How to Monday, Purple Wedding

I took a picture of the new solar lights I bought from Costco.  I told you they were cool.

Last night after work I had a number of packages to open that arrived.  Two of them were used in two “how to” videos I shot later.

One item was a fresh set of batteries for one of my Neatos.  Installing batteries in a Neato is a pretty simple and straightforward process hardly needing an instructional video.  Regardless, I saw it as an opportunity to suck dollars into my AdSense empire so I  recorded it.

The other item I bought was a special adapter to allow me to balance the props on my DJI Phantom.  The props on the new Phanton have an integrated hub which allow for very easy prop installation.  Unfortunately their design also makes them not fit on my Dubro prop balancer.  The lack of a center hole is the issue.

The adapter screws into the prop, eliminating the problem.  Balancing a prop is a pretty simple procedure.  After mounting it on the balancer you turn the prop so it is sideways.  If it is balanced it will hang in that position.  If it is not it will fall to whichever side is slightly heavy.

You then take some fine grit sandpaper and sand the back of the heavy side, removing small amounts of material.  You check balance and repeat the process until you can get the prop to hang.

The reason it is good to balance your props is because of vibration.  The less balance, the more vibration.  When you are using an aircraft to do stuff like shoot aerial video you want as little vibration as possible.

After balancing all four props I threw my GoPro on the copter and shot some test video.  To be honest I couldn’t really tell a difference although it was quite breezy outside, making stable flight tough anyway.  More rigid carbon fiber props are another recommendation to get the shakes out.  I may grab a set of them as well to test them out. Here is the prop balance video.

GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT

Last night Cindy and I watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.  It was quite shocking, unexpected, yet very, very satisfying.  That little, annoying, evil, smarmy kid king died of poisoning.  Even though there are tons of hate-able characters on the show, Geoffrey was easily on the top of my “must die” list.  His actions from day one have been nothing but despicable.  The actor that portrays him deserves kudos for doing such a good job playing such a bad role.