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Kicker CompVR 07DCVR122 2-Ohm 2 Subwoofers In-Vent Box

CompVR Sub Boxes take the reputation and reliability of dual-voice-coiled CompVR Subwoofers and combine them with sturdy KICKER wood enclosures blanketed with rich gray and black carpeting.

Amazon.com Product Description CompVR-Loaded Sub Boxes provide more crushing but easy-to-install bass in 2007, adding two new sizes of anarchy to go along with its duo of wicked dual-sub boxes--the VCVR12 with a pummeling 12-inch CompVR Subwoofer, and the VCVR15 with a scorching 15-inch CompVR Subwoofer. The VCVR15 will be available this spring.

Truckloads of affordable bass. Click to enlarge.

CompVR subwoofers offer features beyond most woofers in their class. Click to enlarge.

Heavy duty gray carpet with embroidered Kicker logo.
CompVR Sub Boxes take the reputation and reliability of dual-voice-coiled CompVR Subwoofers and combine them with sturdy KICKER wood enclosures blanketed with rich gray and black carpeting. New-for-2007 CompVR Subs have been tweaked to near perfection, though it's difficult for KICKER acoustic engineers to get much closer. And all CVR Sub Boxes feature a custom-designed, combination vent/terminal cup, where the impedance designator (2 or 4 Ohm) and oversized port share space.
The dual-sub boxes supply the madness with two of KICKER's most proven round woofers to date. Enraged DCVR12 (12-inch CVRs) and DCVR10 (10-inch CVRs) Dual-Sub Boxes furnish fury like nothing else, delivering the blazing bass of a CompVR subwoofer pair.
DCVR12 Features

CompVR performance in a factory designed enclosure
Large diameter, high flow ports with custom flange and terminal cup
Heavy duty gray carpet
What's in the Box
DCVR12 enclosure (2 ohm impedance), Mounting brackets, Installation hardware, User's manual

I have been slowly working on a series of automatons and robotic effigies of my coworkers as a way to exercise my creativity without cluttering the house with kid-unfriendly creations. My two main design criteria were low cost and uniqueness. Builds included a stand-up paddle-boarder; a duct-tape speed boat; a soda-can steam-powered jet ski; and a wheeled, obstacle-avoiding room-roamer with a cross-country skiing action. For my next trick, I thought it would be fun to try something climbing related. You may have noticed the outdoor theme here. I work for REI, a large consumer co-operative charged with inspiring, educating and outfitting folks for a lifetime of outdoor adventure. I knew it was going to be tricky to build a climber inexpensively. All the climbing bots I could find on the web used either magnetic wheels (not authentic enough for me) or enough servos to blow my budget ten times over. I thought perhaps I could reach my goal by tweaking the leg shapes of a bi-core walker, a popular BEAM design. Some experimentation later, I found I could coax a climbing action given a sloped and carpeted surface. I played around with carpet-covered sheet metal and super-magnets on the hands and feet, but the sheet metal was going to add too much time and cost to the project. I settled on sharp hands and feet moving up a carpeted plywood surface, as that perfectly matched the scrap materials I already had on hand. Unfortunately, mounting batteries was going to be tricky, as the center of gravity was touchy enough with just the servos hanging out on the back. Cramming on tiny sensors and compact control circuitry also seemed like more work than I wanted to put into this project, especially considering that most of the other creations in this series took less than two hours. As such, I moved to a tethered design, but then had to decide how the tethers would affect the climbing action. It would be great if the tether hung like a tail, but I couldn't keep the climber's arms on the wall with the added weight. Having decided that the tethers would be top-ropes, so to speak, the idea struck me that I could make a game of it, two climbers racing against each other. After that, it was just a matter of implementation and refinement. One Arduino reads the pots and controls the climbers' servos while the other Arduino handles the game mechanics: power, LCD, timing, music, and win detection. The single button turns everything on or off with a Polulu Power Switch. Upon power-up, there is a brief title screen, a plea for gentleness, and then the countdown begins. When the race starts, the control Arduino signals the climber Arduino to start mapping the servos to the pots. Both climbers use the same three-dollar servos I ordered direct from Hong Kong. One climber is significantly longer than the other, but less stable. Rather than perfect each climber, I chose to leave them a little rough and hard to handle. In the future, I may add obstacles to the climbing wall, but I want to first see how things go with a blank wall. My first versions of the sheet aluminum arms and legs terminated in digits crudely shaped with oversized tin snips. These held the carpet passably, but threw off the steering. I installed tacks in each hand and foot, making a world of difference in grip and control. I really wanted the hands to be holding ice axes, as ice axes were the reason for founding REI. Unfortunately, the added length messed up the geometry. Perhaps I'll revisit the idea when the current climbers break. Yes, I don't expect any of my parts to last long at the hands of enthusiastic players. Anyway, the spikes are connected to ground, and the wall's aluminum snow caps are each connected to a pin on the control Arduino. The winner is announced, either Mary or Lloyd (the names of the couple that founded REI), and the elapsed time is displayed. I considered storing high scores in the EEPROM, but they wouldn't have meant as much without the players' names, and text entry is another thing beyond the scope of this cheap and lazy project. As such, the winner has 30 seconds to scribble down their score on a chalkboard or tweet a picture of the display hash-tagged #peak97. Until we get that pool table in the break room at work, this'll be the next best thing :) I put together a brief project guide for Make Projects at: makeprojects.com/Project/Peak-97-a-Climbing-Game/1210/1

(Well... a couple of days early.)

Western Ringtail Possum, Pseudocheirus peregrinus occidentalis. Male. Approx 35cm body length.

Going to my parents' for the Xmas break, I arrived in the early evening and as we shot the breeze in the balmy conditions outside, I kept hearing an occasional rustle in the immense ivy that covers most of the garden wall and pergola. My parents' garden has a history of turning up interesting things such as lovely great frogs but I was absolutely delighted to find this male Ringtail Possum in the pergola. I say "in" rather than "on" the pergola, as it is absolutely carpeted in thick vegetation mainly ivy and jasmine. The covering is so thick in fact that there are little "tunnels" throughout it that are just perfect for a possum. Given how big he was I am surprised at how quiet the rustles were that gave him away... but no match for my super animal-detecting hearing of course! =D

The pergola is actually quite low, barely above my head height (I'm quite tall) and I could've quite easily given his belly a little scratch... though I don't think he would've appreciated that, coming from a stranger in the dark and all. Whenever we would turn the torch on, he would stop dead still like in the picture, he is at the top of a pruned-back orange tree that sits next to/under the pergola and eating the leaves of a grape vine that grows over the pergola and tree. He stayed in this exact pose for a good 6-7 minutes. With the torch turned off, after a minute or so, he just went on his merry way pottering about the place.

This isn't the first time we've had a Ringtail in the backyard. A few Summers ago there were two(!) in the pergola and mandarine tree (which is next to the orange tree) one night, though I wasn't there on that occasion. Dad actually accidentally destroyed a possum drey (nest) last year while chainsawing back our gigantic Peppermint Tree in the backyard, so they are obviously in the area and good to see them still around. I helped Dad with installing some microbat boxes in the backyard, maybe he should put in a possum box too!

So all in all a very special experience! Just don't see Ringtails that often (I could count the number of sightings I've had in my life on one hand) compared to Brushtails. And to have it in the backyard just quietly going about its business quite happy to have you within a metre of it - divine. I should mention that my parents' house is pretty much just in suburbia, not really much in the way of bushland nearby.

Bunbury, December 2010.