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So….. we have this cable box on the property line between our house and the neighbors. I have always wanted to beautify it, so one night I did. Really it was about a week from the idea to design, 3D print, paint, and installation.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6109832
After a trip to the Playa in 2021 for Renegade Burn and discussing the vehicle with a couple of DMV volunteers, I knew I wanted to make some upgrades. Before that could start, I needed to give it a good cleaning and look for any issues.
The first thing I wanted to clean up was the wiring. It was something I really neglected and it was pretty much a rat’s nest zip-tied together. I redid all the solder joints because the OEM’s work was very sloppy. This isn’t over, but it is a great start. I also removed anything that was not required to make it functional and street legal.
The plan is to extend the back and seat so that more people can fit comfortably. Under the back will be two 12 inch trailer wheels roughly a foot apart that keep the vehicle upright. I will have to build some type of suspension for it. I also need to build a panel for either side of the front forks. This is to hide the base vehicle more while looking at it from the side. I also want to build a better platform for the driver’s feet.
After cleaning up the wires, the next step was to build two more LED panels, one for either side of the front forks. I am starting to be able to knock these out fairly fast now.
The color shift paint I was initially using was something I had on my shelf. After we decided to use it, I had a hard time finding it because the company discontinued it. When I did find a store that had it in stock, it was ridiculously expensive. I was experimenting with mica pigments for a separate epoxy project, and realized I could make it myself. I am using Eye Candy mica powders–a 5:1 mixture of their Geisha Doll and Sapporo.
After the panels were done, I started to rebuild the frame. I used one-inch square tubing for the new sections of the frame. The first step was to remove as much of the frame as possible and weld a piece of one-inch square tubing to the frame to give myself a good mounting point.
I built the new section of the frame off the bike so I could make everything as square and parallel as possible. Doubled up the tubing where the new section mounts to the old frame and for the rear suspension.
I had to design suspension for the two trailer wheels on the back. This was something new to me and I went through a few iterations. I asked a some experts what they thought… Some suggested a swing arm and others said to mount it rigid but slightly off the ground. I went with the swing arm idea.
I ordered trailer hubs kits from Trail Parts USA. They were worth every penny and saved me so much time on the lathe. I tried a couple of different hedges. Honestly, I may come back to this because the current hinge has too much slop but I want to finish up the rest of the current tasks.
Now that everything is framed I wanted to enclose it to create storage in the seat. My work gave me a few sheets of this steel with holes in them. I still have to add the bottom pieces… that is in my to-do list below.
The sound system in version 1 consisted of a bunch of cheap junk I picked up from Goodwill. They did not sound that bad but I wanted something that fit ascetically with the design. I am using marine grade equipment due to the corrosive nature of the Playa dust. There is a 3-way 6×9 on either side of Hootie. These are powered by a 300-watt Velex Powersport Class D Amplifier.
Hootie V2 has just over 1,200 individually addressable LEDs. Each side of the vehicle has a minimum of 240 LEDs. The back LED panel doubles as a brake light. When the vehicle’s brake engages, all 241 LEDs instantly turn red. The front of the vehicle has headlights with high and low beams.
I knew I wanted to build an owl, I did some research. I looked for other owl mutant vehicles, different kinds of owls, drawings of owls, opinions from my partner, to name a few sources of inspiration.
I knew I wanted the aesthetic pieces of the vehicle to be removable panels. This was mainly for ease of transportation (1,800 miles each way). Once I had a direction of where I wanted to go, I did a 2D sketch in Fusion 360 using the dimensions of the scooter’s frame. The idea was to have the center body on the front of the scooter and have a wing on either side hiding the motor.
The panel frames are made of 1/2 inch square steel tubing. 3/16ths inch steel rods are used as the line details. These are MIG welded together. The steel is painted with primer, a base of black, a couple of coats of color-shifting paint, and a clear coat to protect it as much as possible. I start by creating a cardboard template.
The individually addressable LED strips are mounted on fiber-reinforced plastic sheets. I used 60 WS2812B LEDs per meter strips for all panels. The strips are self-adhesive, but I added a fair amount of epoxy to hold everything together and on all the solder points for good measure. Each panel has its own microcontroller and DC-DC inverter for powering the LEDs. I did this for redundancy and if I have an issue with one panel, the remaining ones still work. The microcontrollers are simple Arduino Nanos and the inverters are XP-PoIr DTJ2024S05. I use these XP inverters at my job, and they are rock-solid, plus they are mostly sealed. I utilized M3 rivet nuts and bolts for affixing the FRP LED panels to the frames.
