The festival was held at its usual Black Rock City locale over the week leading up to Labor Day weekend. We deconstructed CLIVE into its component parts and lashed them to Garth's truck. I put all our other gear, food and shelter in my Honda Element and followed him. Per usual the trip took about eight hours.

After pitching camp the first night (with our campmates Learnteach, Kattything and Lena) we crashed out asleep. Construction didn't start until the next day. The system assembled within about 4 hours with the three of us working on it (Learnteach, Garth and myself):

I should have gotten better final-assembly pictures. That was the last thing on my mind at the moment. If you look at the assembly image you will see some of the additions we put in: An info-board with a solar light over it on the left hand side, two mini-solar-panels on the top edges for the rim lighting and two whirly-lights for the 'flare time!' alarm.

Thank goodness for cordless/solar-charged DeWalt tools. The copper-metal paintjob worked very well in the dusty environment. When it was first put up it looked incredibly shiny. As the week went on it looked properly 'aged-metal' which worked out just fine. Once the system was fully assembled we crashed out for a while and waited for the first evening to give it a proper test-out. The first flare was due later that night.

The good news:

• It worked!
  
• The system started with a 100% charge and ended with a 85% charge after a full week of autonomous operation. The net loss was due to less than optimal winds. The single solar panel (borrowed from my bro-in-law -- Thanks Ross!) saved our backsides.
• The archway was rock solid. Anchored by six pieces of candycane rebar the beam showed zero vibration -- even with 45mph winds. The swinging number-tiles let the wind spill off perfectly.
• The arch was plenty tall for pedestrians, cyclists and even the occasional vehicle to pass under.
• The beam was bright enough that everybody standing around it got a very clear indicator of the satellites.
• Many fine demos were given to many fine crowds.
  
• The user-keypad (the 'participation' element) functioned exactly as planned. It was cool to wake up at 4am to find groups of people playing with the system. The star-finder mode was a big hit.

The bad news:

• We got horrible system placement. We were deep inside the Alternative Energy Zone, not even on a main streetway. While we got a large number of visitors (especially during flare events) we could have had thousands if we'd been out on the open playa or at least on a streetcorner where folks could see it. This is completely our own fault. We spent no time trying to finagle placement. We were too busy building.
• The winds were not quite what we'd hoped for. At the rates the winds were going the project would have run out of steam in about 20-25 days. The goal was to make it self-sufficient. This could have been solved with a higher wind tower or more solar panels.
• The laser, while bright enough for flares, was not bright enough to be a crowd-attractor. If you didn't hear about CLIVE by word of mouth you didn't know it was there.
• The system was very much not-waterproof-enough. It rained. This therefore required the quick use of a ladder, some trash bags and a big ol' reel of duct tape (all hail duct tape!). In order for a system like this to run unattended we'd have to better weatherproof it next time. Nothing was damaged; it just took us keeping an eye on it when the weather got bad.
• The system was not secure. Were we not monitoring it all the time someone could have easily walked off with the pricier components. If this is re-done as art for the open playa it'll have to be better big-metal-box sealed for security. Yay for humans and their inherent desire to take stuff that isn't theirs!
• ...but yeah, overall, there wasn't that much bad, was there? :)

We have some video that I should eventually get online. There are more photos of our week at the festival at the Gallery page. It wasn't until a few weeks afterwards that I started kicking myself for not documenting the system on-site better. It really did turn out quite cool.

Unfortunately we have no plans to rebuild this for next year. After the rather infamous "shining a laser light into pilots' eyes" incidents of early 2005 (some idiot blinded a few pilots and it triggered off all the anti-terrorism over-reacting wackos) anybody with a laser is now a potential terrorist. With no more outdoor testing we're simply going to call this a fun project and move on to something else.

Garth has his own repository for the code if anybody wants to replicate this feat. Just drop him a line (contact info is at the bottom of every page) and ask.

Thanks for visiting!

_{Contacts: Tor Amundson and Garth Minette . Questions, suggestions and criticisms appreciated! Flames will most likely be snickered at.}



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