From the flames of Hell

WEll this blog has been underfed the last few years, now its as skinny as i aam :P, time to give it a better diet and start getting back into the swing of things.. but there enough here to keep you going for a while , so sit back and lets see what i can come up with this time around.

Netstorm Activision Old School Online

Many moons ago when 56k dialup was all the rage a new game came out from the guys at activision called netstorm. At the time I remember going to pay my ISP account and the owner slipping me a CD of a game she was playing behind the counter. It was netstorm an online game with shades of tetris (slightly) red alert and warcraft. All rolled into a package that features floating islands, magic spells and leveling by sacrificing the ememy priest's. While not as indepth as say runescape or adventure quest rpg games it's still a blast.
So the object is to harness storm power by building bridges to the geyser's where the power crystals form and consructing workshops and adding new knowledge like rain generators and sun cannons to power and protect your priest . build golems to collect the power in the early levels and ore advanced machines to collect them later on.
When you can incapacitate the enemy priest you can send a golem or other unit to collect him and bring him back to the alter to sacrifice him to the storm furies to gain more knowledge in the multiplayer online games.
These games are run on a main server with battle rings appearing to slot into and fight upto 7 others at the same time, alliences can be made and broken and battles can be declared a draw by all left in play at anytime. The people who can sacrifice the enemy get a choice from a list of new tech to use in the next game.
so head over to the main site and download a copy now. Its been quite in the games and we need a new set of faces to build the islands in the sky. Why not register on thier forum as well to join up with the ladder comp or post images of your games for all to see.
http://www.netstormhq.com/news.php

Recon Drone Hack

rc drone recon droid, robot
Originally uploaded by sprocket2cog.

this is our medivac chopper hacked into a remote drone, the shell is foam with carbon rod inserts for the boom and landing skids, but was too heavy,only getting to a height of 18 inches/.

Night Ranger Intro & mod's

Well we decided to get hold of a remote control helicopter for the lab and after much debate ended up with the electric night ranger by Venom Air Corp . Theses little beast's have a single highspeed engine and two micro servos as well as gyro assisted flight and to boot no explosive LIPO batteries to go boom. This little guy runs on a custom nimh cells running at 8.4 volts or 7 1.2 aaa cells i guessing, as its wrapped in black shrink wrap.
The set is "ready" to fly with just a few basic things to do, assuming you know how to fly (we dont).
The power cell needs to be charged and the controller needs AA cells, eight in fact. But these were in the box, (nice venom green branded ones too).
Their is a heap of diffrent blade decals and we advise you use the main rotor stickers as they actually help to keep the blades from getting damaged, we chipped a blade on a cardboard box of all things and the stickers and a bit of black electrical tape had us up and running in no time at all.



The Next thing to do is read the book while the cell is charging, and watch the video of why you need more area then this to fly in ! We have replaced the tail rotor retaining grommet with a piece of longer silicon hose to hold on better and reduce the chance of loosing it. We also resoldered and taped ver the tail rotor motor as we snapped off both cables flying around the back yard and smashing into a window at night ! whichi is why theres no video.
I also built a training frame and removed all the chassis stickers to clean up the look, lees toy, more drone. The last thing we did was to reroute the aerial around the tail of the helicopter to reduce damage and increase the amount of unwund wire. The aerial was getting frayed wrapped around the skids.
We are having hassles getting stable flight so the whole chassis needs to be rebuilt and centered better, this is a matter of undoing the carbon rods that make up the moat of the frames and resetting them with new silicon tube with more of it. We also managed to snap a skid on a hard landing which is now taped and glued so is working fine, but plans are in place to rebuild them (the skids) in carbon fibre square rod like the trainer frame, and i'll most likely build the frame into it as well saving more weight, and balancing it up easier.
ore on the chopper as we learn to fly, then add our 2.4ghz micro cam to the underside for some onboard crashes. i mean flights.

Terminator robot

Terminator robot
Originally uploaded by sprocket2cog.

This guy just popped yp in our local hobby store, a full size cast metal robot from the terminator line of robot, well terminators.
dosent do anything, but nice either way.

lego webcam hacked

lego webcam hacked
Originally uploaded by sprocket2cog.

This is the lego web camera from the old Vision command system hacked to an adaptor ring made from some pvc fittings, The lens is a 35mm SLR lens from RICOH and features a macro mode as well as a zoom function. This is an ideal starter lens as the macro lets you use it for close up of circuits to read part id numbers so you can reverse enginner the projects for your own evil designs.
The screws on the ring lock into the len's flanges that used to lock it to the camera body.
The screws are on 25-30 degree angles to allow the lens to be slightly moved in and out for ultra fine adjustment of the focal lenth which for this lens was around 2 inches. ( i think ?) been a while since i knocked up the ring adaptor.

Viper from microbric - power hack

viper from microbric power hack
Originally uploaded by sprocket2cog.

