I just now bought one of these for a good price on Ebay...I can now count myself into the MiG 15 group!!!...

Kevin

Originally Posted by Kevin Greene

I just now bought one of these for a good price on Ebay...I can now count myself into the MiG 15 group!!!...

Kevin

Congrats Kevin, and welcome to the club! I love mine and hope you do as well. (Though I like ROG flight and it's a bit tough right now with all the snow and the park walkways having 2 to 3 foot high BURMS on either side ... kinda like rolling down the Death Star trench for take offs and landings!

Marlin

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

Hi guys, need some help over here.

Today I noticed a high frame loss (or I think it's high), 83 with my first batt, 130 and 1 hold with my second one.

I performed a range check and as long as I was facing the plane I had no lost frames or holds for about 40 meters or ~130 feet.

Is this normal? I might just be noticing this now but... better safe then sorry.

So, anyone happened to take a peek at their telemetry?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Planecraazy

Flew it today with no problems and same battery in it, same battery I fly in my sbach, who knows, just a quirk I guess. Plus on 3s the voltage would have to drop waaay down to hit lvc right? Flew a 3 min flight on it today with that batt........

Planecraazy,

You're right. I somehow missed that you were running 3s. A 3s pack would be toast if the voltage dropped that low even once. I accidentally flew to LVC with one of my Hyp 180 3s packs in the Beast 3D. Instant pack death. The pack had puffed up enough that I could barely remove it from the plane.

Originally Posted by Kevin Greene

I just now bought one of these for a good price on Ebay...I can now count myself into the MiG 15 group!!!...

Kevin

Kevin,

Welcome to the MiG club! It's my first EDF - and I love it! Like Marlin, I prefer ROG flight, but the MiG really scoots when you remove the gear, and it's a great belly-lander! Good packs are pretty much mandatory, as the MiG pulls more current than any of the other UMX planes.

Originally Posted by Fish99

Congrats Kevin, and welcome to the club! I love mine and hope you do as well. (Though I like ROG flight and it's a bit tough right now with all the snow and the park walkways having 2 to 3 foot high BURMS on either side ... kinda like rolling down the Death Star trench for take offs and landings!

Marlin

Hi Marlin,

That would make a cool video! Hmm.....how about ROS takeoffs on the belly? Just have to keep the nose up so the MiG doesn't turn into a micro snow-blower.

BTW - it's snowing pretty hard here right now. It's the first snow of the season that hasn't melted as it hit. It's supposed to warm up to 45-50 F later this week, so it won't stick around very long. Hope I can get in a few MiG flights at the club field. It's been over a week since we've had any decent flying wx around here.

Joel

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

So, anyone happened to take a peek at their telemetry?

Thanks

I flew my Sbach UMX for about 4 minutes yesterday and went plenty far away (almost far enough to lose orientation) as well as did usual acrobatics which would have put the fuse (and it's internal receiver antenna) at various orientations to the transmitter antenna, and I saw that I got 3 Fades and zero holds for that flight, if that helps any....

I'm going to take the gear off and fly her from my back yard...I don't have access to a good smooth runway unless I go to a church or school parking lot...I have plenty of good batteries----Hyperion, TP, and NanoTechs....

For those using 3S batts---Are you getting away using 3S batts without modding the brick or are heatsinks on the FETs and VR necessary???

Kevin

Well that sounds bad... for me. Flew again today I lose 80-90 frames on average and 1 hold every 3-3:30 minutes.

I usually fly as far as 90m or 290feet (measured with google maps there's some kind of tool in the labs section)

I had a nasty crash last week that broke off the antenna so I soldered a slightly thicker wire and I mean SLIGHTLY, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!
Also I put a dab of bath caulk/rubbery silicone around the antenna base to prevent it from breaking in future crashes. Could this be the issue?

If anyone can shed more light on this please do so.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

I had a nasty crash last week that broke off the antenna so I soldered a slightly thicker wire and I mean SLIGHTLY, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!

Could this be the issue?

Very much yes, if you did not match the LENGTH of the exposed wire part EXACTLY to the dimensions of the old antenna! Antennas have to be matched to the frequency, and I suspect yours is now either slightly too short or too long.

I don't want to be a nervous nellie, but really, you should be qualified and licensed before trying to repair transmitter/receiver combos. On the receiver side worst case is probably poor performance, but anyone without correct knowledge and qualifications messing with the transmit side could easily run afoul of FCC by causing interference into non-hobby bands!

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

Well that sounds bad... for me. Flew again today I lose 80-90 frames on average and 1 hold every 3-3:30 minutes.

I usually fly as far as 90m or 290feet (measured with google maps there's some kind of tool in the labs section)

I had a nasty crash last week that broke off the antenna so I soldered a slightly thicker wire and I mean SLIGHTLY, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!
Also I put a dab of bath caulk/rubbery silicone around the antenna base to prevent it from breaking in future crashes. Could this be the issue?

If anyone can shed more light on this please do so.
Thanks!

That would do it. RF does not behave at all like DC or low-frequency AC. Length-to-diameter ratio affects antenna tuning. The fatter the antenna, the shorter it needs to be. This is a big deal at 2.4 GHz, due to the short wavelength. The insulation type, or lack thereof also has an effect on antenna tuning. Plus - many household caulks are lossy at radio frequencies - even though they may be insulators at DC or 60Hz. And loss increases dramatically as the frequency goes up. At 2.4 GHz, everything matters. The amount of solder used to connect the antenna will affect its tuning.

With all things RF - the higher the frequency, the more critical everything becomes. What may have been "good enough to get by" at 72 MHz simply won't cut it at 2.4 GHz.

Joel

Thanks. I'm going to start by removing as much as possible from the silicone. If I don't notice a decrease I'll shorten it a few millimetres and if even this doesn't help I'll replace it completely.

The solder joint is extremely clean I always noticed that on the e-flite micro models.


Will report progress.

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

Thanks. I'm going to start by removing as much as possible from the silicone. If I don't notice a decrease I'll shorten it a few millimetres and if even this doesn't help I'll replace it completely.

The solder joint is extremely clean I always noticed that on the e-flite micro models.


Will report progress.

Just a heads-up - antenna tuning at 2.4 GHz is done in very small increments, as a 1/2-wave antenna is only about 60mm in length. I suggest getting a replacement antenna if removing the silicone doesn't solve the problem.

Joel

Does E-flite actually sell that tiny wire anywhere? I tried searching but I don't even know what gauge the wire is supposed to be...

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

Does E-flite actually sell that tiny wire anywhere? I tried searching but I don't even know what gauge the wire is supposed to be...

I've heard of others getting replacement antennas for these bricks, but I'm not sure how they went about getting them. I suggest calling HH tech support.

Joel

Originally Posted by vadimpelau

Does E-flite actually sell that tiny wire anywhere? I tried searching but I don't even know what gauge the wire is supposed to be...

I lost the antenna on my UM 4-site.
Called Horizon and told them it was about 18 months old with hundreds of flights.
They had me send in the old brick and sent me a new brick free of charge.


rc

God how I love this machine! A little breeze and a little cold doesn't stop it's superior performance. Only the human element, such as today when I was flying. Darn thing seemed to want to climb a lot. Didn't realize until after the last flight, that somewhere along the line
I'd put in some up elevator. Unfortunately, winter's closing in and I'll probably have to set her aside for a while and fly my heavy duty birds.