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

RC Cars | 2 Comments »

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 »

I had ordered a replacement ESC(Electronic Speed Controller) for the one that I burned out while running on the beach (water + electronics => fail).  I went with the HobbyWing XERUN 150A.  When it came it, it had the deans connectors on it instead of the banana clips that the factory ESC had shipped with.  My first that was to take the banana clip off the original ESC and move it over.  I wasn’t sure how to remove the connector from the wires without damaging the connectors, so I looked at removing the wires from the ESC, my meager soldering skills were not sufficient to accomplish this goal, at least not at a level that I was comfortable with then reattaching them to the new ESC.

I had already gone into D’s Hobbies here in Bend before I ordered the ESC from http://hobbypartz.com and they didn’t have any options for me other than ordering online.  So when it came time to address this soldering issue with a component I’d bought online I didn’t feel like pestering them again with soldering assistance.  So I had browsed the website of Cooper Racing and Repair (they are a Redcat Racing Dealer) and decided to head out there this past Saturday morning to see if they could assist me, and take a look at their racetrack.

That was a fantastic decision.  I got out to Cooper’s and John Cooper (owner) took a look at my Earthquake 8E and the new ESC and immediately recommended   that we replace the banana clips on the batteries with the dean connectors.  He had the connectors, and the skill, and did this for me in a matter of minutes.  So it wasn’t long before I was out on the track playing with me 8E.  Keep in mind this is the first time I’ve actual ran an RC car on a track.  To put it simply I was a hazard.

I had a video camera with me so I set it up and recorded a few of my jumps and a bunch with the other drivers out there.  You can watch a short video of my jumps on YouTube. Here is the embeded version:

Here are a couple photos from the video:

Look at it sparkle!

Upside down!

I did manage to do some pretty serious damage to the body of my Earthquake 8E so now after being rebuilt with gaffer’s tape it looks like this:

Gaffer body

I had also ordered a new fancy (non-bashing) body for it:

Black and Silver semi body on my Earthquake 8E

RC Cars | No Comments »

Last weekend after Cascadia Ruby Conf I headed down to Depoe Bay for some time on the coast with my family.  It was a great time.  This post is about my experiences with my Earthquake 8E and how things went on the beach.

So I got a two good runs in before managing to incapacitate the vehicle (water and electronics never go together).

Here are some of the pictures from stunts on the beach:

My Earthquake 8E on the sand ready to rumble.

Click on the image above to visit my Picasa Album with lots more pictures – to lazy to post on the blog ATM.

RC Cars | No Comments »

After driving my Hotshot and breaking something on nearly every outing (27 year old plastic can be brittle).  I decided I wanted to see what the current RC Cars are like.  I wanted a vehicle I could bash, something that was fast and 4wd.  After watching a bunch of videos on youtube I found the Redcat Racing Earthquake 8E – although I have some initial concerns about quality since it’s quite a bit cheaper than the equivalent vehicle from Traxxas I decided to give it a try.

The first photo here is of the Earthquake 8E on my work bench before heading out for the first real run around my neighborhood.

My Earthquake 8E before today's run

This next picture is an after photo.

My Earthquake 8E after today's run

The most notable thing at this resolution is that the tail fin is at a very different angle than in the first photo.  In-spite of the wheelie bar it is still possible to flip this beast when not on flat/hard/level surface.

Here is a close up of the damaged tail fin.

Close up of the damaged tail fin

Now the best part (and almost most frustrating) was when I was driving across a field near full speed approaching the curb and about to jump out onto the street, I let off the acceleration and let it jump over the curve, once on the pavement I went to turn and got no response.  The car had lost all communication, I picked it up and it seemed as if it was completely out of juice.  No cooling fan running nothing.  Figuring I’d managed to break something else I just picked it up and headed back to my garage.

Once on the bench I took off the body and found the problem.

The pine cone off switch

Yup – I had ran over a pine cone and it had flipped up under the body and hit the power switch to the vehicle.  An easy problem to solve, I removed the pine cone and cleaned up the car a bit.

The pine cone and the off switch

Ready for another run another day.

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This is my first RC car video, I uploaded it to youtube.

It features my vintage Tamiya Grass Hoper and Hotshot that I’ve had since my early teenage years. In June I got them out of storage and then at the first of the month I started making trips to D’s Hobbies to get missing components and get them up and running. For the Grass Hopper it was just a new Radio and with receiver and servo’s, and a new battery. For the Hotshot I ended up replacing the speed controller, motor, receiver and Radio. I went with one FM Radio and one 2.4Ghz radio.

RC Cars | No Comments »

Well the first half of 2011 has elapsed, or will do so shortly.

What’s happened in the last six months?

