V-Car: Drive a real R/C car with Live Video!

(04/20/22) Added bootup safety relay for parrallel port and replaced 3 failed optos, current limitor 68ohm on all 4 now

(10/10/21) Increased framerate from 1fps to 4fps. Reduced latency in video delivery using ajax calls

(02/19/19) Upgraded video to Logitech C922 Pro webcam donated by Hellspark Consulting. The JVC SVHS camcorder lost it's vsync out

(08/06/18) Upgraded battery BMS from 4A to 8A to prevent dual motor cutout on carpet

(07/23/18) Replaced Enloop battery pack with 2 series connected Samsung INR18650-25R Lithium Ions

(10/10/16) Upgraded server to Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00ghz, 256GB samsung SSD

(09/16/15) Mounted the leds out of view of the camera, makes for better light, pics here

(12/25/14) Got some RGBW lights for xmas, added to vcar and enabled remote control of lighting

(10/30/12) Switched jobs, brought vcar home to my son's closet, you can see his shirts above the car :D

(02/23/12) Brand new Custom 10 cell (6v @4amps) Eneloop battery pack installed, checkout the Install Video. Vcar should be charged up and ready for play more often now!

(10/19/11) Opened up old camera, heat expansion unplugged ribbion cable, camcorder fixed!

(10/15/11) 8 hour San Diego poweroutage killed vcar's camcorder. 12 years to date of purchase, looking for replacement

(09/24/10) Building timers were turning off the lights, I added a light sensing fluro light to the room

(05/24/10) Moved into new Trusonic offices in UTC

(01/06/10) replaced rrc0.jan6-2010-too-slow.c with rrc3-0.no-lock.c , the older locking code was just too dang slow

(09/11/08) Upgraded server: 500mhz p2 cpu -> 3200mhz p4, 256mb 100mz sdram -> 2048MB 800mhz DDR 1 80GB 5400 rpm ide hard drive -> 2 7200rpm raid-1 500gb SATA, Redhat 7.2 -> Fedora 8, Apache 1.3.26 - > 2.2.6

(09/11/08) Enabled video 'smoothing', multiple samples are averaged together to remove noise, causes some 'smearing' during vcar movement but video looks beautful

(09/11/08) Switched from mod_video to Fswebcam Allows me to do some fancyness.

(03/17/08) Brand new Elite 4000 battery pack from Diversity Model Aircraft installed!

(02/13/07) Switched from bttvgrab to mod_video by Bjorn Borud

(09/14/06) Had alot going on around the time vcar hit 8. Get ready for some changes!

(05/25/05) 7th Anniversary of vcar, battery display is automated using pnmpsnr by Ulrich Hafner to detect motion.

(09/05/04) Fited the HUGE battery to the "newer" vcar. The newer car has heatsinks on the motors AND an emergency overheat circuit to cut power.

(09/04/04) power dip caused controller to freak! Old Vcar ran in circles for hours, melted the "drivers" side motor, voltage regulator and part of chassis.

(05/25/04) Orginal vcar is back online with custom battery. Implemented control locking to prevent ramming, 6th anniversay of VCAR!

(12/25/03) MP3.com traded me to Trusonic, i came with stale bubble gum, but they seem to like me

(09/13/03) Wrote script that used "motion" by Truxton Fulton to set battery level. Never worked. (Code appears to be non-functioning hack of pnmpsnr)

(08/21/03) Redesigned website AGAIN (while in big bear), vcar project no longer default page (i had new stuff to showcase)

(03/01/03) switched from hauppauge card to a real live brooktree reference board! with svideo in!

(01/01/03) Redesigned website with CSS and lots of includes (page evolved more from what i could do and not what i should)

(06/20/02) Added a time-elapse viewer to the main page (i took this offline, no one ever looked at it)

(12/07/01) Changed Internet Explorer streamer from javaapplet to javascript for low & high fi streams (i hate java applets)

(03/03/01) Moved vcar to the middle of the the mp3.com office building

(01/06/01) Moved vcar from under my desk to it's own mini-office at mp3.com

(10/09/00) Vcar featured as NASA's cool Robot of the week

(07/02/00) Both Vcars are online, Let the games begin (having 2 cars online was fun, but the battery changing was a nightmere)

(05/25/00) My girlfriend bought me a Tyco 4x4 SUPER rebound (from toys R us, now she is my wife)

(04/01/00) Broke 500,000 (half a million!) page views last month!!!

(02/15/00) Zoom buttons now use infrared transmitter to talk to camera (still using this, thanks Lirc!

(10/20/99) Upgraded video to max 4fps, higher framerates arn't really noticeable (tested this on local network)

(10/15/99) Bought a new Camera!! JVC SuperVHS with remote and 32x zoom (got this floor model/open box from Circuit City, still using)

(02/03/99) Upgraded video to 1fps, 8fps+ is possible now! Anyone want to recast? (no one ever offered)

(01/15/99) Ticker for last moved and special messages (removed, the ticker annoyed me. I can still put custom messages in the last moved window)

(11/25/98) chat added (no plugins or java were used, i took this down because people would swear,etc and i wanted vcar to be kid safe)

(10/25/98) Zoom support is online (i opened my parents loaner camcorder and removed the zoom circuit board, then soldered relays to it)

(09/30/98) Moved the website off my ISP, to my home. Also redid some graphics

(09/26/98) When you move the car your domain name appears in the 'last moved' window (this hasn't changed much)

(09/04/98) Added battery display, now you'll know if its dead (this was manual, i would change it when i noticed the battery was dead)

(08/20/98) changed stills from meta refresh to java applet (this gets replaced)

(08/15/98) emailed Tyco Toys, asking for better batteries (i'm told they don't have an internet marketing division)

(08/10/98) Moved vcar to my home, left webserving at my ISP. (vcar is put OUTSIDE under a covered patio, camera shoots thru window!)

(07/25/98) Haakon designed the website. Wow, things look NICE!! (still using his amazing control/logo graphics)

(05/25/98) Bought myself a Tyco 4x4 Rebound (from PlayCo) for my birthday! (vcar is first located in a closet at my employeer connectnet.com)

(12/03/97) Started playing with linux port programming, HMM...