Know How... 127 (Transcript)

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Today, lasers make metal better, your questions and our answers, and we are going to take a look at all your quad copter questions. Know How is next.

Father Robert Ballecer: Welcome to know how; it is the Twit show where we built, bend, break, and upgrade. I’m Father Robert Ballecer, the digital Jesuit and I'm sorry Cranky Hippo is out today. Or is he?

Bryan Burnett: I was sitting in my bedroom with my laptop and I was playing TitanFall…

Fr. Robert: Exactly. See he is here. It is the magic of science folks. Seriously Cranky Hippo is off on the East Coast doing some sort of secret mission for God knows who. But he will be back next week. He is here in spirit. Actually we’ve got a fill in for Cranky Hippo, I'd like you to meet cranky Patrick. He will be playing the part of Cranky Hippo today. But before we get to that, we’ve got a little news item here. If you have ever used metal for building anything you know that moisture is the enemy of metal because it makes it rest. Even if you’ve got corrosion resistant metal, something like stainless steel with a very low carbon content, eventually at some point unless it is pure with absolutely no carbon it is going to start to corrode. It is very simple and any time you have an atmospheric condition that has moisture you are going to start to get oxides. It is different for different types of metal. For example, when you get aluminum rust it will form a protective layer around the metal. That is why it is actually pretty good for corrosion. It will not oxidize any further then that protective layer. The same thing goes for copper. The something like steel will continue through that until it rests completely out. In fact, take a look at the red planet Mars. That is why it is red because it is actually rested until everything has turned into some sort of oxide material. Now, in the past we’ve used coatings. We’ve tried to keep the moisture out and either some sort of chemical coating that bonds with the surface of the metal or many of us use some sort of polymer to block it out from the atmosphere. But if the chemical coating wears off with a protective layer gets breached you have the same problem. But a researcher over again Rochester New York has figured out a way to use lasers to make metal hydrophobic. Otherwise it is going to repel water. There is a very cool picture right there of the metal in action. What he has done, is he has used intense, very short pulses of high intensity laser to change the structure of the surface of the metal. The way it works is, you look at the surface of a very smooth metal and are a microscope and you will see that the surface looks a little chaotic. That actually tracks the water and the moisture. But if you use this laser, Paul set a couple million times you can make the surface of the metal structured and as a structured surface it will repel water. Now there are some ridiculously cool applications for this. Imagine a metal that doesn’t rust under any circumstance or imagine a car, a building, a plane that has a property that lets water roll right off of it. Or, I’m thinking what if you created a boat with a hole that was actually hydrophobic? You would actually reduce the friction because the water wouldn't have that surface tension that clings to the side of the boat and slows it down. The same thing goes for a plane. Even though this looks cool and even though I would love to have material sciences that use this, they do admit that there are a couple of problems that at the moment make it impractical. Now to make this one inch square piece of metal hydrophobic, it required about an hour of laser time. That actually used more power than the entire North American grid uses. It takes a lot of power in order to do that! Now that they are working on that they should be able to get the process down so that it uses a fraction of the amount of power and they only have to pulse the laser once every couple of seconds. When they do eventually get that process down, let’s just say it is going to be awesome.

Fr. Robert: Let’s go ahead and jump into the first segment of the show. We are going to be answering a couple of the questions that you had in our Google plus group. We wanted to do this last week but unfortunately we ran out of time. We were only able to cover about two or three different feedback items. So I want to do a few more. I promised that we wouldn't do any quad copter segments. We wouldn’t do any builds until late February. But, a number of questions in the group have centered around quad copters so we are going to answer a few of them. The easiest one to do is about the Syma X5. We’ve then telling our audience that this is a great trainer, something to learn how to fly. In fact Leo Laporte went ahead and bought one for himself and we are going to be teaching him how to fly next week. But we have a question from Jim Malley, I’m going to go ahead and go to Cranky Patrick and could you go ahead and tell us what Jim wants.

Patrick Delahanty: Jim said, “So I got this one quad force video drone and now I would like to get a few extra batteries for it. I remember Father Robert mentioning them one time but I’m unable to find that info. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.”

