Know How... 94 (Transcript)

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Today on Know How we get rid of Mosquitoes, Bryan is going to show you all about action cameras and we take you to Maker Faire. Drive it like you stole it.

Father Robert Ballecer: Well come to know how. It is the twin show where we’ve been, build, break and upgrade. I’m father Robert Ballecer.

Bryan Burnett: And I’m Bryan Burnett.

Fr. Robert: For the next half hour or so we are going to show you some of the projects that we've been working on so that maybe you can go forth and geek.

Bryan: That’s right. But before we do that we are going to talk about some cool news.

Fr. Robert: Now here is a little story. I cover this on Padres quarter not too long ago. Every creature on earth has a purpose in the food chain. There is always some way that it makes the biosphere a little bit better. But some reacher is over at Rutgers figured out that the mosquito…

Bryan: Is completely useless.

Fr. Robert: There are a light of insects that provide biomass, food for other animals to eat. But insects provide such a negligible amount of biomass compared to all the disease that they spread their rectors is trying to figure out how is it that this creature has continued to survive when it is not needed.

Bryan: Okay. So taking it out when be too much of a problem? As far as the ecosystem is concerned.

Fr. Robert: It’s not just so much that it wouldn’t be a problem, it would be awesome if we could eliminate mosquitoes. But here is the problem.

Bryan: It would be insect genocide.

Fr. Robert: Other than the fact that it would be insect genocide we know that mosquitoes are difficult to get rid of. In fact, most of our mosquito abatement projects have focused on treating them right? You and not kill a people against malaria or dengue fever or you do things like what we did in Central America when we were building the Panama Canal which was you either drain big bodies of water or you put some sort of pesticide/oil on the surface to stop them from breeding. So you’re not really killing the mosquitoes you are just preventing them from multiplying.

Bryan: From gestating? Going from the larva to the flying?

Fr. Robert: The baby mosquitoes!

Bryan: They’re not that cute.

Fr. Robert: Totally not cute. Okay, so that is all good and all but the problem with that is that we don’t really like to throw when pesticides and oil onto bodies of water. And you can’t drain every stagnant pool of water. It's just not practical. Now if you look over seas, we know that there is about 1 million people who die each year because of mosquito borne diseases. Specifically malaria and dengue fever. There is a man by the name of, who did a little research on his own and what he found was that when you look at the death rates, when you look at where you are see the deaths, you know we’re talking about a lot of countries that have issues with still, stagnant water. And we know that right? That is where you are going to get mosquitoes breeding. Well, in his research he was sort of looking at the bodies of water that were actually near him. And what he found was fascinating. He found that you could have the same body of water, like a pond or lake, and the area where there were a lot of weeds you’ve got these mosquitoes. You’ve got these mosquitoes growing. But the second you added any error agitation, little surface ripples it disrupts the birth cycle. It disrupts the larval stage. So you don’t need a whole load of surface agitation to destroy a mosquito breeding ground. In the video you see the difference between a place where there are a lot of mosquitoes being born and a place where there are no mosquitoes being born.

Bryan: In the video you can just see where there is a couple of ripples. It doesn't look like it is very much at all.

Fr. Robert: Exactly. And that is actually a good thing. He is taking advantage of that with what I think is an absolutely brilliant device. It is right up our alley because it is a home brew. A major thing and he did it right. So what he did was he created a little device that cost less than $20, has the solar cell on top combined with custom electronics, a battery and an air pump. This thing floats on any body of water. It uses the solar cell to charge the battery and then it aireates the water. As you can see in the video it just generates little ripples. There is a timer in there so it stops after 10 minutes so it doesn’t work down the battery. So a daily charge of sunlight can keep it going throughout the day. The cool thing about this, those ripples are enough to disrupt the birth cycle of mosquitoes.

Bryan: That is pretty cool. Who will know that that was such an insidious killing machine?

Fr. Robert: Exactly. This little thing that generates ripples in a pond is going to stop mosquitoes from being born, which in turn could save millions and millions of people over a decade. Now the cool thing about this, this is something we can make. What do you think? Do you think we should put together our own?

Bryan: Should we build a little pond in Twit and fill it with mosquitoes?

Fr. Robert: Actually we’ve got Jeff Needles now so we can test it on him. The cool thing would be would be to see if we could actually hit that magical $20 price point. I did a little searching and because none of the components are quite what they need to be for that little project, I couldn’t get anything under $60. But, I think we should keep trying and maybe we can build something for about the same price.

