Category Archives: cool stuff

Super Knobs and the S4

Posted by DJ JeffP on



Got to personalizing my S4 with the DJ Tech Tools Super Knobs. They feel and look great with the S4, but do get a little pricy. However, if you are into customizing and making your S4 your very own I would definitely recommend getting a few of these. They are definitely more than just looks they are functional as well. Installation on the S4 is a little difficult. Some come off easily while many took some extra effort. If you still can’t manage to wiggle them off I would recommend taping a small thing flathead or knife with some electrical tape or gaffers and pry the knobs off from the bottom. (Note: do this at your own risk. I am not responsible if you scratch or damage your controller) It shouldn’t use too much effort but having the knife or flathead definitely makes things a lot easier, and saves your fingers and thumbs. Good luck!

Check the video below for more info on how they were designed for all of us DJs.

My Lab

Posted by DJ JeffP on


I’m back, and I recently decided to bring back my gear from my parents house to start DJ’ing more, and once I get my Traktor S4 in I’ll be all set. So with that I wanted to set up my laboratory and I knew I needed more desk space for it. So I planned a trip to Ikea to pick up another desk to match the one I currently had. And as I was waiting for my girlfriend to get ready I saw this cool article that had some great ideas that were in the same direction as mine.

I wanted to create a second level for my laptop and my tools cleaning up some space around the desk. But instead of using the cool angled mounts from Ikea I originally wanted to use some regular pieces of 2″x4″ and plywood. Thankfully I saw this article because it does look a lot better and sort of how I had imagined it. I’ll get some more shots once I get everything completely set up and ready to go.

via DJTechTools

Revisiting the Video Track/Dolly

Posted by DJ JeffP on

So I am putting the shoulder support on hold for now as I wait for a few more things for it. But in the meantime I am revisiting my Video track/dolly. Now that I have put it into some use I feel it is not right for me. And after studying all the sliders out in the industry today, designing a few of my own, and looking at other peoples designs. I finally came up with something I think that’ll work. This for sure will be a pretty big DIY so if you are not too handy, then I wouldn’t recommend this. The entire slider/track I would have to say cost me about $65. Which I think is not too bad for something that is fairly light and very customizable. Now I have spent a few days actually putting this together and making a little bit of changes here and there.

Some tools you might need:
Drill
Drill Bits
Saw/Chop saw
File
Rivet Gun
Allen Wrenches
Wrench Set
Screwdriver

So I took a lot of pictures to try and help, but if you are trying to do this and have any questions feel free to ask. However it should be pretty straight forward. Now I chose to make it 36″ long but I can pretty much make it whatever length I want, and carry it easily to any location.

Final Product:

Continue reading →

Modifying the $24 Shoulder Support

Posted by DJ JeffP on


$24 Cheap shoulder support (now $30)

Many of you might be following my friend Emm over at CheesyCam, and if you are not you should be, and well Emm is always talking about the $24 Cheap shoulder support (now $30) found on Amazon. Now if you haven’t heard much about this shoulder support then I don’t know where you have been. because this thing has been all over the place. CheesyCam, IndyMogul, Express35, everywhere! For $30 what can go wrong?! So after testing it out I decided to purchase one myself. I ditched all the other extra hardware it came with and decided to design something of my own. Now I have been thinking of many designs even before I got the shoulder support in December. But I never really built it till today. Now I don’t have too many pictures on me but I will just give you a basic idea of what I did. I will be writing something up later on with more detail once I finish the set up as a whole. It just needs a few more things to tweak and finish up.



Now I will leave you with that. Give it some thought. Tell me what you think. Now it looks a little bulky but because it is aluminum square rod it is very light while also being very sturdy. And I only spent about $30 for this part of my rig. So $60 for something that looks like this might be something worth trying.

Eibach Sportlines on a GE8 Honda Fit

Posted by DJ JeffP on

Eibach 4.8140 Sportline Kit for the Honda Fit ge8 (2009-2011), provides a 2.0″ rear drop and a 1.8″ front drop. Now compared to stock the car sits a lot lower and looks more agressive. However do not be scared if you do not want to go that low, because they also have the Eibach 4081.140 Pro-Kit Performance Spring Kit which is a 1.2″ front and a 1.4″ rear.

Extreme Performance Meets Extreme Style
Race-Car Like Handling
Lower Center of Gravity
Stop Quicker, Corner Faster and get Better MPG!*
Million-Mile Warranty


Like I said it is a much more agressive look to the fit. I think the car should have came slightly lower from Honda. With stock springs:


Now it may not be very clear but I could fit about 3 fingers in the gap, now I can barely fit 1. The ride is a lot stiffer and better at cornering. I did notice however having a hard time on my steep driveway no matter how much I try to angle it, or even drive it out in reverse the car will not go out without scraping. Will have to figure something out for that. But back to the springs. They are amazing. I can’t believe how much better the car feels and looks with them on. Now if you love DIYs well you can really do this project on your own if you have the tools and a few hours (3-5 ranging on your abilities). I managed to do everything within 4hours with a lot of speed bumps along the way, but without those I could have finished in 3 or less. Now if you are going to do this yourself make sure when you are working on the fronts to have someone help or tie up your axle because it will come out. If it does (cus it happened to me) it will take a lot of trial and error trying to get it in. It can take anywhere from 3min to 3 hours trying to get it fixed, so as a fair warning, if you aren’t so handy you should probably get some help from someone who is or bring it in to a shop($400-500 in labor).

But if you have a fit and have been debating whether or not to lower your car well heres your chance. Amazon has them online right now for $180 and if you have amazon prime well then you get free 2day shipping. Same goes for the Pro Kit as well.

