During my learning stint with the Slash last fall, one of the upgrades which I felt had the most impact on the performance of the vehicle was the move to the Powerstroke shocks by Proline. These were initially designed for the Slash 2 and 4WD trucks, but since have been rendered applicable to other platforms via a hardware mounting kit. I really loved working with these shocks. They are smooth, easy to build, convenient to clean and tune, and they are rugged. They feature the only dual-stage spring setup on the market that I’m aware of, a concept which I see a good bit of merit in. I’ll be curious to see if more suspension manufacturers move in this direction in the future. The Powerstrokes made the Slash feel much more planted and the additional travel and droop presented valuable tuning options for dialing in a setup. Since I sold the original vehicle these were on, I had a set of these - complete with spring kit - in my part box, and I’ve hinted at the idea of trying them on my SC10FT. Sam’s upgrade to the LCG Slash, which also features these shocks, meant that if they worked on the SC10, it would provide the added benefit of allowing me to have the same suspension on a few of my vehicles. Same parts equals reusable spares, equals less money to keep the parts box stocked.
I spent about a month with these on the SC10 and found the spring/oil combo that worked on a few different tracks.
My setup transition from the FT-V2 shocks to the Powerstrokes was: V2 F:32.5(red) / R:27.5(blue) ==> PS F:35:(T:Green/B:Yellow) R:27.5(T:Green/B:Blue)
The next phase of testing led me to what was my only complain about these, and that is the lack of pistons on the market. The stock Proline pistons are the only ones offered at present. This led me in a search to find some replacement that might suffice. My search led me to a company in South Carolina, and I managed a visit to M2C Racing during lunch and worked with Mitch to design and machine a few prototype sets of tapered 5-hole pistons.
I’ve tested these for a week at my local track and will put lots of time on them this weekend in King. If they work well, they might be a product that M2C will offfer in addition to their existing lineup of CNC’d pistons. It was very cool seeing a new product come to life.
Week one of MIT’s EECS course 6.002x is in the books. I’m already behind on reading, but I did manage to squeak in the homework and labs for week one. Quite simply - it was a bitch. I spent well over the prescribed 10 hours for all the reading and exercises, and I still have reading to do. I’m *really* going to have to manage my time efficiently to make it through this course. The material is incredibly interesting, so it’s not a matter of a desire to learn, it’s an issue of time. Ten hours isn’t that big of a deal unless you have a fairly demanding career, three hours of daily commute time, two halflings to raise, a yard to mow, a wife to woo, calories to burn, and multiple expensive hobbies to obsess over.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d recap what I’ve been up to since the last submission more than a year ago.
The first half of 2011 I spent working on HiltWorks.
Not sure what triggered this adventure; I think it was Sam finding an old Luke Saber from my college years in our storage closet. Combine that discovery with my interest in LED flashlights, and I started tinkering to “make it brighter.” Add into the mix an interest I’d shelved a few years back, to learn to program microprocessors, and 6 months later I had the first prototype board in hand.
Getting to the prototype stage took a good bit of time and learning across multiple electrical engineering and computer science topics. Basic circuitry is not too difficult for a beginner, but the functionality necessary for the feature set I needed to simulate a light saber was far more involved. The first decision was how to orchestrate all that functionality. Looking into microprocessors, I immediately saw many references to the Parallax Propeller. This chip turned out to be ideal for the job, and the development community around it was instrumental in my progress. Once I built a prototype kit for experimentation, I could finally get down (up) to the part which I did have prior experience - the programming. Even here though, my high-level coding experience was far too abstract to lend much efficiency at the hardware level, so I needed to revisit low level programming that I’d only grazed the surface of 15 years ago at the start of a CS major. After a few months of seat time and lots of jumper tweaking, I had a functional “OS” to drive the board, which now had a name - the AV1. Once I had the basic OS tested, it was time to move from 5MM lights and piezo speakers to the real hardware. This meant it was time to design a board.
