BMW C Evolution - I finally got my scooter back and it is working just fine :)

Last Friday, 10 days ago, I went to the BMW shop in Boulogne and returned my loaner C Evolution to get my original scooter back, after they told me the breakdown I experienced 3 months ago was caused by firmware bug, fixed by the latest release end of November.



BMW took a long time to solve this, probably gathering CAN error messages from several C Evolution scooters across Europe which had the same warning signs on their dashboard.



I was told by the head of BMW scooters in France that it was caused, or could be reproduced by turning ON, OFF, and ON again the ignition key ... Still I am the only one who got the big breakdown forcing me to stop on the side of the road and be towed back to the dealer. For this reason he also asked to shop to replace my throttle, to make sure no error was coming from this also.



I am now commuting again with it, unless the temperature is too close to 0°C, icy road being to risky with a 2-wheel. The power is like before, awesome and I am having a blast with my machine now :)
Thanks to BMW I was able to enjoy Electric rides during these last 3 months, with an identical C Evolution loaner.






I am now almost at 6 months of daily rides with a BMW C Evolution and I can assure you it is one great machine ... I am actually going for a ride today since it is sunny, taking my daughter with me, yesterday it was my son's turn, under the cold rain, but we enjoyed it also :)

If you have not test driven it yet, I recommend you do so to experience and understand why I chose this amazing scooter !

Tesla Motors’ Over-the-Air Repairs Are the Way Forward

Tesla Motors' Over-the-Air Repairs Are the Way Forward

Tesla and GM have both issued fire-related recalls, but Tesla's fix doesn't require owners to bring their cars in.

Tesla Motors is using over-the-air software updates to quickly fix the sort of problems that often arise when bringing a new car to market. This forward-looking approach is an important part of the company's success (see "How Tesla is Driving Electric Car Innovation").

Today the National Highway Safety Administration officially published two recall announcements, one from Tesla Motors and one from GM. Both are related to problems that could cause fires. In the case of GM, trucks left idling can overheat and catch fire—eight fires have been reported. In Tesla's case, an overheating charger plug seems have to have been the cause of a fire in a garage (it's not clear if the problem had to do with miswiring of the wall charger, damage to the plug, or something else).
Both problems can be addressed with software updates–in Tesla's case, the software detects charging problems and decreases charging rates to avoid overheating (GM hasn't provided details). Owners of 370,000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups will need to find time to take their pickups to the dealer to get the software fixed. But because of its ability to send software updates to its vehicles wirelessly, the 29,222 Tesla Model S electric cars that were affected have already been fixed. (While Tesla says the software update addresses the issue, it is also mailing Tesla owners new charger plugs that have a thermal fuse designed to provide another layer of safety.)

Indeed, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk argues the fix shouldn't be called a recall at all, although it technically is from the point of view of NHTSA. On Twitter he noted that no vehicles were being "physically recalled" and said, in light of the over-the-air software updates, "The word 'recall' needs to be recalled."
This isn't the first time Tesla has taken advantage of its software update system—it has become common for Tesla to send out updates that address problems and enhance performance. One of the most notable examples happened last year after three Tesla Model S's caught fire in collisions, two with objects in the road. Tesla sent out an update that changed the suspension settings, giving the car more clearance at high speeds. No further fires have been reported, although it's difficult to know if that's because of the update (see "Are Electric Vehicles a Fire Hazard?" and "Why Electric Cars Could be Safer Than Gasoline Powered Ones").

Of course, some problems can't be fixed with software updates. A manufacturing defect on 1,098 Model S's last year required a trip to the service station to repair a problem with the way seats were attached.
Expect over-the-air updates to become more common, although companies will need to work to make sure they can be done securely. Not only are they more convenient, they can also improve safety, since the updates can be made right away. And the updates may be critical for Tesla's success, not just by giving the ability to respond to big issues like fires, but also to small ones—annoying but not dangerous software bugs—that could give the car a bad name if they persisted or were difficult for owners to have fixed. For example, Tesla was able to update the car's estimates for how far it could go in cold weather (the use of a heater decreases battery range), avoiding a problem where the car underestimated how far it could go. In the future, software updates could make such predictions even more accurate by figuring in weather forecasts.

Source:  Technology Review 

Testing Wattson Transmitter to make it work for the US & Canada SplitPhase Consumer Units - Part 3

Last night, at 03:30AM, I finally made a Wattson unit work on a simulated US Split Phase Electricset up

This Wattson unit displays the our home usage, divided by 2 more or ess - see real usage below at 715W - : It have managed to change the Voltage Setting - to 110V - so that it thinks it is reading power usage in the US


Here I tried 115V


This is how you can change it, using the New Holmes2 Software from Energeno


Real Usage, displayed on another Wattson, with unchanged Voltage Setting

It looks easy, but it was not ...