For in front of the LEDs, I cut acrylic sheets to fit inside the frame and rest on the steel rods. These are sanded on both sides to defuse the LEDs. The acrylic was secured to the frame with black silicone around the edges. The LED strips were still visible, so I had the idea to sandwich poly-fil sheets between the LED panels and the acrylic. I really loved how this look came out. It looks finished whether the LEDs are on or off, and when the LEDs are on, the polyfil does a great job at diffusing them while still allowing each LED to be visible.
The panels are mounted to the scooter frame using the same ½ inch steel square tube. One side was flattened with a hydraulic press and a hole drilled into it for an M5 screw. The panels have M5 rivet nuts on the sides that the screws bolt to. The other side is welded to the scooter’s frame.
After a trip to the playa in 2021 and discussing the vehicle with a couple of DMV volunteers, I knew I wanted to make some upgrades.
Mutant vehicles have always been my favorite part of the Burn. They are what brought me to Burning Man, and the 10 Principles are what keep me coming back. I initially built Hootie just to build it. When I get an idea, I tend to throw myself neck-deep into it until it’s “complete”.
Once Hootie was somewhat complete and drivable, the reactions and smiles I would get driving it around Austin really drove me to continue expanding and building on the project. We brought Hootie to the Renegade Burn, and people really loved it.
One interaction, in particular, has really stuck with me… We were sitting at camp and something told me to go take a ride, so I headed off to the center of the city. As soon as I got to what would normally be Esplanade, a group of people stopped me. One of the Renegade Burners asked to take a photo with me and Hootie. She told me her mother had recently passed, and she was expecting to see an Owl soon. We talked for a bit, she cried, we hugged, and we took the picture. I really felt at that moment that she was able to accept and let go just a little bit. As someone that lost a parent at a young age, this interaction will remain one of my most cherished Burn memories.
Ultimately, Hootie is a test for a larger mutant vehicle build. Teacher Money has aspirations to start building a larger mutant vehicle this year to bring out in 2023. Hootie Version 0 (that we took to Renegade Burn), was the alpha test. Hootie Version 1 going to 2022, is really the beta test for the larger project. We learned so much by bringing the vehicle to Playa and will learn even more bringing Hootie to this year’s full burn. We already learned what breaks, what rusts, and what corrodes. Honestly, it’s just good to start small. We do plan to keep Hootie moving beyond 2022. The ultimate goal is for Teacher Money to bring out multiple mutant vehicles.
Why an owl? Owls have shown up as a good omen at a lot of the major events in our lives, so it only seemed fitting.
TLDR: Hootie makes people smile, it’s a great conversation starter, and it’s a beta test for a larger project.
See more here:
Most battery packs that die tend to only have a single cell that is actually bad. A lot of the times the issue is the IC and not all the cells are sill useable. So I went to a good will and asked offered a crazy low price for a whole box of batteries. They agreed and I got to cracking them open.
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After separating the 18650 cells, they each go through three tests independently. The tests determines the cells internal resistance, how much capacity it hold, and if there are any internal shorts.
Each cell is labeled with the date, the capacity rating, and it’s current charge. To be extra safe I let them sit for a month and discarded any that dropped more than 0.1 volt.
I used https://www.repackr.com/ to make sure each of the sets of ten 18650s in parallel are balanced in capacity.
It all started with a Craigslist ad for an electric wheelchair base with dead batteries. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it but after seeing the cupcake art cars at burning man in 2019 I knew I needed to build something similar.
The machine is manufactured by Pihsiang Machinery MFG Co LTD. The posting came with all the electrics for the scoother by a company called Dynamic Controls. I tried interfacing with the Shark Controller with little luck and decided to simplify and replace all the electronics with standard robotics devices. But first we need to test out the OEM systems.
It has been over two years since I have last made a post and I apologize. I plan is to start posting regularly again and set a goal for myself to post atleast once a week. Here are some 3D Prints I have done in the past few months.
I broke the center column of my [wikilink]helical antenna[/wikilink] so I found a model on thingiverse and printed it off. It was much easier the guide the wire through all the holes and only took 1 hour to print and build. #Frugal
I love the tinywhoop but I no longer fly with Spektrum Transmitters any more. I do love a new project so I found a model of Thingiverse again and when to town. This drone has inspired me to design my own sub 100mm brushed frame. More on that to come 🙂
