Saturday, September 26, 2009

ALIBRE IS OFFERING ALIBRE DESIGN STANDARD FOR ONLY $99!

For two more Days! Get it while you can!

You can check it out by going to Alibre's home page and clicking on the announcement banner at the top of the page.


  • If you were ever thinking about moving to 3D but couldn't afford it;

  • If you were ever thinking about taking Alibre Design for a test run, but didn't have $1000 to spend;

  • If you are contemplating staying ahead of the curve in recession by investing in the growth of your engineering department;


Alibre Design Standard is usually $999. That's a $900 savings.
Now is the time to buy! No Stimulus Package can compare to this deal. It really is ridiculous!

If you just want to Try the Program for No Risk - that is - No Money - Just start Here

Still - for $99 - It's not a tough Decision!

Alibre Design is an incredibly easy-to-use and learn 3D CAD system for mechanical design, comparable to products like SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER or Inventor, but costs thousands less (Even without this Extra Special Discount!).

The software has integrated tutorials and live support, so it's easy to be productive quickly. And if you need more tutorials - check out Mine!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Pursuing a Battery So Electric Vehicles Can Go the Extra Miles

The New York Times: Published September 14, 2009

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A future generation lithium-air battery might be the much sought after power source for electric vehicles with ranges that match gasoline powered cars of today.

The interest in the as-yet-unproven technology was underscored this summer when I.B.M. said it had begun to pursue a tenfold improvement in battery storage, with hopes of reaching the goal before the end of the next decade.

I.B.M. executives said the company was unlikely to enter the battery business directly but was aiming toward a partnership that would marry its hardware and systems design expertise with ultralight battery technology.

Such a strategy would follow the lead of Tesla Motors, a new California company that produced a high-end electric roadster based on a computerized and sensor-based battery system. Tesla put 6,800 standard lithium-ion battery cells designed for consumer electronic products into a 992 pound package.

“I strongly believe that climbing this Mount Everest of 10 times better, given resources, time and patience, will happen,” said Winfried Wilcke, a physicist and I.B.M.’s senior manager for nanoscale science and technology here at the Almaden Research Center. “This is simply so overwhelming in its simplicity and its clarity and the socioeconomic consequences it would have, that it deserves a Manhattan-like effort.” Continue reading the Original Post Here

Monday, September 14, 2009

Electricfly Continues to Log Energy Consumption

It has been some time since the last post due to continuing efforts in a variety of areas - no the least of which is the logging of PakTrakr energy use data and UM100 Energy Monitor recharge energy consumption data for comparisons.

Of course the time involved with the AeroCap Project and Website development, some time on the website for my electricfly, and duties as the webmaster for The Electric Vehicle Society of Canada, as well as their Editor for EV Surge - Their Newsletter.

Oh yes - I also work a regular Job at Bombardier Aerospace - DeHaviland, full time, as an Aircraft Assembler, and have been spending some time trying to return to the re-design of my first website - Aircraft Computational, wherein I largely was able to collate a large number of interesting links in the Aviation and PC fields - under - links, and to create and share - for free - pdf based Tutorials for Alibre Design - and excellent 3D CAD Solids Modeler.

Beyond that I have been trying to find time to develop our new - Telecommunications Business, which means learning the ropes, and helping people save money on their home phone, Internet, and long distance communications, as well as get good deals on Cell Phones, Home Security, and Satellite Digital TV. Of these - my Favourite is the Video Phone

On to the Electricfly - the Data logging is a process of logging on an SD Flash Memory Card the running data with the Woodward PakTrakr Display with the SD Card Reader/Writer, then taking the card and uploading the raw data to my PC in .csv format and giving it and easily identifiable name to match the date and activity. This is then tweaked - removing the data that is not deciphered, or that is reserved, but not interpreted, and the file is re-saved with a modified name - still as a .csv file.

The new .csv file is then re-saved with a normal excel extension, and the data is then tallied, added, averaged, checked for peaks in a min-max format, and simplified for easier grasping.

Unfortunately, of late I have only been able to log the data and upload it in raw form to the PC for later cleaning up. I did clean up some of the files this spring, but the process is a bit slow, when combined with, or inserted into the flow of everything else to do.

This coming Thursday - September 18th, 2009 - is the next general meeting for the Electric Vehicle Society, and I still have to complete the July-Aug 2009 EV Surge Newsletter, so I have been a bit behind. They are having an executive meeting today to plan some things, which I have committed to attend. So - as you see - the electricfly has some time competition now.

Since the UM100 Energy Monitor does not have any data card storage system, I have captured that data by taking pictures of the monitors display after a charge cycle is completed, along with Pictures of the Odometer and trip meters for reference. This information is compared to the energy consumed between charges according to the PakTrakr Display SD Card data, The UM100 shows time, kwh's used, and as I have programmed the current 13 cents per kwh net that I pay -the total dollars (or cents) worth of electricity used.