Day 2 – Sleep and Burn

Monday, August 31, 2026 Not a lot of activity on this day. We slept in, and it felt great. The weather held; it was hot for Burning Man, but not terrible. The art car was misbehaving with its electrical, so we decided to keep it parked and do some scootering and then biking around the ... Read More

Day 1 – Housekeeping and Playa

Sunday, August 30, 2026 We set up camp in the late morning / early afternoon. Camp involved putting up a tent shelter, with one side to block the morning sun, putting the propane tanks out into our fuel depot (10 feet away from anything, with some marker to keep people from running over them), and ... Read More

Burning Man Terminology

I am not an expert. These are a random assortment of Burning Man terms. DarkwadA person, riding a bike or not, who is on the playa at night but without any illumination. Esplanade The avenue between the city and the playa. Mutant Vehicles are not allowed on esplanade. Esplanade is a buffer between the city ... Read More

Day Negative 1 – Travel Delay

Friday, August 28th, 2026 – Suburb of Seattle, WA I haven’t tracked a Burning Man week on this site before, as this domain is mainly for tracking the art car itself. But I have a couple of interested readers who’d like to know, so here we go. A grand experiment in blogging / journalling / ... Read More

Finally, Lights

Over the course of several weeks, I finally added lights to BrainCar. Except for the back hatch, I drilled 7/16″ holes spaced 2″ apart on the other six shell pieces (including the side doors). Into each hole I strung WS2811 LED pixels, 50 to a string, in whatever pattern seemed to work for the spot. ... Read More

Burning Man 2022

Made it! Drove around a bit. Didn’t take nearly enough photos. That’s okay. We’ll be back! Heading out from Washington State. Rear camera, as the RV was so big I couldn’t see any part of the trailer or Brain Car. Still there? Yup, still there. Familiar sight… Ready to go! Trying some last minute fixes. ... Read More

Alas, No Lights This Year

I’ve run out of time. So the rig won’t be going to Burning Man 2022 with the lights I’d planned. The software was written, the Arduino stacks built and ready, but trying to put it all together hours before leaving… not so much! Testing the Arduino controller with the custom laptop controller.

Forming the Shell

This is the first time I’ve done anything with fiberglass and epoxy. It was definitely a trial by fire. I wasn’t sure at first how to create such a large form, since that much Styrofoam is only used for things like LOTR movies (it’s expensive!). I instead bought sheets of thick insulation and then layered ... Read More

Structure

This project is a bit of a fast and dirty job, as I didn’t leave myself a lot of time to complete it. So, rather than using metal as was my original design, I’m going with wood. It’s easy to work with, it’s quick to prototype, and it’s strong. The main frame will hold the ... Read More