It’s been a minute! Actually it’s been almost a year Remember how I said I saved $300 on a G500? I’ve reduced that savings by half by purchasing another 1/24 scale Tetra X3. Am I a glutton for punishment? Probably. I really wanted to love this rig, but there were some disappointments I couldn’t get past.
PandaHobby did listen to all of the feedback and shortly after the X3 was released they acknowledged the problems with the suspension and ESC and shipped a fix to anyone that requested it.
However, the suspension components they sent to me didn’t completely fix the issues of the shocks binding up. Then the stock servo broke and it sat on a shelf for the better part of a year
Version 2
I hadn’t been paying much attention during that time and recently noticed there’s now a V2 of the same model. I thought that I already had all of the things that brought it to Version 2 spec, but there’s actually a lot more.
Continue reading →
At the start of winter in 2020, my mailbox got hit by the snow plow. I kept it going for the winter by pounding in a safety fence post and then zip-tying the wooden mailbox post to the metal fence post. You can also see that the curb and part of the street here has been repaired from past years’ snow-plow shenanigans.
I used these images as an analogy for refactoring software with our engineering team at work. I explained that sometimes the fix-ups require somewhat ugly, but temporary scaffolding. However, the software keeps working and this is what the client sees:
Mailbox Fortress
Shortly after sharing my mailbox analogy, a coworker suggested my replacement be this:
But I think this is going in the wrong direction. My dad has a similar mailbox fortress. Also being in Minnesota, his mailbox has suffered the wrath of the plow:
Mailbox 2.0
For my replacement mailbox, I wanted to do something different. I explained the snow-plow situation to someone at the hardware store.
Resilience
The hardware store employee suggested using fence-post foam where the mailbox post goes into the ground. This would add some flexibility, which should create additional resilience.
re·sil·ience
noun
the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
Oxford Dictionary
I don’t mean to get philosophical, but we kind of need to. Resilience is a quality that ensures our survival as a species. However, so many things we do lack resilience: the way we build cities, our hard-line political stances, and permanent status-quo. Adapt, or die – that will be the mantra when we realize our top-down systems are not resilient.
Post & Mailbox
Enough philosophy… I bought a bag of post foam, and a mailbox. Also a cedar mailbox post that has a metal rod that goes into the ground. Normally you’d just drive the metal rod into the ground, but I dug the hole so there was a little space around the rod. I pounded it in a little to make sure it stayed level, then filled the hole with foam.
Side note on the post foam – a little goes a long way! I probably only needed to pour 1/10th of the bag. It was rather comical seeing the foam rocket out of the hole like a middle-school volcano science project 🌋😱
The post is definitely flexible. At first it seemed alarmingly flexible, but it only wiggles when you force it to.
The mailbox has a pretty cool mechanical feature as well. There’s a “you’ve got mail” indicator that we can see from the front door to know if the mail has arrived.
For the 2nd year in a row, I coerced my family to participate in a Parks & Recreation ice fishing event on MLK Day. It coincides with the Minnesota DNR’s annual free family ice fishing weekend. The Fridley Parks & Recreation event was hosted by Fishing for All. For $5 I don’t think you can beat it.
While I do enjoy fishing, ice fishing has never been my jam. But this was so fun and easy that it even made me think twice about getting some ice fishing gear…
Since the free fishing weekend coincides with MLK day, many people are already off of work. I signed up for the early afternoon session and walked with the family down to Moore Lake during my lunch hour. The guides were super knowledgeable, and they had everything set up and ready to – including bait! 🪱
They talked about ice safety and showed the depth of the ice (over 20″ this and last year) – my 9yo daughter was especially concerned about this. The guide had half a dozen holes already augered, with a 5-gallon pail to sit on and Vexilar sonar rigs ready to go. They supplied the ice fishing rods and even had bait ready to drop in. Both times we’ve gone, everyone caught at least one fish.
2022 Catches
In 2022 all of our catches were small perch.
Marlo became the media darling of Fridley as her picture was featured in both the Fridley newsletter and the Parks & Rec catalog.
No aerator for 2023
For this year, there’s sort of an interesting experiment taking place. Moore Lake Park is being renovated in 2023. Part of the renovation includes the removal of a building that houses the aeration pump, so it’s not being run during the 2022-2023 winter season.
