My car now has a web page. Sadly, it’s for my own use and not for public consumption, but I made a little video about it anyway!
Also available on YouTube if preferred.
Thanks are due to Terence Eden for his work on documenting the API. Oh, and before anyone asks, no, I don’t normally leave the cable draped across the pavement. 🙂
RSS feed
Quentin, what you have written is a huge improvement on the BMW offering. It provides exactly the functionality that most people need.
I will shortly be cycling to all of the Maggie’s cancer centres in the UK which is a distance of roughly 1600 miles.
BMW are providing us with an i3 as a support vehicle and your software would be exactly what we would need for the journey.
You may well be interested in The Tangerine Dream Machine which is an electrically assisted pedal cycle.
It has a number of unusual features. It is likely to have a range of about 500 miles per charge (on 20kg of lipo) and I also intend to beat the current land speed record for an electrically assisted pedal cycle by 50% possibly reaching 125 mph on Pendine Sands just down the road from where I live in Swansea.
I also think it will be able to float for short distances.
Cheers
Andrew
07970 252396
The Tangerine Dream Machine Man
Hi Andrew – I wish The Tangerine Dream Machine all the best – I had seen a picture of it before when pondering i3 roof racks! Looks great.
Hope you get lots of fun video footage!
Quentin
Great work, really encouraging that this is possible – It’s amazing to think of cars as having their own APIs.
I had an unrelated question to your charging setup. I live in a terraced house and have spent a long time mulling over best home charging setups. It’s such a shame that the home grants are only available for off street parking – however, it’s encouraging to see your setup, it’s pretty much how I hope to do it.
I wanted to ask if perhaps you could share some details about it – which charger you opted for and where did you get that superb cable run from?
Thank you!
(…hoping to be an i3 rex owner at some point this year)
Hi Tom –
Yes, sure… The charging point is a 32A Rolec unit which I got from evonestop.co.uk and was installed by a local electrician. It’s worth asking your dealer, though. The BMW units are big and bulky — I prefer mine — but they often have some deals on them, though whether these would apply for people who aren’t grant-eligible like us, I’m not sure!
The same goes for the cable. The BMW one — affectionately known as the blue python — is great, often included with the car, and you almost certainly want one to carry around with you. But it’s not very long, and it’s designed to coil up for convenient storage, which is not what you want if you need it to lay flat on the pavement! So mine is a 10M one from evconnectors.com: a bit bulky, but well made, and designed to withstand being run over if necessary. It’s long enough that if I can park in either of the two spots outside miy house, facing in either direction, I’m OK.
Finally, the cable protector comes from Canford Audio. They have a variety, some of which are rather smaller. Before I got my charging point, I was using a normal mains extension lead, and this is excellent for that, but the 32A cables won’t fit through it, so you need something more substantial.
I get away with this setup because I only charge a couple of nights a week, for about 3 hours in the late evening. I’m near the end of a cul-de-sac so there’s very little foot traffic, and I have understanding (and, I gather, somewhat jealous!) neighbours. I also live by a streetlight, so the area is well-illuminated, and I like the black cable cover because it’s discreet. But there are brighter-coloured ones if you’re more concerned about safety and visibility then you are about drawing attention to yourself!
Hope this helps!
Q
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