Mounting the new tubless blokart® Tires Geoff Sobering 2021-07-10 | This is a quick demonstration of one way to mount the new tubless tires on your blokart's rims.The actual mounting process took about 5:00, so even with my inexperience, it is similar to mounting a tire + tube.
Short blokart sailing 4/4/21 (4K) Geoff Sobering 2021-04-05 | A couple of passes by a stationary camera.My first 4K upload!
March 28, 2021 - blokart sailing Geoff Sobering 2021-03-29 | Just a super-short clip from sailing in the gusty wind.
Two Minutes of Sailing at the Mall Geoff Sobering 2020-11-05 | November in Wisconsin and sailing in short-sleeves!I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out one of the malls in the area while the weather was so nice.
September 26, 2020 - blokart sailing at ETC Geoff Sobering 2020-09-27 | Kind of a boring video from today's sailing.More to come...
Sept. 26, 2020 - The power of the Mighty 4.0m over the 3.0m... Geoff Sobering 2020-09-27 | This shows how the 3.0m blokart sail (even in the hands of an better sailor) can't overcome the "Mighty 4.0m"...
1/2 PVC pipe camera mount test with GoPro camera stabilization enabled. Geoff Sobering 2020-08-23 | The music in the video comes from Kfir Ochaion a fantastic guitar player.His YouTube channel is: youtube.com/channel/UCh5zlvB1pZyU3KYjEPC38KQThis music comes from his rendition of "Sultans of Swing": youtu.be/0eir4YIu7bw
1 PVC Tube Camera Mount Test Geoff Sobering 2020-08-09 | A quick couple of shots from my first prototype camera-mount that uses a 1" PVC tube arm that is attached to the mast-tube with a 3D printed mount.
blokart® Seat-Back Camera Mount Test Geoff Sobering 2020-06-18 | This is a short test of the "mk2" version of my seat-back camera mount.The arm is about twice as long, so there's more view outside the kart and less of my shoulder.There is no "in-camera" or post-processing stabilization. You can see how rigid the mount is when I intentionally run over the large gravel islands in the parking lot.I think this may be a good candidate for the final version.The music is from, Leo Moracchioli, of my favorite musicians and YouTubers:youtu.be/Tl7xwr49D-s(Any ads are from him, and I don't begrudge him a penny of them!)
Prototype blokart® Front Steeting Camera Mount Geoff Sobering 2020-06-02 | Mounting a camera just in front and outboard of the POD on a blokart is perhaps my favorite location. Here's a short demonstration of a prototype mount I'm working on for that angle.For the past few years I've been working on various camera mounts for the blokart® landsailer. Recently I've become confident about the strength of my 3D printed parts and started experimenting with some fairly large items. They are working much better than I ever expected. I should have some refined and tested enough to sell in a few weeks.
blokart Seat-Back Camera-Mount Test Geoff Sobering 2020-05-03 | This is a quick video with my GoPro HERO 2 mounted to the seat-back frame.About 10 seconds into the clip you see how stable the mount is when I run the wheel over a patch of large gravel.
New blokart Bearing Replacement Tools Geoff Sobering 2020-03-10 | For more information, please visit the Performance Sailing Products Facebook page and website:facebook.com/PerformanceSailingProductshttp://performancesailingproducts.comYou can contact me via e-mail at:geoff@performancesailingproducts.com
A couple of laps at MATC - April 22, 2019 Geoff Sobering 2019-04-23 | MATC (now Madison College) is close to my house, but also holds a special place in my blokart experience because it's the first place that I ever sailed a blokart...
Video from the first test of my panning camera mount on Ivanpah. Geoff Sobering 2019-03-27 | Music: "Blown Away" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Lake Kegonsa, Dec. 28, 2017 Geoff Sobering 2017-12-29 | Music: "On the Cool Side"Kevin MacLeodhttp://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
Badger blokart Club spring sailing - March 5th, 2017 Geoff Sobering 2017-03-06 | This is a pretty boring video. It's mostly here to demonstrate the sailing at James Madison HS in medium SE wind.
Iceboats on Lake Kegonsa, Jan. 1, 2017 Geoff Sobering 2017-01-02 | A few shots from my drone taken of the iceboats racing on Lake Kegonsa.Not anywhere near my best work...On the plus side, you do get to hear "Over Time" by Jason Shaw (audionautix.com).
Sharpening Howards Runners Geoff Sobering 2016-10-26 | Here's a quick video showing some of the work shaping and sharpening a runner for Howard's land/ice-boat.
Some practice before heading out to Wildwood next week.. Geoff Sobering 2016-10-09 | It's not crappy camera work, it's emphasizing the drama (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).
Distance test of the blokart start timer siren Geoff Sobering 2016-09-25 | I now have a self-contained unit, so I decided to see how loud the little mini-siren is at a distance of 30m (100').
