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Become a Member of the EAA
(membership & donations are tax deductible)

Donate to the Silicon Valley EAA Chapter
(select "Silicon Valley Chapter" aka "SVLY")

Regular meetings on
3rd Saturday of each month, 10am - noon

All meetings open to the public
(membership is not required )

Normal meeting location is
HP at 3000 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94034
Area Map and directions.

(Any changes to the meeting location or times will be noted with the individual meeting topics below)

 

May 17, 2008 10am - noon at HP Palo Alto

* Guest speaker: Jorg Brown, Google.  Jorg is the owner of the second production Tango (serial number 002) from Commuter Cars. He will bring his Tango into the meeting and give a short presentation about his expeiences with the car so far. There may be rides for lucky members of the audience if time and sufficent charge permits.

A short video about the Tango, narrated by Rick Woodbury, CEO can be seen here.

April 19, 2008 - NO MEETING

There will be no regular meeting this month due to conflict with the "Get your Green On" event at the Los Gatos High School. See EVents for details. There are several events of interest in April. Please show your support at these events, thanks.

April 17, 2008, 7:00pm to 8:30pm - EV Conversion Overview Class

Doug Brentlinger and Jerry Pohorsky will be giving an EV conversion overview class at the Green Building Exchange, 305 Main Street, Redwood City, CA 94063.

Come learn what it takes to convert your vehicle to electric. This multimedia workshop overviews the process of converting a gasoline car to an electric vehicle. You will hear tips on selecting a conversion-ready vehicle, compare many of the trade-offs of different conversion options, and receive links to resources and information. The workshop also outlines financial incentives and other alternative vehicle options.

There is a $15 fee to attend the workshop which can be paid by check at the event or by online reservation for an entra $.99. See the Green Building Exchange website for more details. Click on Calender button on top of the home page and scroll down to the date to find workshop description and regristration.

March 15, 2008 10am - noon

* Guest speaker: Warren Winovich. He will be talking about using batteries to provide emergency power at home. Warren was without power for over 3 days in February and used a 12 volt battery and a 400 Watt inverter to run his TV and some living room lamps. Warren was able to calculate how long the battery would power his equipment, using a formula for a given load.

Inverter prices are very low these days and just about everybody has a 12 volt battery in their car, so this exercise can benefit anyone in an upcoming emergency such as an earthquake.

Warren's formula is also useful to determine the range of an electric vehicle. Many of us with EVs never drive to the point where we are completely out of range and we may be curious to find out just how far our vehicle could go in case of an emergency.

February 16, 2008 10am - noon

Annual all-chapter meeting of the EAA with audio hook-up with chapters from across the country.

January 19, 2008 10am - noon

* Guest speaker: Richard Hatfield, Lightning Motors. Those of you who were at the December meeting saw his Lithium powered Yamaha 1000 electric motorcycle. He will describe the design of this motorcycle which includes ThunderSky 90 Amp-hour Lithium Ferro Phosphate batteries and a Zivan charger. He'll also discuss Lightning Motors' plans to offer these bikes to 'beta testers' and their plans to offer AC drive conversion kits to those who prefer cars. Here is a related LA Times article that was reprinted in TreeHugger.

December 15, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest speaker: Bill Dube, KillaCycle. Bill has the fastest electric motorcycle on the track (over 160 mph). The KillaCycle made drag racing history at Pomona in November when it became the first electric-powered vehicle to make a seven-second pass in the 1/4 mile. Watch the video here.

November 17, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest speaker: Eric Fisher, U.S. distributor of Silicone Batteries.  Eric has installed a set of these batteries in his Solectria Force and put them through over 2,000 miles of driving so far with good results. His commute has an elevation change of a couple thousand feet. These batteries solve some of the inherent problems with lead acid batteries. He will bring some sample batteries to the meeting.

October 20, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest speaker: Dr. Ron Morgan, Faraday Motor Works. He will discuss these topics.

  • Who is Faraday Motor Works Inc.
  • Some thoughts on habitat destruction
  • Description of our first vehicle
  • Design of the vehicle
  • Propulsion system
  • Power supply
  • Charging alternatives
  • Future direction of the company

September 15, 2007 10am - noon

* Tour the TechShop in Menlo Park. The TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks.

Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects.

TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills.

The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you'd ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.

 

Special Meeting: Tuesday Aug 14th, 2007 at 7pm.

