Aframomum

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You guys are a riot...thanks for the birthday wishes. Can you believe my wife got my a grill?! Guess she's trying to hint at something.

Nick,

If you sell the Velocity won't you only have electrics? Congrats on the sale of the 450.

Your funfly sounded like lots of fun...what 'ground move' were you trying that caught your tail blades? Glad not too much damage.

JPEE,

No tracking on that slow boat from China?!

My 500 build is done...now just need the controller and battery.

But have been busy building a toy train table for my little one...he saw one on display at Toy'sRUS and was hooked. I figured I could do better for less than $135 so pulled out my jig saw and went to work. Not completely finished yet but not too bad.

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

That is cool you got a grill. I enjoy the food when my dad brings out his grill.

Yeah, I would have only electrics if I sold the Velocity. My 3 MA helis and a destroyed Gaui 200 would be all that's left. I enjoy having a Nitro heli, but it got too expensive for me. Now that I have high powered chargers and power supplies the down time isn't that bad between charges. Also my Whiplash is a lot more fun than the Velocity.

I was trying to come from forward flight into a slide on the runway. Then I would do a piro on the ground. I just came down a little too fast and hard. The piro at the end was kind of out of control too.

Your 500 is looking good.

An elementary school friend had a similar table for a Thomas the Train set and that was pretty fun when I was young. Your son should have a blast with it.

I got my tail blades and the smaller pinion for the Whiplash today. I installed those tonight and can't wait to try them out. Hopefully the plastic tail blades will be more forgiving with tail strikes than my CF blades.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

I know the price of fuel is a major concern. Now with the chargers for electrics available its easy to fly all day with just a few packs...and no nitro cleanup afterwards.

Did you get the chance to try out the new tail blades and pinion?

I just ordered my GensAce battery but will have to wait until next payday before I can get the controller...with August here it really has been too stinkin hot to fly, although I did get to take out my flying wing yesterday and fly in an approaching storm. It was fun hovering in the winds in the front yard.

JPEE must be out on his ATV.

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

I haven't tested the new parts on the Whiplash yet. I probably won't until the weekend.

Nick

JPEE

Hello Boys,

Sorry I have been dark and off line but I lost a dear friend last week (leukemia) and I have had to get my legs back under me.


Happy news to share, my 450 Quad with NANZA and GPS is done, had it s maiden and now a group of us night fly. Holy cow..... we are having so much fun, two of ran our TX's down to low battery alarm mode one night! I have some videos for you. The first is of my friend who finished his 4 days before me so he now knows the short cuts so we did mine. We did a test hover in my back yard and did ok. I say ok because she was a bit twitchy. Later we found the blades are cheap and the center hole is loose and not "centered". New higher grade props did the trick. We used HK nite lights and they are extremely bright!

Video 1.
Is an instructional video and starts with photos and then video on programming and some flying I think. As we all do, we try to pass on what we learn to others. This video is for my friend to help him along the way as Jason helped me. The blades again in this video were crap so the heli was a bit unstable.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1YoZBI1F0[/youtube]


Video 2.
Is a first flight at the field after I installed the night lights and making NAZA adjustments from the laptop to adjust the gyro's. Jason is flying my Quad and I am on camera. WATCH IN 720 HD BUT LET IT LOAD FIRST"COMPLETELY"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZELDwD92LEM[/youtube]

We flew from 5:30 pm. until 12:00 midnight at the field in total darkness. I can't wait to show you a video from our night time flying. Does the term FLYING SAUCERS mean anything to you lol. You can fly this quad anywhere you can see it and as I wrote before if you lose site I flip the switch to put it in GPS return home or simply turn off the radio and back she comes and lands by herself! In freaking un-believable!!!!!!!!!!!! That will also be my next video for you.

OK, just cause I am back I don't want to get verbose............... OOOPS.... TO LATE!

John

evdreamer

John,

Sorry to hear you lost a good friend.

The self righting properties reminds me a lot of a CX. The sound of the blades reminded me a lot of my old CPP DD tail motor.

Well I was on a Jury from the 6th till today. I am glad it was a short trial and didn't interfere with work too much and was before school started. My dad was summoned for Jury Duty at the same, but on a different case. He wasn't picked to be on a Jury, so he is still on call for a couple of weeks. I haven't tested out the Whiplash yet because I was worn out from the long days in court.

Nick

JPEE

Nick,
Sorry you got stuck in Court, what drag to watch Lawyers dance around. If they were guilty I hope you "Hungum"!

Thanks for your sentiments on my lost friend. He was a great guy, for real!

I cannot wait till I get my landing gear made and put my GOPRO on. My friend does and videos are good.

