Brushless Whoop Comparison

Winter is coming – this means that most of us FPV pilots can only fly indoors. So it is the perfect season for whooping (small quadcopters with hoops around the props).

In the last couple of months there was a high influx of new brushless whoops coming out.

In my opinion the brushed whoop is dead. With the new generation of brushless whoops you experience more power and less wear, since there are no brushes that get used up the motors simply have a longer live span.

There is a lot of different brushless whoop options by now and selecting the right one might be a little confusing, especially if you are new to the hobby and do not know what to look for – power is not everything.

To make it easier finding the right one for you, no matter if you prefer to fly indoors or outdoors, on 1S or 2S I made a small page that focuses on comparison of brushless whoops.

Installing and running an IPFS node on Debian

In this article I will explain how to get a IPFS node running on Debian, but the steps apply to any OS, once you have your go setup up and running. There are different ways to get IPFS up and running, but in this article I will discuss the method via ipfs-update.

Setting up a Debian BigchainDB Node

In this article I will describe how to get a private BigchainDB node running. BigchainDB is a Blockchain based, distributed database – if you want to learn more check, check out its features and whitepaper. I might be using it later this year in a project of mine and am evaluating it for my needs. Storing data in a blockchain has been on my radar for quite some time – and BigchainDB has been developed with performance and database needs in mind – it seems like the perfect candidate.

3D printable Camera Stand/Tripod

My friend Noctaro designed this great 3D printable camera stand/tripod. It will come in handy for all my filming needs – usually I only use my big tri-pod, but it is very clunky and I have been looking into alternatives lately. Since my video camera moved around a bit on the stand, I asked Noctaro to design an anti slip mat for it that I could print in TPU – which he did. Unfortunately the cam screw was no longer long enough to fit through the mount and the tpu anti slip mat.

That is why I designed a customizable cam screw. It can be used for more than just attaching a camera, you can easily change diameter of the knob and settings for the thread, so any time you need a screw that you want to be able to screw in by hand, you can use this customizer.

It is just a very simple remix of two libraries that are readily available on thingiverse. The first one being the Knurled Surface Finishing library and the second being the Screw library. You can adjust length of the thread, and a couple of settings for the knob. Further you can also adjust settings for the thread.

 

Plans for 2018

I am not really a fan of new years resolutions since they tend to not live longer than the first week of the new year. Instead I decided to write down and publish my goals and plans for the next year on github.

I will further track the process of my plans and goals here in this blog.

Tevo Tarantula 3D Printer – Build, Review and first Prints

It did take some time but I finished the build and first tuning session of my TEVO Tarantula 3D printer.

In my opinion this kit is pretty awesome. For the sub 200$ price tag you get a nice machine with some potential for custom tuning. The first prints you make, can be used to improve the machine.

Definitely an Option for anyone wanting to get into 3D printing on a budget or anyone just not yet ready to commit to a “real” Prusa printer.

Check out my build and review video:

 

Tevo Tarantula 3D Printer – Unboxing and Part Overview

I recently received a Tevo Tarantula 3D printer from gearbest.com free of charge for review. The first video on this topic, a short unboxing and parts overview is now online:

I have to admit, from the first glance I am pretty impressed and can not wait to build and test it.

Some of its main features:
* Bowden extruder
* Heated Bed
* Stand alone printing from SD card
* Sturdy Aluminium frame

This is the first video in a series related to the Tevo Tarantula 3D printer, so stay tuned for the build and review video.

Importkosten Rechner

Vor einigen Tagen habe ich mich dazu entschlossen mein Google Sheet in eine kleine Webapp umzubauen. Man gibt Preis und Anzahl sowie Zoll und Steuersätze der zu importierenden Ware ein und die App spuckt einem Zoll und Einfuhrumsatzsteuer aus.

Für kommerzielle Importeure gibt es weiters die Möglichkeit der Berechnung von Marge, Gewinn und Verkaufspreis inklusive Mehrwertsteuer.

Hier gehts zum Online Importkosten rechner für Zoll, Einfuhrumsatzsteuer, Marge, Gewinn und Verkaufspreis.

OBS settings for recording crisp Text in 1920×1080

Sometimes I need to walk a customer through an application or I want to show something on youtube. I thought I’d share my OBS settings for screen capturing crisp text:

Open the settings and in the Video Tab make sure that “Output (Scaled) Resolution” is the same as “Base (Canvas) Resolution” so you are not scaling down your video. Also adjust FPS to your liking – when text is the main thing you are interested in showing, chances are that you do not need more than 30fps.

Next go to the Output tab and from there choose recording. In “Type” choose “Custom Output (FFmpeg)”. As container Format I like mp4, but that is up to you. The important setting here is the Bitrate, I set it to 50000.

And that is it, this settings give me a nice screen capture where the text is crisp and readable, almost as if you were sitting in front of it.

Betaflight Beeper/Buzzer Setup

I treated myself to a brushed flight controller with OSD and Buzzer.

Per default Betaflight buzzes for a lot of reasons, I only want it to buzz when the battery gets low, the signal from the remote is lost, or I trigger a switch on my remote.

So first I disable all beeping and then only enable the ones I want.

Open Betaflight and switch to the CLI tab. Isuue the following command to disable all beeps. Enable beeping while USB is connected:

beeper -ALL
beeper ON_USB


Now enable beeps for battery warnings:

beeper BAT_CRIT_LOW
beeper BAT_LOW

And for when signal from the receiver is lost:

beeper RX_LOST

For triggering via aux switch:
beeper RX_SET

Do not forget to save and you are done:
save