I think I was a bit _too_ hyped up for Zootopia, I actually left the movie theatre feeling that it was a great movie, but I was something missing.
Now don't get me wrong, the visuals, the level of detail, the intricacies are just simply jaw dropping. Also, while I generally don't really care what projects I work on, I'd really love to work on the next Zootopia. It's just that good. Not very likely, since that's probably done in the Disney production studios down in Burbank, CA.
One major thing that I felt let down with was the anti-racism angle I keep reading about online. Deep inside, I was hoping that Zootopia would mirror the Japanese shows I enjoy watching - not only lots of action and fun vfx, but always with a strong moral undertone.
In this case, what undertones there were are too subtle, and the predator-prey thing just doesn't work for me.
It's been several days since I watched it, and Zootopia's "Try Eveything" theme song randomly popped up in my youtube feed this evening. I'm one of those people that have a tough time picking up lyrics, most of what I could hear was... .... .. ... Everything. ....... ..... ... Everything.
The bloody song was really very catchy and I though I'd bring up the lyrics to see what was being sung. I think it then hit me what I really felt strong about Zootopia. Not giving up. To rise to the challenge, to keep whacking on the block until it gives.
I'm a bit misty eye'd writing this as I'm reminded of the trials Judy went through.The sheer willpower and attitude exhibited by this lagomorph reminds me that I need to try harder in everything I do. She's even the will power to say no, I'm not suitable for the job. And leaves. How many of us can be that brave in real life?!
Granted she is not "real" in the physical sense (zootopia's real to meeeeee!!!!) and she always has a family to return to after she quit. But in her heart, she's never given up. And that's what I feel the strongest about Zootopia.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Monday, March 07, 2016
Chromebook vs Tablet
I've been using both these week for very different purposes, and I really think it comes down to your needs. But let's talk about some things I like about each of the devices:
Charging:
The Chromebook Flip has it's own, proprietary charging brick, like almost every laptop out there. USB charging would be nice, to bring less stuff while traveling, But you can't have everything, no? The Tab A uses a regular micro usb port, which is super convenient as I can use one cable to charge both phone and tablet. Both devices take forever to charge up, usually I let them charge up overnight. I really miss the fast charge on the Galaxy S6, that's *bloody* fast!
Form Factor:
One reason why I'm so enamored to the Tab A is the size! With the factory "book cover", it feels very well balanced, almost like a large kindle. Don't get me wrong though, holding a kindle for long reading sessions - fine. I'd get a stiff arm the few times I tried holding the Tab A up, and that's with the lighter, 8in screen!
And of course, the Tablet doesn't come with a keyboard, though any bluetooth keyboard can hook up to it.
The chromebook's really good for typing. Heck, since I've now been typing more on the chromebook than my macbook, I've had to re-calibrate my left hand when I was writing this post (on my mac), as I no longer have the Ctrl/Alt buttons at the bottom left of the keyboard. Just a few minutes ago, I was like... how do I jump from word to word again? On my mac I use my thumb to hold down the alt/option key; on the chromebook it's my little finger on the ctrl key. Blargh.
Media Consumption
VLC definitely runs better on Android. Some very old files I can't playback on the chromebook play back fine on the tablet, or the desktop vlc. Something about the chromebook flip: Supposedly it only takes 64gb sdcards, whilst the Tab A can take up to 128gb.
Apps
I still feel dirty when I say out loud or type "apps". Ewww. Can't explain why. But anyways. The play store is definitely more vibrant than the chrome store. That's one major thing when I was hunting for games. Definitely much more choice - though not necessarily better games - on the play store.
Booting up
The chromebook does zero to login screen in under 10 seconds, though it does take some time to churn when loading up google docs. And google docs does churn alot when your word counts go into 5 digits. And that's on my macbook - I haven't reached that many words on my chromebook yet, but I can foresee myself splitting up into several chapters per document.
The Tab A is the regular android bootup, but, how often do you reboot a tablet anyways? I rarely reboot my tablets. Pretty sure my mini's been online several months since the last ios update. Phone on the other hand, would do good to reboot ever so often - never know when a wakelock spike would come in *sigh*
I appear to be rambling now, and am actually quite tired, so I'm going to end this pretty pointless post right here. Good night!
Charging:
The Chromebook Flip has it's own, proprietary charging brick, like almost every laptop out there. USB charging would be nice, to bring less stuff while traveling, But you can't have everything, no? The Tab A uses a regular micro usb port, which is super convenient as I can use one cable to charge both phone and tablet. Both devices take forever to charge up, usually I let them charge up overnight. I really miss the fast charge on the Galaxy S6, that's *bloody* fast!
Form Factor:
One reason why I'm so enamored to the Tab A is the size! With the factory "book cover", it feels very well balanced, almost like a large kindle. Don't get me wrong though, holding a kindle for long reading sessions - fine. I'd get a stiff arm the few times I tried holding the Tab A up, and that's with the lighter, 8in screen!
And of course, the Tablet doesn't come with a keyboard, though any bluetooth keyboard can hook up to it.
The chromebook's really good for typing. Heck, since I've now been typing more on the chromebook than my macbook, I've had to re-calibrate my left hand when I was writing this post (on my mac), as I no longer have the Ctrl/Alt buttons at the bottom left of the keyboard. Just a few minutes ago, I was like... how do I jump from word to word again? On my mac I use my thumb to hold down the alt/option key; on the chromebook it's my little finger on the ctrl key. Blargh.
Media Consumption
VLC definitely runs better on Android. Some very old files I can't playback on the chromebook play back fine on the tablet, or the desktop vlc. Something about the chromebook flip: Supposedly it only takes 64gb sdcards, whilst the Tab A can take up to 128gb.
Apps
I still feel dirty when I say out loud or type "apps". Ewww. Can't explain why. But anyways. The play store is definitely more vibrant than the chrome store. That's one major thing when I was hunting for games. Definitely much more choice - though not necessarily better games - on the play store.
Booting up
The chromebook does zero to login screen in under 10 seconds, though it does take some time to churn when loading up google docs. And google docs does churn alot when your word counts go into 5 digits. And that's on my macbook - I haven't reached that many words on my chromebook yet, but I can foresee myself splitting up into several chapters per document.
The Tab A is the regular android bootup, but, how often do you reboot a tablet anyways? I rarely reboot my tablets. Pretty sure my mini's been online several months since the last ios update. Phone on the other hand, would do good to reboot ever so often - never know when a wakelock spike would come in *sigh*
I appear to be rambling now, and am actually quite tired, so I'm going to end this pretty pointless post right here. Good night!
Monday, February 29, 2016
I got a new tablet...
I can't believe it. But I bought myself... a Samsung tablet. I think many of my colleagues were like... what the hell? Didn't you hate Samsung?
Oh yes, I did. But hear me out. So basically, I was lusting for a tablet as the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 I got is really getting on my nerves for being so damned slow with the 4.4 update. So, I started looking at a tablet to replace it.
