Author: jamesclay

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deck.blue

In a recent post I blogged about my experiences of using Bluesky on the iPad. I found that sing busky.app in the browser useful on the iPad instead of using the native iOS app  I was recently recommended using deck.blue to access Bluesky.

This service provides a multi-column layout and support for hashtags when using Bluesky.

Reminded me of Tweetdeck which I have used now and again (in the past) to access the Twitter.

I recently used deck.blue when using Blueksy at a conference and found the user experience much better than just accessing Bluesky on the browser or using the native iOS app.

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Mercedes Benz Self Driving Vehicles

I recently drove to a hotel in London and parking in the hotel car park I saw a couple of Mercedes Benz cars, which didn’t look quite right.

I took a closer look, these were self-driving autonomous vehicles, they had German number plates.

Not sure what they were doing in the hotel car park, but they looked interesting.

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Charging at the Q-Park Dickens Yard

When I had stayed in Ealing before I had parked my car in the Q-Park at Dickens Yard. On those visits I had remembered seeing the EV charging spaces as I drove through the car park to park.

So on my most recent visit to Ealing, driving there in the Funky Cat, I needed a place to park, so I decided I would try out the charging points in the Q-Park Dickens Yard Car Park.

Having first parked in a space with a non-functioning charger, I moved my car to a different space and, using my own cable, plugged the Funky Cat into the charger.

The process is different to other chargers I have used, you need to walk towards the pedestrian exit and there is a machine there. To be honest I nearly missed it. You then scan the barcode on your ticket and select the right bay on the screen. Then the charging starts.

The bill for the charging is added to your parking charge. So when you come to pay for your parking, your EV charge is added to the parking charge. This is nice and simple. The charge is 35p/kWh. These are Type 2 (7kW) chargers so won’t be charging your car that rapidly, but useful for adding charge to your car whilst shopping (or as I was eating). I got something like a 25% charge in just under two hours.

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Bluesky on the iPad

The Bluesky app on the iPhone works well for me, but there is no native Bluesky app for the iPad.

I have found the user experience quite poor as using the iPhone app on the iPad. 

Some iPhone apps work fine on the iPad, Instagram is a good example. The Bluesky app doesn’t, well it doesn’t for me. The main issue is that landscape mode shows only a couple of messages in the stream. In portrait mode, it’s okay, but I generally use my iPad in landscape mode.

As a result I have moved to the web app, using bsky.app in the browser.

This is a much better user experience. Does remind me of the Twitter web experience.

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It’s 185 again

I had charged to 100% on Friday, with a resulting 159 mile predicted range.

After a weekend of local driving and a 50% charge left,  I once again charged to 100% and the predicted range rose to 185 miles

Did some driving after charging, and as I write this, I have a 80% charge with a predicted range of 155 miles.

This is an interesting figure as 80% of 185 is 148 miles, so I am driving more economically than predicted. Of course if you inverse 155 miles at 80% to 100% you get 193 miles. This is the published range of the Funky Cat.

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185 yesterday, 159 today

The other day I charged up to 100% and had a predicted range of 168 miles.

Yesterday I charged to 100% and this range went up to 185.

Today I charged again to 100%, but the range dropped to 159 miles.

Despite the driving being quite similar, I still don’t quite get why it varies quite so much.

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Charging in Portishead

Went off out. I originally planned to go to a National Trust property, but decided it was probably a little too far away, so went to Portishead instead.

Parked on the road, but as I walked towards the marina I saw an EV charging station in the Parish Wharf Leisure Centre car park.

It had four spaces and was on the Revive network. The car park it was in was free for three hours. I didn’t need charging (urgently) so didn’t use it. Useful though to know it was there for a future visit to Portishead.

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ACC not activated

I have been using the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) on the Funky Cat quite a bit. I quite like using ACC when travelling through urban areas with a 20mph speed limit. It keeps me within the speed limit and obviously slows me down when there is traffic.

I did though have an issue with it yesterday when it failed to activate. I don’t know the cause, but with all the rain we’ve been having, I wondered if there was water on the sensors, which would mean that it wouldn’t function properly.

It wasn’t an issue I just had to drive without it.

I checked later on my journey and it was working again.

Maybe one to watch, just in case it happens again.

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No regenerative braking…

As I left the office today I realised that the regenerative braking wasn’t in effect. The Funky was driving along without slowing down when I took my foot off the accelerator. 

I thought there was a problem and I remembered a similar thing happening a couple of weeks ago as well. I was concerned that maybe there was another software issue.

Then it struck me, I had charged the Funky up to 100%, it had a full charge. How could the regenerative braking charge up the battery, when it was already at 100%.

Once I had driven a few miles, and the power had dropped a few percent the regenerative braking started working normally and as expected.