Wind Power

The bus is back in front of Rubulad again - there is a party tonight, hopefully no one will puke on bus. I think I might get some free decorations though! We'll see tomorrow.

The wind turbine is back up. I've getting a lot of comments on it - all positive. Well, except a group of guys who asked me if the bus flew backwards because the wind was blowing from behind the bus.

I like that the bus offers such a wide variety of subjects for teaching - not only biology, but physics and chemistry of solar and wind power collection into a battery bank. Then there is the whole automotive side of things, the house electricity setup, the veggie oil system... lots of different things for different interests.

Air piston limit switches


Engine Electrical Junction Box

This is a picture of one new and one old limit switch for the transmission air shifter system. These switches tell the electrical system that the transmission has fully engaged into either the forward or the reverse gear before shifting the engine out of neutral. The old one was not working right - when the little button is pressed in by the transmission shifter piston when you shift into reverse, the two terminals you see on the left (new) switch should be electrically connected - this wasn't happening. The transmission is now happy with a new switch in place.

In the process of diagnosing the problem with the limit switches, I got very familiar with the engine electrical junction box. This box has close to 100 terminals, with wires coming from the driver's controls at the front of the bus and from the various engine electrical systems, including the air piston controls and the air piston limit switches. If you have the diagram of what all these terminals are for, you can systematically go through the terminals that you suspect and check them for short circuits and other unruly behavior. While it can be tedious, it is also really fun to be in the 'brain' of the bus. My buses brain is not too big or complicated - new buses have microcircuits that control all of this stuff, and you need to plugin with a computer to do these types of diagnostics.

Skins

Eddy and the Stove

I had to move the bus today because a British TV series called Skins was shooting at Rubulad and needed the street for the production crew. I like film/TV people in general - they have so much cool equipment and I think also tend to be pretty down-to-earth folk but are pretty creative and interesting still. I held the door for the star (who I guess is 15?) and didn't even know it - although apparently the show is super popular in Britain, and according to Sari, even people who hate everything (music critiques) seem to like this show.

I have some nice pictures of Eddy that I wanted to start posting - he has been helping me SO much over the past couple of weeks. Not only did we do a lot of work on the bus together when it was parked in Philly, he also cooked lots of delicious food! Here is Eddy warming up (and enjoying a brew) next to the wood stove that we worked to reinstall in a slightly different place.

Bio Bus Back in Brooklyn

Last Friday evening the bus rumbled across the Verizano Bridge, around the tight curving BQE, and back home to Brooklyn. All bus systems go - and it is now time to really start working on the lab. Good timing - Olympus has pledged to donate a fantastic digital camera and an inverted phase-contrast / fluorescence microscope to get me going, in addition to the Nikon that had already been donated. I am feeling good and I have a lot of momentum!

Veterans Against War

Veterans Against War

This great Bus was pulling in for service while I was at Berlin fixing the Bio Bus. Unfortunately I was in the middle of working on my bus and they left before I could say hello!

Electricity

The bus and I are at US Coach in Berlin New Jersey right now because the bus is a little sick and that is a good place to work on things - the guys there are letting me borrow tools when I need them and are giving me good advice.

There is a wiring problem with the transmission - I am having trouble shifting from forward to reverse. There is a short circuit somewhere and I'm in the process of tracking it down. I have been blessed with amazing weather the last few days and lasting at least until tomorrow I hope. I might be done by the end of the day tomorrow and then I will drive back to Brooklyn! The wiring on the bus is all original as far as I know - 30 something years old. Interestingly, the wires that are failing are all in the engine compartment - high heat and oil and dirt and water taking their tole. And most of the problems I have found so far is crimp-on connectors falling off the wires - hopefully I will just have to replace all these connectors and not have to replace all the wires themselves.

I am looking for a space to park the bus in doors in NYC. This will be very important for the next phase of things - actually getting the microscopes setup and experiments working. I can't deal with worrying about the microscopes getting stolen all the time - the bus is too easy to break into.