[Ovmsdev] OVMS v3

[Mastro Gippo]

Kevin, I just read that thread, thanks. I usually dislike Rickard's
attitude, but he has a point, the 2 products are for different purposes
even if sometimes they somehow match (someone adds GSM to the GEVCU,
someone adds outputs for relays and stuff to the OVMS). I saw the GEVCU
project a while ago and didn't like it much, mostly for Rickard's
involvement, and also because it was quite "amateur", but now at ver 5 it
starts to look more professional.
The question is - do we want to step up the game and start making a truly
automotive device? The answer is no, because it involves HUGE investments
and a very structured company to respect al the standards, but we should at
least try to do our best with our limited resources, and the GEVCU 5 seems
to have taken this direction quite seriously. This is only because they
will actually mess with the car's internals; as a mostly read-only
interface, OVMS doesn't need that much safety.
The price problem is very important, as the OVMS is mostly an end user
"gadget", while the GEVCU aims to be a real ECU. So OVMS have to keep a low
price point. Unfortunately the CINCH cases cost a lot, as Jack said in that
thread "A BOM isn't a product. We have more in enclosure and cable than we
have in the circuit board very nearly." so we must keep on using "chinese"
enclosures, but this doesn't stop us from looking for a better one.

I don't really like the Arduino environment, but if that makes the product
more desirable we can go that way, as it should also significantly reduce
development cost.

Matt, the new platform should very easily solve all your points, but the 3G
modem is still a big question mark for me. Do we really need it? going 3G
means higher service prices (especially for international contracts), and
you sometimes don't even have coverage.. should consume more current too. A
way to share the 3G connection with other devices (streaming radio...)
would make up for the higher connection cost.

I think that an RTOS/OS will be very useful in that way, as people can add
and remove modules as they will, but this requires a lot of effort (to
implement it on a micro) or a powerful and power hungry device. A very cool
thing would be to pair a small cheap router running linux (
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr702n for ~18$ or
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/8devices/carambola for ~25$ ) with an USB 3G
modem and a custom USB-CAN adapter (that can even be later used for
development, and sold as a product by itself!). But this is quite an hack,
and while adding extremely easy development, almost infinite expansion
capabilities and wifi out of the box, it's not a very consumer product.
Heck, it can even get streaming radios to the audio system with an usb
audio card! (I'm just brainstorming, but I like this idea more the more I
think about it...)

MG



2014-06-16 20:55 GMT+02:00 Lee Howard <lee.howard at mainpine.com>:

> I want to say "amen" to both Kevin's and Matt's comments.
>
> Right now it's really only fully useful for Roadster (and Model S) owners.
>  Volt/Ampera owners (and Leaf and Twizzy?) can remotely get a limited
> amount of incredibly useful information (like SOC), but the degree of
> control that the Roaster owners have isn't there (locking, unlocking,
> pre-heating/cooling, etc.).
>
> I intend to develop-in some of these features over time - at least for
> Volt/Ampera, and the only thing that has me not yet doing that is my need
> to get up-to-speed on the development environment and methods.
>
> However, even if all of the features available to Roadster owners were
> there for everyone, there is still so much more potential, as Kevin and
> Matt have said.
>
> If something isn't done to enable the expanded use then OVMS will
> continually only cater to a limited audience: one that wants access to
> various remote-control and remote-tracking features, but with limited local
> (in-car) usability and limited developer appeal.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lee.
>
> --
> *Lee Howard*
> *Mainpine, Inc. Chief Technology Officer*
> Tel: +1 866 363 6680 | Fax: +1 360 462 8160
> lee.howard at mainpine.com | www.mainpine.com
> _______________________________________________
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> OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk
> http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev
>
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