It's interesting to me

[67448daf1f02dicemann]

We all hope that we never live to see such a world. Be complete chaos. Bunker time.

[67448daf1f258Kolya]

My first game at Ubisoft.

I eventually contacted their support and then Anno 1800 magically started working.
Anyway, I can't talk right now, I need to build more farm houses.

[67448daf1f441voodoo47]

you have drm, you are not getting my money, period.

[67448daf1f910RocketMan]

So for several years I've been fighting with suppliers and mechanics to gain traction on my electric supercharger project for my Camaro and this year has been significant in that regard.  Everything kind of came together after years of frustration and I pretty much finished the build (sans the tuning which is an ongoing pain in the ass).  Just recently I discovered that I was given an incompatible motor driver but I couldn't have known because it does function, just not at 100% of the motor's potential so it'll likely be next year before that's remedied.  In the meantime, everything is pretty much up and running, which is a milestone worth celebrating in my mind. 

The concept is obscure but simple in principle:  Supercharge my Camaro with a custom built electric supercharger.

Why do that?  Admittedly I dislike most things electric (like Teslas and George Foreman grilles) but in this case I'm tolerating it because there is a significant advantage to electrifying boost.  Whereas both conventional superchargers and turbochargers take their energy from the car (either from the crankshaft or by virtue of exhaust backpressure, which strains the engine), electric supercharging takes no energy from the car at all.  It is essentially free boost.  Therefore I can push the HP and torque higher without blowing up the internals and therefore beat out any "stock" engine fitted with an aftermarket blower.  It's also generally cheaper to do it this way (less fabrication) and offers the flexibility of tuning the boost arbitrarily instead of being mechanically coupled to the engine RPM.

If it sounds interesting to you, have a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTe7a2uN-Eo

[67448daf1fb9cMarvin]

Congrats, RocketMan! Good to see some hard work paying off in the end.

[67448daf1fc7evoodoo47]

*knight rider music plays in the background*

[67448daf1fe44fox]

@RocketMan:  Looking at this comparison of data logs, it seems like the Mamba XLX1 controller is able to handle up to 338A for a few seconds. I'm not sure if you have to worry about airflow and general environment temperature for that controller. Heat dissipation might be a deciding factor here.

I wrote under your YT-video but the comment disappeared twice.

[67448daf20125RocketMan]

Your comments didn't go through?  I assure it wasn't intentional on my part.  There's something screwy going on sometimes, as my dashboard shows something like 6 comments but when I take a look I see only 4.  Weird.

I spent considerable effort trying to find the current specs on my controller so I always appreciate when somebody else solves a crucial piece of the puzzle for me.  Having said that, the current is actually not the main issue with this controller.  The problem is the pole configuration or kV rating (I'm not an expert in RC so I have trouble with the distinction).  Basically the controller is unable to spin the motor up to max speed and because of this it's consuming more current than it should, resulting in a hot ESC and a motor too slow to produce actual boost.  That's why I say it's "functional" at this point but not "finished".  I will have to get an ESC with a higher speed rating to match the motor before I can get actual boost.

The car is actually fitted with nitrous as well.  This is something I forgot to mention but another advantage of electric supercharging is it produces less heat and if you spray nitrous into the boosted air, it cools it down while adding even more power so they compliment each other in a sense and avoid the need for an intercooler.  I would have liked to demonstrate the nitrous this year along with everything else but it seems nitrous refill stations are becoming extinct and I'm still looking for a supplier.  Par for the course, since most of the delays on this project have been logistical ones rather than my own willpower or expertise.

[67448daf202f9fox]

Disclaimer: I'm not an RC- or BLDC-expert either but from what I know so far, it sounds like it could have something to do with incorrect timing-settings of your ESC for the used BLDC. If you haven't looked into it yet, you may want to check if the XLX allows you to select different timings (according to the pole-number of your motor).

Maybe this? -> https://www.castlecreations.com/en/field-link-for-driving-010-0063-00

Btw: you could completely forget about doing a project like this in Germany because there'd be no way to ever make this street legal. 🐼

[67448daf2045cRocketMan]

I believe Castle Link is the variant of what you're linking to, which would work with my unit and I looked into this first before realizing that it could not change the pulse timing.  That seems to be built in.  I'll probably have to buy a new unit.  Finding something affordable is another story.  All the 300+ amp models that can do 70k RPM and up are super expensive (like > 1k dollars).

