Homelink is a standard for wireless remote activation. It is usually used to remotely open garage doors and gates. Most modern vehicles include a homelink remote in the car somewhere (either as an option, standard equipment, or OEM addition).

As you approach your gate, you press one of three homelink buttons, and the gate conveniently opens to allow your vehicle in. The problem is one of range. When you press the button it often works for only a second or so - if the homelink receiver is not in range, the gate will not open, and you need to drive closer before trying again.

Nikki owned a Renault Twizy, into which she installed OVMS.

( She has extensively documented the OVMS kit and how to install it in a Twizy on behalf of Zero Carbon World, so go and read this article if you’re curious on how to do it yourself - http://zerocarbonworld.org/electric-vehicles/how-to-give-your-renault-tw... )

A post on the twizyowners forum about timed charging the Twizy triggered Pieter to document his recent progress in Twizy and home automation hacking. In his post, he explains how he connected his Twizy to his home automation system, and controlled charging of the Twizy.

The OVMS github repository was created two years ago, on 2nd November 2011. Since then, there have been 845 commits to the repository, two sub-repositories created (for the iOS and Android Apps), a side-project spun off (CAN-RE-TOOL), and a whole lot of fun.

To celebrate this, we are going to be publishing some 'stories of OVMS' - highlighting some of the more inventive ways people are using OVMS. A lot of tinkering, hacking, and gluing together different frameworks.

If anyone has any story to share, please send it in. The more, the merrier.