If you’ve been following our website, you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t posted any updates in quite a while (including in the forums).  Fear Not!  We’re not dead, but I (Eric) am quite busy.  In late April, I took on contract work for Stumptown Game Machine and work for SGM has been taking up all of my time and resources.   In this economy, I’m just grateful that we have additional income to support our projects and family!

In the mean time, Travis and I have been re-evaluating the xenoDisplay and platform support.  The iPhone OS (now iOS) has presented us with some problematic restrictions and honestly, I’m not sure it’s going to work out as planned.  We originally picked the iPhone OS because it IS the most popular platform for mobile smart devices and because I have experience developing for the iPhone.  What we don’t like is the restrictions (some artificial, some less so) that Apple has on iPhone development that make it hard to develop the xenoDisplay Application for the iPhone.

So where does that leave us?  Well, we’re not sure, but I suspect there is a good chance we’ll be moving to Android for the xenoDisplay.   We’re also considering moving to an Open Source model for the xenoDisplay (!).  I’m not sure what form of licensing that will entail, but most likely, it would be free for personal (single user) use, so hobbyist EV builders can use it without having to pay.

Okay, so how is the SPARC coming then?  The work on the SPARC continues in a round about way.  Right now, I’m honing  my Carbon Fiber fabrication skills by building a recumbent bike with a Carbon Fiber frame.  The reason for this project (besides me always having wanted to build a recumbent bike) is to work out the kinks in Carbon Fiber fabrication on a relatively small scale before committing to the large scale project of the SPARC.  By doing so, I minimize the number of mistakes that would be much more costly when done on the SPARC than on the bike frame.   So far, the practice has proven to be very worthwhile.  I am shooting for a completion date of July 4th (roughly) for the recumbent bike.  It’s aggressive, but I really want to get it done ASAP.  I’ll try to post some pics and updates on occasion.  Knowing me though, I’ll probably forget and just post the “done” pics..

Once the bike frame has been completed, I’ll return to the SPARC project.  I am eager to get the SPARC on the road (even if only in a skeletal state), and to get it to that point only really requires that the drive train be installed and all the electrical components built up.  The only real fabrication work necessary for that to happen is building the battery box since Kale was kind enough to include a nice motor face mount and belly support with the frame.

So that’s the quick update from here.  Hope all your projects are going well!

Eric