RC Plane Drop Mechanism (Bomb Drop)

Been thinking about making a bomb drop for parachute guys and the like. Decided to do a survey of what people are doing and there are some neat things.

I like the tube, it is cool.


Nice repeat action


Simplest, and has swanky music.


Not a bomb drop, funny video that came up where a magpie attacks a rc plane.

Researchers Left Page on Biomimetic Work

Now defunct they left some interesting pages up on their "Raptor" project that initially concieved was to make a dinosaur robot but became a humanoid motion simulation project. Page includes some solid models and links to relevant papers and vendors for their project. Just making a reference to it for later review.

http://trixie.eecs.berkeley.edu/raptor/index.htm

Solid Models Online

I am getting to where I would make some 3D models of parts. I decided to do a search for models of off the shelf components like servos and came up with some sites.
I will add them as I come across them.

Lynxmotion.com sells robot components and robots, have quite a few 3D models, including std hitec servo.


Some robot models, didn't open them but have the link for future reference.
http://trixie.eecs.berkeley.edu/raptor/SolidWorks/SolidWorks.htm

And the 3Dcontentcentral, which is a solidworks site.
http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/3DContentCentral/

2.4 ghz Antenna for the RC Cam

Did a bit of research on antennas, basically the more gain you get the more directional the antenna becomes. A interesting antenna that was made from a satellite dish and a bi-quad is shown on this link http://www.trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm
a builder of the style uses it to get wireless to his daughter at 1000'.

Commandobot Voice Recognition.

Picked up a "vintage" voice recognition Commandobot last weekend. The kids finally wore me down this weekend to open the box. Not new in box but used in box. We took it out and were able to find the Commandobot manuals online

The robot itself is pretty cool for a toy, it will shoot multiple plastic missiles (4-6' range, very low energy), small tank tracks under the feet (the feet do not actually move), lights that flash, and he does talk. The robot also can ease drop and acts as a intercom of sorts. Speed is very slow, has "programs" for "guarding" and patterns. I think it is also supposed to perform "missions" where you use the keypad on it's chest to key in moves and attacks, but we could not quite figure out if we were doing something wrong or if that feature was disabled.

We took on the challenge of doing the robot training of the 18 commands, which had to be repeated twice to the robots satisfaction. It was grueling but N stuck with it. It took me maybe 4 tries before I could get through it and after getting my voice we had to go through it again to set it to N's voice. N is 6 years old and really, really wanted to control the robot. I think the idea of voice commanding something that can shoot "missiles" was a big motivator. The video is him trying to get through the 18 command words with the robot.

Buster Robot

Got a new toy robot, and it's a Buster. Here is the general rundown at The Old Robot's Web Site. Buster was working except for it could not close it's arms. Another issue was that it takes 6C cells.

Some pics of the dissasembly and repair.

Took Buster apart and cut out the battery compartment to hold a 7.2v rc battery pack, and added a standard connector for it. Disassembled the the arm unit and found that one of the posts for a gear in the gear box had broken. Was able to fix that with some 3M potting compound. Even fixed the arm does not have much clamping force and cannot lift much without popping the clutch.

Remote Control Camera

Found a site where they sell a very cool remote control trigger for the canon A620. It takes 1 or 2 channels and plugs into the usb port of the cam to take remote pics and allow the camera to stay on so that you can have video transmitted back to base if you want. The one channel model will trigger the shutter and the two channel model does the additional function of controlling the zoom. This is way cool.

http://www.blip.com.au/item.aspx?itemID=14


This guy bought one and hopefully will give some more info on it. He apparently uses a rc plane to chase storms!

http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/

Desulfator Battery Restorer

Been looking into recovering some old batteries I have that have come with scooter bargains I have gotten.


Some links to battery desulfators:
http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/desulf.htm
http://p198.ezboard.com/NEWBIES-START-HERE/fleadacidbatterydesulfationfrm8

http://www.theworkshop.ca/energy/desulf/desulf.htm

http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/gbook.htm

Plans and Schematics

http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/lowpower.htm


http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/highpower.htm

Robots, They seem so nice!

Yeah, seem real nice, but how long before they come at you with the kitchen cutlery?

http://anybots.com/abouttherobots.html

Electric Tractors

I have wanted a Elec-Trac GE for a while, I think I missed the boat, the ones available are usually pretty expensive if in good condition(if you can find one somebody will part with) and the junky ones are usually expensive and are not really worth anything except for some spare parts. The pic is from http://www.econogics.com/ev/robotrak.jpg

I totally like the idea of an electic tractor. Regular garden/farm tractors are pretty noisy. I suppose there will be a certain amt of noise associated with mower decks and the like but I think a quiet vehicle like this would be awesome.

Found some links and here they are:

Electric Tractor Inventory

Jim Coate's page on elecric tractors

Links to electric tractor manufacturers and electric yard tool makers
http://java.cs.vt.edu/public/users/mlorch/Elec-Trak/index.html


Not exactly a electric tractor, but cool:

http://www.theworkshop.ca/energy/lev/fs2000/5/5.htm


I am going to add more later.

Electric Scooter

Nathan was asking me if we could make an electric quad for him. It is kind of a long story as to why he was asking but basically revolved around me telling him that I would not let him ride a gas engine quad because it was to big, etc. So I went to look online for a electric kids tractor someone had made that I had seen a while back. There are even more things the guy has done and cool stuff too unfortunately he has had to charge for plans. Though from the looks of it they are probably a deal at whatever he is charging. Plans are not my style, they are too restrictive because I work in Junk. Still he has free plans and very good ones too from the looks of it though I had trouble opening the one I wanted to see. Anyway I just wanted to look at it to see what size motor he use and what motor controller. Anyway the point is moot because I will be using whatever I have on hand, maybee a electric golf bag cart, or a powerwheels, or a electric scooter motor and controller I have. And all the work he has done could hardly be made up for on what he must make on plans really. He has some decent stuff on making evs, motor, controller , battery info etc.

Some other neat stuff I came across were a electric motor cycle done in a show called Gomi Style which I had never heard of before. Honestly I am not sure anyone has heard of this before. It is worth a watch. It's free too, well except for your time. He did have some cool ideas like making a "FREE Take it" sign to put on dumpters when he goes dumpster diving. Not origional but still cool.

This adds to my suspicions that there are people out there that have all the crazy interests I do, there is electric scooter vehicle info and alot of other stuff:

http://www.theworkshop.ca/

http://www.theworkshop.ca/energy/energy.htm

Another site with ev stuff
and bunches of links
http://www.evfinder.com/evsites.htm

This is a site of a guy that made his own version of a segway, pretty cool. Actually way cooler than buying a real one if you ask me.

http://www.tlb.org/scooter2.html

http://www.tlb.org/scooter2.html