E-Flite CP+ with Spektrum AR6200

January 19th, 2009

I’ve been flying my CP for several months and have had a constant problem with erratic behavior.  It bounces up, bounces down, left, right, etc…  I’ve looked for a sticky swash, stuck ball joints, I’ve read through the posts looking for the smallest clue.  I even tried several methods for isolating the FM antenna.  Nada, zip, zilch.

Then came the new Spektrum DX6i with an AR6200.  Ok, so the transmiter was for another model but I couldn’t let that receiver go to waste.  However, the manual was pretty useless for my needs in getting it integrated.  After a few rounds on the Internet and an extremely helpful YouTube video series, this thing was up and flying.  So, here are the tips that helped me make this F$@%er rock solid.

First problem, what plugged into what???

AUX1 - Rear Right Servo
GEAR - GYRO Connection
RUDD - Tail Motor
ELEV - Front Servo
AILE - Rear Left Servo
THRO - Throttle
BATT - Bind Clip

Note:  The BATT connection is used to bind the transmiter to receiver and is also used for a dedicated receiver battery.  Otherwise, the receiver gets it’s juice through the throttle connection from the BEC built into the 3 and 1.

That part being done, I then ran into the problem of trying to decipher the manual’s instructions on setting everything up on the 6i.  Here’s the original YouTube video that helped tremendously.   It comes in three parts and this guy breaks everything down in a snap.

Here are the settings that helped me get flying:

REVERSE SETTINGS:

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Hyperion mini nuclear reactors to supply enough cheap power for a small town

November 12th, 2008

mini_nuke.jpg

We’ve been hearing talk of mini-sized nuclear reactors for a year or longer, but now it looks like Hyperion is actually starting to build them. The hot tub-sized fission nukes, each capable of cranking out 25 megawatts of clean power (enough to run 20,000 homes), will use what’s called “low-enriched” uranium fuel.

The $25 million mini-nukes, also called “nuclear batteries,” will have no moving parts, and will be sealed up in a cask that’s buried deep underground, operating without the need for human intervention for five years at a time. They’re going to be cost-effective, too — in a 10,000-home community it would cost about $2,500 per home served. Many homeowners spend that much on energy in a year. If this happens, that’ll be some cheap power.

The company says it’s already begun construction of the first 4,000 units in three factories, with the initial 100 destined for industrial use in remote locations. Good thing “hype” is part of the company’s name, because selling this idea to an illogical, radiation-terrified U.S. population is going to be a public relations and marketing nightmare.

Hyperion, via Money

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Star Trek Switchplates - Don’t deny your inner Geek.

November 12th, 2008

star_trek_switchplates.jpg

star_trek_inside.jpgNow you can boldly go where no Star Trek: The Next Generation fan has gone before, decorating your place with such 24th-century accuracy that you’ll never get laid again.

While the uninitiated might be unfazed by such realism, our phasers are on stun with these Star Trek switchplates, turning simple light switches and sockets into instrument panels from a federation starship. These babies should go perfectly with your Star Trek command chair, while you set the mood with a couple of brewskis opened with your Star Trek bottle opener.

We especially like the way these switchplates hide those 20th-century screws that attach them to the wall. We only wish they offered dual or triple switchplates. You can beam your choice of outlet plate, paddle switch or regular switchplate aboard your own vessel for $17.99 apiece.

Via Think Geek

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Eye-Fi debuts 4GB wireless SD card

November 12th, 2008

Eye-Fi-ae.jpg

It’s no secret that we love Eye-Fi’s wireless SD cards. Since they debuted about a year ago, they’ve been the perfect way for lazy people (read: us) to share their photos online. Instead of digging out a USB cable, connecting to your PC, firing up a photo-editing program, and then uploading to Flickr, Facebook or whatever, the Eye-Fi just uploads them automatically, straight from the camera. Some versions of the card will even geotag your pics, using the same location tech as the original iPhone.

The cards previously came only in 2GB capacities. Now Eye-Fi debuts a 4GB version, called the Eye-Fi Anniversary Edition. We love the upgrade, though we take issue with the price: $129 ($99 at Costco). Even though we’re willing to pay a premium for the wireless abilities, when you consider that regular 4GB flash cards are around 10 bucks (or even less), you start to wonder if pulling out that USB cord is really that inconvenient.

Via Eye-Fi

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WMDs: Death By Great Flaming Balls

November 12th, 2008

gbof.jpg

So the Pentagon is employing a new weapon in the fight against WMDs. Namely, giant flaming balls (aka rocket balls).

