Posts

Posted on

Charging in East Anglia

boats

I was travelling in East Anglia, staying in Ipswich. I was on my way to the Suffolk coast and stopped at the Tesla chargers at the Anglia Parkway retail park.

I had charged the Funky Cat there back in October 2024 without any issues. It was the same experience with the MG IM5 this time.

I arrived and set the charge going, as I was there before 8am I was able to get the off peak rate from Tesla.

I spent 29 minutes adding 42kWh to the car battery. I had to stop at 80% charge, as then Tesla start charging a congestion fee. That is one limitation of the Tesla app that it doesn’t tell you if there will be a congestion charge or not. At 50p a minute, it’s not something you want to leave to chance.

I did a similar trip in the Funky Cat, and also used the Tesla chargers at the Anglia Parkway retail park. Following that charge on my way home in the Funky Cat, I stopped at Newmarket to do a charge, I then had to stop at Hopwood Services on the M42 as I wouldn’t be able to reach the Gloucester Services to use the Tesla chargers there.

With the MG IM5 following charging to 80% at Anglia Parkway retail park I would have had enough charge to get home covering around 270 miles.

Though actually on my way back I did stop at the Gloucester Services, not just for coffee, but also to put some more charge on the MG IM5 as I knew the following day I would need to drive to Birmingham.

Posted on

Feelings about the iPhone 17 Pro Max

I’ve had my new iPhone 17 Pro Max for nearly six months now and I thought I would reflect on how I am using the phone and if I made the right choice.

I went with the 17 Pro Max model for two core reasons, one was the bigger screen, I like a phone with a big screen, two was the photographic capabilities of the Pro Max compared to the other phones in the 17 range. I had looked at other phones in the Apple range, but in the end chose the 17 Pro Max.

I am pleased with the big screen, it’s not stupidly large to be impractical. It’s a lovely screen and perfect for looking at images and video. When I use my work iPhone 13 it feels very small in comparison.

The camera has certainly exceeded my expectations. When I upgraded my phone to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I went with this model for two core reasons, one was the bigger screen, I like a phone with a big screen, second was the photographic capabilities of the Pro Max compared to the other phones in the 17 range.

Over the years I have made extensive use of the ultra wide capability on my old iPhone, but one thing I missed was an optical telephoto lens. I knew I could zoom in digitally, but that wasn’t the same as using a telephoto lens. Since getting the phone I have used the optical telephoto lens extensively.

I am really pleased with the quality of the images that I take with the phone. I also know that I still have more to discover with the camera functionality.

One of the challenges I had with the iPhone 13 was a degrading battery and subsequent impact on battery life. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has both a bigger, but also newer battery. The battery in the 17 Pro Max can hold 50% more charge than the 13.

With the 13 I would often find that the phone battery would run out before the end of the day. With the 17 Pro Max I have never run out of charge. Some days I have used my phone a lot and never worried about running down the battery. So, much so, on a recent overseas trip I didn’t worry about taking my power bank.

I have been impressed with the A19 Pro chip. Various activities on the new phone are much faster than the older 13 model.

Overall I am very satisfied with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the better camera, longer battery life, faster processor, and there is more to discover as well.

Posted on

Went with Filezilla for FTP

Back in the day I would often use an FTP client to connect to remote web servers to update and add web pages and content. I was a keen user of Macromedia Dreamweaver and would update my web pages before synchronising with the server. Occasionally though I would need to access the server using an FTP client.

I wrote last month about looking at using an FTP client.

With an issue with one of my web sites, I needed to access the server through an FTP client. The web interface provided by my service provider wasn’t cutting the mustard. I did have a Transmit 3 licence, but that wasn’t going to work with my current version of Mac OS. I then looked online and decided to use Cyberduck instead. That wasn’t working for me, so I looked at the other option I had considered and that was Filezilla. 

FileZilla is a free and open-source, cross-platform FTP application.

It did what I needed and I was pleased with that.

Posted on

No more Trouble with Tesla

I was on my way to Heathrow (again) and I stopped at the Reading Services, gave the MG IM5 a top up charge using the Tesla chargers. Easier said than done, as only the westbound services have compatible Tesla chargers. So, I left the M4 at Junction 11, reversed back onto the M4. 