To crank out an amount of light bright enough to look the part, 3, 5, and 10W LEDs (considered high-brightness) were the only way to go, and for convincing audio output a 1-2W speaker would be necessary. To provide ample voltage to run the lights and sounds for more than a few minutes I needed to research various battery chemistries and their practical form factors, price and availability. Lithium-Ion batteries are cheap, powerful and readily available, so they wound up the ideal candidate. For audio processing, I needed to study the PCM data format, and storage of medium quality (22kHz 16-bit stereo) audio files required something along the lines of the micro-SD form factor. PCB (printed circuit board) design alone is quite complex, and I studied some basic guidelines and decided to use a design tool called DipTrace. The tool is fairly intuitive for those with experience with CAD packages.Finally, after board revisions, code revisions, audio revisions, algorithm revisions, and lots of time in the lab, a fully functional prototype was ready. What really exceeded my expectations with this project is that it turned out fundamentally different than any other saber sound board on the market. There are other boards which offer the same rich feature set, better in some cases, but what sets the HiltWorks board apart is the motion simulation. Every other board, to my knowledge, uses pre-recorded sound effects for the ubiquitous “whoosh” sound. And while they do so very effectively, the AV1 doesn’t trigger canned effects, it simulates the sounds based precisely on the motion of the device. The result is that the swing sounds are more dynamic, more accurately responsive, and never sound the same. if you move the hilt just a little, then you’ll only hear just a little motion simulation; move it a lot, and you’ll hear a lot; move it continuously in a non-stop pattern, and you’ll hear the effects along the same continuous non-stop pattern. I’m really pleased with this aspect of the project, and I think many other Star Wars enthusiasts would agree.
I’ve gone through 5 revisions since that time, and the project is about 90% complete, including an iOS port of the simulation algorithms as an iPhone application named Whoosh.
I was on track to complete these projects by the end of summer 2011 until being struck by this enormous distraction…
This is the Traxxas Stampede - a 1/10th scale electric RC Monster Truck. This came in the form of an unprecedented surprise gift from my wife on our 11th wedding anniversary. Some neighborhood kids had brought them over a few weeks earlier and I was instantly obsessed with it - rekindling a love for RC that I enjoyed as an early teenager racing the legendary RC10 buggy. Of course the monster truck was only the beginning. After seven of them accumulated on my street, we started to “race” them in the parking lot by my house.
Competitive instincts being an integral part of manhood, performance research and frenzied upgrading ensued. It didn’t take long to realize that while the higher COG (center of gravity) trucks were fun to bash around, racers they were not. Browsing the product lines of various RC manufacturers led us to consider the most popular, and what’s most likely the largest segment of the RC world at present - the “Short Course” trucks. Being familiar with the Traxxas name, and after having already accumulated a nice cache of spare parts, the Traxxas Slash was an ideal candidate for my first foray into short course. Sam had also spent a good bit of “parking lot” time with the rest of us, so within a few weeks, he was ready to upgrade to his first 1/10 scale vehicle. And of course, two are way more fun than one.
After a few months running entirely on asphalt, the racier trucks left us wanting a dirt surface, and while cones in the parking lot were fun to drive around, we craved a “real” track even more so. I learned through a friend about an acquaintance who’d gone through the effort to build a large track on his property. A few phone calls later and Sam and I were invited to “take some laps.”This was back in early September and we’ve only missed a few race Sundays since that time. It’s a tradition gone weekly. At first we struggled, and learning to be competitive has been a challenging but extremely satisfying endeavor. These vehicles are highly tunable and to understand the science of setup requires a solid grasp of several aspects of physics - fluid dynamics, weight transfer, roll-centers, center of gravity, camber, caster, toe, ride-height, gearing, battery chemistry, traction, tire compounds, chemical additives, and brushless motors technology to name a few. Additionally, there are 2wd as well as 4wd vehicles - each with their own distinct branch of race theory at hand. To be competitive, scientific knowledge alone isn’t enough - one must develop an intuitive sense of interpreting and judging the handling characteristics of the vehicle, and know how to translate that into the tuning options to which they relate. Perhaps even more fundamentally - you have to develop very focused and perceptive driving skills. Dirt, physics, technology, and competition - what’s not to love?
