As much stuff as you've got in this plane you may want to consider a payload tray something like this guy has done:

http://diydrones.com/photo/album/sho...ntPage=&page=1

Paul

............

Originally Posted by Prof100

RCG,

Believe it or not, the plane is repairable but for $60 a new one is pretty reasonable.

Always validate the plane's airworthiness before piling on the FPV electronics.

Did the motor simply cut out or did you lose all control? I can't tell from you description.

entered FS (fail safe mode) for straight two seconds AND the plane angle/attitude happened to be nose down as I was trying to bring her home (taking a turn)....I had many maiden flights prior to loading FPV gear (sorry, i thought I had made that clear)....so she locked up completely and gravity brought her straight (45 degree) down from about 60 or so feet and about 30-40 mph i guess....she is total-ed

Originally Posted by gtoguy

rootcanal, sorry about your crash. Two scenarios come to mind: The ESC dropping out due to over current or a defect, or RF interference is causing your RX to drop throttle command once the ESC is making current. Either case, I would get a wattmeter (or the Eagle Tree attachment) and monitor your current under static load (on the ground). Sounds like you've got the right setup using the CC 10A BEC. Did you disconnect the BEC from the ESC (red wire)?

The only way to sort this out is to repair the plane and start testing parts as you go. Not familiar with your ESC abbreviation, can you elaborate? You mentioned a wiring schematic, can you post it, or refer me to a link to the post where it was given to you.

Paul

Yes I did remove red wire from ESC internal bec -thanx.
I do believe RF was the problem, please see photo for component proximity; my ESC is about 4 inches from base of V.Tx ; I wish I had disconnected the V.Tx during the problem solving on the ground, it would have been the easiest differential diagnosis....unplugging one wire would have done it ! damn I know better next time....I just do not know that many people that fly SkyS with full ET FPV to ask about their component positioning....

Originally Posted by theothercliff

You should always include shipping when talking about eBay prices. Sellers do things with price vs. shipping to get your attention. ...

I've been a eBay member since '96*, & in Purchasing/Mat'ls Management 40+ years, so......
*Back in the days when it was like a real swap meet, rather'n the "just-another-retail outlet' + scam-o'-the-day thing it is now.

I have used both the 35a and the 30a but not the 25a...
...
I have never used an external BEC for the RC in any of my planes.
...and the HobbyWing is the only one that worked right, (cool and to spec and didnt't burn out, but I didn't measure the ripple).
...
Cliff

I've gone ahead & ordered a UBEC from HK, even got the "Ripple Improved" version: https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...idProduct=4319 to give it a try....see if it'll provide the insurance.

Meanwhile, I'm in process of constructing (there I go again!) a small set of 'stilts' on 2mm basswood platform backed with velcro for mounting, so's I can mount the jacketless 20A ESC bare ass naked 'in the wind' & hoping that'll keep it cool until I can get the 30A unit rigged up (was 1 connector short; on order).
First testing a patch of epoxy (curing right now) to make sure it's not conductive :

Originally Posted by RootCanalGuy

Yes I did remove red wire from ESC internal bec -thanx.
I do believe RF was the problem, please see photo for component proximity; my ESC is about 4 inches from base of V.Tx ; I wish I had disconnected the V.Tx during the problem solving on the ground, it would have been the easiest differential diagnosis....unplugging one wire would have done it ! damn I know better next time....I just do not know that many people that fly SkyS with full ET FPV to ask about their component positioning....

Sorry, but I had trouble following your crash description. Did you have the video transmitter running during this event?

I had a similar event with a Gaui 330x and interference from the video tx and the four ESCs on it. It range-checked well, but once about 50 feet up and under full load the rx went into fail-safe. We determined that it was the 900mHz tx bleeding over and knocking out the Futaba FASST's reception. Fortunately, we set the fail-safe with throttle hold. It just stayed in GPS hold until the batteries wore down and since we set the ESCs to avoid drop-out it just came down gently. Once you sort this out, you may want to keep some throttle present during fail-safe if your RX can do that.

