130 MPG!

April 1, 2012

I finally broke 100 miles per gallon! Due to the high-mileage and age of my wife’s Pontiac Sunfire, we decided that it was finally time to cash in our “saving for a new car” fund. We looked around to find something that would be fuel-efficient, and that we could afford, and ideally ALSO be able […]

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Building the Box – Open Revolt Controller Case

March 28, 2012

I started planning out the rough design of the clear plastic case for the 500 amp Open Revolt controller case. I finally got my student copy of Adobe Illustrator, and am just starting to figure out how to use it. The laser at the Milwaukee Makerspace is all controlled using vector files, so I need […]

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How Loud IS an Electric Motorcycle?

March 25, 2012

A while back, a viewer left a comment on one of my YouTube videos, asking if I could shoot a motorcycle video WITHOUT any background music. He wanted to just hear how the motorcycle sounded. Makes sense – it seems like half the questions I get about the motorcycle are about how it sounds. So, […]

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Laser Etching for Open ReVolt

March 17, 2012

Just about the only thing I don’t love about the Open ReVolt motor controller is the case. As cool as an Open Source Motor Controller is, it’s just not shown off with a basic metal cover. In fact, I actually drilled through the original cover (and put clear packaging tape over the holes!) to see […]

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Electric Motorcycle a contest FINALIST!

March 2, 2012

I was pleasantly surprised today. I browsed my way over to Instructables.com, only to see that the BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE is a finalist in the SHOPBOT contest! Even if I don’t win the grand prize, since there’s 20 finalists, and ten second-place prizes, it means I have at least a 50/50 shot at […]

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Get Out the VOTE!

February 21, 2012

Hi everyone! It’s spring election day in my little part of the world right now, maybe yours too! Can’t say I’ve ever been too thrilled by politicians. My vote didn’t even count in the last several elections! So how can your vote matter? Throw it behind projects that you believe in! For a while now, […]

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200V Electric Snowmobile!

February 20, 2012

Can it be that ALASKA is a hotbed of electric vehicles? I recently mailed a copy of BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE there, and just today, I found that an Alaskan has been working with one of the other Open ReVolt collaborators on getting an open source controller running for his snowmobile! It makes sense […]

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Build Your Own Electric Motorcycle on INSTRUCTABLES!

February 13, 2012

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-ELECTRIC-MOTORCYCLE/ Well, right now is “the big push”. I’ve slowly been trying to get more information out there, teaching people how to build their own electric motorcycle. But it never seems like anything gets done until there’s a deadline or some other reason to really put in the work. Recently, Instructables has posted some pretty […]

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Open ReVolt Pre-Charge

February 12, 2012

Fellow Open ReVolt project collaborator Adam just posted this video! One little feature about motor controllers that often baffles electric motor newbies is rigging up a way to do the pre-charge. Well, fear no more! Pre-charge is now a built-in feature in the latest version of the controller! This is really slick. I was very […]

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Timing Traffic Lights

February 3, 2012

Just recently, I was reminded of an video I shot a couple summers ago. It’s on “Timing Traffic Lights”. If you’ve never heard of the technique, don’t worry it’s simple and only takes a minute to learn. What I think is really great about it is that it is a TECHNIQUE rather than a “Feature.” […]

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