollars. R.C. 4123.35(O). If the general contractor self-insures the project, it may provide coverage for itself and for other contractors and subcontractors who work on, or provide materials to, the project.
In exchange for self-funding insurance of the project, the general contractor gains workers' compensation immunity against work-related injury claims by its own employees as well as any employees of any subcontractors enrolled in its self-insurance plan. Subcontractors that enroll in the plan also receive protection against work-related injury claims by their own employees.
The issue addressed in Stolz, however, was whether one subcontractor enrolled in a self-funded plan is protected against claims by another enrolled subcontractor's employee. In Stolz, the plaintiff was injured on a self-funded job site. The plaintiff, who worked for a concrete subcontractor, asserted claims against the project's general contractor and several of the project's subcontractors enrolled in the self-funded plan, asserting that each had responsibility in some way for his injury. 2016-Ohio1567. 5. The district court granted summary judgment to the general contractor based upon workers' compensation immunity, but denied summary judgment to the enrolled subcontractors, finding that these subcontractors were immune only from claims by their own employees. Id. at 7. At the subcontractors' request, the district court certified the question to the Ohio Supreme Court for resolution. Id. at 8.
Construing R.C. 4123.35(O) according to established principles of statutory construction, the Ohio Supreme Court found that 4123.35(O) affords broader protection to subcontractors than was granted by the district court. Analyzing the statute, the Court found that 4123.35(O) creates a "legal fiction" whereby the self-insuring general contractor becomes the "employer" of all enrolled subcontractors' employees for workers' compensation purposes. It is this legal fiction that provides immunity to the general contractor against claims by enrolled subcontractors' employees. Id. at 18.
The Court held that this legal fiction precluded claims against other enrolled subcontractors because, under Ohio law, an employee "injured as a result of a co-employee's negligent acts" that is compensable by workers' compensation insurance "is precluded from pursuing any additional common-law or statutory remedy" against the co-employee. Id. at 22 (citing Kaiser v. Strall, 5 Ohio St.3d 91, (1983), paragraph one of the syllabus; and R.C. 4123.741). Further, because one employee cannot sue another employee for workplace injury that is covered by workers' compensation insurance, the at-fault employee's employer cannot be held vicariously liable. Id. at 22 (citing Natl. Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA v. Wuerth, 122 Ohio St.3d 594 (2009)("a principal is vicariously liable only when an agent could be held directly liable."). The Court held that an enrolled subcontractor is protected against workplace-related claims brought not only by its own employees, but also against claims by employees brought by other enrolled subcontractors.
The Ohio Supreme Court's holding represents a major victory for construction project subcontractors working on projects that are self-funded. It also is a victory for general contractors and project owners who may ultimately receive an upstream benefit from their contractors' reduced liability exposure and potentially reduced cost structure.


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Preventive Dental Care
Preventive dental care starts at home with regular brushing and flossing. However, even if you follow the ADA's guidelines to brush twice daily and floss once per day, oral health issues can still arise. Professional preventive dental care is essential for preventing serious oral health issues, including tooth decay, gum disease, and more, from occurring. At University Periodontal Associates in Houston TX, we provide the preventive care you need to keep your mouth functioning at, and looking, its best.
What Patients Should Know About their Teeth
Our preventive services include:
Dental Cleanings
We recommend that you have at least two professional cleanings at least twice a year. During these cleanings, we use tools to rid the surfaces of your teeth from plaque (a sticky film that builds up on your teeth), tartar (hardened plaque that cannot be removed by brushing), bacteria, and other debris from the surfaces of your teeth. We also polish your teeth to clean them further and lift surface stains away. By cleaning your teeth, we help to remove any buildup, including from areas that might go overlooked during home care, to prevent tooth decay (which leads to cavities) and gum irritation (which leads to gum disease).
Professional Dental Exams
Exams should also be done at least twice a year, and are usually done during the same visits as your dental cleanings. With exams at our Houston office, we take a closer look at the structures of your mouth. We check your teeth for signs of damage, decay, and cavities. We look at your gums, checking for signs of redness and swelling (which can indicate gum disease). We will also inspect the other tissues of your mouth, check for any abnormalities, what is known as an oral cancer screening. We may also measure periodontal pockets and take X-rays to get a better look at what is happening below your gum line. Exams allow us to find issues in their earliest stages so that we can take care of them to prevent them from becoming worse.
Fluoride Treatments
Fluoride is an element that occurs naturally in your teeth. Every day, it is lost through a process known as demineralization. It can be replaced by a variety of sources – treated water, certain foods, and fluoridated oral care products. However, these methods may not be enough. Fluoride is essential for fighting off the plaque acids that lead to tooth decay. We provide fluoride treatments, a simple, pain-free way to add fluoride back into your teeth. After your cleaning, we use a fluoridated gel, which is applied to the surfaces of your teeth. The fluoride absorbs directly into your teeth, helping to protect them from cavities.
Gum Disease Treatment
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, gum disease can still occur. With regular oral exams, we can help you to spot this condition in its earliest stages, and take action right away. Gum disease is a serious oral health condition that only gets worse the longer it goes untreated. Treatment for gum disease varies based upon its stage. Sometimes, a deep cleaning, known as a scaling and root planing, can help your gums to heal. This treatment removes plaque, tartar, and bacterial buildup from the gum line and along the roots of your teeth. We may prescribe you with a prescription strength mouth wash. In some cases, periodontal surgical procedures may also be needed, which can restore the health of your mouth, along with allowing your gums to begin healing.
Dental Sealants
Sealants are another preventative measure taken against cavities. They are s coating that covers deep grooves and crevices of your teeth, where food and bacteria can easily get stuck and cause decay. Sealants are a fast, pain-free way to help in the fight against cavities. They cover the crevices on the chewing surfaces of your molars and help to make your teeth easier to keep clean.
Dental X-Rays
X-rays are a crucial part of your oral health care record. They allow us to see all of the hidden spaces within your mouth, including the spaces between your teeth, the roots of your teeth, and your jawbone. These images allow us to spot decay, infections, and other issues we might otherwise not notice until the condition became more serious. With X-rays, we can provide prompt, effective treatments, helping to get your oral health back on track.
Professional preventive dental care helps you to keep your mouth happy and healthy by preventing serious oral health issues from occurring. If you are ready to schedule your appointment, call University Periodontal Associates in Houston at (832) 975-0990 today.
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text: I have a video with 1100000 views, a lot of comments, ratings and favs. And everything is 100% REAL! I put a link to parked on AdSense website in description and earn about $10 a day but think it`s too small amount. Can I make more? The video has about 100k views a day. It`s published on msnbc.msn.com too Sorry for this noob question, but I`m new in YT selling.


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20 servings, 3 cookies each
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Prepare and cool muffins as directed. Mix 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 Tbsp. milk or water. If necessary, stir in additional 1 Tbsp. milk until glaze is of desired consistency. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set.
Substitute dried cranberries for raisins.
Make the most of your desserts! These tasty little cookies provide a good source of vitamin A, thanks to the carrots.
* Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin and freshness of ingredients used.


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Music video by Alien Ant Farm performing Around The Block. (C) 2006 Geffen Records
Up in the Attic is Alien Ant Farm's third album. The album is identical to 3rd Draft with the addition of one new track, and radio promo, "Forgive and Forget". It's considered a commercial flop in the U.S. because of little support for the album, no officially released single ("Forgive and Forget" was only released as a promo to radio and received little airplay), and no tour. The album debuted at number 114 on the Billboard 200, dropped to number 198 in its next week, and fell off completely in its third week.
Pick and Click one of the menu tabs above for more artist info.
Or click the artist name tag above to go to the artist page.
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He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.(Albert Einstein)


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Political activist and commentator Van Jones joined the cast of the View on Thursday morning to discuss his post-election comments on "whitelashing" and how to move forward as President-elect Donald Trump fills up his cabinet.
Jones explained the importance of understanding the crisis in the Republican party — as well as that in the Democratic party. "Both political parties right now I think have big problems, and they don't want to discuss it," he said.
Jones' message was clear that both parties need to be held accountable for their problems; however, the country just elected Trump and it is especially important to examine his record and his cabinet picks. For the Republicans, it is imperative to look at its following of racially hateful people, according to Jones.
Host Joy Behar said, "He has some interesting people that he's appointing. I mean, Steve Mnuchin … He was a former Goldman Sachs partner … Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services is staunchly anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage." She continued listing Trump's problematic picks, including Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steve Bannon as chief White House strategist.
Jones sipped his drink.
Behar asked, "What do you think about these choices?" Jones played nice at first, mocking the mainstream media for its quick normalization of Trump. He said sheepishly, "Give him a chance," before laughing.
"This is important to me because people keep saying we have to give him a chance," Jones started. "And we do have to give him a chance. But we don't have to give him a pass on everything."
Jones asked, "Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton when she first got in — in the 70s there was a group called SCUM, Society for Cutting Up Men … If Hillary Clinton had put somebody in from SCUM, do you think Republicans would be saying 'Oh, give her a chance.'"
"Bannon is from an organization that made space for white nationalists, white supremacists and was proud of it," Jones continued.


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First Timer's Guide
We pride ourselves on convenience, located just two hours from Boston (map),
The Basics
- The number one thing to know is that getting here is fast and easy. Just head East on Rt-49 at exit 28 on I-93.
- If this is your first time heading to the White Mountains for an adventure... Congratulations! You've made an awesome choice. Check out some of our basic tips for coming to play in the mountains this winter. Click here.
- Ski or snowboard equipment is pretty important to ski or snowboard. Do you have your own? Cool, bring 'em. If not, you'll want to pick up some rentals at the Top Dog Rental Center here at the ski area. Click here to learn more.
- Knowing how to ski or snowboard is really important to having fun. If you've never skied or snowboarded before, then try one of our Learn-to-Ski/Ride packages that includes a ticket, lesson, and rentals. Click Here. If you have skied or snowboarded before, we always recommend picking up a lesson every so often so you can learn efficiencies and tighten your on-mountain game. Click Here to learn more.
- Skiing and snowboarding for multiple days in a row is the best way to maximize your experience and get your flow. While sleeping in your car can be cool and all (we're not judging), a nice warm bed to sleep in and hot water to get ready for Aprés is way more fun. Check out our many lodging options to find what fits your needs the best. Hotels, condos, condo-hotels.... we've got you covered.
- While in our opinion skiing and snowboarding is the GREATEST activity of all time, we know that fun is all around us in Waterville Valley and you should definitely get out and experience them all. Sleigh rides, dog sledding, ice skating, cross-country skiing, indoor pool swimming, tubing.... they're all awesome and we'd hate for you to miss out. Click here to learn more.
Once you get here....
Now that you've arrived at Waterville Valley, the following tips will sail you through the preparation process and get you out on the slopes for a grand day of adventure. We suggest tackling your preparations in this order:
1. Park Your Vehicle
Arrive Early! Just a few of the many benefits of arriving early are:
- You can obtain a parking space in the lot close to the lodge
- You'll avoid carrying your belongings a long distance
- More rental equipment is available early in the day
- The snow conditions are generally best in the morning as well, and lift lines are the shortest
All in all, it's the best part of the day to be on the mountain.
Valet Parking for $20 is a great help to parents with young children. Or, if you get here late, pull in to the unload area and hand over your keys. At end of day, we'll bring your car to you.
Waterville Valley's lifts operate Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00pm. On weekends and holidays, lifts run from 8:00am to 4:00pm. Ticket windows open one-half hour before lifts open.
By arriving early (one-half to one hour prior to lift opening), you're almost assured a good spot in the upper parking lots. Waterville Valley has a single central base area, at the top of the parking lots.
If you cannot obtain a parking spot close to the lodge, feel free to make use of our 5-minute unloading area, located in front of our base lodge. You can pull into this area, drop off your party and their belongings, and then proceed to a parking spot. Please note, these areas are reserved for drop off/pick up only. Vehicles left unattended in these areas will be towed.
2. Store Your Belongings
If you are carrying extra clothing and gear, go directly to the base lodge. Lockers are available for rent, and your belongings will be secure and accessible to you all day. We also have a basket check on the 2nd floor of the base lodge, which is a secure and economical way to store your stuff.
3. Need a Lesson?
Lift Tickets are available right at the Snowsports desk! If you don't need a lesson, skip Step #3 and go directly to Step 4.
We strongly recommend our Learn to Ski/Ride package for all beginners. Using the latest equipment and teaching techniques, our Snowsports Coaches are fully committed to your enjoyment. Also check out our $89 online special and our Take 2 and 3 LTS/R plans for extra savings!
If you're planning to take advantage of our Learn to Ski/Ride package:
Go directly to the Top Dog Rental Shop (located just to the left of the Base Lodge, across the courtyard) to sign up for your lesson. Lessons are at 10:00am and 1:00pm on weekends / holidays, 10:00 and 1:00 on weekdays. You can get your lift ticket at the Rental shop too.
You can sign up for Private Lessons and various other group lessons and clinics at the Snowsports Desks located on the first floor of the base lodge. (Lift tickets are available here too).
Group lessons are available for ages 7 thru adult. Group lesson times are at 10:00am and 1:00pm on weekends / holidays and 10:00 and 1:00 weekdays.
Our Kids Kamp program features an all day Kamp for ages 3 - 12.
Find out more information about Waterville Valley's Legendary Snowsports School right here.
4. Rent Equipment
If you just need to rent equipment, we have a rental shop in the base areas. The Rental Shop is located just to the left of the Base Lodge, across the courtyard. You can also purchase lift tickets at the rental shop. We also have high-end demo skis available at the retail shop. More on the rental shop is right here.
5. Purchase a Lift Ticket
You can purchase a lift ticket by visiting our ticket windows or you can buy online and save up to 55%. Ticket windows are located in the front of the Base Lodge facing the parking lot. You can also buy tickets at the Rental Shop (left side of the base area), and at the Snow Sports school desk (first floor, base lodge). For current ticket pricing, visit our Lift Tickets page.
That's it! You're ready to tackle the mountain and all it has to offer!
Getting around the Mountain and the Valley
Now that you're on the mountain, it's important that you know what and where everything is.
Base Lodge
Ground Floor
- Snow Sports Desk / Guest Services
- Waterville Valley Adaptive Sports
- Ticket windows (right of the main entrance)
- Cubbies for Storage
- Daycare Center
- Restrooms
2nd Floor
- Dining Area
- Cubbies for Storage
- Marketplace Cafeteria
- Explorer Kid's Kamp
3rd Floor
- Dining Area
- Scouts Kid's Kamp
- Harpoon Sky Box
- Buckets, Bones, & Brews
- Restrooms
- The Waffle Cabin
Administration Building
Ground Floor
- Sport Thoma Ski Shop
- Sport Thoma Tunning & Repair Center
2nd & 3rd Floor
- Administration Offices
Top Dog Rentals
Ground Floor
- Rentals for Ski, Snowboards, and Helmets
2nd Floor
- T-Bars Resturaunt
Other Mountain Facilities
- Sunnyside Timberlodge - located mid-mountain just below The Valley Run Quad unload
- Schwendi Hutte - located on the summit
- Ski Patrol Headquarters - located on the summit next to the White Peaks Quad
- Crane Clinic - First Aid - located next to the Lower Meadow Double Chair lift, just below the Administration parking lot


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Olga Kharif and Adam Satariano
Wednesday, 09 January 2013 07:50 AM
Apple Inc. plans to sell a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone as soon as this year, said a person familiar with the plans, part of a push to gain customers in developing nations.
Apple, which had been working on a more affordable smartphone since at least February 2011, is weighing retail prices of $99 to $149 for a device that would debut in late 2013, at the earliest, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. Apple has spoken to at least one of the top U.S. wireless carriers about its plans, the person said Tuesday.
Executives at Apple have been particularly interested in building a lower-cost model with less-expensive components as a way to appeal to customers in emerging markets, another person has said. More affordable iPhones would help Apple play catch-up with smartphone makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. using Google Inc.'s Android mobile software system. Android made up 75 percent of smartphone shipments in the third quarter, compared with 15 percent for Apple, according to IDC.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported that a cheaper iPhone may debut later this year.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has said China is a priority. The company generated $5.7 billion in sales in China in the quarter ended in September and sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s during its weekend debut there last month.
Strategy Shift
Adding a less-expensive version of the iPhone would be a strategy shift for Apple, which has until now tried to appeal to more budget-conscious customers by cutting the prices of older models. After introducing the iPhone 5, Apple kept selling the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 at reduced prices.
The device would use cheaper parts and may be smaller than current models, people familiar with the plans said. Apple was also considering a more versatile version that would work on multiple wireless networks, according to people who were briefed on the plans.
