Droidworks

Time to Break Out the Epoxy on My Roof Holes

Sat, 09 May 2020 20:16:00 +0000

Since my wheels are an ex armed police car, this came with several pros and cons. While it has been very well maintained and has a number of upgrades like air suspension and a sporty engine map, downsides are that it has no entertainment system and holes in the roof where the antennas and lights were mounted. The holes have been covered with some trusty duct tape for the last couple of years, but I figured that while we are in lockdown, and I don’t need to drive daily, it was about time to fix them properly.

Virtual Motorsport

Sun, 03 May 2020 19:35:00 +0000

The lockdown has put real world racing on hold but a number of world class drivers from F1, touring cars, rally and more have embraced sim driving. Along with some half decent commentary it makes for some fun racing with the mix of styles and lots of action.

Formula E

Sat, 07 Sep 2019 12:40:04 +0000

Recently I have been watching the Formula E motor racing championship. It has some exciting street track racing helped by interesting features like attack mode and fanboost, showing off electric technology and you will recognise some of the drivers from F1 or DTM.

Hugos there?

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:09:28 +0000

Tada. I’m happy to unveil my all new revamped blog built using the Hugo static site generator. Hopefully this will be the start of a flurry of new posts, but just as likely see you in a year or so for the next post. ;)

Disney Buys Starwars

Sun, 15 Nov 2015 15:47:33 +0000

Star Wars has hit the news recently having been bought up by Disney. Nerfherders around the galaxy are trembling in fear at the prospect of the ressurection of Darth Vader or worse still Jar Jar Binks. Seriously though if they raise Vader from the dead then I am boycotting the thing entirely.

“Narrator: little did he know they would raise Emperor Palpatine instead”

DIY Segway

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:02:00 +0000

We recently did some team-building at work featuring off road segways, rekindling my desires to get/make one. The offical ones are a bit too pricey at £4k last time I looked!

This DIY Segway shows that they can be put together for a lot less though and although this one is more suited to the tarmac it is some good inspiration.

Emergency Quadrotor

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:10:00 +0000

My UAV needs to be quite big to stabley carry a payload of 1-2Kg. This thing weighs 8-10Kg and can carry another 4-6Kg!

A Kick up the Backside for the Bluray Carousel

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:15:00 +0000

So I’ve had a very busy run of weekends, not leaving much time for hackery. Looks like Ben Heck has beaten me to the punch in modding a carousel. He connected his to an xbox 360. As well as spurring me on this has given me some good tips of how to do it.

Rocket Crew

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:16:00 +0000

One summer day at Uni, Schwar turned up with a rocket with a camera in it. We had a great time launching it a few times (and subsequently trying to find and get to where it landed).

Unfortunately we never got any decent pictures from it but I like to think it would have looked something like this…

Bluray Carousel

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:46:00 +0000

Before the advent of the mp3 the best way to have all your music on demand was to own a CD carousel like this. One of my friends had one at the time which lead me to the idea of replacing the CD player for one that read DVDs. However DivX/MPG4 and large harddrives rendered that idea a bit redundant before I had a chance to put it into practice. Since Blu-ray has stepped up the required storage size, added to the annoyance of copy protection in those and the PS3 game, the idea seems like a good one again.

Cowabunga Dudes!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:08:00 +0000

coming

Friggin' Lasor Beams

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:00:00 +0000

coming

SLAM Dunk

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:37:00 +0000

coming

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote. This of course uses the IR sensor on the Wiimote, however it also is very handy for the accelerometers (which interest me most for the CarPC) as well as just being useful as a bluetooth remote.

Keep the Skies Clear

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:27:00 +0000

I was looking at cool fancy dress costumes. Apart from the usual Ghostbusters and Stormtroopers was a bunch of guys putting together this kickass Iron Man suit.

Can You Hear Me Now!?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:00:06 +0000

Welcome to my all new blog, documenting my exploits in the field of Robotics.

I use the term Robotics quite loosely, my projects include CarPCs, UAVs, RC vehicles, GIS and Mapping, Video Processing, Home Entertainment and Animatronics.

As well as a journal of what I’ve been upto I’ll be pointing out interesting articles and useful information that I find around the web.

Whoop Whoop, Sound of the Police

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:37:18 +0000

Merseyside Police recently had their surveillance drone grounded by the CAA when they failed to apply for a licence after recent law changes regarding UAVs. Good to see they are aware of the law that they are enforcing!

Anyway these rules have been extended. Previously UAVs of less than 7Kg were not covered but now they require permission to fly within 50m of people and 150m of buildings. This may well apply to the UAV that I am planning to build.

First

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:43:33 +0000

Well I kept meaning to stick a blog on my website but never got round to doing the code. Now that it takes just a few clicks to make one I thought that I would start noting some of the random crap that I think about. :)

Not my first actual blog as there have been several manually coded previous versions that have gone to tumbleweed.