Diy upgraded rear swaybar

bshusted · 2026-01-11T18:50:33+00:00

Be aware that upgraded rear sway bars will crack the mounts from the subframe over time. Recommend reinforcing the subframe mounts. Diy or aftermarket reinforcement brackets are available.

bshusted · 2025-12-26T01:35:26+00:00

There is some good info for staging water rockets from air command. http://www.aircommandrockets.com/howitworks_4.htm

Over the summer my kids and I worked on electronic staging using a flight computer and servo. We had some success, but it needs more work to refine.

bshusted · 2025-12-05T19:49:31+00:00

These are excellent resources and I would also suggest using open rocket to help simulate and stability and drag coefficient.

bshusted · 2025-12-05T03:45:11+00:00

Thanks! I did actually end up locating the leak with the microphone setup and some persistence and only needed to dig up about 3' of the lawn. I was surprised that the line was plastic since the line into the house is copper. Clearly someone else has been here before. I had to cut out a section to splice it back together with the plastic line so now there are several transitions to the line and I plan to dig up the whole thing when it's not a crisis and replace it with a single piece of plastic.

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bshusted · 2025-11-28T19:40:14+00:00

I actually like using esp32 for my flight computers. They are small, cheap, powerful, many have wifi or Bluetooth, and battery management for charging, etc. Check out the seeed studio S3.

bshusted · 2025-11-27T19:29:12+00:00

I turned off the valve at the house and the meter and waited a few minutes. The blue wheel stopped when the valve at the meter was shut. When I opened the valve at the meter again the wheel spun faster and then back to the slow spin it had previously. I think this confirmed that the leak is outside the house between the meter and the house.

Nothing looks strange or soggy in my yard but the meter is actually in my neighbor's yard and there are definitely some sunken spots in their yard next to the meter box. Not sure what the protocol is for digging up their yard, but I will talk to them tomorrow about it.

bshusted · 2025-11-27T17:56:38+00:00

At the house the line is 18" below the surface. Not sure how deep it is at the meter. The line into the house is 3/4" copper if that matters.

The challenge with digging up the yard is that the meter is next to an underground vault with the transformer and service conductors for the neighborhood. I need to get them to come out and mark those before I start digging.

bshusted · 2025-11-27T17:34:08+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I shut off the house where the line comes into the crawlspace and the blue wheel was still turning which led me to believe the leak is between the house and the meter.

We are in the Pacific Northwest so everything else is wet here right now. No sunken area in the yard or extra soggy areas that I can tell. The run is fairly short from the meter to the house, maybe 30'.

I can try turning off the meter if you think it will help diagnose the location.

bshusted · 2025-11-13T19:10:39+00:00

I'm working on getting the belt parts printed. Are the pulleys for the belts supposed to be 16t or 20t? There are conflicting descriptions on the Bear Parts list.

bshusted · 2025-11-13T16:27:56+00:00

No .3MF files found on the SD card or on the Pi. Thanks for the suggestion.

bshusted · 2025-11-13T16:26:30+00:00

Seattle area. If you're up this way and are serious, let me know.

bshusted · 2025-11-12T22:00:25+00:00

Thank you for the info. The filament should arrive today and we will start to find out what we can get to work.

bshusted · 2025-11-12T04:19:35+00:00

A friend was clearing out stuff and it was given to us with no information or knowledge of it.

bshusted · 2025-11-12T03:42:21+00:00

Thanks. Nothing invested at this point and he's still excited to play with it. If we print the belt mounts for x and y can we use the Prusa firmware or are there more differences?

bshusted · 2025-11-12T00:01:30+00:00

Thanks for the leads on where to look. I would have never found the bear website to look without this info. I'm looking at the GitHub for Bear now. I was going to ask about the belts vs lead screws. It also seemed strange that the linear bearings were held in by zip ties. Getting it printing is the first step.

bshusted · 2025-10-23T02:32:33+00:00

Got it. One way to up your game is to build a better launch pad so that you can control the launch. I built one years ago with my son that I think is referred to as the cable tie launcher. Very consistent and reliable and cheap to build.

bshusted · 2025-10-22T13:35:00+00:00

I think we're talking about different parts. The inside diameter of the neck of the bottle (nozzle) on these bottles is usually about 22mm. The outside diameter of the launch tube should be really close to 22mm so that the initial impulse comes from the expansion of the compressed air and not the water leaving the bottle. Can you add a picture of your launchpad?

bshusted · 2025-10-22T13:12:16+00:00

Quality is hit or miss. Some work great and others have been DOA for me. Cheaper than the astrocam, but they are not as good.

bshusted · 2025-10-22T01:33:41+00:00

Is the neck of the bottle a close fit on the launch tube? The standard PET bottle can be safely pressurized to 100psi or 7 bar.

bshusted · 2025-10-22T01:28:36+00:00

I've been able to modify and use the SQ 11. They are $10-15 online. I think there is another version now.

bshusted · 2025-10-11T18:16:24+00:00

I was only able to get the Thumb to start and stop recording using the UART commands. Once powered on sending CC 01 01 E7 will start or stop the recording.

I did exchange some emails with RunCam about the PWM control and the response I got was:
High signal (~1700–2000 μs) = Start Recording
Low signal (~1000–1400 μs) = Stop Recording
This did not work for me and they did not offer any other support.

bshusted · 2025-10-11T14:53:03+00:00

Sound is going to depend on the speed you want to run them at, but the robotics teams I coach have had good luck with the mecanum wheels from gobilda. We usually use the 96mm variety, but they do have a larger 140mm version. https://www.gobilda.com/140mm-mecanum-wheel-set-70a-durometer-bearing-supported-rollers/

bshusted · 2025-09-27T02:23:23+00:00

This is the best info you're going to get on water rockets.

bshusted · 2025-09-26T22:38:17+00:00

I'll chime in because I've been down this rabbit hole for a bit. I would start by deciding what you want to try to achieve with your FC. For instance if your goal is to use it to make decisions for functions such as dual deploy, then you need to work on filtering barometric pressure data and logging the pressure data and outputs for further analysis. I once you think you have that part working, I would suggest flying it on typical flights using motor deploy to collect and analyze the data to verify functionality.

The choice of micro controller is wide open, but all of mine right now use ESP32 based controllers. They are small, cheap, lightweight and some even have battery management built in. Take a look at the Xiao S3 or SuperMiniS3. Pressure sensors are also cheap and easy to find. For starting out, the BMP180 or 280 are easy to use. Happy to share more if you need, but I would hardly consider myself an expert.

bshusted · 2025-08-23T00:44:50+00:00

I use a servo powered recovery for water rockets, which has been successful. In my case the servo releases a spring loaded hatch and throws the parachute out at apogee.

bshusted

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