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80% or bust

The Funky Cat has a WLTP range of 193 miles, real life experiences when I first got the car was in the 185 mile range. These days with the car approaching its third birthday, is close to 165. For 90% of my driving this isn’t really an issue. However, it does or can become frustrating on longer journeys.

On those trips that are significantly longer than the range I obviously have to stop on the way to charge the car. My preference is to stop at Tesla charging stations, in the main as they are significantly cheaper than chargers such as InstaVolt or GridServe, but also some of the charging stations are in locations other that motorway services (though I do use those Tesla charger as well).

What I like to do is to charge to at least 90% and if I can even 100%. However I have noted that there can be an issue with Tesla chargers when the chargers are busy.

On one recent journey back from York to Weston-super-Mare (around 240 miles) I had planned to stop at a National Trust property and charge there. The night before I had been to the Tesla chargers at the Designer Outlet York, where I had eaten, and then post 8pm had put the Funky Cat on charge until I had reached a 100% charge without issue.

My first stop on the way was Hardwick Hall, according to the website they had EV chargers, in fact they did not. I left charging to another time and went to explore the house. 

After visiting the house, and looking at the route home, knowing I had about a 40% charge left, I saw that the Designer Outlet East Midlands, which was about ten miles away, had a bank of Tesla Chargers. So, I drove there and plugged in.

Now the M5 Gloucester Services (Southbound) are 120 miles from the Designer Outlet East Midlands. WIth a 100% charge that wouldn’t be an issue, even with a 90% charge, I would still have around 145 miles range. With just a 80% charge that would give me just a 128 mile predicted range, with motorway driving, probably not enough range to get to the Gloucester Services.

The problem I had with the Tesla chargers is that they charge congestion fees. When I was charging at Designer Outlet East Midlands I was charged an extra £2 for charging an extra four minutes over my 80% charge.

Supercharger congestion fees are fleet-wide initiatives to ensure a frustration-free charging experience for all Tesla drivers. Superchargers are designed for fast charging and therefore, should only be used for as long as it takes to charge a vehicle.

Congestion fees accrue when a Supercharger site is busy and your vehicle’s battery is already at or above the congestion fee level of 80% battery charge; or your charging session has ended. Fees are waived for the first five minutes, and then billed until the vehicle is moved.

They have a congestion charge of 50p per minute, which starts once you have reached a 80% charge. Now with a Tesla Model 3 with a WLPT range of 332 miles then an 80% charge would give you around 267 miles. However, my Funky Cat with an 80% charge would get just a 128 mile predicted range. I knew this would be pushing it to get to Gloucester services, so I headed on home down the M42 and stopped at the Solihull Retail Park. Once again I was limited to an 80% charge, but I was only 103 miles from home, so it was enough to get me back.

When I got the Funky Cat three years ago there was an EV charging infrastructure in place, but in some places it was limited. In Weston-super-Mare back in August 2023 there were just two rapid chargers available, since then another twenty or so chargers have been installed. In addition more fast (22kWh) chargers have been installed in various other locations as well.

Back in September 2023 I wrote about another journey back from York which was challenging as there were limited chargers at the different motorway services I went to and often they were busy. Back then there were only a couple of chargers at Hopwood and Strensham services, today there are many more. The services down in Exeter has nearly a hundred EV chargers installed.

The lease for the Funky Cat is coming to an end, I have decided whatever I replace it with, that EV will have a bigger range than the cat.

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Apple at 50 and the iPhone

iPhone
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Apple started back in 1976, though I am old enough to remember 1976, my personal history with Apple begins half way through their fifty year history in 2001.

I have already written about my computing for personal and professional reasons, the iPad, and the iPod; this post is about the iPhone.

I have used a range of iPhones over the years, some through work and those that I bought for personal use.

I now have an iPhone 17 Pro Max and the main use case I got for this was the photographic capabilities which have made dramatic improvements over the years.

I have also used the iPhone 13. It’s interesting that in the early iterations of the iPhone there was often very good reasons for upgrading, with the more recent versions, the improvements have been marginal at best. You notice the improvements when jumping from something like the 13 to the 17.

I didn’t buy the first version of the iPhone, mainly as it didn’t have 3G, which I felt was important for how I was using a phone.

I did get the iPhone 3GS. I liked it, but it was a secondary phone and I kept the Google Nexus One going for a few years.

