Happy new year: 2012 summary (+ meta-meta)

Hi, and welcome to my last post at 2012. This blog entry will be mostly a summary of things happened at 2012 while making some announcements and vague promises of the upcoming posts.

Ir controlled 4 channel mini helicopter, opened for modding.

Firstly: I know that I have not been nearly as active as I should have been, and I have not even bothered to write a decent Meta about it. Sorry, but I thought that it would be too distracting of the main material to start ranting about things that had not happened. For that, I have now (finally!) decided that I revive my older, long-died blog channel Some quick notes , which I have been neglecting since late 2008. I will post a longer explanation there, and try to limit Meta at this channel to minimum.

One of those 720*480 keychain video cameras.

At these pictures you'll see one of the meny non-finished projects from 2012. It's an remote controlled (4 channel) mini helicopter and miniature video camera, both taken apart for modification. I got this idea of combining these two for couple years back. All this said, I'd expect to get them together someday early 2013 for the first test flight footage.

Of other projects, the Pic based thingy I mentioned back at this entry has not moved a bit since last March or so. Overall it's still valid thingy, and I have not seen similar anywhere. So, with some luck, I'll be getting it ready too, someday.

Besides these two, I have had some practical 'Fix-them, don't trash them' articles in mind with practical real world ideas of renew/recycle. Like repairing everyday items with the materials one could expect to find from electronics-tinkerer's workshop. Also more uses of Sugru, for example repairing and tuning shoes, zippers and coffee mugs.

Also, I still have the unpublished hour-long interview of @Jeri Ellsworth , which I shoot with my mobile phone a year ago (Alt Party, Helsinki). The raw video footage is quite ok, but the sound quality were bad since I didn't have any external microphone with me and the site was LOUD. I have not yet decided what to do with it, releasing it at youtube could be one option.

So, all in all. I do hope that 2013 will be more active year for me with this blog. I'll hope I will get some backlog cleared and the new projects going.

Rebuilding old Power pack (Hitachi B-2 for DRC-10K)

Hitachi DRC-10K... Slightly used, like 30 years

My father has this three decades old Hitachi DRC-10K cordless drill and against all odds it has proven to be nearly indestructible. Unfortunately rechargeable NiCd batteries tend to wear out and thus need replacement sooner or later. Even thought 3rd party power packs are still available those tend to cost around 40 Euros (50USD) before delivery, taxes etc.. And quite frankly you can purchase all new cordless drill with price like that.

B-2 type power pack (once opened)

So.. Alternative is to replace the battery elements inside power pack. It's actually quite easy to do and saves easily over 30€ when compared of purchasing new pack. Of course it'll take some time and effort, but for someone willing to DIY and values recycling, it's the right way to go. 

Six new NiMh cells soldered together

First part of project is opening the battery pack and checking what type and size the batteries are. Opening the pack depends a lot of the pack itself. Hitachi's original B-2 battery is sealed with some kind of glue, so you'll need to use some real force and mechanical tools. I had opened this particular pack earlier (10+ years ago?) and by the looks of it, I must have used tools like hacksaw, sharp knife and screwdrivers. In the end the tools don't matter so much, as long as you don't break the cells inside pack or hurt yourself.

Heatshrink protecting joints

After opening the pack one has to check what size the rechargeable cells are. At B-2, there are six sub-C elements (size approx. 40*20mm). For this purpose it's convenient to use cells with metal tabs on them. Easiest way to get cheap replacement cells is to search net sellers from sites like Ebay. Unfortunately I can't really recommend any of those stores, since they tend sell whatever is available, thus there is no real guarantee of the quality or capacity of the cells.

After opening the power pack you'll need to unsolder the power wires from old batteries and start preparing the new ones.  First duplicate the layout of the batteries and solder metal tabs together. As these differ for each pack I can't give more explicit guide here. Just be sure to check polarities and cnnect the batteries just like old ones were and it will be ok.