You can't supercharge your car in Germany?  You guys have a highway with no speed limit but you can't add power to your cars?  What kind of consistency is that lol.

[67448daf20a0ffox]

RocketManI'm pretty sure that at least the "Field Link"-variety offers adjustability for the timing (PWM signal from the ESC) for sensored ("CHEAT mode") and unsensored motors, specifically for the Mamba XLX1. I don't see timing settings listed as a feature for the slightly cheaper "Castle Link V3 USB Programming Kit" though but looking at this picture, maybe it's just a missing firmware update?

I have no idea, if that would change anything for your specific situation but before you get a much more expensive ESC, I'd look into that again and maybe consult the Castle-support too.

This might be worth reading/watching -> https://www.radiocontrolinfo.com/timing-explained-for-brushless-motor-and-escs/

Well, supercharging cars street legally is generally possible with officially approved commercial kits and some bureaucratic hassle but DIY-solutions like yours would be way too expensive to get succesfully through the necessary special audit process for that approval, like many other car modifications too. Nitrous is not possible at all in Germany, afaik. A street legal combination of both, pretty much unthinkable to me. I may misjudge the situation a bit since I really haven't looked into these topics very deep but I hear people complaining about how strict everything became over the last 20 to 30 years all the time.

Regarding the Autobahn, while there still are some unlimited sections, these already became few and far between. The political discussion about a general speed limit of 120 or 130km/h has been going for decades and it's very likely that it will come due to increasingly tightening European environmental policies. Might even come after the elections this year. Germany used to be big on cars (with combustible engines) but those times are over. Oh and lets not forget that for a liter of Super you currently have to pay around 1,65€ (= 6,25€ or roughly 7,40$/gallon) . It's expected that it may go up to around 2€/liter (roughly 9´$/gallon) within the coming months, also due to increased taxes for environmental policies.

Edit: Oh, just in case we were talking about different things, I think your little custom case might at least need dedicated vents for stealth the air from the ESCs fans.

[67448daf20d34RocketMan]

Yeah it needs something.  In fact I was going to plumb a line from the windshield washer fluid into a water-block glued to a Peltier unit and then cut a hole in the side of the box to put that in or if I need a new ESC, just get a water cooled one and run the fluid through there.  Cooling was part of my original plan but I didn't have time for it (that's what the white missile switch is for).

I'm always saddened and angered whenever some pissed off group of people starts influencing policy making and I have to give up yet another thing that used to make me happy.  It's bad enough in Canada but it sounds like Germany is a bit of a leading indicator in this regard.  I know people around me see me as a big bad old-fashioned right wing asshole and there is "some" truth in it but the more askew the natural balance of "reasonable living" gets, the more biased I become to compensate for it.  For example I have thoughts that for every vegan out there I want to eat 2 steaks and for every environmentalist I want to burn 2 tanks of gas at 10 MPG.  I don't actually believe these are "good" things to do but my brain does have a shit barometer that goes off when the shit pressure in the air squeezes my balls a bit too tightly.  I think there's a world where we can all be happy with ethical treatment of animals and a clean environment and we don't have to look down on meat eaters or people who mow their lawns with gas engines, just to keep the same 2 examples.  Basically you don't have to castrate the entire notion of traditional thinking to have the perfect society.  Alas we don't live in that world.  Mindsets tend to swing violently from one side of the pendulum to the other.

Doing this supercharger project is like curling up in the fetal position in a way for me.  I use the time to wrap myself in a good feeling with people online who appreciate this sort of thing (mostly older guys) for as long as it lasts.  One day my car will rust and the only option for me will be either some vacuum cleaner that does 0-60 in 1 second or a collector's item from the late 90s/2000s like a Monte Carlo with a S/C 3.8 in it, as my daily driver and maybe a 70s gen firebird with a big block I can put a Weiand blower on    

[67448daf21285fox]

a 70s gen firbird with a big block I can put a Weiand blower on    

'nuff said. 

I know the urge of wanting to push back against bullshit quite well but I'm also aware of said pendulum and try to not fall for it too hard.

If I'm honest, I do believe a lot of things have been knowingly swept under the rug by previous generations for too long that need to change. To a certain degree I am actually willing to step out of my comfort zone (and do so sometimes) and considering alternatives but only if it actually makes sense (to me) not for some half-baked politicking (like the "mobile e-car revolution" without a proper infrastructure) and certainly not for some radicalists' agenda. I believe in slow, organic change. If that's too slow, tough luck but so be it. Maybe we do need some alarmism from time to time to not forget about the problems that certainly are there but it becomes problematic when people start to panic and do stupid things.

