TimHurford

RF Connector (3-pin)

RF Connectors are the ones that are used in radio controlled aircraft or cars to connect the servos .. I found them in a hobby shop - they also come in two or three wire varieties, with male and female ends. I used them on the tounge switch cause I wanted the low profile connection inside the cheek (see photo). I've got some spare sockets, can post them too you (may take a week or so from Oz!). PM me with your details if you can't source them.

Yes - they are both 2.5mm Sterio plugs. I've done pretty much what you've suggested, both for stills and cameye. I bought sterio sockets from Radio Shack (see pic) that have a threaded end for mounting. I made up a couple of cables with plugs on each end (bought from skytools for @$3). The cameye is routed through to the sterio socket on the plate, and the extension lead I made then connects from the socket to the camera. The tounge switch connects with RF servo connections inside the cheek, up to another 2.5mm sterio socket, and then the extension jack connects from the socket to the 300D. I can pull both video and stills off the helmet, and disconnect them from the helmet connection, rather than the camera LANC/remote connections. The main issue is continuity. If you get say two LANC leads from Skytools, you can just match and join up the colours to create the extension - but you will need a multi-meter to check continuity from the cameye wiring to the socket; same goes for the camera switch. Skytools also provide a set of instructions that illustrate the different colour wires depending on the age of your cameye (BTW my writing is the colours of the original cameye). Enjoy!

PM sent ... shipping to Australia is going to hurt!

OK, the paint is dry. Still have to put fittings on (hinge, cutaway, ratchet), door on the back, lining on the inside and fit the cameye ... This one was made using the same method described in my custom odyssey above, with a lot of fiddling around to create a side mount for the PC1. The camera drops in from the inside (what a headache that was!) and is lined up neutral with my eyes (don’t even ask how long that took!). The camera is snug against my head on the inside, so is as low profile as I can get ... and as you can see, no snags .... got creative, and also made a mould of my prodytter for the other side. Paint is chameleon like the flat top model, but this one has a base colour of purple that changes to blue and green depending on the angle (just like a bruise!) – see difference with photo’s with/without flash. Am much happier with the finish on this one … all that ‘experience’ from my first attempt! This one only took a month … lots of crappy weather … cost was pretty much neutral as I had all the stuff left over from the first project (well, depends on how you look at that!).

My custom lid adventure is here. Have finally finished the mounts for Sony PC1 and Canon 300D with Sigma 15mm. Had heaps of cloth and epoxy left over, and some shitty weather, so the next project is rolling out of the workshop as soon as the paint is dry ...

Squeak, I really think you'd be more comfortable on a Stiletto 170 .. hey, you can buy the one I've got up for sale

Canuck, If you contact Helen at Skytools, she can provide spare LEDs that you can splice/solder inlieu of your 'green' ones (yuh know they will provide spare plugs .. well they can do the LEDs too!). Mine cost me a couple of $$, but if you ask nicely (perhaps explaining that you can't see green) then she might just give them too you. Dude, if you can't see green ... how do get a ground rush

Got mine here

Well, here’s mine, hot off the workbench! Just finished building it from scratch. The more astute will notice that it’s a copy of Wes Rich’s Cranium Camera Mount (CCM) … Wes put out a pretty comprehensive CD on his construction techniques for making a custom helmet (you can find it at TSO-D) – examples of his work are at www.RimWorldVideo.com. So, this is pure custom to fit my scone. As you can see it is flat-top, and the lowest profile that you could get and as snag-proof as I could make it (ok, except for that big line catcher at the front … but here’s what I did … I cut the shaft of the post as close to the shoulder as possible, milled each end then tapped threads in both, and joined them back together with the shaft of a nylon bolt. The idea is that this then creates a fracture point under stress … haven’t tested this yet, so use at your own risk etc etc!) Cutaway is courtesy of a major helmet manufacturer; dirt alert is remoted down to the ear; I used RF Servo connectors for the internal wiring, which go up to a 2.5mm sterio connection on the carbonfibre top plate (made that too!) for the biteswitch. The biteswitch plugs just inside the cheek on the left (servo connection). Cameye is mounted flush with a 2.5mm connection on the top plate for that also. Quick disconnects (ie. Servo connectors) are all under the top plate. The paint-job is a chameleon colour – ‘jade passion’, which changes from green to purple depending on the angle; I put a 2-pac polyurethane clear coat over the top. My first attempt at fibreglassing, painting and soldering! Wes’ instructions on making a helmet are absolutely comprehensive; and am pretty happy how it turned out. The missus is not so happy – well perhaps now that it’s finished. It took me about six weeks mainly cause I had to sneak off to the workshop each night after she went to bed (hey, that’s about the delivery time from the US anyway!). Cost of parts/material probably put it cheaper than an off-the-shelf system, and I had most of the other stuff that you would need (dremel, drill press, compressor, etc … well, that’s what I told the missus!) but the time involved was pretty intensive (sanding, sanding, redo, swearing, sanding, swearing …) Of course it was all about the experience! Am now working on mounts for cameras …

A reason perhaps to go to Russia to jump?

find the Cypres Card here

What is Schrodinger's Cat Paradox? A theory of quantum mechanics called "indeterminacy" says that mathematically, a particle can be in two states at the same time. Schrodinger wanted to show that it was not true, so he came up with an illustration. This experiment is only hypothetical, and can't really be done. Schrodinger said that if you put a cat in a box with a poison that might kill it, at the end of an hour the cat has a 50% chance of being alive, and a 50% chance of being dead. According to quantum mechanics, since we can't see in the box to know if the cat is alive or dead, the cat is both alive and dead. Of course, we know that this is not possible, nothing can be alive and dead at the same time. This is just what Schrodinger wanted to show. Nah, I didn't know that, I just googled it!

Ok, here are some uniquely Australian ones. PM me if you can't work out the context : I rubbed all the fur off my kelpie Well bugger me in the blow hole and call me Flipper All over me like ants at a picnic Get a dog up ya 'waddayareckon' (what do you reckon?) Bangs like a dunny door in storm Even Blind Freddy could see that Ugly as a box of Blowflies Couldn't organise a root in a brothel Funny as a fart in an elevator Handles like a dog on lino you must have Kangaroos loose in the top paddock Feel like a Pork chop in a Jewish Synagogue Don't come the Raw Prawn You got the Rough end of the pineapple Tighter than a fish's bumhole It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. May your ears turn into arseholes and shit on your shoulders. Scarce as rocking horse shit. About as useful as tits on a bull Busier than a one armed Sydney cab driver with the crabs Dig a hole and bury me, it just doesn't get better than this If I wanted to talk to an asshole like you, I would've farted If I had a dog that looked like him, I'd shave it's arse and make it walk backwards He must have 2 dicks...he couldn't be that stupid from pulling one He couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag Get a woolly dog up ya Don't piss on my back and tell me it's rainin' I'm so thirsty I could drink the sweat from a Japanese Sumo wrestler's jockstrap Hornier than a three balled tomcat What will you do for a face when the monkey wants it's arse back? She's been hit with the fugley stick too many times If I had a head like yours I'd circumcise it Mate, I wouldn't fuck her with YOUR dick So low he could parachute out a snake's arse and free-fall

Snakes don't believe the hype, they are all venomous killers!