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Fitbit Charge 4

At my work we have a thing about giving tacos (🌮) to people when they help you out, do something great or funny – as a show of support. The tacos can be redeemed for prizes or gift cards – and one of those prizes is a Fitbit. I wanted a model upgrade from the ones our company was offering. In November 2020, Costco had a Fitbit Charge 4 bundle for $90.

I brokered a deal with my wife. I’d redeem a $100 Amazon gift card with my tacos and give it to her, and then buy the model I want from Costco.

Built-in GPS

The reason I got the Charge 4 is because it has a built-in GPS. I don’t like using my phone to record my activities as it drains the battery very quickly. Also my handheld Garmin eTrex Vista GPS is starting to act weird – it randomly turns off sometimes when I’m riding.

Hooking it up to Strava was simple, I did it through the https://strava.fitbit.com/ website. Here’s an article that goes into detail about connecting the two. When you finish an activity, Fitbit automatically transfers the information via the app (including GPS track) to Strava. As a bonus now my heart rate information is sent for more accurate effort calculation.

Battery Life

Since I considered GPS to be a requirement, this is the 2nd best feature. It would be a folly to call it charge if the battery life sucked. Without GPS use, I can easily go a week before putting it on the charger. With GPS use, I’ve found it takes about 10% of the battery for every hour you’re recording activity. By that marker, I’d guess you could use the GPS for 9+ hours before it conked out.

Sleep Tracking

All fitness trackers can track sleep. Along with a great battery life, the Charge 4 charges quickly. Putting it on the charger while I take a shower is enough to keep it topped up. I don’t ever have to take it off for a night to get a full charge.

Water Resistant 50 Meters

I always would put my phone in a ziplock bag while kayaking and still worry that it will make it’s way to the bottom of the lake. Fitbit says you can wear your tracker or smartwatch in the shower, pool and beyond. That should be just fine for kayaking – it will get wet, but it will survive.

Those are the good things, now onto some of the annoyances…

UI Issues

The swipe functions don’t always work as expected, partly because the screen is small, partly because the screen is very tall and skinny.

The most common issue is when I swipe down from the top to get the notification list (to inevitably clear it out). The Charge often thinks I’m swiping to the side because I didn’t swipe perfectly vertical top to bottom.

Another thing I do occasionally is leave the home screen on the weather. It will stay here until you press the watch button – so the next time you wake the screen you can see the weather. You’ll still get notifications on these secondary screens, but once they go away you cannot swipe down to see them again – you must go back to the home screen (clock) and swipe down from there.

Multiple Activities

I realize this is probably an edge case, but I imagine I’m not the only one experiencing this issue. The Charge 4 currently can’t pause one activity and start another. Here’s the scenario: I put studded tires on my bike and rode to the local nature center:

I brought my snowshoes with me, and when I got to the trail, I walked around the park. On the Charge 4 you can pause and resume your activity. This is great if I bike somewhere like the library, I can pause my ride when I arrive, and resume once I head home – then it records as a single activity.

But you can’t start another GPS activity until you finish the first one. Rather than my activity showing up as three (ride out, hike, ride back) I want them to appear simply as two: bike & snowshoe.

So I used my trusty(?) Garmin for the hike and hoped it didn’t turn off on me while I was out.

Verdict?

I looked at getting the cheapish Apple Watch for around $150 and also looked at the new Fitbit Versa 3. While they both have built-in GPS, neither of them were going to match the battery life of the Charge. If it goes on sale again for < $100 I would easily recommend it to anyone looking at a fitness watch – especially for tracking bike rides.

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1/24 Scale Christmas

Every year, we put some sort of motorized conveyance under the tree. In the past it’s been an HO scale train or slot cars from my childhood. While I like the nostalgia of them, let’s face it – I’m old which means they’re old. So they’re a little finicky to get working well. Still fun, […]

The post 1/24 Scale Christmas appeared first on Meatball Racing.

I’ve always wanted to have an indoor model train layout, but since we don’t have room I turned my thoughts to doing an outdoor layout But that always seemed extremely expensive. Then a couple ideas came together for me: 1) my #1 Christmas gift item is a 1/24 scale crawler – Axial’s SCX24 and 2) I found a G-scale train set for less than $50.

