Ok after playing with one for a while I sold a bunch of video and audio gear I no longer use and bought a JVC GZ-HD7 camcorder. I was going to buy a FigRig to go with it but stopped after I did some mock ups to see the size. The FigRig is way too big for the palmcorders. so off to make my own. No not the cheezy half done PVC ones you see on the net, I'm going to bend and weld metal. Basically make a REAL one but smaller.
I'll also be putting up an extensive review of the JVC HD-GZ7 here as well. Yes it's a older camera but it still kicks the competition if you want more than point and shoot.
Did a tune up, had 2 Coil packs fall apart in my hand when changing the spark plugs. And guess what, nobody carries them, YAY!!!! off to rockauto.com I go and order a pair. os I clean up the pieces of what I have and put it back together....
Coil packs arrive, I replace them and instantly I noticed something. Car has way more power. I have been running on 2.5 cylinders for the past few months. From my watching the gas gauge I see that the Mileage has jumped up drastically.
so tip for today... Check and replace those coil packs! They are about $100.00 each at Rockauto.com
I help out with several community events. I have been asked on many occasions, because I am a published Photography and Videography professional if they could easily generate a timelapse video of the event. Most of the time I mention that it's expensive as you need to buy a intervalometer to attach to the camera and a secure and temperature controlled location for the gear.. etc...
but I got to thinking, I bought last year a tiny 3"X3"X1.5" computer that runs linux easily. Why cant I take that computer, a usb webcam and a nema 4 electrical box and make a timelapse recorder? The video does not need to be HD standard NTSC is fine. and I can force most usb webcams int oa manual white-balance mode so it wont look wierd...
Total spent buying everything NEW was less than $350.00 stay tuned later this year for details and example videos.
I found the simplest way of doing this and it's got a better image quality than the BEST webcam you can buy.
Get a Canon S2 digital Camera and it's external power supply. Now head on over to CHDK and follow the instructions to get the "firmware" you need to enable the functions you want. I wrote a simple script for the camera to take a photo every minute for 48 hours to have a great time lapse video of an entire faire weekend. Then buld a box to put it all in with a plexi window and mount it in a safe place. Start the script and let it go.
I got a S2 off ebay for $99.00 and a power supply for $12.95. total cost is less than $200.00
I was getting an average of 28mpg on the sidekick Sport with the 1.8L 4Cyl engine. all of a sudden I dropped to 24mpg and I decided that it needed a tune-up. Got some iridium spark plugs, synthetic oil, new air filter, oil filter, PCV valve, etc... and started in on the tune up. Found my problem.. Spark plugs were worn, those NGK plugs were almost completely rounded on the electrode. Also I had two corroded coil packs. 1 had to be surgically removed and then cleaned and put back until the new one shows up (nobody stocks them and NAPA wanted $200.00 for one.) from rock auto. I am going to need new tires this year, so I started researching tires. I want low rolling resistance tires this time around. I figure adding up all the gas saving changes will add up to real savings. SO searching for this is like searching for a snipe. It's all over the place, people are all over the place and none of the manufacturer's are telling anyone what tires are gas savers.
I found a make/model that is available for the Suzuki Sidekick AND is a LRR tire.
Michelin Hydroedge are what you want. They are a very hard tire that inflates to a high pressure and have very good handling and traction ratings. I expect to gain 1mpg from these tires. Iridium plugs and tune up will get me back to the 28mpg I hope the synthetic oil will give me 1/10mpg and I am looking into what spoiler to put on the back to further improve highway gas mileage by breaking the air vacuum that the sidekick generates behind it.
A very near and dear friend of mine had an accident. She has her most favorite laptop on the planet, a tiny sub-notebook, that she takes everywhere. She called frantically one night asking if it's bad that she spilled a glass of Coke in her laptop. Being the guy from a long 7 years of Corporate IT, I've dealt with this before, "Oh no its toast!" I said...
"Stop joking, I'm serious!", she said. Knowing me and my twisted sense of humor very well.
"Nope dead, it probably deleted all your emails and files online as well.", I continued.. Thinking in my mind if it was only diet coke or water it probably would not gunk up the keyboard.
" I shook it out and turned it upside-down right away." She replied now ignoring my comments.
Actually that is one of the first and best things to do, but you cant leave it that way and hope, as the keys will pool the pop and kill the key contacts. Next is to get that keyboard out, the battery out, unplug it and head to the store for some distilled water and 91-100% Alcohol (no not the drinking kind) as well as a fresh can of dusting air. You neeed to do this within 30 minutes, get going NOW!!!! Back? did you get some doritos as well? Ok... Let's get started.
Step 1 after the keyboard is removed, most likely the spill was contained to the keyboard, so take it and slowly dump a 1/2 gallon of distilled water through it. (Deionized water would be better, but I cant find where to buy that at $0.75 a gallon) and flood the keyboard and operate the keys, dump in fresh and operate the keys again, rinse out the keyboard, flood, repeat until you have used 1/2 of the gallon. now flood with the isopropyl alcohol and do the above twice. then a final rinse and shake it out. Now you can wait about 3 days to try the keyboard. OR if you are impatient like me, set up some high velocity fans (no hair dryer) and blow lots of air over and through it for a few hours.
If your keyboard was saveable, this will do it. Also this SOMETIMES works for a laptop flooded to the brim with pop as well. simply wash out the whole laptop with the same stuff..
You have nothing to lose except some time and about $4.00 of suppplies.
This weekend I had a epiphany. My XL-1 camera is having problems, Canon no longer services them so it can not be repaired, I'm bummed all my gear is old tech (Good but old tech) with HD taking off the way it is, and I was wallowing in it all. And then After I spent Friday and Saturday with one of my Dearest best friends, it hit me. Sell my crap and buy new crap! Well yes, that is pretty much it. My camera gear has dropped in value drastically except for the Tripods and Lighting and other gear that does not change when tech does. My $4800 manfrotto Big video tripod is useless without a big camera on it. I'm not going to buy a $10,000 Large sized HD camera so I'll be getting the smaller size that fits on sane sized tripods and do not need to hold 25 pounds.
So I started there and snowballed. Searching the basement and storage for items to list on ebay. It actually is an elegant solution. I sell stuff I am not using, reducing my amount of stuff so I can downsize, and I get to upgrade to new stuff that takes less space, does more, and is... well.... shiney! It's a good start to the whole downsizing mantra I have been talking about. I dont need a whole recording studio anymore so I'm selling all my synth and sampler gear and replacing it with a copy of garage band and some sound kits in my laptop. downzise from the big camera gear to smaller gear and a fig rig... make it all fit in that small expensive case I bought for the gear and never used! (what a concept!)
so I'm geeked. I'm downsizing, I'm getting a new HD 3CCD camcorder, a New FigRig for it and getting rid of 25 square feet of stuff! I plan on finding things and listing them on ebay all week. Time to clean the house and get rid of the cruft!
Name: Tim Gray Home: you are here, Michigan, United States About Me: I am a exiled rocket scientist with 27 PHD's living my life as a quick-e-mart clerk in the midwest. I designed the MIR space station and the multiple target space nuclear platform that is currently overhead that looks like an old russian space sattelite. I also pioneered the Albanian space program by launching potatoes and marshmallos into low earth orbit. from 1992-1995 I was the CEO if Stinkysoft trying to bring smell-o-vision to reality.
I now spend my time as a drummer for an acid punk band between shifts at the quick-e-mart. See my complete profile