Bryan: Yeah, and I think that would be a fun project. I’m sure if it did catch online and it was sort of streamlined that they would bring down the price for it.

Fr. Robert: So what if you get into some sort of volume and people are making parts specifically for this kind of application that would be great. Now there are a few things I thought about the project. He was using a commercial Tupperware like thing which is fine except in direct sunlight those things start to break down really easily. And you don’t need much of a hole to sync your solar to the bottom.

Bryan: Oh, you sunk my mosquito killer.

Fr. Robert: I had an idea for making the container like a pelican case. Putting it at the bottom. But then putting the pump and the solar cell of floating device. The cool thing is that it would give you an anchor so it is more difficult for people to still.

Bryan: So it doesn’t float around.

Fr. Robert: It doesn’t float around. You just put it in the center. All the batteries are in that sunken base in the solar cell and the input for the pump float up top.

Bryan: That would be pretty cool.

Fr. Robert: That actually would work.

Bryan: Good idea. Let’s work on this. We are going to save the world.

Fr. Robert: We are going to save the world, one mosquito at a time. Now Bryan you know who else can save the world? Knowledge.

Bryan: Knowledge? Like an online learning course?

Fr. Robert: Like an online learning course. Now, we here at know how we like learning. That is what the whole show was about.

Bryan: That is what we try to do.

Fr. Robert: That is what we try to do. As a matter of fact we just drop some knowledge on you about mosquitoes and how to get rid of them. We drop knowledge and to your knowledge all. And you know who else structs knowledge?

Bryan: Who is that?

Fr. Robert: It is Full Sail University.

Bryan: Alive heard of those guys.

Fr. Robert: They are one of the up-and-coming new guys on the block. No, they have been around for a while. They are one of the up-and-coming stars in education. Now the idea is why not absorb that knowledge in a classroom style lesson? Better from the comfort of your own home. That is what Full Sail University is all about and we are proud to welcome them to know how. Now Full Sail University is all about the processes of things that you need to learn about to be effective in today’s business world. Things like big data. The information gathered in business technology and processes. It provides companies with tremendous potential when it comes to how they make the decisions. It also creates the need for skilled professionals to translate this information into strategies and results. That is what Full Sail tries to do. They try to give you the hooks, the skills that you need to turn that big data, those processes into something useful. Something that makes you important. Now Full Sail University offers an online Master’s degree program in Business Intelligence. Which can teach you that skill set to becoming a professional in the big data filled. In this accelerated master’s program you will learn how to collect, manage, mind, analyze, and interpret the data through the industry’s tools, software and technologies. You'll also be able to demonstrate your abilities as a business intelligence professional by conducting your own research. And presenting your findings and recommendations. Giving you experience that you can take into the real world. Full sail University’s online and campus degree programs are centered on real-world education and experience with the industry technology and workflow. In other words they try to give you a real-world experience. They don’t want to give you just something that only works in a classroom. They want to make sure that they are imparting skills upon you that you could use in the real work force. And that is what they’re good at. Full Sail University also, through their innovative curriculum, allows you to earn your master’s degree in just 12 months. So here is what we want you to do. If you love knowledge, and we know you do, because you are watching Know-How. Try Full Sail University. In addition to Business Intelligence, Full Sail offers a variety of Masters degrees in related fields. Including Internet Marketing, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. To learn more about Full Sail’s master degree program in Business Intelligence or any of their related programs check out fullsail.edu/know-how. That is fullsail.edu/know-how. And we thank Full Sail University for their support of Know-How.

Bryan: Yeah.

Fr. Robert: Now, Bryan. Do you see my wonderful tan?

Bryan: Yes. You do seem like you are glowing today!

Fr. Robert: Now I may have accidentally taken in too much of the solar radiation.

Bryan: You absorbed like a sponge.

 Fr. Robert: But I wasn’t at the beach. I was actually at Maker Faire in San Mateo. You were supposed to join me but you had a…

Bryan: My little puppy broke a tooth and I had to take him to the vet. So I wasn’t able to make it. But it sounds like you enjoyed it and that for the both of us.

Fr. Robert: I did. And I got enough sun for the both of us. There were a lot of things inside the big pavilions in the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. But I may and my crew, spent most of my time outdoors because that is where I find the freaky stuff. And I like me some of the freaky stuff.

Bryan: I know all too well.

