Aug/071
Day 6. No Sun. Lots of Biking.
Distance since last post: 75km
Weather: Cloudy, rainy.
Forecast: Bad for the next 3-days. Looks like I’ll have to be careful!
Notes: Crashed into a lamppost while I was trying to mount my bike. No damage. Phew!
View towards Remagen (two bridge towsers can be seen at base of hill) in terrible weather.
No sun, no energy although somehow I’m managing to squeeze enough out of the clouds to charge the phone which is pretty amazing. Luckily I have enough juice on the UMPC battery and the Li-Ion battery to give me about 4 hours of computing. If I spot any sun at all over the next 3 days I’ll have to stop and sap up as much as I can. Its going to be very tight. Will I have enough left for the final report in Duesseldorf?
Right now I’m in Bonn and at home with my wife. I’m only using battery power and won’t be charging anything so there’s no change to the plan. Apart from a long bath and a good sleep tonight ready for the last two legs on Saturday and Sunday.
Aug/070
Mathematics, sunburn and how 1.2kw of energy gives you 2 hours of computing.
When I did my first tests and calculations about the use of solar power to drive a PC I was quite amazed at the inefficiency of the process and today’s ‘laboratory conditions’ test proves just how much room for improvement there is. It’s thanks to devices like UMPCs that this is project is at all possible because I really doubt it would have worked with even a ‘power saving’ notebook PC.
Today I stayed at the campsite and put the Solar panel and Li-Ion battery through a 3 hours test. Its was a cloudless day with a very thin haze, 22 degrees centigrade and for reference I’m located at about 50 degrees north and 7 degrees east. The date is the 30th of August which is heading towards Autumn here in Germany. The test was done from 11:00 – 14:00 and I took the empty Li-Ion battery and charged it with the solar panel for 3 hours.
I estimate that about 1.2KW of energy hit my 7000 cm2 panel with about 660W falling on the Solar cells (3500 cm2). After conversion to electricity it created about 50w/hr of energy. Of that, about 40W was taken by the Li-Ion battery because it only uses a fixed current and voltage. It won’t adapt to the power available. Due to input voltage conversions and charging losses, this left me with an estimated 30W of energy and after taking this through yet another set of voltage conversions and charging process, left me with a rather poor 18W of power. Of course this is enough for a few hours of work but isn’t it incredible that so much power is wasted (or rather passed back as heat!)
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work out how this process could be improved and I’ve come up with a list of ideas that could help. I’ll talk though them in the next post but right now I need to put some more cream on the back of my legs because through all the concentration I forgot about the sun and I’ve burned the bit right behind the knee. That’s going to be really enjoyable tomorrow when I make the 70km dash to Bonn.
Here’s a diagram I created quickly on the Q1b. Hopefuly it makes things a bit clearer. How would you improve the architechture?
Aug/071
A few photos from day 4
This part of the Rhein, from Bingen, all the way up to Bonn, is really wonderful. And the campsites just keep getting better!
Aug/070
Grab those rays.
I’m still not 100% sure how much energy I managed to capture today but it looks like around 30W which should give me enough time to post without too much worry.
I stopped at about 10:45 and set up my solar collection point, ate my breakfast and waited. And waited. And got a bit bored! I managed to hold out until 1400 and then went for it. Nearly all the way up to Koblenz. Total distance for the day was about 61km which is really good and way ahead of schedule. I can now plan a rest day. Or rather another solar collection day!
I’m going to finish this entry now and make sure its posted before the battery runs out although right now its looking good.
Aug/072
Berta the Blue Bakers Bike
Distance since lost post: 15km
Weather: Clouds thinning
Notes: I don’t have much faith in the lead-acid battery. The Li-Ion battery seems to be charging much more reliably.
Another day completed and I feel like I’m getting into a better rhythm. Checking emails and RSS on the mobile phone and creating rich journal updates with the Q1b. I only wish I had a mind recorder because I’m thinking of some great ideas while I cycle but forgetting them when I get to a point where I could write them down!
The bike, which I’ve decided to call Berta (the Blue Bakers Bike) is performing fantastically well. I was a bit worried about having no gears but the fixed gear ratio is perfect for around 22km/h which, with 65KG of pack on a 25KG bike is just perfect. The thick tyres help to soak up bumps and now that I’ve pumped up the pressure a bit more, seem to roll without too much resistance. I even clocked 34kn/h on a straight today . Wohoo! Berta is Berta
Tomorrow morning I will cross the Rhein on a ferry over to Bingen, a lovely town that I’ve visited before, and then continue up the left side of the Rhein. The hills meet the rive here and so there could be an issue with mid-afternoon sun dipping behind the hills. If that’s a problem I’ll switch sides again but I can see from my map that the route on the other side takes me up into the hills. Not good!
Time for some sleep now. I had yet another good meal and feel like I’ve capped a good day!
Aug/070
Winter is coming.
Distance since last post: 40km
Weather: Mixed, cloudy. Hazy. Warm 20-22 degrees
Notes: Feeling really good. No aches. Pushing harder today. Cant stop eating sultanas! The hills on each side of the Rhein are getting bigger!
Winter is coming…If you take notice of the geese that is. I saw a flock flying south (following the River perhaps) this morning and wondered if they knew something that I didn’t. Its was lovely and warm yesterday and its pretty much the same today. Is there some nasty weather around the corner or did they get an SMS from some Geese mates in Africa telling them to come early?
