Posted Aug 15th 2008 5:00PM by Strom Carlson
Filed under: misc hacks, transportation hacks, security hacks
Picture this scenario: it's 2 AM, you're stuck somewhere you'd rather not be, and you've lost your car keys. If you can't call the Auto Club, what do you do? Hotwire your own car, of course.
Wired.com has a wiki article detailing all the things you need to do to get that car running: how to identify which wires to connect, potential pitfalls of newer cars that require an RFID chip in the key, and so on. Of course, hotwiring a car that doesn't belong to you is illegal, but this is one of those skills-like lockpicking-which just might come in handy in an emergency.
[Photo:
D.B. Blas]
Posted Aug 10th 2008 3:00PM by Jason Rollette
Filed under: misc hacks, transportation hacks, daily
This hack is an interesting twist that will allow you to
get in or out of some parking garages when the attendant isn't looking. Using something metal to trip the parking lot's proximity sensor that is meant to let cars out automatically you can get into the garage or vice-versa without opening your wallet. A magnet from a hard drive might work a bit better because it is able to trip multiple types of sensors, but for this hack any kind of metal will work. This proximity sensor is a high–frequency oscillation type, so anything that attenuates, varies the frequency or stops the oscillation trips the sensor. When you can't find a place to park, this hack will certainly impress your friends more than this
method, but your street credibility could quickly turn into never lived down stories, if you end up driving over tire strips and ruining your tires, get a huge parking or trespassing ticket, or worse yet get your vehicle towed!
Posted Aug 9th 2008 8:45PM by Patrick Lokken
Filed under: transportation hacks, cons, security hacks
[
Zack Anderson], [
RJ Ryan], and [
Alessandro Chiesa] were sued by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for an alleged violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after copies of their presentation slides were circulated at Defcon 16. The slides give an eye widening glimpse into the massive security holes present in the Boston subway system. There are at least 4 major security flaws in the subway, which allowed them to get free subway rides by finding unlocked, back door routes into the subway, spoofing magnetic and RFID cards, and attacking the MTBA's network. Judge Douglas P. Woodlock has issued a gag order, stopping the trio from giving the presentation at Defcon or disclosing sensitive information for ten days. However, the MIT school newspaper,
The Tech, has
published a PDF of the slides online. The research culminated in the trio
warcarting the MTBA's headquarters and being driven off by police.
Posted Jul 6th 2008 9:35PM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: transportation hacks
Autoblog recently
posted about the
LusoMotors LM23, a track car powered by a Honda CBR1000 that weighs less than 900 pounds. We knew there have been quite a few other home built cars that have foregone traditional engines for motorcycle power plants, so we asked Google for a few project suggestions. It turned up this excellent round up of
motorcycle powered cars by The Kneeslider. The usual
Caterham suspects show up, but there are many other unique vehicles: from Mini and Fiat conversions to the unique sidemounted engine in the
DP1 pictured above. Definitely check out this excellent collection.
Posted Jul 4th 2008 7:50AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: transportation hacks, daily
With fuel prices rising, EVs are becoming more an more stylish. This
bit of floor tile wrapped hardware is actually a 12 channel battery management system designed to handle Lithium Iron battery packs. It's designed to take power from a standard lead acid charger and supply the batteries with their maximum charge current. The cost and complexity of the BMS has been a major stumbling block in the past, so it's interesting to see these come around. If you need more than 12 cells, multiple boards can be used.
Posted Jul 1st 2008 6:40PM by Juan Aguilar
Filed under: transportation hacks
The land-speed record for steam-powered locomotion has been holding steady for 88 years at 127mph, but a team of British engineers and stunt drivers will attempt to break it with the
Steam Car.
The Steam Car works by burning liquid petroleum fuel at 750° F, which heats 10.5 gallons of water, converting into steam. The steam passes through lagged pipes before it is injected into the 360-hp Curtis turbine at extremely high pressure and speed via compressed air hydraulics. It spins the turbine at over 13,000 rpm, powering the rear wheels, allowing the car to reach speeds higher than 150mph. The car itself is 25 feet long and uses about 1.86 miles of tubing. All of the hot pressurized steam is ejected from the exhaust, which means the car is only capable of running for about 3 minutes, and requires an 8-minute warmup.
The attempt to break the speed record will occur in late August at Bonneville.
[via
Newlaunches]
Posted Jun 25th 2008 11:15PM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: transportation hacks
[Ben Nelson] didn't even know how to ride a motorcycle when he started on this
electric conversion of a 1981 Kawasaki KZ440. The engine wasn't a loss since the bike was nonrunning when he purchased it for $100. The permanent magnet Etek motor was $500 and each of the four yellow top batteries were $160 (only three pictured). He says that the majority of the conversion work only took two weekends. The resulting, still street legal, ride averages 20 miles per charge with a 45mph top speed.
More electric motorcycles on Hack a Day:
[via
Ecomodder]
Posted Jun 22nd 2008 7:28AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: transportation hacks, daily
[Dem_z] modded his Honda VTEC engine to use a set of
individual throttle bodies from a 2001 Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle. The fuel injection bungs on the throttle bodies were epoxied shut and the bodies were only used to provide individual butterflies for each cylinder. This one doesn't quite make our to do list, but it's definitely a hack.
[bender386] caught
my blunder first, so I'll be sending him a bit of Hack-A-Day swag. In the meantime, here's a little bonus: Check out this home built
anamorphic lens. Native 2.35:1 projectors have started showing up, but they're insanely expensive. By adding some image processing and a lens to stretch the projected image, you can get full width projection and use all the pixels on the projector.
Posted Jun 19th 2008 2:30AM by Juan Aguilar
Filed under: transportation hacks, news
We're big fans of
scratch built transportation and got some great news earlier this month: After a long hiatus,
thepriceofhistoys.com has returned and is ready to serve up all the news about kit cars and home-built cars that you could want. For those who don't know, kit cars are sets of car parts that require assembly often lacking drivetrain components, which must be acquired from donor vehicles. Aside from kit cars, home-builds, and the occasional custom job, many of the cars the site discusses are also for sale.
Kit cars can be pretty fun on their own, but many of the builds featured on the site spice it up further by adding varying levels of customization. This
Tornado McLaren M6 GTR Replica, for example, uses a 3.5L V8 Rover engine and some custom body work to improve visibility. Another fascinating and rare kit uses a Beetle's chassis and features
a body that looks like a Beetle crossed with a Porche. Of course, none of these are as practical
cutting a Geo Metro in half for improved milage, but to car kit builders, practicality holds a very low place on their list of priorities.
Posted Jun 16th 2008 2:15PM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: transportation hacks
[Doug Heffron] modified this 1989 Geo Metro way back in 1993. Gas prices had just started breaking $1.00/gallon and he wanted to show manufacturers how to build a fuel efficient vehicle in such troubling times. The car already got 58mpg (Prius: 46mpg), but [Doug] decided he could do better with some aero modifications. The car was converted to tandem seating and stripped of any extra weight. In its final form, it got 75mpg, but then gas prices stabilized and it was laid to rest in a shed. You can find out more about the car and see
photos from the build on its site (painful resizing).
[via
Autoblog]
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