Samsungs, were naturally NOT even considered. I was looking at Lenovo's Yoga Tab (I could feel the lag, so no). Lenovo Tab 2 (not bad) as well as others from Asus. But these were really the entry level tablets, and I wanted something to play games with.
Some how or other, I thought I'd give the Samsungs a quick look, and realize that the tablets didn't have that much of Touchwiz. From what I see, it's mainly in the systems menu, and the ability to run split screen apps. If not, it felt very similar to my Nexus 4.
I was not convinced, simply because, yanno. It's a Samsung.
The very next day, there was a special offer of 30 bucks. Win much? I was like... nahhhhhh.... then all the black tablets were sold out and I was >.>
As luck would have it, Staples had one of the black ones in stock (woo!) and I got it. I'm pretty sure the tablet I got (Galaxy Tab A, 8in) was going to be replace by an upgraded version, as they even threw in the samsung casing at no extra charge! Win!
Now the tablet is all swell and good (it's more of an impulse purchase, really), but I really like it, and it's because the extra screen estate gives a better layout of the play store somehow improves the user experience - on my Z3 I always felt the play store was rather crap, compared to the ios store.
Gaming on it is also pretty good, been playing Monument Valley, The Room, Colin McRae Rally and others. It's all pretty good! It's definitely not as fast as the Z3, Colin McRae rally runs way smoother on the Z3, but it's adequate. Maybe if I really fall in love with the 8in 4:3 android form factor, I'll sell this baby and get the Tab S2. *That* tablet, while rather expensive, has a damned good screen, and the processor is pretty damned fast.
I'll think about it.
Oh yes, I did. But hear me out. So basically, I was lusting for a tablet as the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 I got is really getting on my nerves for being so damned slow with the 4.4 update. So, I started looking at a tablet to replace it.
Samsungs, were naturally NOT even considered. I was looking at Lenovo's Yoga Tab (I could feel the lag, so no). Lenovo Tab 2 (not bad) as well as others from Asus. But these were really the entry level tablets, and I wanted something to play games with.
Some how or other, I thought I'd give the Samsungs a quick look, and realize that the tablets didn't have that much of Touchwiz. From what I see, it's mainly in the systems menu, and the ability to run split screen apps. If not, it felt very similar to my Nexus 4.
I was not convinced, simply because, yanno. It's a Samsung.
The very next day, there was a special offer of 30 bucks. Win much? I was like... nahhhhhh.... then all the black tablets were sold out and I was >.>
As luck would have it, Staples had one of the black ones in stock (woo!) and I got it. I'm pretty sure the tablet I got (Galaxy Tab A, 8in) was going to be replace by an upgraded version, as they even threw in the samsung casing at no extra charge! Win!
Now the tablet is all swell and good (it's more of an impulse purchase, really), but I really like it, and it's because the extra screen estate gives a better layout of the play store somehow improves the user experience - on my Z3 I always felt the play store was rather crap, compared to the ios store.
Gaming on it is also pretty good, been playing Monument Valley, The Room, Colin McRae Rally and others. It's all pretty good! It's definitely not as fast as the Z3, Colin McRae rally runs way smoother on the Z3, but it's adequate. Maybe if I really fall in love with the 8in 4:3 android form factor, I'll sell this baby and get the Tab S2. *That* tablet, while rather expensive, has a damned good screen, and the processor is pretty damned fast.
I'll think about it.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Asus Chromebook Flip
I've never been a fan of the Chromebook concept. I could never get over the concept of a machine that couldn't run Houdini, and filed it in the i don't find it useful pile. Now several weeks ago, I made plans for a 2 week vacation to the UK to visit some really important landmarks (Broome Bridge, for example), and I like... hey, I'd like to have a small PC with me to properly check emails, not on the phone or tablets.
The first option to come to mind, is a macbook air. Which I promptly threw out the window. Stupid expensive, and I already have a mbp at home. Having a 2nd osx machine makes zero sense. I must admit I was searching through ebay for cheap deals, but nah. I would have no use for it on a daily basis.
Next, I was checking out the Microsoft Surfaces. You know, those are really amazing machines. Superb hardware, good screen and nice keyboard. Sure, I can nitpick it doesn't have a nvivida gpu but I've got a mbp for that.
However, after being introduced to linux and osx, there's absolutely no way I'm going back to windows unless I have to, and I already got a VM with Windows 8 that I've not used in almost a year.
Plus, it's about a grand, which is not something I'd like to bring along on an experimental trip - going to be staying in hostels this time. Finally, as with the macbook, I have zero use for it in day-to-day use.
I then came upon some comments about using Chromebooks for travel: They are highly affordable, no setup drama, compact. More reading also brought up the point that linux could be installed on it, and various google apps (like Docs) run offline, so hey, why not!
After much mussing about, I decided on the Asus Chromebook Flip. It's relatively expensive, almost 400 dollars (cad). I could get an Acer Chromebook for about 250 (cad, before tax). However, several things drew me to the flip:
- Very small size, thanks to the 10in screen. I think it might be the smallest chromebook.
- IPS Screen. Yes please.
- All metal construction.
- Touchscreen!
- Multiple "modes" like the lenovo yoga laptops.
- Looks like a macbook:
XD
So, what do I think about it after a week of use?
Battery life is superb. I've only charged the battery once this week. I've mainly been doing some writing with it using Google Docs, and web browsing in bed and testing various apps and figuring out how to play media on it.
Now the hardware is pretty good; screen's pretty damned good, keyboard is solid. There's a webcam, hdmi out, two usb ports and a headphone jack. I only wish the keyboard is lit - in the dark, it's quite difficult to type.
Chrome is not my browser of choice, but it works and it works very well. I'd daresay it renders webpages faster on the chromebook than firefox on my mbp!!! Google Docs works as it does on osx, and the offline version works fine.
One thing I noted though, is if I created a new document whilst offline, I can't actually find it inside the Docs/Drive app. Only after getting online, can I find it. A bit annoying, but what can you do.
Vimeo, youtube, facebook, gmail, all run as expected. And one really nice thing is that it requests for the full desktop versions of website, not icky mobile versions. This is particularly bad on my ipad mini, it chugs really bad on some websites, and less to be said about my Samsung tablet the better. The chromebook does feel laggy sometimes, but it's usually on sites with an annoying amount of advertisements and videos. And it's usually just a minor stutter when scrolling, it gets up to speed rapidly (Google Docs does this as well when I'm writing, it lags/stutters for a few seconds when it first loads up, then runs smoothly)
The built-in media player doesn't play the videos I've collected very well. Thankfully there is a VLC app for chrome. While it works very well in general, some formats cannot be decoded, and the interface took me awhile to understand. It is also rather crashy, at times, I have to pull up the Task Manager and kill the gpu task before I can start it up again.
I'm probably going to get a 64gb card to fill up with stuff to watch before I head off. I've never bothered attempting to copy the files to the chromebook's ssd as speeds are fine off a sd card, and surprisingly, it reads off my hfs backup drives (osx file system) just fine.