Apple has sold more than 270 million iPhones worldwide. The device generated $80.5 billion in sales last year, accounting for more than half of Apple's revenue.
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San Francisco duo Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans are perhaps known to you as Seventeen Evergreen, if you remember the stunning pair of videos they turned out back in 2007. A lot's changed these past years, though SE's commitment to visual aesthetics and ace directors remain. Before it was Encyclopedia Pictura (who, by the way, feel like they flamed out after graduating to Björk status, though they do have this trippy thing up on their site still), and now it is Terry Timely, who mans the vid for "Polarity Song," from a new EP Seventeen's releasing via Lucky Numbers. The band pitched it over with the tagline: "woollen terrorist warfare amidst everyday thrift shop mundanity." This is accurate, and a recipe for capital Q Quirk. It's a concept they hatched in collaboration with director Timely. The colors in conjunction with the main lyric ("Embrace the polarity of life and the good and bad we share") and the fact that there's a a rotary phone knitted in fabric means your pre-schooler will also love the shit out of this, so get them the fuck over here.
Psyentist EP is out 12/16 via Lucky Number, where you can pre-order it. It'll be followed by a full-length titled Steady On, Scientist in February 2012, if the world still exists.


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Covering Balham, Bedford and Clapham Common, it's certainly an up-and-coming area for businesses, particularly Balham, which not only benefits from its tube station on the Northern Line, but its own mainline National Rail station served by Southern rail routes. With low crime rates and direct transport links into Central London, it's easy to see why SW12 is proving so popular with new and growing companies.
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The SW12 postcode district boasts two mainline railway stations at Wandsworth Common and Balham, while Clapham South tube station provides direct access north of the Thames within just 15 minutes. By road the M25 London Orbital is easily accessible via the A24 and A23 trunk roads respectively.
One the key attractions for professionals and young families to the Balham area is its wealth of green spaces nearby including Clapham Common, Tooting Bec Common and Wandsworth Common – ideal for unwinding after a busy day in the office. Balham's town centre is also a great choice for staff looking to let their hair down at the end of a long week and for businesses entertaining prospects and clients with a fast-growing list of trendy bars and pubs attracting a very international clientele.
For fledgling business start-ups wanting to build links in the capital without paying Central London prices, Balham is an excellent way into London with brilliant access to the City and West End whilst still able to enjoy the 1,600+ acres of green space throughout SW12.
Have you also considered properties in the following London areas?


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Manufacturing & Construction Market Research Reports & Industry Analysis
The Construction sector primarily covers work performed in the construction of buildings or engineering projects (e.g., highways and utility systems). Companies that perform work in the preparation of sites for new construction and those involved subdividing land for sale as building sites also are included in Construction.
Manufacturing uses raw materials that are products of agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining, or quarrying, as well as products of other manufacturing operations. Plants, factories, or mills that characteristically use power-driven machines and materials-handling equipment, transform the raw materials into new finished products or components of products that require further manufacturing.
Construction markets include new work, additions, alterations, or maintenance and repairs. Activities of these enterprises generally are managed at a fixed place of business, but they usually perform construction activities at multiple project sites. Production responsibilities are specified contractually with construction project owners (prime contractors) or contracts with other construction companies (subcontractors).
Construction companies that contract responsibility for all aspects of individual construction projects are commonly known as general contractors, but are also markets known as design-build, construction management, turnkey contracting, or (in cases where two or more establishments jointly secure a general contract) joint-venture contracting. Construction managers that provide oversight and scheduling only (i.e., agency) as well as construction managers that are responsible for the entire project (i.e., at risk) are included as general contractor type establishments. General contractor types frequently arrange construction of separate project parts through subcontracts with other construction companies, such as masonry, painting, and electrical work). These are commonly known as specialty trade markets. In remodeling and repair construction, work may also be done directly for the owner of the property.
Manufacturing & Construction Industry Research & Market Reports
Aircraft Engine & Parts Manufacturing
... and avionic systems. Major companies include GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney (US); Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Japan); Rolls-Royce (UK); and SAFRAN, Thales, and Zodiac (France). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Rapid changes in technology and geographic shifts in ... Read More
Industrial Control Products Manufacturing
... and Rockwell Automation (all based in the US), as well as ABB (Switzerland), Beijing Sifang Automation (China), OMRON (Japan), Schneider Electric (France), and Siemens (Germany). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Demand is driven by overall industrial production and ... Read More
Musical Instrument Stores
... music instruction. Major companies include Guitar Center, Sam Ash Music, and Numark (all based in the US), as well as Shimamura Music and Yamano Music (both based in Japan), and Thomann (Germany). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Consumer ... Read More
Plastic & Rubber Product Manufacturing
... include US-based Berry Global Group, Cooper Tire & Rubber, Goodyear, and Newell Brands, as well as Amcor (Australia), Bridgestone (Japan), Michelin (France), Pirelli (Italy), and Reynolds Group Holdings (New Zealand). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Because plastic products ... Read More
Power Line & Telecommunications Infrastructure Construction Contractors
... Industries, Henkels & McCoy, MasTec, and SBA Communications (all based in the US), as well as Nippon COMSYS (Japan), Sirti (Italy), and TKH Group (the Netherlands). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Demand is driven by increased electrical transmission ... Read More
Electrical Products Wholesalers
... Electric, and WESCO; top companies based outside the US include Gerrie (Canada), Inaba Denki Sangyo Group (Japan), and Rexel and Sonepar (both of France). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Sales are driven by demand from the construction, manufacturing, ... Read More
Industrial Equipment Wholesalers
... Supply, Motion Industries, NOW, and WW Grainger, as well as ERIKS (Netherlands), Wolseley (UK), and Würth Group (Germany). COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE The entry of online retailers, primarily Amazon Business, into the industrial equipment wholesale space has ... Read More
Metal Coating, Engraving & Heat Treating
... lacquering, and varnishing; power coating and electroplating; and etching. Major companies include AZZ, Precoat Metals (a division of Sequa), Pro-Tec, and the coatings division of Valmont Industries (all based in the US), along with Bodycote ... Read More
Global Porcelain Tiles Market 2018-2022
... kitchen top applications. Technavio's analysts forecast the global porcelain tiles market to grow at a CAGR of 9.47% during the period 2018-2022. Covered in this report The report covers the present scenario and the growth ... Read More
Global Labeling Equipment Category - Procurement Market Intelligence Report
... several end-user industries including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and the personal care segment. Covered in this report The report provides actionable insights to improve source-to-contract cycle performance in the Global Labeling Equipment Market. It ... Read More
Global Cranes Category - Procurement Market Intelligence Report
... horizontal movement of the required material. It makes use of one or more simple machines to create a mechanical advantage for the movement of heavy loads. Covered in this report The report provides actionable insights ... Read More
Global vehicle lightweighting - technology, trends and the future
... and suppliers involved, and material content forecasts out to 2030. Based on exclusive interviews, primary research and proprietary data this study includes: Material developments including aluminium, carbon fibre, magnesium, organics, plastics, composites and steel A ... Read More
Global light vehicle electric motors market - forecasts to 2033
... OE electric motors sector, major suppliers, top 14 markets, technology trends and market size forecasts. Based on exclusive interviews, primary research and proprietary data this global market study includes: Automotive OE electric motors (for electric ... Read More
Human Machine Interface (HMI) Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023
... during 2017-2023. The increasing importance of safety, energy efficiency, better productivity, and sustainability will lead the expansion of the global human machine interface market. The implementation of SCADA and PLC in factory automation systems will ... Read More
Global Automated Container Terminal Category - Procurement Market Intelligence Report
... guided vehicle, and rail-mounted gantry crane at ports. The growing demand for this category can be attributed to its benefits including the reduction of labor costs. Moreover, the use of automated container terminals also helps ... Read More
Turkey Infrastructure Q4 2018
... residential and non-residential segment. That said, we expectthe government to continue to provide robust support for the infrastructure sector in terms of financing and project opportunitiesfor private sector investors. We forecast real growth in the ... Read More
Memory Foam Mattress and Pillow Market in US - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023
... at a CAGR of approximately 9% during 2017-2023. The market research report also offers market size analysis in terms of unit shipment volumes during the forecast period. The presence of various online retailers such as ... Read More
Stage Lighting Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023
... The futuristic inventions in wireless digital technology and growth in the complementary digital technologies will help increase investments in the global market. The launch of high-quality products that offer ease of usage, connectivity, design, sensor ... Read More
Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Teleoperation, Telerobotics, and supporting ICT Infrastructure 2018 – 2023 Package Bundle
... (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Robotics represent three powerful trends in ICT that will impact everything from the design, production, distribution, and management of goods and services to the way fundamental manner in which humans ... Read More
China Infrastructure Q4 2018
... absolute values given its position as the largest market globally. Growth will be supported bythe government's efforts to invest in infrastructure that improves the quality of life in various local cities, particularly in the ruralareas. Read More
Gabon Infrastructure Q4 2018
... funding flows into power and transport infrastructure. Rising oil prices and new exploratory opportunities will providesome support, albeit minimal, to the sector over the medium term, as higher revenues increase government's ability to supportconstruction activity. Read More
Global light vehicle engine cooling market report - forecasts to 2033
... the global OE light vehicle access and security sector, major suppliers, top markets, technology trends and market size forecasts. Based on exclusive interviews, primary research and proprietary data this global market study includes: Automotive OE ... Read More
India Infrastructure Q4 2018
... Key View: India's construction industry is poised for strong growth over the coming years, as the government expandsinvestment in public infrastructure projects and as ongoing reforms improve the market's attractiveness to private and foreign firms. Read More
Japan Infrastructure Q4 2018
... 2018 and 2020 growth in Japan's construction market will draw increased support from ongoing preparationsfor the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Beyond 2020 growth potential remains poor, weighed down by the country's weak macroeconomicoutlook and unfavourable demographics. Read More
Automated Guided Vehicle Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023
... during 2017-2023. The research report offers market size analysis in terms of unit shipment values during the forecast period. The easy implementation, flexible route mapping, high accuracy, and easy scalability are some of the major ... Read More


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The very purpose of firmware updates is to improve the phone's performance by fixing existing problems like glitches and bugs but it seems the recent updates for the #Samsung Galaxy S5 (#GalaxyS5) brought more problems instead of fixes.