Fr. Robert: Actually this is a very good question because a lot of people have found out that the quad force or the CMax5 which is essentially the same quad copter, even though it is fun and incredibly easy to fly the battery doesn’t last very long. Most of us get between five and eight minutes with the stock battery. You could get a replacement but the question is where you going to get it from? The first place I would recommend is a website called banggood.com. This is a five pack of 600 mill amp hour batteries plus a charger. I've actually given away one of these. These are incredibly inexpensive, one thing and that is the charger. This little charging cable is not the highest great design I have ever seen. Is a little bit on the janky side in the included USB charger doesn’t always work perfectly. But for $18 for a five pack it ain’t bad. If you have got the cash, I would actually recommend something like this. This is the upgrade package from Amazon. It comes with a much better charger, it can only charge for at a time but these fit a little bit better into the being. Any of these upgrade packets when you go to 600 mA you will probably have to remove the door off of your Syma or your quad force. That is okay because you are actually reducing weight. And it is snug enough to fit in there but you will kind of have to bend the bar on the battery bay for your quad copter in order to make it fit. Go ahead and buy yourself a four or five pack because that means you can always have one charging while you are flying. Which means, you could essentially fly indefinitely if you’ve got one of those ugly USB chargers. Patrick what do we have next?

Patrick: Benjamin wrote and said, “On Episode 122 Padre was talking about using different channels when accessing the same SSID from multiple routers. My experience with multiple routers using the same SSID, when router A and router B are on separate channels, devices connected to router A can’t see devices on router B, so separate channels didn’t work when it came to sharing files. Therefore if you want to share files over the network then use the same channel, if you don’t need to share files then don’t use the same channel.

Fr. Robert: Thank you Patrick. This is actually a very good question. We get this a lot. I get a lot of emails about this. It is based on a misunderstanding of what channels are. There are a lot of people that think when you say a channel, I set my wireless AP for a specific channel then I am creating a different network. That is absolutely not the case. The best way to think of channels is wireless cables. That is all it is. It has nothing to do with the network. In other words, if I says something for channel 1 it is not separate inherently from the network on channel 6 or separate from the network on channel 11. Those are all the same network as long as I set up the routers that are broadcasting those channels correctly. I understand what you are having Benjamin, what it is you have actually natted your nat. Let me explain what that means. This is what a typical multi-router setup looks like. You’ve got the Internet, you got your router which for most of you is also going to be your default gateway, and then you’ve got a couple different APs which for many of you is also going to be a router that you have turned off the routing function. The problem is, that many people try to plug these in without turning off the nat or without turning off the router function. I will explain that in a little bit but first let me explain what a flat network is. When we look at something like this, we have what is called a routable address. That is the address that is facing the Internet. For example if you do a trace route on your network, we are going to do an episode segment specifically on now so we can go step-by-step but I’m just going to give you the general overview right now. It would look like 68.78.2.5 or something like that. It means that it is an address that can be reached in the real world. On the other side of the router there is a non-network addressable address and that would be something like 192.168.0.1. That means nothing to a computer out in the real world but it means everything to a computer on the inside world. What we want, for your home network is a network that is flat. It is all using that same IP address range. So for example, I can make this 192.168.10.X and that X is any value between one and 254. What you want to do when you are planning out your network is you want to come up with an addressing scheme that will stay constant for your network. For example, the way that I typically do it is 192.168.10.1 will be my gateway. That is the piece of equipment that is connected to the outside world. In other words any time a piece of equipment wants to connect to the Internet it has to go through that 192.168.10.1. I then reserve everything between 192.168.10.2 and 192.168.10.104 what I will call system reserve servers. Between that will be the APs, a Slingbox, consoles, or anything that I want to give a static IP address to you so that I will always know where it is. That includes network security cameras, media servers, my flex box. Now the nice thing about doing it that way is you know that any time you are going to have a server or an AP that you want to address, it is going to be in that lower preserve range. Now the way that I reserve that range is that inside of my router I have the option to set the range that my DHCP server in my default gateway will be handing off to any device that wants to connect to my network. I can tell it to only use 192.168.10.101 - 200. It means those 100 addresses between 101 and 200 will be handed out automatically to devices that just want to connect wirelessly or wired. Here is the key. None of these AP one, AP two, AP three which is probably just routers with DHCP and Nat turned off can be doing the same thing. And, you need to be connected to the LAN port not the WAN port of each of these routers. If you are connected to the WAN what you were doing is you are actually segmenting off each of these connections from the main network. You are natting a nat. That is no good. It is exactly what Benjamin did and that is why he could not connect from devices connected from this AP to this AP to this AP. That is why it seemed as if those channels were different networks. Patrick, have you ever run into this problem?

Patrick: Not that I recall. But my network is pretty simple.

Fr. Robert: Normally it is simple unless you start adding more routers and more APs. Again, we are going to do this in So if this kind of has you freaked out no problem. This is a general overview because we get this question all the time. That is enough network babble for now. Patrick, we are going back to quad copters right?

