Around mid-September, I attended the Mt Washington Auto Road Alternative Energy Summit with Charles [etotheipiplusone] and friends, along with the MIT EV team. It was a gathering of mostly electric vehicles, ranging from home-grown motorcycles to commercial Model S's and Volts and Leafs, with a smattering or others, including steam and solar. A really cool bunch of people, a beautiful two days of nature, and lots of electric vehicles - Awesome!
Above: The parking lot at the top of the AutoRoad.
There were a lot more motorcyclists than are shown here at the summit that day!
Above: View from the bottom camp grounds.
I took some panaromic shots, to try out the "Automate - Photomerge" feature in Photoshop - It's a pretty nifty tool!
Above: Panoramic view of the Summit grounds at the Mt. Washington AutoRoad.
Above: Panoramic view of the view on the road halfway up the mountains.
Warning: PICTURE HEAVY POST!
Click below to read more about my adventures at Mt Washington and Dragon*Con 2013!
MT WASHINGTON AUTO ROAD - ALT ENERGY SUMMIT
The AutoRoad's a ~7.6mi long climb for vehicles up Mt Washington (NH) that's been around since the 1860s. All the electric vehicles attended went up and down again, some more than others, some not quite making it to the top. Most of the time we stopped at a dedicated shoulder, we smelled burnt wheels and hot brakes - the climb's quite a chore for cars!
Above: Model S's, electric motorcycles, and other alternative energy vehicles!
Above: Corbin Sparrow - electric single seat car!
Above: Adam with his electric Kawasaki ninja!
Above: Charles's Mikuvan parked next to all the expensive electric vehicles..
(Model S's, Volts, Leafs not shown)
Above: A steam-powered horseless carriage!
Above: Electracutioner, world's fastest street-legal motorbike!
By Jeff Disinger (Youtube link to his Mt Washington footage)
Above: The MIT EV team that came along with their vehicles, including their electric Porsche!
Above: Mikuvan tailed the EV team's electric porsche all the way up and down the mountain
for safety and help in case anything happened. It was their first strenuous load test ever!
Above: We stopped every 2 miles or so to make sure everything was alright with their engine,
but we made it safely to the top!
Above: View from the last quarter on the road.
(You can see the road we came from on the bottom left.)
Above: The road was narrow, steep, and directly next to cliffs the last leg of the journey.
One wrong slip and- .... >o<;
Above: View from a balcony on the top of the mountain.
The day was clear enough to see for miles!
Above: Me at the highest point on Mt. Washington!
----------
Before the AutoRoad trip, around the end of August, I attended Dragon*Con 2013, and though I didn't make a robot this year, I drove one instead. Sadly this year, it was single elimination, but I put a better fight that last year! Here's the before shot of Kuroneko's spiritual antweight sister, Pad-thai Doodle-ninja, the robot Charles [etotheipiplusone] made and I drove. It's a 1-lb, two wheel drive robot with a lifter as a weapon. The lift was originally actuated with 2 servos, but after I broke it during driving and combat practice, Charles turned it down to one due to resources. :P Whoops!
Above: All the screws. ALL THE SCREWS! OTL
The many extra screws were there to add extra weight, as Doodle-ninja was
severely underweight, and there was no room inside its thin little body.
After the first round, Doodle-ninja was still in working order. I managed to do some interesting maneuvers during the rumble though, where I narrowly missed the pit, flipped a sawblade robot on its side and then got my lifter damaged. The weak point of Doodle-ninja was the exposed middle lifter, which was neither incredibly fast, piercing, nor strong, being actuated by just a single RC servo. The day of the competition the controls were actually flipped (fortunately for me!), but other than that, she was a surprisingly easy to handle, that resilient little one. Definitely took a few tips from Charles on this one!
Above: The damage taken.
Above: The same venue as last year and return of Uber Clocker in the forefront!
Saw some really awesome cosplay at D*C this year too as well! Definitely fueled some ideas for me for next year. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment