December 23, 2005
My New HPI RS4 Pro 4 Hara Edition
I should’ve been packing, and then sleeping, before getting up at 0600 to catch a flight to the ’rents for the holidays. Instead, I spent the day (after work, of course) finishing the car, an HPI RS4 Pro 4 Hara Edition electric R/C. Three long nights, perhaps a total of 25 hours’ build time. Here’s a picture of the (more-or-less) finished car:
Click for a larger image
There’s also a large Gallery of pictures taken throughout the build process.
Overall the kit is well-crafted, with high-quality parts and a clear instruction manual. I do have a few complaints about the parts references, which caused me to waste a bit of time searching parts bags, but in the end, no necessary part was missing. I’ll try to post a more thorough review, along with descriptions of the specific issues I had.
This car will be my (actually, my team’s) entry into next semester’s EE192 class and next year’s Natcar competition. Hopefully the professor will allow us to use this car, and our intended processor, the Cypress PSoC.
December 20, 2005
Minigwen
| 3:41:31 PM mjk: | apparently somebody knocked up Gwen Stefani |
| 3:41:38 PM jfm: | oh? |
| 3:41:42 PM mjk: | I bet that was fun |
| 3:41:47 PM jfm: | no doubt |
| 3:41:55 PM mjk: | har! |
December 19, 2005
Collegiate Solar Car Challenge
The North American Solar Challenge is a great race in which college students from all over the US & Canada build highly aerodynamic and efficient solar cars, then race them thousands of miles across North America.
I’m watching a bit of the race on INHD right now, and something ridiculous struck me: each solar car is trailed on the road by five or so gasoline powered cars! Irony in the extreme.