Although its been warm its been very cloudy today. Much cloudier than yesterday and yet I still managed to get some charge into the Li-Ion battery and (I think) something into the lead-acid battery. Despite that though I’m using my spare battery and thinking carefully how to use the UMPC more efficiently. Daytime use (like now!) is not the best as the backlight needs to be turned right up. That’s draining an extra 2 watts compared to evening use when I can drop the backlight to minimum.
I felt very strong this morning and powered the 85KG bike/baggage combo through to Mainz in much less time than I had planned. It was really enjoyable. While the clouds where thick I kept on cycling and ended up in Eltville where the was a lovely Rhein terrace restaurant serving Spargel Suppe (Asparagus Soup.) I stayed for an hour while the solar panel and bike rested by a tree and then layed myself down on a bench for an after-lunch nap. After buying, writing and sending a few postcards I carried on the journey. The Rhein-side path was pretty bumpy and at every chance I tried to find another route but this was really the only sensible offering, the other being a trek up to the hills! Then, after about ten minutes I heard a crash behind me and stopped as quickly as I could. I looked back to see the battery packs and cables strewn across the path along with the shattered container. Shit! I gathered it all together, repacked it and then checked everything out.I think I’ve been lucky. Everything seems to be working still so I think it was just a warning from above to tell me not to take afternoon naps!
Only about 20km to go until the campsite and having looked closely at my plan, it appears that I’m ahead in terms of distance but behind in terms of energy capture. I need to take longer breaks. But no afternoon naps!!
Aug/072
A grape day
Location: Oppenheim
Distance since last post: 68Km
Weather: Hot with 50% cloud cover
Forecast: Heavier cloud tomorrow. Clearing toward Thursday.
Notes: Problem with the Lead-acid battery today. It didn’t seem to charge. Will concentrate on loading the Li-Ion battery tomorrow.
Due to the cloudy weather I decided to cycle all the way through to the campsite in one stage today. I chose a route slightly away from the Rhein which had the advantage of being more direct but the disadvantage of being inland and therefore higher. Hills are not something I enjoy on the 25KG Kronan bike! The route was nice though and it took me through endless lines of grape vines (and loud, gun-like bird scarers going off every ten seconds all over the valley) that are almost ready for harvesting for wine. Every town and village seems to be advertising their Winzer (Wine) Fest!
The mobile phone I have is doing very well as my email notifier and as (filtered) emails come in I get a little beep telling me to stop and take a look. Its nice to be able to say I’m in the middle of a Vineyard’ at the end of each reply! But that’s about it for the mobile phone. Trying to do anything Web-like is slow and terribly inefficient. Firing up the Q1b UMPC every now and then keeps proving how perfect they are for Internet activities. There’s no way I would be able to write so quickly, create the maps, review and edit the images and communicate via IM through all the protocols possible without it.
I’m camped right next to a beach on the Rhein (that’s the Rhein behind me there!) and can hear the waves lapping against the shore. Every 10 or 15 minutes a huge river boat can be heard either coming down from Rotterdam or heading up from the south somewhere. Fuel, sand, containers and even the occasional passenger boat. The Rhein is a business river. I wonder how long it remains efficient compared to trains, trucks and air transport.
I haven’t planned tomorrow in detail but it won’t be as long a journey as today. The Lead-Acid battery I have (2.2KG worth of old technology) didn’t charge well and so I’ll concentrate on loading-up the Li-Ion battery. One bit of good news though is that the mobile phone charges from the solar panel even in bright daylight. If all else fails I’ll have to email the blogs via T9 but I hope that doesn’t happen. I still have a fully charged spare battery for the Q1b so I’m not in trouble yet!
Aug/070
68k with 68kg
Or thereabouts. It was a long hard day and ill write a bit more about it later. I’ve updated the map and am just off to have some food.
Aug/070
Pleasant evening talking UMPCs
Location: Here (just south of Ludwigshaven)
Distance since last post: 27.1km
Weather: Warm 25 degrees C. Some cloud cover.
Notes: Counted 33 mosquito bites from last night. My back got eaten. There must have been one in the tent. He’s full up now!
When I arrived at the campsite this evening, the tent area was empty. About 30 minutes later someone turned up on a recumbent and, as you do, we started chatting. My 25KG bike is usually a good conversation starter!
Manfred is 63 and from Constance, where the Rhein river starts. He had just finished a 120km run and was on that last leg of a tour he started at the beginning of August. He had already been down the Rhein to Holland and was on his way back! We went for some food together and he was telling me about his career in computing and I tried to explain a little about what I was doing. Of course we had lots to talk about but I held back on saying too much about UMPCs. On the way back he was telling me how pocket PCs don’t have the right OS, how the communicator has the same problem and how he wanted a small windows XP (not Vista – he still has some DOS programs that need to run) machine. When I showed him the Q1b back at the tent he was amazed and when I connected to the Internet on the spot he couldn’t believe it. I passed my card over and smiled saying that I hadn’t expected to be promoting UMPCs face-to-face on this tour!
I’m settled in the tent now and I can hear Manfred snoring (yes Manfred, if you read this, let me tell you that you snore!) The Q1b has about 20 min’s of battery left and I’m going to switch to the external one soon.
Tomorrow I will have to see how the weather goes. If its as good as today I’ll take a nice long lunch break and load up as much as I can because the forecast for Tuesday isn’t as good.