Toshi's thread
- Thread starter Toshi
- Start date
Downside/upside of getting back into RC 20 years later is that things have changed a ton. LiPo is the way to go (the Slash I bought coming from the factory with a NiMH battery and a terrible 12V cigarette plug charger that doesn't appear to like charging from either of my cars), and it's more the mental barriers to figuring out what I should get than the price of gear itself, which is quite reasonable really.
All this also serves to highlight how backwards the e-bike world is with regard to adoption of LiPo, outrunners, etc. RC stuff is cheaper, much lighter, and the only downside is a tendency to result in huge fires now and then. No, seriously: fireproof LiPo charging bags are a thing.
Anyway, chargers + power supplies + connectors are a whole rabbit hole I haven't been down in 20 years, back when I rocked some sort of monster truck and a two motor catamaran RC boat. Those years were fun and ended precisely when I got my license.
:derp:
What I'm thinking for after I get back from my short vacation, based in part off of initial suggestions from a NASIOC OTter who has remained in the RC scene:
- iCharger "The Ticket" combo (iCharger 206B and Junsi P350)
- JST-XH + Traxxas modular board setup with that, which I understand would allow me to charge two packs in parallel
- hunt down three LiPo packs from a reputable manufacturer: 3S, Traxxas main connector + JST-XH balancing connector, at least 25C and 5000 mAh (Traxxas makes one just like this at 5000 mAh but $75 per pack seems rich at first glance)
This would give me one pack in the car, two on the charger each charging at 20A (which at ~150W would still leave plenty of headroom for the 300W charger and 350W power supply). That'd allow for more or less continual running of the car if desired.
Edit: Per this link http://rogershobbycenter.com/lipoguide/ it looks like 1C charging is recommended. That'd be 5A for 5000 mAh, 5.5 for 5500, etc. That in turn would render the fancier charger total overkill. 106B+ it is.
All this also serves to highlight how backwards the e-bike world is with regard to adoption of LiPo, outrunners, etc. RC stuff is cheaper, much lighter, and the only downside is a tendency to result in huge fires now and then. No, seriously: fireproof LiPo charging bags are a thing.
Anyway, chargers + power supplies + connectors are a whole rabbit hole I haven't been down in 20 years, back when I rocked some sort of monster truck and a two motor catamaran RC boat. Those years were fun and ended precisely when I got my license.
:derp:
What I'm thinking for after I get back from my short vacation, based in part off of initial suggestions from a NASIOC OTter who has remained in the RC scene:
- iCharger "The Ticket" combo (iCharger 206B and Junsi P350)
- JST-XH + Traxxas modular board setup with that, which I understand would allow me to charge two packs in parallel
- hunt down three LiPo packs from a reputable manufacturer: 3S, Traxxas main connector + JST-XH balancing connector, at least 25C and 5000 mAh (Traxxas makes one just like this at 5000 mAh but $75 per pack seems rich at first glance)
This would give me one pack in the car, two on the charger each charging at 20A (which at ~150W would still leave plenty of headroom for the 300W charger and 350W power supply). That'd allow for more or less continual running of the car if desired.
Edit: Per this link http://rogershobbycenter.com/lipoguide/ it looks like 1C charging is recommended. That'd be 5A for 5000 mAh, 5.5 for 5500, etc. That in turn would render the fancier charger total overkill. 106B+ it is.
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Impression confirmed. Traxxas @ $75/pack and requiring their own proprietary charger as their connector is the usual Traxxas connector + balance leads integrated (WTF?) is not a good deal.
Better deal on paper is this: https://smile.amazon.com/Floureon-5500mAh-Battery-Traxxas-Helicopter/dp/B00LUKTVC2?sa-no-redirect=1 . That'd be $70 for two 3S 5500 mAh 35C batteries with Traxxas + JST-XH leads just as desired.
Edit: Probably going to stick to 2S packs for now. Charger will work with 1S-6S but I should break fewer parts at 7.4V.
Edit 2: 3S all the way. Fast is good.
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I just got my conference leave approved for Florida in late March. (Still waiting on acceptance and then, afterwards, leave approval for late April in Hawaii!)
