OUR TURTLE:
SIMON the TURTLE - is a remote-controlled, electric mutant vehicle that has been trundling about BRC since 2017.
Built from scratch, Simon illuminates the night with more than 10,000 LEDs.
For SIMON's size, his brain is SUPER tiny: a Raspberry Pi computer. With two high-current Roboteq GBL 2660 motor controllers controlling (2x) 12kW Hub motors and powered by (2x) Tesla Model-S battery modules, SIMON is a completely built-from-scratch electric Turtle.
OUR JOURNEY:
SIMON has now been all around the US, sharing the Turtle Love at Regionals like SN-RG (NV), Saguaro Man (AZ), Emergence (SC), Bequinox (CA), and Love Burn (FL). We've been hired for Elements Festival at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PA for the past 3 years, getting to drive SIMON around the raceway (although obviously not as fast as the race cars).
We were also lucky enough to be invited to the Reno-Tahoe International Art Show as a "Post-Playa Art Piece" in 2024, and we plan to return again this year.
We are always brainstorming new upgrades to adapt SIMON to the different conditions of events around the country. All present their own unique challenges...
OUR GOAL:
Earlier this year at Love Burn, we had an unfortunately expensive loss...
Due to condensation buildup during the humid night, one of our GBL2660 motor controllers shorted and fried. When we left the night before, all was fine. When we switched the car back on in the morning, one motor controller was normal, the other: dead.
SIMON still had one good motor controller, and one controller CAN run two motors. So we left Love Burn headed to the City of Trees Parade all the way across the country in Sacramento.
When we arrived in Sacramento for the parade, I rewired the surviving controller to run both motors, and I thought we were in the clear, but when I reloaded the firmware, I used the wrong file, and immediately bricked our one good controller. We were dead in the water.
Ultimately, our art car friend Torch The Dragon towed us in the parade, and everyone had a great time, but the festival organizers were very disappointed that Turtle didn't function on its own, and we now have an art car with two dead motor controllers.... :/
To make matters worse, just last week, Las Vegas experienced a freak wind storm. The same 70mph winds that downed trees and snapped powerlines crunched the military-grade carport tent that we'd lovingly named the "Turtle Clurb" into a mangled pile of metal.
Turtle's HOMELESS!
So now, here we are....
6 weeks before Burning Man, Turtle doesn't have a home anymore, and we don't have a way to keep him dry and safe if the weather turns sour on playa this year...
Running/transporting/repairing an art car is expensive -- Please help us REHOME OUR TURTLE!!!
