risknc – Kyle Cothern

October 17, 2023October 24, 2023

Burning Man Projects 2023

Another burn is upon us! This year I got a chance to do some major infrastructure upgrades for the trailer and the truck, installing a much improved solar / battery system and an awning on the back for having additional space for more panels. I also started work on a fold away murphy bed, but had to pause as I ran out of time. I’ll get that done some time in the next year.

Last year I installed a 12v – 100AH battery, a 60A MPPT charge controller and 160 watts of panels for powering house lights and charging batteries. This system worked great, but I still needed to break out the 2000W honda generator when I needed to run AC or something more power hungry like the espresso machine. This was a real pain in 2022 as temperatures soared to 130F during the day, making getting up and turning on the generator in the mornings a sweaty no-fun experience.

I did some research into kits and found a Chinese supplier that sold a solar charge controller, panels, and a lithium iron phosphate “power wall” style battery. The total cost was about ~3k for the solar. Here is a breakdown of the specifications

January 2, 2023January 2, 2023

4 Goals for a fresh orbit. 2023 is upon us.

The far future. The year 2023.

It’s been a long road to get here. we had to orbit all the way around the sun.

What am I going to focus on this year? 4 goals for a fresh orbit.

The monuments are still in the floor at the Hangar in Playa Vista where they built the Spruce Goose

Launch Flotilla – Our presence in space is expanding. Flotilla will leverage the fast moving launch market to establish industrial economic activity in space. I’ve formed the company and I’m working on laying the knots to fit the spline of the first ship.

September 15, 2022September 19, 2022

Burning Man Projects 2022

This year I had a huge opportunity to knock out some projects for the burn!

Usually I’m burried in startup work and just barely scrape away to go do that thing in the desert. This year I got a break right before and had a few weeks to really knock out art, and quality of life enhancements. I also planned a Tiki party the weekend before departure, so I was a bit stacked in the lead up to hitting the road.

I worked on two main projects for this year: Trailer upgrades and the Space Goats Sign.

September 13, 2022September 19, 2022

Dawn of the age of business.

I haven’t updated this site in quite a while. The last time I was drawn to write, my good friend Justin Corwin has just passed on, we were still in the midst of the pandemic that will be a defining moment for the rest of our lives. I was working on fun projects for a small robotics focused incubator, but felt unfulfilled. To keep myself busy, I took on machine shop and engineering development work with the CNC mill and lathe I’d restored in my garage. I was making money, but I still didn’t feel like I had purpose.

304 Stainless is a cool material.

Over the last year, working on a small aerospace upstart called Vast, I found that purpose. One day I’ll be able to share that story, but for now my status is: amped to build something new.

October 25, 2020

March Continues. Farewell, Justin.

Hello there, Kyle here.

It’s March 239th 2020. https://whatdayinmarchisit.com/

If going insane indoors wasn’t enough, my long time close friend and former roommate Justin Corwin died suddenly from a fast moving illness (not covid) on Thursday.

Me and Justin on the Ferry in Seattle a few years ago.

He was an amazing individual who had more knowledge in his brain than I’ll ever be able the cram in, and still, somehow he was always a humble servant to all around him, leading Crashspace’s officers as president and keeping it real as an engineer at Hyperloop and Disney Research. I could write a book on how incredible Justin was, and it still wouldn’t do him justice. He was still young (only a few years older than me) and his absence in my life will always leave a wide gaping hole moving forward. His kindness and generosity in life is something I can only hope to echo in his memory. Fair winds and following seas in what may come, you were a true friend Justin.

May 25, 2020May 25, 2020

The Return of the Space Cowboys.

The sun sets on the cape. Cape Canaveral, Florida.

This week after over a decade of development, some of my dearest friends are launching people into space. I only worked with them for a couple years, but they’ve touched my life in so many ways and we’ve stayed friends since. I’ll never forget the excitement of my first launch.

I’m rooting for them, and for humanity.

LETS GET BACK UP THERE! GO FALCON GO DRAGON! ( I love you guys. )

Crew Dragon Dress Rehearsal– Credit: SpaceX

~10 years ago I got a call out of the blue from Tom H, structures recruiter for Space Exploration Technologies, a company I’d never heard of in Los Angeles. I was really into robotics and never had an interested in rockets (they’d been done before, or so I thought). But Tom was interested in me, and what I’d done in college ( built a humanoid robot ), so he talked my ear off for about an hour and asked me all sorts of questions about my background.

May 17, 2020May 18, 2020

Oberth Arm: Don’t skip arm day, the plotter.

Now that the cube is done, I’m resurrecting an old project. I’ve finally got enough stuff out in the garage to prototype my way out of an aluminium box. You can read the original arm writeups over on Hackaday.io for more detail, but In a nutshell it’s a really big, really fast, really accurate polar plotter arm

May 14, 2020May 17, 2020

Tools: Calipers

Well I have a shop in the garage so I figure I should start blogging about useful tools. This is the first post in a series of common (and uncommon) tools you’ll find in a machine shop.

The most useful tool, for a Mechanical Engineer anyway, seems to be a pair of calipers. I don’t leave home without them. I have 4 pair in my toolbox alone.

May 10, 2020May 17, 2020

Making Swarf #3: Productive Pandemic

Too many zoom calls. Hacker Drinkup with a cube theme.

On Lockdown

Hadn’t used the P100 respirator since the fires last year

That was an interesting 3 months. I was planning on publishing weekly blogs but I had a lot in my life change very rapidly, so I took a break from writing. In the midst of bringing the garage shop online, starting a business formally ( swarf.io ), and interviewing for jobs, a pandemic started and I got exposed to a friend who got the ‘rona. I’ve been on lockdown since (starting around Feb 28th). Luckily I never got sick, but now I’m busier than ever.

February 18, 2020May 17, 2020

Making Swarf #2- A series of tubes: plugging in a CNC Mill

Last week in making Swarf I covered moving this lil Haas TM2P into my garage and getting it placed, as well as some machine shop basics. This week I’ll go over the extensive process of getting power and air to it, getting it setup, and loading it up with coolant.