May « 2009 « Tom Hoppe

Archive for May, 2009

Smokin!

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

I’ve been watching the show Good Eats lately. Coupled with the fact that I enjoy FoodTV sometimes, our neighbors house/baby sit for Alton Brown, so I’m a fan. I saw an episode on the home made smoker and it got me intrigued. I’ve never tried smoking, and frankly, I’m not that much of a cook. When I do it though, I tend to enjoy it. A few google searches later I find that quite a few people have made these successfully, and a tested parts list. Sold!

First stop was Pike nursery for the Terracotta pot and bowl top for $30 total. I pick up the recommended $10 hot plate at Walgreens, and an $8 Weber grate at Home Depot. I also bought a meat probe/thermometer at BBB as my pimpy wireless one from Brookstone took a dump $48 later, I’ve got a smoker!

I decided to follow some of the advice on the forums and locate the controls of the hot plate outside of the pot. That way, all the plastics are outside of the heat, and I can control the temperature as I please. It was easy as pie. One screw on top and everything comes apart. The base is strong and sturdy, so I decided to use it as the base for the entire smoker. Figured since it supports my weight, its good enough for the pot/top. I then cut out a piece of plywood to go in between the pot and the hot plate controls to keep the heat away from the plastic. Lastly, I found a small clay pot/water holder thing that I broke in half to stabilize the hot plate part on the bottom of the pot. I tried it on Friday night and got some great results, as I was able to hold 230-240 degrees on the lowest setting with no meat in the smoker.

Following Alton Brown’s directions, I brined the pork in salt, water, and molasses for 10 hours before cooking. Fired it into the smoker last night at 11:30pm. I used an aluminum pie plate (mistake 1) and Hickory chips (mistake 2) as that’s all that was avail at the grocery store. The mistakes turned out to be very minor, but I learned my lessons for next time. The aluminum pie plate burned right through and the hickory chips ended up right on the burner (iron bowl for next time). They burned/smoked quickly as they were small (getting chunks next time) and brought the temp up pretty high (250) right off the bat. I let that go for an hour or so, and as they burned/smoked off, the temp came back down to 220. Right before going to bed, I took the pork out and put some more chips in, but this time around the outside instead of right in the middle of the burner. I’m going to make a couple of U bolt handles for the grill grate to make this process easier for next time.

Woke up this morning to a 219 degree smoker, and the pork cooked perfectly! 200 degrees in the middle and super tender. I pulled the pork off the heat at 10 hours because of the middle temps. Alton says 10-12 hours for a 6-8 lb Boston butt, and I had a 5 lb’er so I think I was right on.

Its currently resting in time for the 11:30 pork brunch, but the little bit I pulled off the top to try was ridiculously good! Success!! This was very much a set it and forget it operation. I had to actually “do something” twice, as the first time I vented the top a bit to get the temps down, and the 2nd time I added more chips. The other 6 or 7 times I went outside was to just check the temps to make sure they were doing good.

View the pictures using a Picasa slideshow in a new window instead

Posted in All, General, Pictures | 6 Comments »

HD in-car - VIR SARRC/MARRS Race with DL1 overlay by DashWare

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Here is my 10 minute cut of the race.

Start on Pole and run the first lap. FFW through the 8 laps where Chris would bump draft me instead of going around me when I tried to let him by

Then he finally went around and let me follow for a few laps. The plan to pass with 1 to go worked perfectly, and then everything kinda turned into FAIL when Chris got brake and brain fade into 14 and smashed into me. Still went on to win the race though.

You can view the full HD footage by clicking here or just play the smaller embedded version below

Posted in All, Racing, Video | No Comments »

My in-car video setup

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

I’ve been posting my youtube HD videos on some car forums and have gotten lots of positive comments regarding the video quality. Seems that most videos I come across are pretty poor, and mine have turned out quite well

I’ve tried multiple things with in-car video, and finally found something that worked well. I originally started out wanting HD and tried an Aiptek HD cam. While the video was ok, the exposure and sound sucked. Next I bought a super pimpy Canon HV-10 HD DV camera. 2 mounts, and 2 of those cameras later, I realized, my car just does NOT appreciate DV. Something about sounds/vibrations and the tape make for horrid video.

