Daniel Busby

Tinkerings of a backyard scientist

Making the Solar Plunge, One Toe at a Time

4th December. By admin. Posted in Sustainability.

I’ve always been a big fan of solar electricity.  Put some panels on your roof and free electricity pours down the wires each and every sunny day.  I live in Southern California where the sun is bright, yet the electricity prices are steep.  A great combination to make solar economical.  But, I had no idea …read more

Sparky’s Nice Rack

9th November. By admin. Posted in Hang Gliding, Sparkfire.

Recently I had the Spitfire off the road for some much needed repairs and maintenance.  One of the features I decided to finish up was a hang glider rack for carrying my glider to and from the beach.   The glider is much longer than the car, and it looks a little silly, but it …read more

Sorry for long delay

9th November. By admin. Posted in Daily Life.

It’s almost been a year.  I apologize for not posting more about the crazy stuff I’ve been up to.  Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of things again soon.

Sparkfire’s new gas tank

27th January. By admin. Posted in Sparkfire.

On Friday last week, a fellow Spitfire converter helped me pick up the next big change for my EV.  $7200 in lithium batteries. I bought them from CALB’s warehouse in Pomona, CA.  They’re close enough that I could drive over with my helpful friend and pick ’em up.  This also means that if I find …read more

Suckin’ off the company Amps

16th January. By admin. Posted in Sparkfire.

My company, AeroVironment, is in the business of designing and building a multitude of electric vehicle charging solutions.  It’s joked that if it moves, we charge it.  Even though our company makes the chargers, we did not have them actually installed in our parking lot, despite the few EVs owned by employees (myself among them). …read more

Chandelier is up

26th November. By admin. Posted in Daily Life.

This summer I decided to work on a project that I’ve had in the back of my mind for a few years: a backyard chandelier.  The backyard of the BWMA had a perfect tree overhanging it, but my petty and negligent neighbor decided to cut down all of his trees.  The legality of this tree …read more

Sparkfire’s Birthday

4th November. By admin. Posted in Sparkfire.

It’s been a while since I completed some maintenance on the Spitfire.  The batteries needed some maintenance and cleaning.  I finally found the time between some other projects to tackle this long neglected job.  With the help of some beer fueled friends, I started to pull all of the batteries out of the car.  They’re …read more

Planning out a Solar Water Heater

10th August. By admin. Posted in Sustainability.

The place I moved to in San Marino has a swimming pool, a deck, a grill, outdoor couches, and a kegerator. Everything one would need to throw great summer parties. But, whenever we throw a party, few people jump in the pool. Why? Because it’s much too cold! The beautiful oak trees that shade our …read more

Sparkfire Rides Again!

3rd August. By admin. Posted in Sparkfire.

After 4 long months, I finally got the EV back on the road.  I apologize for not keeping this blog well updated.  In the meantime I’ve done so many small tasks, that it was hard to blog about them. Here’s a short list of the things I completed: Fixed the driveshaft Connected the transmission housing …read more

Die Hard in the desert

11th July. By admin. Posted in Syyn Labs.

A few weeks ago, Syyn Labs, drove out to the desert to complete a project for Die Hard batteries.  It was the culmination of a month’s preparation work.  But, unfortunately, we couldn’t actually do most of the work until we got out to the location.  The setting was a dry lake bed an hour East …read more

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