* Guest Speaker: Michael Kadie. Michael will show off and talk about his Electric 65 Coupe which he is taking on a US Tour and challenging White Zombie for the NEDRA Title. See ssi-racing.com for details of Michael's plans.
NOTE: This meeting will either be at the HP facility in Palo Alto (our regular meeting place), or the HP Cupertino Oak Room -- stay tuned for further details.

June 16, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Warren Winovich. Topic: Electric car efficiency study. Specifically Warren will talk about a member's AC Propulsion Saturn Coupe, which has performance similar to the EV1. AC Propulsion is well known for their tZero electric sports car and more recently for their e-Box Scion Xb conversion. Come find out more about this one-of-a-kind EV and see how Warren calculates the power consumption of the car under various driving conditions.

May 19, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Neal Saiki, Electricross, Inc. (http://www.electricross.com). Topic: Electric motorcycles intended for off road use and motocross racing events. Neal will bring one of the motorcycles to the meeting.

April 17, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest Speakers: Warren Winovich & Bill Palter. Topic: 40 years of the EAA. Come hear Warren and Bill share insights and a little history of the EAA. This is the 40th anniversary year for the EAA. The EAA was formed after an EV Symposium at San Jose State in 1967.

March 17, 2007 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Tom Gage, CEO AC Propulsion. Tom talked about their new lithium powered eBox among other topics. They recently delivered the first eBox to actor Tom Hanks. This is an encore presentation that Tom gave at the March 10 UCSC EV Symposium. See a copy of Tom's presentation.

Feb 24, 2007 10am - noon

This will be the annual meeting of the EAA, complete with audio hook-up with chapters from across the country.

Oct 21, 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Jim Larson, Clean Air Transportation Group, PG&E. Jim's topics will be the promise of VTG (Vehicle to Grid) technology and Plug in Partners. PG&E is a member of Plug in Partners, a group of utility companies that is lining up "soft orders" for EVs and PHEVs (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles) by offering financial incentives for customers. This is a win-win situation since it makes the purchase of the new technology vehicles more affordable for the consumer and also builds a network of vehicle battery packs that can be used to store off-peak electricity to help the utility. While this may sound like magic, there is solid engineering behind it and you can come to the meeting to find out more about how it works and how you can benefit.

* Review of the Sept 30 Rally  

Nov 18 , 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Representatives from GreenEmotors. They will conduct an informal forum to find out what kind of electric vehicles our members and guests would like to see and buy in the near future. They are planning a trip to Taiwan and mainland China to visit with manufacturers and see what new Electric Vehicle products are available. Our input will help them pick and choose which vehicles to import. They already sell and service affordable 2 passenger scooters that were on display at our recent EV Rally and show, but they are not just a scooter supplier. If you want an enclosed electric vehicle that can go on the freeway, here's your chance to come and let them know. Few of us can afford a Tango or Tesla roadster, but there are other options being developed in Asia that will soon hit our shores and you can come and help determine which ones make it.

After the meeting, Brian Howell will be there with his new Myers NMG (Sparrow). Brian has developed a relationship with some Lithium battery suppliers and is working on boosting the range of this 1 passenger enclosed 3 wheeler to over 100 miles per charge. Brian was also a vendor at our recent Rally and Show and offers a line of custom electric recumbant bikes - some with Lithium batteries.

Dec 16 , 10am - noon

* Guest Speaker: Bill Dube. Bill has the fastest electric motorcycle on the track (over 150 mph), www.killacycle.com.

Jan 20 , 10am - noon

* We viewed highlights of the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The chapter has a copy of the DVD for members to borrow.

Map to Silicon Valley Chapter Meeting

See Summary of previous meetings

The Silicon Valley Chapter of the EAA (free and open to the public) meets on the third Saturday of each month from 10am to 12:30pm at Hewlett-Packard, 3000 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA, building 20 level A, Auditorium.

Directions: From 101, take Oregon Expressway West to El Camino Real. Oregon Expressway changes to Page Mill Rd after you cross El Camino Real. Continue west to Hanover and turn left. Make a right at the first driveway.

From 280, turn off at Page Mill Rd., continue East past Foothill Expressway. Continue on Page Mill Rd. to the bottom of the hill which will be Hanover. Turn right on to Hanover, turn right again at the next driveway.