These are hollow spheres, made of rubberized rocket fuel; when ignited, they propel themselves around at random at high speed, bouncing off the walls and breaking through doors, turning the entire building into an inferno. The makers call them “kinetic fireball incendiaries.” The Pentagon doesn’t want to talk about them, but published documents show that the fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers.

WTF!? Suffice it to say the Indiana Jones franchise would have ended 15 minutes into Raiders of the Lost Ark if the ancient Peruvians had employed a rocket ball instead of a giant fucking rock.

Click the article for a much longer explanation of the the weapons.

Secret Rocket Balls Target WMD Bunkers [wired]

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Convert an HP computer power supply to a hobby desktop power station!

September 16th, 2008
Top Side shot of Power Supply

So, I’ve got all these hobbies and interests that require a few different voltages.  I’ve got a lot devices that require 12v DC and it looks like half of those come standard with car adapters.  I also play around with some servos, some LED projects and some other stuff that require less than 12V DC and a few that need more.  What’s a guy to do?

Yes, I could have taken the reasonable approach, that I’m sure most of you would have taken, and just purchased a variable bench power supply or a few separate specific converters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.  I took it on as a personal goal to convert a standard computer power supply to a variable output DC desktop test rig.  Easy, right??  Kinda.

Let me get it out right up front that the reason I took on this project, as with most of my projects, was for the sheer satisfaction of turning out a functioning product.  Once I was able to get the wiring down right, the rest was a snap.  And, more importantly, almost everything I used for this project was laying around in various states of non-use so the total cost was almost nill.

Power Supply Power Side
Here’s a side shot of my Frankensteined power supply.  I was able to pull out all the standard voltages.  I also threw in a cigarette lighter plug (the only real cost) so I could charge up some of my devices that ONLY came with that type of plug.  (Some of my RC gear).  As you can see by my lousy handwriting, I fused up the cigarette lighter adapter (came with) and the main +12v plug since that will be the most used.  Future additions will include fuses for all voltages and an amp meter.  Maybe even a potentiometer or two…
The biggest time killer on this project was trying to figure out what wire colors corresponded to what.  I used some standard references on the Net but they were only partially helpful.  Leave it to HP (actually, it was a Compaq branded PC) to not play by the ATX standards.
Power Supply Plug Arrangement
This should give you some insight into how the power supply needs to be hooked up.  I switched the Green and White wires for the on/off switch and put a load between the +5v and ground.  A couple of banana jacks, a couple of LEDs (don’t forget the resistors!) and walla, she is done!   Worked like a charm!  Actually, I put both LED grounds together which somehow caused the system to start and then fail.  After putting them to different grounds I’ve never had another problem.
WARNING / CAUTION / DANGER
Hey, don’t forget.  There are some LARGE capacitors in these boxes and they can take a while to discharge.  Don’t mess around with these!

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BACKDOOR-CQN Manual removal

January 22nd, 2008

So, I was just surfing the net the other day, minding my own business and then, WHAM!  I started getting a McAfee warning on bootup that I had a BACKDOOR-CQN trojan.  No problem!  I made sure my McAfee was up to date, ran the full disk check and it didn’t find a blessed thing.  Grrrr, I updated my cleanboot definitions, burned a new CD and booted.  Ran the FULL check.. NOTHING!  What the F?  Maybe it was cleaned already?  NOPE!!!  My software is at least smart enough to keep coming up at boot saying that it found (and deleted) the virus SYSTEMS.SYS in the C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS directory.  The WHAT directory???
Onto the NAI website to find out how to remove this sucker..  “Use the latest engine and def files”… NO KIDDING, REALLY?  No manual removal method listed and I couldn’t find squat on the Internet.  Damn I hate computers.

So, I rolled up my sleaves and dug in.  Doesn’t seem too hard.  There’s something in the STARTUP folder, under the RUN command in the registry and I’ve deleted the directory in Windows.  BAHM!  It’s back again..  AHHHHHH!!!!!!!

After picking up my laptop from the other side of the room, I’m back to figuring this out…  After a quick boot into safe mode and some searching around the system, THERE IT IS!!!!!  Last piece of the puzzle solved and it’s back to safe computing for me.