I don't believe that I've ever been to Florida or any of the southeast states save for an interview trip years ago to New Orleans. Just looking at the map it looks like the Keys would be accessible.
Tentative plan:
- fly in to MIA Saturday for Sunday-Friday conference
- stay in AirBNB rental within walking distance of conference, driving here and there for dinner during the week
- after conference stuff wraps up at noon on Friday drive down through the Keys to Key West +/- photos along way
- stay at a Key West hotel Friday night (since AirBNB only seems to have houseboats, random tent spots (wtf?), and a sweet looking but not cheap bus-based RV for rent)
- drive back to MIA Saturday and fly out that afternoon
Edit: Key West hotel booked. Car booked (Cadillac XTS or similar! which was only $32 more than the oddly same-priced economy/fullsize/standard categories for the whole duration, not per day). AirBNB request for the condo for the rest of the time placed. Flight booked.
I don't believe that I've ever been to Florida or any of the southeast states save for an interview trip years ago to New Orleans. Just looking at the map it looks like the Keys would be accessible.
Tentative plan:
- fly in to MIA Saturday for Sunday-Friday conference
- stay in AirBNB rental within walking distance of conference, driving here and there for dinner during the week
- after conference stuff wraps up at noon on Friday drive down through the Keys to Key West +/- photos along way
- stay at a Key West hotel Friday night (since AirBNB only seems to have houseboats, random tent spots (wtf?), and a sweet looking but not cheap bus-based RV for rent)
- drive back to MIA Saturday and fly out that afternoon
Edit: Key West hotel booked. Car booked (Cadillac XTS or similar! which was only $32 more than the oddly same-priced economy/fullsize/standard categories for the whole duration, not per day). AirBNB request for the condo for the rest of the time placed. Flight booked.
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The Land Cruiser is ready to roll to the slopes. The Yakima FatCat 6 is quite wide indeed, and mounting systems have come a long ways since the days of Thule square bars and finicky metal clamps that refused to snap in cleanly.
Related gripe: The SKS lock cylinders in this Yakima ski rack are different in length albeit identical in diameter to those in my Thule bike rack. Another key for the ol' keyring, gah.
I used a simple sticky flat surface GoPro mount and ran the car about the basement a bit. The basement really does it no justice given how quick it is. Apart from the mount coming loose and me running into things here and there I thought it worked pretty well.
I bought me a toy.I'm going to fab up a plywood piece that'll replace the Lexan body but use the body mounts, and use that as a platform for mounting the gimbal + GoPro.
With all yours kids toys, there must be some Lego or MegaBlocks somewhere in your house. What am I getting at? Jumps!
What's next - remote controlled lawn mower?
There's ample terrain outside for jumps and stunts, and to open it up and hit its claimed 40 mph. What I don't have for a few weeks is non-allocated daytime hours here.With all yours kids toys, there must be some Lego or MegaBlocks somewhere in your house. What am I getting at? Jumps!
I looked at the robotic lawnmowers but they all seemed to suck, besides being super expensive. Since there's a front lawn and a back lawn separated by a gate, rocks, and a mulch area I'd need to cart it around anyway, which would defeat the purpose.What's next - remote controlled lawn mower?
I ordered some higher voltage batteries (3S LiPo–I will try to not burn the house down by only charging them outdoors in a LiPo charging bag, with a fancy charger: iCharger 106B+). Plan is to mount up the GoPro + Karma Grip more securely, mount up my commuter bike's 2200 lumen light on the hood, and tear around some vacant lot in the dark and in doing so perhaps drum up some YouTube hits.
In other, unrelated news, I'm going to use this post as a scratchpad to figure out the proper strategy for travel costs this upcoming year:
Assumptions: Need 4 tickets for DEN-HNL for an April conference. Also 4 tickets DEN to any of the DC area airports in July for a cousin's wedding, probably 4 tickets in August or September for another random trip to Seattle and possibly down the coast to my parents' place, and 4 more in December for our annual trip out here for the holidays. Economy Plus on United is preferred over Southwest economy, clearly, and First > Economy for Hawaii length flights (and Japan, although no trips planned in the next 12 months).