-about 15 minutes of social and refreshment activities.
-about 15 minutes of chapter business including the chapter's treasurer's report.

Our featured speakers cover a wide range of topics that focus around electric cars. In the past we have had informative, technical speakers on EV chargers, batteries, controllers, and measuring devices. Speakers have also covered subjects that include vehicle laws and regulation, or web page access of electric vehicle sites.

- about11:30am the speaker concludes with a question and answer period.

- An EV discussion break out session, where members and visitors can form into groups of common interests (EV conversion, purchase, charging, further EV questions and answers with experienced EV builders, and/or the speaker may continue to discuss their topic).

- at around noon, we all slip outside and take a close look at the EVs (Electric Cars) owned by Silicon Valley and/or visiting EAA Chapter members.

Sparrow

- EV Rides are made available for public awareness and education. Please let us know if you are interested in rides. We'll see you at the monthly meetings.

Past Meeting Summary

Aug 5, 2006

JB Straubel, Chief Technical Officer of Tesla Motors, was our guest speaker. JB shared information about the new Tesla Roadster and brought one along to show the nearly 200 people in the audience. In case you missed this meeting, come to our Sept 30 EV Rally to see a Tesla Roadster up close, or check out some of these pictures from Tesla's July 2006 unveiling. Read more about it at: http://www.energybulletin.net/19430.html.

July 15, 2006

Ed Ang of Air Lab gave a presentation about a new EV power management solution, the GAIA I (Green AIR Lab Intelligent Array).

June 17, 2006

Brian Howell is pushing the envelope when it comes to electric bikes.
While many electric bikes have a top speed in the 10 to 20 MPH range, Brian's bikes can hit speeds of 35 MPH. He is working on a prototype bike that he hopes will do freeway speeds.

How does he do it? That was the subject of our June 17, 2006 Silicon Valley EAA meeting. Our audience of 28 was peppering Brian with non-stop questions, but he answered them all and gave us a great insight into what it takes to make bikes go fast.

One of his secrets is Chinese Lithium batteries. Another one is aerodynamics. He said that for electric bikes, wind resistance is much more significant than tire rolling resistance although he does use some special tire techniques. To minimize wind resistance, he uses a fairing (long windshield) on the front and a wedge-shaped tailsock on the rear.

Brian is a great believer in recumbent bikes and multiple motors. His fastest bikes have a hub motor on both the front and back wheels as well as a "mid-motor". He uses a chain drive to couple the mid-motor to the rear wheel. The bike pedals are also connected to the mid-motor. This gives the rider very good tactile feedback for how hard the motor is straining.

Surprisingly, although the motor does most of the work, electric bike riders often pedal - because the pedals are there. This extends the range of the batteries and also provides exercise for the rider. Brian has lost 30 pounds since getting his bikes. He has several different bikes and brought a few of them to the meeting along with a couple of electric scooters.

After the meeting we had fun riding the bikes and scooters in the parking lot outside. Brian said that not only has he lost weight from pedaling along with the electric motors, he feels much healthier and never gets sick anymore.

Rob Means is a distributor of electric bikes and scooters and assisted Brian with the presentation. Brian has modified the bikes extensively to achieve the higher performance he described at the meeting and is one of Rob's best customers.

Here are a few links for photos and further information.

April 15, 2006

Guest Speaker Ian Wright; topic: X1 Racing Car (www.wrightspeed.com). Great presentation and demonstration rides. DVDs available for $5 (includes shipping). Contact Jerry Pohorsky via email.

March 19, 2006

Guest Speaker Warren Winovich; topic: Electrathon Racers. These are the EV equivalent of a "soap box racer".  In other words, there is a well defined set of regulations that define what is allowed and what is not allowed.  This makes winning a race more a matter of ingenuity and clever design than merely using more batteries or a bigger motor.  If you would like to see some pictures of these racers and other information, go to the website: http://www.cloudelectric.com/homepage.html and click on the "Electrathon Info" link on the left.

 

January 21, 2006

We got off to a great start this year with two guest speakers and a surprise guest.

Rich Hilleman arrived in his Spyder EV and gave a Power Point presentation about a new hybrid vehicle he is designing.His hybrid uses a novel concept based on an AC Propulsion drive train and a high speed turbine engine that will run on a variety of fuels. The hybrid can run in EV mode from onboard batteries for shorter trips while the turbine generates electricity for longer trips. Rich plans to use an existing 2 seater race car chassis for his design.

