The Creeper Monster

Finally an update to the Creeper.  It's been awhile and some progress has been made.

The remote diff lock mods didn't work out too well.  The mounting just didn't work, and trying to operate them on different channels was not working out either.  So I got some new remote diff lock kits and got them mounted in the manufacturer's recommended location.

The shock rebuilds when better than I expected.  I only had a slight difficulty on 1.  So the shocks are back to factory default, but with a slightly heavier weight oil.  I didn't have enough of the stock kit oil and grabbed the left over from the SCX10 kit.

I also got in some new electronics.  Two new servos with more torque for steering.  Yes, two to have 4 wheel steering setup.  A new Novak ESC that is designed for crawling.  A new higher capacity battery for longer run times.  Some lights for the Creeper.  Picked up a basic set with 12 lights and 4 modes for a great price.  Let's just say that the Creeper will crawl and provide a party atmosphere.

Some non electronic upgrades include an upgraded drive line with improved joints.  The original setup uses grub screws to hold a yoke pin into a yoke cylinder, and lock tight is to be used on the screws.  Unfortunately this makes for a very difficult and frustrating rebuild/disassemble process.  The upgrade uses collars to hold in the pins, and the center drive line collars use larger grub screw to stop slipping.  This ends up giving some strength on the joints and makes for a much easier rebuild.  Also got a new gray servo plate for the rear servo to match the front.  A new green steering linkage set for the rear, again to match the front.  Some Axial light buckets for easy light mounting.  And a new body to top it all off with.

I need to get new connector style on the motor for use with the new ESC.  So until then, I'll continue with the old reliable Novak Rooster.  I got all the upgrade parts mounted, and lights installed on the body.  Need to attach a few lights to the steering servos.  Now all the wiring needs to be cleaned up.

Hopefully this means that I'll get it up and running soon and should have some new videos too.

Utah Crawl

Well, I am finally deciding to upload the Utah crawl video.  It's OK.  I actually prefer shooting the day light runs, but I did enjoy the evening crawling.

Needs more lights.  And some other scale details would be nice.  We'll see how things go.

Helios - Mission 2: Survival

Well I had some extra footage that didn't make it or fit in with the "Mission: Patrol" video.  I went through the video apps I have, and decided to try Silent Film Director and come up with the follow:

Putting this one together was almost as fun as running the crawler.  Now I'm going to have to make sure to get extra shots during my crawls to come up with more Silent Film videos.  Maybe even use the Silent Film format as my "extras".

So it looks like I need to get moving on the Venom Creeper.

My first 2-for.

At uploading crawling videos that is.  While monitoring the smoking grill, I decided to catch up on some video processing.

First up is the full length short film for Helios - Mission: Patrol:

This is the first time of using FiLMiC Pro.  I found that I need to lock the focus.  Having auto focus doesn't turn out too well.  I also need to verify that recording is on or off.  When hitting the first big rock, there was actually supposed to be more footage just before.  Unfortunately I ended up NOT recording the driving, and recorded the repositioning of the camera.  And I totally goofed up on paying attention to the shots.  I ended up with full size vehicles again.  Oh well.  Lessons learned for the next adventure.  This was done in iMovie, so sorry about the music.  iMovie doesn't have much of a selection for music, and I am not brave enough to use my music from iTunes.

I also ran into an issue trying to upload from the iPhone.  for some reason it kept failing.  iMovie never gave a clear reason why, but looking at the length I'm guess the phone couldn't handle the upload.  And yes it was connected to Wi-Fi.

Up next is a trailer for the Utah night crawling:

This time I locked the auto focus.  but with the setting Sun, I had a challenge with the lighting.  I didn't use the iPhone's flash at all as I didn't want to much extra light or light from a weird angle.  And I wanted the truck lights to show up good.  Also, the full size vehicles were on my watch list.  There shouldn't be any this time, but I'll know once I start diving into the full film.  This was a blast filming.  As I do more shooting and crawling, hopefully the videos will get better.

Off to crawl more!

Utah Crawling 2012

This past weekend we went up to Utah, around the St George area.  We just spent a relaxing weekend.  I got in some late day crawling.  Pretty much just as the Sun was going down.  I ran the SCX10 Trail Honcho with all lights on, and got some video too.  The start had good lighting, but later as it got dark not so much.  This would be a down side to the iPhone being used as a video camera: not much low light recording without using the flash.  The flash/light was not used, as I wanted to try to make use of the surrounding light and get the truck lights to show up good.  The movie trailer is in the works currently.  I also did some crawling not captured on video.  Shooting video while solo crawling can be a little challenging.  Setting up the camera in the right spot at the right angle to get the shot I want can reduce the time of just crawling all over.

While not crawling, I did take some time to work on the Helios crawl movie.  I have found that having a bigger screen for iMovie editing would help greatly (maybe I can help sway Santa with a six-pack).  It's almost ready for upload.

The Creeper is in the "garage".  Finally started the remote diff lock mods.  For those not familiar, the Venom Creeper has lockable diffs and Venom (err...now known as Atomik RC for their RC vehicles) has an add-on kit to setup the diffs with remote lock/unlock abilities using a 3+ channel transmitter.  The mod that I am working on is relocating the servers from the stock mounting position on the chassis to a position on the axles.  Hopefully I can get this completed soon and try it out.  I am also going to re-setup the shocks back to stock setup.  Ooh! I hates messin' with shocks!  Without the anti-roll springs the body tends to tilt, a lot.  So much that a pinball machine would just fall apart from looking at it.  The last run with it at the in-laws, father-in-law asked why it was tilted.  Well, this is the technical reason why.

That's all for now.

Helios Patrol - the trailer

Here is a quick trailer of my last yard run.

More Crawling

Been a little lazy on blogging about crawling.  The past few weekend visits to the in-laws, I have taken over both the Creeper and the SCX10 to do some crawling in the back yard.  The nephews love watching them go, but I think these are a little slow for their tastes.  They prefer the fast RC's and trying to out run them.  But they did still have fun.  They would be tunnels for the trucks to drive under them.  Have me chase them with the trucks.  With these trucks running 55T brushed motors, the boys have more than enough speed to run away.

Of the trucks I do have, I seem to have more fun with the SCX10.  It was able to get over a large rock while the Creeper could not.  The Creeper is a competition crawler, and when setup correctly it will out crawler a scaler any day.  So I must have the setup wrong with the Creeper.  Oh well, someday I will get it right.

I have put on a new body for the SCX10.  This is a discontinued Pro-Line Racing Helios body which very closely resembles the Halo Warthog.  To bad this is discontinued as it makes a great body for the SCX10.

As such, I am going to make some mods that I can to this body.  Mainly I will be trying to add some lights, and maybe a few scale details such as tools.  I may even try to work on some sort of interior too.

I just did some crawling with it this morning.  It ran good with the new(ish) body.  And this run I did get some video and a few pictures.  I will actually try to do a trailer first, then the full movie short.

For the video capture, I used a new app FiLMiC Pro. Using the app was pretty easy.  It has separate reticules for focus and white balance.  The white balance reticule came in handy with the outdoor shooting.  If there was back light, I could move the white balance around until I got the lighting I liked.  We'll see how all the video looks when I get working on the new short.  So far, though, I am impressed with this app.  If you like shooting video with your iPhone, I would recommend this app over the default built in video camera app just for the white balance adjust-ability.