Scenario 1: E+ subscription + United all year long.
An Economy Plus subscription to cover Hawaii and all parties traveling would be $999 for the year. This would get us E+ on all legs of all subsequent flights.
Hawaii tix at the standard economy rate would be $937 per for non-stop at current rates.
DC tix on the tentative dates around July 1 would be $536 per for reasonable hours (ouch!).
End of August Seattle tix would be $378 per best case.
I can't check prices for next December yet but let's assume $450 per for a higher demand period.
Total: $10,203. Oof.
Scenario 2: First Class to Hawaii, slumming on Southwest rest of year.
Hawaii First Class tix would be $1,774 per and that's with a stop. Non-stop looks to be unavailable effectively–only two tickets available for the outbound leg even this many months out. Alternately it'd be $119/seat/leg to upgrade E to E+, so $1,175 per effectively for non-stop E to E+ upgrade.
DC: estimates difficult on SW since they only schedule through June at this point but about $470 per.
Seattle tix about $402 per x 2 trips.
Total: $12,192 for the First Class option to Hawaii, $9,796 for E+/SW combo. In other words, nearly $2,400 just for the upgrade on that one trip.
Hmph. Shit's expensive any way I cut it. For $500 over E+ to Hawaii + SW (er, "WN") the rest of the year I think the E+ subscription option is the way to go for the added seat pitch on all of these sundry flights.
Update: realized today there's a Mexico trip in there in July or August. E+ would be helpful and the same plan that covers Hawaii covers Mexico. That makes the choice even clearer.
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Too bad standing seat class is not commercially implemented, yet. 
The effect of efficient construction on energy costs:
1) Ignore January and February, as the 2016 bill was paying for both the old and the new houses simultaneously.
2) New house's 2.6 kW of PV were hooked up to the grid at the very end of April 2016, so May 2016 bills onward reflect its effect. This offsets about 1/4 of our monthly electricity usage. The costs of what we do pull from the grid reflect the premium we pay through Xcel's WindSource program for offsetting all of our electricity with wind RECs.
3) 2015 rental house is 1583 sq ft and built to ~2005 code minimum, namely 2 x 4" walls with probably R-19 insulation and double pane windows. My guess is that the undersized central AC is 13 SEER.
4) 2016 house that we built is 3272 finished sq ft and built to supra-code standards: 9.5" thick walls with R-38, R-50 in attic, double pane windows, 2.6 kW PV, 21 SEER central AC. Forced air with a natural gas furnace for both but the new house has a dual stage furnace and 96% efficiency.
Put all of this together and the March-November data show that the new house, over twice as large and with more than that in volume as it has higher ceilings throughout as well as an unfinished mechanical room, has resulted in significantly lower energy bills than the old rental house, even though the old rental house was far from a leaking, uninsulated mess as is often the case in the real world.
As my earlier posting here about AC use cycles (CN: we run that shit all the time in the summer) indicates this is with keeping the house at a constant 70 degrees or so, too…
1) Ignore January and February, as the 2016 bill was paying for both the old and the new houses simultaneously.
2) New house's 2.6 kW of PV were hooked up to the grid at the very end of April 2016, so May 2016 bills onward reflect its effect. This offsets about 1/4 of our monthly electricity usage. The costs of what we do pull from the grid reflect the premium we pay through Xcel's WindSource program for offsetting all of our electricity with wind RECs.
3) 2015 rental house is 1583 sq ft and built to ~2005 code minimum, namely 2 x 4" walls with probably R-19 insulation and double pane windows. My guess is that the undersized central AC is 13 SEER.
4) 2016 house that we built is 3272 finished sq ft and built to supra-code standards: 9.5" thick walls with R-38, R-50 in attic, double pane windows, 2.6 kW PV, 21 SEER central AC. Forced air with a natural gas furnace for both but the new house has a dual stage furnace and 96% efficiency.
Put all of this together and the March-November data show that the new house, over twice as large and with more than that in volume as it has higher ceilings throughout as well as an unfinished mechanical room, has resulted in significantly lower energy bills than the old rental house, even though the old rental house was far from a leaking, uninsulated mess as is often the case in the real world.
