Category Archives: General News

Things that don’t have a genuine category, but I don’t like seeing the “UNcategorized” tag.

Playing with Maps

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I have been wanting to change the way I display the nature preserves where I volunteer. I was using an image with “hot spots” added. It works, but I sorta wanted to do more.

I found a plugin that helps to easily construct and customize Google Maps.

The basic, free, WP Go Maps plugin produced the following map.

Filter by
Public Access
  • Yes
  • No
Guided Tour Only
  • No
  • Yes

You can see it’s pretty limited. The pop up justs shows the coordinates of a location. Actually when you enter an address it will show the address in the popup. BUT, many of the pins need moved to actually sit on the parking lot, trail head, etc. and when you move the pin. . . it no longer knows the address so it puts the GPS coordinates in the pop up, Not so useful since you cannot tell which of the preserves you are looking at, or any information about them.

I am thinking about “going Pro” with the plugin so I can do a lot of other fancy customization’s. One PRO feature is also being able to provide directions to the preserve to the user. Will also sort a list by distance away, and other fun things! It’s not expensive, but need to think if it is something that I am really going to spend time on, and why.

I shall go and ponder this for awhile and come to a decision.

Flat picture with Video Introduction using iPanorama.

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This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series iPanorama

The above window uses “Shortcode” to put on post.

The following window uses iframe settings to display. Both use the exact same iPanorama tour.

<iframe width="780" height="555" src="https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/23" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

For fun, I saw the code to add a movie “Splash Screen” at the beginning of the tour. I need a better video to use though, I just grabbed the first one I came to!

Either way works, but using iframe allows you to easily adjust the size of your window.

Mantis Chipmate Info

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A question was asked about the capacitor to start the motor. I pulled the cover off mine, which wasn’t as easy as I thought.

There are only three small Phillips head screws, which normally would not be an issue. However the units are stored in an outdoor shed. Seems like the wasps like to find small holes to fill with mud to make “nests”. I had to loosen all the mud, then scratch around in the screw slots to get the mud out of them so the screwdriver would get down into them and actually grip enough to turn them! I did get them cleaned and removed.

Mantis Chipmate Capacitor info.

I took a few pictures of the capacitor and put everything back together.

Hope this helps!

Retrieving DJI Mini 2 Flight Record data.

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If you are thinking of adding flight telemetry to your drone videos, step one (after flying around somewhere) is to retrieve the Flight Logs. Not hard, but first time it may help to know where to look!

I use iPhone with iTunes on a PC, so everything here reflects that.

Plug your phone into the PC and open iTunes. It should connect and show the contents of the phone.

Look for “File Sharing” in the left hand pane. Select it. (2)

Then look for DJI Fly in the “Apps” section to the right.

In the list of documents, find “FlightRecords”

You may, or may not, have to scroll down the window. I do in order to see the “Save” button.

Make a note of the location where you save these file. Put them somewhere on your PC where you will be able to find them again!

Flat Picture Test

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Initially there are no navigation icons (hotspots) showing, However, if you use the navigation arrows to go the the next “scene” if will show the missing icons.