Forgot to post it, but Tiny and Yogi stayed home for the day posted about above; and neither had any fun with the noise at all. I have pics in the housefire updates thread of them when i came home, just waking from sleeping on top of each other (whcih neither of them nromally tolerates).
Used the trike today for a it's longest trip so far, going up to WinCo about 55th Ave & Bell Rd for groceries, and an attempt to pick some stuff up from Freecycle since taht was on the way, sort of. Should've been a total of about 11 miles or so, maybe 12 with certain detours I might have to take depending on traffic/etc.
But it turned out to be at least two miles more than that, possibly more than three more (no speedo or odo so can't be exact), due to unintended detours/deadends/etc.
Times are estimates because I can't clearly remember, after the heat and exhaustion from later on the the trip.
I left the house around 3pmish, and rode significantly slower than usual, more like about 15MPH and less for most of the way, only going faster when needed to get thru traffic areas on main streets/intersections, otehrwise conserving power by staying slower.
I made it up there sometime after 330pm, probably closer to 4pm, (don't remember exactly), but headwinds and detours used up a lot more power than expected. I was already at 11.2Ah by the time I got there.
The map I'd used didn't show the streets properly, so boo for duckduckgo's map function, which often won't even show up when I do a search on the exact same terms or address! I shoudl've just used the googlemaps site i've used for years, but this looked familiar cuz i've been in that area before, so I thought it was right when it wasnt'. :/
I didn't pickup teh stuff cuz I didn't get any answer and didn't realize it had been set aside in almost plain sight

so I planned to come back and try again after going up to Winco. However, coming back I had more detour trouble cuz of the maze of deadend streets south of Bell and that shoppng center, so I had to just go ahead and head home before I ran out of power. I was now at more than 13Ah used, just trying to get out of that stupid mall area!
I've looked around in that area before when up there with CrazyBike2, and not found any accessible outlets that work (some are there but there's no power or they are covered and locked, or the owners won't allow their use).
There are a few food places with one or two outlets inside, but the mall is large and it's difficult to get from one section to another just to go around and find out if those outlets actually work (some are turned off, like McD's etc), and many places are simply too costly to eat there while charging (and I'd be there a while, at least an hour to ensure enough charge to get home).
I did stop at a couple places I knew had an active outlet at a table inside on the way to 31st Ave (my safer/easier route home) but both were very busy and the places near the outlet were occupied by families unlikely to be leaving anytime soon.
So I just kept going, keeping it around 10MPH or less. I considered stopping at Bill's cuz it was on the way, mostly, but he's out of town. I could've still plugged in, but I didn't feel right stopping by without him there to ask.
And so, a few miles later, as I crossed the intersection at 31st Ave & Cactus (about 3.5 miles from home), the battery died, at 17.5Ah used according to the WattsUp just before the voltage dropped below it's threshold and it shutoff and lost the ride data. Just lucky that it switched to the Ah readout before the screen blanked.
There's nothing in the area (other than houses) I could stop at, and nobody around to ask.
Of course, about half a mile earlier, a lady had been out front of her house and called out to tell me she liked the trike, and I waved back, but I didn't think I should turn around and pedal back to ask if I could charge up there, as if she didn't want me to I'd now have a whole mile more to pedalling back home.
Since I can't really pedal much, even under good conditions, and I was already hot and tired, I pedalled the trike very slowly (I could've walked faster with my cane, by myself with no load) in short bursts for a little more than a mile, which took around an hour (maybe more), to get as far as work at Peoria, where I almost gave up and just sat there before I even finished getting thru the parking lot, cuz I was just so exhausted and hurty.
Once i got it inside in teh breakroom, I sat to rest, drink lots of water, cool off, and plug in to charge up enough to get
home. While waiting for it to charge I went to the dollar store for some thigns they usually have cheaper than anywhere else (and some things like the lemon concentrate I make "lemonade" from that *only* the dollar stores seem to have--none of the grocery stores have anything like it except in teensy weensy expensive bottles, where the dollar stores have it in quarts).
Anyway, after a little less than an hour there, adding back 5.7Ah according to the Satiator, I went home, which took another 2.6Ah, according to the WattsUp.
It's now recharging fully, so we'll see what it's total Ah input shows vs what teh WattsUp says was taken out.
Total WU output reading is 17.5 + 2.6 = 20.1Ah.
Total Satiator input reading is 5.7 + 15.4 = 21.3Ah
[strike](to be edited in later once charging is done).[/strike]
Oh, and the main reason I'd gone to WinCo (vs somehwere much much closer to home) was cuz of some really good coupons they'd sent out, for stuff I actually needed...but I didn't have ti with me when I got there and can't find it here at home, so I lost it somewhere and have no idea where. :/
But nothing broke on teh trike, despite teh bad roads and potholes, my shoddy construction, and recycled nature of parts.

Worst that happened was that on teh right side, x5304, the righthand nut doesn't hold completley tight so even though the clamp on the lefthand axle holds great, it lets it pivot up and down a teensy bit, sliding in the righthand dropout just slightly, but enough taht it lets the front upper edge of the lefthand side of the tire rub on the frame, when I make a hard enough turn (or hit the wrong kind of pothole) to make it move. Then I have to get off, lift that side of the trike, then push it in at teh bottom of the tire, which fixes that. Need to add a shim above the axle itself to prevent that. Or weld a tiny dot in the top of the dropout itself.
And I *knew* I should take the RC LiPo 14s2p ammocan pack with me, and meant to...but forgot abotu it completely before I even started getting ready to go, and I don't know what distracted me from it. I knew it wouldn't give me much power, but it might be enough in case of runnign out on the EM3EV pack. Oh, well. Next time.....
