What's on your bench today?

[Luke Warmwater]

Thanks Chris....nice pics!

Hva eyou ever flown a twin engine before? Flying it isn't really the issue as long as it is set up properly....it is what you do if things go wrong...lol.

The trick is to never let it fly on one engine / motor. It will be almost impossible to control, even with bootfulls of rudder. I fly my P38 on one LiPo and two matched ESCs, to try and avoid the possibility that one LiPo drops faster than the other. The two ESCs being matched means the LVC "should" be the same point...but that's only theory!

As a further safety measure, like a heli, I try to make absolutely sure that I never hit the LVC.

I've not got rudders on the P38, but I am thinking of trying to set up a mixed channel for the throttle to give differential thrust on the motors. That will be something for next season here....

[chansen1953]

Hi Luke.. no `I have flown IC powered trainers and gliders back in the day.. and the Glider is my first Plane for about 30 years !!.. I have had no trouble flying it, and landing with flaps is just very cool...
I will get a LMAC expert to maiden it for me and check it out, before I have a go. .. I see your point about LVC issues and a twin engine.. so I will be very careful with battery voltage and run some test on land. The model has heaps of room up in the nose , so would be quite easy to use 2 x Lipo's. I am using 3Sx 2200mah but I do have some re-packaged 6X x 5000mah that I have cut down to a 3S . x ??? (prob..4000mah ?)
These were 6S Heli bats that had a faulty cell after a crash..
The cells are intact, but the resultant 3S pack is quite large.. but will suit the c-47 because of the large space in the nose. Plus the extra MAH's will make it safer for flying a Twin -- I Hope..

Another guy at the club flies twin Electric war-birds, and so I might ask him how he handles it .
I do have an electronic tacho.. so might be worth making sure the motor rpm is matched..although I don't know how to slow/speed one up with both ESC's connected together ?

Thanks for the input.. though mate...

I will file a report after the weekend.

[Luke Warmwater]

I'm not sure how you can control them separately....I guess you need to run them on separate channels and then have to run some sort of mix......

I run mine off one channel, but with matching ESCs and motors. All the parts were bought at the same time, so the theory is they should all be equally "worn" or "used" and on that basis they "should" provide matched outputs. She pulls a little to the right on initial run up / launch, but once in the air she is fine.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7tJIQLnawk&feature=player_detailpage&list =UUncr2CHf_ST9f6xFKlbbVYg[/ame]

[chansen1953]

hi Luke.. very cool P-38 '' looks nice and flies well. My c-$7 is a Durafly kit from HK, and came with fitted motors and pre-wired and tested ESC's. I ran the ESc throttle range setup as per instructs.. to ensure that both motors started on the same throttle point..

so should be fine..

[Luke Warmwater]

I didn't realise it was all pre-fitted. Yep, that should be bang on! The P38 was just a barebones kit, no electrics, so I had to sort it all.

My mate has the Durafly Corsair; they really are quality kits! Look forward to the maiden review!

[Tomstoy2]

OMG! How far have we gotten away from the theme of this thread? When was the last time we actually dealt with an issue with a Belt?

I mean,,, really guys? Planks on a Belt thread? You are all so going to hell!

At least multi's are heli related!


Cool vid there Luke!
Oops, did I just say that?!

[jperkosk]

Just ordered another quad. Maybe I should call it Belt B v17:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...00mm_PNF_.html

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

OMG! How far have we gotten away from the theme of this thread? When was the last time we actually dealt with an issue with a Belt?

I mean,,, really guys? Planks on a Belt thread? You are all so going to hell!

At least multi's are heli related!


Cool vid there Luke!
Oops, did I just say that?!

It's fine....mine is a Lightning Belt!

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

Just ordered another quad. Maybe I should call it Belt B v17:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...00mm_PNF_.html

A little bit of wee escaped when I saw that!

[jperkosk]

Originally Posted by Luke Warmwater

It's fine....mine is a Lightning Belt!

OK, goes into Jane's Fighting Helicopters under Belt P v38 then

[jperkosk]

Originally Posted by sutty

As for letting you have a module, sorry but I don't have one spare. I only bought the one for the 600. Actually after what you just said about it I'm surprised that you still want to give one a try. Be that as it may, it was Jerry who bought 6, so maybe he would be pleased to let you have one, not sure. Maybe he bought them so that he can sell them on as completely set up beginner helis, as he moves forward onto bigger and better things. Not sure, see what he says.

