Occasionally I’ll download an MKV file that I want to watch on my Xbox 360. Unfortunately the Xbox 360 doesn’t support the MKV format natively. I tried a few conversion programs but they either took hours to run or just didn’t work. I finally found a simple and quick way to play these files which I describe below. This has been tested on the Xbox 360, but you should be able to play these files on the PS3 too.

1. Obtain a large USB memory stick
2. Download and install Rebox.NET.
3. Run Rebox.NET
4. Click the “Matroska” button and select your MKV file.
5. Click the “MP4″ button and select the drive letter for your USB stick.
6. Click the green button in the lower left corner. This will start the conversion process.
7. Once the conversion process is complete then insert the USB stick into your Xbox 360 or PS3.
8. Play the file on your console like usual, it should play perfectly.

Rebox.NET runs very fast because it doesn’t re-encode the video like some other programs. All it does is repackage the audio and video into the MP4 format so that consoles can play the file.

I wanted to get started flying RC airplanes. I went down to the local RC club and flew a 3 channel plane. Even for a newbie like me it seemed a little too easy, I could fly and land it with no problem. So for my first plane I looked around for a plane with ailerons for a little more challenge. I found out about the AXN Floater jet which is available for purchase online at HobbyKing.com. As far as I’m aware the AXN is not available from any US or European retailers. HobbyKing orders take a couple of weeks to ship because they are located in Hong Kong, but they are a respected and reliable retailer in the RC community.

Once I got the plane setup it flies very nice and smooth. But as a newbie it took me a while to get it put together. I’m including some tips here to help other people get the AXN Floater built and flying.

Here are the items I bought from HobbyKing:

Plane

There are three different versions of the AXN Floater Jet:

1. AXN including motor, ESC, servos
2. AXN including motor
3. Airframe only

When I purchased my plane the only version that was available was the one that included everything. The ESC and motor that come with it aren’t the best and people say that they will break eventually. But so far mine have worked fine. It saves time to have everything installed so I recommend getting the version that includes servos, motor, and ESC.

Battery and Charger

The plane flies best with a 2200mah 3 cell battery. This is the battery that I have that works very well and is cheap: Zippy Flightmax

I recommend this charger: Accucell 6 . There are cheaper chargers, but this one is very good. It charges batteries very fast, has a nice readout, and will charge a lot of different battery types.

The charger doesn’t come with a power supply. If you have an old laptop computer you may be able to use that AC adapter with the charger. I didn’t have one so I just but this power supply that works very well: AC power supply

Radio

There are a couple of ways you can go on the radio. If you want to go as cheap as possible you can pick up a Hobby King radio that includes the transmitter and receiver here . Or the same radio from the USA warehouse . This radio will work fine for the AXN Floater.

But personally I wanted something a little nicer that can be used with multiple models that I might get in the future. So I went with the Spektrum DX6i. This is a very popular radio that is used by many people. Hobby King doesn’t sell it, you’ll have to buy it at another retailer or the local hobby store. Buy the version that is a transmitter only (no receiver). Then you can buy the Hobby King clone receivers that work with this radio but are a lot cheaper than the Spektrum receivers. Just get one of these receivers, they both work the same but come with a different case:

Receiver 1

Receiver 2

Spare Parts

The ESC and motor that come with the plane aren’t the best quality. I wanted to pick up spares just in case the originals broke. Or buy these if you bought the AXN without motor or ESC:

Motor

ESC

The servos that come with the plane are decent. But in case one of them breaks it is nice to have backups. Plus they are pretty cheap: Servos

Optional Items

The ESC might not come with the correct connector to work with the battery. You can buy extra connectors and solder it onto the wire yourself: XT60  Connectors . You could also go to the local hobby store and they can make an adapter for you.

This battery monitor is optional but nice to have. It tells you how much power is remaining in your battery. It comes with everything but you need to solder the connector yourself: Battery Monitor

If I left anything off please let me know in the comments. Thanks.

I recently started riding Sound Transit’s 545 bus from Redmond to Seattle. Out of four rides so far I’ve gotten three buses that had wi-fi and one that didn’t have it.

I tried wi-fi three different times and the result was the same each time: There was no problem connecting to the bus access point and getting an IP address. But no web pages would load. The browser would look like it was connecting but would just keep saying something like “Waiting for response from server” in the status bar. When doing a ping from the command line it seems like only10% of the packets were getting through.

According to the web pages I read the pilot wi-fi system was started in 2005. I would have thought that in four years they would have gotten things working but I guess not. It almost makes me think I am doing something wrong. Why would they keep a system for 4 years that doesn’t even work?

I tried emailing the wifi email address on the Sound Transit page but they never wrote back so I’m not sure where to go for tech support.