But wait... there's more!

So after the battery was installed properly, next thoughts were: "How am I charging this?". Generally I'd have leads to plug into.. But since this setup uses banana plugs, alternate ideas were needed. The solution was to make a set of leads that plugged in via banana but also have taps to balance the pack.
If you notice, the center port on the pack acts as the tap. From + to the tap, it's the first cell's voltage, and from the tap to the - lead, it's the other cell's voltage (as confirmed by my voltmeter). This is how all lipo balance taps work. It's just giving you each cell's leads for the balancer to discharge each cell individually.
The tap takes a 2mm banana plug. I knew none of the local Hobby shops and electronics stores would carry them. I realized my Micro-T's brushless motor uses those size plugs to plug into the esc. Since the vehicle needs an overhaul, I decided to swipe a plug and wire it for the LiPo balancer. Now, how to plug it to my Blinky? Easy.. Futaba plugs happen to be the right spacing for the Blinky's pins. I only need 3 leads for the pack, so it's a perfect (and cheap) fix. All that's left is some soldering, annnnd....
Voila!

BTW, if you're in a pinch, a tamiya male plug lead will fit in the tap port.

Gettin ready for outdoor TC racin'

Well the local track by me starts their summer outdoor season this coming weekend, and I decided to make the jump to Li-Po for my Touring Car. Stormer had a good deal, I got a pair of Orion 3200mAh packs for $66 each. Not shabby.
So I unpack the batteries and go to fit them in the car and I realize, there's something that's in the way.
As you can see, the T2's rear bulkhead has a small hump to contour the NiMH cells used normally. This was getting in the way of the battery sitting in right. After consulting the RC forums, I broke out my dremel. It took some small work, but I eventually cleared out the space needed for it to fit in.
Another thing you'll run into with the T2 is that the strap post sits lower than the LiPo does. To prevent some decent bending of the strap, I just shimmed it up with a .032" washer. Easy fix :)

Here's a visit to gadget corner...

Well today provided to be interesting... I picked up a few things at ridiculous prices..
First was a 2GB Sony Cybervault USB drive.. for $12!! Killer deal, and the pre-installed software was easily removable after a format ;-)

Next, I scored a Staples offshoot Bluetooth earpiece for my car for $20. I must say for a no-named staples licensed product, it's quite good! The mic works really well, I can hear everyone in the car, and the clip on piece is removable which saves breakage. Perfect for travel use. It also came with a spiffy charging/carrying case:

Last but not least.. I found a pair of flops that trumps my Reef Fanning bottle opener flops..
Meet Reef's Dram flops.. now, what's so special about it?
Ka-ching! A hidden polyurethane flask embedded in the heel!
It takes an allen wrench (with bottle opener as well) to open up the cap, which by the way, has a rubber gasket to prevent leakage! It also comes with a tiny funnel to pour in your drink of choice.
Cool thing is that it has a gauge on the bottom to tell you how much is left.. Each flop can carry about a shot and a half's worth. And since they carry these at the outlets, I picked them up for under $20. But that of course was with a discount coupon ;-)

Perfect way to make my coke taste slightly better =)

DDR Pad Part 4

So I've finally got some pictures of how the wiring went.. not much but it will suffice.

Here's the board after cleaning off the black stuff with an abrasive bit. I tinned all the leads as well. There's 5 legs on either side and the ground in the center. Which is what?
From Left to Right: Start - A - Right - X - Up ___ Ground____ Down - Y - Left - B - Back
Next comes converting the Xbox controller plug with a standard USB plug. The Xbox controller is a standard USB plug, but the output is different. The colors match up. There's a yellow lead from the controller as well, but that apparently is not needed.
Ghetto finished conversion. I didn't have any shrink on hand, so electrical tape and duct tape did the job just fine.
The finished product. I used the Up Down Left and Right inputs, as well as start and back which were wired up to a small project box that housed 2 arcade style buttons that my feet can easily tap on when needed.