Hi Chris,

Indeed I have bought 6 HD units, I'm just an unrelenting hoarder . I have total of 6 CP2 systems so I just got a HD module for each one. It's even unlikely that I will have installed more than half of them this year, so if you're squeezed for delivery I could let you have one at cost, no problem, but shipping from Mexico is rather expensive, the Mexican Post is unreliable and we would have to use someone like DHL. Please let me know.

Although I thought the link I posted to FMA international web-store was showing HD module in stock?

http://www.store.revolectrix.com/Pro...t-II/Hard_Deck

Cheers,

[Tomstoy2]

As well as the 10x4.7 APC props worked, the problem with them is I'm hovering under 50 % throttle.

To eliminate this I just balanced a set of APC 10x3.8 props, slo-fly of course.
This should put the rpm back where it needs to be makng it rock solid.

Next up, I've decided to route my Futaba R6208sb antenna differently. It's drying now, so I'll post a pic later.
Make it a little more professional looking and hopefully make use of most of the range it's capable of.

I flew north of the backyard following all the way up to the million dollar homes again, about a little over 1/2 mile. My longest flight yet.
At one point, I thought I had hit the edge of the range.
I stopped over a house, about a little over 100 feet up. I commenced a left hand rotation and about 1/2 way thru I pulled back, realized I was short on rotation and pushed the sticks again. It just sat there. I was puzzled, so I pushed the stick for left rudder, again, and she responded just fine.

Stuff like this has a nasty habbit of working on you. You end up revisiting it in your mind all the time, disecting it and reassembling.

First, I thought I had hit the end of the range, but after review, I couid be the reciever antenna just got blocked monentarily.
Thus the upgrade in the routing.

Either way, you get a little crap you pants moment. Heart skips a beat, then races.

Didn't suffer a flinch afterwards, wierd.

I'm looking forward to testing the new props and see if my predictions prove right.
I can't believe how incredable she flys now! Going to try tightening the basic gains a tweak more, work on the gimbal just a little. Think its time to now start thinking of taking it to it's last level, uhf, long range.

I'm also considering rigging a reciever to the house, take off outside, then step inside and fly using my 73" tv as the monitor. I can set a chair right by the sliding glass door and have a hell of a time!

Been thinking of replacing my 7" monitor on the tripod with a 12vdc 15" monitor!
I've found that there are times that having a monitor is damn nice option.

After this, there reall isn't anything else I can do, It will be time to work on the next frame, one with a real gimbal and camera. Maybe 4 6s battery's in parallel.

As the saying goes, can't take it with you.

[Tomstoy2]

Just a simple little thing I did to test it out. I used the soda straw from 330x that held the ping pong ball.
Recycling, baby!

[jperkosk]

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

I'm also considering rigging a reciever to the house, take off outside, then step inside and fly using my 73" tv as the monitor. I can set a chair right by the sliding glass door and have a hell of a time!

What about Tx range then? Can you wire Tx antenna connection to an outside mast? That would be awesome!!!

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

Been thinking of replacing my 7" monitor on the tripod with a 12vdc 15" monitor!
I've found that there are times that having a monitor is damn nice option.

One like this? The toolbox contains a medium sized car battery, the thing still needs a hood to shield it from sun:

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

As the saying goes, can't take it with you.

Definitely not, as last week's events in my corner of the planet prove
Heading to Minnesota again this weekend, will be there 2 weeks, sent a PM to Jack but no response so far. Almost ready to fall in a depression, and I only know one cure for it:

Tom, so what's your opinion about F550 hexa, would it work as my 2nd generation FPV platform?

[ragge1]

hehe , Jerry that reminded me on an episode of '' Big Bang Theory ''

[Tomstoy2]

UHF, you bet, dude! I'll have my roof supporting more gear than the FAA!

That's what I'm looking for a monitor size, all right. Think a car battery is a little over kill, though.

