I’ve just discovered what is possibly the most important world-class successful case study in terms of distributed voluntary cooperative engineering: Wikispeed. Joe Justice and his friends put together an extremely ambitious engineering project: build a +100mpg commuter car that was really fast, safe, and affordable. Basically, they built it from scratch in 3 months, just… [Read more…]
December 7, 2011
Last weekend we had loads of fun. We got to join most of the parts that comprise the SoapBox’s control and power system and we fired it up. No smoke (this time)! As usual, there’s a lot of video for you to watch.
December 4, 2011
So, I had a real-scale SoapBox proof-of-concept, a toy-sized folding trike concept, and a bunch of difficult ideas to glue together. As usual it looked like I had bitten more than I could chew. Fortunately, another out-of-the-box thinker and professional tinkerer came to my rescue.
November 22, 2011
One of the things I have been too lazy to do is tell you the story of all the brainstorming and creativity that has been going on for a long time behind our virtual doors. Well, enough procrastination, let’s publish it.
August 18, 2011
I’ve gone back and took a look at all the posts in the blog to re-categorize them. I did this because I realised this blog encompasses not one but three projects: The “Add-on-HEV” project (2007 ~ 2009), where I wanted to convert my car to a Hybrid Electric Vehicle by adding on some electric gear;… [Read more…]
July 14, 2011
This will be mostly about software. I’ll try and describe the process I followed to turn a smartphone into a soft-real-time vehicle controller.
July 10, 2011
It’s time to show you guys what we’re working on. We’ve changed the DiffTrike a little bit, put a new seat back that is more comfortable and robust.
June 28, 2011
Yes, the project is still very much alive. I haven’t had much to say publicly, because development has been going on behind closed doors with a team of volunteer enthusiasts and I’m still seeing where this is going. Current status is: - the SoapBox MkII is nearly finished and most of the materials are there,… [Read more…]
February 17, 2011
If you are an R&D hobbyist like me, you know how difficult it is to maintain your motivation in the absence of practical results. So the trick is to build something often, and no matter how small, celebrate it loudly. This is the account of my current status.
December 27, 2010
Disclaimer: this is a heated ventilation of a personal opinion. Proceed with obvious caution. I can’t get over the fact that GM has killed the electric car once more. The first time they built it just right and then removed the car forcibly from the hands of their happy everyday drivers, and this time they… [Read more…]
December 11, 2011
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