Below, you can find a few of the complaints we received from our readers. They are seeking assistance in resolving their problems that occur after the recent update…and no, it wasn't #Marshmallow. All of these are power-related issues including quick battery drain, boot loops, stuck on logo, etc.
Go through the list below to see if your concern is among the ones I addressed in this post.
- Galaxy S5 won't turn its Wi-Fi on, won't boot up after an update
- Galaxy S5 keeps rebooting without a stable power source
- Galaxy S5 drains battery quicker after failed rooting attempts
- Galaxy S5 shows it's charging and gets disconnected
- Galaxy S5 stuck on carrier logo during boot up after an update
- Galaxy S5 entered boot loop after a firmware update
- Galaxy S5 wouldn't turn on after being turned off normally
- Samsung service center won't fix Galaxy S5 as it was purchased abroad
- Galaxy S5 battery drains quicker after an update
- Galaxy S5 won't boot up nor charge and it heats up
For those who have other issues, visit our troubleshooting page where we post all problems we already addressed. Find problems that are related or similar to yours and use the troubleshooting procedures or solutions we provided. If they don't work and you need further assistance, then fill up this form completely and provide as much details as possible. We are always willing to help you.
Galaxy S5 won't turn its Wi-Fi on, won't boot up after an update
Problem: I just did the latest update this morning (marshmallow I guess?) and now it is having issues. First I noticed that it wouldn't connect to wifi, I would press the wifi icon in the drop menu to turn it on and it would stay faded until eventually it turned itself off again. I looked on this troubleshoot forum and it said to turn the phone off, remove the battery for 10 seconds and turn it back on. Now it is recovery mode and will not turn back on. Please help.
Answer: I'm afraid it's not a marshmallow update as Samsung has yet to roll it out in the U.S. plus you're with Verizon. But anyway, you said you had a problem with the Wi-Fi as it takes so long to turn on only to turn back off again and the fact that your device can no longer boot up successfully is evident the previous caches may have become corrupt. With that, all you need to do is wipe the cache partition from the recovery mode:
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key
- When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
- When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
- Press the Volume Down key to highlight 'wipe cache partition.'
- Press the Power key to select.
- When the wipe cache partition is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.
- Press the Power key to restart the device.
I hope this helps.
Galaxy S5 keeps rebooting without a stable power source
Problem: My phone keeps restarting on it's own when battery goes to around half level or when I am using an app heavy on power (as in camera). But as soon as plug into power, it reboots normally and the problem ceases. The Phone is relatively new. I find it hard to believe it could be a battery problem.
Answer: Yeah, I'm afraid it really is the battery. As you said, the phone works normally if plugged in to a stable power source (charger) otherwise, it just keeps rebooting on its own. It really does sound like a busted battery to me.
Galaxy S5 drains battery quicker after failed rooting attempts
Problem: I was trying to root my phone using several apps but failed. I was able to get to developer on the settings menu but after trying to install a root app it won't install . My main issue now is a fast battery drain problem. Anything that I can do to restore my battery life? I charge it until 100% but after a few minutes bit goes down to 60 even if I don't use the phone. Please help. Thank you!
Answer: I'm not really sure what kind of rooting methods you used but it seems you messed up with your phone real bad. I think the only thing you can do now is flash the previous firmware or the one that the phone used to run on with any problems. You can do so by using the Odin flashing tool.
- You need to download the stock firmware first and then the Odin.
- Run Odin on your computer and connect your phone using the USB cable.
- Once the device is properly recognized by Odin, you can then begin the flashing of the stock firmware on your phone.
Galaxy S5 shows it's charging and gets disconnected
Problem: After charging, the charging icon keeps alternating between charging and not charging even though it is not being charged. Removing the battery for a short time after charging, solves the problem, but it comes back again when I charge it.
Suggestion: If this problem occurs only when the phone is actually plugged in, then it's a loose connection issue. Just make sure the cable is properly plugged to both your phone's utility port and the charger's USB port.
However, if it occurs even if the cable isn't plugged in to the phone, then it's time you sought help from a technician as it's probably a hardware problem.
Galaxy S5 stuck on carrier logo during boot up after an update
Problem: I have a S5 G900A with AT&T software, but I have service with Consumer Cellular (which borrows from the AT&T network). I had an AT&T software update pushed onto my phone. It seems to upload fine, but when it restarted, the phone got stuck on the AT&T screen. I've tried a bunch of different things, multiple times, including soft reset, pulling battery, factory reset, among others, and every time I turn the phone back on, it gets stuck in the same place on the AT&T screen. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.
Troubleshooting: I understand you already did try the factory reset to no avail. But if the update was successful (i.e. the phone rebooted successfully after installation), then all you need to do is the master reset to reformat the data partition:
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
- When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
- When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
- Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight 'wipe data / factory reset.'
- Press Power button to select.
- Press the Volume down key until 'Yes — delete all user data' is highlighted.
- Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
- When the master reset is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.
- Press the Power key to restart the device.
If, however, the update wasn't successful, you should contact your provider or a tech to manually flash the firmware.
Galaxy S5 entered boot loop after a firmware update
Problem: My Samsung Galaxy S5 upgraded and it turned off and now the Samsung logo appears with recovery booting and than it turns off and than the same thing happens all over again. Please help.
Related Problem: My son's S5 went flat charged the battery but will not power back on keeps going onto logo screen and going off then back on to logo screen then off tried reboot that didn't work. Can you please advise what could be the issue? I think its on the latest software update not 100% sure. Tried connecting to kies but can't do so as it will not power up to connect.
Answer: If the update was successful, then all you have to do is wipe the cache partition and/or master reset. However, if the phone cannot remain in recovery mode and keeps turning on and off with vibrations prior to boot up, the power key is stuck. You can fix that by pressing it many times.
Galaxy S5 wouldn't turn on after being turned off normally
Problem: I had turned my phone off due to being in the cinema when I tried to turn my phone back on but nothing happened it has not charging as well. What can I do to fix problem?
Troubleshoot: Try removing the battery and then press and hold the Power key for a minute to refresh it's memory. After that, try to turn it on and/or charge. If the problem still remained, try to check the Power key to see if it's stuck or something.
We don't know for sure what happened to the phone but if all you do don't yield good results, it's time you sent it away for checkup by a technician.