Continue reading “1/24 Scale Christmas”

Trains

I found several Lionel Ready-To-Play train sets at Wall 2 Wall Deals – it’s a small Unclaimed Freight or Derailed Commodities type of store. We opted for the Frozen and North Pole Central sets – each set was less than $50 out the door.

These models are essentially G (garden) scale – which is traditionally 1:22.5 scale. The Lionel Ready-To-Play (RTP) trains are actually the same rolling stock that they use for their G-guage trains – you can read this article about converting between RTP and G-gauge. However, the RTP trains run on a slightly wider 2″ (50mm) track than the G-guage standard of 45mm.

So I give up compatibility with other brands of garden scale trains and track, but at this price, I don’t really care. Plus I can 3D print additional track.

The trains are battery powered and remote controlled. I was hoping that by buying two sets, we could bind both engines to the same controller, but I tried and it doesn’t work. I still might design some sort of 3D printed rig so we can have a double header:

Next spring, I’m going to see what I can do outside, but spinning around the Christmas tree right now is fun enough.

Vehicles

The apple of my eye has been these fantastic Axial 1/24 scale crawlers. I’ve watched just about every RC Sparks TV episode about these rigs and I want to build a crawling course for mine. But you don’t need to build a course to have fun. I drove mine all over the gift boxes Christmas morning. They’re incredibly capable and there are a ton of option parts available.

Something I’m looking forward to is putting the SCX24 in my bike trunk, and heading to the nearby nature trail for some crawlin’.

Figures

When we had the slot car set out, I found this little guy tucked in with everything.

I recognized him from my youth – he was a figure from a cartoon & toy line called M.A.S.K. After a bit of eBay browsing I found he’s called Dusty Hayes and he originally came with a Jeep that turned into a boat.

He traveled 30 years to get here – he deserves an upgrade from a 70s CJ to a brand new JLU Wrangler. M.A.S.K figures were made by Kenner – who also made the Star Wars line. They have the same articulating legs, just at a smaller 3-inch size – perfect for 1/24 scale.

If you don’t mind being a blockhead – Minecraft figures are also 3 inches tall

Buildings

Lastly, for Christmas my wife asked for one of these scale buildings made by a brand called TODY. They also happen to be 1/24 Scale I’m thinking about getting some of the other models with full exteriors to start building a little town. But we’ll see how the build on this first one goes…

The post 1/24 Scale Christmas appeared first on Meatball Racing.

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Skyetel Local Number VOIP Setup

After setting up my new OpenWrt router, it is time to get my local phone number that I ported from Google Voice to Skyetel working.

Most of the configuration follows this Nerdvittles Skyetel post, but I include some specifics and screenshots for my configuration using OpenWrt, IncrediblePBX on Raspberry Pi, and a Linksys RTP-300 analog telephone adapter.

Firewall Setup

On my OpenWrt router that acts as a gateway, I added a firewall port forward for UDP Port 5060 to my Asterisk server (Raspberry Pi).

I didn’t need to run any of the Skyetel add-ip customizations from the original article. On my Raspberry Pi those settings were already there. You can check to see if the firewall settings for the Skyetel IPs are already present by running:

# iptables -nL | grep 52.41.52.34
ACCEPT     all  --  52.41.52.34          0.0.0.0/0

If you see the ACCEPT all row, then you’re good to go. If you don’t get any output, you’ll need to run the commands from the Nerdvittles Skyetel post.

Trunk Setup

I also didn’t need to run any of the Skytel Trunk Setup scripts, as I already had the six Skyetel trunks configured and enabled.

I also did’t need to change the context configuration from from-trunk to from-pstn-e164-us (for a normal 10-digit US phone setup). It was already there 💪 Also, nat=yes was already set, so no need to add that either.

Inbound Routing

Next we’ll configure the routing of incoming calls from Skyetel to your Asterisk extensions. I use the first two extensions (701 & 702) that come pre-configured in Incredible PBX with my Linksys RTP-300. To add routes, go to Connectivity -> Inbound Routes and click Add Inbound Route.

For the DID and Description I added my full 11-digit number: 1 and the other 10-digits. I also set the destination to the “777 All-Five” ring group. It’s a default ring group setup to ring all extensions (701 to 705) all at once.

Once you click Submit there will be an “Apply Config” notification.

Click it to apply your new route and reload the dial plan.

