I have been a hobbyist drone pilot for a few years now. I am not the best pilot in the world but i am proficient enough in handling FPV-Dones to get my share of fun.

One of the main aspects that drew me to the hobby is the tinkering with electronics. And although i usually take the cheapest routes, because it still is a hobby and not my day-job, i get to play around with cool stuff from time to time. If i use an action cam to record in-flight footage it usually is some cheap knock-off model and not something expensive like an original GoPro.

A few days ago a friend asked if i could help him out with building one or more „naked GoPro“ cameras. This means removing all the components of an original GoPro from their case and putting them into some lightweight 3d-printed or injection moulded case. The point of this is to use those stripped GoPros on small drones which and capture great looking footage. Depending on the excat model it is possible to reduce the weight by around 100g. And that makes a huge difference if the overall weight of the drone, including the camera and battery, should be below 250 gr. Lower weight means longer flight times and less stress on the components.

Over the generations of GoPros it became increasingly difficult to remove them from their case. I do own one GoPro 6 and it was fairly easy to strip it. As i researched how to remove the case of a GoPro 9 i found several videos that showed the process involving hack-saws or similar brutal instruments.

I was pretty sure that there had to be an easier way. Maybe not totally reversible but at least not leaving everything in bits and pieces.

Since I last wrote that we were using Unity 3D as the go-to engine for almost all of our projects a few years have passed and a lot has changed. What did not change is the fact that we are still using Unity a lot.

The engine has evolved into a swiss army knife and we use it for a lot more than only for games.

This means we will, at any point in time, have multiple projects parallel with at least a few people working on them simultaneously. As you can imagine, manually keeping everything up to date would be a pain. And that is the point where you start using version control.

The idea is, to have a location, the repository, where the project is stored and which keeps track of every change that is made to the files. This way, people can work on the data and then tell the repository what they have changed. The software then can check if anything the user did conflicts with changes from someone else. At least, that is the most broken down explanation of what version control does. It can do a lot more, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
But in general, this does sound like a good idea, doesn’t it?

Let’s see…

By default the Spektrum DX7S transmitter comes with a built in antenna that can not be changed. If the antenna breaks you can only replace it with the same model. But there is a cheap and easy option to switch it out for an RP-SMA connector so you can easily try out different antennas without modifying the radio irreversibly.

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We are currently working on a project that involves a device that reacts in a certain way to signals it gets via DMX. DMX is a protocol that is widely used for lighting and effects.

We had the option to rent a fully fledged DMX console for testing our hardware prototypes. But this would have been cost-intensive and time consuming. And i knew that the protocol itself is not the most complex thing in the world. I had the idea to build a small device that could send a DMX signal. (mehr …)

I already planned to build a second 3d printer in addition to my Sintron Kossel a while ago. My initial plan was to go full DIY and use 2020 profiles and 3d printed parts. The problem with this approach is that my delta printer is not accurate enough and i wanted my second printer to be more accurate. But building it with non-exact elements would certainly not contribute to achiving this. So i was looking for a cheap kit that i could start with and improve on.

The whole plan was on hold for a long time until i stumbled upon the Anet A8 printer. It is a very cheap Prusa i3 clone and is available on ebay, gearbest and other websites. Usually the price ranges from 150 to 200 Euro including shipping. I found one offering for 130 Euro with free shipping from germany.

The A8 has a big community and there are a lot of guides and videos out there on how to build the kit. This is what you might end up with:

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If we can believe those statistics websites on the internet Windows XP still has a market share between 5 and 10 percent. XP machines are still in use by many companies and the government. Just a year back i converted a specialised piece of software for a local company so they could get rid of the last XP computer they had on site.

But what if it is not a single piece of software that is needed but a whole machine? Often times it is simply not possible or feasible to replace it with completely new tech because of compatibility issues between the software and modern hardware. In those cases it is often worth trying to convert the computer from a physical existing one to a virtual one. (mehr …)

This project has been on my mind for a few years now. Since i had seen it somewhere i always thought about building one myself but unlike the one back then i wanted it to be portable. (mehr …)

Nintendos latest console, the Switch, was launched only a few days ago but there already are people pointing out flaws in the first version.

This includes people complaining about the taste of the cartridges ( that is not a flaw, it is a safety measure ), the skin manufacturer dbrand discovering that the surface finish nintendo has choosen is not compatible with any adhesive for vinyl skins and a few people who managed to scratch their screens within a few days of normal use.

The last one is what concerns me personally. Some users managed to scratch their screens by simply using the dock. Apparently there is a chance that the plastic screen becomes scratched from the hard plastic used on the rails. (mehr …)

Recently i participated in the Global Game Jam 2017 at our University in Koblenz. With a team of five on location and another helpful friend that donated the awesome music we made a small strategy game within this years theme „waves“ in the unity3d engine. The name is „Tower Offense – Final Wave“ and you can find the executable and the full unity3d project here.

The basic idea is that each player has a base that constantly produces small autonomous robots. These robots are under your control as long as the radio waves of your base tower or the radio towers you can build reach it. As soon as it leaves the influence radius of your towers it losses signal strength and eventually you loose control. You have the option to change from building attack robots to build harvesters which bring in ressources you need to build more towers. The aggressive robots try to find the nearest enemy robot or building and engage it. The enemy can, like the player, build more towers and when a hostile robot stays in the range of an opposing tower for too long, the owner of that tower gains control of the robot. The winning condition is easy: Destroy the enemy base!

My part this time was the programming of the „artificial intelligence“. But because i like to work quick and see results fast my solution might (definitely) not be the most elegant or efficient solution.
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Bereits seit Monaten steht dieser Artikel auf meiner To-Do Liste. Denn seit einiger Zeit habe ich konstant wachsende Zugriffszahlen auf diesen Blog und zu den „beliebtesten“ Beiträgen gehören die Artikel zur Antivirenlösung Bitdefender. Neben meinem ersten Beitrag von 2014 und dem Folgebeitrag von 2015 zum Preischaos bei Bitdefender ist der Artikel mit der Anleitung zur Kündigung des Bitdefender Abonnements nicht nur der meistgelesene Text in dieser Kategorie, der letztgenannte ist tatsächlich die meistbesuchte Seite des ganzen Blog.

Aber nicht nur bei den meistbesuchten Seiten ist das Thema Bitdefender ganz vorne, auch bei den Suchbegriffen belegt es den ersten Platz mit „Bitdefender kündigen“. Nachzügler auf dem fünften und sechsten Platz sind „Bitdefender Abo kündigen“ und „Bitdefender Abonnement kündigen“.  Dazu ist der genannte Artikel auch noch der mit den meisten Kommentaren.

Was mich akut dazu bewegt hat jetzt tatsächlich etwas zu schreiben ist die Persistenz und Ignoranz seitens Bitdefender. Denn obwohl ich gekündigt und mehrere E-Mail zur Rückgewinnung ignoriert habe, habe ich heute wieder eine E-Mail mit einem besonderen Angebot nur für mich bekommen. Ich nehme das jetzt zum Anlass um, wie bereits in der Vergangenheit, die Preisgestaltung näher zu betrachten. (mehr …)