Patrick: Barry has a big problem. His feet keep falling off. He writes, “Thanks to Quad building episodes I’ve got the confidence to move out from toys to a kit. I bought the FPV 250 kit that was featured on the show and my question is, what is a great way to attach the feet to the frame? I’ve tried CA, plastic epoxy, and hot glue. Nothing sticks. According to the frame description it is made from nylon and there is nothing much that will stick to nylon. What have you found that works?”

Fr. Robert: This is actually a great question because we get this all the time. This is the 250 kit that I suggested. These are the Nylon feet. These things are always popping off. I understand. We have suggested hot glue, we suggested crazy glue, some people have used little screws that they countersink into the feet. Nothing seems to work. The best solution that I have found is to use these little zip ties. There are a couple different ways that you can do it that I always use it in collaboration with a little bit of glue. This is actually key. If you use crazy glue, that is CA. This is kicker which will allow the glue to set faster. This is key because the CA tends to just kind of stay liquid around the feet and you don’t get a really good bond. You basically just create a layer of crud. If you use a little bit of character, it will set the glue that much faster. But even then, what people find out is that a hard-hit will snap the connection between the glue and the surface of the feet and then the next time you take off the vibration makes it drop-off. The worst-case scenario is that you are up in the air 100 feet and the foot drops off and it’s gone. And you have no idea where it can be, especially if you are flying over something a lot. If you use the zip ties, and I typically get something like this. This is a jar of zip ties from Michael’s. It is just a hobby store and I bought them for like five dollars for this entire thing. I can get a bunch of different colors. But the key is that a smaller type of zip tie. That keeps the weight down, because I don’t want to use a solution that is going to dramatically increase the amount of weight that they have to put on my quad. This is a standard straight up loop through. I am using two different ties and I am going to essentially go underneath the amount down through this part of the leg and back up the other side. This is incredibly strong. I can do really hard hits and it will keep the foot in. There is another way to do it and that is the double loop. This is using just two wire ties. But it takes both sides and goes down through the foot and back up. Some people prefer this method because they think it gives a bit more strength. But I am not sure about that. It also comes down to looks. How do you want your foot to look? I typically do a little bit of each. Other people have tried fishing line and that works just fine. Some people have used that tape and I would very much suggest you not do that because that tape will leave an adhesive mark that is very difficult to get out. And after a lot of vibration that tape will just fall apart. So go ahead and try that. Another person in the chat room says where do I buy extra feet if I do lose the feet? Unfortunately you don’t. The nice thing is that these frames are very inexpensive, you could pick one up for about eight dollars. For eight dollars you get a frame plus four of the feet. What I would sit just is to go ahead and buy one or two frames and not only will they give you the extra fee but it will also give you the frame. Something that cranky hippo has done is that he has actually installed posts at the four corners of the frame. So he's gotten rid of the plastic feet and he has little aluminum tubes that stick out and become his feet. So be a imaginative, you don’t have to use the nylon feet but if you do this is a really good way for you to make sure that they don’t pop off.