Epoxies (except aluminum loaded ones) are excellent insulators (non-conductive). The reason for the heat-shrink on the ESC is to keep the metal heat-sink in firm contact with the top of the driver FETs. I hope you plan on keeping the heat-shrink in place. Most epoxies are lousy thermal conductors. The inexpensive ones that are good are also electrically conductive.

I've used that BEC, it works pretty good.

Paul

Originally Posted by StarHopper44

I've been a eBay member since '96, & in Purchasing/Mat'ls Management 40+ years, so......



I've gone ahead & ordered a UBEC from HK, even got the "Ripple Improved" version: https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...idProduct=4319 to give it a try....see if it'll provide the insurance.

Meanwhile, I'm in process of constructing (there I go again!) a small set of 'stilts' on 2mm basswood platform backed with velcro for mounting, so's I can mount the jacketless 20A ESC bare ass naked 'in the wind' & hoping that'll keep it cool until I can get the 30A unit rigged up (was 1 connector short; on order).
First testing a patch of epoxy (curing right now) to make sure it's not conductive :

Got, it I guess I'm slow tonight, you did have the video TX on.

RootCanalGuy,

From an engineering point of view and from an FPV point of view, you never want to add it all on at once and expect it to just work. You'll never know what caused your problems. You have not only RF equipment in your vTx but you added an OSD, stabilization, pan/tilt, and a noisy UBEC.
First off, change BEC's. The CC UBEC is really nice and I've used it for FPV before but there have been many reports that is it very RF noisy compared to the HK UBEC's you can get for <$5.
Once you get an airworthy airplane and maiden and make sure all is well, you need to take it one step at a time.
First, add on the video transmitter and camera on a fixed mount. Don't do anything with your OSD, FY-whatever, or pan/tilt. Do a ground range test and if that checks out, fly that around LOS with a ground recording and see if there are dropouts anywhere. If the range test fails, then reposition until it works, otherwise, don't fly.
Once that works without issue, then you can add the OSD and do the same thing. Ground range test, then LOS with recording, then if all pans out, have fun with it.
Then add pan/tilt and do the exact same thing as before.
The FY-whatever can be right after your re-maiden and before any video gear with the exact same steps, but if you are using the full ET OSD Pro, why the FY? It'll do RTH for you and with the Guardian, it'll stabilize itself too.
I personally have no idea what could have caused your crash. You have too many unknowns since you went from maiden to FPV flight so any number of things could have gone wrong. 900Mhz video gear doesn't play well with GPS sometimes too so that doesn't help.
One rule of thumb is use video gear that is at a higher frequency than your control gear so in your case, you should be using 5.8GHz so you might start there but before you do, just use what you have and add one thing at a time and you'll find any problems that way.
From reading the FPV forums a long time (and I've quit lately), don't go asking for help there yet until you do the steps, otherwise, some will just get upset that you tried to jump in feet first when you should have waded in with floaties on. Once you go through each step, I'm confident you'll find your problem and when you find your problem, figure out why it's an issue by checking the forums and 99% of the time, there will have been many that had the same issue and it'll usually be something simple that will fix it. If not, they'll help you out, but usually only if you've done the steps.
They can be a snobby group sometimes but they're really helpful if you do things in a methodical way.

Originally Posted by Markran

... and gave me some tips. One good one was to just tap the sticks to correct instead of holding them. This removes the likelihood of over-correcting.

Now that raised an eyebrow. 'Taps' is exactly what I did (for the same reason - same as I do to make small corrections on game controls, eg aiming) but my Guru (Mike) told me NOT to do that as it means not having a constant hold on the controls. Actually, he reminded me a couple more times (sheer force of habit), the 3rd time kinda aggravatedly. Guess it's just a 'different strokes for different folks' thing. ?

I need to get a real RC timer or ...

You might've heard my 'Timing Tillie' (as I call her) in the background on my videos. Calls out remaining time in countdown mode below 10 minutes at 1 minute intervals, & at 1 minute, every 10 seconds, with final 10 second x second....THEN 1 minute of 2/sec beeps, followed by spoken 1-minute count-ups. It's an old Radio Shack #63-877 'Talking Timer', I used to use it for timing in benchrest shooting. They don't make it any more, (wish to hell I'd bought 2 or 3!) but I'd be very surprised if they don't have some modern equivalent. Try the Shack.