Fr. Robert: So how about this? I thought, for all the good people out there who weren’t able to get over to San Mateo and go to Maker Faire themselves, what do you say we throw them a little bone and show them what Maker Faire is all about?

Fr. Robert: I've Father Robert Ballecer, the Digital Jesuit for Twit TV. Here at Maker Faire 2014. A lot of people think that Maker Faire is outdoors. And most of the exhibits are out in the sun. But here in the dark hall you'll find all sorts of glow we, sparkly exhibits. Things like LED squares that glow and oh I don’t know, test the coils. Let’s go take a look. I’m at the Ford booth where they are burying back a little bit of nostalgia for geeks of a certain age. You may remember building one of these. This little block of wood is actually a high-performance race car. It is the Pinewood Derby. the idea is to take a block of wood along with some fans, and some whales and turn it into a high-performance competition vehicle. Now over the next couple of minutes I'm going to show you some of the steps you need to go through in order to build yourself a viable Pinewood Derby car and maybe I'll win a couple of races. Now a lot of kids are going to be designing their cars with special features. I have included a halo and a giraffe along with a lot of Ford stickers because I think that is going to give me the best chance to win the Derby. Now this seemingly, poorly put together Pinewood Derby car actually has some very innovative features. The first thing is you see how the tires are bent? That is not a defect. You actually want to keep one of the wheels off the ground. Believe it or not that actually decreases the amount of rolling friction. There is very minimum air friction that you are going to get off of the Pinewood Derby car but the friction you get from the wheels touching the track actually does incur a little bit of the penalty. So if you bend one wheel up, it is going to keep it off the ground as it runs down the slot and in turn it is going to decrease the amount of rolling friction. The other thing that you are going to see is that the front left wheel is actually slightly turned inwards. The reason for that is that is going to force the car to ride up against the track. Against the slot. The reason why you want to do that is because you don’t want your car bouncing back and forth on that track. You want it to actually ride the ridge. Now this is a really tricky way to run it. Because if you do too much you are going to increase the amount of friction and you’re not going to run at all. If you do it too little you’re going to end up bouncing back and forth. So, we are going to take this car and we’re going to put it on the track and see if any of my home shop theories will work in the Pinewood Derby.

Bryan: Boo-ya!!

Fr. Robert: This was on purpose. Built in less than five minutes but from my days doing the Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout, these were the things that got me banned from competition.

Bryan: It's not shanky, that is a feature! It also runs on the tears of the broken Boy Scout.

Fr. Robert: That is why it’s heavy. Because they cried as I kicked them out. Ford thank you so much for letting me take over your booth and thank you for kicking everybody else out so that we could do that. Those cars were not made by the girls and boys visiting the booth. They were made by the Ford engineers. They were like the test cards to show people what was possible on the track. When you want graphing you really got to get graphing on a lead pencil.

Bryan: You tried that?

Fr. Robert: I tried on one. And decided that wasn’t coming off at all.

Bryan: Like you needed it. You were 12 lengths ahead!

Fr. Robert: That is what is weird. It looks like such a weird design to people who are like, why are you wheels uneven? But actually works. When you put them out like this it pitches the wheels to the edges of the post rather than letting them go back in for it. If the pen was straight across then the wheel would want to fight back and forth and every time it rubs on the body is going to slow it down. And also this way, you are always writing on the edge of the wheels and you are only writing on the edge of three wills. This fourth will only touches if it kind of bounces down. The big thing, though, for me this is the one that made the biggest difference when I was building these as a kid, this will on the left-hand side has to be ever so slightly bent inwards because then it kisses the side of the rail so you don’t lose energy bouncing back and forth.

Bryan: The thing I like about this the most is you look at it and you think this is ridiculous. And then you see what it does. There was thought behind it.

Fr. Robert: You could hear them laughing in the back of the video. I think we cut it out but at one point the booth manager came over and said are you building this for comic relief? And I said sure, sure. But in the back of my mind I was thinking just wait.

Bryan: They didn't know what to expect they were coming against the priest.

Fr. Robert: That is why they ran it twice. Because they thought there must of been something wrong with the car. But the second time it was even further. I will like do you want to go again?

Bryan: But I wouldn’t recommend doing that to your everyday car. Unless you are driving on slots.