Fr. Robert: Now, Patrick I am going to go ahead and ask you if you could grab me the iFixit tools off my desk and bring them back here. Because, it is time for us to go ahead and take a pause to think the first sponsor of this episode of Know-How. You know them. IFixit is the place to go whenever you need something for makers, for DIYers. They are the one-stop shop, that fantastic toolkit that gives you pretty much everything you need to modify, to work with, and to change the gear that you already have. They are also not just about tools, they are not just about that IFixit kit. They've also got repair guides, DIY guides, and pretty much the step-by-step instructions to open up the electronics that you want to open up. This is the iFixit tool roll. You know it, you'll love it. You’ve seen it over and over on the Twit TV network and we swear by it. Most of the projects that we do, especially the ones that we have been doing on quad copters are using some iFixit tools. Either the magnetic project mat pad or definitely this tool roll which includes all of the bits that we need, all the little drivers, all the little specialty bits that you won’t find anywhere else. The tweezers, the spongers, the things that get our electronics opened up correctly. But, that is not what I fix it is all about. They’ve also got specific pieces to repair the devices that you know and love. here are a couple of their new repair kits. This one is for an iPhone, if you want to replace the battery they have now got a specific kit that will give you all the tools you need just for that repair. They have realized that some people don’t want to buy the entire toolkit they want to buy a specialty kit. Their specialty toolkits are just like this. They will give you the drivers that you need to be able to open the case, they will give you the sponger that will open up the case without having to destroy the finish, and they will give you little things like suction cups. Now you could go out and buy each of these bits and pieces individually and then sometimes you are going to make a mistake and you will have to rebut the tool. Or, you could buy from iFixit. IFixit will not just give you the tools and the replacement parts, but they will give you step-by-step instructions in order to do it right. Now, these kits come with all the tools that you need to fix it right away which would include the pentalope drivers for proprietary screws, those spongers, the replacement adhesives. And replacement parts. This is not the stuff that you find on eBay that maybe will kind of work, but maybe will make your case bolts out. Or maybe kind of works but doesn’t quite hold the charge. iFixit stands behind the replacement parts and that is really what makes them different. IFixit offers the best tools and repair parts and they have the best step-by-step guides to show you exactly how to fix the device that you are working on. In fact they have comprehensive repair guides for every single iPhone, iPad, Mac computer plus a growing list of android devices. And these repair guides are free. No purchase is necessary. IFixit makes DIY fun, easy, and affordable. Here is what we want you to do. We know that you are geeks. We know that you are a DIY freaks. We know that you are makers. So head on over to iFixit.com/twit for all the tools, parts, and kits that you need to fix all your broken stuff. Enter the code know-how at checkout and you will save $10 off any purchase of $50 or more. IFixit.com/twit and use the offer code know-how at checkout. We thank IFixit for their support of Know how. Isn’t that right, Bryan, don’t you love IFixit? Alex, you have failed me.

Bryan: No, it’s me.

Fr. Robert: After that little bit from cranky hippo, I’m doing that on purpose because you know. We did want to take another stop by CES 2015. This time to take a look at some of the 3-D printers from XYZ printing. So without further ado, Alex press that magic button.

Fr. Robert: We have all seen 3-D printing but one of the missing elements has been making a 3-D printer that works again and again and again. It is a secret that the folks here at XYZ printing have figured out. This printer right here, the DaVinci 1.0 is the hottest selling 3-D printer on the planet. You can currently buy this at Amazon, unlike a lot of kits where you have to find some esoteric shop. They went from the DaVinci 1.02 the DaVinci 2.0 which is a dual printer. It has two different heads. To this one, which is Internet connected. So for those people who don’t really want to have to design things, you can go through the Internet to find a design you want to print. Now if that is all that they had, XYZ would still be tops in my book, especially at that price point and at this quality. But they are increasing the state of the 3-D printing arts by using this. This is the DaVinci 1.0 AIO, the all in one. This is a 3-D scanner. That means that for those people who really don’t want to have to design their own objects, you can put something into the scanning bed, it will take all the measurements and burn it into a standard format and then you can 3-D print it. Now here is the best part. You could use this 3-D scanner to take an object that you want to improve, scan it, modify it. Let’s say you wanted to add a handle or a mounting post and then print it up on a 3-D printer. That is real innovation because that means I can take the object from my daily life and make them that much better. Now, they are not just going to sit back on their laurels with a great 3-D printer and a great 3-D scanner. They have decided that they need something that everyone can afford. That everyone can use. They want the leverage, the experience they had in being one of the biggest electronics manufacturing firms on the planet and give you a product that is durable, easy to use, and cheap enough for you to buy. And that is what this is. This is the DaVinci Junior. This is a $349 3-D printer. It is not just that it is inexpensive. It is that it is durable. It comes in its own case so it is going to keep everything nice and clean. And the head is removable. If you every jam, or you have a feed problem you can actually remove the head from the assembly without having to disassemble the entire printer. That is entirely different than some of the 3-D printers that we played with in the past. It also comes with a one-year warranty. If you try to buy a one year warranty on some of the other 3-D printer boxes it would actually cost more than the DaVinci itself. This is not just a $349 printer. It is a statement from XYZ saying, everybody come. Start with the DaVinci Junior, start with the $349 printer and see if your hand is good at designing 3-D objects. Then add a laser scanner. And if you are still progressing, why not go up to one of the big boys? If you want to start in 3-D art, you've got to give it a try at XYZ.

Fr. Robert: We are back at the XYZ booth to show you another piece of technology. Now this is the Noble 1.0. It is a $1499 printer. You are probably saying wait a minute. They have that DaVinci for $349 and they have larger printers for $600, why would I want to pay $1500 for this? Well in a word, perfection. This is the granular kind of quality that you are going to get with this. The reason why it does that is because it is a stereo lithography machine. In other words it doesn’t use a printhead. It is using a series of layers and this resin. It is a photosensitive resin to create the image. It slowly lifts the head out of the resin and adds layers and layers and layers to the item. The finished product is this. You can get extremely small particles. You can get superfine detail. And it just means that you are going to get a part that is far more tolerant of really close precision movement. Now this is a different type of 3-D printing. This is not squirting plastic onto a platform or two ahead. This is actually building the article from the ground up with laser light. Now if you are into more precise 3-D printing, XYZ is making it cheap with the Noble.

