January 19, 2007 by Rob.

I’m on track to pull the Engine on Sunday 1/28.  My engine buyer, “Leo,” called to confirm the date.  The EV parts from EV-America should start arriving next week.

With some luck, I’ll have the clutch plate in the mail to the machinist by 2/1!

BTW: I’m keeping the transmission in the car.  The idea for direct drive went out the window with the AC system.  EV-America’s design eliminates the clutch and flywheel.  Shifting relies on the engine’s low inertia to allow the transmissions synchromesh to match the speeds.

Posted in Planning | 1 Comment »

January 19, 2007 by Rob.

My lunch topics today included a discussion about the computer for the RAV. The price/best form factor that I’ve seen so far is the Mini-ITX in a specially design Car case. The case includes special cushioned packaging for the hard drives. The alternative, a solid state flash drive, is limited in size (4 GB is $100). This would be more robust and use less power, but very limiting in the amount of information I can pack onto the computer. I’ll need more storage for my MP3 collection and videos too

Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »