Have been through a bunch of revisions on improving hatcams, tweaks, new cameras, mounts, improving the hat hold, etc. Previous post about hatcams can be found here that had most of the important particulars about what's needed for a nice rig...
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1545968

The new rig is mostly about refinement. Previous rig was great, but platform was larger than it needed to be, wasn't able to adjust angles and positions for a better fit, and the hat itself was beginning to fall apart. So build objectives...
- platform just big enough to secure the camera
- easily adjustable platform angle to fine tune elevation
- reticle/crosshairs that can be adjusted without falling apart
- removable reticle
- hidden wires and regulator/BEC for camera power

...not to mention an updated camera (60 fps at 1080p, wireless app that will help calibrate the hatcam nicely, etc etc) that is more capable while also being a little lighter.

Pics of process and results...
(If viewing this on the Blog feed, there's more photos to be seen by clicking on "Continue Reading")...Continue Reading

April 2021:

Since first playing with making my transmitter better in 2014, we're certainly happy that people have enjoyed the sound pack!

I super appreciate 'hisroyaldudeness' and others for updating the file names and the assembling new sounds with a text-to-speech engine and such to keep the pack usable. Anyone looking for a usable sound pack can search this thread for his posts for the latest files.

Originally I had links to my files here to download, but I changed hosts and the links broke... apologies for the inconvenience of that.

To return the convenience of the correct link in the first post, most recent link 'hisroyaldudeness' has been sharing recently is:

https://hmvc.eu/Amber22.rar

(the club site that is "hmvc.eu" is gorgeous, if I'm ever in the Netherlands I'd love to visit!)


Update update: the original sound pack came about because I had an itch to scratch, and it looks like I have new itches to scratch... so an update to the soundpack is planned, again (I said one was coming in 2018, but this time I actually need some new stuff), re-recorded fresh with better equipment, and split and managed with some new software I wrote in 2018, and hopefully on a site people can make use of to get more out of their speaking transmitter. I did register a domain and start a site to assemble it all... somewhere that I can put new updates. I might put blog-like comments on the front page so people can see movement.

A few people over the years have recommended a donation button, I assume mostly so there can be actual obligation to keep things moving, but I added one today... so, an obligation has begun...

http://ambersounds.com


...anyways, that's where it's currently at, more handy information than what was originally here, and more on the way.

My FWIW post about my attitude toward switches:


Everything about trying to make something reliable or fault tolerant is about just answering the voices in your head. From switches to redundant receivers. But for switches, some guys don't use switches at all because it's an extra failure point. I used to not use switches also until these nice looking shunt switches came out.

What makes me nervous about other switches is that all switches have a low max sustainable current, including Badger and Wolverine switches. For switches trusted in planes larger than 100cc, it's surprisingly low. They may be fine, but I have measured the current draw in my own 50cc planes to substantially spike over 20amps. Connect an EagleTree logger into your flight system, set it to log at a fast rate, and then be rather surprised by the current draws (watch the spikes in snap maneuvers, pretty scary). So for me, I have a personally hard time putting something in the train of power delivery that can't handle all the load all the time.


Shunts solve this for me because the connector that it is based on can handle all the power delivery that could ever be used, spiked or otherwise... when I have used Deans myself on main motor supply of 3+kw electric planes, other's have used them on 10's of kilowatt setups... the voices have zero concern about the power handling of the flight system.

