It’s 35% transmission tint. FL allows down to 28% front sides, 18% rear & rear sides, but I hate the stepped tint look. This is enough to cut down the interior temps a ton and look good doing it. Between this and my official Audi windshield reflector, I can actually breathe when I get into my car after work when it’s hit 100 in the afternoon.

In related news, I FINALLY have a windshield that doesn’t leak. I think the weather strips up the side aren’t quite on right, but I need to get back to the dealer to look at one on their lot for comparison. The Audi glass sheds rain water a ton better than that aftermarket POS too.

In other news, I was one of the thousands of people who lined up in Titusville, FL to see Endeavor off last night. Fail. *sigh*

iPhone Push Notifications need fixing. I have 3 apps that receive push notifications – AIM, Star Defense, and Prowl. I got them in that order. After each one, I noticed that my battery seemed to drain just a bit faster. Now it’s to the point that my phone won’t even last a day with light actual usage. Example: 10% drop in a half hour. Fail. [For those playing the home game, that's 2 - count them - 2 fails for the price of one post!] Turned off Push, and I’m back to reasonable battery usage. Apple: please light a fire under your developers’ & testers’ asses and get 3.1 out (but only if it fixes battery usage with Push).

That all said, I’m going to make version 2. Here are my goals:

• Bigger power supply capacitors for even better bass handling
• Slightly bigger case so I have more room to work during assembly and possible storage for extra cables, etc
• Make battery power an option, maybe, where primary power is via wall wart
• Two complete implementations of this (for left & right channel, but using pots that do two separate lines each)

Yeah, awesome. I really want to get started on it, but first I’m going to tackle converting a computer ATX power supply into a bench supply with banana plugs and everything. Before even that, I need to wait for my shipments from Electronic Goldmine (piles of random components) and Adafruit (diy Atmel programmer kit) to show up. At this point, I’m looking at least a month between now and starting on headphone amp v2. We’ll see. I still need to set up a solid station to do the soldering with power & lights, which means I need to break out my electrical tools again and move outlets around. Fun!

The cockpit is fully adjustable. The seat isn’t even attached, so you can move it wherever the hell you want. The wheel pedestal is made to be used to hold up a fishing seat in a boat, so it’s made pretty sturdy. It’s also adjustable with the cotter pin shown in a couple of the pictures. It was pretty loose (ie. the top half of the pedestal rotated a bit), so I had to add a set screw. The one I bought is a tad long, I’ll hafta go back the hardware store and get a shorter one. The pedal mount also has multiple holes its carriage bolts can fit into. There are big handle-nuts, making the entire platform near-toolless (stupid set screw). Ah well, I can look past a 45-cent allen wrench.

A nowhere-near-complete list of tools used:

• Dremel XPR 400 – Seriously. Oh my Christ is this little deal useful. If you fancy yourself a handyman (or -woman), and you don’t have a Dremel, kick your ass down to your hardware store and buy one.
• 220-01 Workstation – Literally doubles usefulness of the dremel
• MS400 Multisaw + Dremel XPR 400 = Jigsaw?! SWEET
• 565 Multipurpose Cutting Kit – Makes routing a snap
• Routing bits, sanding bits, ROTO-ZIP-style bits
• 10″ Circular-saw chop box – Some brand, I dunno. It’s my dad’s, but he never uses it, so he said I could hold on to it “for a while”. If I used the Dremel the most, this was a close second.
• Stand-alone 10″ circular saw – Again, some brand. It works.
• ‘Lecrtic screw gun & 1″ to 2.5″ screws
• ‘Lectric staple gun & 9/16″ staples
• Hand tools galore
• Palm sander
• Hand files
• The Dremel of sawhorses – it’s a sawhorse, but also has a platform that folds out so you can use it as a work surface. I have no idea how long this would have taken without it.

Wow, that is actually pretty complete. Here’s a go at the raw materials:

• 3 2″x4″x8′
• 1 1″x10″x6′ (only needed 12.5″, but 6′ means I have plenty left over if I need it for something else)
• Enough .5″ particle board for 32″x4′ (left over from my workbench build…and I have enough left still for another racing cockpit)
• 4′ of wood trim (see the flicker pics)
• 3′x12′ of the cheapest carpet Home Depot sells ($0.39/sq. ft.)
• Adjustable fishing seat post from Gander Mountain
• Bunch of bolts, nuts, & washers

All totaled, it probably took me 10 hours of in-the-garage build time. There was 20+ hours of planning and thought that went into the design that got thrown out when it got down to actually building the beast. If I had to build another one, I hope I could get it done in 8 hours, less if I had a helper. (Not to say Melinda didn’t help – she helped hold the particle board when I was cutting it in half and later when I needed a shorter test fitter – but someone helping with the manual labor stuff.)

After hauling the contraption downstairs and firing up Forza 2, I raced for about 2 hours. The cockpit felt pretty damned good, and I’d have raced longer if I weren’t tired & sore from 2 days of manual labor. There’s always tomorrow evening. Sweet.

Turns out Nintendo released the News channel a day ahead of time. Score

In other news, Senior Design Bash ‘07 is scheduled for January 6-7. Should be a blast. Now if I can just find two more wiimotes…

Anywho, I’ve got about 25 hours into Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. There is probably another 15-20 hours before I beat the game, but I won’t have truly finished the game…crazy mini-quests.