Through work I then got an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is what the iPhone should have been from day one. Finally, the iPhone came of age. It is one of the best phones I have ever used. The camera was better than ever before, and the phone also came with a front facing camera. At the time the iPhone 4 was one of the best phones I had ever used, and I was really pleased with it.

My next iPhone was the iPhone 5S. I also had a work phone in the iPhone 6 Plus for a while, and I replaced my dependable Google Nexus One with an iPhone 6S Plus. Later in a different job I had the iPhone 8, but the iPhone 6S Plus kept me going for a few years.

I then had an iPhone 13 for a few years, but now I have the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which I am hoping will last a few years.

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Charging once more at Stourhead

Stourhead

Back in February I visited Stourhead and did a behind closed doors tour, however the house’s state rooms weren’t open, since I had always planned a repeat visit to see these rooms.

On that visit I did make use of the EV charging facilities. Though I had a few issues with the ChargePoint app and my bank card, in the end I used ApplePay and all was fine.

So, on a recent return visit to the property I was able to easily plug the Funky Cat into the chargers, and again I used ApplePay to set the charge going.

Stourhead also had some rapid chargers which looked like they could deliver more charge (so faster charging). The last time I was there they weren’t available as there had been a cable theft. This time they were working. After my visit I disconnected from the fast (11kWh) chargers and decided I would top off my charge using the rapid chargers. I was at about a 70% charge, so wasn’t expecting miracles, but the actual charge rate was very slow, so I didn’t connect for long.

There was an issue which may be just me, but on the fast charger   ChargePoint put a £15 hold on my card, I spent just under £10, but the remaining hold was still there five days later! The rapid charger took a whopping £35 hold and likewise it was still being held five days later.

I don’t think I had this issue at other National Trust properties recently as I have spent more than the £15 held. This time though there was a £50 hold on my bank card and I only spent £13.

Didn’t put me off, and I do appreciate the fact that chargers are available at some National Trust properties.

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Apple at 50 and the iPad

iPad with Apple Pencil
Image by Sakura Phutthalong from Pixabay

Apple started back in 1976, though I am old enough to remember 1976, my personal history with Apple begins half way through their fifty year history in 2001.

I have already written about my computing for personal and professional reasons, and the iPod, this post is about the iPad.

Apple announced the iPad in January 2010. To be honest I was impressed about this new product.

I had always liked the Tablet format, however the big issue with Windows based Tablets was always the standard Windows interface, fine with a mouse, didn’t really work with the Tablet interface; and you certainly couldn’t use your finger very easily. The iPad touch interface was like the iPhone interface which made it much more usable device than say a Windows XP Tablet.

There was a delay before they were available in the UK and I got one on the launch day.

It certainly met my expectations and over the last 15 years I have used the iPad extensively for home and work.

Over the year I have had about six or seven iPads, however they have either been standard iPads or the iPad Pro. I have never used an iPad mini or the new(ish) iPad Air. My current iPad is a 12.9” iPad Pro (3rd generation) and is about eight years old. I have been thinking about replacing it, but I don’t have as many use cases for it compared to how I have used it over the years. Part of how I would use it, I now use my phone for, and other aspects I now use a laptop. Where it always won out though was for sketch notes. One of the reasons I would replace the iPad is for sketching, as the battery in my current iPad doesn’t long as last as it use to. Another thing I never had was an iPad with cellular connectivity, and I think if I was to replace the iPad I would ensure that the new one came with cellular connectivity.

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Lidl EV Charging

After some problems with the Tesla chargers and not getting a charge, I headed off to Lidl close to Cribbs but towards the A38, to get some shopping done. When I got there, I saw they had an EV charger. Using the Lidl app, I could get charged for 62p a kWh. A little more than the Tesla chargers but still a reasonable price. 

The only time I have used Lidl EV charging before was in France where it worked really well and was significantly cheaper at €0.39 per kWh (that’s about 34p). Though I set up the Lidl app in France, that was the French Lidl, so I had to repeat the process for setting up the app and being able to charge the car. Once this was sorted, I put the Funky Cat on charge and went and did some shopping. I took my time. I only had the car on charge for thirty minutes, but that had put on nearly an additional 50% charge, taking me to 71%. I was impressed with the speed of charging and it wasn’t 85p that the MFG garage would charge me, they’re situated on the way between Cribbs and Lidl.

