Cowardlyducks - Videos

[Cowardlyduck]

And here is the short version...probably the one most people will enjoy.

As usual, it only looks good in 1080 HD, however even at that size youtube absolutely kills the quality.

I think I need to find an alternate video platform as youtube really does reduce the quality too much. Even my wife was easily able to see the difference.

Cheers

[Cowardlyduck]

So I thought I would give Vimeo a try since Youtube keeps killing the quality of my HD videos.
Looking at it, it looks like the quality is definitely better.
https://vimeo.com/138609085

For those that haven't yet watched the youtube one above, watch this one, it's far better quality.

Cheers

[Captaincrapper]

Captain Crapper loves that video, got more on the way?

[Cowardlyduck]

Captain Crapper loves that video, got more on the way?

LOL - I'll try and get another ride in some time in the next month or so, but got a bunch of changes to make to the bike first, including a new rear shock and a new controller.
We'll see.

Cheers

[Rix]

Subscribed.
CD, just found this page by accident. When you made your vids, did you use Google Earth Geo Based mapping when you zoom in to where your are riding on the globe at the beginning? I like that and would like to add that dimension to my vids. So you going to have the Mini E up and running for your next video?

Captaincrapper wrote:
Captain Crapper loves that video, got more on the way?

Love the avatar name, cracks me up.

[Rix]

Cd, did you get your Min E up and running yet? Still waiting on the verdict.

[Cowardlyduck]

Sorry for the late response Rix...not sure why I didn't respond earlier.

CD, just found this page by accident. When you made your vids, did you use Google Earth Geo Based mapping when you zoom in to where your are riding on the globe at the beginning? I like that and would like to add that dimension to my vids.

Glad you found me. The link is in my Sig, but many people (including myself to some degree) are accustomed to tuning out sig's. I might make it bigger.

I do use Google Earth, good spotting.
Here is a little tutorial on the steps I follow:

1 - Download and install the local desktop Google Earth client: https://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html

2 - Download and install a desktop video capturing app. I like to use Video Capture Pad; http://download.cnet.com/CapturePad/300 ... 7647.html? I've tried a number without much success as they all seem to be focused on capturing slow refresh or relatively static video rather than the smooth video required of the moving earth.

3 - Fire up Google Earth, and customize the look/feel (layers) for what you want to be included in the capture. Generally speaking I like a minimalist view with nothing present but place names and roads to make it easy for viewers to locate themselves in the 2-3 seconds the videos display's for.

4 - Navigate to your intended zoom end point and orient the view how you want it to be right before crossing to your footage using middle mouse click. For most of my video's this is as close to the starting point of the video as possible so necessitates a nearly horizontal view along the road or path I'm riding.

5 - Once the view is set, go to to Add>Placemark. Change to the View tab, and hit Snapshot current view, then give it a name and hit OK.

Start.JPG (52.25 KiB) Viewed 3445 times

6 - On the lefthand Places pane uncheck the checkbox for the newly created Placemark to hide it from view.

Start unchecked.JPG (8.56 KiB) Viewed 3445 times

7 - Scroll out and up to your intended starting zoom location and follow steps 4-6 again to set another Placemark for the beginning location.

If you're using CapturePad, follow the next steps to capture a video of your zoom to earth. If you're using some other video capturing application, sorry I can't help you.

8 - Position and enlarge Google Earth, but don't maximize as you will need some screen area left to operate CapturePad without it capturing itself, then load up CapturePad.

9 - Set the Screen area option and hit Set Region, then drag the region over the area of Google Earth you want to capture and hit OK. I generally like to exclude the controls so it looks cleaner.

10 - Set the video codec and frame rate.
Note: You might have to experiment with the codec's CapturePad uses to capture video as it seems to mess things up with some of them and the resulting video is either way to fast or funky colors or something. I've found the best combo is the Intel IYUV codec with 25 frames per second. This codec seems to get installed when you install VLC. I've also found some other codecs work, but only if the frame rate is reduced and the resulting video is long, which can be fixed by speeding up the resulting video.

11 - Double click your zoomed out starting point Placemark to zoom out, then hit Start on Video Capture pad to start recording and double click your zoom end point Placemark. Once zoomed in, stop the video.
Note: Depending on your internet connection speed, you might have to switch between the 2 zoom points a number of times in order to get Google earth to load all transition layers. The recorded video will just show what you see, so if Google Earth is still loading images that will show up in your video.

12 - Check your resulting video to make sure it's smooth, etc. Then trim it using what ever video editing software you use.
Hopefully you should end up with a result like this:

Note: It is perfectly smooth in the original...Youtube takes a dump on most uploaded footage I post lately.

Hope that helps and I wonder if you can tell I work in IT support .
I would love to see some other Google Earth based intros to rides so I know where it's all happening.

Cd, did you get your Min E up and running yet? Still waiting on the verdict.

Getting close...finally figured out the issues and resolved the other day...(was using the charge plug ). I am still a little ways off though as I want to mod my Leaf motor with fans first, then I will mount the Mini-E. Maybe in the next few weeks

Cheers

[Rix]

Thanks for the detailed response on Google Geo Mapping, I am going to mess around with it and try to include in my future vids. I look forward to seeing how your bike mods work. For me, the allure of running a 12s 14s or 16s pack with the Adapto is super appealing. OVS will allow for the higher top speed I want without the need to run higher voltages. I got a couple of things in mind for my Fighter, and with the Flux Alpha and Beta coming to me this winter, I will be occupied. As far as confusing the charge wire with the phase wires, with the adaptos ability to charge through the controller, it has to got through one of the phase wires. I don't know how it all works, which is why I had Allex set mine up for plug-n-ride with the MXUS 4T. It was worth the little extra charge for him to hook me up. Anyway, like I said before, I patiently wait to see how yours does.

