Bustin Out New Bustin Maestro Mini

So after boarding for 2 weeks, I figured where I actually want to begin- medium sized cruiser board, but with some downhill flavor. My solution? Bustin Maestro Mini to replace my Kracked Skulls M1 deck for the time being. Funny enough, Bustin sent me the regular Maestro by accident, thus I got a chance to take comparison pictures before shipping it back:





And so I was bustin out some tools since new deck nor old trucks came with proper hardware (riser pads, washers to protect the board from truck bolts' lugnuts). Ended up cutting up a few riser pad sets to lower the deck as much as bolts allowed and cushion it from the hardware.




I cut 4 pieces for the top of the deck per truck to lower it as much as possible, and then 2 per truck for the bottom to be used as washers for the bolts. Final result was quite pleasing and clean.

From snow to tarmac..

Figured I'd try longboarding since aggressive doesn't exactly transfer too well from snowboarding and of all of these sports, that's definitely my top one. So here we go:

Got a Kracked Skulls M1 40" board w/ Randall 180 trucks and pink Powerballs 72mm wheels. Skipped bearings since I have plenty from my blades. Ended up messing up a shield on 1 of my Royal 7s, so I used my generic ceramic-ball abec 7s instead. Rolls real smooth, nothing to complain about whatsoever.



After some Xacto magic, viola!

HPI RS32 Has Landed!

So at long last I got my hands on one of these and for a mere 90$ + shipping. Box is quite appealing as is the hard plastic, model-quality Calsonic R32 body.



Everything is packaged fairly well, nothing to complain about.





Now this is where RS car differs from the Kyosho Mini-Z- not only does it sport modular electronics seen in other scale R/Cs, but it also comes disassembled. Nothing is tricky in this car save being super-bite sized, but so are kyosho dNanos.





The car handles well, but could DEFINITELY use a little more speed and battery life. My guess is to use a Losi motor and/or lithium battery packs, perhaps from R/C helicopters.







Note that because these will go hand-in-hand with the new HPI slot car line, the details may surpass that of Mini-Zs, like rear view mirrors, for example.

New Mini-Z Atomic 90mm MidMount and DPS

Just got these in the past weekend, AR-265 and AR-265-BKDPS. Looks like Atomic only recently caught up to PN's idea of last year, the 90mm Mid Mount with a custom Damper Plate System.

Overall much more simple than the PN unit, not much heavier nor lighter, but it does have quite a few new elements. The DPS post only uses one spring now and does not attach to a bottom holder plate of any sort, but rather to the motor mount's DPS arm itself. The plastic plate gets pressed against the metal one, and it even has a little trough to hold a little bit of dampening oil better than the old, completely flat plates (maybe atomic always had this though, this is my first Atomic DPS/disks). Lastly there is an optional, bolt-on rear diffuser.

Narrow Focus

So this coming late Feb. the DMV area will have another, BIG, Z race that's sure to attract all the prominent racers from up and down the coast. The interesting part will be a compact car race with rules I haven't seen done before- only narrow wheels/tires allowed. Oddly enough, there will be no motor restrictions, but narrow tires are bound to force racers to limit their options to slower and more controllable powerhouses.

That said, an immediate idea that came to mind was to try the MA chassis once again considering that it may have an advantage running all narrow tires and not losing much of its performance like the MR brotheren (yet to test this thought, however).









And what better body than a Rally classic, Ford Focus that was driven by Colin McRae himself back in the days!

Setup is as aggressive and low as possible, starting out with hardest springs up front and 2nd hardest in the rear, kyosho 30* tires all around for balance, all key parts in aluminum to ensure finishing the race.

*Post testing on RCP- wow! What a car when used with the right tires. Also the only hatchback that allows more than +1 wheel offset for that extra wide stance.

At Long Last Nokia E72

Side-by-side with E71.




Released on October 22, 2009, E72 became a direct successor of E71 and an extremely solid addition to the E Series handsets. Boasting the same compact size (115 x 58 x 10 mm), layout, and plethora of features E72 remains the thinnest and the longest-lasting smartphone on the market. Unlike the recent additions to the family (E75, E52, E55), E72 sports the most optimal layout and hardware specs- 250MB internal memory, 5MP camera, full qwerty keyboard, 600mHz ARM 11 processor.

