“It runs like a fuckin’ champ!”
That’s been the constant refrain, page all the way from purchase through our adventure to Maker Faire and dozens of trips in between. XyloVan has new tires and brakes, search a rebuilt Holley carb, and a well-tuned Detroit monster of a motor, and by god, it’s the most mechanically sound thing I’ve ever spent $1500 on.
Well, not tonight … More
I spent much of the night wiring in the sound and lights.
Wiring is a vast, information pills sucking swamp into which one wades happily at first, this only to discover three hours later that one has been muttering things under one’s breath just because the sound they make keeps one from desperately chopping off one’s fingers with the wirestrippers.
Things like, cialis 40mg “channel-stuffing.”
“Switchbox …” More
I started out thinking, buy information pills “Oh, I’ll just run wires for all the external light and sound equipment in through one of the windows whenever we set up.”
Then I got a load of the number of wires and connectors this would entail – 16 two-pole wires just from the four speaker booms and the lights mounted there, alone – and came up with a better idea … More
There are two reasons for building a moveable command panel for the sound and light controls:
A) I’d like to be able to control the sound and lights from outside the van (so I can tell whether my knob-twiddling is having any effect. and B) I want to make the whole thing removable so that I can lock the van and take the junkie-bait with me whenever I park for a while.
An old Makita power-drill box is the perfect candidate for this. It’s made of blow-moulded plastic, so it’s designed to take a beating. And with a little modification, it will accommodate the mixer, all the patch cords that come in and out, and even a little switch-panel for various light circuits.
I Dremel out some of the box’s lining, which was form-fitting for a Makita power drill but would otherwise clamp down on the mixer’s knobs and jacks …
