I turns out I burn away a kilometer of travel for every four minutes or so of running my van’s engine just to power the air-conditioner while stationary. Talk about a rude awakening.
I constantly keep track of fuel mileage. After all, any decrease in kilometers per liter I’d observe would signal a need for cleaning, adjusting, replacing or replenishing something on my vehicle. And, all would be good if I didn’t give in to running the engine for minutes on end just to run the AC and get some fleeting relief from the summer heat.
I lead an office-van life, you see, and at some day hours the lighter-jacked electric fan I use simply can’t cut it. I’ve taken to rationing my AC breaks, using my stopwatch to dole out 10 minute stretches of the engine idling and the air-conditioner running with my face just inches from the vents. But, that nod to conservation, that painful shut-off after 600 seconds of cool bliss, begs the question: how much am I giving up in mileage for every minute of guilt-ridden, ozone-burning running in place?
I finally dusted off the old algebra to come up with numbers I could believe and work with. With my 1.2 Liter gasoline-burning minivan, I move around at an average of 40km/h and at 2,500rpm in city traffic. From this I figured out that it takes just 4 minutes and 10 seconds to burn off a kilometer’s worth of fuel while idling the engine to run the AC. This roughly translates to 2 and a half kilometers of travel lost for every 10 minutes of idling, 5 kilometers for 20 minutes, 10 kilometers for 40 minutes, and a major commute’s 15 kilometers for 60 minutes or an hour of idle running.
See below for the math I used … needless to say, precise or not, I’ve taken to short walks outside my vehicle instead switching on the ignition.
A–average time to cover 1 kilometer in city traffic
= (1km / (40km/h/60minute))
= (1km / 0.667 km/minute)
= 1.5 minutes per kilometer
B–average rpm in city traffic at 40km/h
= 2500 rpm or revs/minute
C–average revolutions per kilometer in city traffic
= A x B
= 1.5 minutes/km x 2500 revs/minute
= 3750 revolutions per kilometer
D–idling rpm with AC on
= 900 rpm or revs/minute
E–minutes idling equivalent to a kilometer traveled
= C / D
= 3750 revs per km / 900 rpm
= 4.1667 minutes idling equivalent to 1km traveled
F–schedule of idling minutes to equivalent kilometers traveled
= Total revolutions / C …
10 minutes @ 900 rpm = 9,000 revs –> 2.4 km traveled
20 minutes @ 900 rpm = 18,000 revs –> 4.8 km traveled
40 minutes @ 900 rpm = 36,000 revs –> 9.6 km traveled
60 minutes @ 900 rpm = 54,000 revs –> 14.4 km traveled
The family found a solution, a system that objectified the process, replacing servile help with servo mechanics. The Carony wheelchair system offered a way to automate their mother’s boarding and disembarking from a vehicle, turning it into a pushbutton affair, empowering her with the ability to push that button herself.
Fortunately, the family had the means but not the frivolousness to even consider such a course of action. Instead, with full appreciation of how the Carony wheelchair system could be as valuable to others as it was for them, they gave body to their conviction, incorporated PBC Car Adapt, and themselves became that elusive distributor that they needed to be here, in-country.
So, you usually just get in the trike, trying to look like a local, and then just ask how much fare is when you get at your destination, like it was just a lapse in memory. If the fare sounds exorbitant, you have the option of haggling and maybe making a scene, but you’re already behind the curve at that point.
The camera phone brought the selfie phenomenon, and some vendors went with it full tilt early on. OPPO of China is now the number two brand in the country, likely precipitated by Samsung’s Note 7 crisis, but also intentional after they launched their mainstreamed selfie-centric F1 series last February. Departing from the gimmicky take of their N3 swivelling camera phone, the F1 simply puts top tier auto-focusing cameras both in the rear and in front. Both cameras have large sensors, big fast apertures and sharp auto-focus, and can be put through radical post-shoot filters for pro-looking, airbrushed portraiture.
Their Color OS 3.0 fork of Android 5.1 is layered on top of an octa-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali-T860MP2 GPU controlled by a Mediatek MT6750 chipset, the processing package working off a roomy 3GB of fast accessing LPDDR3 memory backstopped by 32GB of fixed storage that’s of course expandable by micro SD. The tech package seems well integrated, no hangs or unexplained slowdowns, and although the 3075mAh Li-Po battery is short of having exceptional capacity, it does get you through a heavy work day.
Auto-focus / auto-exposure (AF/AE) metering points are easily selected with on-screen taps, the reticle staying on the selected point to conveniently confirm things. Chosen properly, those AF/AE points always yield sharp, accurately colored and well saturated images. And because the FIs doesn’t prevent shutter clicks at any point, there’s this lag window you can exploit after focus sharpens and before exposure is adjusted.