Outbound Routes

The default Incredible PBX config already had default route. Click edit to view it:

As you can see it already has some Skyetel trunks pre-configured. Go ahead and click Duplicate to make a copy of this route we can change.

This will create a copy that we’ll edit.

Rename the route, add your 10-digit phone number, and add the additional Skyetel trunks, removing any extras.

After submitting the new route, use the crosshair icon to move the Skyetel route to the top, then click Apply Config.

I didn’t need to do any configuration of SIP Settings in Asterisk, my defaults all looked good.

Skyetel Configuration

Skyetel configuration is normally pretty simple, but for my configuration I want to combine my Dynamic DNS setup with the inbound SIP IP. But it turns out that Skyetel doesn’t work that way. Instead they support a script that will periodically call out from your asterisk server and update the endpoint IP at Skyetel if it’s changed https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/ip-endpoint-group-update/

In order to use the script, you must first create a set of API keys on the Skyetel dashboard by clicking the gear icon by your login name.

Go to the API keys tab and click Create. Save the keys somewhere safe, they won’t be displayed a second time.

Then head back to your Raspberry Pi to install the script. You’ll need git to install the script. Additionally, I also needed jq on my Raspberry Pi:

# apt --assume-yes install git jq

Then clone the repository:

# git clone https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/ip-endpoint-group-update.git

cd into the ip-endpoint-group-update directory, and then run the script. I used the defaults for port and transport by simply pressing <Enter>. Enter your API keys that you created on the Skyetel dashboard. I hadn’t yet set up an Endpoint Group in my Skyetel dash, so I entered “x” to do it from the script.

The script automatically installs itself into /usr/local/bin/ip-update-endpointgroup.sh and creates a cron to run it every twenty minutes at /etc/cron.d/ip-update-endpointgroup.cron

In the Skyetel dash I see there’s an endpoint group that was automatically created:

The last thing to do is change the local number that we ported from Google Voice to route to the new Endpoint Group.

Click Save, then give it a few minutes and try calling your number from your cell phone – it should ring and connect. If audio is good, you’re good to go!

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Dynamic DNS with OpenWrt 19.07 and nsupdate.info

I went to resurrect my dynamic DNS configuration on my OpenWrt router. The idea was sparked from a reader comment, so I wanted to follow-up on using nsupdate.info with OpenWrt for a DIY Dynamic DNS setup.

Before I began, I thought I should see if there’s a newer OpenWrt version my router can run. I always start on the Supported Devices page of the wiki, but on this visit I was treated to a warning:

If you read the 4/32 warning, the crux of the matter is that there may not be enough RAM to run OpenWrt without crashing. And the small flash area means possibly not having enough room to install LuCI, the web interface, and the packages to access LuCI via HTTPS. Also, there’s this:

Previous versions of OpenWrt (such as earlier versions of 17.01.x, 15.05.x “Chaos Calmer” and prior) contain now-known security vulnerabilities in the kernel, wireless implementation, and/or application code. […] In many cases, these known vulnerabilities are being actively targeted, potentially including by advanced, likely state-sponsored or state-affiliated actor or actors.

Ugh, I was using one of those older versions, and now I’m paranoid (as I should be) that my router could be used as a tool by nation-states to do their bidding. Nicely, there’s a link on the supported devices page titled “I want to buy a router which is supported by OpenWrt.” It links to their supported hardware table, pre-filtered by units that can run the latest stable version of OpenWrt – 19.07.4 at time of writing.

I spent some time browsing this list compared to what was available at my local Micro Center. I tried to find one that had the best OpenWrt support with the fewest known issues, and landed on the TP-Link C7 AC1750 for $70. If I like this one after a month or so, I’m going to buy another for better coverage.

OpenWrt ddns-scripts install

With the hardware choice out of the way, I installed OpenWrt 19.07.4. Then I needed to add support for Dynamic DNS. Go to System -> Software in the Web UI (LuCI). Click Update lists…, then type ddns in the filter input and press <Enter> to filter the list. The packages to install to use nsupdate.info are ddns-scripts_nsupdate and luci-i18n-ddns-en (or whatever language package you need):

Installing those will also install their dependencies, such as the base ddns-scripts and luci-app-ddns. Once they’re installed, reboot your router and you’ll have a Services -> Dynamic DNS menu.

