On this page I highlight how I built my metal casting furnace. It’s a propane furnace capable of melting metals at up to 1,300 degrees F (°F). There are 2 major assemblies: The furnace housing and the burner. The housing is composed of a combination of fireclay, sand and cement; equally mixed in thirds.
O’Reilly’s Radar - Release 2.0 Magazine interviewed me about Dashwerks, Inc’s role in the proliferation of open-source technology and how we were able to develop a profitable business model using a hybrid open-source / proprietary business model. My interview is in the Winter 2007 issue.
 | In this issue of Release 2.0, we consider the state of the open source hardware products and business models that are emerging. It’s the future of manufacturing - and early signs of it are here now. |
Update July, 16, 2018:
O’Reilly is updating their website and they have released the eBook version of this for free.
From their site:
O’Reilly published Release 2.0 from February 2007 (when we acquired Esther Dyson’s Release 1.0 newsletter) through April 2009. In this print journal, we endeavored to provide “news from the future.” Looking back, we did a pretty good job. Themes included open source hardware, information visualization, web operations and performance, geo, and big data–all of which matter even more today. We’ve made PDFs of the entire archive freely available, so read, remember, and learn.
A few years ago, when gas prices were exorbitant, I started to build my own Ethanol Still. In light of the global energy crisis, I figured that being able to produce my own fuel was a useful endeavor. Creating ethanol fuel requires distilling corn (or other vegetables/fruits) and extracting its potential liquid energy. I did some research on the web and discovered the Charles 803.
I bought plans and began building the still. I’ve put this project on hold for now but perhaps one day I’ll complete it. Until then, here are some pictures of the project:
I drive my VW Jetta exactly 50 miles a day to and from work. When gas prices started going up in the Summer of 2006, I decided to figure out exactly how much fuel was costing me each workday. So, one morning on the way to work, I stopped at the gas station nearest my home. I filled my tank and reset my trip counter to zero. I recorded the price per gallon ($3 something a gallon!). Then, I drove directly to work, worked, and drove back to the same gas station. I pulled up to the same pump I filled up at that morning. I took note of how many miles I had driven, and sure enough it read almost exactly 50 miles. Next, I refilled my gas tank. It cost me $7. I had burned $7 dollars worth of fuel just going to work and back! That came as quite a shock. I knew gas prices were high, but I never thought that I was spending that much each day. $3 a Gallon?!? Somethings gotta give! After doing some homework on the web (fueleconomy.gov), et al., I decided to buy a much more fuel efficient car (and a soon to be FREE CAR).
My carputer: The Dashboard PC
In 1999 (many years ago), I had the crazy idea of putting a personal computer into my car. After much though and some serious planning, I decided to do it. I started the project in 1999 and its been evolving ever since. A lot of people may wonder why I wanted to put a personal computer into my car. Well, back when I started the project, there were no iPods or portable music players. Navigation systems for cars only existed in specialty markets (military, super luxury, etc) and nothing provided useful information like traffic conditions. So, I set about installing the computer and customizing it for my needs / desires. The project became wildly popular on the internet and it catalyzed the carputer craze. I blogged about it as I built it and it developed quite a following on-line. It was featured on a popular technology website slashdot.org and later in two books:
Geek My Ride (forworded by Apple co-founder Steve Woz Wozniak) and Car PC Hacks. As I built the carputer, I had to develop my own electronic circuit to control power issues in the car. After an overwhelming number of requests to purchase this circuit, I began selling it (the DSSC startup and shutdown controller) via my company Dashwerks, Inc.
I created a website dedicated to the project, dubbed The DashPC where you can find more detailed information. DashPC is an amalgam for Dashboard Personal Computer.
Here are some pictures
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(add freshmeat link here)
In 1999 (many years ago), I had the crazy idea of putting a personal computer into my car. There were no frameworks or code bases available at the time because a project of this magnitude had never been done, so I set about writing my own frontend software: Dashboard Linux. The entire system was initially built around Linux From Scratch (LFS). I started the interface with Perl & TCL/TK, then later ported it over to C. On it’s final iteration I used C++ with Qt.
This post is mostly for posterity because the project has been abandoned and there are many newer projects that are much more capable.
Pictures / Screenshots
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This is an electronic circuit that I designed, built and brought to market. This page is here for posterity. The contents are from the original product page.
Welcome to the Tech Blog. This is a stream of conciousness and partial representation of myself. It’s not sanctioned, approved or governed by any entity, employer or nation state. All thoughts, opinions and typos are mine.
I hope you enjoy your visit or at least learn something new.