Hanging Artwork on the Iceboat Shop Wall Geoff Sobering 2016-09-22 | Music: I Like Peanuts, Jason Shaw - http://audionautix.com
First prototype super-simple blokart start and race timer Geoff Sobering 2016-09-18 | I'm working on a stand-alone start and race timer.This bread-board prototype looks very promising.It is controlled via a key-fob style remote with two functions: reset and start.The current sequence is:1) 4 short warning tones 1 sec. apart.2) Long tone indicating the start of the dial-up.3) Short tone at 1 minute.4) Short tone at 30 seconds5) 5 "pips" counting down to the start.6) Long tone for the start7) Turn on an LED strip when the race time is up.
First (short) time-lapse pan Geoff Sobering 2016-07-19 | I need to work out the interaction between the panning steps and the frame-rate. I think that will smooth out the pan a little bit more.For this clip I simply choose only every fifth frame which probably didn't match the panning step rate exactly so there is a small "hiccup" every few frames.
Inflating a blokart tire with a Harbor Freight 12V compressor Geoff Sobering 2016-07-05 | I finally got tired of pumping up my tires by hand every time I wanted to go sailing (I deflate them to under 20psi between outings to try and keep the rims from deforming too quickly) so I bought Harbor Freight's mid-range compressor/tire-inflator when I had a 25% coupon (about $26).I'd read a number of comments on the HF website about the compressor's inability to get above 28psi, overheating, and quick failure, so I deflated/inflated the same tire about 10 times as fast as I could. No problem getting to 50psi or getting too hot.I decided see how long it took to get from near-zero to ~45psi and check the pump's pressure gauge against my handheld one.Pumping the tire up took about 1:15 and the pump's gauge was very close (after checking it a number of times the pump seems to read about 2psi high between 40-50psi).Just FYI, the pump model number is 69284 and it also seems to be listed as another number sometimes).
My utility box trailer with softened springs Geoff Sobering 2016-07-05 | I removed one leaf from my Harbor Freight trailer because I wasn't planning to load it anywhere near its 1195 lb rating and it looked to be riding a bit harshly.Of course I had to check to make sure it wasn't bottoming out...The audio is just what the camera recorded, and it clips in a few spots, so you might want to turn the volume down...(The pool-noodle is there to act as a bumper in case I'd over-softened the springs and the suspension was bottoming out)
Simple Arduino Demo Geoff Sobering 2016-07-01 | I gave an Arduino and some misc. bits to a friend as a present and I wanted to give him a simple sketch (that was a bit more than the "blink" demo).This sketch starts by blinking the single LED on the breadboard three times, and then starts "scanning" the LEDs on the circuit board back and forth at vary speeds.It also lights the red LED when you press the button.If you're interested, the sketch is available at: http://geoff-s.net/tech/Arduino/DeanDemo1.ino
Prototype stepper-motor panning system at camera FPS (smoother) Geoff Sobering 2016-06-14 | This pan-head uses a really cheap 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and ULN2003 driver that you can get for less than $6.This test program uses the Arduino delay() function to control the pulse-rate (and hence the motor speed). You can see some jitter in the pan speed. I plan to write an improved program using the timer interrupt that should be more stable. Hopefully that will improve things.
Prototype stepper-motor panning system Geoff Sobering 2016-06-13 | This pan-head uses a really cheap 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and ULN2003 driver that you can get for less than $6.This test program uses the Arduino delay() function to control the pulse-rate (and hence the motor speed). You can see some jitter in the pan speed. I plan to write an improved program using the timer interrupt that should be more stable. Hopefully that will improve things.
blokart North American Championship Super-Heavyweight Division Race #8 Geoff Sobering 2016-04-13 | ...
blokart North American Championship Super-Heavyweight Division Race #8 Geoff Sobering 2016-04-09 | Sorry for the lack of sound... Revised video here: youtube.com/watch?v=LxL4C3Vb5uM
blokart sailing at Watertown Highschool, Sept. 22, 2015 Geoff Sobering 2016-03-28 | After a long day of scouting sailing sites and driving 200 miles on Wisconsin back-roads I ended up at Watertown Highschool in the evening.The wind was perfect and the parking lot had just been resurfaced so it was incredibly smooth.
Fun a the end of Baker Ave... Geoff Sobering 2016-02-29 | The offshore wind shifted the ice sheet out about 6 feet in just a few minutes so we had to be a bit creative getting the boats off the ice today.Amazingly the landing held up for two Renegades, a Palmer two-seater, and the humongous tandem skeeter.Even when Jim Nordhaus isn't in town he still helps with the landing! The sheets of OSB he got for the DN regatta were pressed into service again today.
Iceboating February 28, 2016 Geoff Sobering 2016-02-29 | This is Scott Goetz's Renegade sailing on Middleton Bay (the NW end of Lake Mendota).