You might see the menu before rebooting, but you’ll likely get this error if you try to visit it:

/usr/lib/lua/luci/controller/ddns.lua:116: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)

Rebooting should take care of it. Then on the new Dynamic DNS page, you may see a Hints notification like this:

Following it will lead you to a hints page and let you know you need to install a couple more packages: curl and bind-host. Follow the same installation process as above. After they’re installed, the Hints section will go away.

DNS Configuration

The only configuration you have to do at your DNS provider is add a CNAME record for the domain you want to use:

your.domain.com CNAME yourdomain.nsupdate.info

Then when you go to nsupdate.info, on the Overview page click Add Host and put in the subdomain (example: yourdomain from above) in the Name field, then select nsupdate.info under Domain:

Conveniently, after creating your new host entry, nsupdate.info will print your update secret and include specific configuration parameters for OpenWrt:

OpenWrt Configuration

You can use the configuration info from nsupdate.info, but it’s just as easy to paste the info into the LuCI panel. It’s worth noting that you only need to generate one host and host secret at nsupdate.info, but you’ll have two separate configurations in OpenWrt for IPv4 and IPv6.

In OpenWrt’s Dynamic DNS page, click Edit on the myddns_ipv4 row. The first thing you’ll want to do is update the DDNS Service provider to nsupdate.info and click Change provider:

Only then can you enter all of the information from nsupdate.info:

Enter your nsupdate.info FQDN in all of these fields:

Lookup Hostname
Domain
Username

Then put your secret in the Password field. Check both Enabled and Use HTTP Secure, then add /etc/ssl/certs to Path to CA-Certificate. Click Save & Apply, then repeat the same process with the same info for the other myddns_ipv6 entry.

From the Dynamic DNS overview page in OpenWrt, click the Start buttons for each row under Process ID Start / Stop. This only needs to be done once when you’re done configuring Dynamic DNS.

Test

Starting the Dynamic DNS process in OpenWrt should trigger your first update at nsupdate.info. You can see it easily on the Overview page:

If it all worked, your IPv4 and IPv6 address should be updated, hopefully with a green TLS indicator noting that it was done securely. If there are any problems, the numbers under Faults will increase – C for Client, S for Server.

If there are problems, you can see API messages on nsupdate.info by clicking on your hostname to get further details. You can also view detailed logs in OpenWrt by clicking Edit on the myddns_ipv4 or myddns_ipv6 rows. Then click the Log File Viewer tab and click the Read / Reread Log File button.

I was able to configure this in under an hour, hopefully you find it useful. Let me know if you have any troubles getting things to work.

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Porting your Google Voice number to Skyetel to use with IncrediblePBX

Once upon a time you could hook your Asterisk-based PBX to your Google Voice account to make and receive calls. How you hooked it up over the years changed (annoyingly). And at the end of 2018, support for accessing Google Voice via XMPP was dropped. Remember when we trusted Google to be the “for the better good” company? Oh, how times have changed.

With the tech giant under increased scrutiny for it’s advertising practices, I’m not at all sad about leaving one of their products behind. The only thing I wanted to keep was my cool Google Voice phone number: 29-FOELL.

I did it with the help of Nerdvittles and included several screenshots here for easy reference. I also used his advice when it came to picking a new VOIP provider. After looking at a few options, I’m going with Skyetel. Not because it’s the cheapest (it’s not), but because it has an important feature for our home phone: E911.

Skyetel Account

To start my Skyetel account, I went through Nerdvittles’ referral program. He’s negotiated a $10 initial credit, and a buy-one get-one (BOGO) on your first pre-paid amount. It’s not automatic, likely to prevent fraud. You have to submit a support ticket to request a $10 credit after your initial sign-up. Then submit another support ticket after you’ve pre-paid into your account. So I started with $10 (added for free). Then I pre-paid $50 and with another simple support request they matched it with another $50.

Pro-tip: don’t port your number over to Skyetel until you’ve made your first deposit into you Skyetel account. Once you make your first actual payment, they offer a 60-day free port-in service (normally $10).

Back when I had a land line from the local telephone company, it would cost at least $20/month. I expect the Skyetel monthly charges for a local number ($1) and E911 service ($1.50), plus call time, to be less than $5/mo. It’s worth it to me if I can reliably call the house and anyone can dial 911 in an emergency.

My initial deposit of $50, doubled to $100 should last me over 2 years.