Speakers on the flip aren't very good. Mine is quite soft, around 50%. But going over 70, 75% introduces lots of audio artifacts. Oh well. I still haven't tried the audio jack, should be fine.
The screen is sufficiently bright, with good viewing angles. It _is_ rather small, so increasing the text magnification to 125% seems like the way to go. The resolution is also relatively low, on paper. In practice, I can't say I want or need a higher resolution screen. A lower resolution screen, would actually help battery life in my opinion - less stress on the GPU, and less pixels hopefully means less power draw. I mean, my Z3 averages 4, even 5 days before recharging. The Samsung S6 with its super amazing screen barely makes it to 2. I'm going to get off my "I hated my Galaxy S6 experience" soapbox now.
The touchscreen works quite well, but honestly, I haven't used that mode much apart from quick tests. The keyboard is well sized, only a few % smaller than the keyboard on my 15in mbp. As mentioned before, I wish it was backlit.
Ok, I'm rambling, and I need to sleep shortly as I've been working over 60hrs a week since the new year.
In summary, my chromebook experience as been very positive so far:
- Highly afforable
- IPS Screen
- Lightweight
It's a great fit for my needs; checking email, web browsing, youtube, offline writing with docs. Affordable, will hurt, but not as much as say a surface or mbp if it gets stolen/damaged. Super lightweight, less than a Kg!
I'll complain if I start to hate it. Like a certain famous electronics brand. ;-)
The first option to come to mind, is a macbook air. Which I promptly threw out the window. Stupid expensive, and I already have a mbp at home. Having a 2nd osx machine makes zero sense. I must admit I was searching through ebay for cheap deals, but nah. I would have no use for it on a daily basis.
Next, I was checking out the Microsoft Surfaces. You know, those are really amazing machines. Superb hardware, good screen and nice keyboard. Sure, I can nitpick it doesn't have a nvivida gpu but I've got a mbp for that.
However, after being introduced to linux and osx, there's absolutely no way I'm going back to windows unless I have to, and I already got a VM with Windows 8 that I've not used in almost a year.
Plus, it's about a grand, which is not something I'd like to bring along on an experimental trip - going to be staying in hostels this time. Finally, as with the macbook, I have zero use for it in day-to-day use.
I then came upon some comments about using Chromebooks for travel: They are highly affordable, no setup drama, compact. More reading also brought up the point that linux could be installed on it, and various google apps (like Docs) run offline, so hey, why not!
After much mussing about, I decided on the Asus Chromebook Flip. It's relatively expensive, almost 400 dollars (cad). I could get an Acer Chromebook for about 250 (cad, before tax). However, several things drew me to the flip:
- Very small size, thanks to the 10in screen. I think it might be the smallest chromebook.
- IPS Screen. Yes please.
- All metal construction.
- Touchscreen!
- Multiple "modes" like the lenovo yoga laptops.
- Looks like a macbook:
XD
So, what do I think about it after a week of use?
Battery life is superb. I've only charged the battery once this week. I've mainly been doing some writing with it using Google Docs, and web browsing in bed and testing various apps and figuring out how to play media on it.
Now the hardware is pretty good; screen's pretty damned good, keyboard is solid. There's a webcam, hdmi out, two usb ports and a headphone jack. I only wish the keyboard is lit - in the dark, it's quite difficult to type.
Chrome is not my browser of choice, but it works and it works very well. I'd daresay it renders webpages faster on the chromebook than firefox on my mbp!!! Google Docs works as it does on osx, and the offline version works fine.
One thing I noted though, is if I created a new document whilst offline, I can't actually find it inside the Docs/Drive app. Only after getting online, can I find it. A bit annoying, but what can you do.
Vimeo, youtube, facebook, gmail, all run as expected. And one really nice thing is that it requests for the full desktop versions of website, not icky mobile versions. This is particularly bad on my ipad mini, it chugs really bad on some websites, and less to be said about my Samsung tablet the better. The chromebook does feel laggy sometimes, but it's usually on sites with an annoying amount of advertisements and videos. And it's usually just a minor stutter when scrolling, it gets up to speed rapidly (Google Docs does this as well when I'm writing, it lags/stutters for a few seconds when it first loads up, then runs smoothly)
The built-in media player doesn't play the videos I've collected very well. Thankfully there is a VLC app for chrome. While it works very well in general, some formats cannot be decoded, and the interface took me awhile to understand. It is also rather crashy, at times, I have to pull up the Task Manager and kill the gpu task before I can start it up again.
I'm probably going to get a 64gb card to fill up with stuff to watch before I head off. I've never bothered attempting to copy the files to the chromebook's ssd as speeds are fine off a sd card, and surprisingly, it reads off my hfs backup drives (osx file system) just fine.
Speakers on the flip aren't very good. Mine is quite soft, around 50%. But going over 70, 75% introduces lots of audio artifacts. Oh well. I still haven't tried the audio jack, should be fine.
The screen is sufficiently bright, with good viewing angles. It _is_ rather small, so increasing the text magnification to 125% seems like the way to go. The resolution is also relatively low, on paper. In practice, I can't say I want or need a higher resolution screen. A lower resolution screen, would actually help battery life in my opinion - less stress on the GPU, and less pixels hopefully means less power draw. I mean, my Z3 averages 4, even 5 days before recharging. The Samsung S6 with its super amazing screen barely makes it to 2. I'm going to get off my "I hated my Galaxy S6 experience" soapbox now.
The touchscreen works quite well, but honestly, I haven't used that mode much apart from quick tests. The keyboard is well sized, only a few % smaller than the keyboard on my 15in mbp. As mentioned before, I wish it was backlit.
Ok, I'm rambling, and I need to sleep shortly as I've been working over 60hrs a week since the new year.
In summary, my chromebook experience as been very positive so far:
- Highly afforable
- IPS Screen
- Lightweight
It's a great fit for my needs; checking email, web browsing, youtube, offline writing with docs. Affordable, will hurt, but not as much as say a surface or mbp if it gets stolen/damaged. Super lightweight, less than a Kg!
I'll complain if I start to hate it. Like a certain famous electronics brand. ;-)
Monday, January 18, 2016
Pluggable Bluetooth Foldable Keyboard
This is the perfect excuse to buy a new toy, a portable keyboard. Loads of keyboards are available, but I wanted something that was both cool and usable. The Pluggable Foldable Keyboard fit not only both requirements, but also within my budget - the Microsoft Universal Portable Keyboard is supposedly the creme ala creme, but it's almost double the price of the pluggable, and perhaps 15% less cool as it only has one fold. It does however, appear to have a much better keyboard layout.
Depending on how things go, I may pick that up if the pluggable dies. But anyhow, here's a short review for the Pluggable keyboard.
The keyboard appeals to the geek in me. Made of 3 sections, 2 of the sections fold over the middle, forming a compact, solid brick to bring along. The pluggable also includes a very well thought out case that folds over to become a stand for your phone or tablet. What's better, is there is a slide out stand, so you can adjust how your device tilts.
