Maiwagon 2006

Growth without limits

After there had been a computer on the wagon for the first time in 2005, we decided to use it again as a foundation and to improve the technology even further. There were also larger changes in the low-tech area. Generally, there was no single, outstanding progress, like in the year before. On the other hand, the wagon was improved quite a lot in every aspect: extensive improvements of the chassis, a new barspoiler, a much better barbecue, a greatly improved sound system, improved computer features, displays and the integration of a Playstation 2 mark the wagon 2006.

On this picture, the PC in the plexiglass case can be seen. This year it resided on top of the new high-tech tower. On this (the left) side of the tower, there is the custom-made LCD-display with the control menu. Beneath, there is the door behind which the box for the power switches and the vga switch, as well as the Playstation are placed. In the middle, there is the bowl for the beverages and the ice, which is the only orginal part of our first own wagon from 1999. At the rear, there are the new, large barbecue, the new extensions and the barspoiler. The red box is one of the two subwoofers.

On this picture, the TFT monitor on the other side can be seen, as well as the basstube and the bass speaker on the back of the extension. The webcam still looks into this direction. The wooden plate with the sun painted on is the back plate of the original wagon in 2001. That tour had the slogan “Haoles don’t surf” and thus, this plate is this years’ relic.

There is also a picture gallery of the building process and of many details. Additionally, there is a short video which shows the wagon in action.

A short overview of the wagon 2006

The wagon in general:

  • Big bowl for beverages and ice.
  • Strong wheels with axis steering and a double-grip drawbar.
  • Big, enclosed barbecue.
  • Big, very robust barspoiler for pushing and serving as a bar.
  • High-tech tower with display windows and an access door.
  • Detachable speaker extensions.
  • Professionally maintained interior cabeling.
  • 3 car batteries 2×100Ah+1×66Ah @ 12V for 3KWh of energy.
  • 12VDC to 230 VAC converter and two separated power circuits 12VDC and 230VAC.
  • 1600 watt and 640 watt sound (car) amplifiers.
  • 2x stereo-3-way systems.
  • 2x 400 watt subwoofer.
  • basstube in wooden resonance body.
  • Harddisk in custom built, shock dampering case.
  • Playstation 2 with wireless controller.
  • 15″ TFT monitor for the PC and the playstation behind a plexiglass window.
  • Monitorswitch and VGA-adaptor for the PC and the Playstation.
  • Custom built, big 2-row LCD display panel for music control.
  • Custom built LED music lightshow.
  • Custom built sensor board.
  • PC in plexiglass case on the wagon. Fans for cooling the case and the tower.
  • Switchpanel for the power circuits.
  • Wireless music control by bluetooth.
  • Megafon functionality.

The PC and the electronics (details):

  • 12V DC ATX power supply.
  • CPU: low energy and cool AMD K6-2 450.
  • Mainboard: ASUS.
  • RAM: 256 MB SD133.
  • Harddisk: 10 GB in custom made case.
  • Ethernet: 100 MBit.
  • WLAN: 54Mbit.
  • Bluetooth: USB-Dongle Class I.
  • Sound: Creative SB Live!
  • Graphiccard.
  • Webcam: a Creative Webcam III.
  • USB-GPS.
  • Microphone.
  • Microcontroller (uC) board: selfmade board for the lightshow (Atmega16).
  • Microcontroller (uC) board: selfmade board for power and temperature sensors (Atmega16).
  • uC-Boards and the PC are connected by serial port.
  • Selfmade LCD display panel for controlling the music on the parallel port.
  • Music control devices (bluetooth wireless): iPaq Handeld-PC with familiar Linux+Opie, Symbian smartphones.
  • 15″ TFT Display for PC and Playstation 2.
  • Microphone.

PC, handheld and uC software

  • Operating system: Debian GNU/Linux, Kernel 2.6.16.
  • GUI: x.org+KDE 3.
  • Administration: vnc or ssh over WLAN or Bluetooth-TCP/IP-PAN or wireless keyboard/mouse.
  • Music: XMMS mp3-player.
  • Musikcontrol I: kbemused-server of the kdebluetooth framework and bemused clients on handheld devices.
  • Musikcontrol II: LCD-Displaycontrol (custom software).
  • Lightshow: self developed XMMS-plugin for serial visualisation (YALS).
  • Bemused clients: self developed Bemused client for iPaq Linux-Opied “opiemused”, bemused client for Symbian smartphones.
  • uC software in AVR assembler.
  • Self developed software for sensor measurements.
  • GPS logging by gpxlogger.
  • Speech synthesis by festival.

In Numbers:

  • Development period (current model): 2002-2006
  • Value of the parts: ~1500 € (1900$)
  • Value of the professional work: > 10000 € (12500$)
  • Weight (full): > 400 kg (880 pounds)
  • L/W/H: 170/70/~100 (without extensions in cm.) (70/28/40 inch)
  • Available energy (nominal): 3.2 KWh
  • Engineers: 4
  • Artists/Managers: 5
  • Official team members 2006: 23

Generally, we emphazise high tech these days and the wagon is full of electronic and software features, which no model of the local or national competition can match (the international competition may, perhaps, but we are not so aware of those). There are two reasons for this:
a) We have highly qualified electronics- and software specialists, who like to utilise their professional skills in a fun project.
b) Because of a very narrow garage exit and especially because of very steep parts on the road (up to 20%), we are forced to improve the wagon in areas that do not add that much in size or weight. A combustion engine is not really an alternative as this years local competition with their noisy and stinking motorcycle engine demonstrated.