Porting your number out of Google Voice

Follow the instructions for porting your Google Voice number out to a mobile phone service. I realize you’re not porting it to a mobile phone, but the instructions are the same. You need to unlock your number so the new provider can claim it.

It will cost $3 to unlock – worth it to me because it’s a cool number.

Once your purchase has been confirmed you’ll be emailed a receipt.

And now your number is unlocked!

Porting your number into Skyetel

From your Skyetel dash, go to Port Orders and click Submit New Order.

The process is fairly simple, but here are some key settings:

Port Type: Local
Assign to Endpoint Group: Out of Service Message – This is so we don’t need to do any SIP configuration up-front. I’m going to cover Skyetel setup in IncrediblePBX in a future post.
Current Provider: Google Voice
Account number with the losing provider: Your 10-digit Google Voice Number.
Port Out Pin: The PIN you use to access your Google Voice voicemail.
Phone Bill: I provided a screenshot of my Google Voice settings page.

Select the first available date for porting to happen, then submit. A support ticket will be automatically generated from your port-in request and you’ll get email updates during the process until it’s complete.

Stay tuned and we’ll go over tying all of the services and equipment together for a reliable VOIP-based home phone:

RaspberryPi w/ IncrediblePBX
RTP-300 Analog Telephone Adapter
This guide to porting numbers
Skyetel Service Configuration (up next!)

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Whatever happened to anonymous trolling?

TL;DR? Don’t read the comments – they’re taking over the internet (and our lives).

Throwing the previous generation under the bus is a major generalization but – OK boomer – hold my beer.

Anonymous Trolling 1990s-2000s

Back in the day if you wanted to start a flame-war or express your true inner ugliness, you did it anonymously or with an unrecognizable internet handle. If you couldn’t comment anonymously, you registered your username as AssClown69 and went about your business.

One of the most prolific places for public trolling “locally” for me was our local papers. The Pioneer Press website, which publishes online under the misleading domain TwinCities.com, and the Star Tribune site.

The Pioneer Press has gone through a variety of commenting systems. The changes were made to both better monetize all the eyes on their popular comments pages and to (possibly?) help filter some of the “rageaholics”. One ramification of switching commenting systems is that all of the comments (both good and bad) on older stories have been cleansed from their website.

Both papers have wrestled with moderating comments and they’re not alone, this 2009 article highlights some of the steps several local publications were taking:

Newspapers take renewed aim at the comment cesspool

The articles about newspapers trying to wrangle the comment cesspool were published in 2008 and 2009. Meanwhile something else was going on…

Boomers adopt social media

Between 2008 and 2010 social media users climbed 30% for people aged 50-64. It went from a paltry 7% to 37% – over a third of all boomers created accounts, presumably to comment on their grandchildren’s photos. But then they found other places to comment.

With the rise in popularity and adoption of Facebook, several publications switched to Facebook-powered comments. Would the comments section calm down?

Now people would be commenting with their actual, legal full name and possibly an actual picture of their face! As some Pioneer Press and Star Tribune readers lamented, would there be “no fun” in the comments anymore?

Boomers connect

The generation that outnumbered and overpowered their parents from the Greatest Generation was now online in social media. The have anything you want generation turned into the say anything you feel generation.

The early internet trolls, which were seen as fringe zealots – hiding anonymously behind their clever username – were now joined by a majority of boomers.

You know those boomers who would look both ways before telling you a racist joke – they’re now empowered with social media. Anonymity didn’t matter anymore, as long as they could avoid the in-person confrontation. They could spew their hate from the comfort of their keyboard, or more conveniently, from their phone.

They forgot that anything they posted would be recorded on the internet forever.

In 2015, the comments on the Star Tribune go so bad that CenturyLink, an internet service provider, blocked comments from StarTribune.com to their subscribers.

This This American Life episode (also from 2015) about commenting online doesn’t paint a prettier picture.

Thus began a no holds barred approach to commenting on all platforms. On Twitter (which is a dumpster fire onto itself) there’s an account called Best of Nextdoor which highlights the vitriol from Nextdoor.com. How meta.

Nextdoor is a fantastic place to bully your neighbors about issues you don’t want to talk about in-person. Never mind that you’re doing this all under your legal name and also your address. 🤦

Boomers conspire

Social media also has had a dangerous leveling effect where pseudo science and opinion can have as great of an influence as actual science and facts.

