Hi Gary,

I called Ron yesterday because my new SG had never arrived. He told me they had not shipped it yet because they where still working on the problem.

He has been able to reproduce the exact problem in the LAB & they think they have it fixed now, so he is sending me a new one shortly to "beta test".

By the way, forcing CANSF made no difference at all with mine -mine doesn't screw up often but it just did it this afternoon...

~John

 

Hello John... its been a while. How did the new unit work? Are all new SGII going to have the new software.

 

The new unit works great, I have had no problems at all with it.

~John

 

Not sure I've ever heard you say you had a SG Tim. You know, I rely on both the old SG and my Navi battery level to get the MPG I do. Not trying to sell the SG, but it's the best way to find out what works and what doesn't work for saving gas.

The last I heard on the SG data storage interface was that when they are availible, it will come with a programming disc for the newer SG. Looks like everything is a go for the new SG, so I'm going to go ahead and get the new one.

Anyone else still having problem?

GaryG

 

I don't.................yet.

But I always love tech toys. And maybe I can squeeze an MPG out of there without too much effort.

 

You know Tim, I think of you as a very smart guy. I'm not going to tell you you what you should do. The only thing I can tell you is what I do. Others are reading, and I hope that helps them. What is it that can help them?

Driving EV!

GaryG

 

I probably won't match what you've done.... 4 short trips each day in the cold . But... I can probalby squeeze a few more out of her. The SG is just a nice toy to watch whats going in under that hood.

 

Short trips are a killer for sure. When you get your SG 2, go to the "Current Trip" data screen and watch what it reads at the end of your short trip. From a cold start in the morning, the numbers look bad. My commute is from 10-20 miles one way most of the time. I have short trips all the time though that hurt my average tank.

One thing I watch very close is where my average is at a given point in my daily trips. By this, I can tell if it's going to be a good day or not, but if it looks bad, I start trying harder to average things out. You can't do that on a short trip.

Yesterday, I had an exceptional trip south with a good tail wind and brought my "current trip" to 49mpg from a cold start at 10 miles. By the time I got to Costco, I was at 50.6mpg at 13 miles. It was between 70-75F, but my battery was at the bottom when I started out. If someone had posted this kind of mileage in an FEH two years ago, I would have said no way. The truth is, I could have done much better knowing most of the extream hypermiler techniques. There was no key-off FAS, no holding back traffic and no RR passing in my trip.

The gas here so far is pure and the temp. is ideal, so don't think your going to get this kind of mileage without those conditions. In the case that you do, let us know.

GaryG

 

In the Prius forums, I read one guy did exceptional tests with a laptop and good, expensive OEM software, and found an 8 MPH wind would give +/- 10 MPG in a Prius.

An 8 MPH wind is really not perceptible to the driver, and won't even bend trees. But here's how it was in the Prius:

At 70 MPH road speed, an 8MPH headwind is like 78 MPH and = 42.x MPG.
At 70 MPH road speed, an 8MPH tailwind is like 62 MPH and = 52.x MPG.

Since the FEH is shaped like a brick, the wind should have a larger effect percentage wise, but maybe not a full 10 MPG difference.

I can tell you the FEH is stable at 140 MPH, and this = about 15 MPG.
How do I know?

I was driving 70 MPH with a 70 MPH (gusts) headwind a couple weeks ago!!!
( I would never drive this fast with a 70 MPH crosswind )

 

Headwinds can be a bear to take on, so I slow it down and look for roads with wind protection. Even with a good draft, the turbulence can drag you down at high speeds (~70mph) with the small engine in the FEH.

It seems a crosswind can get you coming and going, so again, I look for wind protective roads. These highrise buildings along the beaches here that are spaced apart, also cause turbulence that drag you down.

Coming out of my development, there is a nice flag pole that helps me determine which routes to take also. Watching the weather report every morning to determine wind direction, speed and if the wind is going to increase or decrease is a good idea. It only take a second to pull up the radar for rain on the PC, and I like to take a look at the ocean with all the video cams out there. Here is one in Jupiter I use all the time:
http://www.evsjupiter.com/main.htm

GaryG