Fr. Robert: 3-D printing isn’t all about utility. We know that. You’ve got to have the desire to create, the desire to build. And if you are a parent you probably want your kids to have that desire. XYZ is making it easier with this new series of robots. Imagine this. They sell you a kit that includes the servo, the controllers and the wiring, the chips that will allow you to create a robot. But then they give you the files to 3-D print the frame, the structure and everything that turns the robot into a robot. This is a fantastic possibility for you to give your kids a love for learning. At $300 per pop it means they are going to learn everything from micro controllers, to servos, to how structures move and work, to 3-D printing. And in the end they get a finished package that is their customized master of disaster.

Fr. Robert: And you thought 3-D printing was only about plastic. Shame on you. Here at XYZ they've also got the 3-D food printer. You heard me right. Food printer. Now take this same technology that you would use in a 3-D printer with the head but instead of squirting ABS plastic, it is squirting edibles. They have cartridges for dough, they’ve got cartridges for chocolate and you can have the most intricate patterns being piled up one on top of the other to create cookies beyond compare. To create sweets that are sweet. And just to geek out. The thing that I really like about something like this is that it is taking 3-D printing into a space where we didn’t think it was going to go. And isn’t that what we want at CES? We want to be shown something that we haven’t seen before. And if you are going to take a 3-D printer technology that has grown over the last three or four years and give me something that I can eat, then I am all for it. Here at XYZ Yum Yum Yum.

Fr. Robert: Over the years I have come to realize that I do tech pretty well. Growing things? Not so much. To say that I have a black thumb would be an understatement. I kill everything that gross. Of course maybe that won’t be the case now that you've got XYZ and their green cube. This device is a self-contained hydroponics farm. The only thing you have to do is add water and power. It will give your plant the right light, the right humidity, the right temperature and make sure that it stays watered so that you get a customized growing profile. Now I know that this is a niche product. This is going to be something that people are going to say why do I need a hydroponics farm in my house? Better for $399 why wouldn’t you? Go ahead and give it a try. See what you can grow. What kind of herbs. What kind of vegetables. And maybe you can find a difference in taste. I know some people swear by organic and this is Uber organic. This is organic grown in your living room. I wonder what else I can grow.

Fr. Robert: Oh, so subtle. So subtle indeed. The folks over at XYZ printing are going to be sending us a few care packages from CES. We actually do want to use their da Vinci Junior. The idea was to give you something that is affordable, something that can replicate the same thing over and over again. We wanted to do the 3-D printing on know-how way back but we just couldn’t decide on a 3-D printer. They were too expensive and the ones that were affordable just didn’t work right enough times. I think we finally have a price point that most of you can afford and software that most of you can run. So this should be an exciting time for no help. Also I want XYZ to send me one of those green growing cubes. Because, why not? Now when we come back we are going to be jumping straight back into your feedback. We’ve got a lot more questions that we want to have answered. But before we do that, one of the things I get asked all the time is how do I get into enterprise IT? It is actually the way that I thought into the twit TV network. If you remember way back, this is more than two years ago. Leo Laporte asked me to come on this network because I did enterprise IT. He wanted an enterprise IT show. It is kind of difficult to get into the game. I understand that. The language is kind of daunting. And you have to be exposed to millions and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. And there is not really an apprenticeship that you can jump into unless you know someone in IT. So for many people who want to try out enterprise IT, it is just not really an option. Unless of course you check out ITProTV. Now what is ITProTV. Think of it as Twit for people who want to get into enterprise networking. And enterprise class troubleshooting. It is a one stop shop for you to find topics on everything from desktop security to how to set up servers to what you need in order to pass the certifications that you want to put on your profiles so that prospective employers know what you can and cannot do. Now ITProTV offers you hundreds of hours of course material. 30 hours being added each and every week. Their library includes video courses on Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, APlus, CCNA Security PLUS, and MCSACISSP Power Shell and Linux Plus. They cover those topics with aplomb. In other words they had experts, people who have actually done this in the field. These are not just textbook learners. These are people that know what does and does not work in the field. The shows are streamed to live and are available on demand worldwide to your Roku, your computer and your mobile device. And you could interact with host during the show on topic specific web-based Q&A’s. If this sounds familiar, if this sounds a little bit like Twit, that is because they are fans of Twit TV. The folks over at ITProTV use the same tricastor, the same cameras, the same teaching methodologies as we do. Because they love what Leo Laporte has created. So if you know Twit, if you learn from Twit, you will be able to learn from ITProTV. I know there are going to be some of you out there saying but I've already started a certification or maybe I’m following a book. That is fine. Even if you are already studying with the book or enrolled in the certification class, this is a fantastic way to supplement all the things that you are already learning. Plus, you will be able to progress at your own pace. They include practice exams so that you can see where you are. And if you are ready to take the certification exam and my personal favorite is the virtual sandbox that you get through your subscription. It gives you hands-on practice. You get to take a look at the enterprise. For those millions of dollars’ worth of equipment that you just can’t buy on your own. You get this all for one low monthly price which includes daily update and new features. It is comparable to the cost of a study guide and much cheaper than going to an IT boot camp. Here is what we want you to do. If you are even a tiny bit curious that the world of IT might be for you, check out ITPro.TV/KnowHow to upgrade your brain With the most popular IT certification recognized by employers. You are going to get a free seven day trial when you sign-up using our offer code which will allow you to check out their courses through lifestream and more. Subscriptions are normally $57 a month or $570 for the entire year that we have a special offer because they are fans of twit. If you sign up now and use the code know-how 30, you will receive 30% off your subscription for the lifetime of your account. That is less than $40 a month or $399 for the entire year. Once you reach your 13th month they will reproduce your subscription rate even further. Bringing your costs down to 2495 per month or $249 for the entire year. That is ITPro.TV/KnowHow. And use the code KnowHow 30 to try it free for 7 days and save 30%. And we thank ITProTV for their support of Know How.