There you have it! It works just fine, I just need to fab a bar for myself and get a 1/2" sheet of plywood to help reinforce my weight on the pad. Next time I do a pad, I'll be doing the other trigger method mentioned and try and put lights in it.

DDR Pad Part 3

Now that I have the triggers all figured out, it's time to start finishing this up! All the wired leads were soldered onto the metal sheets with rosin core, which seems to bond the wire well. As you can see here the bottom arrow is all set, minus an arrow graphic.
The plates were still a little loose, and I recall checking on a few of the pad pages that there was a corner piece that needs to be put on to help support. A little dab of wood glue, and my corner pieces were on. One for each corner of each arrow.
Here's the finished arrow triggers.
For the arrow graphics, I simply cut out the arrows off the soft pad I had gutted. It was all going to be trashed anyways, so what the heck?
Below is the finished product, ready to be wired in.
Now I don't have many pics of how it is all wired, but I will explain how it all happened in the next post..

DDR Pad Part 2

After the stainless was cut down to size with tin snips, I clamped the wood and steel together and then bent down the steel with a rubber mallet. Before I bent the pieces, I had tacked the metal down to the wood with screws.
The finished pieces. The stainless I bought from the junkyard was PERFECT!
The rest of the pieces are now cut, and it's on to the polycarb pieces. Since everything was not perfectly aligned, I had to cut each arrow's panels slightly different to get them to the right size.
My first attempt at getting the trigger system down seem to not work out so well. The concept was right but the screw heads were in the way. Even with low profile heads it wasn't working. 4 ground tabs, 4 circuit tabs, one sheet on top to short them.
After much deliberation, I came up with a better way of doing the triggers. Take some galvanized steel and wirebrush it. I attached the steel to the base with servo tape and duct tape. The top received similar treatment. This allowed me to have a decent amount of clearance (around 3/16") to step down onto.

DDR Dance Pad Part 1

I know what you're thinkin.. big tall Jon plays DDR? Sadly I've become addicted to it. It's good cardio for my tall ass, and the songs are catchy (Thank you Lynzi :-p) I run strictly Stepmania and run the core songs from all of DDR and ITG. I'm more of an ITG addict than DDR.

So what to use that isn't as crappy as a soft pad or those thick foam ones? Metal pads. BUT.. I'm a cheap college student. I can't afford a $200 pad. Plus, I love to make things :) It's REALLY EASY to build one of these pads that work just as well as the original arcade ones. All they are are really big momentary switches.

Here's the progress I've made so far:
I got this going based on what I've seen on these sites:
http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/dancepad1/overview.aspx
http://www.digitaltorque.com/ddrpad/1_Tools_Materials.html
Arcade Style Dance Dance Revolution Metal Pad

The proverbial pile-o-parts:
Sheet of Pegboard (leftovers in our house)
(2) 1/2" sheets of 2' Square plywood (Home Depot)
(2) 1"x2"x6' pine strips (Home Depot)
1/8"x16"x6' Polycarb scrap (Junkyard)
0.030"x13x7' Stainless Sheet (Junkyard)
(16) 2" Corner Braces (Home Depot, and pricey lil bastards..)
A Gamestop brand Xbox soft pad (Cash Converters, dirt cheap)

The pad is the exact one depicted in the inventgeek link above. Speaking of which..
After 8 screws, the casing on the pad comes off, and you see how the board is attached to the pad. It's all weird thin contact pieces that just tape onto the board traces. Easily removable. In fact, the whole board is easy to take off. 2 screws, and some finger force on the molded plastic bits and it's out. Be sure to clean the black residue on the contacts before trying to solder.

Now that the board is removed, time to start working on the actual pad!
Here are the non-stepping pad pieces. They need to be cut to 10.875" (or 10 7/8"). These will be covered over top with the stainless steel.

I called it a night after this as I shopped in the morning and had other errands to run today. More to come!