As my earlier posting here about AC use cycles (CN: we run that shit all the time in the summer) indicates this is with keeping the house at a constant 70 degrees or so, too…
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I made myself a separate user account on the wife's MacBook (as I didn't haul my huge Windows work-issued laptop and as the astute reader will note bought and sold a Chromebook in the interim so have nothing of my own here in Seattle with a keyboard).
Using it as I would normally use a computer shows that it actually is a bit slow. It doesn't bother her in her "keep 30 Chrome tabs open" usage pattern but for my typing speed it actually feels somewhat laggy. This is disappointing in that that part of the experience is not dissimilar to that of the $500 Chromebook (noting that this MacBook was something like $1200).
On the other hand, the trackpad on this MacBook is basically perfect, the screen is great, and the build quality and design are top notch as exemplified by the small bezels, in contrast to the sloppiness of HP with the mid range Chromebook. The keyboard is something I still don't like, though: ultra short travel to allow for the very slim design, and something about it makes me type worse than on a conventional keyboard.
Verdict: I do not desire it, and to make the leap to the full blown MacBook Pro for more performance and a more conventional keyboard just doesn't seem worth it to my mind. I'd rather blow that money on airplane tickets, clearly…
Using it as I would normally use a computer shows that it actually is a bit slow. It doesn't bother her in her "keep 30 Chrome tabs open" usage pattern but for my typing speed it actually feels somewhat laggy. This is disappointing in that that part of the experience is not dissimilar to that of the $500 Chromebook (noting that this MacBook was something like $1200).
On the other hand, the trackpad on this MacBook is basically perfect, the screen is great, and the build quality and design are top notch as exemplified by the small bezels, in contrast to the sloppiness of HP with the mid range Chromebook. The keyboard is something I still don't like, though: ultra short travel to allow for the very slim design, and something about it makes me type worse than on a conventional keyboard.
Verdict: I do not desire it, and to make the leap to the full blown MacBook Pro for more performance and a more conventional keyboard just doesn't seem worth it to my mind. I'd rather blow that money on airplane tickets, clearly…
12/23 marked a year + a day since closing, and 1 year precisely since switching to fiber optic gigabit Internet service. It also marked when said fiber optic service crapped out: all of the DropCams (now Nest Cams) crapped out simultaneously and other connected devices similarly puked and dropped off the network. The router couldn't pull an IP address and nothing was reachable from either the wired or wireless side of things.
So when I got home today I set to work on fixing that as the first priority after starting a load of laundry. To make a long, boring story short it turns out I had all the settings exactly right (PPPoE and VLAN being key) yet mysteriously nothing worked until a second call to CenturyLink tech support.
Makes one wonder. In any case things are working again and hopefully will do so for another year.
So when I got home today I set to work on fixing that as the first priority after starting a load of laundry. To make a long, boring story short it turns out I had all the settings exactly right (PPPoE and VLAN being key) yet mysteriously nothing worked until a second call to CenturyLink tech support.
Makes one wonder. In any case things are working again and hopefully will do so for another year.
Upside of my obsessive-compulsive tendencies is that my family photos are in focus, white balanced, and properly exposed.
My baby Yuna is a cute baby.
She likes her maternal grandfather's company.
Mariko's nearly 4 and is looking like a little woman.
My baby Yuna is a cute baby.
She likes her maternal grandfather's company.
Mariko's nearly 4 and is looking like a little woman.