Fr. Robert: Let’s get back into it. We’ve got a little bit more time and let’s go ahead and answer some more of your questions. Cranky Patrick what is next?

Patrick: We have got a message from Bob who asks, “So I have some server motherboards and other computer components that need to be properly stored because they are backup parts for servers at my parents company that I work at and I don’t want to just throw them in a drawer with only an antistatic bag to protect them. Any suggestions?”

Fr. Robert: First of all Bob, kudos to you. This is actually a problem that a lot of people have expressed. This exact same question has been asked three times in the Google plus group in the last six weeks. I probably get one email every week saying something along the same lines. Which is, I bought three of x part because will I need to be able to use this for the next five years and I’m not going to be able to buy a replacement part in the next 18 months. So kudos to you for thinking ahead when you’ve got a dedicated platform. Something that you are not really worried about performance but longevity it always helps to buy some spare parts when you first start out. Now, I am going to tell you something that goes a bit beyond the scope of your question. But if you are going to do this, for example when I buy server motherboards you have to test all of the server motherboards before you put them in the storage. There is nothing quite like getting a backed up and then finding out three years from now when the warranty is dead that the backup actually came dead on arrival. So test it before you store it. Now let’s go ahead and talk about storage. In your post you talked about using Ziploc bags, I use Ziploc bags for non-static sensitive components. But if it is at all static sensitive, that means that it has a chip in it don’t use a Ziploc bag. They are not great static collectors but they can’t conduct static electricity and that is a bad thing. In fact, you are much better off using something like this. This is a standard antistatic bag. Just go online, you can find so much of this. It will have nice mylar coating which essentially keeps all the static electricity on the outside of the bat. It is not going to conduct through. Plus get a few sheets of this nice soft foam. Whatever component you are going to put, either a motherboard or video card or network card go ahead and stick it on the surface first so that it is not going to have those pointy edges poking through the bad. And then put it into your antistatic bag. Once it is in there, seal it and you’ve got your first layer of protection. That layer of protection is not protecting it from impact, it is just going to keep it from getting fried by a static discharge. Now, this is not enough. Do not take this and drop it into a drawer because you are going to forget what it is and if you are planning to have this for multiple years you are probably going to start piling stuff on top of it and that is just going to break it. Which means, you need something like this. This is a sample container. I think we got these for like $10 for four of them. They are not that expensive. But the nice thing about it is you can put several sets of components inside of them. For example I’ve got one downstairs that actually stacks up five motherboards. All those motherboards I have labeled exactly what they are. Once you have them all stacked up you can put the cover on it, seal it and now you can put it on a bakers rack along with a label here saying motherboards. This is going to keep it completely safe. It doesn’t matter what hits it unless it actually cracks through the plastic you are going to have a nice impact proof module for the future. One of the things that I actually do is I will waste space inside the box and I will say this is for server five and it will have the two motherboards, the four network cards and maybe some replacement memory. That is just my way of organizing it. There is one last bit that you may want to consider. This is really good for you equipment nerds who have a lot of equipment that you purchase. Most of those boxes come with this. This is a pack of desiccant. This is the stuff that says silicone gel do not eat. All this is, is a bead that pulls moisture out of the air. Each of these beads can pull 40% of their own way of moisture out of the air. Unfortunately, though I collect these all the time they kind of die. But you can recharge them. All you have to do is take these, save these and put it on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and put it into an oven at 275°. Put it there for 60 minutes for every 30 ounces of the silicone gel. What that will do is it will take some moisture back out of those little beads so that when you put it into your equipment box it is fresh and brand-new. So if you have a lot of these, go ahead and save them up because they are always useful. Patrick what else do we have?