Samsung service center won't fix Galaxy S5 as it was purchased abroad
Problem: My phone just died. I tried to remove the battery and turn it back but it won't work. I tried pressing the power, home and down volume simultaneously still it won't work. So I tried to bring it to a cellphone repair shop and told me there's s short circuit. The next day my husband brought it to SM North Edsa Samsung Service center but told him they can't fix it because it was purchased in the U.S.A.
Answer: I am really sorry to hear that even Samsung refuses to fix its own device just because it was bought abroad. What you need to do is find a local shop whose technicians are willing to do the messy work. There are a lot of shops with really good technicians. Yes, better than Samsung's.
Galaxy S5 battery drains quicker after an update
Problem: Ever since Lollipop update my battery life has been down from 12 hours to between 6 and 7 hours. Did the factory reset after updating. Did the soft reset. US Cellular walked me thru the update and restarts. Have been in contact with Samsung who only say my phone is out if warranty and the battery needs to be replaced. But, I had absolutely NO PROBLEMS until the Lollipop update. Is Samsung going to offer 5.1.1 or higher update to fix the battery problems caused by the 5.0 "downgrade" and would it come from Samsung or us cellular?
Related Problem: This phones battery life is beyond ridiculous at this point functionality is fine as far as charging up to 100% and so on but it drains a full battery in two hours, also bad with standby time, in pocket and I'm doing nothing it's also draining. I'm very adept at closing background processes also I do it frequently.
Also I tried several different things including clearing the cache partition and it still wont update to anything higher than 5.0, it download the update and reboot but it won't work , thank you.
Answer: We really won't know if it really is the battery or the firmware that's causing the problem if you won't try on a new battery or manually flash the previous firmware. If you already did the factory reset and the problem still exists, then there's a chance that it's really a battery problem.
Galaxy S5 won't boot up nor charge and it heats up
Problem: My phone is not booting at all, tried safe mode and recovery also but still won't switch on. I bought this mobile 3 months ago for my dad and he barely used it. I tried changing the battery from my Samsung s5 but it still wont boot and when I try to charge it, it is heating. Help please. I don't have a guarantee since I bought it overseas. Thanks.
Answer: The most crucial information we need to know is what happened to the phone and why it died. If it suffered liquid damage, then you need a technician for that as well as if the phone was dropped on a solid ground. What makes things worse is that the device heats up when plugged in and that's really dangerous. I myself have experienced to have a battery blown up in front of me while charging. So please let the technician handle it.
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013
First week with the Volt
On the highway, as a pure hybrid, the volt gets around 32 mi/gal. Not bad, and that is a worst-case scenario for a hybrid. This really only impacts us when we go on a long trip, but it is almost 10 mi/gal better than the van, and 5 mi/gal better than the old Passat.
As a pure EV, we seem to be getting just under 2.2 mi/kW-hr. That's spectacularly bad for an EV. The Fit EV (which we have dubbed the Blueberry in a nod to Psych) gets 4 even with my lead foot driving style. Tesla claims 3 for the Model S - even with its ginormous battery. 2.2 mi/kW-hr is just over 70 MPGe.
Chevrolet, in their informational data shown either on the web or in-car, shows a downright obsession with MPG - which they calculate by dividing the odometer reading by the amount of gasoline consumed. They do keep a cumulative kW-hr intake that you can view on a charging detail page, but the prominent placement of MPG seems intended to fool you into believing that electric miles are somehow free.
We live in Santa Clara. We have perhaps the lowest electric rates in California. Even so, the top tier is 10.2 ¢/kW-hr, which is the equivalent of $3.41 per gallon in energy equivalent terms. That's cheap, yes, but hardly "free." Now, granted, some charging stations - like the ones we have at work - are free, but this is going to be the wife's car, and she's likely to do the overwhelming majority of her charging at home.
So what are the final numbers? In terms of money per mile, the Fit EV is 2.55 ¢/mi. The Volt as a pure EV is 4.63 ¢/mi. On the highway, as a hybrid, with $4/gal gas, it's 12.5 ¢/mi. Of course, that's purely the cost of energy, and it assumes all kW-hr are 10.2 ¢ and all gas is $4/gal.
Clearly, "don't believe the hype" would be overstating it. As an EV, the Volt is almost 3 times less expensive per mile than it would be as a hybrid. But I do think that Chevy's pushing straight MPG is a bit disingenuous.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
What is the plural for "Hydra?"
We got my wife a Volt, so we are now a two EV family. And instead of installing a second charging station, I built us a Hydra. We spent a week moving the plug back and forth, but I was always nervous that I'd forget to charge one of the cars. And if it was the Blueberry, that would be a particular problem (that's our name for the Fit EV).
There were no particular surprises, but a couple lessons learned:
1. The new Leviton cables don't have a proximity wire in them. That's not good for Hydras, though they do still work. The new cables are also thicker, so they probably require a CG-17 instead of the 16 from Polycase. I don't know if it was that it is cold tonight or the cables are new, but they're quite stiff.
2. I simply must remember to watch out for protrusions near the edge of the internal panel. Two standoffs wound up colliding and I had to use a Dremell to cut them off.
3. I cut myself stripping the outer jacket. It wouldn't be a Hydra if I didn't bleed making it I guess.
4. I had originally used a right-angle plug for the i2c LCD connector, but that hit a standoff for the LCD, so I had to bend it up.
5. The new box I chose from Polycase has much more room inside, but at the cost of, well, being bigger.
I had intended to take a bunch of pictures to make a tutorial on building a Hydra... but then I got into actually building it and forgot.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Questionable consequences
As I was cleaning stuff up in the garage, I ran across the instruction manual for it.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Alternative controller idea... all-in-one backpack
That got me thinking... Is there room on the backpack form factor for both the backpack's display i2c adapter circuitry and the Toast-R-Reflow controller?
And, sure enough, there is.
The board price goes up a bit - it's now $7.50 each instead of closer to $3 - and you need to add a LCD display ($11 on DigiKey for a monochrome backlit model - the Toast-R-Reflow doesn't really need the fancy RGB backlighting) and a handful of other SMD parts.
The net result is that it looks like I will be able to put complete controller assemblies for $40 each as opposed to $25, and then you need to buy a $30 LCD display backpack (or the $25 AdaFruit shield).
If you feel brave, the board is shared at OSH Park, but the basic controller design hasn't been fully tested yet, so no guarantees, at least at the moment. But if the basic controller design works, then this variant will be my next attempt.
Scarlet's new Chevy Volt
But unless you buy a Tesla, it's impractical (at least today) for a family to do entirely without gasoline power. So when it came time to trade in Scarlet's car, we looked purely at plug-in hybrids. Unfortunately, that cuts way down on the choices. It amounts to choosing between Chevy, Toyota and Ford. We wound up going with the 2014 Chevrolet Volt. We went with the cheapest model, which was around $7500 (or so) less than the tricked out version.
What we miss with the lower model is some of the new high tech driving stuff, like parking assist, lane departure warning and (I think) radar assisted cruise control and built-in navigation. The Volt does have OnStar assisted turn-by-turn navigation, but the way that works is that they download the directions as a set of GPS waypoints. The car doesn't actually have a map at all. If you go off-route far enough, it tells you that you need to phone home again to get updated routing. It's good in a pinch, but if you want an actual map, you need to use your phone.
I took a trip to San Francisco. Highway driving is where EVs and Hybrids actually don't do so well. 11 kW-hr of electricity took me just under 30 miles at 75 mi/hr, and the gasoline engine was able to get around 32 mi/gal after that. Not bad, and it sets expectations for the occasional road trip. But apart from those road trips, it's quite likely that Scarlet won't use a drop of fuel, and will get more like 3 mi/kW-hr or so (the equivalent of around 100 mi/gal), again, at a "fuel" cost of under $3.50/"gal".
Oddly, the cabin is configured as 4 bucket seats. Where normally you'd be able to squeeze 3 small folks into the back seat, that's not an option here. However, the back seat does come with a center console of a sort, and the hatchback area is opened to the back seat. There's also power outlets for both rows of seats, as well as a power port in a little cubby on top of the dashboard (I guess for standalone GPS units?), and the front also has a USB jack nearby used for connecting to the entertainment system (and, yes, it does charge an iPhone with the Lightning cable). Connected that way, it can also control Pandora running on the phone, which is quite nice. Siri works more or less as you'd expect (via Bluetooth), but you must engage her by using the home button on the phone.