Hope it works out somehow with the XLX1 and I'm looking forward to your next milestone video!

[67448daf21434fox]

"Underworld Ascendant: The Worst Immersive Sim Ever Made"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1eJLQ6T8CA

"The Rise, Fall, Death, and Rebirth of the Immersive Sim" is also pretty good, btw.

[67448daf21658ZylonBane]

Anyone else remember this old Flash animation? I felt like rewatching it in honor of Sir Clive's passing, but there were no versions of it on YouTube that didn't suck. So y'know... fine, I'll do it myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9TZEbeWdo

[67448daf2175eKolya]

Yeah, I remember that video and parents actually using that argument. Fortunately mine never expected anything than games when I got my Amiga but it still turned into a job somehow.

[67448daf21acaJDoran]

Yeah, I remember that video and parents actually using that argument. Fortunately mine never expected anything than games when I got my Amiga but it still turned into a job somehow.

The Amiga is the one machine that I never had that I do regret not owning. I went down the Atari ST route, mainly because a couple of my mates owned STs, so we could swap games, plus at the time I'd seen little of the Amiga, so I didn't realize how amazing it was. The ST was great, but the Amiga just went the extra mile.

Actually, I would have liked to have had a Commodore 64 in the 8 bit days, as well as my Spectrum. A few of my mates had C64s, and it had some amazing games. But I did prefer the Speccy to the C64, so if I could only have one then I would have stayed with the Spectrum (as I did). Whereas if I had my 16bit days again, then I would probably choose an Amiga instead of an Atari ST.

[67448daf21c3aKolya]

Amiga was great, but let's be honest: apart from a few exceptions most of the games from that era would barely pass as browser games today.
I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but rather that we've come a long way in the evolution of video games since then. Not just graphics have gotten better, but we also have largely left behind wrong patterns like fighting the controls, repetitive gameplay and hardcore difficulty.
Some have found special niches (Everspace, Dark Souls) and that's cool. But all in all games have gotten a lot more intricate, more accessible, and the majority have better stories to tell than most games did back then.
I don't bemoan the 8 bit and 16 bit era much nowadays.

[67448daf22296sarge945]

Maybe I'm just a youngan, but my first PC was a pentium running Windows 95.

I still remember pestering my dad in the early 2000s to get a 3D accelerator card so that we could play Decent 3

Amiga was great, but let's be honest: apart from a few exceptions most of the games from that era would barely pass as browser games today.
I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but rather that we've come a long way in the evolution of video games since then. Not just graphics have gotten better, but we also have largely left behind wrong patterns like fighting the controls, repetitive gameplay and hardcore difficulty.
Some have found special niches (Everspace, Dark Souls) and that's cool. But all in all games have gotten a lot more intricate, more accessible, and the majority have better stories to tell than most games did back then.
I don't bemoan the 8 bit and 16 bit era much nowadays.

I wholeheartedly agree. Most people of my generation have very fond memories of the 90s and 2000s, and a lot of games from that era tend to hold up reasonably okay, especially if they have a modern source port with some qol features.

Virtually all the Doom engine games, Quake, Half-Life, all the 1990s era strategy games, most RPGs etc usually have a good source port and many of them still play pretty okay.

But I find games from the 80s are barely playable. The machines just didn't have enough power to really do much, so most games and up only having a handful of mechanics, if that, and no amount of modern facelifts or qol updates would really help to make them playable. A lot of them amount to doing one very simple repetitive activity over and over again infinitely. In many cases they are just fundamentally bad. I can understand being nostalgic about them, but in most cases they are just not that great.

Obviously there are some exceptions. Some arcade games of the era had a lot more power than home computers and had some room for actual gameplay. But most home system games aren't worth playing. Even some of the better NES games are barely playable.

My theory is that a lot of people see the current state of modern cookie-cutter easy and simple games and feel nostalgic about the games from way back when. Genuine issues with modern games aside, there are definitely times where the industry has improved significantly and if you go back too far you miss out on a lot of that.

Personally I wish games were more like they were in the 90s, with some modern enhancements and tweaks, but not like the 80s. It seems a lot of people agree, since a lot of 90s games are getting remakes and updated versions.