Patrick: Lee says, “After I get comfortable with the Syma I’d like to use a quad copter for image acquisition. Unless I have missed it, you haven’t talked much about the best built including the camera. If you have talked about it can you point me to the appropriate episode?”

Fr. Robert: Very good question. We haven’t talked about this because it is actually our more advanced builds. Now remember, we told our audience that we were going to hold off on more quad copter builds until our late February episodes. We are going to stick to that promise. But I can ask her your question. When we talk about cameras there are really two cameras that people think of when they are thinking of quad copters. The first is the ever popular go Pro these things are ubiquitous, they have great video quality and there are accessories galore for them. A lot of people, especially if you are going to fly something in the 250 class, will fly case lists. Which is nice because that means you don’t have the weight of the case but on the other side it is very easy to damage the camera if you crash. The worst possible thing that could happen is that you scratch the lands. If you scratch the lens on a go pro then you are basically out of the game. I am sticking to the Hero 3 series because that is less expensive. You can get a silver for about $200, a black for somewhere in the range of $400, they now have the Go Pro four is but those are ridiculously expensive. So unless you are planning on shooting really high quality 4K video, stick to the three series. The other option is this. We are going to talk about this more in depth when we get to actually creating a video bound quad copter. But this is the Mobius. This is the wide angle version. This camera cost about $80. So it is at least 40% the cost of even the lowest range go Pro three. It is not quite as good quality, in fact you are going to have to do a lot of color correction and I will explain this when we get to the segment on doing video on a quad copter. This tends to blueshift everything. So you have to color correct. You have to add the red and the green back into the video for it to look right. But, at $80 you could crash this a couple of times without worrying about it. It is also lighter than it go Pro which means you are going to get a little better performance. Now those are the cameras. Let’s go ahead and talk about the craft. This one right here, this big Mamma JAMA is a 450 class. You have seen this before it is called a dead cat frame. It looks a little strange. That is because the arms are kind of splayed out and that is why they called it a dead cat or annex alien frame. The nice thing about this, is that the camera will be out of the range of the propellers. On a lot of the other quad copter builds the products are so close to the center that there is really no good way for you to get out of the range. They will always be in your frame. The other thing that is nice about this, this particular frame has what is called a clean and dirty plate. This little thing is actually mounted on rubber grommets so as the quad copter shakes it is not going to translate all that vibration over to the camera. That is a really good way to get steady video. You still get a little bit of jumble affect but not nearly as much. You can also get a dedicated gamble that will mount underneath the surface of this. I have actually use this for my shots in Hawaii. It is absolutely gorgeous. Now, the 450 is not the only way to get good video. You can actually do it with the 250 class and something like this. This is the extended frame on the 250. If this goes on top this gives you a long frame for you to mount your FPV and your video gear on a 250, get decent photos but not nearly as steady as a fourth 50, of far higher performance. So there we go.

Fr. Robert: I do want to do a few things before we have to go. And we do have to go. But the first one is a question I get a lot about the Symas. And again I know that a lot of you bought these on a recommendation so thank you very much. Here is a question that many of you have. This one is broken so it is not going to fly but, a lot of you are saying I got a Syma, it flew a couple of times but now it tends to flip over and it won’t fly straight. Or it flies a little bit and then it wobbles out of control. There is a very easy way to fix it before you try and return it. What you have to do, is you have to reset the flight controller to know what level it is. Here is the procedure. What we want to do first is we are going to turn on our controller. Now we turn on the quad copter and as you see it is going to do the flash flash flash. We are going to go slow, sync it up and now take both sticks and go down and to the right. It is going to fast flash. That that flash means that whatever level you have got that quad copter on it is going to set that as the level for the flight controller. Now again this one won’t work because this has one dead motor. But my quad copter now knows what his level. So if you have an X5 and it is flying a little funny, go ahead and set all the trims back to the center and go ahead and read level your quad. And hopefully if you don’t move it, if you don’t move it while it is calibrating, it will give you a level and fix it your little drift problem. So that is an easy one.

