slomove

Well, that is nuts with and without the troopers. What is the point having such a beautiful road and then parading it in a 30 mph conga line :cuss: I suppose the traffic is just choking it and the police is finishing it off. Gert

Al, it is just a normal CCD bullet cam from RF-concepts that I have for 3 years that is connected to a Sony Camcorder. The servos are the usual R/C stuff but I spent a *few* hours making the whole setup. Actually for some pieces I had to try several things because this is not a "designed" system but was just solder-and-saw-as-you-go. But I used following components (in case somebody wants to make one): - The pan platform only of this pan/tilt system - This servo but dealer-modified for 180 deg rotation. - Glassfiber/epoxy to shape a half shell conforming to the roll-bar curve - A piece of white Sched40 1.5" PVC pipe shaped rectangular with a heat gun and wood block to accept the servo - a control box in the cockpit with: --- PWM control with remote potentiometer --- LANC control like this (only the PCB used). When the LANC turns off the camera it also shunts the potentiometer so that the camera turns backward (analog switch controlled by the LANC's LED lines). - A power box with voltage regulators to provide 5V and 8.2V for servo and camcorder and to connect: --- Servo --- Control box --- 12V supply --- power out to bullet cam, microphone and camcorder --- LANC output to camcorder Works very well but I struggled for a while with the interference caused by alternator noise. Gert

Thanks (and greetings to Nancy). My wife (who was passenger at that time) said something like "wow, that was close" and I kind of agreed :lol: After that we had a short discussion about the rigidity of the windscreen frame and chose to pick another topic :leaving: Gert

You bet.....first time I have seen them actually on the road (although I knew there are some around in the area). That is Little Tujunga Canyon Road near Indian Springs: http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/561190143_Deer.jpg

Trying out my new bullet cam setup I met some wildlife. Yes, this is only a few miles from Los Angeles. Fortunately I slowed down for the first one that I saw or I might have caught the second one that came out of nowhere Gert

That is why I moved my driver side vent (stainless powerboat shark gills) up to the bonnet (and because I did not want to mess with the side skin). To get the air into the footwell I fabricated an insulated aluminum air transfer box that feeds the fresh air through slots in the footwell "roof". Works pretty good. I considered a shut-off for rainy days but never bothered to implement that. This is California, after all http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/748905182_AirVent3.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/2136393856_AirVent2.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/405208325_AirBox2.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1179178275_AirBox1.jpg

Let's see....I guess most have, but for instance the Crater Lake National Park cabins don't even have phone or TV. Hey, but they have a bathroom Gert

I have a suggestion for all of us who are going....Maybe we should start a new thread every couple of days or even every day. I noticed for 7/7/7 that the thread got awfully long and the browser tried to load a zillion pictures every time I wanted look up the latest addition, taking almost a minute even with DSL. Any opinion, Mazda? I suspect the video has to wait anyway until we get home for some serious editing. I there a good place to store? If nothing else I have a Gigabyte on my Earthlink account as public web folder but then I have to publish a public password which is a little inconvenient. Gert

Does this forum software have a feature to suppress all graphics, e.g. banners and pictures? I mean, to make it less - ahem - obvious in the office? I know Blatchat has that. Gert

Yes!!!! :hurray: Problem solved (at least I hope until tested out). I was pointed to a place that rebuilds water pumps. New bearings, seals and shaft, all cleaned and bead-blasted the same day. Just need to install, adjust cam timing and test drive :cheers:

Hi Graeme, I really appreciate your offer!!!! Right now I am still trying to find the spare part with the usual suspects, that means Texas Motor Works and MSI. Another option is a relative in Germany who is auto mechanic and should be able to locate this part quickly. But, if that fails I may contact you the next few days. I am just hesitant to ask you to tear a complete engine apart, just for the friggin' pump. Regards, Gert Burkhardt

Just thought I should share some info about my latest gadget....remote controlled bullet cam. Besides the wish to take video sometimes to the rear (or maybe the side?) a main motivation to do this was to turn the camera out of bug's way when not recording. I guess I have had more video ruined by bug smear than good footage (and you find out only when you get home after a long blat). YouTube Video This is a normal R/C servo with an additional 1/4" bearing for more stability built into a shaped plastic tube as extension of the rollbar: http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/642792575_RollbarVideoRobot1.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1347316637_RollbarVideoRobot2.jpg The removable control box is held by a very strong magnet (scavenged from a hard disk) to the tranny tunnel and contains the LANC for the camcorder and a PWM controller for the camera servo. When the LANC switches off the camcorder, the camera automatically turns backward. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/523811516_VideoControlBox.jpg Finally, a power and junction box on the firewall of the boot contains voltage regulators for the camcorder (8.2V) and the servo (5V) as well as connects everything: http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1536095029_VideoPowerBox.jpg Unfortunately nothing to buy off the shelf (and no, I don't have any schematics or drawings...) but maybe an idea for others to use. Gert

Just found when I was trying to install a new water pump for my Contour based Zetec ZX1 that the Contour pump spins the wrong way (CCW). And the pumps with the proper CW spinning direction apparently came from a European Ford Escort that was never sold in the US. Aargh, now I am f%c*#d.....and I need a new pump very soon (PNW2007 tour coming up) Does anybody have such a special pump, by chance??? Please???? Gert

If you ever get to Durango, CO.....this was our July 4 trip, highly recommended! The scenery is just spectacular. Gert

