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Canadian Digs Out Basement Using Only Radio Controlled Scale Tractors and Trucks
- moondowner 15y ago7 years playing with RC tractors and trucks? I admire him for simulating a whole digging site, but I hope also that he was doing his hobby just 2-3 hours per day.
- wr1472 15y agoWhy do you say that? What's wrong with doing a hobby for more that 2-3 hours a day?
- B0Z 15y agoBecause that's his basement, where his hot water heater is surrounded by dirt where one could also assume the washing machine and clothes dryer is. One the one hand, the scale of this dirt playground and expensive radio controlled cars would make any grown man weep for a chance to be 10 years old again. On the other hand, you have to hope that this much obsession for 100% perfectly-scaled realism isn't as creepy as it looks. In any event, this is impressive.
- shareme 15y agoweekends during winter as he is busy during crop season.
- noelwelsh 15y agoWow, talk about cognitive surplus. It's also amusing that the article title starts with "Canadian", as if that explains it all. (Insert comment about American parochialism here)
- Gaussian 15y agoI know almost nothing about RC gadgets. But those are some badass toys.
- Permit 15y agoOh wow. I don't know about anyone else, but I got impatient just watching the second video. I cannot imagine doing that for six whole years! Haha, unreal! If it's what he has a passion for, however, more power to him. (I'm still in awe over how long that would have taken and the fact he didn't give in and start shoveling!)
- noonespecial 15y agoI'm sure some people think its pointless, but I say it beats the hell out of watching TV.
- ebbv 15y agoDon't be ridiculous. Mad Men, Justified, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, Community, Boardwalk Empire, Treme, etc. etc. there's tons of really good stuff on TV these days.
- VMG 15y agoI agree, but there still is a qualitative difference between an active an a passive activity.
- ebbv 15y agoSitting on your butt and controlling a toy truck just barely qualifies as active. I'd say if you're watching something on DVR and fast forwarding the commercials you're 50% there.
- elemenohpee 15y agoI can't tell if you're being serious or not... He designed and built the system. It's not a question of how many calories he burned, but the difference between creation and consumption.
- smackfu 15y agoOTOH, he's mostly doing consumption now, after the initial creation.
- elemenohpee 15y agoNow he's creating a hole. He has to plan and make decisions at every step of the way, his will guides the progress of the activity, in contrast to TV which is a passive. I'm not making a value judgement based on the relative merits of the two activities, but the distinction still exists.
- webmonkeyuk 15y agoHe seems to have loads of videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LilGiantsConstrCo http://www.youtube.com/user/LilGiantsConstrCo
- singular 15y agoI'd have preferred it if the trucks/tractors were fully autonomous, now that would have been awesome :)
- barefoot 15y agoOr run by mechanical turk HITs...
- omegant 15y agoThat is what I imagined in the first place. How cool it would be to have your garden or diy proyect being taken care by small autonomous machines like that. No danger of being smashed if something goes wrong, cheaper parts, if one has a mechanical problems not everything is stoped, just a fraction of the work force...
- singular 15y agoAnd it can be running 24/7 while you're sleeping/playing skyrim/etc./etc. which would be indescribably awesome :)
- mistermann 15y ago>playing sky rim Screw that, I'd be sitting in my lawn chair watching the trucks all day!
- jxcole 15y agoThe fact that he was able to do it at all means that this should be a logical next step. There may even be a business idea here. Program good enough Computer Vision and planning AI you could loan a set of autonomous robots to someone and pick them up after 6 months when the job is complete. It would probably be much cheaper than the human alternative.
- marshallp 15y agoYou don't even have to program. Set it up to be controlled by people in india or china. This kind of business could be set up in a few days, and which begs the question - how com no-one is doing this. There's companies trying to sell laptops on a stick (anybots) whereas this is a genuinely useful service. Trevor Blackwell should be able to get something like that up in day, he did a segway clone in a day.
- jackalope 15y agoHmm, with a miniature cement sprayer, he might be able to install the foundation at the same time.