Stay alert and quick on the draw, you can simulate having manual override of settings while getting realtime, what-you-see-is-what-you-get feedback from the sharp 1080p screen. Tap first on the a mid-grey item in your sight picture to adjust the metering, then tap on your actual focus point and click it before the metering also adjusts to the new target.
If you’re dealing with a moving subject, there’s AF/AE lock to work with. Press long on a metering point to lock up settings (the screen showing the reticle labeled “AF/AE lock”), you can pre-set focus and meter at a point where you want your subject to be sharp on a dynamic panning shot. Lock on a dark spot and it slows down shutter speed enough to get that 1/15th of a second or slower that you’ll need for motion blur.
With the conventional looking, two-camera F1, they’ve morphed their best camera tech into a mid-range slab phone that makes things solidly monolithic again, no more fragile sub-assemblies to swivel a single camera, back to looking understated and keenly sharp with the excellent build quality OPPO has become known for. The screen is protected behind hard 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4, while the mirror finish on the caseback of OPPO’s Neo and Mirror models gives way to the F1’s satin metal that’s now de-rigeur on anything premium. You’ll want to find a protective case pronto—if you want hassle-free tosses into pockets and purses—but OPPO has got you covered. Says so in the specs, you’ll find a case in there when you unbox the F1.
There’s no clutch pedal to work with. All clutchwork is delegated to the electronic shifter, leaving just the brake and gas pedals. And, about that gas pedal, the AMT also overrides your throttle inputs as it works the clutch, letting up on the gas as it pulls back the clutch for a shift, then bringing the gas back to where you had it as it lets the clutch back in to engage the new gear.
But, as it turns out, I was wrong. Working with the same gear ratios as on the manual box, that 3000rpm shift-point I had pegged is where the AMT would have you in its more aggressive S mode, with shifts happening at a similar 20, 40, 60 and 80km/h. In contrast, in normal A mode, the F-0’s AMT programming defaults to extreme economy, its logic and fast electronic controller managing to deliver an even more frugal shift sequence.
At 2,000rpm with its fairly flat power curve, the F-0’s BYD 371QA engine already delivers 86% or 57lb-ft of its peak torque of 66lb-ft at 4000rpm. It really is enough for getting you to the next shift point. The problem is, with the throttle so responsive on the MT variant, that 2000rpm comes and goes very quickly—difficult to hit when you’re minding a stick. But with the drive-by-wire controllers on the AMT kit, triggering things at 2000 is just routine of course.
On rolling out, shifting from N down to A will put the F-0 in gear only if you’re stepping on the brakes at the time. If you forget this and, perhaps, put it in A not while stepping on the brakes but rather with the parking brake engaged, it won’t put you in gear. The stick selector will be in the center position where it should be but the dash display will show you as being still in N. Remember this and don’t panic when you might be coming off the handbrake instead of the brake pedal (like when you move again in stop-and-go traffic). Simply step on the brakes, then cycle the stick to N then back to A. That’ll put you in gear.
But you can still use that old handbrake trick when rolling out from an uphill hang. Just do what you’d normally do after shifting the selector in drive while stepping on the brake. Engage the handbrake, step off the brake pedal, and then give it a little gas in A before disengaging the handbrake as well.
With a gear shift completed, the gearbox will restore full throttle control, putting the engine revs instantly back where your foot on the gas tells the AMT to put it. What’s this like? Have you seen the movie Apollo 13, particularly the part when their first stage booster cuts out and the second stage suddenly comes on to take over? It’s like that. You’d feel a sudden absence of acceleration as the AMT starts into a shift, followed half a second later by its equally sudden return. But, again, that’s only if you keep pressing on the gas pedal the same way throughout the gear change.
Somewhat related to this, A mode will keep you in a particular gear as long as it keeps you moving along at the gear’s corresponding minimum speed, regardless of not being able to accelerate beyond it. This makes for some hair-raising episodes when you’re going uphill. An A mode’s short-shifting sequence, while good enough on level ground, could cause a sudden loss of critical gear reduction as you deal with a climb. Instead of speeding through a climb on a lower gear, an untimely up shift would likely keep you at a low speed, not letting you accelerate further for the duration of the uphill run … makes for a lot of horn-honking at your back.
But in the end, after logging about 250km on the F-0, I’d suggest keeping it in A mode instead. Just build on old muscle memory to learn a new set of instincts for easing off the gas pedal when the gearbox idles down the throttle and come back in with the gas only after it completes a gear change. This way, you reap all the fuel-saving benefits of the AMT while enjoying its clutchless operation. Consume less fuel than with a conventional AT while still enjoying its clutch automation, what’s not to like?
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Now the smaller