EVCast #266. It's all interconnected, man!

Although lithium is tolerated in minute doses, the following reactions are also possible for larger doses:

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Hi Scott -

Yes, I should have clarified my statement regarding lithium batteries. My retired M.D. friend didn't mean you could eat lithium batteries, just that they are relatively benign in the environment as compared to NiCads or even lead for that matter. And in the case of the NiMH and lead-acid chemistries, you don't want to splash the potassium hydroxide or sulfuric acid solutions on yourself either, or dump it down a gutter somewhere.

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But of course the best place to get definitive answers is the Material Safety Data Sheets Solutions Center http://www.msds.com :

Unfortunately the MSDS site is a clunky limited pay-for-view site so here's some examples from a site that provides free information.

NiMH (Saft example): http://hazard.com/msds/f2/ckt/cktht.html

Lithium ion (Saft again): http://hazard.com/msds/f2/bjp/bjpwd.html

Pb acid (Trojan): http://hazard.com/msds/f2/byh/byhmn.html

Thanks for pointing out my error!

Be well,
Bob Tregilus
Co-chair -
Electric Auto Association of Northern Nevada
http://ElectricNevada.org
775 826-4514

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re: EVcast 266: Bo, Ryan and Nikki: I know you people are not operating on an enormous budget, so there are lots of changes I'd like to see but I do understand if you can't find a way to implement some of them.  But the following would be helpful should it be possible:

*** The podcasts are very difficult to follow sometimes, either due to speaking too quickly, poor connections or whatever.  Sometimes I find myself trying to back up the recording a dozen times or more to understand something someone said, such as on last weekend's webcast with Nikki and Bob Tregilus.  At 1:22:25 Nikki said something about a "meeting in Nevada is at"... then a few words I could not make out... then "13th of September from 6 to 7:30 pm"... I did manage to find some of the other information on the EAANN website, but what were the words I could not make out?  It would help if there were a feature on the webcast thingy that we could click as many times as we wanted and it would only back up the recording a set number of seconds-- I think 5 seconds would be just fine... and that if you clicked it X number of times it would back it up that many multiples of 5 seconds.

*** A transcript would be very appreciated, but I suspect it would be beyond the budget.  There's more than a thousand of us that are members, and if there were somewhere to upload completed transcripts, I suspect there would be several members... myself included... that would be willing to supply a transcript for a particular show from time to time.  The best way would be to have a "registry" where a volunteer would "adopt" a particular EVcast number... such as, say, #266... eventually all the shows could be transcribed when we had the time and inclination, and there would not be more than one person trying to transcribe any particular webcast.

*** If the hosts could remember to speak slowly and deliberately when giving dates, phone numbers, addresses, etc., it would help tremendously.  Sometimes someone rattles off such data so quickly that even then replaying it several times it's difficult to be sure what was said.

*** It is difficult to stay on- topic at all times, and if someone is trying too hard to stay on topic it can hamper the flow of communications.  But once an episode has been recorded, sometimes several minutes of dialogue has nothing to do with EVs, batteries or similar matter-- similarly, either the hosts or "adopters" could volunteer to edit out (with the agreement of the hosts and guests) off-topic comments, long pauses, stuttering, or excessive chuckling and other irrelevant content.  Members could have the option of listening to either the edited or unedited versions, and edited and unedited transcripts.  If we had transcripts to read while listening to the playbacks, it would, I feel, enhance the experience.

*** Transcripts would be far more valuable if each one had hyperlinks to related material, such as web sites of manufacturers, guest bios, wiki pages or photographs.

*** The button for "navigating" through a webisode is very difficult to use-- one thing that would help is if, when clicking on the button, it would not freeze at the exact time the webisode was stopped, but rather as we moved it back and forth on the slider, it gave the time the playback would resume once the mouse button was released.

*** The PAUSE button moves when you click on it-- the button should remain in the same place so that when we want to pause for a second or so, we don't have to move the cursor back and forth.  Having the button move from right to left when pausing and restarting is not helpful for anything.  It only slows down the process.

I really enjoyed this episode (#266)-- it was completely on topic, and provided lots of interesting data, such as the I-5 and I-80 EV corridors.  I look forward to seeing them up and running, especially considering the friends I'd like to see in the states north of us, and how much cheaper and guilt-free it would be to make such trips.

Here is a story of particular interest to the EV community.

The cobalt- fluorine compound could make it possible to have batteries with the power density (that is, range between charges) lithium ion can provide, but without the complex and expensive systems such as Tesla uses to prevent dangerous thermal runaway.  By adding minute amounts of this substance to the battery electrolyte, it does in effect provide a "safety brake" to the heat that can ruin the battery.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/08/24/24greenwire-chemistry-change-in-batteries-could-make-for-s-34626.html

Thanks--

Bill Dale

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Hi Bill,

Thanks for the comments on this one. Personally, I recommend all comments!

Of course, I'll try to speak more slowly. I think the accent probably plays a part in the incoherence at times. The other problems are studio based. It's something I know is being constantly evolved from my end, to improve sound quality and the quality of the line to guests.

You may find it easier to listen to the podcast using an external player. You can subcribe to the EVcast stream in your favorite podcasting player at our EVcast rss stream. You can get free programs for Mac, PC or Linux platforms to enable you to subcribe to the shows, downloading them automatically when a new show is posted and enabling you to listen offline.

 Regarding transcripts. It is a long process to type the shows out. I think getting your host to slow down a little will help. I suspect my accent doesn't help! I know there are some Americans I can't understand too ;)

Topics and off-topic banter. We do try to keep this to a minimum, but a little, I think, helps keep the show lively. But I'll bear that in mind too. The shows are already quite heavily edited by the time they get on here - taking into account volume fixes, editing 'blips' in the show and equalizing for distribution.

For future episodes, I'll make sure I include hyperlinks in both the mp3 file and the description here. How does that sound?

Plug it in! :)

Nikki.

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Nikki,

I have no trouble understanding your accent. After all I have an accent coming from your perspective especially since I grew up in the arm pit capitol of the world, the State of New Jersey where the folks around Hoboken say things like budda bing.

I grew up with the Brits, first in Kuwait when I was 6, then at 12 - 14 when I was in the Bahamas and I went to a school run by a headmistress from Britain who was my oldest brothers teacher in Kuwait, and the school was run as a British style school system and most of my teachers from from Britian. So I was properly exposed to British English.

I will never forget my 5th grade teacher, Mr. (Trevor) Morley. When I first saw him I thought he was the fifth Beatle and by a remarkable coincidence he was from Liverpool. He taught English literature and he was an actor and did a remarkable portrayel of Fagan from Oliver. So I was exposed to every and all accents including a highlander named Bill Sprowel from somewhere in Scotland.

So accents British or otherwise are no problemo with me.

Rick, from the Oil capitol of the World, Houston, TX.

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