While the aeration system was installed to prevent winterkill, the real risk of winter fish kill is on the west side of the lake, where the water is extremely shallow. The aeration, which was intended for good, also has negative consequences. Like leaving a hole in the ice which tempts waterfowl to stay for the winter, rather than migrating south. Whatever the case is, I’m glad it’s being tried, and eager to see what the result is in the spring.
2023 Catches
Since the aerator wasn’t running, we were able to fish the spot that would normally be a hole in the ice.
Quickly after the guide refreshed us on using the ice fishing sonar, we started getting bites. He exclaimed “Fish on!” as we were all getting some action. This year it was nothing but fat sunfish, which was fun. Everyone caught at least one fish. Check out Jessi’s Blue Gill Sunfish, what a beauty! 🐟
10/10 Would Fish Again
Like I said, this event makes it so fun and easy that I considered getting ice fishing gear. But for $5, I could bring the entire family a dozen times to this event before I equal the cost of the sonar setup. Not to mention the ice auger, the sled, the ice fishing rod, etc. But it makes me think about it! Next year I might bring my Sonarphone T-Pod and see how it compares to the Vexilar ice-ducer. Or maybe I’ll look at something like the Deeper Sonar Pro+ 2 which has a ice-ducer like display on their app (and can be used in the summer too).
I’m still happy to talk down to the lake with the family once a year on my lunch break. We’re guaranteed a catch 🎣
The weekend of WordCamp US 2022, I took Sunday off to attend another event happening in San Diego that weekend: Fully Charged Live. Fully Charged is a YouTube show that centers around electric vehicles, but it’s really about electrification of everything. In the same vein, the show had a plethora of electric cars, but it had a lot more: electric motorcycles, bikes, skateboards, and one wheels. Also there was a lot of information about non-transport related electrification, such as efficiency in your home. One suggestion: try a portable induction cooktop to see if you like it.
Induction cooking is up to 95% efficient. All the heat goes into the pot – not the air or the even the cooking surface itself. Straight into the cooking vessel. I’ve always been intrigued, so I bought this Duxtop model on Amazon that came with a sauce pan for $150.
I have to get new pots⁉️
Since induction cooktops require “special” pots and pans, buying this combination made sense. The saucepan included was a great place to start, as it’s the sort of pan I use most often.
But you might already have some pots & pans that work. Take a refridgerator magnet to the bottom, if it has a good stick, it will work. One thing that will work for-sure: cast iron 🧲
Great features
Besides being able to bring that full saucepan to a boil in less than 5 minutes(!), there are a lot of other nice features that I didn’t expect…
Timer
There’s a built-in timer to automatically stop after a set amount of time. It’s great for boiling rice or pasta. It’s also good for making water for coffee or tea. When I’m making Aeropress coffee I like the water to be about 180-190°F. For me this means filling the kettle consistently and setting the boil timer to 4 minutes.
Keep Warm
The keep warm feature is programmable in 20°F increments. I can use it for my coffee water to keep at 180°F or make sure dinner waits perfectly at 140°F.
No flame
I trust my 13yo to make macaroni and cheese on this thing without burning the house down.🧯 Sure there’s still a scalding concern with boiling water, but he’s good with that part.
Clean Up
Because the surface itself doesn’t get hot, clean-up is a snap. Simply wipe the surface off. Nothing gets burnt or caked on.
Downsides?
The only annoying thing about induction cooking is the cooktop knows when the pot is and isn’t there. So when you lift the pot off the surface while it’s heating, it will beep.
If you’re the type of person that likes to shake the pan rather than use a spatula to mix the contents, the cooktop will beep at you. No harm, no foul – it will be fine, but it will keep beeping until you set the pot back down.
Gateway to a full induction cooktop
This is the best way to try induction cooking before switching to a full induction cooktop for thousands of dollars. But I expect we’ll switch to an induction range as part of electrifying our home.
What about the portable cooktop? I still think this thing is useful. I’d for sure lend it to anyone wanting to try induction cooking. Also, I plan on buying an induction fondue set for it so we can retire our setup.🔥
Before we get into Mixer Hell I want to talk about what is currently consuming my life: MBI Winds. It’s a brand new WGI Winds ensemble put on by Minnesota Brass – sort of like an indoor marching band, but just the horn line. Our first contest is in one month and we still have open positions for flute, clarinet, saxophone, baritone & tuba. Here’s more about our 2023 program and how to join: https://mnbrass.org/2022/11/2023-winds-show-announcement/
For this new ensemble we have audio equipment (computer, mixer, powered speakers) that are used for our backing track – non-winds sounds and percussion. Since this is a new ensemble with a limited budget, I took the approach to beg & borrow as much equipment as possible.
