Sparky Paul's blog View Details
Posted by Sparky Paul | May 01, 2015 @ 07:38 PM | 21,777 Views
The lenses as supplied for the Mobius camera range from poor to just plain bad!
The A lens is barely acceptable in the center of the image, but curves the edges.
The B and worser C are useless,, unless your horizon wobbles up and down as you look down or up.
The lenses on the 808 Keyfob cameras are far superior.
The GoPro.... what a joke!
Posted by Sparky Paul | Mar 30, 2014 @ 08:03 PM | 23,316 Views
Pitch rate testing the SPEKTRUM AS-3X receiver
Autopilot flight stablizer orientation (1 min 7 sec)

Posted by Sparky Paul | Sep 17, 2013 @ 03:23 PM | 23,609 Views
Flying these tea-cup sized helis out front in the street.. "Is that a drone?" I hear from the neighbors.
These small guys are really the safest for flying around people and cars in a restrictred area..
The larger 20" or so are too large to manuver safely in the confines of a street.. especially if the heli has only 3 channels and can't manuver properly
Here's six of the small jobber-dos... gots to watch the altitude.. Can't go climbing on the neighbor's roofs...
Small helis in the street (12 min 50 sec)

Posted by Sparky Paul | Sep 09, 2013 @ 01:07 PM | 23,821 Views
Checking the time stamp accuracy on 808s and the Mobius.
All cameras were sync'd to the computer time with the GUI.. and when those times compared to WWV (http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java) found to running 2 seconds slower than the time standard at WWV.. as was the computer time.
24 hours later, looking at WWV with the same cameras, the time shifts are variable. Some of the cameras have picked up 6 to 8 seconds relative to the time at the GUI settings.. and 2 have lost 2 seconds over the same time period.
For a use which needs several cameras to be time-synced.. probably be worth the effort to find some that drift the same amount.
Over a longer period, the time discrepancy can be quite large!
The cameras showed the same time difference after the syncing with the GUI..
Posted by Sparky Paul | Sep 06, 2013 @ 12:19 PM | 23,535 Views
I have two multiple plug USB docks, one of which is powered. I can connect 7 cameras to the ports for charging or for editing with the GUI program..
Posted by Sparky Paul | Aug 23, 2013 @ 07:11 PM | 24,167 Views
After biking outback in the desert on Wednesday, I looked on Google Earth for
the route I'd taken, to check the miles versus the bike computer... and noticed
just off the path I'd taken a straight line on a path. Ain't no straight lines
in nature, so I went back in the car, ready to do some walking-climbing, having
gone on the bike trail Palmdale built back there over the hills.. and..
No climbing involved! Just a short walk from the road, and there is was.. the
last thing one would expect to find in a desert.. a culvert! And I wasn't the
first to find it!
I'd noticed the channels at various places out back, but never connected them to
anything sensible.
I'd seen 3 to 4 feet of water flowing in it under the bridge on the bike path,
and wondered where it went, for some time.
Looking at it, and then going back to Google Earth, I followed the "path" back
to the source, and to the terminal end..
Way back when, in 1924, Palmdale put a dam at Little Rock Creek, and diverted
some of the water to the Fin & Feather Club at Palmdale Lake. I'd heard this had
been done, but it was kinda difficult to believe.
It goes through 3 mountains just after it leaves Little Rock, and then crosses
the Aqueduct, and dumps into the lake.. At least, it used to! Hasn't been any
water in it for 2 years, and not likely to be there any time soon.
I'm surprised no local "entrepenuer" hasn't dismantled it for scrap steel to
sell!
Posted by Sparky Paul | Aug 14, 2013 @ 09:56 PM | 24,340 Views
Made a new rear pod mount for my Canon A2300..16Mpx..
It was a tight fit on the back of the pod, so I put some tape on it, and went flying.
The motor ran rough!!! And I noticed during the flight the camera pod was drooping!
Decided to land, and just before touchdown...
The onboard camera on the wing and the hat camera got some amusing images..
Didn't care too much for this.. And the Canon images were blurry because of a slow shutter speed caused by the camera meter not looking out of the pod.
.
The new pod has an eFlite 480 direct, runs a LOT smoother. And is 5 oz. lighter. And fixt the camera meter situation.
Posted by Sparky Paul | Aug 13, 2013 @ 08:09 PM | 23,287 Views
Image comparisons between a Nikon E7600, GoPro Hero3 White, Mobius and 808 V2.. more or less from the same position..
Posted by Sparky Paul | Aug 13, 2013 @ 03:31 PM | 23,274 Views
The wallpaper on my desk computer.. animules, and bugises..
OutInTheDesert (9 min 39 sec)

Posted by Sparky Paul | Aug 12, 2013 @ 11:09 PM | 24,873 Views
Flying today with a GoPro Hero 3 White in the aft pod.. Got a lot of seriously distorted images..
Paint Shop Pro 4 has a "fisheye distortion" function, which straightens out the bowing at the edges of the field of view. Makes the camera useable. I was losing hope...
.
Images show the initial fisheye, and the next frame is then rectified.
Posted by Sparky Paul | Jul 30, 2013 @ 07:22 PM | 26,119 Views
Sparky Paul's Seriously Aeronautical Stuff
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/aerostuff/