Thread: Scion xB '06, in-dash Atom 330, Lilliput 889GL; details, pictures, links. Index: pg 1

Originally Posted by rdholtz

Yes, the case goes almost 2 inches deeper than the back of the mainboard, so there will be space for the attached cables. I liked the idea of extending the case to provide protection for them.

Super cool, I cant wait to see the prototype, and or the real finished product.

Delay of Game

There's a temporary Hold on actually producing the chassis. This is the weekend of the Spring NASCAR race in Talladega, and we'll take five days of downtime -- Thursday through Monday. We picked up the rented motor home Wednesday night, packed it up with all the gear, and headed for the track Thursday night. We won't go home until Monday morning, because we've learned to avoid the post-race traffic. After the big race on Sunday, we just go back to the campground, cook supper, and relax until traffic settles down. Monday we'll clean out the motorhome -- make it even cleaner than when we got it -- and take it back to its owner.

The shower system I built for the race last fall is detailed in post #221. It's the one I claimed I'd have pictures of, but the guy who shot the pix never sent them. I'll take the pix this year. That shower system is even better for this race. Last year it was up on my trailer, and the wood floor was covered with a tarp. Water -- soapy water -- drained off the entrance end into a box, from which a 12V bilge pump sent it over to the sewer. Thet floor got verrrry slippery; we had to lay towels on it so nobody fell on their behinder parts climbing up and down from the trailer.

This year, I built 2x4 sides on the 48x60-inch octagonal deck. Yeah, okay, I overbuilt 2x4 sides on the deck; it's glued and screwed and caulked in place, and is probably strong enough to play hockey in. I painted it with two coats of battleship gray deck enamel, then put no-skid additive in the top coat on the floor and entrance. I added a standard shower drain through the floor, so water runs directly into the bilge box and isn't so messy. The drain is on the shower end, not the entrance, so the water doesn't run the full length of the shower to get out. This year, the deck and water heater will just sit up on side-by-side skids, so we can easily step into the shower from ground level.

The top part of the shower is still just a 3/4-inch PVC tubing skeleton supporting a tarp surround and a tarp sun roof. I had plans to change the frame this year, but making a better floor system seemed more important. I also had plans to paint the frame, just because it would look nicer, but other tasks got ahead of that one and we ran out of time.

One of those tasks was to add a utility sink so we can wash the big pots and pans we use for a large group. It's nice to be able wash our hands once in a while, too, without having a bunch of people parading in and out of the motor home for that.

Next year, I think the main task will be to improve the "walls", which -- right now -- are just tarps we chop up to the right size. Seems like we could do a much faster setup, and have a much nicer-looking system, if we built a sleeve -- almost a tent -- we could just hang from the piping. We'll have to figure out some sort of door fastening system; grommets and ties would do a good job, I bet.

We're doing the Spring race this year because the date for Fall race was moved, and now it conflicts with Halloween weekend. That change meant the people in our group with little kids would likely miss the Fall race, because they'd want to take their tykes out to get overdosed on Trick-or-Treat sugar. Even with the move to Spring, our contingent is down from 30 people to 15. But it'll still be a ball. And we'll have even nicer hot showers.

Pictures of the system are coming up, after we get it assembled. I'll warn you -- she ain't much for pretty, but she's hell for stout. And when the next nearest shower is a five-minute walk away, costs $5, and provides no privacy, this one's good to have.

Tuesday, I'll be back to the carPC, some metal bending, and Real Life.

Have fun RD!

Yes, have fun, be careful, and ¡Vaya con Dios!

Shower Pix, at Last

Now remember, I didn't say this shower was a beauty. But, in the midst of an Alabama campground, we had two choices: pay $5 at the camp's public facility -- a five-minute walk away -- or use the one in the motorhome, which is small and which we like to keep reserved for the girls (they get the motor home's real bathroom, too, and the guys use the porta-potties supplied by the campground). So, for last fall's race, I built a shower out of 3/4-inch PVC tubing, and a couple of old tarps. This year I added a floor with drain, and a sink.

First, a warning: the campground runs its water and electrical connections on the same pole. From an engineering standpoint, that's just crazy. But, like so much crazy stuff, it's worked so far. It would never pass electrical safety inspection, and neither would the way we wire all sorts of stuff to it. But it all works, as nuts as it looks.

The first picture shows the basic unit; the door on the left end. It's plenty roomy, with the inside dimensions at just under 48 x 60 inches. There's a small plastic bench inside for soap and shampoo. The floor of the base is non-skid, and there's a standard shower floor drain than runs into a drywall tray beneath it. In the tray is a bilge pump, which pumps the wastewater down a garden hose to the dump station about 75 feet away. That innovation means we don't dump shower water onto the ground.

Click images to enlarge.

The second picture shows the other innovation: the water heater. It's a 30-gallon unit, and the entire frame for it is 3/4-inch PVC, too. All the 3/4-inch pipe you see is just structural -- a way to carry it around easily, and a way to support the shower head, which sticks into the shower up at the top. The frame has union joints just above the 45-degree supports, and that lets us pull the shower head and water pipe off for transport. The heater is plumbed to bring in water from a hose -- the blue hose is the campground supply line -- and then splits it off for the sink and a commercial coffeemaker on the table next to it. Everything is valved so we can disconnect anything without shutting the system down.

The water heater originally had a single 220V element. But we discovered the campground only supplies 110V power, so we had to make a run to Home Depot. We rewired it to run two 110V elements. We've had it running one shower after another, plus dishwashing, and have never come close to running out of hot water.

In the third picture, you can see the utility sink. We didn't bring much drain pipe for the sink, so one of the guys ingeniously duct-taped some water bottles into a long tube, which you can see running down into the drain tray for the bilge pump. Rick refers to it as "redneck engineering". It works like a charm. (You can see him in the second picture, just to the right of the red flag.) The bilge pump is 12V, and is powered by the battery charger visible under the sink.

Obviously, we didn't build this for loveliness. But it works great, and some of the ladies have chosen it over the motorhome shower, so we think that testifies well about the experience of using it.

I've thought of just starting over with the shower unit next year, and making a 48-inch square base with a square framework. But this works well, so we may stick with it. Now we just need to pretty it up a little -- maybe with some nice plastic pallets to sit on, and a cleaner-looking wall system. We'll see . . .

HAHAHAHAHA, wow........ That is so cool.... be glad your not taking me, I love being naked. I would have ripped all that tarp off. Its also cool that your very respectful and put the women first. My manners have been tainted by Miami Rudism, so I would have told them to go to the public bath, lol. Well hope you have fun. Im not a Nascar Fan, but I love most other racing sports.

You should build a 2nd one and charge $4/shower! Undercut the camp and pay for your trip!

Originally Posted by jpinkerton

You should build a 2nd one and charge $4/shower! Undercut the camp and pay for your trip!

Last year, the guys next to us asked if they could try it, and we said, "Sure!" When they got done, they handed us money, and wouldn't let us refuse it. Fun stuff.

One thing I forgot to point out in the pictures: In the third picture, you can see the red bilge tray. The bilge pump is 12V, and is powered by the battery charger visible under the sink.

And one other thing: in the second picture, you can see Rick, the "redneck engineer" who did the sink drain pipe. He's just to the right of the red flag.

I'll make those edits in the original post.

Let's Explode This Chassis

I thought it might be easier to see how this 2DIN chassis is built if I exploded the parts and let you see all the individual components. I did leave the brackets on the side panels, though.

Here are two views of the exploded chassis:

Click images to enlarge.