Margate Big Sky part 1

Saturday arrived and time for the new kite festival in Margate, so pootled off to arrive there at about 9:30, after all the work had been done, but before the events started.

Met up with some old friends again, and made some new ones into the bargain. A fairly windless morning meant that most kites were lying on the ground, and the display teams were having to work overtime. After lunch the breeze picked up a little, so I decide to have a go at some KAP. Everything tested so I entrusted the rig to my favourite rok and set off to get some photos, with Matt piloting the kite.

Spent a good while moving round the site and hoping for some good shots, and eventually recovered the camera. Took a look at the results, and only three images saved. Only 2 of them were anything approaching usable. So what's wrong here. Some diagnostic tests show that there is a problem with the IR. I can't fix it on the field, and don't know whether it is the LED or the sensor. All I know is that the receiver is getting the signal fine. Looks like a busy night.

So as the wind dropped as the tide changed again, I headed for home and went straight out into the workshop to try to find out what the problem is. Fortunately I've got a 360 LED that I can use to test the camera. This shows that the camera is fuctioning fine, so it must be the standard LED that is the cause of the problem. Again fortunately, I've still got the finger servo fitted to the rig from the days of using my other camera. Unfortunately the shutter button on this camera is in a competely different position, so time to go to work. An hour later, the rig is back together, having drilled out the rivets, moved the servo, added some extra spacers, fixed everything back together. Time for a test, yep working fine. So provided we get some decent weather tomorrow, we can go out and try again.