Category Archives: Video Gaming

Helicopters, Radio Control, Uncategorized, Video Gaming

POV Camera mounted on EXI-450A

Leave a comment

Wednesday was a pretty good day. It marked the arrival of a mini-DVR camera I’ve wanted to buy for quite some time. It went on sale for Fathers day at nearly 1/2 price. I just could not pass up the deal!

Mini DVR Camera

The location of the aperture is not perfect, but I can work with it. In fact I have a new canopy on the way from Hong Kong, that will be cut so I can mount the camera forward of main rotor head, and a little lower to make sure it’s not at risk of a blade strike. In the mean time I have a mount position rear of the main rotor that works OK. I like to have a little bit of the helicopter in view to give some perspective.

Here is an in-door run-up test of the camera.

Having found a suitable location, and even though I’ve still not sorted out the mystery vibration in the main drive train, I wanted to take it out for a flight, and shoot some POV video off the helicopter.

Here is the POV video:

Unfortunately, this was the aftermath of the crash. Broken main blade grip. That really annoying part is that this one of those 2% of the parts that is NOT directly ALIGHN TRex 450 compatible.

EXI-450A V2 main blade grip failure. Good grip (top) broken (middle). Also in photo are the various bearings used by main grips.

I’m able to source ALIGN 450 parts at the LHS (local hobby shop), but these design of these are so different that I don’t think I can use them. The bearings are the same size but they mount in different locations, and I think it’s allowing the blade grips to shift a few thousandths of an inch off-center, making what I know to already to be a nasty run-out on the main shaft, even worse. I’m fairly certain that it’s not an issue with the shaft itself, since I have 4 of them now (1 original and 3 replacements) and they are all showing the same runout when mounted in the drive system (video below shows the problem I am having).

You may notice wobble in the in-flight POV video. That’s not the camera. That’s actually the helicopter when it gets into this harmonic resonance with the main shaft vibration. It can be pretty nasty, and it certaily didn’t help me when I lost control and crashed.

I’m doing some research, consulting with the great oracles, and just trying to sort out the possible cause of the strange shaft run-out. So far, I’ve come across the solution, or solved this problem myself. Here is a video of the some testing I’ve done to quantify the issue:

Forza 3, racing, Technology

More Forza 3 Livery Fun – Hello Kitty!

Leave a comment

Bordem and Beer are a bad combination when it comes to creating vinyl groups in Forza 3.

I won the NSX during Season play, and immedialy the first Honda Fan that came to mind was my friend Mary (I still owe ya $30 for the game.. damn I’m a flake). The next thing to my mind, was that I had to create a ‘Mary Tribute Car’. So… here it is, just for you Mary. A 2007 Acura NSX all decked out.

Hello Kitty NSX
Hello Kitty NSX

I’m not sure who was laughing more while I spent the 2 hours laying out the 201 separate layers it took to make this abomination, but I have to say much laughing was had by all once I was finished!

And to top it all off, I uploaded it to the Forza 3 Storefont, with the design for sale at $10,000 each (limited run of 3). Overnight I sold 2 of them! LOL. That matches the downloads of my FREE Shelby GT500 Mustang design (which BTW looks like a proper race design). Does this make me a professional artist?

Forza 3, racing, Video Gaming

Forza Motorsports 3 – racing video game nirvana

Leave a comment

No doubt about it, I love racing games. And Forza Motorsports III is no exception. I enjoyed FM2 a lot, but all I really did was race.

Since getting FM3 (and a new power supply for my M$ wireless feedback racing controller) I’ve been racing and creating custom looks for my cars.

At first I had some pretty wild solid paint on the cars. Lately though, I have toned it down a bit, changed the big red and white number circle to a very subtle black/grey (but it’s still there on each and every one of the cars I’ve raced in the game).

In a blog to be posted at a later time, I’ll talk more about the cars (I have 20 or so right now, over 1/2 have never turned a wheel in the came — those are all painted white so at a glance I know which are stock, and which are not).

Some of the fun in the game is creating custom looks for the cars. Sure is cheaper than doing it in real life. In fact, if you are good enough people will pay our in-game credits for your masterpieces (I sold 3 in the first 8 hours they were posted). I can win enough credits in the game, it’s not about that, it’s about customizing, exploring a little artistic expression.

Once you have a car you really like, you can upload them to the FMIII website, then save them to anyplace you like. So, I have done just that.

Now, if you are still reading this, you might wonder when I’m going to post the ‘great graphics masterpiece’ I created that has been so popular, it is now sold out. Well, it’s in the last photo (more on that).

Here is the first car I bought in the game, and the only one not painted black. It’s a smoking Ford Fiesta. Wee. Now it’s pretty over-done, and basically impossible to drive. LOL. Still, I can win races with it.

Forza Motorsports III - My first Racer
Forza Motorsports III - My first Racer

Next is a the most recent of my racers, and the first with a proper racing stripe on it. Not very exciting I realize that. That’s sort of the point, understated but unique enough to get spotted in an on-line race with friends.

Lexus 'Racer' in action.
Lexus 'Racer' in action.

OK, so here it is. The beast of my fleet (currently at ‘Supercar’ status due to mods). The V10 powered BMW M\\\5. Woo! And what did I sell out on the Forza Storefront? The license plate. That’s right. That little license plate graphic. All 95 layers of it. It does not look like much but it’s right with vector graphics detail. Measured and re-created from one of the many actual German EU plates I have round the house. I uploaded that template (users can change the letters to anything they want, or remove the registration tags, whatever). It took about 2 hours to figure out how to use the FMIII in-game editor. It’s not what I would call ‘easy’ but once you get the hang of how they manage layers, it’s not that difficult to get a basic result.

Black Beasty
Black Beasty