It took 40 minutes to deliver 57.3kW, which average out at around 86kWh. About twice as fast than when charging the Funky Cat.

As on my previous visit, I reversed the MG IM5 into the bay. The charging socket is in the same place as Tesla cars, so though these chargers had the longer cables, having the charging port in the same position as a Tesla, will make it easier with those Tesla charging banks with shorter cables (such as Cribbs Causeway). Using the app I set the charger going and then plugged it into the car.

The MG IM5 comes with 800v technology can take a 396kWh maximum charge and theoretically will take 17 minutes to charge from 10-80%. However the Tesla infrastructure is 400v, so I wasn’t going to get anywhere near that.

I am planning to try out a 800v charger at some point, the Ionity chargers are supposed to be 800v.

Posted on

Roaming in Greece

I usually blog about my roaming experiences when I travel abroad. Sometimes I have issues, but more recently things have gone very smoothly. This year I did personal day trips to Venice, Madrid and Copenhagen. My roaming experience in these three cities was all fine, so much so, I forgot to blog about them.

Last week I was in Greece for a conference, which followed my extended visit to Sweden the week before. I was planning to be in Sweden from Sunday to Tuesday in Luleå, but because of the Nats issue at Heathrow, my connecting flight from Stockholm was cancelled. The earliest flight I could then be booked onto was three days later. I then spent three days in Stockholm.

That was the first international trip I had taken with my new iPhone 17 Pro Max and the roaming experience was seamless. However with my extended trip I did use 7GB of my fair use limit of 12GB. This is even with decent hotel wifi, and eduroam at my conference venue and in the Swedish airports.

So, last week, going off to Thessaloniki in Greece for five days for a conference I was expecting to run out of data. I have been to Greece before, visiting Zante and Kefalonia on holidays in the 2000s. However, I had not visited the Greek mainland before. This was also my first experience of using my Three account in Greece.

As with recent experiences all was fine when I landed at Thessaloniki airport. I think I was lucky in that both the hotel and the conference venue had really good wifi, so I had less need for falling back on roaming. The conference was at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and they had excellent eduroam coverage. The airport also had good wifi, so while waiting for my flight home, could use that.

In the end I only used about 1GB of roaming data across the five days in Greece.

Posted on

No Trouble with Tesla

I was on my way back from Heathrow and I stopped at the Reading Services, gave the MG IM5 a top up charge using the Tesla chargers.

Unlike my experience at Dart’s Farm, this was a smooth and easy experience.

I reversed the MG IM5 into the bay. The charging socket is in the same place as Tesla cars, so though these had longer cables, it will make it easier with those Tesla charging banks with shorter cables (such as Cribbs Causeway). Using the app I set the charger going and then plugged it into the car.

The MG IM5 comes with 800v technology can take a 396kWh maximum charge and theoretically will take 17 minutes to charge from 10-80%. However the Tesla infrastructure is 400v, so I wasn’t going to get anywhere near that.

It took 19 minutes to deliver 27.7kW, which average out at around 87kWh. Faster than the Funky Cat which (according to my charging history took 38 minutes for about the same amount of charge. 

Posted on

Roaming in Sweden

I usually blog about my roaming experiences when I travel abroad. Sometimes I have issues, but more recently things have gone very smoothly. This year I did personal day trips to Venice, Madrid and Copenhagen. My roaming experience in these three cities was all fine, so much so, I forgot to blog about them.

This week I was on an extended visit to Sweden. I was planning to be there from Sunday to Tuesday in Luleå, but because of the Nats issue at Heathrow, my connecting flight from Stockholm was cancelled. The earliest flight I could then be booked onto was three days later. I then spent three days in Stockholm.

This was the first international trip I had taken with my new iPhone 17 Pro Max and the roaming experience was seamless.

Before when I would go abroad the process I would use with my phone, was  to go into Settings -> Mobile Data and turn off virtually all the apps which could use mobile data.  I would turn off mobile data for virtually all my apps and also specifically iCloud Drive and iCloud Backup. I am pretty sure they were the culprits for my excessive data usage whilst in Portugal. This time, as with my recent trip to Netherlands, I only turned off mobile data for iCloud Drive and iCloud Backup.

However with my extended trip I did use 7GB of my fair use limit of 12GB. This is even with decent hotel wifi, and eduroam at my conference venue and in the Swedish airports.