Fr. Robert: No, actually I would recommend this. So everybody I want you to tell out the wheels on your car. But now have one wheel it is actually off the rail. So that is how you make a pinewood derby car. But we are going to be bringing you more Maker Faire segments. Like I said we have a total of five that I’m going to pull from the footage. Because there are some very interesting projects that we saw there. Everything from conductive ink so if you ever wanted to fast prototype something, to a structure that be collapsed down into and an 8 foot by 12 foot by 3 foot high stack so that you could put 20 of them in the back of a 40 foot trailer and build a temporary city. They are temporary single residency occupancy houses. To things like someone who built his own quad copter. He is going to explain some of the secrets, some of the ways that he was able to do it.

Bryan: What about octopus that shoots flames from its tentacles?

Fr. Robert: We see that every year.

Bryan: It is pretty cool.

Fr. Robert: It is a cool thing. And I met the guy and he is so cool. Our footage doesn’t do that octopus justice. Because if you get close enough, you realize that every single piece of that octopus is someone’s junk. Like he took all this junk and cut it up and turned it into a sculpture that actually works. I have nothing but respect.

Bryan: I don’t know about that cage though. With the electricity. I think I am fine with not getting too close to that.

Fr. Robert: We have Jeff Needles. So maybe we can put him in there.

Bryan: How does it feel Jeff? It’s shocking!

Fr. Robert: But, you know, if you did want to do your own project and if you did want to get them on Know-How you can always go to our G plus page. You can always make sure that we know whatever project that you are working on and just in case you want to make sure that your footage turns out right, I would suggest that maybe you should take a look at the second sponsor of Know-How. That is lynda.com. Because they can give you the knowledge that you need to turn any project, any video footage, any piece of art into something that is presentable. That is what they do, they give you the knowledge that you want when you need it. Now Linda helps you keep up to date with software and helps you learn brand-new skills. It helps you explore new hobbies like Pinewood Derby, with easy-to-follow video tutorials. Whether you want to make the most out of your camera, learn the latest version of Photoshop it or add it your own video footage using Final Cut Pro or premier, lynda.com offers thousands of courses in a variety of topics. At lynda.com you can watch and learn how to attach it go Pro to a quad copter in their weekly series called DSLR video tips. This course covers the most common questions videographers encounter when shooting and editing with DSLR cameras. you can also turn your laptop into a wide performance instrument and learn to play backing tracks, process of vocals and loop sounds with main stake. new releases include 3-D printing with Photoshop where you can learn how to prepare and print your 3-D models with Photoshop and at then running risk where register. You can learn how to start taking payments anywhere with square register, the payment processing solution that is perfect for small businesses. Now personally I have loved their Adobe Premier series of videos. Most recently I’ve been playing around with their series on how to make really good time lapse photography. Because, you know this, it is more than just setting up your camera and going, you have to find the right vista. You have to find the right frame. You have to find the right color balance. And of course you have to use right cameras. Well, Lynda lets you know all of that. They can take away some of the guesswork, some of the trial and error and send you down the path to right. That is what we like about lynda.com. Now lynda.com has over 2400 courses, with more added weekly. All the lynda.com courses are produced at the highest quality, not like those homemade videos on YouTube which we love, we’re part of that, but there is something that is nice and that is extra special about having good lighting, good sound, good camera work. Now lynda.com works with software companies to provide you the latest updated skills. For all the newest versions of software to hit the market. So you will always have the latest set. Instructors are accomplished professionals at the top of their fields and passionate about teaching. They are not just people who do book learning, they have actually done it in the real world. And they know what you need to succeed. Linda offers courses for all experience levels, beginners, intermediate, and advanced. And you could watch from your computer, tablet or mobile device. Whether you have 15 minutes or 15 hours, each course is structured so that you can learn from start to finish with lynda.com. You could also search the transcripts, which is one of my favorite features. Because it means you don’t have to scrub through an entire video to find the one thing that you need to know, you can look at the transcript, jump to that part of the video, and you are good to go. So here it is what we want you to do. We want you to try lynda.com, you can learn something new with lynda.com. It is only $25 a month for access to the entire lynda.com library or for $37.50 a month you can subscribe to the premium plan, which includes exercise files that let you follow along with the instructors projects. Using the exact same assets. And you can try lynda.com right now with a free seven-day trial. Visit lynda.com/know-how. That is lynda.com/know-how to access the entire library. That is over 2400 courses free for seven days. It is all at lynda.com/know-how. And we thank Lynda for their support of Know How.

Fr. Robert: Bryan, you know Lynda makes me want to do some action photography.

