R/C Blogs

DLG pods for the Taboo GT, available in full carbon or full fiberglass 2.4 ghz models.

Good enough to eat!

I have been experimenting with turbulators on my Mini Blade.

Based I what I have seen discussed in other threads and tried my self, turbulators on RC sailplanes are not as effective as analysis could lead one to believe.

About the only noticeable effects seam to be a softening of the snap, other than that it does not seam to do anything.

That in it self is encouraging because there is a drag penalty but not enough to notice immediately.

I have some full-scale zigzag tape I have been using and it is way to thick but again even with this very thick zigzag tape it’s not going noticeably slower.

After flying with them for awhile I am going to take them off the wing to see if I can feel a difference.

I have had them on for about a month so I hope to notice some effects when they come off.

I have been looking at turbulators on full-scale sailplanes and I think that may hold some clues as to other things to do with turbulators.

It dawned on me that I should try putting one ahead of the fuse to wing intersection.

http://static.rcgroups.com/forums/a...34-P1010073.jpg

I can’t tell the difference flying with and without so I have no idea if it is helping.

Even if it did do something positive it’s probably too subtle to notice so I am probably wasting my time.

Another thing full-scale sailplanes have is turbulators next to the flap and control surface hinge lines.

I read some where that they do this to improve aileron effectiveness so that is another thing I need to try.

This link is to a turbulator thread where turbulators were being discussed and also links into other threads discussing turbulators and wing to fuselage intersections.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ight=turbulator

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my blog!


Luman
www.unitepipe.com

Coming soon ...

if you want a free flight simulator, I´ll recomend you this one:http://www.gamespot.com/pages/games...6109&id=6076109or this:http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/dogf...ad_6083668.html

Walkera 4#3 Caution! Extreme 3D Flights! Got Fast Eyes? (3 min 1 sec)

Ok gettin a hang of capturing this one turned out decent. Just have to sort out which mode on the camera is gooing to work best for what app.

Guess this willl be where I post my videos

Hope you enjoy!

Mike,

http://www.vimeo.com/1025364?pg=embed&sec=1025364

One of the "mysterious" areas of RC flying is the component in our plane called the ESC. We learn early on that it stands for Electronic Speed Control, and that it works in conjunction with our transmitter's throttle stick to control our plane's speed. Sounds simple enough!

The next thing we learn is that there are ESC's for brushed motors, and ESC's for brushless motors; and we can't use one with the other. So far so good.

Then we learn that ESC's are sold and classified by how many amps of current they are good for.

We put two and two together and conclude that if we have a motor that pulls 10 amps of current, it would be a very wise thing to buy an ESC that's rated for at least 10 amps or more of current. "Hey!", we say to ourselves, "This isn't so hard to understand at all!" And so we always make sure to buy an ESC that's rated at or above the maximum current (amps) that our motor uses. We're on a roll, and everything always works perfectly for us.

So, armed with our new found knowledge, we decide that we pretty much know how an ESC works. We conclude (erroneously) that it acts just like a miniature voltage regulator, and that our throttle stick works with the ESC to cut down the voltage and amperage that our motor is getting whenever we move the throttle stick to partial throttle. And THIS is precisely when we go from having great running, long lasting motors and batteries and ESC's, to witnessing our ESC's getting burned up, and maybe our expensive Li-Po's puffing, and maybe even our beautiful and expensive motors getting toasted.

Here's what inevitably happens to us: We find ourselves in possession of a nice motor and prop combination that pulls 10 amps of current. And then we look through our ESC collection, and find that the closest one we have is a 6 amp ESC. "AHA!", we think. "I can use this little 6 amp ESC if I just make sure I fly my plane at half throttle!"

So we hook up the 6 amp ESC to our 10 amp motor, and maybe even use our test meter to see how much current it's pulling at half throttle. And lo and behold, our test meter shows that it's plainly pulling 5 amps of current. So we are very comfortable in our brilliant deduction, and we fly our plane like that, never going above 1/2 throttle. And pretty soon we notice our plane plummeting to the ground. And we walk up to it, and notice that the ESC is blackened and charred, and smoking. And we just can't figure out why it did this, so we conclude that it must have been 'cheap junk'.

And it all starts with our mis-conception of how our lowly little ESC actually works.