Posted on

Eduroam at the Airport

I had read about how at Swedish airports you could connect to eduroam. I have never been to Sweden before so could never test that out. However, I recently flew from London Heathrow to Luleå in northern Sweden, with a transfer at Stockholm.

At both Stockholm Airport and Luleå Airport I was able to easily connect to eduroam and the speeds were impressive. On the test I did, I was able to get 300Mb/s down and 260Mb/s up speeds.

Of course adding eduroam to places like airports is not a technical problem, but a political one. It probably helped that Swedavia is the state-owned company that owns and operates Sweden’s major airports.

Posted on

WiFi in the Air

Now I know WiFi on planes isn’t new. However any plane that I flew on over the last few years which had WiFi would charge for WiFi usage, as I rarely had any urgent use case for using WiFi up in the air, I would just read my book. More likely was the carrier I was flying with, just didn’t have WiFi.

So, it was nice on a recent SAS flight to Luleå in Sweden (with a transfer at Stockholm) to have access free high speed wireless internet at 30,000 feet.

You’re flying on one of the first SAS aircraft equipped with our new high-speed WiFi. Enjoy free WiFi, exclusively available for EuroBonus members and 3-customers.

What’s the difference?

Unlike traditional systems, the high-speed WiFi is powered by Starlink – the world’s most advanced satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit to deliver reliable streaming, gaming, and browsing so you can stay connected on board like never before. With thousands of satellites in orbit, Starlink delivers a stable connection throughout your flight, even over oceans and in remote northern regions.

I actually thought I would get free WiFi as I was a Three customer, no that was just for Three customers in Sweden (and I think Denmark). However you can sign up to SAS EuroBonus for free and that gives you access to the free WiFi.

The speeds were excellent, I did a speed test and I was getting 200 Mb/s down and 18 Mb/s up.

More than adequate for email, messaging, syncing documents, and then some.

Posted on

Trouble with Tesla Chargers

I drove to Dart’s Farm, with a plan for a quick charge using the Tesla chargers, I was down to around 25% in the MG IM5. Grab a coffee, maybe some stuff from the farm shop.

In the past I have had issues with Tesla chargers and my old Funky Cat. I was hoping with the MG IM5 that I would now avoid these problems.

So, you can imagine my annoyance when I was at Darts Farm down in Devon about to use the Tesla chargers there and I had an issue.

Ironically, I never had any problems with these chargers and the Funky Cat, so my expectation was that I wouldn’t have any issues with the MG IM5.

I used the app, selected the correct charger and set the charger to charge. I was promoted them to plug the charger into the car. This was the process I used with the Funky Cat when using Tesla chargers before. I plugged the MG IM5 in, and nothing happened. I went into the MG app and clicked start charging. I even sat in the car and clicked start charging.

Nothing happened. The Tesla app was reporting that the charger was connected, but no charge we being delivered.

Then I couldn’t unplug the charge cable, reminded me of the Funky Cat. There is a manual release for the charger in the boot, but I couldn’t find it. Of course, when I locked and then unlocked the MG IM5, the cable did eventually release.
 
Unfortunately, no other chargers were free, well there were free chargers, just none that were accessible for the charging port on the MG IM5 (another thing it has in common with the Funky Cat).
 
I moved the car to a normal parking space. I went to Dart’s Farm and had an iced latte.
 
Checking the Tesla app to see how many chargers were free I saw I had an issue with the app. The app was still initialising a charge, despite the car not been connected.
 
I did a hard restart of the app, this didn’t work.
 
I shut down and restarted the phone. That didn’t work.
 
I signed out of the app. Restarted the phone again, yes, you guessed it, that didn’t work either.
 
In the end I deleted the app and then reinstalled it.
 
Even then, the app still said initialising a charge, then it said it had stopped.

I could now see there were more free chargers. I was going to try again. I moved the MG IM5 to a different charger to the one I had before, and guess what, yes, it started charging straight away.
 
Though the MG IM5 had a charge capability of 396kW, this is only with 800v chargers, the Tesla chargers are only 400v. So, I was only getting around 87kWh. Better than the Funky Cat, but still.

Came back to the car, which had around a 50% charge now. Disconnected and started my drive home.