Electric Micro Bus!
I have an all-electric non-working 2007 Microbus for us to play with! Let’s play! “What?” you say?
“You have a bus?”
Well it’s technically not mine. Last year I got Chamber Music at the Barn, a local nonprofit I am friendly with, to accept the donation of a 2007 Microbus for me. The shuttle service from Jacksonville Mississippi who owned it bought 2 of these as an experiment. They didn’t like it much (too small for the football players they were transporting around, apparently) and when it got vandalized they decided to dump onto a nonprofit. I had plans to fix it up but it hasn’t happened so I thought maybe MakeICT would like a shot at it.
“What’s it need to run?”
There appear to be 2 primary problems:
- The passenger door is off the bus and is missing hardware. The shuttle service didn’t like the door so this is the result of that.
- The vandals ripped out electronics so there are electronics on the floor. The shuttle service says all the electronics are there, but I have no idea.
It also has a cracked windshield. It’s already rusting. There’s other stuff, I’m sure. The bus is one of only 2 in the world, apparently, so I don’t think AutoZone is going to help us much. 🙂
“Gimme some details on this dealie gig.”
Ok. Well, the bus appears to be a rather simple design — basically an overgrown golf cart. It seats 11-15 supposedly, and weighs about as much as a subcompact. It is road legal and supposedly can go 30-odd miles an hour — perhaps faster if the governor I’ve heard is has is removed. The shuttle service told me all the electronics are very standard. For example, it takes 8 lead-acid batteries which are apparently standard golf-cart batteries. I’d guess the batteries are bad at this point.
The shuttle service used the bus on a campus for 4-hour stints so apparently the batteries lasts at least that long when driven slowly.
“Let’s say we get it running. Then what do we do with this thing?”
Everyone so far seems to feel the seats might go. What ideas do you all have after that? Here are some we have kicked around:
- turn it into a moving new-media cr8zy-town. Park it on Final Fridays at Commerce St.
- have a portable lab/workshop/space
- host classes with materials we keep on the bus.
- answer the question “Will it blend” by putting it in a huge blender. Well…nobody actually suggested this…
Technically the bus is still Chamber Music at the Barn’s, but I don’t think they care much about it. Perhaps to be nice we could collaborate with them to use it as a shuttle service at their space several evenings during the summer. Or not.
“Cool! Let’s get this thing running!”
Glad you are into it. We plan to get it to Jeremy’s shop in Goddard where us MakeICTers can let loose on it. If you want to be a part of that, let us know! Let’s make a bus-fixin’ team! 🙂
July 2013 Update
A lot is happening around here! We are making good progress on building our very own 3D printer. We had a fun maker gathering with lots of food, including smoked bacon from an Arduino-controlled smoker. We had a booth at the Kansas City Maker Faire where we displayed maker Dustin’s awesome LED PONG game. We made our first cuts with the CNC milling machine. What’s next?! Be sure to come to the open house the evening of July 15 when we will be playing with rubbery Sugru (it’s kind of like Flubber!). If you are interested in learning how to do your own CNC work, don’t miss the foam cutting workshop, which will serve as the first step toward learning how to use MakeICT’s CNC milling machine. See you there!
July 15: Public hours from 7 to 9 pm at Bluebird – Instructables build night with Sugru!
July 20: Intro to CNC – A Foam Cutting Workshop
July 29: Public hours from 7 to 9 pm at Bluebird
This will be our first month participating in an Instructables build night. Watch for another similar event in August where we play with a 555 timer.