Bryan: Yeah, it’s really good to get excited about something right? You know these action cameras are exciting.

Fr. Robert: You are our resident expert on all things action camera. You do the GoPro reviews, you did the PapaGo reviews. You are kind of… this is your thing right?

Bryan: I think that is mostly because I go outside occasionally. And this is what happens when I go outside. I’m wearing full gear when I go out on my motorcycle so that definitely helps. It got started doing twit reviews on the GoPro and then every successive year they come out with a new one, so I've got the hero to, I've got the black and the silver edition of the GoPros and also most recently I've got the PapaGo.

Fr. Robert: Okay, let’s start out with something really simple. Because I know there are a lot of people who have heard about go pro. In fact I use a black and silver when I go scuba diving. I used to use a silver until I went to deepen my cracked it.

Bryan: That’s right! How deep to go?

Fr. Robert: They are not pressure rated and it was only like 97 feet.

Bryan: 97 feet is all?

Fr. Robert: There only good up to 60 or something like that.

Bryan: I’ve never taken one deep.

Fr. Robert: I’m just happy it wasn’t the black. Because it really messed up the silver. People wonder about all the different versions. Why are there so many different versions? Right now, if you just take the ones I’ve got there is the white, the silver, and the black. But there is also the original, the two, the three, the hero. What is the difference between the line?

Bryan: Really what the differences, is that like with any other gadget every year they come out with a newer version. Either it is smaller, or he does more stuff. Really, the most recent update was the black addition. Which was their big step up from the hero two. It does 4K, it does 1080 at 60 frames per second, it does 720 at 120 frames per second. It is the closest that the go pros have come to look like professional cameras. You can match it up with other DSLR’s and stuff like that.

Fr. Robert: I have to say on the black that the features I enjoyed the most are that 1080 at 60 frames per second so I need to slow down I've actually got some footage. I also like the pro-two. It has really, really good intelligence built into it for how it sets its balance, it’s brightness. The one thing I wasn’t so big on, 4K was a big selling point, but it is kind of unusable 4K.

Bryan: Well it is 4K at 12 frames per second. So, actually if you use it correctly as in a time lapse…

Fr. Robert: Well, as a sunset camera. It has to be something moving incredibly slowly.

Bryan: But it works great for time lapses because you don’t need more than a few frames per second. Like you take one shot every 10 seconds or something like that. If you do it at 4K you can also do a pan in and a zoom and stuff. We talked about that a few episodes ago. Where we actually attach the GoPro to a little timer. It came out pretty good. That is one thing that you use GoPros for. I like to use it a lot on the side of my helmet. I have one of the sticky mounts on the GoPro right now attached to the side of my helmet and it gives you a full view of the road. So people put it on top of their helmet.

Fr. Robert: You have got the best point of view shots. I have nothing to match those.

Bryan: I’ve seen people put them on the top of their head, and the farther away from the ground that it is, the slower it makes you look like you are going. Right here I am using the test mount with a strap. This, I like to use to get a little bit lower but also your body acts as a natural stabilizer. So that is why you never want to attach it directly to handle bars or something like that, that is shaking a lot.

Fr. Robert: Aren’t you not supposed to do that to your tires?

Bryan: Well, Padre, when you see it in the mean streets of Petaluma you do whatever you have to. I recorded at actually 120 frames and I slowed it down. So everything looks cooler in slow motion. These GoPro cameras are really flexible depending on what you want to do. The new ones have really good low light.

Fr. Robert: I love aerial footage, the problem is I hate driving with Alex.

Bryan: And there we are, we are flying. But see with the suction cup mount you could also use it as a dash cam. But really, GoPros you want to record stuff you want to make footage out of. And like you were saying, the underwater stuff on the new GoPros.

Fr. Robert: Okay. Where is this? Is it on the bike, or on you?

Bryan: This is actually mounted to an M3 going around the Sonoma racetrack. And the audio is to give you an example of what it sounds like. So you get a little bit of the engine noise.

Fr. Robert: This is a different housing right? It’s not the water tight housing?

Bryan: No, it was watertight housing. Now see the downside of the GoPro is that if you attach it to your helmet like I have you look like an astronaut. You look kind of strange.

Fr. Robert: Now on this when you want to use a second camera. The PapaGo.

Bryan: The PapaGo is the company and this is their GoLife extreme camera. This is more directed towards if you wanted to just record a commute.