G5

1. My 90-day Warranty Expired.
2. We added five engineers to the team.
3. Released Mobile Lite and Mobile Premium versions of our product
4. Developed an 18-month Product Forecast

Ruby Community & Confreaks

1. Ran the 3rd annual Los Angeles Ruby Conference with my Partners
2. Helped organize and run the 1st annual Ruby on Ales conference in Bend
3. Recorded Mountain West Ruby Conference #5 (MustachePower is doing post-production work)
4. Recorded FarmHouse Conf in Los Angeles a unique event http://confreaks.net/events/farmhouseconf2011

Personal

1. Filed 2007 Taxes (yea I know laggard, but all other years are current)
2. Made offers on three separate homes.
3. Bought a bike and started commuting to work (4 miles each way).
4. Finally closed on a House at the end of May.
5. Watched my two oldest twins graduate from High School – I’m really that old
6. Had my oldest daughter and my parents out to visit us in Bend.

All in all I’m pretty satisfied with the accomplishments.  Now to maintain the momentum through the rest of the year.

Family, General Posts | No Comments »

TL;DR -> Neighbors for Kids (Depoe Bay, OR) has a chance – today only – to win a Toyota vehicle – YOU need to vote to help make it happen. http://odz.mx/twdbr

My daughter and grandsons asked if I could help use my social network/media knowledge to help make this happen, so here is the details.

Starting 25 days ago Toyota launched a program to give away 100 vehicles to help non-profits who are doing good. Each day the select five non-profits and allow you to vote on which of the five should get that days vehicle. In Toyota’s words:

Toyota wants to salute do-gooders by giving 100 cars over 100 days to nonprofits that could really use a new set of wheels. And voters like you help decide which one gets a new ride every day.

For those of you who do not know, my grand-daughter lives in Depoe Bay, OR, and works for Neighbors for Kids, they provide fantastic programs in a small community that would otherwise have very little for their kids.

Neighbors for Kids – MISSION and RESULTS

Our mission is to provide youth in our region with educational enrichment, citizenship training, and positive recreational activities, all in a safe environment which focuses them toward positive, healthy lifestyles and leads them to become responsible, contributing adults.

Neighbors For Kids currently sponsors six key programs designed to enrich the lives of children from Newport to Lincoln City: Kids Zone, Tutoring, Music Lessons, Rowing Club, Teen Night, and The Ronald Austin Nissen Memorial Scholarship Fund. We get a lot done with the funds we receive—below is an example (this is only a partial listing of accomplishments from Jan. – Sept. of 2009):

• Kids Zone After-School Program served children for 27 weeks, providing 405 hours of positive after-school enrichment classes and activities.
• Summer Program served children for 10 weeks, providing 275 hours of summer session classes and activities.
  USDA Meal Program – 3,673 nutritious meals and 1,034 snacks were served to local children.
• 138 hours of professional academic tutoring in reading and math, showing significant improvements in student’s test scores and grades.
• 162 hours of piano lessons taught to students in grades 1-9.

For more information visit Neighbors for Kids.

For those of you who know:

1. Help me spread the word and vote
2. Yes Toyota asks for access to your information via Facebook, but you’re helping Neighbors for Kids get a vehicle
3. Sorry web-site is not based in ruby (I wasn’t associated with building it)

Neighbors for Kids only chance to win is today June 2nd, 2011. Click through, vote for Neighbors for Kids and help make the program better for a small town on the coast, that if you haven’t visited you should!

This was the reminder email I got from my daughter last night(err. ok really it was early this morning when I got it).

I realize I am sending this to nearly my entire contact list, but I did actually go through and select the people I thought were kind hearted enough to do this. Most of you know I work for a non-profit kids group. We are in the running (1 in 5 chance of winning!!!) for a new toyota hybrid hylander which would do crazy good things for fieldtrips and picking up kids out of area (right now the transport is mostly on my boss and I). It’s one click, super easy. If you aren’t on facebook, which you need to be to vote, could you please pass this on to friends who might be? You can ONLY vote for us, Neighbors For Kids, on June 2nd, tomorrow. If you’re feeling super cool you could copy/paste the following bit to your FB status, it automatically links up.

Don’t forget to vote for Neighbors For Kids, Today!, June 2nd ONLY in Toyota’s 100 Cars For Good Program!!! @ http://odz.mx/tcgfbs
Come on my friends and family, pass the word, we need you guys and it’s just one easy click!
We ♥ our kids!

I updated the status message -CPR

Thanks SO much my friends!
Much love,
Amberdawn

PS’s ~ Chris O maybe you could get Rogue’s to vote tomorrow (?) Angi, you are super skilled with the FB contact, would you mind helping out for a moment?, Marie F., I put way too much thought into the ratios on this already, you have made my brain ridiculous (and I thank you for increasing my geekability)
Coby, you need your own line, if there is anything I can do via twitter, or if you could talk a few G5 people into voting tomorrow, it would be amazing. Any advice to make this spread quicker is much appreciated! Much love again!

Family, General Posts | No Comments »

Well I’m 50% of the way there. Tomorrow my two oldest twins graduate from high school!

That makes three down, three to go.

Congratulations Carley and Madi, very proud of you, hope to see you tonight!

Lots of years and work, will have to put together a summary video/slide show at some point.

Family | No Comments »

The video below is an embedded object from Justin.tv, linking to a test feed for Mountain West Ruby Conference 2011

Watch live video from confreaks on Justin.tv

Confreaks | No Comments »