Switching on the keyboard simply involves flipping open the keyboard, and tapping a key will connect it to the phone, assuming it's already paired up. The keys themselves are not as big as the keys on a macbook pro (that's the only comparison I can give, really), about 1.4cm vs 1.5cm on the laptop, and the laptop has a wider spacing between keys. Based on my quick calculations between the Q and P keys, the Pluggable is about 85% of the macbook pro's keyboard.
In practice, the Pluggable took a while to get used to. The right shift key is rather small, and shares the space with the up arrow key. Many times when I wanted to type a question mark, I ended up moving the cursor up and adding a slash. I got over it a few hours later.
On the left side, things are rather cramped, and I tend to hit the Capslock key, again, that was less of an issue once I got used to it. Page up/down, home and end work as expected, as well as the Ctrl-home/end key combos.
The main thing that I can't seem to get to work is using the Ctrl-Delete/Backspace to delete a whole word. I use that quick frequently, and I have to go back to holding down the backspace. Rather annoying, if I'd already typed out a long sentence and want to get rid off.
If not, so far it's been great in use. I've seen some reviews saying that the keyboard is easy to tilt when pressing the keys on the left and right edges. And this is rightly so... if you are smashing the key.
Verily, you CAN tilt the keyboard up on its side, but it requires a significant amount of pressure. I've no idea how people are getting it tilted to one side in normal use.
The build quality is also very surprising. The keys themselves are well made, and with a pretty good feel to the response. When folded up, it's made of a strong light metal, and the brushed finish gives it a luscious feel, without being a fingerprint magnet.
The case is also well designed, and everything fits together like eggs in a carton. Given as I've only been using it for several hours over the last 3 days, I can't tell you much more. Very pleased with this purchase though. The good sized keys, wireless connectivity and compactness of the package are a boon for writing on the go.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Z3 Battery Life Oddities
Oddly enough, the battery kept draining even though I only turned on my phone quite rarely.
Today, I just left my wifi connection switched on, so that it'd be hunting for it the whole day. Surprisingly, the battery life dropped only by a few percent over the day. Why the hell is that? One would think not searching for the wifi every few seconds would save lots of battery.
Well I guess I'll leave it on for now :)
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Modstep and NanoStudio
I'm right now deep in overtime mode at work, which is actually not too bad, as I'm working reasonable hours (by my standards), and I get paid OT every hour I work over, which is very nice.
As I'm now logging 10hr days on average, I've decided to not work through lunch as I usually do, and spend some time NOT doing work in the hopes that the hour off work would clear some of the cobwebs upstairs. How well that works, I've no idea.
I've been working on some pieces in Symphony Pro, but not getting any kick to really pull stuff through. The mind again wanders to thoughts of electronic music, and checked out some online reviews of what's good to get.
Just before bed, I discovered Modstep, which had quite a few rave reviews. I should have checked it out further, but just pressed buy. During lunch today, I was going through the manual and app and I found it rather difficult to use. For readers of this post, keep in mind my primary tool is Finale with Logic for sequencing, not step sequencers or DAWs like Ableton/Reason.
I wish there was a tutorial to make up a song, but whatever. I'm sure it'll arrive someday.
I then took a closer look at other music making apps, and one very popular choice is Nanostudio. From the reviews, it ticked all of my boxes: a subtractive synth to play with (called Eden), and many samples to load into the pads. There is also a sequencer that I'm more familiar with that appears very well thought out for use with a tablet.
It seems really fun so far, though I haven't done more than play with the various presets for Eden and fool around with the pad instrument. I've never explored this side of music, can't wait to come up with something!
As I'm now logging 10hr days on average, I've decided to not work through lunch as I usually do, and spend some time NOT doing work in the hopes that the hour off work would clear some of the cobwebs upstairs. How well that works, I've no idea.
I've been working on some pieces in Symphony Pro, but not getting any kick to really pull stuff through. The mind again wanders to thoughts of electronic music, and checked out some online reviews of what's good to get.
Just before bed, I discovered Modstep, which had quite a few rave reviews. I should have checked it out further, but just pressed buy. During lunch today, I was going through the manual and app and I found it rather difficult to use. For readers of this post, keep in mind my primary tool is Finale with Logic for sequencing, not step sequencers or DAWs like Ableton/Reason.
I wish there was a tutorial to make up a song, but whatever. I'm sure it'll arrive someday.
I then took a closer look at other music making apps, and one very popular choice is Nanostudio. From the reviews, it ticked all of my boxes: a subtractive synth to play with (called Eden), and many samples to load into the pads. There is also a sequencer that I'm more familiar with that appears very well thought out for use with a tablet.
It seems really fun so far, though I haven't done more than play with the various presets for Eden and fool around with the pad instrument. I've never explored this side of music, can't wait to come up with something!
Sunday, January 03, 2016
Important new year things.
Previously, I'd never ever passed the 2nd incarnation of the flagship, which used drones as its main weapon of choice. I'd just get cut down incessantly. This time, for some reason I luckily managed to ion cannon the drone control and took it down!
The final stage against the super weapon, I honestly don't remember too much. I do remember killing off all the crew on the flagship, which promptly switched over to pure AI control. From what I read, this is BAD, as all systems on the flagship will automagically regenerate. Somehow or the other, I managed with the skin of our teeth to blow it up! Woooo!
The replayability factor of this roguelike is still very high - I have barely unlocked the various ship classes, and each ship has several variants that I've not bothered to try unlocking. Add in the numerous weapon systems which, again, I've not yet tried. This will be a game that I probably won't be playing on a day to day thing, but will be fun to bring up here and now.
In these few weeks, I must say that the power button is probably the first thing that is starting to annoy me, as it's rather small. The flap for the usb port/recharging is also one thing, but I've bought ha 3rd party magnetic recharging cable and it appears to work quite well - no need to pry open the slot unless I'm downloading photos.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Falcon's Perfect Landing!
Side note: I've always wondered what "lox" was in 2001: A space odyssey. I've always wondered why the heck they had salmon in the emergency rations. Was this a some futuristic British thing? Finally, thanks to this video, it has been answered. It also proves how much of a space nerd I am not!
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Z3 Day 2. I'm lovin' it.
I don't get it. Comparing the Sony Z3 to the Samsung S6, I can't fathom why I'm loving the Z3 so much more! I think this is the 2nd android device I really like, the first of which is the Xperia ray. Never really got into the Nexus 4, and the android tablets I have/had? Blargh. No thanks. IOS ftw there.
To me, Z3 vs S6:
The ergonomics on the Z3 are poorer.
The hardware feels cheaper.
The screen just does not compare at all.
The camera is pretty crap compared to the S6.
The charger that came with the phone evidently doesn't supply enough current to charge the phone (I have to use my Nexus 4's charger lol)
Opening the waterproof flaps to charge the phone is fiddly.
Instructions on how to insert the sim card are practically non-existent.