Fr. Robert: Like a dashboard cam.

Bryan: Yes, like a dashboard camera. But it is the smaller form factor. So it would be a little bit more discreet. So for example, I put it on the bottom of the bike. I wouldn’t be able to do that with the GoPro because they are just kind of bulky.

Fr. Robert: This is actually a bit more dynamic and you don’t have to worry about the wind whipping it off down the road.

Bryan: Now if you wanted to record just your daily commute, I would recommend this. This is one of the PapaGo dedicated dash cams that we borrowed. Especially if you drive like Burke. And you almost hit people on a regular basis, you probably want this.

Fr. Robert: Is that real?

Bryan: That was real. He was parked. This is some Russian footage, a reason why you might want a dash cam. But see, GoPro wouldn’t be good for this because you need a dedicated dash cam where is cycles the recording.

Fr. Robert: That is the thing, you would just fill the memory on a GoPro. If you forget then suddenly you are no longer taking video.

Bryan: That is why a dash cam is perfect for this. The resolution is 1080, but it is not as good as a GoPro. This is actually some footage from Carson’s commute earlier in the week. But it would be a waste to use the GoPro for this.

Fr. Robert: It’s actually not that bad. I thought the footage was going to be pretty crap. That is not horrible.

Bryan: No. It is fine for what it is. And it actually has GPS so it will track where you have gone and it will do your speed. So in case you had an accident in a certain area.

 Fr. Robert: GoPro definitely doesn’t do that.

Bryan: One of the cool things with this dash cam is that if you do get in an accident it has a G sensor so that it will automatically save the recording. Instead of cycling over it.

Fr. Robert: In an event when something happened and I should probably save that information.

Bryan: This is also used as an action cam. So if this falls off of your motorcycle it is not going to survive. And the nice thing about GoPro is that they come with different mounts. So if you are doing any kind of motor sport thing you definitely want the suction cup mount. It is kind of a double edged sword with GoPros because the accessories are expensive.

Fr. Robert: You only want this if you are inside the car right?

Bryan: Well, you could do it to the window.

Fr. Robert: I would not trust the suction cup mount outside a car.

Bryan: Oh no, it works awesome. That track video? It was just a suction cup on the hood. They do come with sticky mounts, like I have this one on a sticky mount. These do not come off. If you want to stick it to something permanently, use the sticky mount. But if you have a flat clean surface then use the suction cup.

Fr. Robert: So when you use this, you attach it to your helmet like that right?

Bryan: I do.

Fr. Robert: This is actually a really good point, I am glad you brought this out. Which was, you don’t want it at the top of your helmet because it gives you that an uncomfortably high look. Looking down vantage point. As so as this, on the side, is still gives you a pretty decent point of view.

Bryan: It makes you feel more intimate. Like you are actually writing the bike.

Fr. Robert: Was there anything you found important when you wanted to get stable shots? Because I know one of the things I ran into, when I was trying to use the GoPro was my body was shaking because I was jiggling. What can I do to get a steadier shot?

Bryan: Naturally if you have it attached to your head or something like that, your neck and your head act as a stabilizer. So that is why when I want a smooth video, I usually have it attached to my helmet. But like I showed with the dirt bike, it shook a little bit but it was way better than trying to put it on the handlebars.

Fr. Robert: Your body acts as a stabilizer?

Bryan: Exactly. You might shake a lot! Maybe that is just you. It works better if you have it attached.

Fr. Robert: Padre, stabilizer. StabilizerSj! there we go. So, let’s break it down for the people. Because there are those that are going to look at this, watch a segment and say does that mean GoPro is a really the only one? Because it sounds like you are heavy on the GoPro. You like the GoPro. Is that really the only one they should be looking at?

Bryan: No. It really comes down to what you want to do. So if you are into underwater stuff, not 90 feet deep water stuff, but if you want to do some pool action over the summer you want to pick up one of the new work GoPros with the flat lens.

Fr. Robert: What is that for?

Bryan: The older GoPros have this round, which gives you a really good angle of the view. But as soon as you go underwater in loses focus. So it looks really fuzzy. So if you want to do any underwater stuff like Leo was going on a scuba trip and he took one of these and it didn’t come out that great. But you can get an attachment that has a flat lens for this. Go Pro has so many accessories that it gets pretty expensive. Save yourself some time if you are going to do some underwater stuff. Get the newer one with the flat lens and everything looks amazing underwater.