Rental car review:
2016 Kia Sedona. Rented at Alamo at SEA, 31k miles on the clock, definitely not a loaded SXL model like the stock photo.
Pros:
- 23.x mpg in mixed driving
- strong V6 in high rev range
- heated seats, power sliding doors, and adequate room in general
Cons:
- looked very tired for its 31k miles, in particular with regard to interior wear and discoloration
- lots of sag permitted in cruise control, like it was unwilling to unlock the torque converter: we're talking sagging to 26 mph when set at 31 mph on a residential uphill grade in Seattle
- no power rear door on rental model
- terrible stereo which didn't dim with the rest of the dash lights (but had a Disp button to turn it off easily)
- no dome lights! in a super cheap move by Kia, instead having a button that turns the selectable overhead lights into pseudo dome lights
- super high beltline in 3rd row, which would be infuriating for kids/short people back there although my 20 month old didn't seem to care from her rear-facing seat
Verdict: I like minivans. Really, I do. This was a merely ok one. I'll pick the Town & Country next time off the rental lot given a chance (and wouldn't buy either were it my money), but at least my curiosity was sated.
2016 Kia Sedona. Rented at Alamo at SEA, 31k miles on the clock, definitely not a loaded SXL model like the stock photo.
Pros:
- 23.x mpg in mixed driving
- strong V6 in high rev range
- heated seats, power sliding doors, and adequate room in general
Cons:
- looked very tired for its 31k miles, in particular with regard to interior wear and discoloration
- lots of sag permitted in cruise control, like it was unwilling to unlock the torque converter: we're talking sagging to 26 mph when set at 31 mph on a residential uphill grade in Seattle
- no power rear door on rental model
- terrible stereo which didn't dim with the rest of the dash lights (but had a Disp button to turn it off easily)
- no dome lights! in a super cheap move by Kia, instead having a button that turns the selectable overhead lights into pseudo dome lights
- super high beltline in 3rd row, which would be infuriating for kids/short people back there although my 20 month old didn't seem to care from her rear-facing seat
Verdict: I like minivans. Really, I do. This was a merely ok one. I'll pick the Town & Country next time off the rental lot given a chance (and wouldn't buy either were it my money), but at least my curiosity was sated.
The stick-on GoPro mount on the hood for the light didn't work too well. The newly bolted-on mount for the Karma Grip worked great, on the other hand.
Windows is a tremendous pain in the ass. Periodically, including today, my gaming PC gets super slow: windows are laggy to redraw and Chrome takes on the order of 10 seconds to render a popup menu (such as for favorites).
This should not happen. This is a nice computer: X99, i7 5930K, 32 GB RAM, M.2 SSD, two 980 Tis in SLI...
:facepalm:
Usually when this happens I update my Nvidia drivers and it's fixed again, but as of now I'm up to date, malware is removed, and things should be working smoothly yet they aren't.
This should not happen. This is a nice computer: X99, i7 5930K, 32 GB RAM, M.2 SSD, two 980 Tis in SLI...
:facepalm:
Usually when this happens I update my Nvidia drivers and it's fixed again, but as of now I'm up to date, malware is removed, and things should be working smoothly yet they aren't.
So are you I/O bound? Processor bound? Task Manager will give you a first approximation...
Sounds like a hw resource conflict somewhere. I'd start the troubleshooting with SLI, yank the second card out, see what happens.
I went downstairs all ready to troubleshoot and restore... and it's working fine now. Meh.
I did take this opportunity to set up backups to my network drive. I hadn't worried about it since anything important lives on Google Drive +/- desktop sync. Everything else can be restored anew, but since I have the drive (used for the other household computers to backup) why not?
Today in a nutshell. I had fun but I got tired after about 3.5 hours up on the slopes. Makes sense--different muscles, 12k elevation at the top of Parsenn Bowl, sunburn, not eating breakfast or lunch because I wanted to ski through it.
I took The Lift shuttle in today, which was kind of suboptimal. ~20 min wait for a shuttle on the front end, which shouldn't happen given the schedules posted and the number of routes that service this locale, and maybe 10-15 min on the back end. Furthermore the shuttles were crowded and don't have ski racks on their exterior so everyone's clutching their skis in the dark.
Tomorrow I'm going to drive in and park for free at Mary Jane. I'll take a sequence of lifts to get all the way up then I'm going to head way over to the opposite side, to Vasquez Ridge. Mary Jane's bumps were a bit much for me given my comeback skier status and resultant lack of grace, so I want to find steeper, smoother stuff to have some fun on. If Vasquez Ridge is a bust I'll head back over to Mary Jane, and will end up there for the car in any case.
