Ride into DC to see my eye doctor!

I had to go into downtown Washington, DC this Wednesday and decided to ride in and to film it with my GoPro HD before I sell it to upgrade to the new GoPro Hero 2 Pro. Be sure to watch it in 480 only. The 720 version flips itself over for some strange reason.

It was a beautiful day and the ride in is lovely. It's mostly down hill. I tried mounting the camera on top of my helmet and realized afterwards that you need to be very careful how it's mounted so your video doesn't look crooked and you need to tighten it down so that it doesn't vibrate much! :)

I'll have the ride back video up shortly. I visit some monuments on the way back.

More later,
Ambrose

Look what GoPro's gone and done! GoPro Hero 2 Pro

So as soon as I order a stereo recorder for my GoPro, GoPro introduces a new model camera with a stereo microphone input! Looks like I'll need to sell my GoPro and Sanyo Xacti recorders now to buy a GoPro Hero2 Pro along with a small stereo microphone!

http://gopro.com/hd-hero2-cameras/

Ambrose

SANYO Xacti ICR-XPS01M Digital Sound Recorder

I've loved using the GoPro HD Hero to capture my rides, however, there's one area where the GoPro falls short. It captures mono sound. The three dimensional realism of stereo sound is absent standard in the device! I've been looking for an inexpensive solution for this and found a WOOT.com sellout for the SANYO Xacti ICR-XPS01M Digital Sound Recorder.

It's a stereo PCM or MP3 capture device that will allow me to add stereo sound to my video captures. It's straightforward to use, records for many hours on the included 2GB microSDHC and most importantly, captures high quality stereo sound!

Here's a shot of how small this device is. I've got a life-size paper cutout of it sitting beside my GoPro HD Hero. The trick now is to mount them together so that I can synchronize them fairly easily. I know to record a hand clap at the beginning of the recording so that I can visually line them up...

More later,
Ambrose Liao

High speed ride through Kensington and Bethesda

I played hookie last week and rode my bike around the neighborhood. The bike worked very well. Here's the video. I recorded it in 1080p so it's huge. It actually split into two segments automatically. Here's part 1 which is 34 minutes long. Select 720P and go full screen to enjoy the best viewing experience.

Here's part 2 which is 3 minutes long.

More later,
Ambrose

WinPlus Beacon GPS Tracker for $20 + $5 for shipping

http://sellout.woot.com/ for today (10/11/2011) is the WinPlus Beacon GPS Tracker. It's an "after-the-fact" GPS logging system that lets you see where you've been. It's perfect for logging the position, speed, and altitude of your ride. Think of it as a GPS capture device kind of like the GoPro is the HD capture device.

I just ordered one so will let you know how well it works.

More later,
Ambrose

Two front hubs with different configurations

When I started on the front hub battery replacement project, I had planned on just replacing the battery in the Tidalforce iO since that pack was starting to act flakey and not always be ready for riding when my wife and I were. However, after working on it a while and brainstorming, I realized that I could configure my other front hub battery for my S-750 so that the front hub battery would be half of a xxV pack. I could fit half the pack inside the hub and the other half either in the frame or below the downtube.

 The iO version would be 2S1P consisting of two Zippy Flightmax 5S 8000mAH packs for 37V 8AH.

 The S-750 version would be 4S1P consisting of 4 Zippy Flightmax 6S 8000mAH packs for 88.8V 8AH.

 The front hub on the S-750 would add some significant mass to the front wheel which feels very light and feathery now with the Bosch Fat Packs over the back wheel and making it top and back heavy.

More later,
Ambrose

Zippy 8000mAH Batteries - Will They Fit?!?!?

I took some cardboard and made two mockups of the Zippy 5S 8000 mAH LiPO batteries to see how they would fit in the hub.

They certainly are thin enough to fit into the clamshell without too many modifications in terms of depth. I would probably need to trim about 1/4" from the shell. You can see the gap between the screw posts which needs to close completely.

Then there's the matter of the packs fitting within the rim of the shell and much more importantly, within the rim of the wheel!

The packs look as if they would fit inside the wheel, but would they clear the thick axle and still clear the inside of the wheel???

Looks very close!

There's about a quarter inch to a third of an inch to spare so it looks as if it will indeed fit!

I'll need to remove 4 of the 6 screw posts which is kind of troubling but I think I can still support the shell in place so that the batteries don't shift. I need to think about this and try a few other configurations to see if I can keep more screw posts. Otherwise, I'm very happy!

More later,

Ambrose