I just want something new in that vein. But there's already an overabundance of modern boomer shooters and a lot of them are boring and bad, so maybe I'm being too nostalgic about the 90s too.

[67448daf2264dJDoran]

Amiga was great, but let's be honest: apart from a few exceptions most of the games from that era would barely pass as browser games today.
I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but rather that we've come a long way in the evolution of video games since then. Not just graphics have gotten better, but we also have largely left behind wrong patterns like fighting the controls, repetitive gameplay and hardcore difficulty.
Some have found special niches (Everspace, Dark Souls) and that's cool. But all in all games have gotten a lot more intricate, more accessible, and the majority have better stories to tell than most games did back then.
I don't bemoan the 8 bit and 16 bit era much nowadays.

Very true, of course, but I'm talking about wishing that I had had an Amiga back in it's own time, not now. I've never considered actually buying one in the years since the 16 bit generation, and I don't even an Amiga emulator setup. As you say, gaming has largely moved on since the days of endless 2D platformers, 2D shooters, 3D racing games where every vehicle and item of scenery is a scaled sprite, etc, and where the few genuinely 3D games were mostly untextured boxes and a frame-rate in single figures. And I certainly don't miss the three-lives system that was in most action games.

Offhand, I can't remember the last time I played a sixteen bit game (it was probably on a SNES emulator), though there are still a handful of ZX Spectrum games that I do play every few years, such as Skooldaze, Dynamite Dan 2, 3D Deathchase, and Chuckie Egg (I have a Spectrum emulator on my PSP, as well as on my laptop).

[67448daf22758icemann]

The demo scene is where it's at with the Amiga.

Games wise Worms and Syndicate be good on it. I remember playing a decent port of Double Dragon on a friend's Amiga.

[67448daf22a4dicemann]

Currently playing "Syndicate" (2012). When this game was released it just looked like a Deus Ex wannabe that plot wise went against one of the core things of the strategy games of the past Syndicate universe. That core thing being about the lack of individuality. Once hooked up to that cyber chip in their heads agents were slaves to the Syndicate Megacorps.

As seen here in the original 1993 Syndicate's intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM0d7VGFNsY

The 2012 game in comparison has you in full independent control of an agent who can "think and choose" of their own free will. So back then I was like "Did you even play the original games?", dismissed it and never gave the new game a second thought. Flash forward to this year, and I got curious about whether the game was actually good or not. So went to purchase it, but nope it's banned in my country and unavailable on Steam and GOG when I tried. Origin on the other hand - No such limitation so purchased it from there.

So been playing the game over the past week, and combat wise it's great. Feels like Call of Duty with superpowers (via your augments and the Dart display). In Deus Ex-y fashion you gain points for upgrades and can get bonuses and new stuff via that which is cool. Unlike Deus Ex though it's not an immersive sim, just a linear FPS with no branching paths in levels. Games quite gory, and starts off with you being an agent for a Syndicate - Cool.

But then it does what many games that have you starting off playing as the bad guys do (just as Deus Ex did). Present you with the illusion of choice, and then force you down a path regardless of that choice. That eventual path being to rebel against the bad guys and join the side of good and be a completely "independent" soldier committed to bringing down the Syndicates. All while telling you, that the Syndicates have taken away your free will, whilst at the same time forcing you (as you can't proceed in the game without acting against them) on that path. That's just really annoying as a long time fan of the series. Plus I hate illusion of choice stuff in games.

Still going to play the game to the end, but that was just a real let down. Games still far better than my original opinion of it, and worth a play at least once. I just don't get why game devs hate having you play as the bad guys nowadays. Especially the Syndicate / Megacorp style of bad guys present in cyberpunk.

[67448daf22b74fox]

This was strangely interesting to me... Don't ask me why, I don't know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzAAjzbV5g

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wK4sXwD3ic

[67448daf22d20Kolya]

I watched the Beastie Boys Story, which is a show Spike Jonze, Mike D and Ad-Rock put on last year in a theater (in NYC I guess). In it the two remaining boys tell the story of their band from their earliest beginnings to around the Hello Nasty album (1998). The excerpt below will give you a better idea than the trailer imo. Anyway, if you ever liked this band this is an interesting trip. I learned a lot about why and how their style changed so much over the years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgsK0GuNKXw
The show was released on Apple TV but I'm sure you can find it elsewhere.