I then purchased on a wim, the Samsung SC-HMX10 HD Camera (refurbished). This camera does 720p 60fps video and is very light, which works well in the car. This is an older model, and there is the HMX20 that is out now, which has slightly better picture and more features, but is over 2x the price. Currently the HMX10 is still less then $300, while the HMX20 is close to $600, and after seeing my videos, its not like I need better picture quality

I’m currently using an IO Port mount on the down bars of the cage. In my first videos, I used a VS mount on the harness bar, but found the FOV too narrow. The VS mount is steadier then the IO Port though, so next time I might try the VS mount but with a wide angle adapter lens.

I also want some “rear view”, so I purchased a GoPro Motorsports Hero Wide camera. This will be used mounted on the trunk, pointing out the back. I screwed up and left the camera at home for VIR, but for the next event, I’ll have that footage. I’ll update this post once I’ve got that up and running.

Lastly, the overlay. I’ve been wanting to overlay my DL1 data on my videos, but there wasn’t a reasonable solution until now. ChaseCam came out with new software called DashWare. This software lets you take ANY data aq and overlay on top of your videos. You can use whatever video and whatever data aq you want. This software will allow you to sync, add their gauges, make your own gauges, whatever, and put out beautiful video ready for YouTube or higher quality if you want to edit further. You can download a free trial on their site to play with it.

For editing, for qualifying laps, I just use DashWare to cut out the excess on the front and back, synch with my data, and put out a 6MB/s 1280×720 h.264 video that I straight upload to YouTube. Probably 5-10 minutes worth of work, now that I made my own gauge template. For the race, I use the DashWare to sync the whole race, put out the same 6MB/s video, but then use Sony Vegas to cut out the boring parts, save it out same quality, and then throw on YouTube. That takes about 15 minutes or so. Of course the encoding on each of those takes an hour or so, but its not like I’m sitting at the computer during that time.

So in summary, what you see in this video here.

Camera - Samsung SC-HMX10 (refurbished) - $250
Mount - IO Port on roll cage down bars - $100
Software - DashWare by ChaseCam - $150
Editing - Sony Vegas - $80

You’d be hard pressed to beat my videos for $550 including the software. If you don’t have data aq or don’t want that overlay, its only $400 for HD quality in-car.

edit: For anyone wanting to check out the full resolution, non “youtube” version. Here is the 120MB 2:30 qualifying video in 1280×720 right off the camera
http://www.tomhoppe.com/video/2009_05_10_VIR_SARRC_Qual.mp4

Posted in All, Racing, Video | 4 Comments »

HD in-car - VIR Qualifying with DL1 overlay by DashWare

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

I screwed up on the rear view facing cam as I left it at home, but I did have a new toy this go around anyways. ChaseCam came out with some new software called DashWare. It lets you take your data acquisition and overlay it on top of your video, showing you speed, mph, g’s, etc etc. The software is super easy to use and I was able to make some custom gauges and logos, and the videos look very pro as a result. I’m very happy with the software and would recommend it to anyone.

You can view the full HD footage by clicking here or just play the smaller embedded version below

Posted in All, Racing, Video | No Comments »

VIR: 2 more races, 2 more wins, but with body damage

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Just got back and settled after a long weekend at VIR. The weekend started out awesome, and finished “ok”, but in the end, I did walk away with 2 more wins and a lot more experience.

I decided to do the back half of the test day, and it was absolutely worth it. While the testing tires were horrid, I was able to get some good track time, and get used to the track a bit. Its like Road Atlanta where you need some big balls to go fast. There are turns that you just have to commit to and go, regardless of whether you think you will make it out

Saturday qualifying I put on the fresher Hoosiers and rocked out a 2:17.8 lap. Thats only 0.6 off the track record, and was enough to put me on pole for ITA and also ahead of all the ITS cars again. We started the race, right after lunch, and the grid workes called the 5 minute warning super early. I wasn’t quite ready and barely got situated in the car and realized I didn’t have the camera on! Oh well.

I had a good start and ended up with about a 4-5 second lead on 2nd place. It was very hot out, and my rear tires started going off pretty bad, and the car became very loose. With that, and me playing “rabbit” for 2nd place, Chris Perera was able to catch up to me. He was driving over his head a bit though and went off in the last turn with 2 laps to go as we were passing a couple of cars that we were lapping. I saw this in my rear view mirror and relaxed and said “ok, this one is in the bag”. I was going to pass 2 more cars I was lapping in turn 1, but decided to just hold off and pass them later, or not at all instead as I wasn’t in a hurry anymore.