The torchlight is an epic fail.
But somehow, the UI and feel of the phone is just right. I really like the included widgets, they just align on the home screen just right. THE BACKGROUND SCROLLS! And best of all, I didn't have to waste time "rooting" the phone or going through the app store to find replacements. It just frakkin' works!
So glad the S6 is sold. Hope the new owner likes it :)
To me, Z3 vs S6:
The ergonomics on the Z3 are poorer.
The hardware feels cheaper.
The screen just does not compare at all.
The camera is pretty crap compared to the S6.
The charger that came with the phone evidently doesn't supply enough current to charge the phone (I have to use my Nexus 4's charger lol)
Opening the waterproof flaps to charge the phone is fiddly.
Instructions on how to insert the sim card are practically non-existent.
The torchlight is an epic fail.
But somehow, the UI and feel of the phone is just right. I really like the included widgets, they just align on the home screen just right. THE BACKGROUND SCROLLS! And best of all, I didn't have to waste time "rooting" the phone or going through the app store to find replacements. It just frakkin' works!
So glad the S6 is sold. Hope the new owner likes it :)
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Goodbye S6, Hello Z3
So after a week of using the S6, I decided that I really do not like it, and put it on ebay, and got a Sony Z3 instead. Originally, I wanted to get the Z3 Compact for the size, but the prices on ebay had the Z3 for cheaper, so hey! Buuuuuy. Z5 was out of the run - price wise, and I didn't want something with a processor that's mainly for marketing to compete against newer iphones.
In the meantime, I've been using my alarm clock, aka a used Iphone 5S for my main phone. I was very surprised it actually worked since I've never put a sim card in it. Heck, it somehow even got a lte signal. Samsung, Sony, LG, still haven't got a clue how to include good alarm tones like Apple.
Haven't used IOS since IOS 1 on the very first iphone, and it was not as annoying as I remembered. If not for the weird love/hate relationship I have with Itunes, I would probably use an iphone, but I really, really like plugging in a usb cable and downloading my food photos which I never upload. So there.
Well first up, things about the Z3 that I liked:
- Alarm has adjustable snooze (yesssss!)
- Adjustable size clock widget (much win!!!!)
- Background now scrolls as I scroll through the home screens (YEAAAAH!)
- The "old school", "dated","bloated" Xperia UI that reviewers like to mention, I found very nice to use, not the gelded annoyance that is TouchWiz.
WIN! It does everything I want that the S6 does not!
That said, there are things about it that I think could be better:
- Screen: S6 is the winner by far, it's damned good. The iphone 5s arguably has a better screen than the Z3, but it's not something that's heads and shoulders better, like the S6's screen.
- Z3's Torchlight is a weak, pitiful thing. The S6 and 5S have kickarse torchlights.
- Ergonomics: The S6 my personal winner here. The S6's power button is exactly where my thumb falls, and the volume controls balance well on the other side to be managed by my index and middle fingers. The Iphone 5S's power button is my main nitpick. The 4S's power button is fine where it is, due to the shorter phone. The 5S requires more leverage to push. The Z3 has the power button where my thumb falls, but it's rather small. Also, the volume controls are below the power button, I find my finger movements rather restricted, attempting to change the volume.
I must say, I do miss having a physical switch for the sound/vibration like the Iphone, but with my day job, it's rare I need to quickly put my mobile to silent mode.
Now apps wise, I appeared to have bought a phone for UK's EE Carrier. There are some EE apps, which I haven't yet gone through to disable. Lots of Amazon apps, which I've gone through and disabled (can't be removed.) Several sony apps, but I'm a sony fanboy for now, so I'm just leaving them there for the time being.
Now I have to compare the Kindle app on IOS vs Android. IOS's version of the kindle app definitely just feels better to use. No irritating "please re-download this book to read it" crap. The Kindle app on the Z3 already gets this crappy warning the first time I loaded it up. Grrr.
Oddly enough, there is no notepad or to-do list on the Z3 (why, Sony, why?!). Had to use the app store. Blargh.
Other things is the Z3's screen is a super finger oil magnet. The S6's screen was somewhat better, but the ios screens in my experience can handle the oil so much better.
The biggest thing I will miss from using an Iphone is Siri. I like that I can ask her to (I've configured my Siri to speak with a sexy british accent, btw) turn on my 8am alarm, and she will ask me, which 8am alarm to turn on. Now that's damned useful. I can even get her to turn on *and off* timers.
Google now can do it all (and google now can actually turn on the torchlight, which siri can't for some reason), but it's hit and miss. I had to try several times just to get Google Now to set a 15 minute timer, and I have given up trying to use the voice commands to get it to clear the timer as it just brings up timer suggestions in a google search >.>
Guess you can't have anything.
The camera doesn't seem to be as solid as the S6 or Iphone 5s's, but that's through the live view. Lots of bloom, and not as much manual control as the S6's camera. I've got to test it more, but the S6's camera is just *that good*. Iphone 5s _appears_ great, but as mentioned, I have zero interest in pulling up itunes just to download photos. BLARGH.
Now with the Iphone 5S, I'm able to get almost 4 days of battery life with my usage patterns, though I usually charge it on the 3rd day before bed. It's a nice quick charge too, about 2 hours, on some random usb charger. The S6 charges just as fast with its QuickCharge 2.0, gonna miss that. The Z3 is appearing to take *forever* to charge up, so we'll see. What I'm looking forward to is the "stamina" modes that promise a really long battery life. If it can give me 4-5 days between charges, it'll be great!
In the meantime, I've been using my alarm clock, aka a used Iphone 5S for my main phone. I was very surprised it actually worked since I've never put a sim card in it. Heck, it somehow even got a lte signal. Samsung, Sony, LG, still haven't got a clue how to include good alarm tones like Apple.
Haven't used IOS since IOS 1 on the very first iphone, and it was not as annoying as I remembered. If not for the weird love/hate relationship I have with Itunes, I would probably use an iphone, but I really, really like plugging in a usb cable and downloading my food photos which I never upload. So there.
Well first up, things about the Z3 that I liked:
- Alarm has adjustable snooze (yesssss!)
- Adjustable size clock widget (much win!!!!)
- Background now scrolls as I scroll through the home screens (YEAAAAH!)
- The "old school", "dated","bloated" Xperia UI that reviewers like to mention, I found very nice to use, not the gelded annoyance that is TouchWiz.
WIN! It does everything I want that the S6 does not!
That said, there are things about it that I think could be better:
- Screen: S6 is the winner by far, it's damned good. The iphone 5s arguably has a better screen than the Z3, but it's not something that's heads and shoulders better, like the S6's screen.
- Z3's Torchlight is a weak, pitiful thing. The S6 and 5S have kickarse torchlights.
- Ergonomics: The S6 my personal winner here. The S6's power button is exactly where my thumb falls, and the volume controls balance well on the other side to be managed by my index and middle fingers. The Iphone 5S's power button is my main nitpick. The 4S's power button is fine where it is, due to the shorter phone. The 5S requires more leverage to push. The Z3 has the power button where my thumb falls, but it's rather small. Also, the volume controls are below the power button, I find my finger movements rather restricted, attempting to change the volume.