Fr. Robert: I have some good go pro footage from Cozumel that I took with a 4K. With all the tropical fish going by.

Bryan: An underwater time lapse would be awesome.

Fr. Robert: What I did was, I found a code were all the fish would be. Because they were skittish. I planted it there, so I staked it in the sand and left it there for an hour. When I came back it was amazing footage.

Bryan: They have come out with the Hero plusses. Which is basically the same camera as the black but they are a smaller form factor and I have heard rumors that the four is going to be coming out soon. So if anyone is in the market maybe just wait a little bit until the four comes out and the price comes down on these older GoPros. One thing with the black, which is the nicest, I love to use the black. But the battery life is terrible.

Fr. Robert: It is horrible. The weird thing about the black, that I have found, and maybe this was a firmware issue. But, it was so inconsistent. Sometimes the battery would last for an hour, and sometimes it would be dead after 10 minutes. I could never figure out what it was. There was something wrong with the software. Sometimes it would just overtax the battery.

Bryan: While what happens when I first started using this, the black edition, was that it would freeze. I would try recording and it would get really hot and it would freeze. One of the first things I did was update the firmware. And that seemed to help a lot. I haven't had it freeze on me since. But when you are doing 1080 at 60 frames per second, I don’t remember how big the battery is I think it is a 2100 ml amp battery but it dies in like 40 minutes. So you can’t just leave it on. Which is why I wouldn’t recommend it as a dash cam when you are trying to record your commute. That is why you would want the PapaGo. It is much more discreet, the battery lasts a lot longer, the video isn’t as great but if you are not going to be taking action videos it is no big deal.

Fr. Robert: Let’s break it down for the good boys and girls at home. Because this is a lot of information to throw at them. And, again, thank you because you are our Guru about all things action camera. Where would you say the divisions would be? I personally like the GoPro series just because of the accessories. It is kind of like the iPhone when it first came out, which is that it just had all the cool toys. Every kind of attachment has been created for the GoPro series.

 Bryan: If you’re willing to pay the price. They do get kind of pricey. Then you have a lot of options available.

Fr. Robert: If you had $600 available, get a go pro and a bunch of accessories. If you didn’t, what would you suggest? Of all the action cameras.

Bryan: If you want an action camera and you are on a budget and you are not going to be doing underwater stuff, I think the best deal is the Hero 2 Motorsport. This one is a little bit older and it does have the round lens. But, it has pretty decent battery life, about an hour and a half to two hours depending on what you are doing. And it comes with a suction cup and a bunch of other mounts. I think it retails for around $230.

Fr. Robert: I have actually even seen those on eBay in the $150 range.

Bryan: And the video looks pretty good. It uses a smaller sensor, it is definitely passable. I have used the Hero 2 for a lot of stuff and I like it a lot. If you are going to be doing professional video and you don't mind spending around $400 then the black is a very nice. But if you are not going to be editing the videos or doing serious action stuff then something like the PapaGo is discrete and is only about $200.

Fr. Robert: This one would just be if you were seriously considering a car crash.

Bryan: Yeah.

Fr. Robert: If you live in Russia, grab one of these.

Bryan: If you are worried about insurance fraud or people jumping up on your hood maybe you should get one of those.

Fr. Robert: Thank you Bryan. Thank you very much. That is a lot of knowledge about action cameras. I thought maybe we should keep the automotive thing going on. have you heard about ODB2?

 Bryan: I have heard about that. That is what my car uses.

Fr. Robert: It uses these things right?

Bryan: Yeah. It can plug right in.

Fr. Robert: Now I have been playing around with a couple of these devices. This is the scan gauge two. I got this thing about seven years ago. It is still useful today. All of these devices work off of the on board data port. It is right underneath your dash and it is supposed to be within 4 feet of the driver-side door. So just look around within 4 feet. It just plugs right in. The cool thing about all these devices is that you are now pulling data directly from your car’s computer. Directly from your car’s electronics. And the type of data that you can pull is incredibly useful. You can get everything from your RPM to how many gallons per hour you are using, to how many gallons it thinks you are going to get. It is kind of a little game to be able to see it and realize how your car is performing in real time.

Bryan: The little details I like to geek out on.

Fr. Robert: This is a self-contained device. This is all you get. You get the cable, you get the device, you plug it in and you are good to go. In a future episode of Know-How I have been playing around with this. I got this thing for six dollars off of Amazon. And all it is, is an OBD2 connector and a USB port.

