I started out wanting to make an incidence gauge but after I made it I found that I could add a second sensor and be able to measure deflection of my ailerons & flaps. I made a bunch of these and sold them here on RC Groups, but I was very surprised that there isn't more interest in using a digital deflection gauge like this to setup a plane, especially a glider. I couldn't get a lot of discussion going either.
For me, it certainly is easier than using a ruler and reading glasses. There are several commercial products that do exactly this, but to me they are prohibitively expensive. While they are somewhat nicer by being wireless, The price was a big nope for me.
I wanted to keep the number of parts needed to a minimum, so I chose to use my smart phone as the display. I had already made a digital CG scale that used the phone as the display and I was quite happy with using it as the interface. The display is nothing more than a web page so getting the data in and out of my program was super simple.
The incidence gauge was nice but how often do you really need to use one? The incidence gauge was a remix of
this 3d printed one to make it fit an old heli boom I had laying around.
The gauge itself is based on a Wemos D1 mini (esp8266) and 2 MPU6050 sensors. Electronics cost less than $15. The only others parts needed are the 3d printed parts, some wire and plugs and a boom if you want to make the incidence gauge.
Using it as a deflection gauge is where
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