Since we have the equipment, I figured........why not?

Vacuformed ABS .060" top and bottom covers, held on by a single 1/4-20 nylon screw. The battery alarm buzzer sticks out of the top, piece of lucite pipes the light up so it can be seen. You could do the same with the gyros if you wanted. Makes a nice flat spot to put a camera if you like.

Cleans things up nicely, doesn't it?

Hey Gene... I was thinking of forming some nice pods out of ABS as well with my vacuum former... What do you usually use for molds that's easy to work with? I've been using plaster-paris but am looking for something easy to form...what do you normally use?

Originally Posted by CenTexFlyer

Since we have the equipment, I figured........why not?

Vacuformed ABS .060" top and bottom covers, held on by a single 1/4-20 nylon screw. The battery alarm buzzer sticks out of the top, piece of lucite pipes the light up so it can be seen. You could do the same with the gyros if you wanted. Makes a nice flat spot to put a camera if you like.

Cleans things up nicely, doesn't it?

You can tell its warm where you are Gene, you didn't cover the battery to keep it toasty!

Hey Gene, you forgot to make a hole in the middle for the training wire!

Originally Posted by Talontsi96

Hey Gene... I was thinking of forming some nice pods out of ABS as well with my vacuum former... What do you usually use for molds that's easy to work with? I've been using plaster-paris but am looking for something easy to form...what do you normally use?

Tal, see if you can find some stuff called MDF (medium density fiberboard), unfinished both sides. You can get it in various thicknesses and it works very easily. You can use a belt sander on this stuff and it will flat melt away but is still tough enough to make a buck out of. If you plan on making more than one part you should look at that material. We've used plaster on some things but they are generally one offs and don't last long.

Originally Posted by Lomcevac

Hey Gene, you forgot to make a hole in the middle for the training wire!

Wish I could make the tongue bigger on my emoticon!

Originally Posted by signguy

You can tell its warm where you are Gene, you didn't cover the battery to keep it toasty!

Yeah, buy we've been getting rain for the last five days! I'm about ready to take this thing outside and give 'er a whirl! Tomorrow is supposed to be partly cloudy, so I may be rebuilding a Tri .....

In attempt to get the stable Tri, do we need to put bubble on the frame, and the motors to make sure all of them are in parallel? Thanks.

Originally Posted by tbee

In attempt to get the stable Tri, do we need to put bubble on the frame, and the motors to make sure all of them are in parallel? Thanks.

Well, from my personal experience, as little as one degree of tilt will vector the thrust causing the aircraft to move about. if the movement is circular, the tail (yaw) can compensate for it but it is better in my opinion to have the motors square with the frame. So, getting out the bubble leveler is a good idea.

Thanks reverendrichie. I am in the process of putting in the motors to the arms. If so, I will spend sometime on it. I hope I could get a stable Tri for AP.

Originally Posted by tbee

Thanks reverendrichie. I am in the process of putting in the motors to the arms. If so, I will spend sometime on it. I hope I could get a stable Tri for AP.

Don't worry too much as the tri will never trim to a perfect level and the trimming process will take account of any slight innacuracies. In any case the frame will almost certainly flex quite a bit.

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Originally Posted by Lomcevac

Tom

Sounds like you're calibrating the ESC's one at a time on a seperate channel?? This will probably mess things up as they need to see the true, CCPM travels. You must do it with them all plugged as for flight using the throttle stick.
Sorry if I've mis-understood and am teaching you to suck eggs!

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I got in a quick flight today before Gene sent the rain to lower Alabama. I did another re-calibration of the rear ESC and things seem back close to normal. I also changed the steps for my ELEV trim to 2 from 4 to give a finer resolution of trim.

Ad, you raise an interesting idea about calibration. So far I've calibrated by using my spare throttle channel, set to a straight linear curve (0-100).

When I get better weather, I may try your idea of calibrating to the "flying" chnl for each ESC.

Anybody else tried that procedure?

Tom

Originally Posted by CenTexFlyer

Since we have the equipment, I figured........why not?

Vacuformed ABS .060" top and bottom covers, held on by a single 1/4-20 nylon screw. The battery alarm buzzer sticks out of the top, piece of lucite pipes the light up so it can be seen. You could do the same with the gyros if you wanted. Makes a nice flat spot to put a camera if you like.

Cleans things up nicely, doesn't it?

I like the way it looks Gene. I've been trying to devise a cover as well but all I came up with so far was a giant, clear-top Easter egg from the Dollar Store.

Originally Posted by Lomcevac

Don't worry too much as the tri will never trim to a perfect level and the trimming process will take account of any slight innacuracies. In any case the frame will almost certainly flex quite a bit.

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Believe me, it doesn't harm to have everything square from the beginning. If you are using square wooden rods, there is little to worry about, but if you are using round tubes, it is time to bring out the levels and squaring tools.

Originally Posted by CoastalTom

I like the way it looks Gene. I've been trying to devise a cover as well but all I came up with so far was a giant, clear-top Easter egg from the Dollar Store.

I got most of mine under this 40 size airplane canopy .....unfortunatly I had a rec. problem (and I knew it ) and crashed , so I have not rebuilt ,due to working 7 days a week . Also got back into the foamies

Terry

Ok.. I was going to do some vacuum forming but I decided to go to the dollar store first and see what I could find... well... as luck would have it I found a perfect cover... just perfect... so I'll forget about the vacuum former for a bit...

Here it is.... A pizza slice container at the dollar store. Some velcro pieces on it and the tri base and vuala.... a perfect cover... I will paint mine black to make it look bad-ass and will get the same thing for the bottom since I have a bunch of electronics down there as well... What do you guys think?

Originally Posted by KAMAX-T

I got most of mine under this 40 size airplane canopy .....unfortunatly I had a rec. problem (and I knew it ) and crashed , so I have not rebuilt ,due to working 7 days a week . Also got back into the foamies

Terry

I really like your cover too...it looks really cool....... What 40 size plane was it off of?