A few months back, Darin and Ben (EM’s founders) asked me to review the new ScanGauge-E. I gladly accepted and tried it out for a few weeks. You can see the full review here. For the blog we’ll keep it short and to the point.

First up, we’ll look at some of the limitations of the ScanGauge-E. The first thing I noticed was that it only has one cable connector on it. The ScanGauge-II has two, one on the back and one on the front. This isn’t a big deal unless it interferes with how you want to mount the ScanGauge, or on the off chance you want to daisy chain two or more ScanGauge-Es together.

I was able to daisy chain my ScanGauge-II from my car with the ScanGauge-E on the end of the chain though.

Probably the biggest thing most users will note is that the ScanGauge-E only shows two gauges instead of the ScanGauge-II’s four gauge display. While this isn’t quite as nice, Linear Logic has done a few things to negate this limitation.

First off, they have added a bar graph to the left of the display. The graph always tracks MPG over time. However, the scale of the graph, or how it displays information is configurable. By default, the graph’s zero (halfway) shows as your trip average. Therefore you know if you’re doing better or worse than your current average. This is a pretty nice setup.

You can also set the graph’s zero point to a set MPG. They call this “GOAL”, and you can manually set whatever MPG you want as your zero point (0-255). With GOAL you can see if you are hitting the MPG you want or not. You could even set GOAL to the EPA rating of the car to see how well you’re doing compared to it. In addition, you can change the time scale of the graph to show a history of 20 seconds to 16.5 minutes.

Second, they have added gauge sets. You can scroll through the gauge sets with the left buttons. There are three default (not customizable) gauge sets, and two customizable sets. The default gauge sets show instant and trip MPG, the next shows trip CO2 emissions and today’s CO2, and the third shows trip fuel cost and today’s fuel cost. In addition to those three default gauge sets, you can make your own two custom gauge sets like you do with the ScanGauge-II. The buttons on the right cycle through the available gauges just as normal. While using the ScanGauge-E I found these gauge sets to be extremely useful. I really wish the ScanGauge-II had this same feature now.

The last things that the ScanGauge-E doesn’t have is the X-gauges, and performance features. The X-gauges are really nice if you own a hybrid since you can get info on your battery pack and a few other nifty things. I use them all the time with my PHEV Prius. I definitely don’t like to see them go. The performance features you loose out on are 0-60 timing, 1/4 mile timing, and 60-0 timing. But being fuel economy nerds, those are of little use to us anyway!

Let’s move on to what Linear Logic has added to the ScanGauge-E. It does have several features that the ScanGauge-II does not have. I already talked about the MPG graph and the gauge sets. In addition, the ScanGauge-E also calculates CO2 emissions. They have added two new gauges that calculate the CO2 emissions of your vehicle. The first one is “CO2″ on the display, it shows how many pounds/kilograms of CO2 your car has put out on the current trip. The next one is “TCO”, and it shows how many pounds/kilograms CO2 your car has put out for the entire day. In the trip meter section you can also see how many pounds/kilograms you’ve put out for the entire tank too.

In conclusion, I don’t think the SGe it is for everyone. But, it’ll be a very good fit for some people, including those looking to save money. You get almost all the features of the ScanGauge-II, but at 2/3rds the price (about $50 savings). That makes the payback much quicker. I think my ScanGauge-II paid for itself quite fast. That makes the ScanGauge-E a no brainer if you’re looking to save money. The other group of people I’d suggest this to would be the more casual ecodrivers out there. Its a nice gauge, gives lots of info and will help increase your mileage. There isn’t too much to look at on the screen; it’s smaller and fits in nooks a bit easier.

All that being said, I wouldn’t recommend the SGe to one specific group of people: the hardcore hypermilers. These folks  love info and will use every bit they can get their hands on to increase their mileage. That means needing the 4 gauges up all the time to optimize driving. I also wouldn’t necessarily recommend the ScanGauge-E to hybrid owners. The loss of the X-gauges is a big price to pay for hybrid owners who can gain a lot of functionality through them.

Of course, EcoModder sells both the ScanGauge-E and the ScanGauge-II. They can both be found in the EcoModder Store.

What would you say about using “cooked” chicken feathers to store hydrogen very efficiently?  How about using chicken feathers as carbon fiber reinforcement in things like wind turbine blades?

The answer to both questions is — yes you can!

Science Friday: “Hydrogen Storage in Chicken Feathers?”

Researchers say they’ve come up with a new material for storing hydrogen fuel — carbonized chicken feathers. Speaking this week at at the 13th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in College Park, MD, researchers said that carbonized chicken feathers could absorb as much or perhaps more hydrogen than other materials for hydrogen storage, including carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides, at a much lower cost.

Link to podcast

Here’s another source:  Happy News

While I’m on the subject of Science Friday, the second segment in today’s show was also very interesting; talking about the enormous potential for wind power to far exceed all our needs.

Science Friday: Wind Energy Potential

Link to podcast

Image source: Just chaos

Here’s a new one on me; the Riversimple open source hydrogen fuel cell car.

Not too many details are available yet: it has a 1kg tank of hydrogen and a whopping 6kW (8HP) fuel cell that give it a range of 240 miles, and a top speed of 50mph.  It weighs just 350kg (~771 pounds), owing mostly to the carbon fiber chassis.  They are looking to produce 10 next year, and ~50 the year after that, with leases available in 2012, for £200 ($315) per month, including the hydrogen fuel.  Key to their design is efficient regenerative braking (50% returned energy) using some ultracapacitors.

