Tag: Dong…where is my automobile

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Gangster 101: LED Taillights

I can speak with some gusto here. Gangster 101: LED Taillights. Break that down…Gangster, 3 digit number, (coincidentally, binary…for the math win) electrical engineering, and automotive. Step up! Better yet, Step Up 2, to the Streets! We’re getting all sorts of math gangster whip on this mamma jamma…

silverado-led-tail-lights
ghost-ride the whip | ghost-ride the whip

Silverados are sick…Silverados with led tail lights are far sicker. Far, far sicker.

I would know. As an owner of two GMC/Chevy vehicles, I know a thing of two about ill rides. My SS…ill as a polio victim. My Yukon…ill as a malaria victim.

Poor analogies, but required to get my point across.

It seems like only yesterday that I bought the Silverado SS. Twenty inch rims, before twenty inch rims were cool. Well, maybe not before they were cool, but most definately before twenties were common. Oh…the good ol’ days. On a side note, also the days of car loans. Don’t miss those days at all.

In a round about way, let me say that I started rocking the second gangster whip after rolling around in a whip with some gangster potential. Some gangter potential, to say the very least. The Yukon became very, very gangster after buying new rims and tires on craigslist, for less cost than tires themselves. Gangser, a la ballin on a mamma jammin budget!

Once I magaged to get the rim situation squared away, lights were the next to go. Why go bulb, incandescent stee-lo? Nope. LED is the way to go.

Light emitting diode. Like the Arduino. For what it is worth, LEDs are the only thing I have mastered on the Arduino…save that thought for a different post, however. LEDs suck far less juice, look far better, and last far longer. Pretty much a win win win situation.

That would be FTWWW, if anyone is keeping count.

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Coffee + Car = Car-puccino

Hats off to the BBC, for airing an actual show about science.

In the States, we have Mythbusters, wherein two odd-looking dipshits half-assedly postulate hypotheses and perform experiments, with no certainty or control to speak of. Across the colloquial pond and at the other end of the spectrum, Bang Goes the Theory is performing some actual applied engineering…and it is pretty awesome.

bet the exhaust smells lovely...

Some details, from this hippy-ish site:

A team from the BBC1 science programme Bang Goes the Theory has unveiled a car that runs on coffee. Christened as Car-puccino, the car is actually a modified version of a £400, 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco. Well, the visible area of concern, for millions like me, is the running cost of the vehicle that has been estimated at between 25 and 50 times the cost of running a car on petrol.

The goal is to make the 200 mile trip between Manchester and London fueled by coffee. Since coffee has burn-able carbon, it can be used as a power source…albeit pretty low in the efficiency ranks. The car is supposed to be able to hit 60 MPH, but with the refilling and changing of filters, the trip is slated to take ten hours.

Bonus points for the design team, for making the Scirocco look like Luke Skywalker’s fighter w/ R2-D2 on the back.

***Note to the DIY fans. Car-puccino can be put together with hatchback, rain gutter down spout, and shop-vac. And brown spray paint, provided your mom’s gutters are differently colored.