I will let the springs settle a little before I do anything else and will let you know how much lower and different it feels. Good Luck!




Yesterday’s Mail Bag

Posted by DJ JeffP on

So yesterday I received the last of the items I need for my Entertainment setup. Now you may be asking why I am choosing to go with this route instead of a Home Theater set up. Well to begin with I already had a 2.1 JBL Sound system that I very much love already and honestly living in this duplex with someone upstairs I always seem to find the thing off (after all their complaining that it is too loud) So I am usualy left to using the sound from the TV or just turning off the base from the JBL Speakers. Now if I had a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound system, well it would get barely used to its full potential. So I chose this route, plus I did not want to spend $150 and up for something that was not going to get fully used. However if you do live in a home and don’t have any neighbors upstairs well go for one of the Home Theater systems because it is definitely worth the extra money.

Anyways back to what I got in my mailbag, I received the HDMI Switcher, HDMI Cables, and and right angle adapter.

So now if you are looking into doing this also, well go for it! After trying everything together the quality of the images are amazing and I have not noticed any loss of quality. The build quality of the Switcher is plastic and all but it seems to be working very well. I turned on my PS3 and it immediately switched to the next input. Something I like about it. Also it is very small and compact so you could place it anywhere in your home entertainment center, and because it has an IR receiver you can use the little remote it comes with to switch through the inputs. Now the one I got was a 3×1 port but there is also many other HDMI Switchers out there, just look for the high quality ones.

Now for the HDMI Cables, well they are just HDMI cables. I have found that they are exactly identical to the cable I purchased from Best Buy, but labeled Dynex on it. Now why would you pay $30 for a cable that is $3 online which is pretty much identical. Take my word for it, it is definitely worth a try if your skeptical, I mean its only $3!! And now for the HDMI Right Angle Male to Female Adapter. Now I got it only to see how well it worked and well now I have left it connected to my HDMI cable. The little guy is perfect for those tight corners and if you want to clean up the mess behind the TV or in my case the projector. And like the rest of the items I got from Amazon, there is no loss in quality. So give it a try, I definitely did and have no regrets.

HDMI Splitter

Posted by DJ JeffP on

Since my projector is set up is behind my couch I have all my entertainment systems in front where the TV normally sits. And I didn’t want to move everything closer to the projector only because sometimes the projector won’t be used on the day to day basis; just for movie nights and special occasions. So what I did, instead of getting a home theatre surround sound system, I purchased a few things that made things a lot easier.

First we have the HDMI Cable 50′.
Click here
Now you might be thinking why would anyone need 50′? Well if you are like me and always worried about cables showing and wanting everything hidden well then your going to need the extra feet to play with. Now my living room is only 14′x11′ so I shouldn’t need that much cable. However I did use up the majority of the cable with maybe 6+ feet to spare. My first impression of the cable was wow. I paid $30 for a 50′ hdmi cable that in other stores listed for $150-200 for the same exact unbranded cable. The cable itself was very thick and looked very well made. Now I have purchased a few cheap HDMI’s from amazon before and this one would have to be one of the best ones I have gotten. And the image looks great, I would say it looks just as clear as the cables I have bought from Best Buy.

Next I ordered an HDMI Splitter
Click Here
Now for $25 this powered HDMI 1 to 2 splitter works just fine for my application. I wanted to get a powered one only because of the length of cable I am using to get to the projector. It came in some nice packaging and the build quality of the box was made out of metal, when the image online looks like it was made of plastic, so two thumbs up there. But so far with the two pieces of the puzzle solved it is looking very promising.

I did order a few more things that I wanted to test out, a HDMI switcher with remote and some right angle adapters you can find online. Now those two are still on the way so once those are in I will make a full complete review of everything.

Also if you are interested in the screen I have, I purchased it at Ikea for $2 now the rolling shade itself is usually $50 but I got lucky found it in the AS IS DEPARTMENT at my local Ikea (where I also got my cool entertainment center for $60). So if your on a budget and don’t want to spend $100-200 on a manual projector screen Ikea has these rolling shades for about $50.
71″

79″

Home Entertainment

Posted by DJ JeffP on


Ever thought of getting a projector for your home entertainment system? Well there are a lot of projectors out there that are really good. Like Vivetek. Decently priced projectors with HDMI ports and 3D ready. I recently picked up the Vivitek D511. A perfect little set up for Roughly $500. Not bad because if you were to have any problems with it, well then replace it. Not bad really. My initial thought on the projector were great, the image is crisp and with my PS3 connected I get 1080p connection. Now the projector is 720p native which isn’t bad at all. And in my place with a throw from 10ft away it is pretty big picture. Now if you are on a budget and looking for something definitely worth you money at the same time, well looks like you found your match because this bad boy is definitely worth every penny. Its small and compact and comes with a lot of good features, you can set it up for rear projection and all the other configurations, 3D and closed caption ready.



Super lightweight, 2600 lumens (super bright), 720p resolution, 3d ready, HDMI port, crisp pictures, <$600. What more do you need to know? If you interested in there other more expensive products I would say they are definitely worth the money without spending the extra bucks compared to the name brand projectors out there.Vivitek 1080p


click here for more info

Photo Project

Posted by DJ JeffP on

Now many people have started this project. And I have been contemplating whether or not to continue on with the photo a day for 365 days. But if you have one leave a comment with a link to your 365project. I sort of started to lets see how long this will last till I choose to not take any or forget to take a picture.

Here are a few random snaps from my 5d which I liked only because they seemed to have come out really weird.

1/365 First picture of the new year(not a weird one just love the shot.)

2/365

3/365

4/365