I started after diner and, after making my own Y cable, I then picked one Wattson unit to try and change its Voltage Setting: I bought few units from the UK in the last months, some old, some more recent, and every time I had to use Holmes and Holmes2 when I learned it came out - Thanks to Mark Elliott at Energeno via Twitter - checking this 'Enable Generated Logging', or 'Activate Generation Mode', depending on the software version

On the new version of Holmes2 I noticed that many more Settings were now available, like language - new ones -, currencies - new ones too, including USD -, and Voltage : This last one is by Default set to 230V - from the UK mains standard voltage I guess - and this is what the Wattson display unit uses to determine the Usage in Watts : It take the Amps it receives from the Transmitter and multiplies them by this set - fixed - Voltage to give Usage in Watts - not perfectly accurate, because Voltage goes up and down too depending on the loads, by good enough -

But, I played with this voltage and realized the new set value would never be saved ....

And since my whole experience here, is a bit - a lot - based on this, I will have to make the Wattson hold it this time ...
So I thought, maybe it is a Wattson firmware version issue: this new settings are made possible to new units coming to the market, and this would make sense !

I took an old unit, plugged it into my Mac and launched to Wattson Loader program, which I discovered needed a firmware file ... I looked for it online, and after forums, finally found it as an attachement onto DIY Kyoto/Energeno Knwoledge base - great BTW -

I was happy to find it, and saw also that 2 of my older Wattson units would never be able to be flashed, because they do not have this Clock function, meaning they are from an older generation

So I used a more recent Wattson, that glows Green when Net Usage is negative - not Orange -, for the first time, I flashed a Wattson unit with a new Firmware

After that, weird messages and moving dashes were displayed, until I reset the unit using a pin in the top center hole, and started saying 'Hello Wattson'

This new firmware changes many things, especially when using the top central pushbutton, the display modes, there is New Settings Menu right on the Wattson unit, without plugging into a computer, etc ...

Now I used the Holmes2 to try and change this Voltage Setting, and the software was freezing after few seconds of use; I tried numerous times, quitting, killing it, restarting the Mac, which drove me crazy

After a while, I started to use another software called Wattson Settings, which allows to change Settings but not this Voltage .... Jeeesss

But it has a console tap whch is very cool because you can see the Serial Commands sent to Wattson, and received from it: Here I tried to find the Voltage Setting Commands ... => Good Luck :-) 

And I finally found, in Energenno/DIY Kyoto Knwoledge base - again -, a procedure to Erase a Wattson unit's Memory - which holds 28 days of logs - via this Wattson Settings console; This did it for me: it erased the memory, and then when I used the Holmes2 again, no more freezing !! -Tha's what I thought, the software got stuck trying to retrieve logs from the memory and the change of firmware in between probably messed it up ...

I then could change this Voltage Setting, save it and the Wattson unit would reboot - very quickly - and display the Watts based on this new Voltage value ! Wow, it works :-)

So it should be fine now for Split Phase Electricity Consumer Units in USA and Canada !



and I updated my notes on this

2 More Wattson arrive from the UK ... Again ??!!

Sorry, I got 2 Wattson from UK again ... It must be a kind of disease :-)

Actually there should have been another one coming at the beginning of september and it looks like it has been "lost" in transit - great, 70 EUR wasted ...- 

These ones were not that expensive, I got them in the last seconds of their auction each time ...

1st Wattson

Old screw version Transmitter, but with a 9V DC Input - no lid, where did it go ? -

This one must have been in a kitchen for years because it was kind sticky ... I had to clean it up myself with alcohol ... I would never ship something like this - incredible - 

Now it is clean and you can not tell the difference 

Pairing it with the Transmitter

2nd Wattson

Got it cheap too, but in much better condition: Bow, manuals, everything is CLEAN !

Old version of the Transmitter, Red antenna, screws, no DC 9V input

Everything has been re-boxed like new, that's more like I would do

After finding 2 UK to EU power adapters, we are ready to go

The 2 simple actions to pair a new - or used actually - Wattson unit: Depress the Transmitter button for few seconds until the red LED is solid, ...

... then you have 60s to go to the Wattson unit(s) and depress its pushbutton too, or insert a pin in the middle top hole and depress, until it says "PAIRING SUCCESSFULL"

Now that they are paired with the Transmitter, they display Usage or Used Power

This one in the back, the dirty one, had a really flat battery pack, it would not display anything until it was charged - strange ?? -

DIY Kyoto Ltd

There it is, displaying  the Usage

After plugging them in my Mac, and launching Holmes2, I enabled their Generated Power logging, so now they can display GENERATED POWER and NET POWER too;

Back view with the COLORS and NUMBERS mode: These are old units because they glow orange when the Net Usage is Negative, meaning Generation > Usage 

After, I brought down the Silver one and arranged them like this for few days: 

LEFT : Usage

RIGHT : Generation (= Solar + ESS)

TOP : Net Usage (Usage - Generation)