So let's look first at what an ESC does NOT do, and then go from there.

An ESC does NOT reduce the battery voltage to the motor. And an ESC does NOT reduce the current level (amps) to the motor!!!

Quite simply, all an ESC does is allow FULL battery voltage, and ALL 10 amps that the motor pulls at wide open throttle to reach the motor. It allows this full voltage and full current in discreet and separate 'spikes' many times a second.

By way of example, at 1/2 throttle on our setup, the ESC is allowing full voltage and current to pass through to the motor for 1/2 a second total, for each second that passes by. Many, many spikes of full voltage and full 10 amps of current are passing through our ESC that's rated for 6 amps!!!!

At 1/4 throttle on our setup, the ESC is allowing full voltage and current to pass through to the motor for 1/4 a second total, for each second that passes by. And so on, and so forth.

Can you say... "Uh oh, this little 6 amp ESC is doomed to failure from abuse?"

"BUT", you say, "Why is our test meter showing only 5 amps of current getting to the motor at 1/2 throttle?"

And the answer lies in the fact that all test meters simply give you the 'average' current flow! In this specific 1/2 throttle example, our test meter sees 10 amps for 1/2 a second, and 0 amps for 1/2 a second, and happily displays 5 amps as the average. And you are under the impression that you are not abusing your 6 amp ESC, when in reality, you are beating it to death for 1/2 a second, of every single second!

Chuck

any body know what this is?

Hey Guys, Whats uuuup!,
Sorry I've been gone so long. It's been 49 days since I last posted, whoa! Lots of things going on since I last blogged. I won't bore ya with all the details...Well the videos are almost ready. I decided to reshoot the clips & pics to give it more clarity. I had some critics give me some input on what they thought...I'm always open for suggestions and I think it was worth hearing them out. It looks & flows with more clarity...gives it more of a professional feel. The scheduled release of each video will premiere on the following dates:

Coming June 2nd 2008
Part #1 – Introduction “Learning to Fly R/C Planes”

Coming June 3rd 2008
Part #2 – Buying your 1st plane – What you need & Where to find it

Coming June 16th 2008
Part #3 – Building your plane & How to make sure it flies

Coming June 17th 2008
Part #4 – Practice flying on your computer

Coming June 30th 2008
Part #5 – The Maiden Flight – Trimming for straight & level flight

Coming July 1st 2008
Part #6 – Hard Landings (aka – Crash) Tips on Quick Fixes & Improvements

The first 6 parts will get you started & flying, while the remaining 4 show how to improve the plane with upgrades to the entire system to grow with you as your skills improve...A bonus video will explore the use of digital cameras and swapping the parts out to another plane (free plans to follow that video)
Its gonna be Cool! I even have some video footage from the Joe Nall 08' that I'll throw in for some entertainment.
Later,
MJH

After hearing good things about the Pentax Optio s5z, I picked up a used one for cheap and made a homemade adjustable mount for it. Like my Aiptek camera mount, this mount can point the camera in just about any direction and angle.

The camera is 4.65 ounces with battery and SD card. AUW of the Slow Stick with camera is 23.7 ounces. Plenty of thrust with a Towerpro 2409-18 and a 3-cell 20C 1300 mAh lipo.

I've spent the last few weeks of lunch hours working on the "SkyTraceGPS" software. The data logger works great. This is a stand alone unit - supply 3-5V and it runs, no other parts required. I've been using it in a couple of my electric sailplanes.

When connected to the PC via USB, you first download a list of all the logs. Then select a log and download the data. Then go to the altitude screen to view altitude vs time. This screen also lets you select and save different parts of the data and zoom in etc. and calculate delta time, delta alt, and climb rate between the markers.

One of the coolest things the software will do is export the data to Google Earth.

I still need to clean up the software a bit and get some labels made for the units. I have parts for 3 units, but plane to order more shortly. I think the final unit will sell for $129. That includes software, USB cable and the SkyTraceGPS logger with a universal RC connector.

I'm making a couple of beta units for people to test. Production units should go on sale in a month or 2.

