Originally Posted by dbacon

Pete,

What is "NEAT"? Anything to do with the indoor sessions at Pontiac Ultimate Soccer Arena?

My backyard has a small lake, so I get nervous unless it has floats, AND the paddle boat is clean & dry (rare). You should see me scramble on a botched water landing when I neglect to service the paddle boat first, I think I need a small canoe!

NEAT is the all electric meet in New York. http://www.neatfair.org/

It's a blast! This year we arrived on Saturday night and stayed until the next Monday morning. Nothing like a week of camping and flying anytime you want.

Originally Posted by UNGN

On the Polecat, this is usually caused by the motor, touching and shorting the bottom side of the circuit board. I slipped a heat shrink sleeve around my motor to prevent this from happening.

The Shorting causes one or both of the Field Effect transistor (FET) to burn up. Do not run a brick with a burned FET, you could actually set the foam on fire (as any Lipo fueled short might),

If its the rudder servo that is failed, you can cut the motor wires, thumb the large gear to center the servo and fly it as a TAE 3 channel.

RCG member Chim Chim can solder on a new FET to repair the board, or you can buy a new target hobby brick for $20 and use the burned one for parts.

If the servo is merely sticking at either end after full TX stick movement and doesn't travel there by itself, reduce the throws in the TX (or trim away from the sticky side and mechanically retrim using the U bends for a non computer TX)

Thanks for the suggestions..

After much study and many tries I found out more things about my Pole Cat's servo trouble. Didn't help to fix it though.
The trouble shouldn't come from the motor shorting the board because - thanks to the forum - I slid a thin depron piece between motor and board before flying it the first time, and it's still in place.. Ok, the solder points could have pierced the thin depron in a crash and touch the metal for a fraction of a second maybe.. hmm.. could I have been so unlucky?
The trouble emerged after a powerless crash - the model took off with a fresh battery but after a few seconds the motor quit running and the plane went down. When I got it the model was powered, the motor able to run again and the rudder servo stuck.
Lucky enough the servo still didn't burn so I can still experiment with it, and I found out that:
- if I turn the cog by hand the servo run to one end as soon as I connect the power.
- when the board binds with the transmitter I can still give some input to the servo. Playing with the trim while turning the cog it I was able to make it stable in the center, but if I try to give it a very little stick input it runs full throw again and sticks there
- when I have the servo centered with its trims it reacts to the commands I give to the elevator servo, finally running full throw and sticking again.

Cutting the wires and using it as a 3 channel is a good solution, faster than buying a Target Hobby brick (by the way, aren't they the "short throw" ones? Pole Cat has long throws..) but it would be interesting sorting out the trouble - that's part of the fun with models..

Didn't Horizon say anything about this trouble, since it seems to be quite common?

have a nice weekend everybody!

Andrea

The Polecat uses a long throw brick, but then has the pushrods all the way out on the control horns.

I put a short throw brick in mine (I bought an aiframe without a brick) and just moved the pushrods in on the horns to get back the lost throw.

Even with the reduced resolution of the short throw servos, I fly it at full rates with no expo and it isn't twitchy at all.

It sounds like your brick is defective. did you contact HH?

A fet can burn if the servo gets stuck on full travel and can't get off the stops, but the usual reason is a reversal of polarity on the board.

Originally Posted by UNGN

Received my Target Hobby "AR6400"s today.

They are definitely clones and not identical to a real AR6400's, but it may be actually improved from an old short throw brick.

The servos are smooth and chatter free. The Weight is about .25g more @ 4.11g. The board is 1mm longer (the same length as the L board), which might acound for some of the weight.

So they don't appear to be close out AR6400's but new manufactured bricks, so I would think the $20 price is here to stay.

got mine and tested great, as said it seems rebuild by targethobby, money well spent

Revised 3d micro it was 65g now its 57.6g. Flies a lot slower and looks better. I'll keep it 2S since the 3:1 thrust to weight ratio is useful to blast out of those tight spots.

Originally Posted by Cheese5

Revised 3d micro it was 65g now its 57.6g. Flies a lot slower and looks better. I'll keep it 2S since the 3:1 thrust to weight ratio is useful to blast out of those tight spots.

170g of thrust?

I think my setup is similar, 20" wingspan and 75g AUW with AP-05 and GWS-5030. My plane can go vertical only for very short moment

I found this rubber powered model for $1.00. Converted to electric by using 7mm motor and gearbox. GWS 5030 prop, 100mAh 1S battery with 2 gram Spektrum Rx. Wing span is about 18" and flying weight is 25 grams. I should be able to make it to 20 grams, if I reduce the wiring and use some thin wires. The JST connection itself weigh about 5 grams.

Mr Excel,

Very nice, do you have a source for those planes?

its a 21th century guilows! the love the foam wings.

Can you have Plankton ask Karen for a link? I couldn't find one (easily - I did a wimpy search...)
Thanks.

shes not speaking to me right now. i guess i must have 'borrowed' one to many of her transistors.

OMG, you take transistors from Karen for your hobby? How can she plot your total world domination? This is crazy...
Sorry to you non Sponge Bob fans.
Karen, get modern, go all ICs, Plankton can't figure out how to use them, he has only one cell, and I don't think it is a brain cell...

Originally Posted by Cheesehead

170g of thrust?

Eh...2:1 T/W then. It hovers at 1/3 throttle but the throttle range goes from 0% to 80%. Around 100g of thrust with that setup.

Originally Posted by dbacon

Mr Excel,

Very nice, do you have a source for those planes?

I just found them at the streets of Colombo (Capital City of Sri Lanka) and grabbed about 10 kits for $10.00. If you are really passionate of having one, I can mail you a kit.


Cheers