[ADDENDUM:] Hey, looky what I just found. This is the EXACT one I told you about - just not 'Shack' branded. (Note edge view showing combo 'Alligator Clamp' / Stand / Magnetized strip on back.) Guessy what I just bought one of!
http://www.amazon.com/distributed-by.../dp/B0007LNEO6

Originally Posted by StarHopper44

Now that raised an eyebrow. 'Taps' is exactly what I did (for the same reason - same as I do to make small corrections on game controls, eg aiming) but my Guru (Mike) told me NOT to do that as it means not having a constant hold on the controls. Actually, he reminded me a couple more times (sheer force of habit), the 3rd time kinda aggravatedly. Guess it's just a 'different strokes for different folks' thing. ?

I think it may just be a good idea for the first flight and also when we're talking about a plane like a SkyS that just wants to center up and fly on her own. By the second flight I was on the controls full-time but also minimizing my input to short corrections.

Originally Posted by StarHopper44

You might've heard my 'Timing Tillie' (as I call her) in the background on my videos. Calls out remaining time in countdown mode below 10 minutes at 1 minute intervals, & at 1 minute, every 10 seconds, with final 10 second x second....THEN 1 minute of 2/sec beeps, followed by spoken 1-minute count-ups. It's an old Radio Shack #63-877 'Talking Timer', I used to use it for timing in benchrest shooting. They don't make it any more, (wish to hell I'd bought 2 or 3!) but I'd be very surprised if they don't have some modern equivalent. Try the Shack.

Hmmm, an audible countdown timer. That sounds like a good idea. Perhaps, as they say, "there's an app for that" (in my case for my Android phone). I'll take a look. One concern with using an app on the phone though is that I was having trouble hearing my alarm go off even on full volume because it was a little windy and there were other planes buzzing by. My bluetooth headset would fix that but I'm hesitant to turn on any else wireless unless absolutely necessary for fear of tempting the wireless gods to smite me.

Originally Posted by Markran

I think it may just be a good idea for the first flight and also when we're talking about a plane like a SkyS that just wants to center up and fly on her own. By the second flight I was on the controls full-time but also minimizing my input to short corrections.



Hmmm, an audible countdown timer. That sounds like a good idea. Perhaps, as they say, "there's an app for that" (in my case for my Android phone). I'll take a look. One concern with using an app on the phone though is that I was having trouble hearing my alarm go off even on full volume because it was a little windy and there were other planes buzzing by. My bluetooth headset would fix that but I'm hesitant to turn on any else wireless unless absolutely necessary for fear of tempting the wireless gods to smite me.

Right you are! Just spent .99 on "talking timer" for my iPhone. Good call!!

Originally Posted by healthyfatboy

So, I was working on the beginner instructions for Tim at RMRC and found one reason why there may be premature servo failures for people who use the RTF or PNP versions.
I found that with full deflection up on the right aileron, the surface was so stiff that the end of the aileron wasn't even moving. There was quite a bit of stress on the servo. I had planned on flexing the surfaces after the fact since I had forgotten to do it at the beginning but this further solidified why it should be done.
The moral of the story, flex your control surfaces to loosen them up and it'll do your servo a big favor!

Be sure'n put that in the new manual. Include the part about pushing inwards on the control surface as you first break it in :: was it Prof's tip or Cliffy's? (If the latter, can't use that as he ©'s everything he says.
(You oughta hear his burps!)

Originally Posted by StarHopper44

Be sure'n put that in the new manual. Include the part about pushing inwards on the control surface as you first break it in :: was it Prof's tip or Cliffy's? (If the latter, can't use that as he ©'s everything he says.
(You oughta hear his burps!)

The tip is on the first page of this thread.

Originally Posted by ajbaker

Yup. The Viverrine.
AJ

Why did Stone Temple Pilots just start playing in my head?