On Thu, 14 May 2009, Christopher Zach wrote:
David Roden wrote:
On 14 May 2009 at 13:35, Christopher Zach wrote:
> This is what GE did with the E15 and one of the main reasons why
it is > so bad.
I have an E15 and I don't think it's "so bad" at all. It's a very
reliable machine. Once I learned to come to a full stop before
reversing,
I quit having so much trouble with the reversing relay.
Sure. For the people who didn't and burned a bunch of relays it
probably was a bad thing. Which might have led to people turning away
from it. Why add the complexity and potential problems?
If the time-delay circuitry is working properly, presumably the relays
wouldn't be frying (that time delay circuit is supposed to prevent a
quick switching of the direction of the current through that relay).
If relays are frying, it could be that the capacitor in the time delay
circuit is fried. That's what was wrong with my E-15 when I got it.
I think in later models they tried to use delays and other circuits
to keep from toasting the relay, but those circuits blew up as well.
More complexity.
They didn't really blow up - capacitors are just items that do fail
over time. Remember, these things are 30 years old. The main problem
is that most people may not be able to figure out what the problem is,
and assume that it is a faulty design. But, how many vehicles do you
know of that can run for 30+ years without some component failing?
No thanks. If it did that, I'd be buying a new gas tractor from Home
Despot every 5 years, storing and burning gasoline, and breathing
exhaust
fumes.
What I meant was build your system to be like familiar things. Oddly
enough this is why I like both the Prizm and the Volt: Both are more
"normal" cars. The Prizm even uses regen to "fake" engine drag. For a
car user this is comforting.
The only nice thing I can say about having regen automatically come on
when you release the accelerator is that it could be nice in the
winter, when driving in snow. It would be better though if they had it
where that regen only came on when you lightly press on the brake (not
hard enough to engage the mechanical brakes though). Allowing the car
to coast in neutral when your foot is off the accelerator would be a
more efficient design than forced regen when you just want to coast.
What I'm saying is I wish people would build things that people *use*
as opposed to building engineering solutions for issues that may have
nothing to do with what people need. I'm getting tired of seeing it
in the EV market and waiing and waiting for the Elec-trak replacement
and getting "oh we'll have the super-duper thing out next year"
followed by the inevitable web site not found message.
That is a valid point. Unfortunately, many engineers are prone to
"feature creep" (i.e. being fascinated by ever-more-complex features,
not realizing that they don't necessarily make a more marketable
product).
Mike
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