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Problems with the Tesla Chargers

red car next to Tesla charger in a car park

The last time I went to Cribbs Causeway I had problems with starting a charger using the Tesla chargers next to John Lewis. I have used these chargers before and have had issues as well.

The process I use is to park, using the Tesla app and start the charge, I then plug the charger into the Funky Cat. What should then happen, is the charger should initialise and then start charging. What actually happens is the charging fails to initialise, however when you “stop” the charge in the app, the charging gun remains locked to the car (this is a car issue thinking the gun is still live). I then have to use the manual release of the cable from under the bonnet, which should be an easy task, but isn’t.

The last time I tried to charge I made three attempts across two different chargers. None worked, in the end I went to Lidl and used their charger.

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Apple at 50 and the iPod

Apple started back in 1976, though I am old enough to remember 1976, my personal history with Apple begins half way through their fifty year history in 2001.

I have already written about my computing for personal and professional reasons, this post is about the iPod.

Apple launched the iPod back in 2001. The first iPod was, when you think about it, not really going to be a success. It was expensive, it was Mac only, it needed Firewire and there was no where to buy music, you needed to use iTunes to rip your CDS to mp3 and then transfer them across. No wonder at the time lots of people were sceptical and thought the iPod was doomed to fail.

I didn’t get one, partly as it was very expensive, I didn’t really use Macs at that point and I had a CD player!

I didn’t get an iPod until the fourth generation in 2004 (that’s me a late adopter) this was the version that could show photographs. It wasn’t until iTunes added podcasting support in 2005 that my iPod became essential. I used it extensively for podcasts as well as music.

I did use various iPods as part of the MoLeNET projects back in the 2000s including the iPod nano and the iPod touch. I also used a 6th iPod Classic, on this I could add images and video, as well as music.

Since getting an iPhone though and the advent of various streaming services I no longer use an iPod. Sometimes I think I would like to have one back.

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Not Charging at Hardwick

Hardwick Hall

More and more National Trust properties are putting in EV charging stations. These are mainly fast chargers, which means they are the slower 11kWh chargers, which are in fact ideal when visiting a property.

I had actually chosen to visit Hardwick Hall as I was on my way back from visiting Yorkshire and they had (according to the website map) EV charging facilities. For me this meant that I could stop there, charge the car, enjoy visiting the house, walk the grounds and still have time for a scone and a pot of tea.

However… the EV chargers were not by the house, so I couldn’t charge the car. According to the volunteer I spoke to, the EV chargers were down by the ponds, a thirty minute walk to the house. I didn’t really have time to drive there, and walk back. So, I left charging to another time and went to explore the house.

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Charging at Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

More and more National Trust properties are putting in EV charging stations. These are mainly fast chargers, which means they are the slower 11kWh chargers, which are in fact ideal when visiting a property.

I recently visited Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. The directions for the EV chargers wasn’t very clear, but I eventually found them in car park A. I plugged the car in and set it charging by using Apple Pay on my iPhone. Unlike many other chargers which use contactless they only take a £15 hold on your card. 

I had quite a low charge on the car, and in the end I added 35kW to the car. That took just over three hours which was more than enough time to explore the ruins of the abbey and have a nice walk in the gardens. I even stopped for a scone and a pot of tea.

I did think (initially) that the 50p kWH was reasonable, but this doesn’t include 20% VAT, I had misread the screen. So the actual cost is 60p kWh, which is still okay, but I do think it could be cheaper.

I was lucky in that there were plenty of chargers free, however I went on a weekday in April. I can imagine at weekends, during school holidays, and in the summer, it must be much busier and I would be cautious about arriving and relying on the EV chargers being available. The very fact that they are 11kWh chargers does mean that this isn’t a super rapid charge, but the type of charger where you are going to leave your car for a fair number of hours, even the whole day. The problem with rapid chargers can be, was was apparent at Stourhead is that the attached cables are prone to being cut off and stolen, and most National Trust properties are in rural locations. Hopefully something could be sorted to avoid cable theft so that rapid chargers can be used.

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Widgets on the CarPlay

I just discovered I could have widgets with CarPlay. Checking online I discovered that this was a feature with the iOS 26 upgrade. Obviously when this was released I hadn’t checked the the release notes.

What I like is that I can have a clock widget and a weather widget. The Funky Cat does display that information, but it is in very small text on the car home screen. I often have to ask Ora what the temperature is, which of course, switches CarPlay back to the Ora infotainment screen.

Not all the widgets I have seem to work or have a function (even in park).