The Rover Project

The Rover Project ~ A project to build a little 6WD robot capable of rough terrain exploration.
This will be "about" post for the Rover Project

What is the Rover?
The Rover is a little 6WD highly capable robot.
Equipped with sensors of many different kinds, it is capable to read temperature, heading, compass readings, GPS locations, time, ect.

                                                                                                    The Rover

The project is based in South Africa.

Sensors and Parts

Parts

It is build on a DAGU Wild Thumper 34:1 gearbox chassis. These are available online.
It is equipped with a Raspberry Pi 2, a fully capable Linux computer the size of a credit card, for its finer operations, such as mission logs and video streaming.
An Arduino Mega ADK is the beating heart and controller of the mechanics and sensors, and is wired up to a logic level converter to connect to the Raspberry Pi via serial.
It has an Xbee for communication with the controller.
The controller is, again, an Arduino Mega ADK board with an Xbee and Joystick shield attached to it.
It has a FlyCam One Eco for HD video recordings with 8GB storage. It also has a PiCam attached to the Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi has 32GB storage with a 16GB flash memory drive for extra storage. It has an Edimax WiFi dongle, along with a CellC 3G dongle (unimplemented)
It has 2 Li-Po batteries with high C ratings to power the motors.

Sensors

It has an Ultrasonic Range finder at the front for collision detection, as well as an infrared sensor on the back.
It has a humidity and temperature sensor for atmospheric condition readings as well as a compass with accelerometer.
It has a GPS module, accurate to 2.5 meters.

This post will be updated as components are added

Sites and Links

Twitter: @Restioson
Youtube: Rover3
Google+: Rover3

Sites:Sparkfun, where we obtained most of our components. Raspberrypi.org, the home of the Raspberry pi. Arduino.cc, the home of the AT-Mega microcontroller powered board.

What is music?

Since I haven't blogged in a while, I've decided to do an extra long post this time.

What is Music?
"People think music is just a group of musical notes and words made to sound nice, but it's so much more. People pour their thoughts, their feelings, their deepest fears and hopes into music. Music can tell a story, it can be meaningless or so deep it requires hours of explanation to understand.

Rap is about speaking out against establishment. It can teach a lesson or promote an ideology. Through music people express themselves in a way unique to anything else. Some music can be made to make a philosophical statement. Musicians are some of the most important and influential people in the world. Think about it: children don't read news, they listen to music! This makes it a very effective means of communication.

Furthermore, it can help people through tough times. Music inspires masses of people every day. Music can cheer people up or make them think. It is also a form of recreation. It makes you forget about your day and lets you become part of the beat, the rhythm, the lyrics, the emotion and the melody. It also gives you an inside look at the singer's emotions.

Music is a wonderful and interesting thing. Life would be so much duller without it. "
 (Just something I wrote while sitting in bed at night)

After reading this, you must be thinking: "How does this have ANYTHING to do with technology?"
Now it does, and I'll tell you why.

Music was revolutionized by the Ipod and mp3 player (Zoon, not so much...) . Also, the internet has become one of the most used mediums for information and data transfer and storage. Furthermore, you can now stream music to several different devices at once! Now you can store hundreds of songs on your laptop! The ratio of size to storage of a laptop vs a record is huge! Laptops storage is much denser, allowing you to have space for your most liked songs, and arbitrary other songs you downloaded to listen to once, without having to keep stacks and stacks of records.

Though I must say, I don't care for the new Ipod Nanos, ect. I'm fine with a 2007-bought Ipod mini!

Device Review: Syma x5c Explorer Quadcopter

Today I'm going to be doing a review on the Syma x5c Explorer Quadcopter, which I received for Christmas.


Ok, so the Quadcopter is a little heavy on the throttle, making it harder to learn. Also, sometimes it can be slow to respond, making it hard for emergency recoveries. It also has absolutely no failsafe or GPS, and cannot lift even the slightest load (so far through my tests)

Now, to the Pros. It is fast and can fly very high. It can take high-resolution photos and videos and is very durable. You can also buy replacements for any part except screws (which, then again, can be bought from a local hardware shop). It is (somewhat, albeit) wind resistant.

All in all, I must say that personally I am very satisfied with this product. 

Lemonade: A drink to go with your onions

Today I am going to be showing you how to make lemonade, or my variety at least. I like to call it "Lemon Beer" as its only similarity with lemonade is the lemon used.

Ingridients:
Water
Honey / Sugar
Cinnamon
Ice (Optional)

1. Squeeze the lemon juice into a glass.

2.Add water to taste.

3. Add honey to taste

4. Add cinamon.

5. Enjoy!

Onions: The perfect snack in between gaming

Today I am going to be talking about how to make a simple, delicious and filling snack with household ingredients: Spicy Sauteed Onions.

                                                                  The finished product
You will need:
1/2 an Onion
Chili powder
Garlic Flakes
Turmeric Powder
Salt
Pepper

Method:

1. Heat up a pan with oil in it.

2. When the pan is sufficiently hot, add 1/2 a chopped up onion

3. Add chili powder to taste

4. Add garlic flakes to taste

5. Add a small amount of turmeric. Add enough so that when stirred in, the onions take on a pale yellow colour.

6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. When the onions are ready, serve in a sandwich with chosen ingredients, eg. boiled eggs, or sausages.

Note: Goes well with chutney

Solar Geysers: The next step

My family has decided to get a solar geyser. This apparently saves money - over a 3 year period time. I have my doubts though. I think we will save almost instantly! Think about it - solar technology has been around for long enough to be an efficient source of energy and build up a demand, which makes the technology readily available because of mass production lines built. It has also been around long enough to become cheaper than it first was. Also, ESKOM  (South African power) is becoming bankrupt. The electricity prices will skyrocket. We will be saving while everyone else is paying. We will also be saving the world. So why don't you try it?

FPS Increase while recording

I was testing out Gothic 3 on my laptop. It was lagging horribly. I thought just to see how bad the lag could get, I decided to record Gothic 3. Then something truly strange happened. I got and FPS increase. What? Why didn't they just give me the increase in the first place? I think I've just discovered a major flaw in Direct X games. They never live up to their max FPS when they could, easily!

Spam Bank SMSs

I'm sure most of you reading this have received at least one spam bank SMS, or still do. I get them every month. Here is an example: "STHEMBISO, leave a legacy of caring with Life Cover payouts of up to R10m from FRANK.NET (FSP 40948) Reply YES for a quote today or STOP to opt out."
First of all, I am not "STHEMBISO".  Secondly who is "STHEMBISO" and why did he register to a bank using my number? Also, I'm not STUPID, I'm not going to reply to them. Even if you add your number to the list of "no spam SMS" numbers, they still do it! 

Solar: One simple way to fight the prince of darkness

Ok, Eskom has won for the majority of my life, but that stops now.
Eskom will be broke in approximately, 15 days. By the time that happens, I will be able to charge my laptop, phone and run our Wifi off solar.

My dad and I are going to mount it on our roof, connect a cable to 120W charge controller, which will then charge a battery connected to an inverter. But not just any battery. A car battery.

The next step in battling the Prince of Darkness is to join the community of the Bringer's of Light: Install your own solar panel.

Response to "Potato" Vine

 

I first thought it was funny. But now, it's just getting annoying.

 

Ok, WHAT??
 First of all, how did they tie the potato securely? Also the potato isn't flying, it's practically bungee jumping. It has a rope. I looked up the rest of the song and it goes like this:
"A potato flew around my room before you came excuse the mess it made it usually..."
How did it make a mess?
Its not like it infested the room with fungus or mould, and it didn't hit anything.