I started with a Behringer X-32 console mixer from my old high school care of the Irondale Marching Knights. Put frankly, this mixer is huge. It was going to require a cart, and with only a 5’x9′ trailer I quickly realized that we wouldn’t be able to fit a huge sound cart and the floor tarp and the speakers.
While I like the X-32, it will likely be for sale in the near future…
Mixer 2
I had another cart option, a portable injection-molded SKB rack – free of charge from the Blaine HS Marching Band. This one would definitely be a better fit in the trailer, and MBI Indoor Percussion had an old rack-mount mixer they were trying to sell earlier in the year.
It was a Presonus StudioLive RML32AI and at first glance, it could do everything we needed: rack mount, computer audio interface, network control, and at least 8 channels.
My only complaint to start was I couldn’t install the mixer control app on my 3rd generation iPad with iOS 10. The mixer we used at River Valley Sound was a SoundCraft Ui16 which has a built-in web interface instead of an app. You could control that mixer with literally any device that had a web browser, old or new. On my old iPad it worked like a charm.
We were able to use the Presonus mixer for the month of December at rehearsals. But I had to borrow my wife’s (and sometimes kid’s) iPad which could run the control app.
Problem 1
While using it, we encountered one avoidable, but annoying problem. At one rehearsal it wouldn’t send anything on the main left/right outputs. I could plug a speaker into the mono/center out and it would work. So for one Friday evening we just used one speaker. I went home, searched and came upon this thread: https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=222&t=31779&sid=18e60e7bc8de7f7d56493cd5677e5e3d
TL;DR? There’s a bug where the main out is muted but not indicated anywhere in the app.
This problem happens when you save the scene with the “mute all” button pressed.
I don’t remember saving a scene, but I for sure used the “mute all” button frequently during equipment setup and teardown.
I found a solution for this, doing this:
Mute the Mono Out, then, in the mute groups screen, save this mute scene in any of the spaces. Press the Mute group button that you just saved the mute scene to. It will toggle the Mute for the Mono Out and the Main Out together.
Please Presonus, fix this bug !!!!
This was for-sure my problem because I tried the fix Saturday morning and was back in business.
Problem 2
The second problem was unavoidable in our circumstance. The computer audio interface on the Presonus StudioLive RML32AI uses firewire. That’s fine, I’m familiar with FireWire. It’s a little old school, but should work. Our sound system computer is an “Apple Silicone” (M1) Macintosh. At first I thought all I needed was a USB-C to Thunderbolt-2 adapter and a Thunderbolt-2 to FireWire adapter. $100 in adapters later, I still couldn’t get the mixer to be recognized as an audio interface on the computer. The Presonus FireWire drivers were consistently listed under Disabled Software in the mac’s System Report.
Presonus support confirmed that they have no plans to support FireWire drivers on M1 and newer Macintosh computers. Maybe performance was lacking? Because it’s certainly still possible to connect other firewire devices to Apple Silicon macs:
The only way to use Presonus hardware with a firewire audio interface is with an Intel-based Mac, or a Windows computer 😖
Mixer 3
It was clear we needed another option. There was something about the X-32 that I really liked: cross-platform support. They have mixer control programs for just about everything: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The fact that I could use my Ubuntu system to potentially run the mixer makes my heart sing! 😍
So we landed on a Behringer X-32 Rack. All of the features of the console mixer, but in a rack-mount package. Double-bonus that some of our staff have previously used Behringer equipment and are familiar with the mixing software.
Remember how I said I saved $300 on a G500? I’ve reduced that savings by half by purchasing another 1/24 scale Tetra X3. Am I a glutton for punishment? Probably. I really wanted to love this rig, but there were some disappointments I couldn’t get past.
PandaHobby did listen to all of the feedback and shortly after the X3 was released they acknowledged the problems with the suspension and ESC and shipped a fix to anyone that requested it.
However, the suspension components they sent to me didn’t completely fix the issues of the shocks binding up. Then the stock servo broke and it sat on a shelf for the better part of a year 