Next we heard from Lawrence Rhodes who arrived in his bio-diesel Mercedes. We saw a video of Lawrence taken by a local news broadcast showing him playing his bassoon and also working on and driving his EV truck. Lawrence brought one of his "Gemini" (twin) electric scooters that he modified by adding a second motor and controller to handle the hills of his San Francisco neighborhood.  He also showed some photos of a Schwinn Stingray that he outfitted with a fork lift motor.  We all enjoyed his happy-go-lucky approach to low cost EV conversions.

Our surprise guest was Ian Wright who arrived in his X1 racing car that has the AC Propulsion drive train. We saw a video of his car leaving a Ferrari and a Porsche in the dust at Infineon Raceway.  Ian and his car will be back again as our guest speaker on April 15th.  Ian's website is: www.wrightspeed.com and there is a link there to the video we showed.

We also held our chapter elections.  Jerry Pohorsky was re-elected as President and Kim Rogers was re-elected as Vice President.  Our newly elected treasurer is JoAnne Sarro.  Congratulations and "welcome aboard" to JoAnne.

Many thanks to Michael Skinner for his service as treasurer in 2005.  He will be participating with the San Jose EAA chapter in the future since that chapter is much closer to where he lives.

July 16, 2005

Bruce Katz from PolyPlus Battery Company gave a presentation about Li Batteries -- past, present, and future.

March 19, 2005

Tom spoke about what is going on at AC Propulsion and about the EV market in general. AC Propulsion is still planning to produce an EV - most likely based on the Scion platform. He shared the results of their survey to see what type of body style people want in an EV. Tom also explained why the project has been delayed and talked about the other cars they have worked on in the meanwhile. A couple of these cars won at the Michelin Bibendum challenge recently held in China. Tom also gave details about their Hybrid Jetta that has all electric drive and 30 miles of EV-only range. He has driven the car all the way from Los Angeles to Sacramento.

There was so much information given in his 2 hour talk that it can't be adequately covered here. Fortunately Tom made his slides available to us. The presentation was video taped and will be available on a DVD for a nominal cost. Please contact Jerry Pohorsky to order a copy.

January 15, 2005

Outgoing chapter president Will Beckett opened the meeting and announced that elections for officers would be held. As an incentive for new officers to step forward, Will made a motion that officers will not have to pay membership dues as long as they continue to serve. The motion was seconded by Chuck Olsen and approved by a majority of Silicon Valley Chapter members.

There were 25 men and one woman in the audience. Jerry Pohorsky was elected as chapter president and Kim Rogers was re-elected as Vice President. Michael Skinner was elected as Treasurer.

Al Atwood gave the outgoing treasurer's report - we are in very good shape financially. Many thanks to Al Atwood and Will Beckett for their tireless service to the EAA Silicon Valley Chapter.

After a few announcements and a brief report of the Consumer Electronics Show by Chip, a couple of videos were shown. One video was a program from TV station KVIE (http://www.newvalley.org) and featured segments on solar power, wind power and the biofuel, corn. You can even buy a stove that burns the corn kernels (http://www.burncorn.com/). Also featured on this video was a brief interview with Chico EAA president Chuck Aldrin. It showed him in his RAV4-EV and also showed an EV conversion he had.

The second video was from San Jose EAA vice president Mike Phillips. It showed his Max Wedge Robot fighting against other Radio Controlled robots in various competitions. The robot is microprocessor controlled, has two motors, and weighs 120 lbs including the 24 volt battery pack. The video of the robot combats was quite exciting and drew applause form the crowd.

For more details check out the following links:

Also a google search on "Mike Phillips Max Wedge robot" will give some more links. Mike agreed to bring his robot to an upcoming meeting.

After the meeting we went outside and popped the hood on a couple of recent EV purchases. Congratulations to Frank Chapman on his S-10 EV from www.evbones.com ($12K) and Jerry Pohorsky on his Escort EV ($2K) the former "MegaVolt" - http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/221.html

Our next meeting will be the national EAA members meeting in February (conference call).

Also the first 3 days in May will be the 5th annual EAA all chapter invitational meeting in Austin, Texas. Air Fare is under $250 round trip on American Airlines and free lodging is offered to visiting members. There will be a Texas-style BBQ and a bus excursion to San Antonio Texas to visit the "Green Building" event.

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