Never mind.....I think I found the answer (here)....the hole is called a "weep-hole" and intended to drain leaking coolant and avoid destroying the bearing when that happens. It is allowed to have some moisture but if it starts to drip it appears to be a sign for a failing pump seal. Bummer....I know what I am going to do this weekend. Gert

Just in time, that means 3 weeks before our Pacific Northwest Tour my Birkin is decidedly uncooperative. There is coolant dripping from the right hand side of the water pump. It is very little, but now I have to top up coolant once a while, something I never had to do for the last 2 years. Could the folks who are familiar with Zetecs (especially ZX1) please have a look at the picture below. It shows the hole where I believe the coolant comes out. The leakage becomes obvious when jacking up the left side of the car: then the coolant collected in this bore hole runs out to make a puddle under the car. Any idea why it may leak and how I can fix it? Thanks a lot for any help, Gert P.S.: I guess I should be thankful it happens now and not en route to Canada..... http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1983008645_CoolantLeak.jpg

Did they mention somewhere how they are charged? Normal Li-Ion batteries are very finicky about the charging regime. I don't think a bog standard alternator voltage regulator (with all the wiring voltage drop) will do. Gert

That is a good one Gert But they have cheaper ones, too

If the ear plugs did a somewhat reasonable job (and supposed you don't have a top fuel dragster engine in your Seven) the ringing may not be from this drive at all. Tinnitus is quite common (and can be very annoying, ask me....) and can have all reasons from stress or illness to noise to whatever. Gert

Hey Kirk, good to have another Seveneer in the neighborhood soon. Don't forget to check in with www.californiacaterhamclub.com (in spite of the name mostly brand neutral) where the conspiration for most of the local drives and track events takes place. Another place for more race oriented activities is the http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/nasa-sevens-challenge/ mailing list, certainly with a focus on NorCal. I would agree with A/C being borderline silly but in Bakersfield you still have a choice to drive up higher and cooler in short distance (see Stan's thread) Hope to meet you soon! Gert

I am very happy with my 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe (2.7 V6) as a tow vehicle (FWD). Relatively inexpensive, has 10 years power-train warranty (but never been to the shop except tune-up) and is rated to tow 2700 pounds when equipped with ABS (lightweight trailer plus Seven). I found the engine well sufficient to exceed any freeway speed limit when towing even in the mountains. I get about 20-23 mpg out of it on the highway (never measured with trailer, though). Newer models can tow a little more but I heard the bigger V6 uses more gas. Gert

I checked with Fuel Safe but they can not help me rebuilding the cell in the short term. Totally overwhelmed with military equipment orders for Iraq.... But then, I understand that has higher priority than fixing my weekend toy. So, I removed the frayed gaskets, cut new ones from rubberized cork gasket sheet (Autozone) and installed that with additional Permatex non-hardening fuel resistant gasket maker (horrible messy stuff). Then I plugged all openings, pressurized the cell as hard as my lungs allowed and dunked the entire cell into a trash bin full of water. I should have done that before taking everything apart for comparison but too late. The cell was still leaking small air bubbles from 3 of the flange bolts and the nylon washer of the fuel pickup connector. I think this is a weak point in the design of the cell. If the nut for this bulkhead AN6 connector is not tight the washer/gasket may turn and/or leak. If it is too tight the nylon washer squeezes out and it also leaks. For now I just used generous amounts of the gasket maker goop around the leaking bolts, the bulkhead washer and the flange and hope it will hold up. Next water test is tomorrow. I also found out why there was so much fuel left after the pump was sucking air: The pickup nozzle in the surge pot was installed to the higher rear of the tank. I turned it forward 180 degrees, thus lowering the intake about an inch. I hope that should be good for almost another gallon of usable tank capacity. Gert

Mazda, no big deal....the bonnet did not fly, after all??? If it did it may have looked like this:http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/531208141_BonnetCrunch.jpg Well, after being run over by 2 big rigs.... If you download http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/416434076_BonnetGone.jpg and rename it to .wmv you can see how it happened (sorry Mazda, don't know how to post video here). Gert

After 3 years of no problem use my Fuel Safe cell (the MSI Birkin special version) started leaking. Just a dribble out of the small bottom (vent) holes when rocking the car. Today I took it out and removed the cell bulkheads and all the foam but the bladder appears to be intact. I was actually surprised that after I pumped out all fuel with the installed fuel pump I still could pour out about a gallon that the pickup can not get to (actually a pretty smart quart size box in the middle of the tank bottom with ball check valves to 3 sides to prevent fuel surge). That is wasting about 15% tank capacity. Barring the still existing possibility of a bladder leak somewhere I suspect the rubber/cork gasket on one of the bulkheads gave up. Some of them really looked tattered. I will check with Fuel Safe tomorrow what to do (really annoying with the PNW2007 tour coming up in 5 weeks). Main reason to post that long story here: did somebody see something like that happening with a Fuel Safe cell and if so what was it? Thanks, Gert

Mazda, the camera will work fine from 12 Volt. When running on an old battery pack I noticed it will begin to do funny things below maybe 10.5 Volts. Actually I had it running in my car straight from the battery. Al, yes we will be going to Mesa Verde tomorrow. But we had Southwestern/Mexican/Indian food for the last four days and tonight we resorted to Swiss Cheese Fondue (heated up in the Microwave). Pretty good, though.... Today we did the Durango-Silverton Railroad. Gets you back to the times when 18 mph was an exhilarating speed. Total travel times of 7+ hours was a little on the long side but the scenery was obviously spectacular. Gert P.S.: Mazda, If the camera just does not do what you expect please send it back to me.