quads

Mini H Quad – build log 1

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A few months ago I got started in the hobby of RC multi rotors and specifically quad copters.

My first quad was based on a 3d printed design downloaded from thingiverse and modified through several iterations.

This quad is big and heavy and gives me about 5 minutes flight time from a 2200mah lipo pack so I decided to go for something smaller and more manoeuvrable with the ability to easily add FPV gear to it.

To meet these goals I’ve decided to build a small 250 H quad based on a carbon fibre frame from Banggood so let’s get to it.

Parts List:

Frame – Banggood ZMR250 carbon fibre alternative Banggood ZMR250 glass fibre

Motors, Esc’s & Props – This combo package from myrcmart.com but any similar sized motor, esc etc… can be used

RC Receiver – Any suitable 6 channel receiver that matches your TX

Battery – 1300mah + I’m using these from hobbyking

Flight Controller – At the moment I’m going to use the FC from my other quad which is a Multiwii Pro 2.0 from witespyquads but I intend to eventually put one of their Flip 32+ FC’s on this quad which is equivalent to a Full Naze 32

That’s all for now hopefully the frame will be delivered this week and I can get that build and take some pictures whilst waiting for the other parts to be delivered.

Mini H Quad frame Frame arrived today.

Uncategorized

Site update grrr

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Well I tried to use the built in upgrader to update my install but that didn’t work so I ran softalicious and tried a fresh install but that failed due to their being an existing installation ok fine I’ll delete the folders and run it again as I’d already exported an xml file of my posts.

That worked however I had obviously already deleted the uploads and media folders so any posts with embedded pictures are now broken and anything I’d uploaded is gone.

Nevermind :(

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Total OBD rubbish

Total OBD Car Diagnostics from totalcardiagnostics.com/toad

Total OBD rubbish more like, I purchased this in October as it was priced at $97 due to “Price is temporarily lowered because we’re doing a price marketing test during October 2013. Get TOAD at $100 off while this lasts.”

Well guess what? Yes that’s right it’s currently:

“Price is temporarily lowered because we’re doing a price marketing test during November 2013. Get TOAD at $100 off while this lasts. ”

It’s a bit like a permanent closing down sale at DFS.

I also purchased their USB OBD interface because it uses original firmware and is faster than the Chinese copies well guess what again yes it’s just a Chinese copy drop shipped from dx.com I have to say the interface does seem to work but cost 3 times what I could have bought it direct from DX for myself.

I am still waiting for the DVD to be delivered so only time will tell if the software supplied is worth it or if that is a load of tosh as well.

—-Update—-

Well the software DVD that was eventually delivered just contained copies of hacked and cracked software and the main piece of software they claim to develop is called ScanMaster ELM which they provide a cracker for.

This piece of software is very good but is developed by wgsoft.de

I opened a paypal dispute with Total OBD and got a full refund as they are selling pirated software and drop shipping rubbish hardware, good marketing scam.

Office 365

Office 365 – Open another users mailbox

I just found this on http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/613/t/54315.aspx but wanted to re-produce it hear for safe keeping.

To allow another user to open additional mailboxes in O365 they need the relevant permission.

Open a powershell window and connect to your tenant with admin credentials.

This example command allows John to open Jerry’s mailbox:
Add-MailboxPermission Jerry@contoso.com -User  John@contoso.com -AccessRights FullAccess

If you also want the 3rd part to be able to send as this user you need to also issue this command:

Add-RecipientPermission Jerry@contoso.com -AccessRights SendAs -Trustee John@contoso.com

 

repairs

Nerfsmithing

My vintage nerf gatling gun stopped working with just a hiss of air when the trigger was pulled.

I suspected it had been dropped by the kids and something internally had broken.

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It was easy enough to take apart a dozen or so screws and that was it. The attachment to the back of the main piston had broken off. The blue part in this picture is a fish tank air hose part I used for the repair.

I cut the end off the air hose was cut off as the old broken attachment was stuck inside. I warmed the hose in some boiling water to soften it before pushing it on to the new connector.

Next I drilled out the hole in the back of the piston to 5mm which was big enough to make the new connector a push fit. I secured it with some hot glue.

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Job done gun works just like it did before.

Happy nerfing

CNC

Versalaser compressor danger

Recently the computer controlled air assist unit for our Denford supplied versalaser vl200 laser cutter stopped working.

We took it apart to confirm that it was dead, inside the housing is a rocking piston compressor motor, an air cooling radiator, a water trap unit and solid state relay controlled by a small USB connected micro controller unit. This board is what turns the compressor on and off as called for by the software.

The motor was jammed solid and hooking it directly up to the mains via a plug didn’t change things.

The most worrying thing though was the damage to the internal hoses caused by them rubbing against the base of the motor as can be seen by the attached pictures, this post is just a warning to be careful.

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Hardware

Testing solid state relays

Today I pulled an ssr from a versalaser air compressor and wanted to test if it was working.

l started just as you would with an electro mechanical relay, l stuck a 9v battery across it and nothing. Then l remembered it was an ssr so l wouldn’t hear anything and I put my meter across the load terminals in continuity mode and got nothing.

Hmmm a quick google reveals all solid state relays need a powered load as they use some of that power to operate and a multimeter doesn’t provide enough.

So hooking a desk fan to the load side of things with the live wire connected to the terminals and a 9v battery to switch the relay results in the fan turning on, result working ssr.

Scripting

Deploy App-V 4.6 SP1 Desktop Client

Ok so I’m slightly late to the party regarding getting startd with App-V and with version 5 around the corner this post might become a mute point.

For some reason Microsoft in their infinite wisdom made this piece of software a pig to install, msi’s to extract from exe installers, specific appguid parameters to assign depending on the version you are using.

I thought that surely someone will have written a nice vbscript or something to deploy all the pre-requisites etc… but it appears not therefore I wrote a nasty vbscript to acheive this.

My script checks the installed product code for the specific ones required to deploy the desktop client and if it doesn’t find them it installs the relevant piece of software and then writes an event log entry before moving on to the next item.

It basically loops through all the installed software product codes looking for a match and that’s one portion that could be improved upon. There is an api to check for a piece of software being installed but I couldn’t find any working code examples.

No error trapping is done so if something goes wrong during an install once control passes back to the vbscript it will execute the next block.

This is currently for the x86 version of the client allthough would be easy enough to edit for the x64 as well.

It works for me but use at your own risk.

App-V-4.6_SP1_Installer_x86_Clean