Bryan: What are you going to do with that?

Fr. Robert: Well, theoretically, if you combine this with Coding 101 then I should be able to pull data off of my onboard computer and represent it anyway I want on my laptop.

Bryan: Now that would be cool.

Fr. Robert: Imagine that on my touchscreen laptop. So, in real time I can see what I want to monitor. When this came out, this was something like $250. And I got it for six dollars. Now, of course you don’t get the self-contained module. So that everything is contained within one little thing. I have to use a laptop. But, what is nice about both of these things is that if you have ever had the check engine light come on…

Bryan: I did and it cost me a couple hundred dollars for them to check it.

Fr. Robert: For them to say your gas cap is loose? This will read the code so you can, combine with the laptop you can have it loaded with an entire index so it will tell you exactly what is wrong. And then with the flick of a button you can hit clear.

Bryan: And it will fix your car.

Fr. Robert: So if this has major transmission error it doesn’t fix the transmission.

Bryan: Wow, that is pretty cool.

Fr. Robert: We are going to be teasing projects at the end of every episode of Know-How.

Bryan: Keep you interested hopefully.

Fr. Robert: And this is one of the things that we definitely want to play with. Now next week, I know we promised you that we were going to do feedback this week. We decided to push it back a little bit.

Bryan: Changed it up on you. Keep you on your toes.

Fr. Robert: Just because it was Memorial Day. And also because we wanted to give you more time to submit to the G plus group. There were a lot of really good questions and a lot of really good projects but next week we are doing a battle royal for all feedback.

Bryan: Cool.

Fr. Robert: So where can they go?

Bryan: Well you can go to GPlus and if you are on Google Plus search Know How because I forget that link off the top of my head.

Fr. Robert: It is gplus.to/twitkh. just go there, make sure you join the community. It is an absolutely vibrant community. The nice thing about the G plus community is that you have makers, you have DIYers, and you have news. It is just a nice little place to be. If you are interested at all, that is where you should be.

Bryan: People post projects on there all the time to and they are usually better than the ones that we did. Which is kind of irritating, but like the Nintendo pie project? We had someone post their project on there and it was so cool. They used a 3-D printer for stuff. So if you are doing a project from watching the show share it with us. We love to see them.

Fr. Robert: It made us look so amateur.

Bryan: Whatever. Nobody is going to build a better Pinewood car.

Fr. Robert: I think the rule is the worst your car looks the fasters going to go.

Bryan: And that applies in real life too. Right? And if you put more stickers on it the faster it will go. 5 hp per sticker.

Fr. Robert: Get a whole roll. It is like nitrous.

Bryan: If you wanted to learn more about the show or you miss something you could always go to twit.tv/kh where all of our past episodes live and we keep very good and detailed show notes. So you can go over those and check out why Padre’s Pinewood Derby looks so skanky but goes so fast.

Fr. Robert: Exactly. I will give you all the physics, I will give you the Know-How.

Bryan: I love it when the title is read into a movie.

Fr. Robert: And I love it when I am shining a laser into the camera. Also, folks you can also follow us on Twitter. You can find me at twitter.com/padreSJ. That is @PadreSJ. follow me to find out what I do here on Know-How, Coding 101, Enterprise Tech and Padre’s Corner on Fridays, which will be an official show very soon.

Bryan: He’s taking over the network.

Fr. Robert: I am, one show at a time.

Bryan: Twit SJ.

Fr. Robert: Where can they find you?

Bryan: They can also find me on twitter.com. @Cranky_Hippo Where I post a lot of things from my GoPro about my motorcycle and my Corgi.

Fr. Robert: Oh and by the way we have a challenge for you. This is something that you need to take seriously. What we need you to do, after you watch this show, no matter when you may watch it. Go to twitter and write to our TD, Alex Gumple. @anelf3 and tell him that you would lik to ride in his plane. One lucky winner will go up with Alex.

Bryan: I’m going to submit mine.

 Fr. Robert: I’m going to submit like three times.

Bryan: I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.

 Alex: I haven’t heard anything about this.

Bryan: That we set it on air so it must be true.

Fr. Robert: Totally true.

Bryan: He rules the TD desk with an iron fist.

Fr. Robert: And this is how we get him back. Until next time, I think that is a lot of material so I’m Father Robert Ballecer.

Bryan: I’m Bryan Burnett and now that you know, go do it!