[Cowardlyduck]

I don't wanna start a new thread for this, but wanted to share so here will do.

I had an old cheap cordless drill that ran on NiCad batteries. The 2 original batteries were always flat when I went to use it, and charging them took hours. I would always end up frustratingly swapping them over to charge continuously trying to finish off a job with tiny amounts of charge in each battery until I usually gave up.

Well I finally had enough, and did this:



Now it works great, has more power, and lasts for hours before needing a charge.

It also still fits into the original case:


On the weekend, I managed to drill out 2 side covers and only used 1/4 of a charge:


Next I might try and mod my old line trimmer which is in a similar way.

Cheers

[kiwiev]

Nice one CD thats thinking out of the box to make a hole


Cheers Kiwi

[Rix]

May have to mod my drill the same way

[Sean9002]

Hahahah I have (like so many Aussies) got a bunch of dead Ozitio equipment....hadn't thought of using my Lipos on em'!

[Cowardlyduck]

I should warn others who might wanna try this that it can destroy your drill (or any other tool for that matter).

When I was drilling out those side covers above, the drill got stuck once or twice. Normally that was fine as it would overcome it and keep going with a bit of wiggling, but once it didn't and holding down the trigger I soon saw smoke coming out of the drill.

Thankfully all was good, but it's a lesson that with great power comes great responsibility.

Cheers

[kiwiev]

I should warn others who might wanna try this that it can destroy your drill (or any other tool for that matter).

When I was drilling out those side covers above, the drill got stuck once or twice. Normally that was fine as it would overcome it and keep going with a bit of wiggling, but once it didn't and holding down the trigger I soon saw smoke coming out of the drill.

Thankfully all was good, but it's a lesson that with great power comes great responsibility.

Cheers

Nice one DUCK !!!

[Cowardlyduck]

I posted this over on the Stealth thread also, but will add it here too.
I went for a semi epic ride on the Fighter yesterday...and rode an entire mountain range!
https://goo.gl/maps/s7RRzLEhFPT2 This is the mountain range part of the route...I also rode home from the range afterwards which was another 20km.





I wasn't going to bother, since it's just handlebar footage, but threw together this quick edit this afternoon of the highlights.
It's more about the scenery, and ability the bike gives to explore, than about the Fighter itself.


The challenging part was making my saggy old stock battery + plus the reserve I have in a backpack make the distance. In the end I underestimated the capacity of my original stock pack and managed to squeeze 17+ AH from it. I think that was only possible due to the very warm weather and low amps draw throughout the ride.

Cheers

[drew12345]

Nice vid CD. beautiful trails.

[Cowardlyduck]

Nice vid CD. beautiful trails.

Thanks!

Hopefully I will be making some better quality video's in future.
I just picked up this little used beauty from Cash converters for $125 today:



I talked them down from $150 and realised soon afterward that it has the screen on the rear which alone is worth $80, so quite a nice deal IMO.

I'm not GoPro savy...yet, but so far it seems everything is functioning normally although the battery was completely dead initially...I'll see how long it lasts and might get a new one if it runs out too fast.

Will now need to get a new SD card and some mounts. I think a chest mount is definitely in order as well as maybe a few pole extensions.

Cheers

[drew12345]

Yeah, definitely a chesty and a roll bar mount are great.

[Rix]

Nice CD, when looking at Micro SD cards, I wouldn't go over 32GB, with a new battery recording on 1080p, you will run out of storage space about the time your battery dies. As far as editing goes, download the gp studio, its user friendly, my videos aren't as nice as yours, but I am self taught and getting better as I go along.

[kiwiev]

Nice CD, when looking at Micro SD cards, I wouldn't go over 32GB, with a new battery recording on 1080p, you will run out of storage space about the time your battery dies. As far as editing goes, download the gp studio, its user friendly, my videos aren't as nice as yours, but I am self taught and getting better as I go along.

Yeah I agree Rix CD puts a nice Video together IMO. I guess being a Tech for a day job helps. I like the Go-pro App too it has some cool features


We need to get another Video together CD even riding around summerNats with all the cars as a back drop would be great.

Cheers Kiwi

[Rix]

[quoteWe need to get another Video together CD even riding around summerNats with all the cars as a back drop would be great.

Cheers Kiwi][/quote]
Yah, what Kiwi said

[Cowardlyduck]

Well I'll say +1 to another ride for sure. Hopefully summerNats, or at least something around that time.

Ordered a 32GB card, but they sent me a 16GB by mistake...now they are sending the 32 and I get to keep the 16 also.
With the USB out of my Adaptto, I might actually be able to fill up the card with a few recharges on the road during a long ride.

Cheers

[Cowardlyduck]

Finally got a chance to go for a ride and try out the new GoPro.
I learnt 3 things;
1 - I need a second battery (it died half way through the ride)
2 - I need to tilt the camera up more when using the chest mount.
3 - Bush bashing doesn't make good video.





The ride was a ride to ride, not a ride to make a video, so I wasn't fussed too much about the video quality.

Anyway, I still made a video of the ride even though most of the footage wasn't that great.

Still uploading at the time of posting, so give it an hour or so.

Cheers

[Allex]

Hey just use you usb outlet from Adaptto screen to charge up the go pro.

[Cowardlyduck]

Hey just use you usb outlet from Adaptto screen to charge up the go pro.

Yes, I was originally planning to do this however there's a few issues in actually doing this;
1 - I can't charge and ride unless I have the camera mounted on the handle bars.
2 - Charge time is 2-3 hours.

However I was thinking I might get a small external charger with my additional battery. Then my dead battery can be charging off the Adaptto USB port while I'm riding.

Cheers