What’s In A Gauge
I’m a sucker for vehicular gauges. I have been for a long time. I’ve collected junkyard gauges- I’ve got ideas for gauges I’d like to make for vehicles I’d like to make (you know how it is). Last weekend’s visit to the MVTF was good fodder for some good gauge photos.
LeMons Sears Pointless 2010
My racing team ran in the Sears Pointless LeMons race last weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma- I chose not to drive but stuck around the whole weekend to support my team and work on the car. It was definitely our best LeMons race yet- we had virtually no problems with the car, only a slipping fan belt (we had a spare) and received only minor penalties, resulting in plenty of track time for all our drivers. Infineon is a really nice facility for spectating with fantastic vantage points and seating all around the track and plenty of bathrooms and facilities. It’d be convenient to have power in the pits, but we did OK without. And the word from the drivers is that the track is really fun. Hopefully LeMons will make it back there and we will be able to run there again. I wouldn’t like to have missed my only chance to drive there.
Back in the USSR
At the Hudson Club meet at the Portola Valley Military Vehicle Technology Foundation (MVTF) we were given a tour of the massive (literally) collection of tanks, engines, guns, shells, jeeps and various tracked and 4, 8, 12,… wheeled killing machines. While that’s not really my cup of tea, I wandered around and found a few things there that I thought were really really cool.
Meet the Soviet Long-Track Radar Vehicle (P40 Radar), from 1969.
Or, in this photo from an Air Force website, via Wikipedia:
So, it’s basically a not-really-armored, fully tracked, mega-massive soviet built tractor with a 30 foot wide 2MW turbine-powered radar dish on top- what could possibly not be fantastic about that.
In: Art and Design, Life and Times, Photo Journo
Guerrilla Solar
Back in the old days of Home Power magazine, before the Sunny Boy and Fronius, when the SW was the staple, and made by Trace, when wiring diagrams weren’t usually just a massive series string of modules….
Well, there was a little inverter called the Micro Sine, made by Trace. A 100w 12v or 24v input grid-synchronous inverter designed for mounting right on the frame of a solar module. It was great for “Guerrilla Solar” – back feeding power without the utility’s permission or knowledge. It was a feature in Home Power, people took photos with their little (and even pretty big) arrays wearing gorilla masks, articles were often written in a sort of tongue-and-cheek style. It was pretty neat. As time went on big arrays got cheaper, the big HV input MPPT synchronous inverters came on the market and utilities started becoming more willing to make legal protocols for grid tie systems. Trace got bought by Xantrex and the Micro Sine fell off the market. Guerilla Solar disappeared out of Home Power. Small distributed grid tie inverters have never caught on.
As with all things, however, you can count on the Chinese catch on about 10 years late and bring a facsimile of something the western market has disappeared for, but make it cheap enough to sell them anyways. So when I mentioned to my friend Micah that I had a 160w 12v PV array he mentioned that he had picked up a Chinese 12v/250w grid synchronous inverter in the style of the old Micro Sine- but he didn’t have enough solar to push it. He offered that I should try it out.
It worked fine- just as it should have. And I have to say, it was a bit of a thrill to see that 100w of rogue energy flowing back online, PG&E none the wiser.
In: Life and Times, Renewable Energy System
Mini-Solar V.3 – Maybe I Got It Right This Time
I’ve been working on a small battery-based photovoltaic solar-power system for the last, well, 5? 7? years- it’s been a long while. Since I first bought the modules, charge controller and small inverter I’ve been reconfiguring the parts every couple years with hope that it’ll finally “work” and be “done”… but it never has been. Until now? I’ve addressed my biggest issues with the system- location (get it out of my closet), battery size (nice big pack now), and lack of monitoring (nice new Bogart 2020).
The biggest improvement is brought by the box I built to house the batteries and system components. It lives outside the house, so I can finally get my closet back and not worry about acid spills or charging gasses.
Step Down Into a Hudson
My friend Alan is the owner of a lovely 1950 Hudson Commodore 6 Sedan, and is a member of the Northern California Hudson Club. Last weekend the club planned a meetup in Portola Valley on the Peninsula, to visit and tour the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation’s museum there. Alan invited me along- we drove in his Hudson down to Portola Valley then carpooled up to the museum. I’ve written posts about the museum- here I’ll just post about the Hudsons.
End The Adapter Blues
When you get bad adapters, make bad adapteraide- Wait, that doesn’t work… Never make what you can buy- Hmm, that doesn’t work either…
After getting burned by the thesuperkids adapter I decided to bite the bullet and make a better one in the machine shop with tight fitting bores, a D-shaped bore for good torque transfering and an overall length to match the Shaftloc bushing I ordered. I am aware of only a few ways to make a D-shaped bore- casting, punching or plunge EDM, all of which are not feasible for me- so I decided to get a bit more creative about it.
Don’t Buy The thesuperkids Shaft Adapter
I’m working on putting together an electric bike using a surplus Kollmorgen “Hi-Kol” BLDC motor- more on that later. I’ve gone back and forth about ways to interface with that stubby short little stepped, D shaped shaft on the Hi-Kol- I had gotten fed up with imagining nasty little systems of bushings and decided it was worth the money just to get the premade shaft adapter- $25 after shipping in fact.
Spoiler: it’s junk. Read more- Read the rest of this post »
In: Electric Poly-V Bike, Reviews
Look What I’ve Made- Window Screens
Simple as that-
An (almost) Year at AcuteAero
The site’s almost a year old! Time for a little check-in about how we’ve been doing!
The About page has got a new, up to date section reflecting my outlook these days.
I’ve just moved to a new WP-theme, “Grey Matter” in favor of the old customized K2 with custom header and background that I thought vaguely reminiscent of some Louis Vuitton pattern. Or something. Benefits: nice fresh clean design, and THREADED COMMENTS!
For posterity:
And even further back in the wayback machine- my first header ever:
And second:
Ah, just lovely.
We’re coming up on 52 posts in 52 weeks (we’re at 51 in 51 currently)- let’s look at a few of last year’s highlights- posts that I think stand the test of time best:
- My classic review of the rental Grand Marquis, as compared to the gold standard of automobiles. March 2009.
- Generating radial SVG clones- why would you need expensive graphics programs when you can just procedurally generate your art using open source tools? April 2009
- And in the other corner- generating art in a backwards, goofy, totally analog fashion. April 2009
- I proudly used my JB-Welded cell phone for a whole six months before the plastics just started breaking apart around the JB-Weld cast. May 2009
- The first ever drive of the EV Miata. May 2009
- More automotive tomfoolery- installing a Jaguar tach in the dash of the ’68 Dodge, in a soup can no less. May 2009
- The EV coolant bottle struggle- with two flavors of Nalgene water bottle. Good thing REI’s right around the corner. June 2009
- My photo gallery from the Wayland Invitational EV drags up in Portland. August, 2009 (taken in July)
- The Electric Skateboard Trilogy. To be continued…
- My goofball car-roof-mounted solar power system, used primarily to power a subwoofer on my Northwest roadtrip. September 2009
- Banzai Lemon- an insane paint job. September 2009
- I finally edited the first car run video from back in May- October 2009
- My most recent writing, inspired by the University of Delaware and Chrysler- January 2010
And on we go- Stay tuned for some really neat new posts I’ve got planned, on some really wild new projects.
As to traffic- in the last year we’ve seen almost 13,000 pageviews, over 5,000 unique visitors. About 70% of those visitors in the last 3 days. Thanks to Hackaday!
Here’s to another good year!