I'm not sure how I feel about OnStar. They can place hands-free phone calls for you, but they charge extra for that, and you're not using your phone to make the call (so I'm not sure what the caller ID shows for the people you call), so we didn't opt for that. You can ask them to send down navigation routes, but there's no map. They also have an emergency response system built-in, so they know when the airbags deploy and stuff like that.
The efficiency displays are slightly disingenuous, since they talk about an overall miles/gallon, which they calculate by dividing the odometer by the amount of actual gasoline used. The implication there is that the electricity you "pour" into the car has no cost, which isn't really accurate. Chevrolet salesmen perpetuate this little bit of faulty arithmetic as well. It's true that (at least today) many public charging stations are free, but that's certainly not the case for charging at home.
The only other gotcha we ran into was that by default the Volt is set for a "charging cable theft alarm." What that means is that if you disconnect the J1772 plug without the key being nearby the car alarm will go off. That happened at 10 PM the first night when I moved the plug to the other car, and I turned that nonsense right the heck off.
Anyway, so far it's going pretty well.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Blinky LED earrings
My first attempt at a wearable was sort of inspired in part by FLORA and the other wearable stuff at AdaFruit.
It's a 1 inch diameter board with 8 SMD LEDs mounted equidistantly around the outer edge. Each is hooked up to a digital pin on an ATTiny84. There's also a micro-switch input to the controller and the whole thing is powered by a CR1225 battery. A pair of them would be a pair of earrings.
Here, the purple color of OSH Park's boards is actually a good thing - the hope is that the actual earrings themselves are dark and unobtrusive, or at least as much as they can be. The usual garish green solder mask color would be awful in comparison.
The button will be used to select different blink patterns.
It's asking a lot for a CR1225 to drive even a single LED, so although the board was designed with series resistors for each LED, the initial prototype is going to be stuffed with "0 ohm" parts. The blink patterns are going to be designed so that only a single LED is on at once.
The real question is still going to be whether it's going to work at all. The risk is that pulsing the LED will cause the voltage from the battery to drop enough that it hoses the controller. I don't know what I would do to fix it, though, because there isn't room for something bigger, like a CR2032.
But the larger point here is that with through-hole versions of these components, there's just no way this would be even worthy of consideration.
I got the SMD LEDs in the mail today and broke a couple out to try them with a pair of AA batteries. I probably overdrove them a little, but they were quite bright.
We'll see.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow: revised schematics
The controller:
The change here is that a bunch of passive components have been added to the thermocouple input. There is a 1M resistor from the negative pin to ground. I'm not 100% sure why, but it's what the data sheet recommends. The RC network on the thermocouple pins is recommended to prevent RF from affecting the readings. Other than that, it's the same.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow: how-to summary
The internet is full of folks who have made their own SMD reflow oven by hacking a toaster oven. I'm not the first, and certainly won't be the last. The reason you have to hack them at all is because the controls that come with these devices are not nearly precise enough to follow a reflow soldering profile. Gutting the controls that come with the oven and giving control of the heating elements to a microcontroller (like an Arduino), and providing that controller with the ability to read the temperature from a high-temperature rated thermocouple is the task at hand.
Oven heating elements run with AC line voltage power and require hundreds of watts of electrical power. In order for a microcontroller to safely control such a load, it must be galvanically isolated. Most folks have used a Solid-state relay to do the switching, but those are very expensive. Triacs have been around for a long time now, and some are quite hefty. They can be controlled by opto-isolated driver triacs quite simply, with the result that the entire high-voltage switching assembly can be made on one board and built inside the oven where the original user controls were located. The input side of the optoisolator can be wired to low voltage wires and routed outside to the controller with complete safety. The triac circuit is inexpensive and simple enough that putting two copies of it on the board made it possible to cut the current requirements in half (so long as you can divide the load evenly between the two sides). The design is rated for 8 amps per channel, or just short of 2000 watts of power combined.
Lots of folks have bought a commercial PID controller to operate their oven. A PID controller is designed to provide an analog control signal, but that can be easily translated into a digital control signal by using a slow version of PWM. The Arduino has facilities for automatic PWM, but we're talking about a pulse frequency of closer to 1 Hz - much easier to simply do it in software. It should be noted that this is how microwave ovens provide proportional power as well - when you ask for 50% power, the microwave will generate power for one second and then stop for one second. This mechanism makes element control quite easy - you just need to be able to turn them on and off. Commercial PID controllers are also, however, quite expensive. Adapting an Arduino or - even better - an Atmel ATTiny controller to do the job can be done quite inexpensively. I started down this road by breadboarding the controller and designing the permanent controller as an SMD board. The power board was made with through-hole components simply because there are aren't many components and they need to have high voltage ratings. It also served to solve the bootstrapping problem - you build the power board, convert the oven and run the cycles at first with an Arduino and/or breadboarded controller, then use that to reflow the permanent controller.
For a while now, I've been using the OpenEVSE store's 2 line RGB LCD for just about everything. They're the same as the AdaFruit RGB LCD shield, but arranged as a "backpack" design with a 4 pin SIP cable connection back to the controller board. The particularly nice thing about these displays is that you can see the backlight color from much further away than you can read the text, which is useful for simple status reporting. The backpack/shield also allows you to read 5 buttons (we will only need one as a 'start' button) all over a single i2c slave.
The thermocouple needs a cold junction compensated amplifier. There are quite a few of those out there to choose from. The AD8495 is the best answer in terms of cost and simplicity. The original breadboard prototype was made with an AD595AQ, which is an older device and 3 times more expensive. To make the breadboarding easier on the next guy to come along, I designed an AD8495 breakout board that can plug into a breadboard and has a pair of screw terminals for a K type thermocouple. The AD8495 simply outputs a voltage that is 5 mV for every °C. This can be fed directly into an Arduino / ATTiny analog pin and read with analogRead() and scaled appropriately. +/- 1 °C is fine for this application.
Finally, an ATTiny85 is a perfect choice for the controller. It has a USI interface that can be converted into i2c with the TinyWireM library, and it has besides that two digital pins and one analog input pin - exactly what we need.
As for the oven, a Hamilton-Beach 31138 from Fry's was what I more or less randomly chose. It turned out to be an excellent choice. It can keep up with the reflow profile I chose and has yielded quite good results. It was also easy to disassemble and convert to its new use.
I'll be stocking the power and controller boards in my store if anyone wants to follow in my footsteps. The firmware for the controller is over on GitHub.
Toast-R-Reflow: the bottom line
Reflow oven safety
Even if you use RoHS solder paste, the flux is nasty stuff and it vaporizes. You can count on it getting everywhere the first time you use it. In short, once used for reflow, you must never again use it for food. And that means anyone who might come across it. Some day you will throw the oven away. You don't want someone to find it and try to repair it and put it back to use as a toaster.
So I liberally wrote on mine with a sharpie. The handwriting is bad, but hopefully the message is plain and will survive until the oven is reduced to scrap.
The SMD adventure begins in earnest
I waited until now because I wanted to get some experience with the reflow oven before committing to it as the path forward.
I can now say with some certainty that the 1.6 version of the Hydra will be the last through-hole design. Same with the current version of the EV Sim 2.
So what do you buy when starting out?
Well, first and foremost, 0.1 uF 50V 0805 ceramic capacitors. Every chip needs at least one mounted nearby across its power supply pins. Next, 330 ohm resistors. They're series resistors for NPN transistors and LEDs. 10K resistors for the pull-up on !RESET for every AVR controller.
I also got some parts to flesh out the reflow oven controller - I suspect I may sell a few of those. For them, I need the rest of the passive parts for the AD8495 thermocouple amp - 1M, 0.01uF. Also, 0.33 uF for the regulator. I also got a tape of regulators, input protection diodes and Tiny85s.
My big problem right now is firmware. I've got a number of ideas for the Tiny85, but they all involve driving a 2 line LCD display over i2c. TinyWireM, LiquidTWI2 and the Arduino core by themselves seem to take up most of the available flash! I can't hardly believe that's true. I've got to look into it to see where all the space is going.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow: First success
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow: Initial success
I fed it with a 5 volt power supply and a 200 ohm resistor and it turned the elements on and off like a perfect light switch. I left it on long enough for the elements to glow red hot and then quickly unplugged everything and checked the triac heat sinks and they were cold. I've now got no doubts at all that it's going to work. Next step will be to build it into the oven and button everything up.
Anyone who wants to follow along should now feel confident in getting their own power board from OSHPark. You can find the design here. It's $22.40 for 3 copies of the board, but I'll sell them in single quantities in my store.