@Nick says he might come out, so if he does then all bets are off as I'll just follow him around.
I'm still not sure if I'll stop for lunch if solo. Cheapness + uneasiness with leaving my gear hanging about. I will definitely wear sun block, though--lesson learned from today.
I just booked Mariko's first ski lesson. Sunday, January 8.
I was going to have us take the Amtrak, too, since that's awesome, but the timetable doesn't work with lessons: train gets in at 9 AM but one must check in for the lesson at 8:45 at the latest.
I was going to have us take the Amtrak, too, since that's awesome, but the timetable doesn't work with lessons: train gets in at 9 AM but one must check in for the lesson at 8:45 at the latest.
Fun, short day today. I tried some trees and bumps so should be able to edit a more interesting video—working on that task now.
I confirmed for @SkaredShtles that yesterday's video was Cheshire Cat.
Unfortunately, I also confirmed that calibrating the Karma Grip, as I did last night, does NOT solve horizon tilt issues. Lots of the same today as well as one clip that showed a novel failure mode, the tilt lock drifting down until the camera was banging away on the gimbal's bottom stop. Not ideal, this.
I confirmed for @SkaredShtles that yesterday's video was Cheshire Cat.
Unfortunately, I also confirmed that calibrating the Karma Grip, as I did last night, does NOT solve horizon tilt issues. Lots of the same today as well as one clip that showed a novel failure mode, the tilt lock drifting down until the camera was banging away on the gimbal's bottom stop. Not ideal, this.
Hopefully you found that you can get over to Vasquez Ridge from Mary Jane in just a single lift?
Getting back to MJ involves a couple...
Yeah, I think I did it right: Super Gauge Express (formerly Summit Express) and then riding a bunch of greens down into Vasquez Ridge. To get back was Pioneer to High Lonesome.
Winter Park is one spread out set of mountains. For my final hours there tomorrow morning I'm going to stick to MJ and Panoramic Express, I think. Oh: weekend lift opening was 8:30, at least during this peak season. Didn't matter to me since I wasn't there at opening on either day, but just for your own internal records.
Have you had any contact with GoPro about the issue? I would very much like to pick up a gimbal but would obviously prefer a reliable product from a company that will stand behind it. Curious to know your experience going forward.
Toshi, how do you like the Mantras so far?
I like them--good recommendation. They have a good Goldilocks feel to their stiffness compared to my last two skis (Rossignol Pure 7 and some old 68 mm width pseudo-GS skis).
Took a solid day to get used to how they edged: until then I was getting a lot of chatter, especially when turning to the left. I think I was trying to put too much power into the edges so I backed off on the knee angle and the skis were suddenly happier.
Biggest complaint is the tips knocking together on flat bits due to the lack of rocker. That's a very minor thing, admittedly.
Those are full rocker skis. Do you mean lack of camber?
Whoops, yes. I do not know my terms. The flat bottom when they sit on flat surfaces.
So it happened again on a fresh restart. 1-10% CPU, 10-14% memory with 5 Chrome tabs open. Bizarre. It takes about 10 seconds for Chrome bookmark popup menus to populate (like folders on the bookmark bar).
Edit: it's also a rendering issue alone, which makes that SLI idea more likely in my half-informed mind. I can pick these phantom menu options just fine without seeing them.
Edit 2: It also seems to be a Chrome issue for the most part, although I vaguely recall it happening in Windows Explorer before. Closing all Chrome instances, putting the computer to sleep, then waking it up seems to have solved it for now again. Odd.
I think the long term solution would be to eBay these two 980 Tis and get a single 1080 Ti when that comes out, but if I can get it to work with this bodge then I'll live with it and enjoy the prettiness of two lit EVGA cards through the windowed case.
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Whoops, forgot to reply to this one. I've posted on the GoPro support forum, with the official person's response "I've flagged this issue to our teams."
I should contact GoPro directly and see about getting a replacement unit to see if it exhibits the same behavior.
Update: Contacted this morning. Awaiting response.
Update 2: Support told me how to reset the device, after which I recalibrated it. The commute footage a few posts down looked ok.
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