Originally Posted by Colonel Blink

Also, your #16 has a far betterpicture than mine; though some of that may be down to the Colorado sunlight...

I'm using the v0.41 firmware with the fluorescent white balance setting and +1 saturation that have been recommended on the #16 forum lately.

Originally Posted by Tom Eutsler

I notice the Absence of Trees in that area . Did some one cut em all down ??

That's whatmakes a moor a moor....!

Originally Posted by mwoneal

I'm using the v0.41 firmware with the fluorescent white balance setting and +1 saturation that have been recommended on the #16 forum lately.

I have no idea what firmware mine is running, and I drown in the 808 forum.... could you provide a link to a 'how to' or at least to the meat of the discussion of this??? Cheers!

Go to this post on how to get the GUI that let's you set the camera settings. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=10

Having the GUI makes the camera much easier to configure if writing text configuration files back and forth by hand isn't appealing.

This post is the one I read that spawned most of the discussion about the white balance/saturation settings.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...3#post22911692

Originally Posted by Colonel Blink

You and me both!

https://vimeo.com/51658546

Having looked at yours and others' videos, I know I need to take a look at my motor/prop and work out why mine is so rattly! I'm pretty sure its the prop rather than the motor, as it the bare motor wasn't noisy but it sounded like this from the second the prop went on...

You know you are doing something right when you have to jump out of your Easystar's flight path and end up with green stuff on the wing tips

Like l.aluffi said, I think too there is something else rattling than the motor/prop.
Check everything that could come loose, even the servo and motor wires. I'm even thinking it could be where one of the elevator/rudder pushrods enters their pushrod sleeve, those were known for breaks in the ES1.
In my experience, if you really have an out of balance motor/prop, the rattling/vibration should increase when adding power. Now it decreases.
Nothing holds you from balancing the prop though

Then again, this is only me watching a video... Let us know how it turns out.

ESII lofted the 808#16 on some frosty days. I looked yesterday and how much airleron and rudder trim I've been using, noticed a slight warp in the tail boom, and straightened it with a hair drier. It's flying much better!

Snowy behind Murphy Dome (2 min 56 sec)

EasyStar II by Murphy Dome (3 min 24 sec)

Originally Posted by mutski

ESII lofted the 808#16 on some frosty days. I looked yesterday and how much airleron and rudder trim I've been using, noticed a slight warp in the tail boom, and straightened it with a hair drier. It's flying much better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xRFpqJzLSw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYP8J0rY7kY

mutski,

very nice - thanks for sharing. Looks cold... We are having some unprecendented warm days. This weekend we are at 20*C which has not been recorded for more than 100 years at this time of year. Took advantage of the nice weather:

RC lakeside /seaside evening flight EasyTwin (5 min 10 sec)

Temp -10C here. Mike O - are you using the keycjain camera
For FPV? Nice landin - dry land this time! :-)

Originally Posted by mutski

Temp -10C here. Mike O - are you using the keycjain camera
For FPV? Nice landin - dry land this time! :-)

I use a traditional Sony Super HAD camera module for FPV and add the KeyChain camera for recording. The video quality from the FPV channel is somewhat degraded due to the transmission, so using the keychain provides better quality.

I could use the video out of the keychain cam for FPV transmission, but the Sony Super HAD is superior in contrast and low light conditions. Also, I tend to swap the KeyChain camera around a lot, but the Sony Super HAD stays fixed on the plane.

Mike-O ...
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...0/IMG_0437.jpg
what is the black insert in your cockpit? Is it made from styrofoam?

Moment of weakness - I think I'm going to order this:
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/ind...oducts_id=1129

Still have to figure out how to mount the camera. I was looking at this:
http://www.fatedev.com/?p=64&Details...5.8ghz+FPV+set

I'm wondering about the weight of the battery. If I mount a 1200 mah battery in the cockpit like the plan above, I presume I must need lead weights in the tail boom to make the plane balance?