In a modern age when a flat-earth theory should be considered ridiculous, we’ve instead given that fringe a better way to connect and fuel their own fire. QAnon was started by an anonymous post on 4Chan – an image site that was dedicated to photochops and memes! Where is the credibility in that? It has baseless conspiracy theory written all over it.

Now it seems that parents ~~who do drugs have kids who do drugs~~ who believe in conspiracy theories have kids who believe in conspiracy theories.

The fact that I am referencing BuzzFeed (because mainstream news are avoiding QAnon like the non-news it is) is bonkers.

A double-whammy

I’m not sure if there is a way out. One mainstream technology pushed by Google called Accellerated Mobile Pages (AMP) has been used proactively to create fake news. It’s like a combination of Phishing and Internet Trolling in one package – make something look official and few will question it – especially if they get their news from Facebook.

I build websites using WordPress professionally, and the mission of WordPress has been to democratize publishing. I can’t help but wonder how many of those fake news sites were produced using WordPress & AMP – it’s terribly easy to set up.

How do you see it going? It doesn’t seem to be getting any better from my vantage point 😞

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TDK Traction Compound

On carpet tracks, the owners are very particular about what traction compound you’re allowed to use. Rightly so as the tire rubber and compound ultimately work their way into the (expensive) carpet. On dirt and clay it’s not as regulated for club racing because it’s just dirt! This has unintended consequences… One popular “tire sauce” […]

The post TDK Traction Compound appeared first on Meatball Racing.

On dirt and clay it’s not as regulated for club racing because it’s just dirt! This has unintended consequences… One popular “tire sauce” is liquid wrench. You can even find it listed on the pros setup sheets. While I admire the inventiveness, take a look at the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). With warnings like Use only outdoors or in a well-ventilated area and Causes skin irritation, it makes you wonder if there’s a better way.

When using liquid wrench I would wear nitrite gloves to make sure it’s not soaking into my skin. Wearing gloves for tire chemical treatment is generally a good idea, but if I can also avoid irritating fumes, even better.

Continue reading “TDK Traction Compound”

A natural solution

I ordered some TDK Gen 2 Traction Compound to test at the trophy race. They publish their MSDS (some companies do not), and things look great on paper. No harmful fumes or skin irritation.

FYI – the TDK sauce “freezes” at lower temperatures, so don’t be surprised if your bottle arrives in the mail during winter looking thick.

When I’m at the track my tire treatment routine goes like this. I have a tire washing station that I made by silicone gluing a scrub brush (upside down) to the bottom of a small container. At the track, I fill the container about halfway up with a half water/half Simple Green solution.

When coming off the track I take the dirty wheels and tires off the car, get the tread wet with the Simple Green solution and scrub the tread surface on the scrub brush to get out any dirt. I use an old toothbrush to get any dirt off of the wheels. Then I use the towel I put underneath the washing station to wipe the tires and wheels dry. Then I put them back on the car.

After cleaning the tires, and before going (back) out on the track to practice or race, I’ll apply some traction compound. TDK comes in a bottle with a dauber so there’s no aerosols to worry about. I use a nut driver to spin the wheel nut (and wheel) while applying the sauce. I’ll cover the entire tread area from inside to outside.

I try to time it on race day so it soaks into the rubber for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes I wipe the excess off with a rag I’ve dedicated to tire sauce. If I timed it right it will be right when my next heat is starting.

At the track

The first day at the track after switching from liquid wrench to TDK went well. I didn’t qualify great as I skipped the first qual for repairs after sending my buggy into the boards a few too many times. I was living up to the MeatballRacing name for sure

With only one qualifying opportunity, I wound up qualifying last. INSERT RACER EXCUSE HERE It wasn’t due to the traction compound, but because of my lack of consistency coupled with the fact that I should have had fully treaded tires on this new clay layout.

But by the time the main race was on, a nice groove of rubber was laid down. Finally, my partially treaded tires and TDK compound were able to audibly “bark” on the track as they gripped.

During the main I was able to drive by several pile-ups and move into second place.

I wasn’t able to hold second place, as it was nerve racking to even be there One thing I’ve discovered after returning to racing post-quarantine in 2020 is that I can turn fast laps – I had the 3rd fastest lap time. I attribute it to playing VRC a lot during quarantine (of all things). I watch the fast guys’ lines and follow their lead.