This is pretty important here, Jerry. At least when you get to flying outside line of sight. Make sure your monitor is set up that if it looses signal it displays noise, not a blue or black screen.
That way, if you drop signal and reaquire it's immediate. Otherwise, it needs to reboot, takes valuable time.

Now, get rid of that antenna and get a crosshair. Set up your vtx with a BlueBeam cloverleaf.

Do like the stand!

Yep, a shield is needed. I made one out of a cardboard box, it helps.

The f550 is a nice bird, but honestly, I wouldn't go that route.
If you do, just get the frame, maybe the esc's, too.
The motors I wouldn't bother with. I love my mt2216-900kv motors. You can't go wrong with Tiger motors.
I wouldn't use the f550 board to distribute power, either. There's been quite a few incidents of these going down due to the esc's not being fed with enough power. You would be better off with a distribution board rated for the load, or what I would do, tin them and solder them all together in two bundles.

There are some really nice, not too expensive landing gear/gimbals available now for the f550.
These really complete the the f550.

If you get the DJI esc's, they are very good opto's, high refresh rate, but no programming, so if you want to do some changes later you can't.
They use a ring on the bullet connectors, cut these off and just solder on some good bullet connectors of the standard variety.
Lots of reports of these rings causing intermittant connection resulting in bad things happening.

Personally, I'm extremely happy with my X/A Hexa frame. They did a great job with it, just don't use the stupid button head screws.
Landing gear is excellent, flexable enough to not get damaged if you get a little rough with it.
The load rails, that's really the way to go. Gives you a ton of flexability to make changes easily.
You've seen the weight I'm hauling around with it now, and the evolution it has gone thru.
At $170 it's worth it.

The thing to decide now would be where do you want to take this? If just doing some filming and fpv, then either of the 2 frames would fit the ticket.

If you want to do primarily fpv, film your flight, keep it not too expensive the the new dedicated fpv quads is the way to go.
The TBS Discovery, often called the 'Disco' is the hot ticket. I want one of these, myself. Add their 'Core" to it and it's quite the fpv machine.

If you want to get a little bit on the serious side of filming, then go for a larger frame now, like a 650 size.
This is my only regret right now, as I would love to have a real gimbal, like a PhotoHigher av130 or 200, and a much better camera, like a Nex5 or 7 or GH2.
I'm at the edge of my workable weight range now. To carry those I would have to run only 1 battery and I'm not willing to loose the range now that I've go a workable 14 minutes.

As regrettable as my decision to go just one step up for my learning curve was, it was however, the correct step to make.
You do have to pay your dues, make a few mistakes along the way. Plus, I'm still learning! The reality is, I'm not ready yet for the next step. I'll keep up with this rig for 2013, explore more in my learning curve with it, get a hell of a lot more comfortable with her and learn even more, then I'll step up to something like a 900 size, take a real camera up in the sky along with a crap load of batterys.
Then I'll religate this rig to an r&d machine.

So, decide what you want to achieve and decide on the steps you want to take to get there.
Of course, you konw I'll help you out all I can, plus I just love spending your money!

[copterboy]

I know that if I got into quad's I would want a kick-ass AP ship!! Would be so expensive, I'd probably never move out from my mum n dads, so I'm remaining blisfully ignorant on the subject for now, other than the odd wow, when I see something I like that you guys are getting

Forgot to mention, I also got the old mCPX out on the bench today. This week, I've been thinking I want to revive it for winter. And get it going again, so I can hopefully teach Jack with it next summer (if he wants to of course!). For now I'll beef up the frame and landing gear, and replace the stuck servo. I tried the cleaning trick on the silver strip today, but alas it's still stuck The thing that gets me with this heli, is how easy it is to break the tiny little plastic parts off the frame or landing gear, and it can mean a new frame skids and re-build.

My logic is, spend a bit beefing it up, but not going for the Brushless conversion. Then I can have some more fun practising some inverted stuff and hand it over to Jack next year, when I can afford to get the 130X

[ragge1]

Originally Posted by ragge1

hehe , Jerry that reminded me on an episode of '' Big Bang Theory ''

couldn't resist

[sutty]

I knew exactly what you meant, I just forgot to reply. I laughed when I twigged.

[jperkosk]

That's a really cool ground station !!!