Tag Archive
Day 7 – Bonn to Koeln. Easy ride. No Sun
Location: KoelnDistance since last post: 15kmWeather: Brightening. Still 100% cloud As I was leaving Bonn this morning I passed a trio of mountain bike riders. They where looking closely at one of the bikes and I heard them say ‘I think the gear has broken.’ My army-pattern bike might be heavy but its as solid as [...]
Day 6. No Sun. Lots of Biking.
Distance since last post: 75kmWeather: 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 [...]
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 [...]
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!
Solar UMPC Tour weather update.
The latest weather report is still bad. No chance of leaving in the next 10 days unless the weather report is wildly wrong. Its unbelievable! We had the hottest, driest April ever and since then the clouds and rain just won’t go away and summer storms are threatening almost every day. Looking at the sun graph for the last three days [...]
Route plan: 500km from Strasbourg to Duesseldorf.
I’ve finally decided on the start and end points of the tour and I’m 90% sure that its going to cover 500km from Strasbourg to Duesseldorf along the Rhein. The route will take me through Karlsruhe and Mannheim, Mainz, Koblenz, Bonn, Koeln (Cologne) and will end on the Rheinufer (Rhein promenade) in Duesseldorf with a very [...]
Solar panel testing. Tough calculations.
The weather is still bad here in Germany and there’s no chance of getting reasonable testing done on a solar panel at the moment. The forecast is also bad so I’ve decided to send the test P3 panel back. In the very short time I was able to test it I was able to learn [...]
Solar UMPC ToDo list.
I’ve been making another list! Its the big one. What do I need to do to prepare for the Solar UMPC tour which could start in under 4 weeks if all goes well. Below you’ll find a summary of the things I need to sort out before I go. I’ll be going into detail on [...]