Potm wind information:

South side: http://208.110.141.44/top/liveapplet.html

North side: http://208.187.100.83/top/liveapplet.html

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/mwmap.php?map=slc

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/Ma....x=123&map.y=31

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/lau...a=KSLC&state=UT

Placement of the Lipo Battery, ESC, and Receiver:

The ESC is on one side of the model and the battery is on the other side. One reason is that the motor leads of the ESC are not very long, and this way I get good placement of the battery as I can slide it up or down the entire side for CG adjustment without running into the ESC.

Removable photo mounts or double-sided tape is very handy for approximating the location of the ESC, receiver, and battery. In this case, the battery is the heaviest component and has a greatest affect of placement on the CG.

With the components located as in the pictures the plane balances on the spar perfectly.

Ailerons are on channels 1 and 6.

Transmitter is Futaba 7C 2.4 GHz

The AUW (total weight) is 17.0 oz.

Well, like some of you have gathered I've purchased the Type VII 41/C Atlantic version from Revell. It's a nice kit, very rich in detail and I have to say well packaged. Like most subs it doesn't have that many parts and it comes designed to be a surface dweller because all of the screens are closed, which is nice if you want to go for this. If you want to go the other way well, you have some work "cut out" for you if you catch my drift In any case it just begs you to do something with it It's a little less than 95cm long and as seen before very doable as RC.

I have told myself, having still two boats to finish, a honey do list I promised to do something about and excellent weather (up to today ) to hide the box away But no I didn't listen and having searched the last couple of days (in between the honey do list and at nights) on how best to approach this built I succumbed to the temptation. Like I said before this boat just begs to be built!

Most of the builts I have seen so far have a WTC as piés de resistance and total solution to the H2O problem. One of the best systems I think is from this Dutch guy (triple-s.nl) Lex Verkuijl. This system when ballasting gets it's WTC under some pressure and I guess most systems are more or less like that. However I'm not going to use his system but maybe a couple of ideas he's using in this system. The problem is that the Type VII is neither modeled to be maintained inside nor easy, in my eyes, to be converted to maintain Although the system has all kind of controls and stuff to check for water I don't see how to get the WTC out without opening the whole boat. That is more or less what I want to evade

Subs are not really new to me I've built a couple in the past, although not RC and diving so it's going to be a challenge I know that much. I've thought on a couple of things already:

Motors: Two Mabuchi's 365SA I had lying there. If I follow Mabuchi's chart I'm going to get nice revs out of them on 12V on which I intend to run them. The power source is going to be ten to eleven AA's 2700 MaH's. I hope to run for at least 15 min!

Like the application says on M's site I got them from old hairdryers which after years of use cost me nil I'm going to hold these motors in separate WT pods, which I will have to build, against each side of the sub. What off I don't know yet but I'm thinking plain plastic sealed with silicone cement on the side of the sub. The prop shaft will be 2mm in a 3mm with 3x2mm collars filled with grease holding possible waterflow. The pods will be designed to give room to air to always flow to the top of it instead of to the shaft, well at least we'll try!

I'm using the models prop I think I've casted the PT's props in epoxy and now I have to "shave" them a little bit but as far as I can see and feel the props the epoxy has strengthend these considerably. The same treatment is going to be applied to the sub's props. If by any chance these break I'm probably going back to the graupners 25mm. The motors are going to give the boat a nice speed, no doubt. If I get the five ch. radio my LHS said they have for €99,95 I'm putting them on separate ESC's.

The diving system will be a combination, at least that's what I will go for of three separate WTC's, two of them, which will be allowed to be filled with water, and one which will house the "brain". I've already ordered pieces of 50mm and 25mm clear tubing and waiting for them to arrive. As you can see in the pictures I will be using (double or triple) profilatics, as they are stronger than balloons, for the filling of the trim or ballast tanks. Only these ballast tanks will be coming under a little pressure when water is filled. I will probably be ordering one of the pumps shown at the Dutch guys site. I'll be checking some car suppliers tomorrow though for wiper pumps to see if they are cheaper, I just plainly forgot to call them today To hold the water in the container I'm putting an electromagnetic "faucet" on the water line.

This built is going to take a while, I think...... This is also the reason why this Blog was begun It's also my reminder for what I'm going for. Any body who sees this and has anything to add plse. feel free to do so. Constructive ideas and comments are greatly appreciated. I speak four languages fluently, así sí údsted leé estó, en U heeft enig commentaar, plies laga sa y dúnami ésaki librémente, Boo