For those of you who accidentally find my blog or get linked to it from a tweet or some other means, you’ll find that this post is a rather radical departure from the things I’ve written about in quite some time. ie. I’m not talking about Radio Controlled Rock Crawlers. I am going to talk about my professional life.

This morning in our weekly Executive Team meeting we were discussing the value and appropriate use of a new information collaboration tool that we have adopted at the office – Jive. Specifically we were talking about the Executive Team ‘Space’ and what content was appropriate. My take was it should be a single space that employees could follow that allow them to see the thoughts and values of the individuals who make up the Executive Team. This is the group that is leading the company, why not provide insight into the individuals that are moving the company forward? The general consensus of the team was that it should be a unified voice of the team, not that information which helps define the individuals who are part of it.

It was not without dissension, but overall we decided to move forward with the unified voice…

Note: There is nothing restricting any of us from posting our thoughts and comments in our own blogs (personal) or our individual blogs in the corporate space, the decision was simply that the collaboration for the Exec Team should be unified, and that our non-aligned thoughts, comments, etc… Should be done in other sections of the tool.

What do you look for in your business leaders? A unified voice at all times , or strong individuals who achieve just in time agreement?

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This is some footage I took on Saturday 12/3/2011 at a gathering of CORCRC (Central Oregon RC Rock Crawlers).

We all had a good time.

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So this is what my Earthquake is looking like these days.

My Earthquake 8E

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I’ve managed to break a few things in the last few days on my Wraith.

Today it was the driver’s side c-hub.

Earlier in the week I managed to snap a drive line:

I had an extra driveshaft that came with the car, so I swapped that in.  Haven’t decided on what I’ll do to upgrade the driveshafts.

On the c-hubs I spent $7.00 and bought a set of stock plastic ones from D’s Hobbies (thanks for opening the door at 5 after 6 PM guys!) and have a set of Vanquish Products Red Aluminum c-hubs on order.

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I haven’t written on my blog about my Wraith since I got it.  One reason is I’m having too much fun wrenching, driving, and fabricating for it.  The other reason… I’ve been updating my build thread on http://rccrawler.com instead.

So if you’re interested you can follow that at:

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/axial-wraith/342805-rapid-rhino-axial-wraith.html

My Wraith with it's new red & blue color scheme

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So I received my REM anonadonized aluminum parts for the bandit and have gotten just about everything installed.  Currently not using the rear A-arms because I couldn’t find the toe coupler that was the right length.  I believe I’ve fixed that problem, just havn’t taken the time to tear it apart.

Here are some updated photos with it decked out including some integy red springs on the front shocks.

RC Cars | 1 Comment »

So I got out an old Traxxas Bandit and decided it was time to bring it back to life.  This is going to be my 2WD Racer

First upgrade – new tires and wheels.

Before:

My Bandit with original tires and wheels

After:

My Bandit with New Wheels and Tires

So next steps are to put a Castle Creations Sidewinder SCT ESC and a Neuv 1410 series brushless motor into it.  More soon.

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So I broke down and went out to Cooper Racing and Repair and purchased the Axial Wraith tonight – looking forward to some rock crawling with other RC Crawler enthusiasts here in Bend, OR this coming weekend. Watch for more photos.

Here are a few pictures to see the beast I’m talking about:

So far it has been a blast has four front working head lights and two tail lights. I’ll be adding a driver and eventually a custom painted body as well.

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So I’ve had my Redcat Racing Earthquake 8E for almost a month now.

Including my own stupidity for getting it wet and burning out the ESC here are the items I have HAD to replace on the vehicle:

• Replaced ESC with a HobbyKing XERUN 150A ESC
• Replaced connectors on batteries with deans connectors instead of banana clips (to work with new ESC)
• Replaced the sway bar connectors on both sides (managed to break them in two separate accidents)


Sway bar

• Steering linkage ( damaged in the same accident as the first sway bar connecting point)
• Wrapped nearly the entire body in gaffers tape

Now for the additional parts that I’ve replaced or upgraded

• Steering Servo – upgrade to a Futuba BLS452 (194.5 oz-in torque)


The Futuba BLS 452 in place

• Replaced front shock mount with an aluminum version


The shock tower upgrade

• Added heat-sink for the motor


The heat sink upgrade on the motor

• Black semi-truck style body


Black and Silver semi body on my Earthquake 8E

So outside of the ESC the rest of the parts have been really reasonable, I put in a spare parts order with Redcat and got a lot of extra parts and screws so that when I bust it I don’t have to be out of operations waiting on parts.

For comparison here are a few shots of the body over time:

Brand new shiny and ALMOST unscathed body

Some minor repairs to the backend

Complete gaffer armor with the Ruby on Ales logo

And finally I’m considering mounting a Traxxas Summit body on my Earthquake this is what it would look like.  I have to decide and if so aquire a body, borrowing the one in the picture, and build up the proper supports for it.  It looks good, but I’m pretty sure I would destroy it or the mounts pretty quickly.

My Earthquake wearing a Traxxas Summit Body

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It was a great conference @madisonruby, and I’ve been to a lot of them…  Although I haven’t entirely decided if it was an awesome conference in it’s own right, or if I just had an awesome time. Don’t get me wrong Jim and Jen and their staff did an incredible job, and it was a very well, and very innovative conference.  So my previous statement was motivated by the fact that this is one of the first events where I was really able to take the time and hang out and socialize after the conference, and that made a big impact on me.  In all seriousness it was an awesome event in it’s own right!

The recording gear I’m using now is simpler to setup and tear down and takes less space to hall, after doing this for almost five years and the last two on my own I’ve started to figure out how to relax.  Of course it has taken a lot of refinements over the past two years to simplify and adjust to all the equipment changes involved when I went from SD to HD.

Off the top of my head the things that were really awesome about MadisonRuby:

• Local artisans / entrepreneurs presenting on their passion
• Contentious panels with a great moderator (@stevenbristol)
• Sexy Yoga (@l4rk)
• Overflow room with video of main hall (yes larger conferences have this, but I had not seen it at a regional ruby event)
• 5k Run and related 5k Drink Run (alright it was a walk, but there was a good 40 yards or so of sprinting)
• @jremsikjr / @jenremsik as organizers
• … time to socialize and hang out with many of the folks that I’d only met briefly in the past
• … oh yes there were numerous great presentations

If you get the chance put it on your schedule, I can only see this conference (like the state’s cheese) getting better with time!

So glad I had the opportunity to participate.

If you’re asking where are the videos, please follow @confreaks on twitter for details.  The recording was done in conjunction with Less Films and post production is being done by them as well.

Confreaks, Ruby | No Comments »