Progress – POV Camera for Quadcopter

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Spent some time in the workshop today in between meetings, and finally got the POV camera powered up and working. I fashioned a little custom wiring harness using JST connectors for power, reconfigured the A/V cable that came with the transmitter, and powered up the system.  Behold – video!  From left to right:  LiPo battery (in this case powering Tx and Rx), camera, battery powered field monitor, transmitter (this and the camera will be housed on the quadcopter), receiver, and antenna.

In other news, the HoverFly Pro (a version of the flight control board that has some useful features, including auto level) arrived as well, so I’m working on upgrading the quadcopter with that and the POV video system. I hope to be flying again – and exploring local lakes with the OpenROV – in the next couple of weeks!

Flying Again

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After the bad crash – the bitter outcome of this otherwise successful flight – I rebuilt the ELEV-8, and finally had the chance to fly it this afternoon.  One of the props is acting a little janky, so I need to check that the ESCs are all programmed correctly, and determine whether or not that particular motor has a bent shaft, but am otherwise happy with the outcome.

Parallax Multirotor Demo and Tour

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Kevin!Spent the afternoon out at Parallax in Rocklin.  Kevin and Nick and Ken flew various iterations of the ELEV-8 platform, and thrilled the gathered crowd with feats of derring-do.  Balloons were popped, streamers were clipped, and one flying machine landed in the drink.  A good time was had by all.

After the demo, the FLC contingent – Dan Ross (CIS and Engineering), Dave Myers (student and president of the recently chartered FLC Robotics Club) and I toured the facility, and I had the chance to talk to Nick about some of the particulars of FLC’s project, and to say hello to Jessica of Dweeb Den fame.  Can’t wait to get the quadcopters in and get them flying!  Below is a video of a two copters dogfighting, and here’s a link to the complete set of photos from today’s event.  Thanks to Jim and and the whole Parallax crew.

Morning Visit to Parallax

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Spent the morning at Parallax, meeting with various folks and talking about partnership opportunities and that sort of thing. Nick (he’s working on the ELEV=8 platform, and he’s helped me a great deal, answering technical questions and providing guidance) flew a Y-shaped ELEV-8 prototype for us.

Thanks Jim and Nick!

Pulling Clips from DVDs for Classroom Use using HandBrake

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HandBrake is a free program that allows you to grab video from DVDs and save it as a file on your computer, saving you time in the classroom.  In other words, instead of skipping around inside a DVD to find the relevant section, you can simply save the relevant portion as a file that can be played immediately.  The program is available for Mac, Win and Linux, and the user manual is here.  It’s pretty straightforward – put in the DVD, run HandBrake, choose specific chapters (or the whole DVD), and click Start.  The end result is a digital video file saved to your computer.

Even though this kind of use is likely a Fair Use, it was formerly a violation of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions.  This changed in the latest exemption language, which states:

(1) Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances:

(i)  Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students;
(ii) Documentary filmmaking;
(iii) Noncommercial videos.

You can read the whole text here.

Note – I am not a lawyer, and whether or not something qualifies as a Fair Use is a decision made by judges in courts.  That being said, fill out a Fair Use Checklist and keep it in a drawer somewhere, and you’ve probably done your due diligence.  YMMV.

Further reading:

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication

Creative Commons

ALA – Copyright

Everyone looks like a super hero at 1020 fps…

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…and everyone has shampoo commercial hair.

On Thursday, September 30 2010, I teamed up with Kim Harrell (Kinesiology) to generate some high-speed camera footage of her “Kinesiology 410 – Personal Trainer Certification: Exercise Science and Fitness Assessment” class punching, kicking, jumping, running, spinning, leaping and skipping rope (among other things). Kim’s students will use the videos to study forces on the body, musculature, joint stress, etc.

We set up in front of the Roost, and many passersby stopped to watch and ask questions. The students were fired up, and each one ran over to the computer to witness their performance, critique their form, etc.

I’m scheduled to work with the golf coach on Friday, 8th October for some golf swing analysis. Good times.

Gear nerds, behold the specs:
Mikrotron MotionBLITZ Cube2 @ 1020 fps
Fujinon C22x17A-M41 w/ Fujinon CRD-2A Remote Control Box

High-speed Kinesiology!

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The students were slow-to-warm, but once they saw Kim giving Bob the business in super slow motion, everyone was coming up with ideas – leapfrog, handstand pushups, medicine ball catch, etc.  Stay tuned for the videos.