MINI E Field Trial - Application Phase Now Open

I got the message and jumped onto the application site.

My heart sank a bit at the cost ($850/mo) and lack of back seats, gobbled up by a battery pack, but the form did not outright refuse me on the distance to the Hollywood CA Mini participating dealer (323 miles away).

I said I'd upgrade my utility box, promise to bring the car to nearest dealer every 6 months, and return it 1 year to the day I get receive the car.

The questions went freestyle after that, asking me about my favorite inventor (DaVinci), my favorite band(U2), how I am changing the world(Electric Vehicles), what the problems are in the world (Overpopulation), why I deserve to be a Mini E tester, even who throughout history I'd like to take go on a roadtrip with. (Bill Clinton, Mark Twain and my wife (not all at the same time I presume))

All the Mini-Hype crossed with a Beauty Pagent questions, ignoring the fact its a $10,000 1 year trial for a car you don't keep and lacks back seats (No room for Bill and Mark). Don't know if I am pretty, or rich enough to qualify. PLUS if I did get an Mini-E, I am very likely to take it apart to build by own in parallel *.

(* and that might have just disqualified me)

Normality Reigns

The latest incident after much normality was the speedometer cable disconnected itself from the gauge. I found this extremely annoying, loosing the mileage for my ride log. It brought up issues of basic chassis maintenance (ie brakes) left undone, but also more monitoring left undone.

The TBM (TronBike Meter) does a good job of measuring the electrical usage as long as its running properly itself - however, I still lack digitized input for speed and mileage. Also, the stability of the TBM hardware - I get sporadic freezes requiring a tedious reset and loosing yet more data, and how clumsy a PDA is on a motorcycle is bumming me out. The speedometer fix was easy, but needless to say I started the search for the next cluster and dash upgrade.

Newer iPaq with Bluetooth was the plan, but I am tired of getting clobbered on eBay trying to get one of these.

Thoughts:

1. I've pondered iPhone as a console, but the SDK lacks direct bluetooth support and no IR - if I had a Wifi something, maybe.
2. Going for specific hardware/gauges is easy, but it lacks the automation I seek and is too tedious - I want this thing built in, uploading/downloading to the net automatically.
3. GPS versus measuring at the wheel seems like quite a debate. So I would like to do both. There is a surprising lack of speed sensors/computers with serial connections available, it seems so obvious and useful.
   
4. The latest inspiration are the "GUMSTIX" linux platforms. A touch screen is an option, but acting as a WIFI - RS-232 bridge would open up the display and control to a wide spectrum of devices like the iPhone or laptop or anything. Basically, run a little logging web server on Tronbike, bury it deep inside like my own ODB II computer, should boot fast/near instant on if I am lucky.
   
5. I do have a hackable Linksys 54G hub sitting around too, but it official/standard serial connections (I might be able to add them in).

Thoughts welcome, thanks for reading.