Author: betsy

Modified lens on GoPro

8/9/11

The non-fisheye lens on the GoPro is ready for testing on the lifting kites. Here Don hooks it up to the large monitor in the office. In these photos the camera is recording while projecting what it is recording on the big screen. Nalani and Max are visiting.

Rok G12 & G13 test – Aug 5

8/5/11

At Crown Beach. Don flew both the G12 and G13 design rokkaku kites with the new taped construction. He used a half of a plastic toy world globe and a 55mm UV lens filter to create a protective camera housing.

Boat weights – K2 & Kitefoiler

8/2/11

Today we weighed K2 to check its actual weight against our estimates. With both floats, the center hull, both beams, all bulkheads and bonding, and both cassette boxes, K2 now weighs 228 kg (503 lbs). This is about 45 kg more than our calculated estimate, and 18 kg more than the highest individual estimate (everyone guessed before we weighed it). The higher weight is not ideal, but we’re still on track to deliver a completed boat that weighs less than 400kg. We also weighed K2 with the hatch covers in a box on top of the boat–that added 25 kg, for a total of 253 kg. We also weighed the trampoline net, which was 3 kg.

For comparison, we also […more]

Kitefoiler Test with Cuben Fiber Kite – Jul 20

7/20/11

Tested again with the 25 sqm Cuben Fiber kite. A short test, but good conditions behind Treasure Island (strong wind, relatively calm water). We got some of the best photos yet of the boat. Don and Joe tried to sail under the Bay Bridge, but lost too much wind and dropped the kite. We returned to dock after an hour and then they ventured out again without the Protector.

Kai View Data:
20110720-kf-cubenKite-day2.kai.bz2

Kitefoiler Test with Cuben Fiber Kite – Jul 19

7/19/11

Our first test with the Cuben Fiber/Dacron kite. Tons of power–we were very pleased with the stiffness of the kite (Cuben Fiber does not stretch as much as our other fabrics), but we will need to adjust the bridle, because Don was afraid to drop the kite much in front of the boat, for fear of it pulling too much, so foiling time was brief. We used the original J-foils.

Kai View Data:
20110719-kf-cubenKite.kai.bz2

Precise kite inflation

7/19/11

Don and Joe modified the inflation tube that we use with the compressed air tank so it is possible to see to what pressure the kite is inflated. Previously, this was a problem with the compressed air tanks, because we just had to guess at the inflation by eyeballing the kite. The electric kite pumps have pressure gauges, but they take much longer to inflate a kite. Don and Joe used the newly arrived Cuben Fiber and Dacron kite for practice. We’ll use this kite for the first time later today on the Kitefoiler.

Android camera control

7/6/11

Jamie has made sweet innovations allowing the Samsung tablet to act as a remote camera control for the Android phone. He also hooked up the phone to a GoPro. At left is a short video demonstration.

From Jamie:
The main idea is to remotely position a camera that may be on a kite (100m in the sky, or in another country) using Android devices. At the kite side is an Android phone which is relaying images from its camera to the ground, and controlling two servomotors that can pan and tilt the phone. On the ground is an Android tablet on which the image stream from the kite can be viewed and the pan and tilt is controlled. Control […more]