Accidental unplugging... Deans have a reputation for being tough to pull apart. I don't think they're...Continue Reading

a "fwiw" post, that once and for all has everything I've found out about working with hatcams. This is a secret for addicts only, and should only be used to film 3dhs planes


1) forget helmets, they suck (was my first hatcam attempt). hats fit tighter, more comfy, and good for it all. Don't use elastic strap hats, needs to be something you can adjust the tightness and have it stay.
2) it needs a firm mount... the biggest gain is simply adding a nice firm mount to a hat. My first usable hatcam simply screwed plywood to the hat visor. Worked pretty well. My latest rig I changed wood for some shaped fiberglass. You can get bolts from the hardware store that match the tripod mount on the camera.
3) camera needs repeatable positioning... cover the bottom of the camera with press-n-seal, mount camera to hat, then smoosh Mighty Putty or equivalent around the corners of the base of the camera. When it dries, remove camera and press-n-seal, what you're left with is a camera mount that the camera will only seat in the one position.
4) reticle... drop a single piece of wire straight down from the end of the cap. in your vision this doubles up, nicely framing horizontally for the sides of the frame. A cross bar will take adjustment, but those will help aim vertically (and is actually most important... if I'm out of frame at all it's on the vertical axis). Will take some practice and testing to aim the horizontal bars on the reticle, and also to get used to it being...Continue Reading

...wanted to update a post on my blog to list my sponsors. I joined team 3DHobbyShop some time ago, I now work for them as a product developer, and outside of that some high quality brands are supporting my RC antics of which I'm truly appreciative. Some people want to know what brands are behind me so they can regard my posts as biased or whatever... but, whatever. I was a customer of these products long before I was a member of their team... I take a serious attitude toward providing advice and recommendations. All efforts towards helping people enjoy the hobby can be destroyed with a single bad connector or faulty servo. To this degree I make sure that my recommendations are based on genuine personal experience.

People should be able to buy products with the assurance of a rewarding experience. Life is too short to play with un-fun toys. For a rewarding experience I heartily recommend these brands...

http://www.3dhobbyshop.com
http://www.amainhobbies.com
http://www.xtremepowersystems.net
http://www.nachoscheese.net

...'cause you get the milk for free, or something.

Yay MightyPutty!

here's the horse...

Managed to get in on a set of try-outs of a small motor. Here's the try-out thread...

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=792450

...and attached is a pic of what I got in the mail.

...and while gathering the Maelstrom and flicking through the Floaterline, I realised there was no original sketches, as the Floaterline idea actually started as a canard... and was the originating point for the "common fuselage" idea to have the canard, and a more "typical" plane arrangement.

The attached sketches show the two variant ideas and that it has actually made it into CAD... the more "natural" looking wing, or the constant chord which was to have visual queues back to golden age planes like the GeeBee and Wedell Williams.

And from the front elevation, you can kind of see how I progressed from this to the dihedral shape for the Maelstrom.

Back in august I posted into an EDF forum with some sketches of a design I've been workin on since February. It's an EDF canard seaplane, which will be called "the Maelstrom". Here's the same sketches rotated for better viewing...

The latest updated plans for the Twinkle have arrived. These include some minor corrections and improvements to the design and updates for the instructions to make them clearer.

The new depron version of the plans also arrived. These depron plans were developed from scratch with just the outer dimensions of the original as consideration. All the parts are made specifically for the depron build and as such create the exact same plans as the balsa version in an aerodynamic sense.

...you can also build a balsa/depron hybrid from the balsa plans. By using depron for the fuselage and tip floats, you get a plane with the raw builders charm of the balsa build, with the durability of the depron (the depron can take a lot of knocks about the fuse and tip floats without creating leaking problems).

The plan sets are available from my site... http://keyboardmonkey.com/twinkle


.

Plans for Twinkle can be found/ordered from my site...

http://keyboardmonkey.com/twinkle

Winter is coming to a close and every time I see water, or the evenings hush to a dull roar of dead-calm nothingness... I keep thinking I need another amphibian to commit flight and reprise efforts put into Twinkle.

For the longest time I've needed to build a classic looking thing-of-fancy (not scale at all), and more recently it's been of a float plane amphib configuration. The idead also flirt every now and then with it being a canard. Over time it will probably take on a few configurations based on the classic fuselage theme with common parts and construction style. But for now... here's where my thoughts are for...

...the Floaterline Special

no really it is... it's a blog entry... just try and deny it.