Teh Interwebs of Joe

This is a new video I made up in the last couple weeks from the trip Kate an I took around CO for a little vacation.   It was also primarily a test to see how certain techniques work.   It’s short @ around 3:20 so should be easier to watch than my 15 min video I last posted :)   Enjoy!

The Video is shot and edited in 1080P, so you can pick that if you want, but of course Youtube dumbs down the bitrate a bit.  Still looks OK.  The video is also embedded in the video page on the site in 720P res.

Reason I picked Puscifer for the music, is two days earlier we were in front row seats at the show in Omaha, and got to meet Maynard at the VIP wine tasting.   Also this rendition of the song was the perfect tempo, length, and vibe that I was looking for.

(Updated the Link for the 1080P version - and fixed one typo)

Here is my final product of my trip (besides still going through SLR pics),  all of Western CO distilled into one tidy 15 minute package.

Besides for video, much of this was captured with the GoPro HD on the motorcycle just taking one 5Mpix still image every 5 seconds. Which is also why parts of the video are at a slightly different aspect than others.  The video was all shot in 720P 30 fps (to extend the life of my 80GB of memory I brought with.)

The GoPro was also hard wired to run off the bikes power system via a hack to a BacPac I did and documented here a few weeks ago.

Sorry for any motion sickness this may cause :)   All the video and time lapse were sped up quite a bit to fit everything into 15 minutes.  Many of the very twisty bits (most of the trip was very twisty) were edited out because of the rapid direction changes and how hard it was to watch (especially any of the time lapse shots).

The video is 1080P so enjoy!

This ride was amazing, and one of the most interesting trips I have ever done.  I am already brain storming of new trips next spring to places like Yellow stone, or down into New Mexico or Arizona. (not to mention the possibility of Austin for the GP next November).

Just some fun pics I found when sorting the 25,000 images the GoPro took. First pic is of me riding out of Nathrop, CO with the Collegiate Peaks behind me.   And then a picture the bike captured of me taking a pic at the top of Douglass Pass in Western CO 50 mi north of Grand Junction.

Only a week till I head off on my trip.  I took a spin on the bike around town to test out various mounting locations for the GoPro on the bike.   I am going to take another run mid week to test out some other places and try to resolve some vibration I see in a couple.  

The suction cup mount lower on the fairing was the most stable, and had a pretty fun front wheel shot (never noticed how much suspension travel happens during normal riding).

So far it looks like this will be a fun camera to have around  :)

My GoPro hard wire setup and remote trigger.    I wanted a way to power my GoPro for long durations, charge its battery, and also give me a way to start and stop recording from the cockpit of my motorcycle.  There is no native way to do any of this.  But the GoPro HD Hero comes with a bus connector on the back that has all kinds of functions to exploit!  I am a bit of an electronics hack and have the tools to get this done so why not.

Tools needed:

• Dremel (useful for cleaning up the iPod plug so it keys properly, and cleaning out the innards of the bacpac case)
• Drill (mostly to drill the hole in the GoPro outside case, the inside hole for the wire I just did with the dremel)
• Good soldering iron
• 60/40 solder (lead free solder sucks, its too brittle)
• shrink tubing and zip ties
• Silicone or some other kind of sealant/adhesive
• Donor USB cables (Male and female) - in this case I used a Kindle USB cable because it was thin and long enough for what I wanted.
• and a couple iPod 30 pin connectors  (a couple so you can screw up on one).

I took a goPro Bacpac (extended battery pack) and destroyed it trying to hack it for this - we’ll spare the details on how that happened - so I kept the case, threw out the innards and mounted my own modified iPod connector hard wired via info found off this site:

http://goprouser.freeforums.org/the-gopro-hero-hd-bus-interface-t797-50.html

And an even better source of pictures to help ensure you key things right is here:

http://benlo.com/GoPro/usb.html 

I wired it up so I am supplying 5v from a USB source, and also using the two USB data lines as trigger lines to operate the power/mode functions on the camera remotely.   I have a small push button that will be mounted on the motorcycle controls so I can turn the camera on and off as I want.

Pins 5+6 are +5v (from a USB power source),  pin 12 is the power/mode connection, and 1,9,27,30 are all ground lines that are tied together similar to the benlo link above.

The catch here is that the USB connection to the BacPac is now no longer able to be connected directly to an unmodified USB power source or a computer.  Since the data lines are now wired to the power/mode circuits on the camera,  the trace voltage and connections between those lines in a standard USB charging jack or a computer may cause issues with the camera or damage the USB ports on those devices.   So I have a small jumper to put between the bac pac wire and a USB source that disconnects the data wires and only passes through the 5v Power.

