As usual, we’ve been working on improving 2pir. A while back Ian and Nicole came up with the idea of taking it out to the playa to run for the 4th of July, which provided an excellent opportunity to fix up some lingering issues. There was some last minute scrambling to get things in working order, but we managed to haul it out to the Black Rock Desert. On Friday, we set everything up and started to test, but the new ignition system wasn’t working as expected. We downgraded to super-janky igniters (i.e. wicks soaked in lamp oil.) They weren’t nearly as pretty as the nichrome wire, but they worked for a couple of hours as we played late into the night. Saturday was much more successful. We reverted to a refined version of our igniters from the Maker Faire, which ended up being the best ignition system so far for 2pir. We invited several people to spin fire, flags, or swing whatever they wanted around as we pumped music out of our sound system. Those who chose to jump on the platform and perform had a blast, and were quite entertaining for everyone standing around the perimeter.

Evan took some great pictures
Ed got a couple of videos

We had a chance to run a full test on 2pir last night and surprisingly everything worked beautifully. The new sensors are awesome, as is the new water heater, and of course the flame effects still create ridiculous amounts of fire. Come see 2pir in action at the Maker Faire this Saturday. We’ll be running in the evening and will be letting people up on the platform to create their own fire.

Dan also created a nice photo montage set to music from last nights testing:

The Crucible’s Fire Ballet is going! It’s great! You should go! I made the crazy fire fingers and fire tutu, and you can look for me on stage too (I’ll be the one with the rope).

The official website is a good place for tickets.

These photos by Lane Hartwell are amazing, and you should go look at them.

The East Bay Express has an article. Note, however, that my name is not Ian Hunter.

-Ian