I must say, I do miss having a physical switch for the sound/vibration like the Iphone, but with my day job, it's rare I need to quickly put my mobile to silent mode.
Now apps wise, I appeared to have bought a phone for UK's EE Carrier. There are some EE apps, which I haven't yet gone through to disable. Lots of Amazon apps, which I've gone through and disabled (can't be removed.) Several sony apps, but I'm a sony fanboy for now, so I'm just leaving them there for the time being.
Now I have to compare the Kindle app on IOS vs Android. IOS's version of the kindle app definitely just feels better to use. No irritating "please re-download this book to read it" crap. The Kindle app on the Z3 already gets this crappy warning the first time I loaded it up. Grrr.
Oddly enough, there is no notepad or to-do list on the Z3 (why, Sony, why?!). Had to use the app store. Blargh.
Other things is the Z3's screen is a super finger oil magnet. The S6's screen was somewhat better, but the ios screens in my experience can handle the oil so much better.
The biggest thing I will miss from using an Iphone is Siri. I like that I can ask her to (I've configured my Siri to speak with a sexy british accent, btw) turn on my 8am alarm, and she will ask me, which 8am alarm to turn on. Now that's damned useful. I can even get her to turn on *and off* timers.
Google now can do it all (and google now can actually turn on the torchlight, which siri can't for some reason), but it's hit and miss. I had to try several times just to get Google Now to set a 15 minute timer, and I have given up trying to use the voice commands to get it to clear the timer as it just brings up timer suggestions in a google search >.>
Guess you can't have anything.
The camera doesn't seem to be as solid as the S6 or Iphone 5s's, but that's through the live view. Lots of bloom, and not as much manual control as the S6's camera. I've got to test it more, but the S6's camera is just *that good*. Iphone 5s _appears_ great, but as mentioned, I have zero interest in pulling up itunes just to download photos. BLARGH.
Now with the Iphone 5S, I'm able to get almost 4 days of battery life with my usage patterns, though I usually charge it on the 3rd day before bed. It's a nice quick charge too, about 2 hours, on some random usb charger. The S6 charges just as fast with its QuickCharge 2.0, gonna miss that. The Z3 is appearing to take *forever* to charge up, so we'll see. What I'm looking forward to is the "stamina" modes that promise a really long battery life. If it can give me 4-5 days between charges, it'll be great!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Got a Galaxy S6... mixed feelings
Somehow or other, I came into a small sum of money, and as luck would have it, my Nexus 4 is having some weird issues like causing the charger to spark (!!!!) when charging, so I thought it was time to get a new phone.
I really wanted to get a Sony Xperia Z5 or the Z5 compact as I've had my best android experience from Sony's interfaces, but not only is it rather expensive, the many reports of the overheating of the Snapdragon chips just do not endear it to me. Nexus 5x was another option, but somehow I was not enamoured to its design. Enter the Galaxy S6. Originally, I was going to get the Sony Xperia M4, but due to events, suddenly had the budget to consider a "flagship" phone, and the S6 was one of them.
I've never really liked the touchwiz interface, and it's quite horrendous on my Galaxy Tab 3. A quick test at the mobile phone kiosk told a different story. The S6's interface is now much more to my taste, and it felt _really_ nice in my hands.
So, having the budget for a top-of-the-line phone (the S6 edge I thought was too flashy, iphone 6 for some reason turns me off. LG G4 - curved screen I was uncertain of its suitability for VR use), I decided to get the S6. Unfortunately, here in Canada it's not quite that simple. Visiting the virgin mobile shop, I was told that I couldn't buy the phone outright (?!) even though it was priced at the stall. I had to get on one of the month-to-month plans in order to buy the phone. Several phone vendors I visited told me the same thing. No monthly contract, no new phone.
?!
I really didn't want a more expensive contract as I rarely use more than a few minutes of talk time a month, so I went online and found a S6 for the same price on amazon, and, it was unlocked. Boom!
I must say it's a very nice device, much lighter than I though, and the power/volume buttons are positioned perfectly. The fingerprint unlocking is great! Doesn't always work, but a slight shift usually gets it right.
Lots of crappy apps were installed, thankfully most could be uninstalled or disabled.
Now while reviews online are falling over how amazing the screen is, I really can't say it's that big a deal for me. It's good, it's sharp and can get bloody bright, but honestly, unless you've got the eyesight of an eagle or something, I really can't say the super high res screen is useful for day to day use. The only real reason I can see the screen being useful is for use with VR applications with the Gear VR or google cardboard.
The 720p screen on my Nexus 4 definitely shows the pixels up quite clearly when used for VR. However for what I use the phone mostly for, like using the Kindle App, I honestly can't say the S6 has a definite advantage over the Nexus 4 - apart from the larger screen size.
Had to use the phone app, and I must say, it's a disappointment as usual. Much prefer the phone app on my iphone4s. I mean sure, I could probably download another phone app, but given that I use my phones mainly as very expensive alarm clocks, I just suck it up.
Speedwise, the S6 is a speed demon. I was testing the Unity 5 PBR workflow, and my test scene on the nexus 4 was averaging just over 30fps. The S6, was clocking in roughly double the fps... but at QHD resolution. Totally mindblown. If I were to render-to-texture the test scene at 720p to match the Nexus 4, it'd hit 200fps, probably.
Now as mentioned above, I use my phones mainly as very expensive alarm clocks. So, the alarm function is rather important. One again, the Iphone 4s takes the cake as my primary alarm, and the S6 will get relegated to my secondary backup.
The S6 has the exact same features I need from the iphone, but the snooze function (oh I snooze much) has a quirk that annoys me - to snooze the alarm, I needed to press a very small, specific area on the screen (?!). In addition, it only snoozes 3 times before it turns off for some reason.
The Iphone4, to snooze, I just tap the screen (which I can do with my eyes closed!), to turn it off, I slide. Easy, and it works. WHY SAMSUNG YOU CUSTOMIZE IT SO!? Even the Nexus 4's snooze was so much better >.> I actually spent some time browsing the android app store for a clock app, but gave up as there were soooo many choices. Time better spent drinking tea.
Other smaller nitpicky reasons why I got an S6: The android phones prior to this, the Xperia Ray and Nexus 4 had a very nice clock that was rather customizable, and doubled as the alarm app. I like those clocks as they are nicely offset just to the right of the screen. Unlike the iphone, which has the damned clock right in the damned middle of the screen, which I think looks horrendous. The S6 unfortunately, I can't seem to adjust the clock the same way :( Once again, visited the app store and OMG, too many clock apps. I'd much rather clean my bathroom than look at those apps.
So yeah, winners here are: Nexus 4 and Xperia ray for clocks that I like. I actually went so far as to install the Google Now Launcher, but sadly, the clock just wasn't the same.
