Go X10 Speed Racer!

BoomZilla writes ""Speedy" Shayne Barr races Nitro RS4 remote controlled Racecars competitively. These cars are nitro fueled, 1/10 scale, and they can go as fast as fifty miles per hour. To make his racing more interesting, he has hooked up an XCam2 to his racecar so that not only can he race the car, he can also view the race from the car's viewpoint after the race is over. Speedy's posted a number of videos on his website where he describes the construction process. The vid where his car winds up on its roof is most entertaining. Go Speed(y) Racer!"

Comments

I've always wanted to do that...

[Jim Ethanol]

Now it's time to rig on to a kite at the beach ;)

Re:I've always wanted to do that...

[pyr0]

That reminds me of something that happened to me once. Myself and a friend used to go to a Best Buy parking lot around midnight and race our R/C cars until around 4am. Anyway, once a cop saw us up there, and he drove up behind my R/C car with his lights and siren on. I thought I was in trouble for loitering in a parking lot late at night, but instead when he finally got to where I was, he opened his window and said "I've always wanted to do that! Pull over an R/C car." He even was nice enough to clock our cars at full speed with his radar gun.

Aside from that, I would really like to try and mount a camera to my car. I tried it with a small camcorder once, but it flipped the car every time I tried to turn.

The real question is

[madsenj37]

are the racing groupies 1/10 the size?

Added weight

[LeapingGnomeArs]

I'm assuming that he is only using the camera for fun, not during an actual race? In RC car races the weight is kept the minimum possible, I don't think adding the 5.8 ounces for this camera is going to help him get on the podium.

Re:Added weight

[bm_luethke]

yes there is a minimum weight. ROAR sanctions US races (not sure about outside of US). Roar rules can be found here, I don't know the minimum weight right offhand though (and it would matter what class you are running also)

x10.com

[Uhh_Duh]

I fail to see how can I use this to spy on girls in skimpy clothing. Is there a very tiny girl driving the tiny car I can watch somehow with the tiny camera?

If you can't make em fast...

[GreyWolf3000]

Speedy" Shayne Barr races Nitro RS4 remote controlled Racecars competitively. These cars are nitro fueled, 1/10 scale, and they can go as fast as fifty miles per hour.

Just make them look like they could go fast if they wanted. Perhaps an offset racing stripe, or a "v-tec" sticker. Check out the official Rice Boy Page for more info.

Ever seen a colorfully decalled-to-death crap car (usually a Honda Civic) with no power under the hood, but giving off the impression like it's powerful? Well, most of our remote controlled cars arent either and we have no hopes of competing with this guy. Just put stickers on it and any idion who sees the thing will definately be as impressed as he/she would be if it were the real deal.

Note: "Rice boy" is not a derrogatory racist term; the website deals with this issue. Check it's FAQ before flaming.

Now watch his web site go from 0 to 60Gb/month

[KNicolson]

...in under 13 seconds. Sadly, no X-10 camera is available to see that resulting crash!

X10? I thought /. was better than that

[Christianfreak]

How much money did you get for the X10 Ad? When are the really annoying flashing ones coming?

Okay I'm only kidding. Actually those camera's look really cool, I'd probably get one if their business model didn't remind me of used car salesmen.

I also want one of these little cars.

Re:Videos: What format?

[cscx]

According to WMP: Indeo® video 4.4 Decompression Filter

I do hardly any editing, and I run XP.

Re:Videos: What format? - Indeo

[WD]

They're Intel Indeo Video 4.1
I had to run the Indeo installer to get the video to play on my system.

Wow...a legitimate use?

[jwlidtnet]

*pondering*

So it isn't being used for porno? Or spying on someone? Or tawdry videoconferencing?

I think this guy should be recognized more for finally discovering a legitimate use for one of those cameras than anything else.

-D

Unless the cars are NUDE, of course.

How to make the 'Quicktime' movies run

[bobdotorg]

While the .avi played fine with QT6, the quicktime file did not.

If you change the filetype and creator of the quicktime file to:
VfW¥
TVOD

they'll work fine with Quicktime.

Re:What scale is RC?

[coffeedreg]

The fastest I've heard of a micro rc car was 56mph. That was a 1/24 scale modded ABC DTM car (modified with multiple batteries).

Learn more at www.microrccenter.com

Linking on slashdot

[Tuffnut]

I think it has really become a problem. Because for one, the victim didn't necessarily choose to be on Slashdot. Or for that matter even knows his server being ravaged by a million geeks. Slashdot's server is capable of handling the load, so what's stopping them from hosting a mirror on their site? With the exception of copyrights and such, I'm sure the admin would gladly have a mirror setup on slashdot in substitution for getting a $5k b/w bill.

Re:Yeah, posting the links to the video...

[gabec]

well.. here's at least a pic of his cool little RC car. I copied it to my website since his looked like it was really slow. so if it does go down at least you can still see what the car looks like (unless you guys slashdot me simply because of that one image.. lol..)

Re:a random thought...

[Soulslayer]

http://www.rccaraction.com/rc/articles/need_speed. asp

From the above:

"Our sister publication, Radio Control Nitro, featured Steve Pond's 101mph HPI Super Nitro RS4 (see the March 2001 issue). Prior to that, Cliff Lett's 24-cell Associated L3O Insane Speed Run car was clocked at 94mph at the Dominguez Hills Bicycle Velodrome in California."

and

"...on January 13, 2001 to break Guinness's published record and post a speed more befitting of an official world record title. The result? Legendary RC racer and Team Associated chief designer Cliff Lett spooled up his Factory Team TC3 to over 95mph and touched 111mph with an RC10 L30!"

what's with the mounting?

[chryptic]

I'm just wondering why he left the camera in the bulky casing?

I've pulled one apart and rewired the AV/power to a longer cable so the small lense could be mounted apart from the bulky base.

The transmitter itself is a single board with a low profile radio/shield.

The antenna is a 2.4 Ghz directional. It can easily be replaced with an omni directional antana that will give a better transmition as well as lessen the impact on areodynamics.

The batery pack consists of a small circuit board, the clips for 4xAA batteries, and a big bulky case. A lot of space could be saved by getting rid of the big ugly case.

I think it may be possible to mount the whole camera behind the windshield.

Just a thought.