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Blacklight Umbrella

brian — 2010-08-26T04:20:38+00:00

I decided to do another project to take to Burningman this year. The dance floor was pretty cool, but it was way too heavy, and I wanted a programmable LED array. So I made it ultra-portable by building it on an umbrella frame.

The umbrella sports 64 UV LEDs so I'll have to incorporate neon colors into everything Rebecca and I wear. Each spine has 8 LEDs connected to an 8-bit shift register. All of the shift registers are connected to each other in series, and an arduino microcrontroller (the red board) shifts 64-bit values through them to update the light pattern. I've written a few different programs to try different effects. Some twinkle the lights at random, others shift patterns down or around the spines. I'll combine them into one program that rotates through all of the patterns periodically.

It took about 6 days to build. 64 LEDs, 64 resistors, 64 pairs of wires. The fabric cover took about a day. The extra frilly stuff on top is to slightly-more obscure the nest of wires and perf board. Ping-pong balls on the tips are for safety (I don't want to poke any eyes out) and sort of an homage to the greatest LED light-show ever, the Cubatron (it's rad). I'm using a li-ion mobile phone recharger pack as a power supply. It ran the umbrella for about 3 hours on a partial charge. They're $10 on closeout at radioshack, so I'll get a few more.
(1 more photo)

Lots of LEDs

brian — 2010-08-20T22:28:01+00:00

I've finally started my burningman project. I'm halfway done soldering resistors to LEDs and I have 8 already on wires. 56 more and the real fun will start.
(2 more photos)

My Rally Car Burned Down

brian — 2010-07-31T05:49:13+00:00

I forgot to post these here. My rally car burned down during the Idaho Rally this year. Pat and I both got out of the car when we smelled smoke. No one was hurt. The car was a total loss.
(7 more photos)

Giant Dragonfly in Idaho

brian — 2010-07-29T17:07:11+00:00

This dragonfly was hanging out while I tunes my rally car.

Waiting for an iPhone

brian — 2010-06-24T18:04:40+00:00

Last week this seemed like a good idea. Lol. I got some shopping done, and the line is about 1/3 shorter than before, so that's something. 2-3 hours to go?

I pulled the motor out of the rally car today

brian — 2010-06-10T00:47:21+00:00

On saturday while I was out tuning the rally car, it mysteriously lost a couple of quarts of oil and damaged.... something... in the motor. I limped it home (bad idea. should have called AAA when it died and wouldn't start again) and checked it out on Monday. Something is definitely broken.

Yesterday Dan and I towed it from my house down to the shop, and I made some room to work and disconnected all of the wiring, drained the oil and coolant, and had it mostly ready to come out. Today I took out the axles, radiator, header, and a few other things, and pulled the motor with the cherry picker.

The front end of the car was pretty high up on jack stands. I lowered the engine and transmission onto the legs of the cherry picker and a wheel dolly, then disconnected the chain so I could drag it out from under the car. It was just a bit too tall, so I let all the air out of the rear tires to pick up the front just a bit more and pulled it clear. After that I separated the transmission from the engine, and called it a day.

Tomorrow we start disassembling it to see what went wrong.
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Running too rich, right?

brian — 2010-06-07T17:21:24+00:00

I'm changing spark plugs on the rally car today. Wait, let me back
up. I'm Grasping at straws on the rally car today. Over the weekend
I went for a drive. It was all good for a while, then the car suddenly
died at a stop sign and wouldn't start again.

I ended up pushing it across the intersection to a downhill and roll-
started it and kept revving th engine to keep it from dying on the way
home.

As I got closer to home, the engine was running hotter than it had
been (about 205 instead of 190ish). That was possibly due to mostly
coasting in neutral while revving he motor behind morons driving 10mph
UNDER the speed limit.

Yesterday it wouldn't start. No idea why. So starting with the basics.

New Radiator

brian — 2010-05-26T20:45:53+00:00

A few weeks ago I found a Geo Prism with a 2-row radiator. That
radiator also fits an FX-16 (mostly) and gives way more cooling
capacity. I ordered one online and just installed it. I had to trim
the fan shroud a bit to fit over the motor mount, but after that it
went right in.

Idling in the shop, the car would get up to about 194 degrees, at
which point the fan kicks on and it drops back under 190. With the
old radiator (in th last picture. Notice that it has a thinner, 1-row
core) it was holding at a bit over 200 and wouldn't come down on it's
own. It's much better now, and should handle Idaho's hot weather
without a hitch.

I also changed the catalytic converter. The old one (installed just
before Olympus to meet the new rally requirement) took a beating at
Oregon Trail Rally. The element inside was broken into pieces and
clogged up, severely restricting the motor. It's all good now, but I
want to get another spun steel cat so it can handle more abuse.

The car is all set for rallycross on Sunday.
(3 more photos)

Rallycross this!

brian — 2010-03-26T18:09:53+00:00

Pat and I painted over the birthday cake paint job from chump car. Today is the big suspension swap. Then I'll run this car at rallycross on sunday, as a "shakedown" to catch any issues before we use it for recce at Olympus. I'll leave the windows out for rallycross, then hose it out and put back as much of the interior as will fit around the roll cage.

major linework done, fine lines and shade to go.

narcise — 2010-03-18T04:21:29+00:00

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