Cross Dominant

#“My first stab at silicone mould making to cast an RC car suspension part” Regular readers will know that I’m a huge fan of the Dagu Arexx i-racer RC car. It’s cheap, light, fast, uses Bluetooth, has a removable shell and is perfect for n00b families like us who have never really done the RC thing properly. Unfortunately after some over-exhuberant use recently, we broke a part of the suspension on one of the front wheels. »

#“What does this inside of a dead Fitbit One look like? This:” After my Fitbit One took a swim in a full washing machine cycle, it died. Many attempts with rice and pampers and warm air over a few days failed to bring it back. The utterly fantastic customer support people in Fitbit then offered me a free replacement! The only tiny downside is that they don’t deliver to Ireland so I needed to use a Parcel Motel address. »

#“Is the \u008010 Lidl Soldering Iron worth it? I think so.” I grabbed one of the Lidl Soldering Iron Kits yesterday in Dungarvan. Video below with my thoughts. Apologies for some of the stuff being off camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrQyGAgDACo Overall, at 10 it is totally worth a punt if you don’t have an iron already. Regarding the non-standard tips, it turns out there are compatible replacements out there. This seller on eBay has some. »

#“Connecting an Arduino to Raspberry Pi for the best of both worlds” Rather than struggle with the very basic unprotected IO pins on the Raspberry Pi and the lack of real-time performance in Linux, the ideal setup for many real-world-interfacing projects is Raspberry Pi + Arduino. After pricing a multitude of combinations of microcontroller boards and Wifi adapters, I found that the Raspberry Pi + USB Wifi + Arduino is the absolute best value for money if you need both wireless internet access and easy sensor data handling. »

#“Replacing a broken Samsung Google Nexus S screen - a total doddle.” My Dad put a big crack is his Nexus S screen a good while back so I promptly ordered a replacement from eBay. I finally got the chance to fit it this morning and was thrilled that I didn’t manage to completely screw it up. A few useful notes: There are two major types of Nexus S. »

#“Wearable tech, fitness, health and the "Quantified Self"” Nice quick intro by iJustine into this entire Quantified Self area. The section about using all of the data for predictive prevention of problems really caught my attention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjKA0-PSA9k I’ve obviously been into the whole SoLoMo thing since first getting my hands on an N95-8GB in 2007 and I’ve been generating lots and lots of location data since then. But location is really only step zero. »

#“Separated at birth - Philips VR512 and XBOX One?” The VR512 cost me around 399 in 1992 in the Philips employee sale. A staggeringly good top-of-the-range VCR that did sterling service for over a decade. The XBOX One is a mid-range PC with a small hard disk and VR512 inspired case. Oh but it has Skype. Like every PC since 2003. »

#“Check out Scratch for Arduino (S4A). Easier electronics for kids” Whilst I’m a huge fan of the Arduinoinitiative(is “initiative"the right word?), its programming language, Wiring, is still fundamentally C with most of its power but also most of its difficulty. C was the fifth language I learned after ZX Spectrum BASIC, Forth, Z80 assembler and Fortran (spit). I then spent the next 13 years using little else. But here I am still struggling to read a number from a sensor, add it to an ascii string, send it over a wireless link and then convert that back to a number at the far end. »

#“Remote Control implementation for an RC Car - Part 1” There are many ways you can add remote control to a project. Off the shelf modules; Bluetooth; 2.4GHz NRF24L01+ transceivers; 433MHz/434Mhz modules or even Infra-red. My plan with our ZL-4 el-cheapo RC car was to use an Elecfreaks Joystick Shield, an Arduino board and theNRF24L01+ modules mainly because [a] the joystick shield has a connector for one and [b] I want to use them in another potentiallycommercialproject and thought it would be a good learning exercise. »

#“Progress so far with a kids \u008021 self-assemble Remote Control Car” After our CDG security debacle in February, where the French confiscated the kids' Nerf guns due to their foam-dart plane-downing properties, I promised to find them some treats as replacements. First up was Sibal, who indicated interest in RC cars. Rather than spending a fortune and discovering she didn’t really like them, I ordered a 21 kit from DX in China. »