Originally Posted by mutski

Mike-O ...
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...0/IMG_0437.jpg
what is the black insert in your cockpit? Is it made from styrofoam?

Moment of weakness - I think I'm going to order this:
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/ind...oducts_id=1129

Still have to figure out how to mount the camera. I was looking at this:
http://www.fatedev.com/?p=64&Details...5.8ghz+FPV+set

I'm wondering about the weight of the battery. If I mount a 1200 mah battery in the cockpit like the plan above, I presume I must need lead weights in the tail boom to make the plane balance?

The black foam is just modified styrofoam tray, that originally housed a nice steak. I use a scalpel for cutting out the parts and hot glue to put them together. Inforce with packaging tape if you like. Or add more layers using douple sided tape or hot glue.

May I suggest you look at the newer (? - I think) FatShark Dominators. I tried various types, and I think the Dommies are the best (resolution) available right now for budget money. EDIT: just saw the price includes 5.8G Tx/Rx - hard to beat.

I have mounted my FPV camera in many ways now, but for the ES, I prefer to have the camera sitting on a single, backward leaning servo. The camera is then mounted with a forward tilt to compensate, meaning that it will look down when turned to either side, but horizontal when looking forward. The you only have one channel and one servo to worry about. But you'll get by with a fixed camera for a start.

This is a simple, but sturdy 4-layer ES l camera mount. Works very well, is even a bit aerodynamic, and is kept in place by embedded magnets:


The camera is fixated by tiny screws that goes into a pair of 2-cm pieces of hot glued 27MHz car antenna tubing. Lens is supported by a small bit of foam - yes, you guessed it - hot glued to the base

I just put it in a non-FPV ES l fuse for show, but it's a good idea to blacken the nose in front of the camera to avoid false light metering from reflected light.

Originally Posted by Colonel Blink

You and me both!

https://vimeo.com/51658546

Having looked at yours and others' videos, I know I need to take a look at my motor/prop and work out why mine is so rattly! I'm pretty sure its the prop rather than the motor, as it the bare motor wasn't noisy but it sounded like this from the second the prop went on...

Also, your #16 has a far better picture than mine; though some of that may be down to the Colorado sunlight...

Ha i like how you run @1;30 Blink that was funny is your spinner catching on the motor screws ?

Mike-O, the price was hard to beat. I ordered the Predator V2 with 240 mw tx and rx.

One thing I like about the EasyStar II is that after a mistake there is generally time to recover from a mistake. Was this a tip stall?

I added upward trim for the launch, and was flying high to remove it. When I realized I was in trouble, I cut the throttle and pulled back and somehow it recovered. Much more forgiving than a helicopter - I'd have smashed my EXI 450 to bits (again!).

EasyStar II close call (1 min 4 sec)

Originally Posted by mutski

Was this a tip stall?

It was definitely a stall... and my EZ2 always falls drops the left wing when it stalls!! If you look at the smoke/steam from the chimneys, you can see that you were flying directly downwind - hence your airspeed was probably a good deal lower than you thought from watching it on the ground. Plus the wind would have been stronger up there than you felt on to the ground, surrounded by trees. So it was probably fairly close to stalling anyway, even before you cut the throttle and lifted the nose! But we've all done it (though there are those who say they haven't), and it's nothing to be ashamed of - unless it is someone else's model and you do not have enough height to recover!

Personally, I would count this as a stall, because watching the film I would guess that the other wing was fairly close to the stall as well. I would normally count a 'tip stall' as when the other wing was quite happily producing lift but due to a tight, banked turn the inboard wing slows at a time when the AoA is going up due to lift requirement increasing.

But call it what you will (I'm not going to argue!); yes, the left tip certainly stalled!

Colonel - I was actually turning when it stalled, then spinning into a nose dive when I cut the throttle and pulled up. When the wing dipped, I thought I'd ventured too far to see, turned more than 180 degrees, and corrected in the wrong direction. Interesting thought anout the downwind turn. Lucky I was high and read somewhere to cut the throttle and pull up when it all goes to pieces!