For all you viper owners out there looking for a way to add external power to your project so you dont need all those aaa cells , Heres the power mod for the board, just add your own 7-9 volt power supply to the robot, The red wire "no not the red wire !" solders to the switch block terminal as per the photo and the earth bolts into the holes in the board used to hold the battery boxes on, which you dont need now.

XBR-001 mirco edtion

For those observant people out there, you may have noticed that the photos of the laminated sections seem out os scale to the plans . Well they are, during the mock up I noticed that the body and chassis were out of scale so after a rethink based on other ideas in our little book of hacks and mods. I decided to cut the chassis down from 300 to 250mm for this first run, the body rings are the same size but it means that the height will be lower to the ground reducing the center of gravity as well.
This will mean less rings for the robot at first reducing the cost, but the bigger robot will allow the ame parts to be reused. think of this as a micro chassis that can later be used as a secon equipment bay or even an oversized head.

Latest Sony Robot Hit's The Street

Well since the end of our friend AIBO we have all wondered if sony was going to bring us something new. Well its not the real deal, but lets hope sony releases some of these guys for us to hack, I mean use..

Went looking for movies and found this little three part film for your pleasure, check out he other parts at youtube ( just click videos by this user

Robot Destruction Systems

So you want to get rid of that Furby or V2 robot and want a fun way o do it ? well how about this. I would love to see a robot flick this switch...

FURBY- The Choice for Terrorist Hit Squad's

Well a few weeks ago i happened to be on a plane heading for Melbourne when I noticed this little bit of infomation that might make you think twice about tha kid and his furby sitting next to you.
The Plane safety pamphlet in the plane had a little photo of furby with a cross though him, so I figured a little bit more investigation was in order, I dont normally read the plane safety stuff, I figure if I just run up and down shouting We are all going to die , then Ill be fine :)
So after looking more closely I was shocked to see that furby isnt allowed to be operated on board aircraft from this company ? What we yet havent worked out is if it;s because the little guy is really a walking time bomb, or if the annoying litle guy makes you all want to open the doors and jump out to get away... So dont take furbys on planrse or the Men in black are likely to haul your ass off to the little back room and probe your furby for contraband.
Poor guy, as if his life wasnt hard enough, with not having legs to run away from those little terrorists, i mean preschoolers. Happy hacking .

LEGO NXT Open Software Beta

Gostai has released it URBI for NXT beta for puplic use and has started a forum and support center at the site. The screenshots look good and I'm downloading it (3.6mb)in prep for my NXT set. I know I wasnt going to get more lego, but hey Its worth it just for the built in bluetooth controller. While i havent tried out the package yet, any free robot software is good robot software, so check it out
http://www.gostai.com/lego.html

Battery Hacking #1

Ok so you need some watch batteries in a hurry and cant find any on the shelf? well if its the smaller thin ones your looking for then grap one of the small 12 volt batteries that go in some cameras, and my multimeter :P, so anyway now the part that comes with a disclaimer, (dont do this unless your sure, cells are dangerous if they rupture) get a file and file the end cap from the positve terminal untill it comes out , you may need to use a set of pliers or a screwdriver to lever it out once the metel case is open. Now tip up the power cell and if you have to, pry the edge where the metel case has a seam, untill the eight cells in the battery fall out.
So now you have some power for your next led throwie project which can be found over at instructables.com. Or if you need to reverse this to get a 12volt cell for the camera dlash that went flat, well grap a cheap set of watch batt's and tape eight together to form the stacked cell, then place a small magnet from a old cd drive to the end as a positive terminla and there you go,
Remember, dont play with cells that rupture or show signs of swelling, and please wear safety glasses for this one.

Wow Wee, Old RoboRaptor Hacks Back

The old raptor hacksite is up online at my good friends site at http://www.evosapien.com/
And includes those sort after goodies including the silent start up and bigger bite.
While your there , make sure to check out the other hackers pages, including the great v2 hacker canadian knitsu.
So head over to our raptor site at evosapien and get those old dusty raptors out of the cupboard.
now you have the perfect excuse to hack that raptor, just dont tell the better half what your up to .
bring on the robot army.

Robot Fighters Animation

Found this video over at youtube, its not bad for both animation and robot design. THese guys look cool, the future of the robo one and bipeds in general ? we hope so.

Xbr Merchandise

Ive got a few Shirts up with the xbr robot on them at the gallery at zazzle, check out the xbr gallery at zazzle

3D images without the Glasses

I saw this used on some sites around the net and the idea to apply it to the nasa rover images hit me, so here it is , my first mars rover animated stereogram.

Optical Illusion #1

please wait large animation file - loading frames

watch the center for a while, defocus, destress, relax and wait for the world... yeah right, its just an optical illusion, it isn't aportal to another dimension

Game background (menu)

22granite1
Originally uploaded by sprocket2cog.

Here's a sample for a menu background thzts a bit like concrete