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Oakland High Schoolers Need Your Power!

Oakland High Schoolers Need Your Power!

Tony, Carlos, and Raul, students at Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, have taken on an ambitious senior project they plan to exhibit at Maker Faire: converting a gas-powered truck to electric power. They’ve been working afterschool and weekends and already gave up at least one holiday to work on the conversion. These young men exemplify the self-motivation we see in so many maker projects.

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Save the Power Racing Series

Save the Power Racing Series

The Power Racing Series is an event there teams from across the country modify plastic, electric ride on vehicles into full-fledged racing machines. Because setting up races is expensive, they’ve set up an indiegogo campaign so we can help support this maker event!

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Gyroscope Motorcycle You Can’t Knock Over

Gyroscope Motorcycle You Can’t Knock Over

Here’s a potential game-changer: a two-wheeled, in-line motorcycle that won’t tip over, even if you try to knock it down. The team at Lit Motors envisions a world where nobody’s afraid to ride motorcycles because they’re as safe and intuitive as climbing into a car. At Maker Faire they’re showing off a prototype electric bike […]

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The Switch to Electric Car Kits

The Switch to Electric Car Kits

Recently, I visited Switch Vehicles, which is near the MAKE office in Sebastopol. They have produce a three-wheel electric car, which will be sold as a kit later this year. I met the founders, Peter Oliver, Jim McGreen, and Mark Perlmutter in what was formerly a Ford dealership and now is occupied by a variety of makers, mechanics, and entrepreneurs.

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New York Times on Leaf Hackers

New York Times on Leaf Hackers

This past Sunday, the New York Times had a piece by Bradley Berman about owners of the Nissan Leaf and how, as with the Prius, there is a growing community of Leaf hackers who are making improvements to their cars and some who are developing products around some of these hacks.

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Electric Kart in Your School?

Chad’s a former student of mine who has been doing electric car projects for about six years now. On seeing The Cap Kart project, he says:
If you were to start an electric vehicle school program, I would start by following these guidelines to build an electric go-kart! It looks like they got everything donated and therefore kept the overhead down. After doing this you could challenge other schools in the area to a race. Also, this would be a great stepping stone for moving towards a full vehicle!!

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