241: Saturday 15th December 2012

Not much to report at the moment. Sparkie has been parked up and on stands since September as I have slowly been getting the body completed. I have been re modelling my garage, so now it is a garage with a wall about 2/3 of the way along. If I took out the work benches I might just get a Smart car in here ( the 2-seater). We get a laundry room into the deal and more space in the kitchen to practice my new found love of cooking. Anyway, I have fixed the holes and chips in the rear body kit and fitted one side skirt panel roughly. I need to get this fitting better then I can move onto the other side before tackling the front bumper. This is probably my least favourite part of this project, but it will make the biggest difference to the car's appearance. To start with I shall prime and paint these new panels with spray cans just to get the right colour before going back on the road. All the panels are dull and need painting, so I want to give it to a professional when I have the money. For now though I don't want white panels on a red car, so I shall give them a quick blow over. Still no more recycled batteries, so can't get any decent range. I shall start converting to Lithium before long, but I believe it will be a few at-a-time. My friend and partner for the battery monitor system, Ray, has done a great job so far developing his range of modular boards. They are now approved for sale and CE marked. He is working out a few bugs with the CAN system settings, then should have an example running on the bench soon that will display 10 battery voltages. As this has a touch screen we shall develop a system where touching any one bar shall show greater detail of that particular battery or battery group (depending on the measuring points) including the actual voltage in large numbers.'+' and '-' buttons on the screen can select the next or previous battery, and touching the centre shall return to all 10 bars etc. Also when I select reverse, I want the screen to show a rear view from a colour camera. Now this bit I like.... Hopefully I can get back onto the bodywork again soon, but I still have a load of plumbing to do in the laundry room, move the boiler and install a downstairs toilet. Too much to do, not enough time. I am not in a great hurry, but I do miss my electric drive.