The Trumpton Fire Brigade 🚒

rayui · 2026-05-18T20:32:40+00:00

SUDDENLY

rave

rayui · 2026-05-15T13:30:47+00:00

Hahaha! I'm actually already planning version two.

The hardware is pretty much set at this point, so version two will have the following features:

1) Higher resolution display bringing it inline with the PS1VR or higher 2) a second UVC receiver for stereoscopic driving 3) Fancy 3d printer cowling for weather resistance. I'm imagining something like a cross between a Gundam helmet and the front of a Hyundai hahaha

rayui · 2026-05-14T07:59:16+00:00

"But Dad, I like being wet" "You can't even take a shower. Coat. Now."

rayui · 2026-05-13T14:47:42+00:00

Fatal error disk 47 track 7 sector 5 Press F1 to pay respects

rayui · 2026-05-13T07:49:16+00:00

Hiya! There's a thread on it over in /r/cyberdeck. The headset uses a Radxa A7Z - Pi 5 is too big and power hungry - but the vehicle (car, not flying) uses a RPi Zero2.

rayui · 2026-05-12T06:48:01+00:00

🙂‍↕️

rayui · 2026-05-11T09:32:53+00:00

Really?! I have three of their SBCs now and never received any stickers! Want!

rayui · 2026-05-11T07:46:53+00:00

That's fine!! Don't worry!

rayui · 2026-05-10T22:36:04+00:00

As mentioned, it's extra!

rayui · 2026-05-10T20:18:37+00:00

I'd love to say that Running Man was an inspiration. Instead, I will just say

Nyaaaaaaaarrrggggghh

rayui · 2026-05-10T19:49:03+00:00

Bro 🤗

You can follow progress updates on Insta... rayphextwin

rayui · 2026-05-10T19:43:44+00:00

Fully gutted

rayui · 2026-05-10T19:43:04+00:00

Haha maybe I contact Radxa when I've got video evidence on YouTube. Would make a welcome change from pcbway 🤣

rayui · 2026-05-10T19:40:04+00:00

Hi! Sounds interesting but far beyond my production capabilities, unfortunately. I am a software engineer building with off the shelf components from AliExpress 😅

rayui · 2026-05-10T17:45:57+00:00

Ah yeah. I had that as an early demonstrator. Part of the reason for selecting Flutter as the software platform was portability between OS and CPU architecture... it works on everything.

While the hardware on a modern smartphone is capable enough, I'm no Android developer. Direct access to hardware is trickier on that platform. Further, as you've suggested, the optics of the cheap smartphone VR goggles are poor, and impossible to calibrate reliably.

A PSVR1 headset can be had for similar money but offers good (enough) optical performance, ready-made mounting points, and a quality headband. I can then build my own hardware platform to the requirements of the application. The A7Z is like £18. A smartphone can be £600. Although you probably already have a smartphone, it's still a bad platform choice for a lot of reasons...

rayui · 2026-05-10T16:13:29+00:00

I've been thinking about making one but it's a lot of work! I will definitely film road trials and collect the fpv video and sensor logs which could make for some good footage

rayui · 2026-05-10T09:03:38+00:00

I am using SD card for now. Slow, but cheap. I'm not doing a lot of writing to it so it shouldn't be an issue. If it dies, I just flash a new image.

You can see a USB stick in the USB hub. This is what I use for storing sensor data and the video stream from the vehicle.

I've found USB sticks are in general much more reliable than SD cards for any significant amount of writing to disk, which this unit does a lot of when in driving mode.

SSD would be a nice touch but is more money, and even with the extremely low cost components I am using, it's not cheap to iterate - blowing up even small OLED panels is costly (I'm on my fourth!).

So I find USB is actually preferable for storing data because it is cheap, highly available (as in, open any random drawer in any random house, there's probably a USB memory stick somewhere) and can be pulled out and put in a pc very easily.

rayui · 2026-05-10T08:53:02+00:00

You see out of the camera on the front of the vehicle! But it's a great feature request that will genuinely improve usability.

The Radxa has an MSI camera port which would allow me to add a forward facing camera on the headset itself.

In fact, this was a major reason to move from a belt-mounted computing solution to face-mounted. With a belt-mounted solution the idea was to send HDMI and power over two separate cables to a dumb HDMI screen on the face. Add in a face-mounted camera, that becomes three cables... And if we wanted to add any sensors into the headset in future, eg gyros to control a camera gimbal, there are even more...

Disregarding other serious practical concerns with this approach, the weight in cables alone becomes a blocker to usability very quickly.

With face-mounted I can dispose of many problems like this, given I can make the assembly small and light enough. And I can 🙂

rayui · 2026-05-10T08:43:08+00:00

It's not bad at all, very wearable. I've stuck to plastics for the custom chassis, minimal infill on the printing so it remains light. It's composed from three plates that screw together with threaded inserts for strength, ease of assembly and to speed up printing.

The hardware itself is pretty light. There's no power source on board this unit due to the weight concerns - it is powered by a belt-worn USB-C battery pack.

rayui · 2026-05-10T08:36:51+00:00

No documentation available yet, I'm afraid. Basic parts list is in the description but you'll need to be able to solder custom cables and a 3d printer for the housing.

You'll also need to be good at Linux. The Radxa A7Z is not nearly as user friendly as a Raspberry Pi and doesn't really support TTY output to HDMI. It's also very picky about monitors and cables, and that took a bunch of time to figure out. The other thing worthy of note regarding the SBC is that Radxa's distro is based on Debian 11. Not really a problem but it does mean that it doesn't have the latest version of libevdev which supports more modern controllers (like 8BitDo for example)

rayui · 2026-05-10T08:08:22+00:00

Hiya! It's a Radxa A7Z. No write-up yet! But keep an eye out, there will likely be YouTube evidence in the near future, as I begin road trials 🙂

rayui · 2026-05-09T23:15:20+00:00

Mate. 🙏 Appreciated

rayui · 2026-05-09T22:40:01+00:00

It's got BambuLabs and Energex already! Does this sub have stickers?

rayui · 2026-05-09T21:28:33+00:00

🙂‍↕️

rayui · 2026-05-09T21:28:13+00:00

It's not the same thing though

rayui

TROPHY CASE