Park Day Nov 2012

Just a quick blurb.  On Monday 11-19-2012, I ventured to a local park with my SCX10.  Found a few good spots to crawl on.  I'll get some pictures posted later, and will be putting together a video on it too.

McRC Destruction

Well at least on video.  Here is the extra short:

Return of the Micro Monster: the movie

Finally got both parts of the movie completed and uploaded.  Hope you like them.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I ended up with a lot of footage on this little run.  Again this was another iPhone production:

1. FiLMiC Pro to capture the video.
2. iMovie for editing.
3. Strip Designer for the title page.
4. Acton Movie FX for the special effects shots.
5. iPhone built in screen shot function to grab stills from video.
6. Music from the Resident Evil live action movie soundtrack, ID Software's Quake 2 soundtrack, and from a couple of Film Riot episodes.
7. Wi-Fi connected to upload to YouTube.

I still need to get into the mind set of videography.  I'm still not focusing on the actual capture details such as locked focus and locked auto exposure.  Once I get those down, I'm sure the quality will go up.  All in all, I still have fun shooting and driving (at least I'm not drinking and driving, but I guess shooting and driving really doesn't sound all that much better).

As I was cleaning up the files from my iPhone, I got an idea for a little short on this film.  I'm going to not give any details until it is together and uploaded.

Where will the Micro Monster strike next?

Return of the Micro Crawler

I have started up another video project on my Losi Micro Rock Crawler.  Once again this will be another iPhone only production.

Movie Poster

Trailer:

 

This movie will actually be a 2 part production as I want to keep the video sizes down.  Production details will accompany the part 1 release.

Stay tuned!

SCX10 new radio

I just received in a new radio that I will be adding to my SCX10, the Futaba 4PL 2.4GHz pistol radio:

This is their lower end, 4 channel, 2.4GHz, pistol grip transmitter.  It is a nice and lightweight radio, using only 4 AA batteries for power.  The 3-channel system I have it in now is good, but it does not have a 3 position switch for the 3rd channel.  Why would I need a 3-pos switch?  Well I plan to pick up a scale, working winch from RC4WD.  They are some nice looking winches, and a 3-pos switch would allow for easy operation.  And you can't have a scale off-road truck with out a working winch, can you?  And since this is a 4 channel radio that also just happens to have a 4WS mix, I have a new mod project on my 2013 list to give my SCX10 4WS capability.  Now I know there aren't many full size 4WD trucks, but since I do have the Proline Helios body (aka the Halo Warthog) having both a winch and 4WS will make for some great scale times.

Looks like I might have to postpone getting the awesome scale looking Axial Wraith Rock Racer kit.

Once I have performed the radio transplant, I'll work on getting another SCX10 video going.

Got Rocks, will crawl.

Creeper and 4WS

I decided to finally do some searching on how to use the wonderful Spektrum DX6i radio to setup for 4WS.

Currently, I have each steering servo on a separate channel.  This is good as it allows me to independently control front and rear steering.  the downside is that if I want to do crab crawl or tight turning, I have to do some additional focus on how to move the sticks.  My searching brought me to this post on rccrawler.com.  The poster goes through how to setup the available custom mixing to allow changing to and from the crab and tight steering.  this setup allows for 2 of the switches to be configures to turn on and off the 2 additional modes, while still allowing full independent control of the steering servos.  Now this poster's setup is slightly different than what I want, and I was able to easily make modifications to the setup to suit how I control my crawler.  And I even documented step-by-step how I did my setup:

Spektrum DX6i setup for Venom Creeper with 4WS:

Radio mode: 2

Throttle: DIG

Rudder: Front Steering

Aileron: Rear Steering

Elevator: Throttle

Gear: Remote Diff locker

Flap: Lights

1. Turn on your radio
2. Verify that you have correct model selected.
3. Click the scroll wheel to enter settings mode.
4. Move scroll wheel until the Mix 1 is highlighted.
5. Click the scroll wheel, now you'll see the mix screen.
6. Configure MIX 1 as follows:
1. Scroll to INH, click scroll wheel.
2. Scroll to change to ACT, click scroll wheel.
3. Scroll to first selection (default value THRO), click scroll wheel.
4. Scroll to RUDD, click scroll wheel.
5. Scroll to next selection (default value THRO), click scroll wheel.
6. Scroll to AILE, click scroll wheel.
7. Scroll to 4th selection (RATE: L value), click scroll wheel.
8. Scroll to +100 value, click scroll wheel.
9. Scroll to 5th selection (RATE: R value), click scroll wheel.
10. Scroll to +100 value, click scroll wheel.
11. Scroll to 6th selection (SW: default value ON) , click scroll wheel.
12. Scroll to ELE D/R, click scroll wheel.
13. Scroll to 7th selection (TRIM: default value INH), click scroll wheel.
14. Scroll to ACT, click scroll wheel.
15. Scroll to LIST, click scroll wheel to exit MIX 1 setup.
7. Back at ADJUST LIST menu, scroll wheel to MIX 2, and click scroll wheel.
8. Configure MIX 2 as follows:
1. Scroll to INH, click scroll wheel.
2. Scroll to change to ACT, click scroll wheel.
3. Scroll to first selection (default value THRO), click scroll wheel.
4. Scroll to RUDD, click scroll wheel.
5. Scroll to next selection (default value THRO), click scroll wheel.
6. Scroll to AILE, click scroll wheel.
7. Scroll to 4th selection (RATE: L value), click scroll wheel.
8. Scroll to -100 value, click scroll wheel.
9. Scroll to 5th selection (RATE: R value), click scroll wheel.
10. Scroll to -100 value, click scroll wheel.
11. Scroll to 6th selection (SW: default value ON) , click scroll wheel.
12. Scroll to AIL D/R, click scroll wheel.
13. Scroll to 7th selection (TRIM: default value INH), click scroll wheel.
14. Scroll to ACT, click scroll wheel.
15. Scroll to LIST, click scroll wheel to exit MIX 1 setup.
9. Back at ADJUST LIST menu, scroll to Main, and click scroll wheel to exit.

This setup helps a lot, especially when needing to drive in a specific mode for an extended time.  Now I just need to get the trims sorted out.