The short course market is an interesting one. Traxxas essentially created an entirely new segment with the introduction of the Slash - which is a replica of the full scale vehicles which compete nationally in the TORQ series which Traxxas has sponsored since its inception. The vehicle was first released as a 2WD version in 2008 and since that time several other RC manufacturers, including the largest names in the industry, have introduced vehicles for this class. There were similar vehicles on the market before the Slash, but its popularity and the visibility afforded by the Traxxas brand, courtesy of the TORQ sponsorship and its exposure on various television networks, facilitated the demand sufficient to forge a new consumer venue. An interesting facet is that Traxxas essentially created the segment and maintains a strong grasp in the casual consumer “bashing” end, but in the competitive racing end it’s the other manufacturers which tend to dominate. The Slash seems to the the gateway-vehicle into the Short Course world for those new or newly returning to RC, whereas most of the individuals who’ve been in RC before the SC boom gravitate towards the AE, Losi, or Kyosho offerings - all brands which offer SC trucks based on a legacy of proven race-bred designs. I find the entire market intriguing, and would enjoy seeing Traxxas take a serious stab at the competitive segment. They doubtless have the capital to have a presence at the competitive end of the market, and hopefully some day they’ll realize a worthy return on their investment in that market share.The most recent phase of my interest in RC has lead me to visit several of the many local tracks. At the end of January I competed in my first competitive event at an indoor clay facility in Greensboro, NC - Blue Groove RC. I’ve entered four races since, with my most successful outcome being a second place this past weekend @ King R/C. Sam, having ample time behind the wheel, also entered his first race a few weeks back and did very well. As a four-year-old, he was by far the youngest competitor in the kids class and has made tremendous progress driving over the past few months. I can’t imagine a more fun way to spend time with my boys than RC.
The last chunk of my time this past year was completion of Harper Resophonics # 025. This guitar was under construction for a very long time, but it ended representing what I consider to be my best work. It was constructed from a fantastically colored and curled set of Koa that I’d snagged a few years back to set aside for a special project. This will be the last guitar I build for many years, and thus a fitting opportunity to use this set.
That’s about it. That’s been my year or so, apart from work, a few vacations, lots of daddy time and a few job changes. Been a great time in my life.
Seeing the left come unhinged in Wisconsin, over having been effectively told that there’s a limit to the amount of stolen wealth they can devour, offers an illuminating glimpse into what this country is up against.
A large portion of that crowd, and their counterparts across every state, would rather disintegrate the entire planet than be faced with the burden of self-reliance.
“The difference between a tolerable programmer and a great programmer is not how many programming languages they know, and it’s not whether they prefer Python or Java. It’s whether they can communicate their ideas. By persuading other people, they get leverage. By writing clear comments and technical specs, they let other programmers understand their code, which means other programmers can use and work with their code instead of rewriting it. Absent this, their code is worthless.”
While this article centers around software engineering, ineffective communication is a dysfunctional impediment not limited to the programming or technology realm, but to all businesses in every industry. Where ever humans have to effectively grasp, and convey conceptual knowledge, i.e., virtually every endeavor involving more than one individual working in coordination for some productive goal, a failure to do so effectively will cost time and money. In fields utilizing specialized knowledge of complex or intricate topics, poor communication can grind productivity to stagnation, but even more simple arenas such as taking a customer’s order at a fast food restaurant can impose drastic consequences on customer service, and inevitably the bottom line.
Seek out and support those individuals who share your values and can communicate, even simple ideas, in a clear and efficient manner - they are segues to productive achievement.
Here, Wendy Milling provides a refreshingly bright and forceful defense of Capitalism.
Assaults on capitalism are rooted in a crybaby metaphysics [:)], and they rely on obfuscations, equivocations, and an attitude of militant evasion. One trick is to make inappropriate demands of capitalism, then stomp and pout and denounce capitalism when those demands are not met. [amusement mine]
In the wake of the current gulf disaster, so many are quick to join the BP lynch mob without considering the influence of statist environmentalist policies.