Me.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi JPEE,

I want to extend my sympathies to you...being in the field I'm in I unfortunatley know about adult leukemia and what the patients go through. I know your friend has found peace in the end - and I hope you soon find closure too.

I'm glad you got your quad and the help to get her airborne. Looks like a bunch of fun in the coming months, just don't wind up on the evening news about little green men in their flying saucer.

Nick,

Jury duty...yuk! There was a bit on the news where a whole mess of people who didn't show wound up in court themselves explaining to a judge why they were a no-show. One thing definitely not to mess with. Glad it was relatively short...and over!

Mark

JPEE

Thank you Mark for the kind thoughts. I don't know how you do it on a day to day basis.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,


Just stoppin' in to see how everything is going in RCU world...

JPEE,

Very sorry to hear of your loss, as Mark said, that is a horrible way to go, and at least they can rest now...always a sad thing to see. Hope you and Judy are dealing with it OK...

Hope you are enjoying the new quad. When I sold the SDX to Rob, one of the club members brought up a neary finished home build BIG quad, with huge motors, the size of 600's, four of 'em...he said it was for some kind of lifting contest....it was extremely heavy duty, all metal frame and what not...

Mark,

The new 500 looks awesome! Hope you can get the finishing touches on it soon, and maybe by the time the August weather has passed, you'll be in some cooler weather for the maiden...

Nick,

Sorry you had to serve on jury duty...at least it was only 2 days, and not 2 weeks..[X(]

I hear you on the cost of nitro helis, buying fuel for mine at nearly $40 a gallon, for 6-7 flights, got old quick...I still love to hear and see them fly over electrics though...


Gotta get back to work now...

Hope you guys have a great weekend...

Glenn

evdreamer

Guys,

I brought the Furion 6 and Whiplash out last Friday and had a lot of fun. The temps finally got in the mid 80's and there was hardly any wind. It was perfect for flying. The Furion 6 was a lot of fun, but the Whiplash is still more fun. I was able to stay in the air longer switching between the Furion and Whiplash batteries.

I ordered my school books today. I wanted to see what the cost of books were online, so I did some searching around. I was surprised to find that the cost of new books at Amazon were cheaper than used books at the cheapest bookstore in town. I saved $108 on Amazon compared to the cost of new books in town. I ordered one eBook. My back is going to appreciate that. It is cool you can highlight and add sticky notes to the eBook. I wish I bought all my previous school books at Amazon.

Glenn,

In my recent engineering magazine there is a new TV technology going to probably come out soon. I don't know if you have heard of quantum dots or not. They can replace the LED backlights in current LCD TVs and it is supposed to improve the picture quality. They can also stand alone and give OLED screens a run for their money. The article said quantum dots should be cheaper to manufacture than OLED and have similar picture qualities.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Nick.

Good to hear you had so much fun with the Furion and Whiplash! Nothing is better than a day of fun spent in the air.

This morning on the news they spoke about "used books" for new school starts today here in CA and they said that Amazon is a now a seller and is doing landmark business. I am happy you found a great deal too.

No flying here, well over a 100 everyday and the AC runs 24-7. I set up my buddies quad with a quick jury rigged set of landing gear high enough the get my GO PRO under her belly and he went off to the Lakes and mountains 8,000 feet up and is getting some aerial shots and videos both. he texted me and said all was going well, and I just can't wait to see them!

We are gonna build 800 size either quads or octocopters for more lifting power of heavier cameras. He wants to consider the new HK KK mother boards and related electronics. Me, I'll stick the DJI NAZA with GPS even if it costs me $200.00 more. To me it is like a choice of 3GX verses VBAR, I'll take the VBAR every time. I consider that move "insurance" that I stay in the air! What strikes me so weird is............... Quada ans Octo's have no servoes! After five years of flying and needing servos on everything, then now to fly without them kind of boggles my mind.

On the TV stuff I have read a few blurbs on the new technology. The times are moving fast, buy it today and it will be outdated within 6 mo to one year.

Take care and do well in school!

JPEE

8/14/2012
7:42 PM

Hello Boys

Forgive me if I mention this already but I set up from my junk pile a set of skids to raise my buddies 450 qud so I coauld get my GOPRO up under. He is off on vacation to Huntington Lake here in Northern Ca. After a few videos I had him take the camera from video mode to snap shot mode to where it snaps a photos every 2-5 seconds. Here are a few shots the Quad took. You might notice his altitude is pretty high. He is a nealry 12,000 feet and where he can fley here with two packs in parallel he stays up 12-15 minutes. At his present altitude it is pushing a whopping 51/2 to 6 minutes.

evdreamer

John,

Those are pretty impressive pictures and flight times.