Twist, test and solder power connector

With B-2 power pack it made sense to build two sets with 3 batteries each and bend them so that they fit into existing enclosure. I decided to use soldering which is ok, as long as on don't burn the batteries with overheat. I also decided to cover connections with heat shrink tube.

Next is soldering the power connector wires to batteries (remember polarity) and stuffing these renewed innards inside existing power pack enclosure. I decided to use some hot glue to keep power pack safely closed.

Rebuild powerpack alongside modified Hitachi charger

For testing I did charge the battery pack with modified hitachi charger. The original charger (30 years old) was designed for using with NiCD only. Since NiCD are harmful to environment I have lately been using NiMh batteries instead. With NiMh batteries there was need for new type smart charger (with Delta-V detection). As a bonus this new charger is also faster and can handle both types of batteries.

Old NiCd batteries I've used years ago

After a couple hour recharge, the power pack was inserted to drill and tested to be on working condition. I have not done any power tests so I have no idea how good these new batteries are, but I'll expect to hear comments as soon as my father needs the drill next time for some tinkering project he has.

And that leaves the last part, trash disposal. Making sure that those old used NiCd batteries I had used years ago at previous Rebuild will be properly handled and processed as an special garbage. I have no idea how harmful NiCd batteries really are, but at least in EU area those are under strict control, so one has to be careful how to dispose them.


Meta:

I know... I have not been making these updates as often I ought to, for keeping this blog interesting. So sorry, not having any good excuses either, no mystic NDA projects, no family issues etcetc..

Surgu, part 2, the first fixes. Zi-10 and Huxley

Zi-10 next to sugru bags

To start with Sugru, I decided to hack something easy and useful. I have been using this Kodak Zi-10 1080P pocket video camera for making my youtube videos for some months now, and all in all it's really nice thingy. And for the price (about 60€ on Ebay) you can't really expect it to be professional quality or having all bells and whistles.

Perhaps the most important feature of this camera is 3.5mm stereo microphone connector, which allows me to use either Headset or other external microphone to record the audio with a improved quality. This may not sound much, but it's really difficult to find any inexpensive digital camcoder with external mic connector. Of image quality, it can't really be considered as a real 1080P system since the lens and imager element aren't really good enough. But it works nicely at 720P resolution, and that's what I use for my videos.  On the negative side (besides optics) is the mechanical design and ergonomics (lack of). The camera is made of shiny slippery plastic and don't have any kind of grip, so it's a bit hard to handle.

Five grams of blue Sugru

So, I decided to add some Sugru at the front side of camera. But there was the hard decision of colour to be used, since Sugru comes in five different colours (Black, White, Orange, Green and Blue) and for those more adventurous.. it's possible to mix them. In the end I decided to go with blue, black while obvious would been a bit too modest and shy.

 

Stylish? Not much, but it works.

One thing to remember with Sugru is the package type. Those small 5 gram aluminium foil bags are individually sealed and when opened, you don't have many hours to work with the material. So it's better to keep one or two smaller side projects ready in case you happen to have some excess Sugru after the main project is done. After all, why waste the good stuff?

Firstly I cut the aluminium foil bag open with scissors. Then I took the plastic and kneaded it a bit on my hands and made two balls out of it. First ball (2-3grams) I spread at the front side of the Zi-10 video camera. For texture the sugru at the camera, I used plastic comb and pressed criss-cross patterns for improved grip.

Feet of my Emaker Huxley 3D printer.

As a spare project I used Sugru for adding some flexible padding to the feet's of my 3D printer. The printed plastic legs tend to slid a bit at the tabletop, so the silicone-rubber like Sugru may keep the printer more steady.


While writing this post I once again remembered that I should really start taking proper high grade pictures for these blog posts. One of the near future posts I should write about using digital SLR-camera with home made light-tent / soft box. Otoh, I'll need to make it first. I know that some cheapish Chinese photographing tents are available at 30-50 Euros, but I think I'll rather use the materials I have here at home.

PS: If you notice typos at my text, please send send a comment. As a non native speaker of English, I know my lingo aint' 100%.