Fr. Robert: One last bit before we go. Some people have been asking about the electronics builds. For example, do I use batteries? What do I use to supply power? In the past I have shown you that I go ahead and use old power supplies from computers in order to give me a 5 and a 12 volt rail. Now, for most projects that works just fine because five and 12 V are the voltages that I will need most often. That there are some other projects that I want to have adjustable power. I've been using this. This is a nice, cheap power supply that I bought off of Amazon. This is called a tech power HY. Believe it or not, this was used for tattoo machines. The cool thing about this is that it was only about $35 from Amazon. If I turn this thing on, it has a nod here that will allow me to adjust exactly the amount of voltage that I need in order to run my electronics. I can go all the way down from 11 V all the way up to 15.1 bolts. This is a fantastic piece of gear to have. It only gives you 2 amps so you are not going to be able to run your quad copter motors. Or for example if you wanted to light up LEDs to find out what color they are or if you wanted to light up your flight controller without having to plug into the battery because you're worried about shoring, this is a really good way. All you have to do is find the exact voltage that it needs, for example this is a 5 V device I use banana clips to plug it in here and you've got yourself a fantastic way to give yourself variable voltage. There you go. $35 shipped. Pick one up today. You could get more professional models, models that can provide multiple amps and weigh more than two. But for most cases a two amp power supply is going to be just fine.

Fr. Robert: I am afraid that is all the time we have for this episode of know how. Bryan will be back next week that we didn’t really miss him. Bryan aren’t you happy to be gone for a while?

Bryan: Yes, it's neat!

Fr. Robert: Exactly. Patrick, thank you very much for filling in for Cranky Hippo. Could you please tell the folks at home where they can find you?

Patrick: The latest project is backtopredictions.com. It is comparing Back To The Futures 2015 with Reality Of 2015. And Hello Lens is the latest thing that I have posted.

Fr. Robert: Wasn’t that technology used to shoot Jaws in 3-D?

Patrick: No this is What They Were Wearing At The Dinner Table.

Fr. Robert: Oh right.

Patrick: It looks exactly like it. Here is Marty wearing the Microsoft Hello Lens.

Fr. Robert: I wanted to cover this technology today. Because of course there was that big announcement yesterday. But I wanted to wait for Bryan to get back because I have a feeling we are going to be able to badger about this quite a bit. It is enhanced reality. Augmented reality. But they project that images on your retina not on screens. That is just cool.

Fr. Robert: Now folks don’t forget that you can get all the information on this episode by going to our show page at twit.tv/KH. If you drop very few will be able to get all of our back episodes, all of our show notes, but you will also be able to get a drop-down menu where you can subscribe. So every episode of know how automatically ends up in your device of choice. Whether it be your iPhone, iPad, computer, laptop, desktop, android device or whether it is going to be we give you a format that works for you. Don’t forget to follow us on our Google plus group. Just go to Google plus and look for know-how. We are very popular group, we are a very active group. I love what you folks are doing in there. Bryan and I are always jumping in and what we find out is that 90% of the times questions are answered before we get in there. It is a great place for DIYers, a great place for makers so go ahead and join up.

Bryan: This is cool!

Fr. Robert: Thank you Bryan. We get sums up from the Cranky Hippo. Also, don’t forget that you can follow both of us on Twitter. You can find them @cranky_hippo. You can find me at @PadreSJ. If you go ahead and follow us you can find out what we are going to be doing every week on know-how. As well as the other shows that we have here on the twit TV network. And also special thanks to our TD Alex. He never puts a camera on himself, but could you say a few words? No? Okay. Well could you make Bryan say a few words?

Bryan: This show is out of control.

Fr. Robert: That is how we do it. Next week We are going to be showing off a couple of projects that you have asked to see. We are going to show you how to document your bad connection and I am going to give you a couple of tips on setting up your own home studio. Until then, I’m Father Robert Ballecer and he is…

Bryan: Some of those places out in the Coast there isn’t a wifi connection that you can connect to.

Fr. Robert: Exactly! Until next time, now that you know how, go do it!