The power board is designed to switch up to 8 amps per channel (this is based on the width of the current carrying traces on the board and the heat capacity of the heat sink). As long as you can split the load in half, you should have no trouble switching 1500 watts.
To use it, you bolt a QD male terminal onto each of the 3 large holes in the middle of the board. The centered one connects to the hot lead of the AC input, and the other two go to the load - in this case each of the two heating elements in the oven.
The 3 terminal block at the end of the board has a common cathode pin and an anode pin for each of the two channels. You must use current limiting resistors on each anode line. The LED in the opto-isolators is rated for 30 mA with a forward voltage drop of 1.5 volts. Make sure you do not exceed the opto-isolator's maximum current rating of 50 mA. You should have no trouble driving them with an AVR digital pin directly with just a current limiting resistor in series.
Monday, November 25, 2013
The irritating thing about hardware design
What's chafing my hide now that I'm doing hardware projects is that the turnaround time to get a PCB fabricated is 2 weeks.
All I can do in that 2 weeks is obsessively go over the design that I've already paid for. Sometimes I wind up finding a whopper of a mistake and have to order a new design. Then I still get to wait a week to receive a package in the mail with my mistakes in it. I open the envelope, smirk, and throw the boards right in the trash. It's disconcerting.
My latest mistake is that I thought a particular part that I want to use was some sort of narrow variant of a SOIC-8 package. Um, no, it's an MSOP-8. It's much smaller. There's no way the leads are going to fit the pads on the board. So the first two versions of the Toast-R-Reflow controller that I've ordered are all garbage.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow theory of operation
The power board consists of a pair of MOC3020 photo-triac drivers, each triggering the gate of a BTA20 high current triac. The MOC3020s are directly connected to a set of screw terminals intended to be run to the logic board, which will be expected to provide the correct driver voltage and current for the LEDs.
The actual triac circuit is straight out of the datasheet. I confess I am not 100% sure of the purpose of each of the parts beyond the optoisolators, but each of the triac drivers is rated for 8 amps of current (this rating is due mainly to the width of the traces on the board running to the triac pins and the heatsinks' ability to get the heat out of the triacs when they're installed next to a box being heated to 225 °C). This means that if you can drive the two elements separately, you can handle up to 1920 watts of power, which should be plenty for a consumer grade toaster oven or hotplate.
The controller board has an AD8495 thermocouple amplifier on it. This amplifier outputs a voltage of 5 mV per °C detected on the thermocouple. This voltage is fed into analog pin 3 on the ATTiny controller. Two of the pins of the ATTiny are used as the i2c bus to drive the external 2 line RGB display, which also as a side effect handles the start button. Two of the other pins of the ATTiny are power and one is RESET, which leaves us with two digital out pins that we can send off to the power board (going through 150 ohm resistors first in order to produce the correct LED driver current).
The software uses the Arduino PID library to turn the elements on and off with a sort of exaggerated PWM method. The PID will output a floating point number between 0 and 1000, and that's the number of milliseconds out of each second that the elements will be powered (this is similar to how microwave ovens deliver fractional power). The sketch will attempt to turn the elements on separately, so that if the duty cycle is 50% or less, they won't be on at the same time, which will reduce the instantaneous power draw somewhat.
One point of note is that the one of the pins of the controller used for programming is also one of the element control lines. This means that that line will have a great deal of random activity during programming. Because of this, it's important to make sure the oven is unplugged during programming, otherwise you'll be pulsing the elements randomly and they could conceivably overheat.
I beat SparkFun! :)
If you want a batch of them, they're here.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow timing
This time, 20-150°C took 2:22. 150-225 took 2:34, then back down to 150 took 1:50. Cooling down from 150 took longer than I cared to time, but that doesn't really matter so much.
So that means rising up to Soak is at just under 1 degree per second. Rising up from Soak to Reflow happens at just under half a degree per second. Falling from Soak happens at just under 3/4 of a degree per second.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Toast-R-Reflow schematics
This is the power board. It's a separate board because it has 120 volt power running through it. Note that the path from the hot terminal through the triacs and to the output terminals are specified to carry up to 750 watts of power, so they're going to need to be very wide traces on both sides of the board.
The triacs are also going to need fairly substantial heat sinks. Even more so because they're going to be in proximity to the actual heated space of the oven. I think we can safely assume an ambient temperature of 50 degrees C, at least. The triac data sheet says that at the design current, we can expect it to dissipate 10 watts of thermal energy. The heatsinks I've ordered have a 5 degrees C per watt rating. Combined with the triac mounting terminal spec, the online calculators I've seen suggest that this ought to be a combination that should be acceptable.
The power board is a separate board so that it can be built-in to the oven. The two isolator input lines and ground can safely be routed out of the oven to the controller board, along with the thermocouple cable.
The three large terminals on the schematic are actually in the SparkFun electro-mechanical eagle library. They're #4 holes designed to be electrically connected. #4-40 hardware will be used to attach QD male connectors directly on the board. The QD female connectors on the wires of the oven will plug right in.
Introducing... Toast-R-Reflow
I attempted to build a surface-mount version of the EV Sim II, and hand soldering all of those tiny little parts was a painful exercise. I was going to give up on the idea, but I was turned on to the concept of reflow soldering.
In a nutshell, you get a circuit board fabbed just the same way as always. I use Eagle as my CAD software. OSH Park is my board fab of choice, and they'll take an Eagle .brd file as source material.
Next, you must create an SMD pad template file. You do this by exporting the "cream" layer from Eagle as a Gerber file. The file is a description of all of the places where soldering will be taking place. You send that off to Pololu and have them make you a paste template.
The next step is similar to silk-screening a T shirt. The template is a sheet of plastic with laser-cut holes where the Eagle "cream" layer had them. You anchor that template on top of the board with all of the pads and template holes lined up. You then apply reflow soldering paste to the template and use a metal squeegee (I'm going to use a spackle knife) to scrape it off the template surface, leaving only the holes filled in.
After removing the template, now you have paste applied to all of the pads. The paste, I am told (I haven't yet done this), is like wet cement. You use tweezers to place all of the parts and "smoosh" them into the paste slightly. The paste will hold them in place while this is going on. The "Big Boys" use pick-n-place robots to do this work.
Once the parts are all in place, you carefully move the board into a reflow oven. The oven will heat up, very precisely following a specific time-temperature profile. It will gradually heat the entire assembly up to 150 degrees C, then hold the temperature there for a minute and a half, then as quickly as possible it will crank up to 225 degrees C and hold that for 30 seconds. That will be hot enough to activate the flux in the paste, which will clean the pads and parts, and then melt the solder, causing it to "flow" to the pads and parts. Finally, the oven cools, but no more quickly than allowed lest the parts suffer from thermal shock.
Commercial reflow ovens are outrageously expensive. That's to be expected with a low volume piece of commercial equipment. But lots of hobbyists have built their own reflow ovens by modifying toaster ovens to add microcontroller-based heating control with thermocouple temperature monitoring (all of this in the interests of increased precision). I've decided to go down this road too. None of the approaches taken by any of the other Internet hobbyists I've discovered look to me like they're... optimal somehow. Some of them build the entire retrofit into the oven, which looks excessively complicated to me, and others externalize the entire mod, which seems less safe to me. Most folks buy a solid-state relay, which is outrageously expensive. For less than a quarter the cost, I designed and purchased the parts for a triac-based opto-isolated power switching board. That board will be built inside the oven. The OEM controls will all be ripped out and the elements and hot line from the AC plug will be connected instead to the board, and the board installed in place of the original stuff. The optoisolator inputs will be connect to to a cable running out (along with the thermocouple cable) to the controller board. I've designed a small controller board (ironically, it's made with SMD parts) with an ATTiny 85 and an AD8459 thermocouple amplifier. I'm fairly confident that I could productize the two boards as a "conversion kit" for around $30 (add a 2 line LCD display and i2c "backpack" board, a button, a thermocouple and a toaster oven).
While I was ordering the parts, I bought a thermocouple probe and amplifier chip. I then went to Fry's and bought a Hamilton Beach model 31138. From examining it on the shelf, it looks like it's going to be reasonably easy to disassemble and modify. But before I make it impossible to return, I wanted to test it. I put the thermocouple in the oven and set it to 450 and turned it on.