So why upgrade from E71? If you like to squeeze the most out of your phone, then you will love the faster processor, more on-board memory, better camera (better drivers besides the raw megapixel upgrade for much better day and night shots), 3.5mm headphone jack instead of the useless 2.5mm, and ability to charge through the USB port. The list of upgrades may appear rather minuscule, but it opens up major conveniences such as not having to carry a data cable AND a charger, using 2.5mm jack headphones or an adapter to use your own pair, and having an actually decent mobile camera whose shots aren't shameful to look at on your PC.

Onto the review then. Physical appearance and general feel: E72 sports matte black/silver/brown plastic that makes it very comfortable to hold unlike the glossy finish E71 had. The keypad is easier to work with thanks to the new plastic as well. The keyboard itself got 2 more keys on the bottom row at the expense of space bar width. New character layout is much more convenient with the addition of "(" ")" symbols as well as several shortcuts for phone's features like a quick bluetooth switch, quick silent mode, ability to use camera's LED as a flashlight. The soft keys under the screen have a better layout and a partial wooden-finish appearance. Lastly, the directional pad has the option of optical navigation. The external speaker has been moved to the left of the camera and seems to be more quiet than that of E71, but not enough to impair the overall performance.

The software side: we have the same old goodies like a solid GPS function through Nokia Maps or any other alternative program, microsoft office w/ full ability to edit documents, pdf reader, media player with a very wide support of formats (WMV/RV/MP4/3GP video, MP3/WMA/WAV/RA/AAC/M4A audio), now FM radio receiver is back, digital compass, and virtually anything else that the community has written programs for. I'll mention that business phones in fact make better entertainment phones since entertainment is a mere matter of software, and business phones pack productive hardware that's actually able to support your entertainment far better and longer than any entertainment-centered, "fun phones," on the market. Another dear piece of information is that E72 is already hackable and thus you get complete control of your phone plus additional software costs can be reduced to zero (better media players, IM clients, GPS software and maps, etc).

Lastly, the hardware side of E72: that I'll begin with the GPS receiver and its performance using the included (but myself-"upgraded" via full USA map) Nokia Maps. To provide an ultimate test, I did not use a-gps aka network assistance and made E72's chip work all by its lonesome in providing me with accurate step-by-step directions and distances. This experience was wonderful and receiver locked onto satellites quickly and worked accurately. Approximately 2 hours of GPS navigation did not deplete even 1/7 power bars which reassured the godlike life of the device just like E71. The radio receiver works like a charm, but requires headphones to act as an antenna. The camera is a real beauty considering it's one of the last areas of focus on a business device. Previous E Series models all suffered from poor camera drivers (namely poor control of the LED flash) that made 3 megapixel quality fairly useless regardless of lighting conditions and other factors. E72 and perhaps E75/52/55 finally cure poor drivers and images come out very well.

E71 via E72 camera in dark lighting, testing out the flash capability


The battery life and power saving management is still phenomenal and allows at least 2-3 days of moderate usage (texting, camera, music, GPS every few hours). Thanks to USB charge, you won't have to lug charger and USB cables with you to be able to connect E72 to a computer and charge it.

All in all, this is a solid all-around electronic device at a very affordable tag (roughly 380 USD right now) that can easily replace your standalone cellphone, GPS, media player, and perhaps a point-and-shoot digital camera. Why settle for less and buy ipods or garmins when you can have all of it in one slick candy bar?

Flowlights- The REAL Photoshop At Your Disposal

So after getting into raving a few months ago I've been looking for weapons of choice and ended up on the path that probably half the community ends up taking- flowlights.

What are they? 3-LED, 10 light mode plastic sticks that run on a simple AAA battery.


Come in all sorts of flavors and with a little soldering, nothing is stopping one from making a custom rig. Also, at the very least the soft cases shown above are HIGHLY recommended for beginners and experts alike.




And what can be done with these? Thats purely in the hands of your dancing and artistic senses.






These can be purchased from number of sites such as the home site www.flowtoys.com or www.liquidemotions.com

Hybrid rechargeable batteries are highly recommended- pre-charged duracells in plastic blister, sanyo eneloop, rayovac hybrid. 2 sets per pair of flows will allow safe charging of one set while the other is in use. With proper care, the AAAs should last 2-3 years so avoid cheap 15 minute chargers and anything with radio shack logo on it.