Observe that the government, beholden to an insane environmentalist ideology that views nature as an intrinsic value and superior to human beings, forbade oil companies to drill nearer to the coast line where there were shallow waters. In the shallow areas, an oil leak could be directly accessed. Instead, companies were only allowed to drill in areas too deep for current technology to address.
Wonderful to see her rub the nose of Mr. Frank in his own cognitive slobber.
With the masses screaming for every sort of lynching imaginable, The gulf disaster is an immense gift for Obama and the czars. While nationalizing (to any extent) BP would doubtless bring pleasure to Che’ Hollywood, I suspect he’ll opt for the more lucrative option, i.e., using the incident as political capital.
First, exactly what would qualify a team of bureaucratic goons to better handle the situation than those who’ve spent their engineering and scientific careers in the industry? Just like handing an iPad to a caveman, government would have neither the intellectual ability nor the proper motivation necessary for efficacy. Moreover, “receivership” would have the political baggage of constituent outrage from at least some segment (albeit minor) of our population. Even though most Americans don’t understand the proper role of government, there are now more of those with the awareness that they *should* know, and who are on the lookout for the statist machine which steamrolled the auto and healthcare industries. I don’t think this administration would dare risk the potential backlash (from even a small segment of voters) that would result if they assumed any type official dominance over BP.
Instead, consider the widespread anti-business and environmental rage that this ordeal has invoked, and how that rage could be funneled into a moral crusade with enough leverage to push through cap-n-trade and/or virtually any other suite of environmentally oriented regulations and economic controls.
Why risk it when they can play it safe and hit the power jackpot? Why offend 30% of the population for a quickie when you can coddle 90% of them and get a lusty lifetime affair? What tyrant would trade short-term power with a political cost for long-term, farther reaching power which also bolsters their political image? Who was it that said “never let a crisis go to waste“?
This event could be the most generous gift of political capital the thug administration could wish for. Who knows, maybe they did?
“Those who go without health insurance “substantially affect interstate commerce” by shifting health care costs to others, “increasing financial risks to households and medical providers,” causing bankruptcies, increasing insurance premiums and raising administrative expenses, according to the legal filing. [emphasis mine]”
In other words, “Since we’ve decided that healthcare is a right, and care providers are morally obligated to serve the needs of others, the government has the moral authority to force everyone into the system to control costs.”
Which leads to the question which can only be met with snarling condemnation – How could those who go without insurance inflict such an impact on the market if all individuals were merely responsible for only their own care?
Answer: they couldn’t! Their decisions regarding healthcare would essentially affect only themselves. If men weren’t forced to serve others financially, no other man would have to pay for the bad decisions of another.
This notion, of course, is unimaginable to a pragmatic collectivist, who only see this as a case where “just a little more” government control is needed “just to keep things in line” – which is exactly what Medicare proponents claimed 50 years ago when the obliteration of American medicine began.
Like all cases of market intervention and regulation, we see that “just a little” has now escalated to the full socialization of an industry. Such is the recursive nature of economic meddling, which as logic, history and economics indicate, can only result in higher prices, lower quality, and more regulation to come.
The statist argument is that:
1) Because we have (unjust) laws *forcing* healthcare providers to render services to everyone (regardless of their ability to pay) and 2) because we’ve established a welfare state which enslaves productive citizens across 50 states to cover the financial burdens of others, then 3) in order to maintain interstate commerce by controlling costs, government needs to A) force healthcare providers to charge all customers the same rate (as opposed to letting them recoup some of their losses from serving Medicare and Medicaid “customers” by charging self-sufficient customers a higher rate) and B) prohibit consumers from choosing any avenues of care which might enable their escape from, or expose the folly of, the whole system – in other words, one leash requires one neck.
Thus here we see the left’s favorite and most powerful legal wild-card at play - regulation under interstate commerce is virtually unstoppable.
If men are indoctrinated from birth with the morality of altruism, chained to one another in a way that each man’s burden is the responsibility of others, and can live in one of 50 different states, then yes… every breath a man makes will affect interstate commerce.
America has signed a blank check on government tyranny that is beyond containment.