- yread 15y agoHere is the relevant thread http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25724 http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25724
- yread 15y agoquite an expensive hobby http://www.gardentrucking.com/products.tpl?action=Search&cart=132949004952&max=10&eqMAJORCATEGORYdatarq=products&Titlesumm=t&Titlesort=1&eqSKUdatarq=3110 http://www.gardentrucking.com/products.tpl?action=Search&... the dump truck is 5000$
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoYou can buy a used Bobcat or 3/4-ton pickup for that much!
- hessenwolf 15y agoFrom a land of people that are obsessed by skiing, this is not the most pointless hobby one can have, and it's probably pretty safe.
- lcusack 15y agoHow is this different from Minecraft?
- avstraliitski 15y agoIt's not powered by lava or water, torches don't burn forever, and when night falls you don't suddenly get eaten by ghoulish cube-creatures.
- xbryanx 15y agoI wonder what the battery capacity is on those things. How often does he need to charge? I'd love to see a record of the electricity cost to excavate a basement with small motors.
- evlapix 15y agoSometimes I come across grand hobbies/challenges like this that inspire me to challenge myself in similar ways.. 1/4 scale grave digger: http://www.youtube.com/user/rcWizzard/videos?sort=da&view=u http://www.youtube.com/user/rcWizzard/videos?sort=da&vie... Matthias Wandel's various projects: http://woodgears.ca http://woodgears.ca Giant robot project: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13A11662BDE6EB83 http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13A11662BDE6EB83 But at some point, I end up convincing myself that it's a bad investment of my time. Some examples: - The above referenced 1/4 grave digger project would be an awesome test of my fabrication skills. But when it's done, I won't enjoy playing with it. 1000's of hours for "push stick forward, vehicle goes foreword". Kind of like lego's, the fun's all in the build. - I'd love to get into woodworking, but I already have all the furniture I need. Why would I invest in a 1k wood shop (that's CL prices)? What would I create with all the tools and experience? I'm not going to quit my job as a programmer to become an entry-level woodworker. - I'd love to build my own sawmill (kind of like Jaimie), and build from nature in general. But where would I get wood? Can I make it cheaper than store bought? Do I have the time to invest so that I don't wind up having to go to the store anyway? - I'm really fascinated by CNC, 3d printers, and metal casting. I want to be able to make my own stuff, and excuse myself from a consumer culture. But those things all involve pretty significant money/time investments. And who are we kidding? After that huge investment, what am I going to print/cast/machine.. that would be worth that investment? And that's the motivation for my side project.
- cadalac 15y agoYou could try building a simple CNC machine. Then you could test your fabrication skills and use it afterwards to make cool stuff. It wouldn't have to be anything complicated either. Use a simple drill for the blade and make some sort of arm to move it around. Then write a basic program to run it. Follow YC's style. Make something simple as fast as you can that just works and then as time goes by improve it. Man, I think I know what I'm doing this weekend.
- dholowiski 15y agoYou don't really do a hobby like this because it will save you money, or because you need the end result, you do it because it's fun. I've just started building a reprap (3d printer) not because I need low-rez cheap plastic thingies, but because it's fun and challenging.
- petenixey 15y agoMakes me wonder whether there's a future business for a Mechanical, Mechanical Turk. If we've got machines capable of labour but lacking the intelligence and internet connected workers who can provide the intelligence you could use a gig like this to get real-world work done while offshoring the human cost. Could all get a bit Toy Soliders if you mistreat your workforce but would be pretty epic to watch.
- majmun 15y agowas all this automated or he do it by hand?
- melling 15y agoI noticed that a few people see little value in this. Some people feel that the time spent would have been just as good watching TV. However, beyond the simple inspiration, consider that even small endeavours are useful because they provide a "set of shoulders" on which the next person can stand.
- urbanredneck 15y agoJust think it is a great idea, kudos to him.
- Corrado 15y agoI was most impressed by his skill in controlling the vehicles. In one video he loads debris into a dump truck using a front loader with great fineness. I've rarely seen operators of 1:1 scale equipment work with such grace. You may not know it but it's very difficult to load a dump truck efficiently and safely.