My wallpapers also don't work very well now. On the Xperia Ray and Nexus 4, when I switched between the.... desktops of the phone, the background would scroll to follow. Not on the S6! OMG WHY SAMSUNG?! The Google Now Launcher *does* scroll the background, but not in the same way as my older phones.
For example, my Nexus 4/Xperia Ray has a middle screen which is the home screen, and I had two additional screens on either side of it. The Google Now Launcher appears to have the main screen on the left, and I could only move to desktops on the right.For the wallpapers I enjoy, this means that I have to have the subject on the left, not in the center.
I promptly uninstalled it and went back to Touchwiz, because, I can legitimately complain about touchwiz, if I actually use it.
One thing I'm really looking forward to the S6 is the ultra power saving mode. I'm rather sick of having to carry a battery to charge my Nexus 4 as it's battery's getting quite old, and lately the battery pack can't even charge it up to more than 60% before it runs out of juice so...
Oh yes, the camera app. I think this camera app is my favourite to date. Very minimalistic layout, AE compensation is right up front without needing to go into a menu, and the best part: Double pressing the home button brings up the camera app. The app launches in perhaps a second and a half. Really really love it.
Of course, I have to complain about the camera. I wish they didn't put in a 16 megapixel sensor. When I saw the resolution, it's such a joke - it's even higher-rezzed than my dslr. But we all know who will kick butt when it comes down to quality. I wish Samsung had it around oh... 5 megapixels? For me anyways, if I do use my camera to upload stuff, it's only to facebook and maybe this blog. Which I'd downrez to fit the page.
But all in all, I'm honestly looking forward to using the phone. The bigger screen is nice for reading, and.... hmm.... well I dunno. I have this feeling I really should have bought the Xperia M4 and call it done. I don't subscribe to the mobile lifestyle, and this phone is honestly overkill for my needs. One of the excuses I used to justify this purchase is Gear VR, and I can tell you honestly it's very unlikely I'll buy into it. But we'll see. Oh well XD
I really wanted to get a Sony Xperia Z5 or the Z5 compact as I've had my best android experience from Sony's interfaces, but not only is it rather expensive, the many reports of the overheating of the Snapdragon chips just do not endear it to me. Nexus 5x was another option, but somehow I was not enamoured to its design. Enter the Galaxy S6. Originally, I was going to get the Sony Xperia M4, but due to events, suddenly had the budget to consider a "flagship" phone, and the S6 was one of them.
I've never really liked the touchwiz interface, and it's quite horrendous on my Galaxy Tab 3. A quick test at the mobile phone kiosk told a different story. The S6's interface is now much more to my taste, and it felt _really_ nice in my hands.
So, having the budget for a top-of-the-line phone (the S6 edge I thought was too flashy, iphone 6 for some reason turns me off. LG G4 - curved screen I was uncertain of its suitability for VR use), I decided to get the S6. Unfortunately, here in Canada it's not quite that simple. Visiting the virgin mobile shop, I was told that I couldn't buy the phone outright (?!) even though it was priced at the stall. I had to get on one of the month-to-month plans in order to buy the phone. Several phone vendors I visited told me the same thing. No monthly contract, no new phone.
?!
I really didn't want a more expensive contract as I rarely use more than a few minutes of talk time a month, so I went online and found a S6 for the same price on amazon, and, it was unlocked. Boom!
I must say it's a very nice device, much lighter than I though, and the power/volume buttons are positioned perfectly. The fingerprint unlocking is great! Doesn't always work, but a slight shift usually gets it right.
Lots of crappy apps were installed, thankfully most could be uninstalled or disabled.
Now while reviews online are falling over how amazing the screen is, I really can't say it's that big a deal for me. It's good, it's sharp and can get bloody bright, but honestly, unless you've got the eyesight of an eagle or something, I really can't say the super high res screen is useful for day to day use. The only real reason I can see the screen being useful is for use with VR applications with the Gear VR or google cardboard.
The 720p screen on my Nexus 4 definitely shows the pixels up quite clearly when used for VR. However for what I use the phone mostly for, like using the Kindle App, I honestly can't say the S6 has a definite advantage over the Nexus 4 - apart from the larger screen size.
Had to use the phone app, and I must say, it's a disappointment as usual. Much prefer the phone app on my iphone4s. I mean sure, I could probably download another phone app, but given that I use my phones mainly as very expensive alarm clocks, I just suck it up.
Speedwise, the S6 is a speed demon. I was testing the Unity 5 PBR workflow, and my test scene on the nexus 4 was averaging just over 30fps. The S6, was clocking in roughly double the fps... but at QHD resolution. Totally mindblown. If I were to render-to-texture the test scene at 720p to match the Nexus 4, it'd hit 200fps, probably.
Now as mentioned above, I use my phones mainly as very expensive alarm clocks. So, the alarm function is rather important. One again, the Iphone 4s takes the cake as my primary alarm, and the S6 will get relegated to my secondary backup.
The S6 has the exact same features I need from the iphone, but the snooze function (oh I snooze much) has a quirk that annoys me - to snooze the alarm, I needed to press a very small, specific area on the screen (?!). In addition, it only snoozes 3 times before it turns off for some reason.
The Iphone4, to snooze, I just tap the screen (which I can do with my eyes closed!), to turn it off, I slide. Easy, and it works. WHY SAMSUNG YOU CUSTOMIZE IT SO!? Even the Nexus 4's snooze was so much better >.> I actually spent some time browsing the android app store for a clock app, but gave up as there were soooo many choices. Time better spent drinking tea.
Other smaller nitpicky reasons why I got an S6: The android phones prior to this, the Xperia Ray and Nexus 4 had a very nice clock that was rather customizable, and doubled as the alarm app. I like those clocks as they are nicely offset just to the right of the screen. Unlike the iphone, which has the damned clock right in the damned middle of the screen, which I think looks horrendous. The S6 unfortunately, I can't seem to adjust the clock the same way :( Once again, visited the app store and OMG, too many clock apps. I'd much rather clean my bathroom than look at those apps.
So yeah, winners here are: Nexus 4 and Xperia ray for clocks that I like. I actually went so far as to install the Google Now Launcher, but sadly, the clock just wasn't the same.
My wallpapers also don't work very well now. On the Xperia Ray and Nexus 4, when I switched between the.... desktops of the phone, the background would scroll to follow. Not on the S6! OMG WHY SAMSUNG?! The Google Now Launcher *does* scroll the background, but not in the same way as my older phones.
For example, my Nexus 4/Xperia Ray has a middle screen which is the home screen, and I had two additional screens on either side of it. The Google Now Launcher appears to have the main screen on the left, and I could only move to desktops on the right.For the wallpapers I enjoy, this means that I have to have the subject on the left, not in the center.
I promptly uninstalled it and went back to Touchwiz, because, I can legitimately complain about touchwiz, if I actually use it.
