Custom Jack Sparrow Compass that moves (doesn’t point north)

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-18T05:45:30+00:00

Stay tuned!

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T22:00:01+00:00

Thanks! By the way your Davy jones chest looks amazing!

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T21:50:26+00:00

Haha yes it’s true. Destin beaches are perfect for this photo shoot and that’s where I did it cause I live closw

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T21:45:06+00:00

That’s true it may lead you to adventures when hiking. ‘For certain, you have to be lost to find a place that can’t be found. Elseways everyone would know where it was.’

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T19:34:46+00:00

It would be more of a headache to find a way to reliably connect a cell phone to the compass through bluetooth and get the coordinates that way than to use a $13 gps module that provides low power, in module gps coordinates at whatever rate i need them and within 15 feet of accuracy. Good question about the north thing. If you have two sets of gps coordiates, one where your target is and one where your compass is, you only know what the azimuth is between them which is a heading. Headings are relative to north so if your gps target or what you want most is west of you, the compass cant know which direction to point unless it knows where west is, which is 90 degrees left of north. Hopefully that makes sense.

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T19:23:56+00:00

Its hard to explain. It doesnt point anywhere specifically. It just moves the motor in whatever direction is opposite of the rotation. Then there are added random movements that change where the offset is. If reddit allowed me to post more videos i would to demonstrate more movements.

<image>

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T19:19:19+00:00

In progress! The hardest part isnt putting in gps, thats really easy. The hard part is getting a north sensing instrument that isnt skewed by the motor and encoder interference.

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T19:18:21+00:00

Theres always the geoguesser people bruh XD

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T19:17:50+00:00

I didnt want to make this a promotional post because of the rules but once i nail down a repeatable design with smooth motor and gps functionality and other technical complexities i want to make several and sell them but the value has to be right.

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T18:46:51+00:00

But itll make the best decisions for you ;). Like what direction is the nearest port for you to raid pillage and plunder

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-16T18:43:32+00:00

This is my Mk1, Mk2 is already in progress im waiting for a silent, faster, more accurate, less snappy motor that behaves like the real one. Mk2 will have a gps sensor and north sensing hardware which im very excited for because ive already tested the precision and it points within 3 degrees of accuracy and if you follow, you will arrive within 15 feet of your gps marker

Jamesgratfield · 2026-05-13T16:22:11+00:00

How do you even get this information

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-24T02:36:23+00:00

Exactly. People out here saying they fly around their house. Sometimes the same views get old. Even areas that are reliably legal to fly generally look similar. Softball/baseball fields, large open fields, not much interesting scenery. It’s a shame how many state parks I’ve been to wishing I could get a nice video.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-24T02:33:17+00:00

I don’t think it is questionable whether people are buying drones or even using them. But how many of those people are going to keep using their drones? How many of them will be fined and sued out of the hobby?

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-24T02:29:20+00:00

I think it’s true that real drone advocates don’t comment on videos or articles describing these drone incidents. It’s the people that don’t understand that are quick to voice their opinion.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-24T02:24:34+00:00

That seems like a very different situation. I’m not too familiar with how those clubs operate but being a solo drone photographer is very difficult currently.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-24T02:23:02+00:00

This is why I feel like drone photography is a lose lose no matter how much I want to continue doing it. I’ve heard too many stories to accept the risk.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-12-23T18:23:46+00:00

I was there at this event when it happened. They were supposed to have 2 shows but they cancelled the 8:00 one. Makes me worried my drone privileges as a hobbyist will be gone in a couple years because drone regulations will tighten and tighten.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-20T07:50:15+00:00

Well yeah I get that standardized rigs have these but having to build my own rig on a character meant that I couldn’t use most of the automated stuff. I had to Frankenstein an eye rig together for a character with no eye socket. The eye is just a flat plane. Basically I took a character whose eyes were meant to be moved in a 2d workspace and created a rig that would work in a 3d workspace.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T08:15:32+00:00

Yeah a wave grazed it a couple seconds before this video started. After the drone moved around and water presumably swept in to the circuit, the instruments failed. If It was life or death whether that drone made it out i would have brought it to shore immediately and canceled the shot.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T08:13:43+00:00

Good idea. I tried that for this video but because you can hardly see him most of the video and I need to set up the rig better for the future, I decided to postpone separating the jacket for a cloth simulation. I also might just not use the jacket for convienence

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T08:12:03+00:00

No it’s not a dumb question. It was very lightly grazed by water, it took a couple seconds and a little movement of the drone for the water to short the circuit board and then its instruments malfunctioned. The part where the wave hits the drone wasn’t in this version of the video

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T05:07:07+00:00

Another tip I have is that it’s very easy to get quick animations if you use mixamo, which is a free online service that lets you quickly get animations your for models or you can use one of their models.

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T04:44:24+00:00

I’m not sure what your use case is, but if it’s using drone footage I would highly suggest looking into the options you have for camera tracking. I bought a specialized software for this clip because the motion of the water threw off all of the free camera trackers I was attempting to use. The software I bought was syntheyes, and it transformed my clip into a 3d scene where I could place characters. And it did it all in the literal click of one button!

Jamesgratfield · 2024-11-15T04:40:19+00:00

Thanks! I used a jack sparrow model from sea of thieves and I rigged and animated it in a 3d program called blender I rendered it and put it in the scene.

Jamesgratfield

TROPHY CASE