It looks like they are using hub motors in each wheel, and carbon fiber for the chassis.  It does not appear to be on their web page (yet), but they plan to release their plans so that anybody can build one.  I really like this idea of sharing the design information.  The aerodynamics seem to be worked out pretty well — the range of the car with just 1kg of hydrogen is proof of this!  The one (possible) snag is whether or not the side windows are operable — I guess toll roads can be handled with a wireless unit, though.  There is an intake grill, which may be used for ventilating the car.

I have my concerns with hydrogen — you can either get it from processing natural gas (which is obviously not very “green”) — or you need to use renewable energy (electricity from solar/wind/tidal/wave/biomass, etc.) to make the hydrogen.  There is no infrastructure for hydrogen, and this is a nontrivial hurdle.  But with this Riversimple car, they provide the hydrogen as part of the lease.  So this design concept works if you are located close to where they will have service.

Sources: ABG, Autoblitz, Riversimple

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV94PvlQVbM

Most of the time these pages are covered with discussion about electric, hybrid, or efficient combustion engine news and opinion. However, there is more to a car than the power source. An under-appreciated, but still very important part of any car is its transmission.

In fact, as far as fuel economy goes, transmissions can either make or break the car. Ever wondered why the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris gets worse mileage than you would expect? It’s because the transmission has shorter gearing to provide better performance with a smaller engine.

In the above video, GM discusses some of the issues linking the transmission to performance and fuel economy while at the same time highlighting their new 6-speed automatic transmissions. A move to the 6-speed gearbox helps on all accounts because it allows for your gearing to span a greater distance without creating too large of a gap between each individual gear.

In short: on the low end you will get better performance through shorter gearing but on the high end you will get better fuel economy through lower cruising RPM. GM is not the only one doing this, of course, but they do offer a nice explanation of how it works even if they do not go into detail about the associated cost increases.

Source: ABG

The PLX Devices Kiwi is undoubtedly a cute gadget. It has a nice color display, easy navigation, and installation is incredibly easy. However, is it really for ecodrivers?

Let’s go over the negatives I found first. I have a few major disagreements with how the Kiwi operates from an ecodriver’s standpoint.

The first will be that it rates engine loading opposite what actually gives best fuel economy. If you are a regular reader at EcoModder you should know that higher engine loads result in improved brake specific fuel consumption (amount of fuel burned per horsepower produced) which increases fuel economy. However, the further your press your gas pedal down, the lower your Kiwi’s acceleration rating drops. I can understand why they did this. Who wants to promote people punching the throttle at every stoplight? However, it’s really not the most efficient way to drive.

My second beef with the Kiwi would be its smooth rating. The smooth rating, from what I can tell, basically teaches you that the most efficient way to drive is to never move the gas pedal from where it is. If you have to push the pedal down further to climb a hill or if you take your foot off the pedal while going down a hill your smoothness rating drops. Again, if you are an ecodriver, you know that high engine loads going up the hill, then coasting down in neutral is a far more efficient driving style.

The next thing on the list is critical for some ecodrivers. The Kiwi can not handle engine off at all. It can’t handle engine off coasting or just turning the engine off at a long light. When you turn the engine off, the Kiwi always brings up a summary page listing how far you traveled, how much gas you used, how much gas you saved, etc. Once you key back on, or bump start, the Kiwi has to reboot. In order to get it up and running again, you have to press a button to get past their disclaimer, and another button to get past their tip that they give you each time it starts up. This takes a few seconds to do, and you really do not want to be doing it if you are using any pulse and glide.

With all the aforementioned issues with the Kiwi, I am absolutely sure that it would still help the large majority of normal drivers out there use less gas. The techniques it teaches you are good low level ecodriving techniques. Most drivers out there don’t even have a clue as to how bad of a driver they actually are. The Kiwi would definitely help them out. I also have no doubt that the Kiwi can backup its claims of up to 30% improvement in fuel economy to the normal driver.

The Kiwi does have some pretty neat features too. On top of being a cool looking device, the color screen is quite nice, and the navigation is logical and easy. The Kiwi score would be fun to have challenges with. Who can get the highest score amongst you and your friends?  Or you could post your score online to see how you stack up against others. Of course it also doubles as an engine code reader which can come in quite handy.

The short of it all is that the Kiwi would be a great tool for most normal drivers out there. For us ecodrivers, we’ll stick with what we know best and use a Scangauge II or mpguino.

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Two days ago, the New York Times had a really interesting article about something currently going on in one of the most progressive cities in the country: San Francisco. We all know that finding a parking spot in the city can really sucks. What’s worse is that driving around the same block over and over again isn’t getting you very good gas mileage.

San Francisco has an answer for both the anxiety and efficiency of finding a spot: Smartphone accessible parking spot details. Using small wireless sensors, parking spaces will be able to communicate with driver’s smartphones in order to tell them where there are open spots. It’s also possible that in the future you’ll be able to pay for parking over the phone, as well refill the meter without actually walking out to the spot.

This technology could be revolutionary, especially in congestion capitals like New York:

Not that New Yorkers need any reminders of their traffic problems, but a study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks.

NYC recently saw it’s congestion pricing plan fail, but if this system works in San Francisco I can see it reducing emissions, fuel use, and stress in congested cities around the world.

Image: jon_a_ross

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