One thing I'm really looking forward to the S6 is the ultra power saving mode. I'm rather sick of having to carry a battery to charge my Nexus 4 as it's battery's getting quite old, and lately the battery pack can't even charge it up to more than 60% before it runs out of juice so...
Oh yes, the camera app. I think this camera app is my favourite to date. Very minimalistic layout, AE compensation is right up front without needing to go into a menu, and the best part: Double pressing the home button brings up the camera app. The app launches in perhaps a second and a half. Really really love it.
Of course, I have to complain about the camera. I wish they didn't put in a 16 megapixel sensor. When I saw the resolution, it's such a joke - it's even higher-rezzed than my dslr. But we all know who will kick butt when it comes down to quality. I wish Samsung had it around oh... 5 megapixels? For me anyways, if I do use my camera to upload stuff, it's only to facebook and maybe this blog. Which I'd downrez to fit the page.
But all in all, I'm honestly looking forward to using the phone. The bigger screen is nice for reading, and.... hmm.... well I dunno. I have this feeling I really should have bought the Xperia M4 and call it done. I don't subscribe to the mobile lifestyle, and this phone is honestly overkill for my needs. One of the excuses I used to justify this purchase is Gear VR, and I can tell you honestly it's very unlikely I'll buy into it. But we'll see. Oh well XD
Thursday, November 12, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 08
Right now, with the weight it's up to about 380g, frankly quite surprised it's able to glide as far as it did (15 meters? 20? ).
Actually, when I first did the test, I was just throwing it, and it just kind of tilted to one side and nosed into the ground. Only when I ran a few steps before throwing, did it do a nice glide.
Next I'm going to have to see what the current CG is, the begin installing the electronics. From what I gather, the battery will definitely be moving up close to the nose. Hopefully I can get the cg right purely from moving the battery.
Monday, November 09, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 07
Thursday, November 05, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 06
From what I see, this design is really really weak. The section housing the motor is actually not bad, takes torsional forces well as there is not only the motor plate holding it up, but another piece connecting the parallel sides to give it rigidity.
Not so with the front two pieces. Individually, I think they will stand up to the rigors of compression and tension in flight. However, torsionally, there is nothing to resist such forces. There will be a layer of wood used to connect the sections, but again these are not that strong against torsional forces.
What I do have, are rectangular pieces that fit in during the gluing process to make sure everything is square. I intend to drill out the center of these pieces to allow wires and connectors to go through, then glue them into place inside the frame to provide some torsional resistance.
This has been a good learning experience so far. Will defo have to keep this in mind for future designs! The fuselage in the photo above is also resting on the left/right sections of the main wing.
Monday, November 02, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 05
The photo above is the properly sized laser cut out, versus the 88.8% scaled version. It's actually a rather big difference in real life, I'm now wondering if it's really able to fly! Weight of the chassis alone is 185g, and that's without the square dowels to provide extra torsional support.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 04
Edit:
I spoke to hastly. The holes were too small, because the entire object was printed at about 88.8% of full scale! Darn it. I was wondering why the battery fit so snugly when I had planned for lots of space. Only then did I measure it, and realized that there was a size discrepancy.
If so, then the weight for the full fuselage will far surpass my original design estimates, and if I continue down this path, will have an airframe with much higher wing loading.
I need to think how to proceed. Very likely I will just proceed, as I do hope to learn more about creating a canard.
The original idea behind the wood frame, is to have a strong underlying structure, as the foam weakens significantly with holes cut into it.
Let us ponder.
Edit 2:
Didn't want to make a new post. I stuck the whole thing together with Titebond III .As I didn't have any clamps, I just relied on the thick rubber bands used to hold down the wing to hold the pieces together.
Titebond is a pleasure to work with, while the working time _could_ be longer, it was good enough for the few pieces I had to cludge together. In addition, it clean up with water! Some people have mentioned that it doesn't sand as well as Titebond III, but I don't think I will need to sand much as it just wipes away with a damp paper towel. And it washes off in the toilet, easy!
The strength of the glue is extremely impressive. I did some test with some waste plywood pieces and the glue of the veneers gave way before the glue bond. That's extremely impressive. The assembled fuselage otoh feels extremely rigid, and that's before I even put in my extra bracing.
I think I will just go ahead with the build. My motor is theoretically able to give about 600g of thrust with an APC 8x4E prop, and if the aircraft comes in about 800g, the thrust to weight ration _should_ be fine.
In the unlikely event that I would need more thrust, swapping to a 9x3.8SF will give over 800g of thrust, at the expense of flight time. In my limited experience so far, all my designs have take off at perhaps 60-70% on the throttle, and I can usually fly around half throttle, so it's very likely I will have enough thrust on just the 8x4E.
Quite excited to see how this build goes, but I am also very tired as I could not sleep well last night, kept waking up ever so often. Argh.
Friday, October 30, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 03
After some thought, I decided to just do the whole fuselage. Alot of the material will be removed anyways, and the estimated weight is about 130g? I've added lots of structure at the points between the 3 "pods" that should be rather strong.
The DTF will then be more of a protective surface and less a structural thing. Which is good, as I really have my doubts of the longevity of the fuselage once holes are cut for equipment.
Securing the battery down is another story that I'll think about later :)
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Google Cardboard & Unity
Monday, October 26, 2015
DIY Canard Airframe 02
In other news, I have also been experimenting at making a strong fuselage out of DTF (Dollar Tree Foam/Readiboard). While Experimental Airlines has a great way of making a strong fuselage, I do not have the space nor tools to do what he does, so I've been trying out various ways to get a strong fuselage.
It seems like without cutting a hole in the fuselage (for putting in batteries etc), I could get a very very strong tube by leaving the paper on, and constructing a tube similar to the way Flitetest does their swappable power pods.
However, once a hole is cut, the structure weakens immensely, and you can see that it won't take torsional stress very well. For a canard planform that relies on a strong section connecting the front and back, I thought this would be a major weakpoint, something I had to figure out.
Experimental airlines deals with it using additional pieces of DTF to strengthen the walls, in additin to some bracing to keep the tube square, and this appears to work well. I tried this, and it didn't seem all that strong, when I realized... perhaps I was using the wrong kind of glue?
Being the need for strength, I pulled out Foam Tac as it's been very strong so far for bonding many many materials, and I really like that it's rather flexible after it's dried. It was this flexibility that I was concerned with, and did a quick test, gluing two pieces of DTF using Foam Tac and Gorilla Glue.
Gorilla Glue was the clear winner in this case, the material broke first before the joint - heck the joint is still there and everything around it is all broken up from my attempts to pull (shear) them apart.
Foam tac unfortunately didn't work as well in this test case; I pulled it apart really easily.
This further reinforces the need to test various adhesives in various contexts. Hot glue, for example, I haven't used much as it's so heavy, but perhaps it may prove to be an even stronger joint.
In addition, with wood-wood adhesive joints, there is still one glue type designed purely for wood that I haven't tested: Titebond III. This is supposed to be *the* ultimate wood-wood adhesive. Have to test this shortly.
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