Eideard

Within weeks of when Nissan first began delivering the Leaf to buyers last December, do-it-yourselfers were looking for ways to make the new electric car — an engineering marvel from one of the world’s leading automakers — even better.

Phil Sadow, an independent engineering consultant…is the sort of innovator that makes such upheavals happen.

His contribution sounds innocent enough: he adapted the 120-volt charging cord that comes as standard equipment in the Leaf so it can handle a 240-volt charge. This reduces recharge times to less than eight hours, from about 20, and it lets Leaf drivers plug the Nissan charging cord into any 240-volt household outlet, typically used for appliances like clothes dryers.

Mr. Sadow’s project was inspired by his outrage over E.V. owners’ being billed as much as $6,000 to install 240-volt charging equipment. These home units, he says, with their fancy industrial designs and Wi-Fi capability, are more complex than necessary.

“If you look at your average Walgreens $10 hair dryer, it comes with almost all the same equipment as required by an E.V. cord,” he said…

With Mr. Sadow’s $239 modification, the charging cord that comes with the Leaf will replenish the battery pack at the full capacity of the car’s onboard 3.3-kilowatt charger. It can be plugged into a 240-volt outlet or combined with another device, called a Quick-220, that uses two 110-volt outlets on separate circuits…

“The E.V. cord should be as simple as a garden hose,” he said…

But are these electronic engineers hackers? Mr. Sadow rejects the term, seeing himself and others as helping to find more cost-effective solutions to building E.V. infrastructure — not to mention doing something Americans have done with their cars for more than a century.

“I don’t like the term hacking because it’s been portrayed by the media as something evil,” he said. “To me, hacking is actually very American. Go out to the garage. Take it apart. Make it better.”

Rock on, Mr. Sadow. Nissan has recognized the reality of his tweaks and reduced the cost of their “factory-approved” cord system by 70%. Of course, Americans will fiddle with factory settings – and those with the most technical skills will produce modifications that make systems run better. That’s what real hacking is all about.

Dangerous murals on Maine labor history – removed by Scrooge LePage

Prosecutors have declined to pursue charges against a homeless man in Maine who helped himself to an outdoor electrical outlet to charge a pair of cellphones.

Bangor police originally charged 23-year-old Shaun Fawster last weekend with theft of services after an officer caught him charging phones on an outlet hidden behind some flowers. He was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon after the officer found a folding knife tucked under his shirt.

But Susan J. Pope, assistant district attorney, said prosecutors declined to pursue the case.

Fawster, who’s a transient with no known address, couldn’t be reached for comment.

I don’t mind giving you a comment. With a state governed by a drudge who hates art that depicts working people as worthwhile human beings, with [a few] coppers who harass a homeless dude who stays North instead of heading South – it only took a day or two to find an assistant DA with her head screwed on straight enough to release the poor bugger.

Will electric car charging networks have the type of roaming commonly found between cell phone providers? If Nokia Siemens Networks — a joint venture between the European networking giants — has anything to say about it, in Europe they will. This week at Mobile World Congress, an annual telecom conference in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia Siemens Networks and a German public utility group called Smartlab announced they are developing an authentication and authorization service to enable electric vehicle drivers to “roam” when charging up via various service providers.

Called e-clearing.net, the service will essentially authenticate your data across charging infrastructure, using information like your EV charging contract ID, an RFID card number, a PIN number or a telephone number. The group notes that the service is built to be secure, and says in the future, electric charging service providers can use e-clearing.net to make customer billing easier…

The group’s new e-roaming project highlights just how nascent the electric vehicle industry is. While there are some early standards in place for charging, the IT layer for the data involved with charging isn’t yet standardized…Nokia Siemens Network’s involvement also shows how the telecom sector is increasingly looking to work on using their networks for the “Internet of things,” including EVs and smart meters….

Katie takes the time to reinforce her belief that Open Source is needed to advance the tech. I’m not at all convinced of that. But, I hadn’t considered this solution to roaming with an electric car.

I can conceive of a salesman out for dinner with a client falling over himself to pick up the tab for charging the client’s car.

Police in Maryland arrested a man after finding his cell phone charging at the scene of a burglary. Now Montgomery County police say 25-year-old Cody Wilkins has been charged in other burglaries.

It began when a homeowner’s son arrived as a burglar was going through rooms in the home Friday. Startled, the burglar jumped out a window and fled.

The son called police, who searched the home and found a cell phone charging in an electric socket. The phone led police to Wilkins.

Police say Wilkins’ home was among those in the area that lost power last week when a snowstorm moved through. Arrest records say he’s been linked to other break-ins.

Wilkins was brought to a Montgomery County jail on $1 million bond.

Dummy. Come to think of it. that’s why no one’s written a book on Burglary for Dummies. Anyone heading into a life of petty crime probably doesn’t read.

The smiles are gone this week
Daylife/AFP/Getty Images

NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator, said on Friday it has halted sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Bold because the phone can overheat while the battery is being recharged.

The company said it has received no reports of users getting burned or of phones catching on fire.

“This issue appears to be specifically limited to the BlackBerry Bold devices sold in Japan since last week and sales of BlackBerry Bold devices in other countries are unaffected by this matter.”

RIM said it had ruled out a battery problem, but said the root cause is still being investigated.

The latest I’ve seen says they’re overheating at the keyboard. WTF?