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Thread: FLEM 2016 is on for March 4th and 5th!

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by buffo View Post
    Wait - you have to stop 4 times between Charleston and Tavares? It's only 365 miles! Surely that would mean just 1 stop?
    You're right! I *could* make it with just one stop, but that means I'd have to leave Charlestown with an absolute full charge, since the first stop is Kingsland, GA, 210 miles from Charlestown. That's cutting it really close charge wise, but doable (many factors influence maximum distance-rain, weather, traffic, hills, etc). And once I get there, it's a long stop to recharge again to almost full to get to Traveres with some charge left, since there is no high-powered DC charger there, so I wouldn't want to arrive with very little left.

    But thinking more about it, what I might do is two stops instead of four: Savannah (airport), and St. Augustine (mall) (see image). That balances out both the distance and arrival charging issues. When making long trips like this, the general idea is to stop more often for shorter charging stops, as opposed to stretch it out as much as possible and make longer charging stops. I can explain it also better in person, but the longer stops take longer because (I'd guess you know this) with Li-ion batteries the charging tapers significantly once they're over 80%.. so to go from 0% to 70% takes 30 minutes.. but that last 30% could take an hour. So the idea is to only charge as much as you need to get to the next charger, plus a small buffer (15%-25%).. Stops like that are usually 20 minutes or less. In these cases, the battery gets quickly charged to 60%-75% and avoid the taper all together.

    Now for those of you saying "gah, what a pain in the ass to figure out all this and plan ahead where to stop and for how long, and it adds so much time for the trip!!" --- all I can say is: I'm not paying one cent for the energy to get there.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 2stops.png  

    Last edited by HankLloydRight; 12-23-2015 at 11:57.

  2. #12
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    Oh, one more thing -- that 60 miles stretch of Rt 17 between Charlestown and 95 was quite a bit of stop-and-go traffic and lights, etc.. a real energy sap!

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    I thought the "supercharge" stations (the ones powered by 3 phase) could get you to 80% in like 20 minutes? Or are there none of those available on the route?

    Yeah, I know all about charging curves, and that last 20% is what takes the time. How long from zero to full charge using a standard 110 outlet? And how long from a 30 amp, 220 V single phase outlet?

    If you overnight in Charleston, you could theoretically leave with a full charge, yes? That should get you more than 200 miles... Thinking you could make the airport in Jacksonville, which should have a super charge station... (That's about 230 miles.)

    We can discuss this on Skype over the weekend while gearing up for Borderlands!

    Quote Originally Posted by HankLloydRight View Post
    Oh, one more thing -- that 60 miles stretch of Rt 17 between Charlestown and 95 was quite a bit of stop-and-go traffic and lights, etc.. a real energy sap!
    Well, surely the regenerative braking helps a lot, no? But honestly, the faster route by far is to take 17A to Walterboro and then get on I-95 there. It's counter-intuitive, because you actually have to head north a bit before heading west to pick up 95, but there's very little traffic on 17A so you can just cruise.

    The only way it makes sense to take 17 down the coast through Ravenell, Hollywood, and so fourth is if you are starting from the downtown Charleston area. But if you're already in the North Area, then taking 17A is a good bit faster.

    Adam

    PS: Just noticed another way you can shave off a lot of time on the trip. Take hwy 17 out of Jacksonville to Palatka, and then take hwy 19 through the Ocala National Forrest, through Eustis and straight into Tavares. Much quicker! (But you'll want to charge up before leaving Jacksonville, because it's a 130 mile trek to Tavares from Jacksonville.)

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    Quote Originally Posted by buffo View Post
    PS: Just noticed another way you can shave off a lot of time on the trip. Take hwy 17 out of Jacksonville to Palatka, and then take hwy 19 through the Ocala National Forrest, through Eustis and straight into Tavares. Much quicker! (But you'll want to charge up before leaving Jacksonville, because it's a 130 mile trek to Tavares from Jacksonville.)
    Isn't that the way we ran last year at like 90-95 MPH? Hank could probably do it at a buck ten!
    PM Sent...