I’ve also discovered that when I do turn fast laps, it’s often at the sacrifice of consistency. I gave up 2nd and 3rd place by having to be marshaled twice – clearly my own fault.

Ultimately, the TDK traction compound didn’t give me a distinct advantage. BUT, it also didn’t give me a disadvantage – which is exactly what I wanted. I’m looking forward to having it as my go-to traction compound on dirt from here on out.

Have you tried it? Let me know what you think. I’d especially like to hear if any carpet racers have tried it.

I’m liking the fact that TDK is clearly dedicated to improving their products as they’ve already released the 2nd generation of traction compound. I want to support them in their endeavor to get Liquid Wrench off of the RC racer’s workbench!

The post TDK Traction Compound appeared first on Meatball Racing.

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Super Simple Hard Cider

My wife got me this hard cider kit from Brooklyn BrewShop for Christmas:

Unfortunately apple cider was very out of season at the time. As we get back into the height of cider season, I want to tell you how easy it is to make hard cider with three (3!) ingredients and have it ready to drink in about a month.

Equipment

The Brooklyn BrewShop kit is an easy single fermentation kit that contains a gallon jug, airlock, siphon, sanitizer, and enough yeast to make three batches.

The only other thing you’ll need are bottles. I like the swing-top E-Z Cap bottles. You can get them at your local brew shop.

Ingredients

Like I said, this is super-simple, there are only three ingredients:

Apple Cider with no preservatives (no potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate)
Champagne Yeast – the kit includes 3 packets of Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast
Honey or Fizz Drops from your local brew store

The Cider

Finding apple cider with no preservatives can be tricky. I’ve noticed that almost all ciders use it. Luckily, the SugarBee brand, which is available at my local grocery store, contains no preservatives. And it makes fantastic hard cider!

Brewing

Brewing is as simple as pouring in room-temperature cider and adding yeast. You should follow the kit instructions to make sure your equipment is sanitized. But it’s really as easy as pouring in a gallon of cider and a packet of yeast.

Put the airlock on and set a reminder for two weeks later. Maybe give the bottle a light shake after a week to re-activate any live yeasts that have settled to the bottom.

Bottling

After two to three weeks of fermentation, we’re ready to bottle. During bottling, we want to make sure a majority of the yeast stays on the bottom and doesn’t get transferred during the bottling process. You should be carefully moving around your fermenter to keep things settled.

Before bottling, we need to decide how you’re going to add the priming sugar – are you using honey or fizz drops? If you’re using honey, follow the instructions and heat it with water. Then you need to combine it with the cider.

Since you don’t want to stir the cider in the fermenting vessel and get all the yeast off the bottom, you either have to:

Siphon the cider into a sanitized bucket or pot and combine with the priming sugar OR
Put equal amounts of priming sugar into your bottles.

If you’re using fizz drops, just add a drop to each bottle for 12-16oz bottles – the E-Z Cap bottles I like are 16oz, and a gallon of cider fills eight (8) of these.

Either way, watch this video on How to Bottle to get used to their simple (but effective) siphon:

I suggest following their instructions by trying out the siphon with some water first. It goes fast, so you’ll want to know how it works before spilling your precious cider (that you’ve waited weeks for) onto the floor, making a huge sticky mess.

Pro-tip:
I like to keep the jug or bucket on the counter and put my bottles on the dishwasher door while it’s open. That gives me the elevation I need for the siphon to work, and if I spill it will stay in the door, and go down the drain once I close the door when I’m done.

Bottle Conditioning and… drinking!

Leave the bottles condition at room temperature for two weeks. I like to put my E-Z Cap bottles back in the box they came in. The box will make sure no UV light gets to our cider, which can impart off flavors.

After two weeks I put one bottle in the fridge to test drink. I’ve never had to condition longer than two weeks, but in the spirit of science we must test! Once I’ve verified that the carbonation is good, I put them all in the fridge to prevent further fermentation (which can lead to explosion).

When you pour, go slowly and use the shoulder of the bottle to trap sediment (excess yeast) before it goes into the glass. Alton Brown does a darn good pour here:

There it is, from the package to your glass in one month. It’s super-easy and has turned out great every time I’ve done it.

Have you found any other brands of no preservative cider you like? Let me know in the comments!

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