If YOU happen to get the wonderful little charm and your virus software sucked as much as mine in getting rid of it, here’s how I was able to eradicate this little son of a behive…

Boot into Safe Mode.
Open REGEDIT
In both HKLM and HKLU, go to the RUN listing and nuke the setting for C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS\SYSTEMS.EXE
Of course, nuke the C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS directory.  Should only contain the SYSTEMS.EXE file.
Kill the launch file in C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\STARTUP\SYSTEMS.EXE
Lastly, here was the file I missed the first time;
C:\WINDOWS\PREFETCH\SYSTEMS.EXE-2D5B743C.pf      NuKE IT!!!

Reboot your machine and you should be right as rain.  It’s easy peesy, lemon squeezy.

Good luck!

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Can’t Access a Windows 2003 Drive from a MAC OS X

August 16th, 2007

What is with all these problems?!?!  So I’m playing around with my new iMac and I naturally wanted to access the shared directory of my 2003 Server.  I mean really, what is a 23″ screen without streaming porn, a-hem, Educational Material!  On a more serious note, trying to access any of my Windows shares caused a failure where it said, the Alias could not be opened because the original item could not be found.  Doesn’t ANYTHING work with anything else?
The solution that worked for me was to disable a Windows 2003 security setting regarding digitally signed communications.

Log into the Domain Controller
Open the Domain Controller Security Policy
Navigate to SECURITY SETTINGS / LOCAL POLICIES / SECURITY OPTIONS
Find MICROSOFT NETWORK SERVER: DIGITALLY SIGN COMMUNICATIONS (ALWAYS)
*!*!*!*!*!  Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding *!*!*!*!*!*

DISABLE THAT SETTING ! ! !

Give it a few minutes to sync everything up and then try the mapping again, it should work.

One other thing that might help is instead of using the Server’s name, try using the syntax

SMB:\\X.X.X.X   and it will pop up with a list of shares to choose from.

Good luck!

The easiest solution to this problem is to disable the default server setting of always requiring “digitally signed communication”. To do this, log in to the domain controller and open the DC policy editor. Look for “Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options” and change “Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)” from “Enabled” to “Disabled”. Leave everything else. This means that the server will digitally sign communications if the client is capable, but won’t reject a connection if your client is not.

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“Locate Link Browser” when you click on a URL in Outlook 2003

August 16th, 2007

Notice a relatively new problem when you click on a URL in your Outlook? Does it pop-up a window saying “locate link browser”? Pain in the ass? You bet!

Found this on the web and it worked like a charm!

Click START
Click RUN
Enter regsvr32 Urlmon.dll and hit ENTER

It should pop up with a successful message and it should never rear its ugly head again.

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MAC OS X and HP Laserjet 1022 Print Driver

August 14th, 2007

For those of you that own a Mac AND an HP Laserjet 1022 AND would like to use them together, you may run into the same problems I have. Perhaps my troubles and tribulations can benefit your plight. Or, maybe I’ll just give you the answers you seek. Yeah, that’s probably better…

First, let me explain the problems I ran into. I just purchased my brand new spankin iMac. (OS X 10.4.10)  Lo and behold it was a glorious site, all new and shiny. But alas, I tried to print to my HP 1022 and was rebuffed. I was thwarted. It tasked me!!! Kaaaaaaaaaaahn!

Ok, the problem. My 1022 is not connected directly to the iMac. It’s USB connected to an Ethernet Print Server. When I went into my printer setup, I could input the IP address of the print server but couldn’t see the HP 1022 driver. I downloaded the “new” driver from the HP website - didn’t work. I downloaded the “old” Hp drivers from the Net as suggested - didn’t work. I downloaded the drivers from the CD, zippo, bubkas, nada, zilch. I tried moving files into the root “laserjet” directory, restarts, and everything else people suggested on the net. Goose Eggs. HOWEVER, if I plugged the printer directly into the Mac via a USB cable, WHAMMO, the printer was recognized and everything worked perfectly. Back through the print server, same problem. Wow is me….

Local printer - drivers work.

Network printer - drivers don’t appear at all.

After much searching, here’s what worked for me, immediately, without issue, no muss, no fuss, it diced, it chopped, it even julianed and I didn’t have to call before midnight. It was better than the bass-o-matic.

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/foo2zjs

Three file downloads, several mouse clicks and when I went to select my printer model, I choose HP and then the (HP Laserjet 1022 Foomatic / foo2zjs ) Perfect!!!

For some of the printers there is of course a small caveat. Do not pass go, do not collect the $200, mileage may vary, limited to the vehicles on the lot. Some the HP printers require a firmware download every time they’re powered off/on.

Oh, and this process also supports the following printers:

Good luck!!

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