  5. #15
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    I thought the "supercharge" stations (the ones powered by 3 phase) could get you to 80% in like 20 minutes? Or are there none of those available on the route?
    All the stops on the route are Supercharger locations. While each location is delivered 3 phase power @440VAC, the power delivered to each car is high voltage DC and between 200 and 300 amps straight into the battery! In twenty minutes, depending on battery state of charge, you can get about 50% charge and more like 70%-75% in 30 minutes.

    How long from zero to full charge using a standard 110 outlet?
    Getting the full 12amps@110v charges at about 3 miles per hour. So to go from absolute zero to full would be 80 hours at a minimum.

    And how long from a 30 amp, 220 V single phase outlet?
    At the 240v/30amp outlet, we can only draw max 24amps (80% rule) so that's about 17 miles per hour of charging, so about 15 hours from 0 to full.

    But at home I have a 240v/50amp circuit (40amp charging) so that's a full charge in about 8.5 hours. But in reality, the car is never driving that close to zero, and I never charge to 100% unless I'm going on a long trip and need the extra mileage. I usually charge to 80% and that's enough for any day's driving around town, and plug in overnight back to 80%.

    If you overnight in Charleston, you could theoretically leave with a full charge, yes? That should get you more than 200 miles...
    Yes. There's no question that the car can go more than 240 miles on a single charge, under optimal conditions (or even longer on very conservative conditions). But 200 miles is about the limit of "safe" distance to travel (leaving a 40 mile safety buffer) in case of rain, traffic, wind, etc.

    Thinking you could make the airport in Jacksonville, which should have a super charge station... (That's about 230 miles.)220v/
    There's a supercharge in Kingsland, GA -- not at the airport. Kingsland is 206 miles from downtown Charlestown, which is really at the limit of a safe driving distance. Remember, if I run very low on energy, I can't just pull into any gas station. While there are likely AC charging locations along the way, they are not that frequent and a slower charge (usually 28amps@220v).

    Well, surely the regenerative braking helps a lot, no?
    Yes, it helps, but not measurably or in any matter that changes the planning.

    But honestly, the faster route by far is to take 17A to Walterboro and then get on I-95 there. It's counter-intuitive, because you actually have to head north a bit before heading west to pick up 95, but there's very little traffic on 17A so you can just cruise.
    If I go that route, it's 224 miles from downtown CT... outside of the safety zone unless conditions are perfect. And to go that far on a single charge, I'd have to limit my speed to about 60-65mph at most. Where would we be starting from? So you can see, if I make more charging stops at about 100-150 miles distances, I don't need to worry about traffic, wind, rain, or how fast I drive, because usually I'll have more than 2x the distance to the next charging station. And I usually drive pretty fast, which burns up energy much faster (remember that wind resistance is generally speed squared!). If I drove 50 mph the entire way, I could probably get >300 miles out of one charge. One guy got over 500 miles on one charge by driving 25 mph!

    PS: Just noticed another way you can shave off a lot of time on the trip. Take hwy 17 out of Jacksonville to Palatka, and then take hwy 19 through the Ocala National Forrest, through Eustis and straight into Tavares. Much quicker! (But you'll want to charge up before leaving Jacksonville, because it's a 130 mile trek to Tavares from Jacksonville.)
    I most likely would not do that.

    And If I make two stops like I mentioned above (Savannah and St. Augustine), then I really don't have to worry about any of this!

  6. #16
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    Subscribed Really looking forward to this year.

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    Deleted. Posted wrong information
    Last edited by Lazerjock; 01-21-2016 at 12:37.

  8. #18
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    Unless I'm in the Twilight Zone, isn't it six weeks away?

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    and counting......! 6 weeks from right now should be somewhere in Georgia.
    PM Sent...

  10. #20
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    Ugh! I was a month off. Oh well at least I got you talking. Lol

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