In this video, [Joe Grand] takes us through [Team Van Gogh’s] entry in the OpenXC hackathon event. In what could possibly be the greatest road trip in history, [Joe Grand, Ben Krasnow, TechNinja, and Super Awesome Sylvia] all pile into a car. With them they bring a host of dev boards, wires, a CB Radio, and of course Sylvia’s WaterColorBot.
As their name implies, [Team Van Gogh] took a more artistic approach to the challenge than other teams. OpenXC steering, gear shift, accelerator and brake data is sent through a ChipKit to an RS-232 link into [TechNinja’s] laptop. The laptop translates the data into commands for the WaterColorBot. With this system, a simple Sunday drive can become abstract art.
The team also showed the concept of what could be done if OpenXC was extended to send data back to the vehicle – something Ford doesn’t support. Their example works when a phone call comes in by using the system to lower the volume on a CB radio standing in for car’s Bluetooth system.
Most of this challenge was completed with simulated data from the OpenXC vehicle interface. The team only had a few minutes to work the bugs out in a real vehicle. However, they proved their concepts well enough to win the grand prize.
Anyone who has participated in a hackathon knows how drained and irritable people can be toward the end of the event. It’s notable that the group here is all smiles. We think this is a good example of four folks meeting up (some of them for the first time) and creating something great.
hackathlon aka milking clueless corporations out of money for useless trinkets
I was thinking it would draw watercolor art on the road, but no :/
Won’t it spill all over the car?
Best to mount it on a gyro stabilized quadcopter that hovers in the car I figure :)
CB? Citizens Band Radio?
I’m confused as to what is that supposed to do? – And why do we need a servo controlling the volume of a radio from the 1990s?
FRS might be a better choice here.
Especially if they plan to send data over it.
– Kris
Oh a Hackathon – maybe that’s all they had access to…
The team was using a CB to emulate a car radio, since OpenXC doesn’t give direct access to send data back to the car.
wow!, who is she? she is beatiful!!
That would be 12 year old Sylvia.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/17/young-mad-scientist-super-awesome-sylvia-is-kickstarting-a-robotic-watercolor-set/
Good thing you can’t remove comments on HaD, now she has a nice compliment at least without any second thoughts making the comment go missing.
Yeah, sorry, only a mistake…thanks for the aclaration ins0mniac!