Cheap Amazon Filler Items For Free Shipping
Amazon is a great online store and I order from them all the time. I really like the Free Super Saver Shipping. The problem is that sometimes I’m not buying $25 worth of items to get the free shipping. I searched through Amazon and found some cheap items to add as filler. These items will add filler to your purchase to “fill” it up to the minimum $25 to get free shipping.
These filler items are cheap enough that you can just add multiples of them to get your price above $25. So if you need an extra dollar, just add in 2 58 cent filler items. As soon as you add enough filler items you will get the Amazon free super saver shipping.
Here are the items I found:
$0.33: Screws
$0.70: Paint Brush
If you use Amazon regularly you might want to check out my other page to find out how to install an Amazon search plugin that gives you real time suggestions as you type:
http://patricksheedy.net/blog/amazon-suggestions-search-box-opensearch-plugin/
AXN Floater Jet (aka Clouds Fly) Build Guide
Posted by Patrick in Uncategorized on March 16, 2011
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:
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:
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:
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.
Add Amazon Suggestions To Search Box With OpenSearch Plugin
I created a plugin to add Amazon search suggestions to the browser search bar. This allows you to search Amazon directly from your browser and get suggestions in real time as you type. To install the plugin click the button below:
The plugin works in all modern browsers including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and Chrome. Once you click the plugin it will then show up in your search bar as “Amazon Suggestions”. Select it and then start typing your search.
The cool thing about this plugin is that newer browsers such as Firefox 3 and IE 8 support a suggestion feature that shows suggestions as you type. In Firefox a dropdown will suggest search terms that you might want to use. Internet Explorer 8 supports a cool feature called Visual Search Suggestions. The visual suggestions actually show the products you might be searching for along with a picture. It is like a real time mini-search in the dropdown.
The same plugin is compatible with all browsers using the OpenSearch specification. This makes it handy to add custom searches for frequently used sites such as Amazon.
To try out my Amazon search plugin just click the link below. A dialog will popup confirming that you want to add the “Amazon Suggestions” plugin. Once you do that you can now select the “Amazon Suggestions” icon from your search box and have suggestions appear while you type.