Here is a list of popular web resources for learning and building projects with the Arduino:
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/TutorialList
http://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/svmeb/arduino_pro_tips/
ATMEGA328P at Mouser: The unbootloaded microcontroller only.
Hackduino Assembly Instructions: Plans to assemble a basic Arduino for under $10.
Twitch TV Tribes: Ascend Streams – There are ususally at least a few streams happening at any given time.
Own3d Tribes: Ascend Streams – There are some streams available here.
The Official Hi-Rez Tribes: Ascend Forum – Enough said.
Tribes: Ascend Subreddit – Reddit’s Tribes: Ascend community.
Something Aweful’s Tribes: Ascend thread – An active community within Something Awful’s forums.
I’m going to use this page as a placeholder for general maintenance and repair info. for E-flite’s Blade MSR sub-micro helicopter. No, this isn’t a resource to upgrade your Syma helicopter. Finding the exact information that I’m looking for can be a pain, so I’ll keep all of the valuable resources and tips here in one place. Enjoy!
Leveling the Swash: The length of the servo arms should be appx. 27.8mm. Since the stock swash is plastic and may warp or bend over time, this length of the servo arms is a good starting place. I recommend starting at this length, and either lengthen or shorten the lengths of the servo arms until the helicopter will hover without any major forward/backward or left/right drift.
Adjusting the servo arms is preferable to adjusting the trim on your remote transmitter (in my opinion), as you won’t have to constantly fiddle with the trim in order to minimize the amount of drift your helicopter has.
Battery and Battery Connection Information
The connector attached to the heli is part number:
Molex P/N 51047-0200 (housing) (Mouser Link)
Molex P/N 50125-8000 (pins) (50125-8100 is the same) (Mouser Link)
Here is the datasheet: Molex 1.25mm Pitch PicoBlade
The battery connector w/ wire is available as part number PKZ3052 at Horizon Hobbies as well.
Commonly Broken and Replaced Parts
I just took the dive into setting up a virtual machine on my home PC, and decided to install Ubuntu on it. I’ve had several dedicated Linux/*nix boxes at home in the past, and have several at work, so I finally decided to add a flavor of *nix back to my home OS lineup.
All went well (installing VirtualBox was simple and only took a few no-brainer mouse clicks), and installing Ubuntu in a virtual maching within VirtualBox was just as easy. I did run into a little problem that took me a few searches on Google to find, so I’m repeating the instructions here so that I don’t have to go looking for this solution in the future.
The problem was that the virtual machine running Ubuntu would only use 800×600 resolution. I could not get it do use any other resolutions. I tried accessing the vBoxGuestAdditions, but this did hot help. I found the following instructions at http://www.sysprobs.com.
With Ubuntu running in a VirtualBox virtual machine, open up a a terminal window (Application -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type the following at the prompt:
sudo apt-get update
This checks (over the internet) for updates that may be available for the Ubuntu installation.
The following two commands will download and install the latest essential updates for the installation, and then will download and install the latest guest display utilities for X11.
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11
Restart the virtual machine and try resizing it’s window once it has restarted. The resolution should change as the screen size changes from maximized, windowed, etc. At least it did for me!
I’ve put together some great references for E-flite’s Blade mSR sub-micro helocopter. There are plenty of great online resources for this fun battery powered helicopter, so here they are all on one page.
Forums
OEM and Aftermarket parts
Let us know if we aren’t listing your favorite mSR resource!
A public API for the Pandora music search system seems to be something that a LOT of developers want, but does not exist yet. However, there is an open source application called Open Pandora which must expose some reasonable amount of information on how to connect to their service.
Last.FM does have a publicly available API, and it seems to be fairly feature rich. Although it cannot connect directly to the Pandora services (obviously), it looks like it can accomplish much of what a Pandora API would (at least from the perspective of an outside developer). Here is a link to the Last.fm API information page:
Here is a quick little form that I’ve created that will find music similar to the musician or group that you enter below. It uses last.fm to find music. Try it and have fun!
Popular Searches:
Limit Poker: Should have a bankroll of at least 500 times the big blind.
No Limit Poker: Should have at least 25 times the (maximum) buy-in.
Tournaments: When starting off, don’t pay more than 1/20 (5%) of the bankroll per tournament.
High variance game (large swings in win/loss expectations):
Low variance games (Minimal win/loss swings, more steady and slow gains and losses):
A: Yes! The 6G cases (iPod 50GB & 120GB) will fit both iPod 7G models (the 120 and 160 gigabyte models). I had the same problem, and I finally got several cases for both the 6th and 7th gen iPods, and they all were the same size. So you can safely use 6G cases on the 7G models. This may also save some money, as some vendors are charging more for the 7G cases even though they sell ones for the 6G iPods for less than half the cost of the 7G cases. What a ripoff!
I did a bit more research for the heck of it, and here is a timeline of the different iPod models and when they were released:
| Generation | Release Date | Capacity (GB) | Battery Life (hours) |
| First (1G) | October 23, 2001 | 5, 10 | 10 |
| Second (2G) | July 17, 2002 | 10, 20 | 10 |
| Third (3G) | April 28, 2003 | 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 | 8 |
| Fourth (4G) | July 19, 2004 | 20, 40 | 12 |
| Fifth (5G) | October 12, 2005 | 30, 60, 80,160 | 20 |
| Sixth (6G) | September 5, 2007 | 80, 120, 160 | 40 |
| Seventh (7G) | September 9, 2009 | 120, 160 | 36 |
Microfiber towels are, in my opinion, one of the greatest inventions since the microwave oven. A good microfiber towel can absorb over three times the liquid of an ordinary towel, plus the microfibers gently pull dirt and debris from almost any surface without scratching or marring the finish. I use microfiber towels exclusively on my car, and have never noticed any swirls or micro-scratches, unlike regular cotton towels.
Unfortunately, cleaning microfiber towels without damaging them can be difficult. You cannot use water that is too hot, as it can destroy the microfibers. You cannot use detergent that has any softeners or scents, as they will clog up the microfibers. And special microfiber washing detergents cost as much as ten times what normal detergents cost!
Over time I have discovered a simple and cheap way to clean all of my microfiber towels. This method works as well as any commercial microfiber cleaning solution, and is very simple. This is how I clean all of my microfiber towels, from my 50 cent ones to my big $35 ones!
Materials:
Instructions:
Than’s it! No expensive, specialized products are necessary, no hand washing is required, and your microfiber towels will be softer and more absorbant than the day you bought them.