On the motorcycle side, I will have a USB jack, that has a lead to my push button on it, so this is able to be removed at ease.

Notes from the build:

1. Once you verify the pinout (test the ground leads to ensure they are where you think they should be) pull out all the other pins from the connector.  From one of the pics above you can see that only the pins I need are there.
2. The remote trigger only operates the power/mode button, so in order to get this to start recording when you turn the camera on you have to enable one button recording in the settings on the camera.
3. You can probably see in one of the pics that there is something under the case where the wires go into the bacpac connector.  I hollowed out the entire area to the left of the bacpac of its former electronics, and supports, etc…  Then using a cut up stock iPod connector case I just put it in there, and it helps support the custom connection, protects the wiring, and keeps everything tidy.  I am going to fill in all the holes and such with silicone sealant to finish it up.
4. Leave slack in the battery compartment so you can open the back of the case to remove the bacpac. I had to work out about 1” of wire that when closed is coiled up in the battery compartment but extends when I open the back.
5. Work on your soldering skills before tackling this.  Its been a while since Ive soldered anything this delicate and took me a few tries (that’s what killed the original bacpac electronics).  and have a good soldering iron, I have a real nice Hakko don’t use a POS radio shack one as those never work well.
6. Seal up the wiring wiht silicone or some acrylic glue to keep wires from being pulled against the solder points.  I still need to do this in the picture above.
7. If you miskey the pins, or connect the 5v to the wrong pins, you will destory your camera.  just FYI.  I spent a good portion of last night just verifying I had it right, and it turns out I didnt the first attempt! (I had the pins reversed, I thought pin 1 was pin 30.)  Check, recheck, recheck again, verify the grounds are in the right spot, then you are good to go.

Overall I think this cost me ~$50 if you count the $44 battery bacpac, and now I have an extra battery, and a hard wired stock looking power source and remote trigger for the GoPro.  This means I can mount it on the bike and power it all day without needing to deal with the 2+hr limit on the stock batteries.

I got the iPod connectors from Sparkfun (which is located out of Boulder!), but you need to dremel out a small bit of plastic to key it correctly.

Route Planning:

After some help finding a place to camp around Salida by my friend Dusten, I think I have all the camping spots planned out now (or camping areas at least).    There is a small chance that night I may skip camping and crash at the Mt Princeton hot springs. Who knows, that’s something I’ll figure out the night of, it will be a very long/challenging ride that day (Gunnison - Aspen - Salida) so I may feel more like a relaxing hot pool and a shower than camping.

Total mileage is ~ 1500mi, but its the riding time per day that is unexpectedly high for each leg for the mileage covered.  Below is the mileage and expected time.  Add about an hour or two onto each of those for stopping, fuel, food, etc…   The low riding time and distance on Day 4 and 5 are important as those areas are places I want to explore more (around Durango and Gunnison) and also a mid trip break isnt bad.

 Day 1 206 mi 4:18:58 
 Day 2 271 mi 5:30:01  
 Day 3 248 mi 5:28:55 
 Day 4 182 mi 3:28:30  
 Day 5 126 mi 2:56:50 
 Day 6 229 mi 5:25:09 
 Day 7 245 mi 6:44:46 

Also I’ve found the Garmin software to be horribly off on some roads for the expected speeds. Up Col de Turini in France the GPS expected us to keep an average speed of 65Mph up the mountain. When the real speed limit was 40, and our speed was below that due to the foggy conditions. So I am curious how realistic these numbers are.

Gear:

I pulled the trigger on a rear “trunk” for the motorcycle, to hold the tent and other odds and ends I want to keep dry.  I picked up a  Givi E370NT Monolock case that will go right behind the MotoFizz bag. 

I am also picking up a cheap heated “Bib” for the ride.   Since some of the morning departures in the mountains could be in the 20 - 30F weather range I will want something to keep me a bit warm in the morning.  Aerostich has a $67 electric bib that keeps the important bits warm.

Keeping comfortable in these mountains could be interesting given the wide swings of temperature and altitude.

Other Prep:

I need to do a good bit of wiring work on the motorcycle, and get the GoPro hardwire and remote trigger stuff soldered up. I should have this stuff ready to by end of next week I hope.

Other than that, I am getting more and more excited!