It took 90 seconds to get to 50 degrees (all measurements are in Celsius. I'm going to stop saying that now), a further 67 seconds to get to 100, 78 more seconds to get to 150, 96 more seconds to get to 200 and then 63 seconds to get to 225. I turned off the heat at that point and the oven took 4:50 to fall down to 150 degrees.
At first glance, that doesn't look like very good performance, but the slow cooling has made me think that the problem is that the thermocouple is not agile enough. So I'm going to get a different one (this time not embedded in a big metal probe) and try again.
Meanwhile, I decided to go for broke. The oven is very easy to disassemble with just a philips screwdriver.
There is a single piece of sheet stainless steel wrapped around the sides and top of the oven. You need to pull all of the screws on the back that hold this piece in place. There's one screw near the left (viewed from the front) rear bottom that also must be removed. Next, pop out the rubber inserts in each of the plastic feet and unscrew and remove the screws inside as well as the two larger philips screws between the feet. That done, the top/side sheet should pop right off.
Once that's done, cut and remove the two "rat belts" bundling the wires near the AC plug and near the top. Use a flat screwdriver and pop the QD connectors (each is inside a redish-brown rubber heat shield) attaching all of the wires to the controls. You'll wind up with one coming from the top element, one coming from the bottom element, and one coming from the hot line of the AC plug. There are some other QDs, but they won't be used.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Enter the Honda Fit EV
I'm not really one for "green" thinking. I've said more than once that I think that most of the things that are supposed to be good for the planet are either foolishly costly or ineffective or both. But if you find a way to save me a dollar, you have my attention.
I've talked about this a bit of Facebook, but I think it's worth adding a bit here about the math.
A gallon of gasoline has 33.4 kW-hr of energy in it.
Silicon Valley Power rates are 8.877¢ per kW-hr for the first 300 kW-hr and 10.205¢ for kW-hrs after that. 300 kW-hr isn't a lot, so let's assume the worst and say that it's the 10.205 rate. If you were to magically turn electricity into gasoline at 100% efficiency, you'd be able to gas up that way for $3.41 per gallon. That's not such a big difference, but it is a pretty good deal. But still, the cost of the energy isn't where the big difference is.
Gasoline car efficiency is traditionally measured in miles per gallon. EVs are measured in either miles per kW-hr or kW-hr per 100 miles. The EPA rates the Fit EV as a combined city/hwy of 29 kW-hr/100mi, or 3.44 mi/kW-hr. Convert that into mpg and you get about 115 MPGe.
Despite that, the Fit EV is almost a muscle car in its ability to launch itself off the line. I'd love to take a day off some day to make a trip up to Sonoma to try the quarter mile (of course, it means stopping in San Francisco to charge up... It's just always an issue). I'm pretty confident it could turn in a sub-15 second time. I'm an unapologetic lead-foot and this car is a downright joy to drive. If you put it in "sport" mode, you get a full 123 horsepower and a healthy 189 ft-lb of torque. That's only a little less than Volkswagen's TDI engine (140 hp and 256 ft-lb of torque, but the torque curve of a diesel engine is far narrower than an electric motor).
Though using electricity is a very efficient way to obtain motive power, it's horrendously slow to deliver it and difficult to store. The 20 kW-hr battery represents the energy in less than 2/3 of a single gallon of gasoline and weighs more than 800 pounds. By contrast, an 18 gallon gasoline tank is 600 kW-hr. If I had a 600 kW-hr battery, I'd be able to go almost 2000 miles between charges.
But even that isn't the big issue. The charger built-in to the car is rated at 6.6 kW. In other words, 6.6 kW-hr per hour. So it takes 3 hours to charge completely from empty. Recharging the mythical 600 kW-hr battery above at that rate would take 90 hours - almost 4 days. Even the CHAdeMO HVDC chargers they have now are 62.5 kW - 10 times faster (though it should be noted that the Fit EV isn't equipped with a CHAdeMO port, and frequent use of high-power charging will decrease battery life long term). But those require 3 phase 480v power feeds. My house has a 200A @ 240V service panel - that's only 48 kW, and that's my whose house.
With these sorts of limitations, EVs are reasonable "second cars." But you can't seriously consider taking one on a road trip. No, not even a Tesla. Tesla's strategy is to deploy so-called "supercharger" stations at strategic locations to enable road trips. They have one at Harris Ranch, one in Bakersfield, as well as in Los Angeles.
I'm sure Elon Musk has thought about this longer than I. But I think this strategy is misplaced for a couple of reasons. Let's use my occasional trips to San Diego as the basis for my argument. The trip is 450 miles and takes a total driving time of about 7 hours. It takes longer than that for the trip because of refueling stops (for the car and the driver). In a gasoline car, I've been known to make it in 8 hours or less. Refueling takes about 15 minutes.
The range of a model S is not particularly relevant unless it doesn't make it between Supercharger stations or unless it can "skip" one (no way). Tesla knows this and placed them strategically along I-5. They say they can charge about half way in half an hour. But half a charge won't get you to the next station.
This strategy will only work if the cars stay rare, which clearly is the opposite of Tesla's goal of selling cars (duh). But setting that aside, the trip to San Diego will require 3 intermediate stops for refueling, which will take around an hour each. So the 8 hour trip is now 11 hours.
No. It's just not going to work.
The only solution to this conundrum is temporary auxiliary power provisioning for long trips. This means one of three things:
- Liquid fuel powered pusher trailers
- Liquid fuel powered generator trailers
- Swappable battery pack trailers
Petroleum powered pusher trailers are actually a fairly mature idea. Many tinkerers out there have taken a front-wheel drive vehicle, chopped off the back half, locked the steering, added a trailer hitch and attached it to an EV.By contrast, the idea of using an engine and generator to power the car isn't so great. Scooting down the highway, the car requires something like 20-30 kW just to maintain highway speed. A 20 kW generator is going to be one heck of a trailer. Still, it has been done before (note, however, that the EV hauling this monster is an SUV).
I think the battery pack trailer has the best long-term prospects. Tesla could replace their supercharger stations with a trailer exchange station. Trading out trailers would take probably less time than filling the tank of a conventional car would. The problem there is that 40 kW-hr of battery weighs a good 800 pounds. That's bound to have an impact on the car's performance. Still, 3 100 mile battery swaps, plus the car's internal 150 mile range (remember, we're talking about a Tesla model S) is the 450 miles of the benchmark trip.
However you decide to provision auxiliary power, I think having it be available for temporary rental for road trips is the way to go. If the APU is petroleum (or methanol) powered, the agency renting it will be on the hook for proper maintenance of the emissions controls. Additionally, a rental fleet can be turned over more quickly as technology improves.


text:
Welcome to my stop in the THE CELLAR by T.M. Smith Blog Tour hosted by Jean Book Nerd. Today we have an Excerpt + an awesome Tour-Wide Giveaway! :)
The Cellar
It's time to learn the truth about what happened that day in The Cellar.
Taryn and Thanos are the formidable Ambassadors of House Orion. Taryn was born into power, bred from birth to lead the people of Greece along with his sister Theresa, Thanos was never a part of his mother's plan. The son of a fisherman was not a suitable match for the son of Greece as far as their mother was concerned, but Taryn always takes what he wants.
The Cellar is the story of how these two men met and fell in love, and what lengths Taryn went to, to ensure he kept his man. This novella also contains a more detailed accounting of what happened the night Raven and Tanis went for a walk on the beach, and the adult version of Mistletoe and Mayhem that was initially released as a free short through goodreads.
The Cellar is the second novella in the Opposites series, the series should be read in order.
** Warning, Opposites is an Adult Dystopian majorly M/M series that contains explicit sexual content and relationships between gay, straight and lesbian couples. However, The Cellar is strictly a M/M novella **
A military brat born and raised at Ft. Benning Georgia; Smith is an avid reader, reviewer and writer. She now calls Texas home from her small town on the outskirts of the DFW Metroplex. Most days you can find her curled up with her kindle and a good book alongside a glass of something aged and red or a steaming cup of coffee!
At 42 years young, she's decided to enter the next phase of her life by adding the title of "author" to her list of accomplishments that includes single mom of three disturbingly outspoken and decidedly different kids, one of which is Autistic. Smith is and outspoken advocate for Autism and equal rights for the LGBTQ community.
Her Opposites series is based outside the normal parameters of social acceptability, examining a 'what if'... What If to be gay or lesbian were the norm? What if to be straight labeled you as an Opposite and made YOU the Outkast?
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