The first car ends up spinning out in Turn 3, hitting the car directly in front of me, and then stopping RIGHT in my path. SHIT SHIT. I duck right, off the track, and ended up hitting him in his drivers side with my front left corner. Ended up bending my bumper beam and screwing up the plastic bumper, but I was able to get back on track, right in front of Chris. I held off Chris for the last 1.5 laps and took the win. The alignment was 100% perfect, and it was only cosmetic damage to the bumper and cover

After the race, I swapped my brakes, fixed the bumper/fender, and also got some new tires for Sundays race.

Sunday started out much the same, in taking the pole and having a fast lap. I sped up about 0.2 and qualified at a 2:17.6. It was a better lap though, as I missed a shift, and got held up in 1 turn in my qualifying lap, so it could have been faster. No need though

I had a slightly different strategy for the race, in that I was just going to play with Chris and let him pass me, and then pass him with 1 lap to go for the win. He’s really good at chasing, but he’s not that fast when he’s leading or driving by himself.

He wouldn’t go around me though, even when I lifted on the straightaway, as he was trying unbenowst to me to go for the track record and wanted to draft with me. I was just going for the race win rather then the record and not pushing real hard. Eventually he decided to pass, and I let him by with 4 to go. He then made a big mistake in the lead with 2 to go and went off the track a bit in turn 14, giving me the lead and the race win….almost

I drove the last lap hard, and had a pretty decent lead on him going back into Turn 14. Chris broke a little early, as he was having brake problems, but not early enough. He ended up not slowing down pretty much at all and PLOWING into me twice at the top of the turn. He rear ended me first, spun me around and then smashed me on the side. I got back on track and drove around slowly to the checkered and still took the win.

Chris apologized profusely after the contact and let me know his brakes let him down. Even though the apology was sincere, I’m frustrated after thinking about it, as if the brakes were really busted, why did he only brake 100ft earlier knowing that the race was pretty much over?

In the end, I get to tack on to the body shop bill. Glad that the car was not fixed before this weekend, as now, I not only need a new bumper beam/bumper cover, I need a new passenger door, and frame/rocker panel work to get everything straightened out. UGH.

Because of the costs of all that, I’m going to have to skip the planned July race at Road Atlanta, and I’m not going to be back on track until August in Ohio. It will give me plenty of time though to get everything looking awesome, and also work on some mechanical issues. I have a slight power steering leak, a small oil leak somewhere by the oil filter, and also need to get that rear swaybar mounting fixed.

I’ve got the video off the camera for Sunday, and will be posting the qualifying shortly, and then the race video and crash on Wednesday.

Posted in All, General, Racing | No Comments »

Its almost time for VIR!

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

Started getting the car ready for VIR today. I didn’t have any big mechanical issues or anything. Just the standard in-between event work. I thought I was going to have to add a rear wheel bearing in to that mix, but after checking everything out, it seems I just have a touch of play in the rear pillowball bearings, and not the wheel bearing. Also, the front tie rods have a *very* slight touch of play, so I’ll replace those after this event.

Other then that, I just did a normal nut and bolt of the whole car, rebuilt the front calipers and bled the brakes, all new fluids and some cleanup. I realized that the fuel leak I thought I had in the trunk was just spilled gas from when I was transporting the car, and the oil leak I had in the front right seems to be from the power steering pump lines rather then something more important. I couldn’t find it, and its not so much of a leak, as its just “oily dirt” around that area, so I figured I’d just pick up all the spare parts I might need, and fix it after this next weekend, unless it gets worse. I cleaned the whole area up, so it should be easier to tell where its coming from, if it is at all. Lastly, I realized I bent the bolts for the rear swaybar endlinks, so have to pick up some new ones tomorrow. Hopefully I can find those in town.

Leaving on Wednesday for Raleigh, and I’m skipping the test day, so I’m hoping the Roebling setup is going to work well for VIR, as I go right into qualifying. I might adjust the shocks a bit to make the car tighter on entry until I get a few VIR laps under my belt, but going to leave the swaybar on the max setting. Seemed to work for Roebling!