I converted an old tackle box that I carried heli tools in to carry both of my chargers and both of my power supplies. Now I won't have to make as many trips to the car and won't take as long to setup. Now I just need a small tool box to carry my tools.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hello all,

Nick...cool on the converted tackle box for carrying all your heli supplies. One club I belonged to we had a nice trek to the flightline...I actually had a mini luggage trolley to carry a tool box and a rope to attach to my plane to tow to the flightline. It was fun when we got caught by a thunderstorm trying to run back to the cars to pack everything up.

Congrats on the good flying day, I hear you guys have been getting some nice weather lately.

I remember the local school bookstore was a total ripoff with the price of books, nice that you found an online supplier to save some cash...every little bit helps. Good luck this semester.

JPEE,

Those are some impressive pictures and statistics of the quad. 12,000 or 1,200...during my skydiving days things looked much smaller at 12,000. The pictures are very clear though and the scenery is beautiful. I can't get over no servo's, just the motors...that is different.

Sorry to hear about the 100 temps, definitely no flying in that weather. I'm sure at dawn its close to if not in the 80's already.

Not too much going on down here...right now waiting on my order for the controller to come in so I can finish my EFL. Tomorrow according to USPS tracking.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Nick,

Do you have 24 vt power supplies or two 12 volt-ers?

When you take them in your tackle box what do you use to run them?

Are you using two chargers for two different size batteries, or just charging two batteries for the your one heli?

Remember when I made my PS carry case from the HD tool box? It carries my 24 PS and my iCharger neat as a pin I tell ya. Then when I get to the field I just plug the box into the generator and I am good.


Hello Mark,

I hope your ESC came in!

I must clarify what I said now after speaking with Jason again from the mountains. I found he "stood" next to the 12K cliff but failed to lift off due to the updraft and the thin air and he was afraid to lose my GOPRO and his heli. So the pictures he is bringing home today will be from about where he camped which was 8-9K and greater. He sped up the camera to shoot every two-seconds to gather more pic's for the limited time he could stay airborne. Remember, down here at home, we get 12-15 minutes on two 2200 packs in parallel, but up there he was only getting a safe 5 min and he pushed to 6.5 min and was losing altitude and almost lost the heli. In fact, he said he was WIDE OPEN on the throttle and the quad was in a slow slow "controlled fall" and he got her landed safely. After that he stayed at 5 min as a max. We are both running our 2.5 year old Rhinos until we order new batteries. New higher C packs will make a remarkable difference I am sure.

Still well over a 100+ daily so I ave not flown in two weeks, perhaps three weeks as I really think about it.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jumping from a perfectly good aero-plane........................ were you nuts back them Mark LMAO............ Smiles to you two

evdreamer

John,

I have two 12V power supplies that I connect in series. They sit in the top portion of the tackle box. Then I drilled a hole, so the wires from the charges in the bottom part can go up to the power supplies. I plug the power supplies into the outlets at my field. I use both of my chargers for what ever batteries I bring along. If I want a fast charge for my Whiplash then I will hook up one battery per charger.

The weather was perfect today, so I went out flying again. I took the receiver out of my 450 last night and installed it in my Cub. I flew my Whiplash a few times and flew the cub 3 times. I really enjoyed the flight times. I flew for 15min and could fly for 19min on a 2S 1900mAh battery. I flew it like a glider up high with very little throttle. I helped a guy setup a Blade 450X with the BeastX/Spektrum recevier combo. It took awhile to figure out how to program it, but it was pretty easy. He really likes that the tail holds compared to his motor driven tails. It was pretty stable and I did some 3D with it. He also had a quad and I flew that around. It was pretty fun and I did some funnels with it.

Nick

evdreamer

Guys,

I survived the first 3 days of school so far. My electronics classes seem like a lot of fun so far. My environmental class seems interesting, but I have to write a 400 word essay twice a week.[&o] I can't wait for my last math class to be over. I can't use calculators on quizes or exams, so I hope it isn't too hard to do by hand. I already have my first math quiz in about a hour.

JPEE

Well Nick, it looks like your time will be devoted to your studies. There is nothing wrong with that! As you said some classes will be fun and some with just plain hard work. But the pay off will be huge for your future.

Good luck!

I am sitting here charging my new HK Nano 2200 that I want to test in my quad. Considering my old 2200 are in excess of two years old and are bloated. Oh they fly the quad but I know from experience they are done so to speak. So the. Ew packs should make that puppy POP! I have moved over to XT60 battery ends and am leaving EC3s behind just like I did with Deans. I also got 4 rolls of LED lights in green, blue, white, and yellow to light up m Apprentice plane. I'll tell ya flying at night is a blast! We fly till
Midnight each time.
Take care Nick

JPEE

Well Nick, it looks like your time will be devoted to your studies. There is nothing wrong with that! As you said some classes will be fun and some with just plain hard work. But the pay off will be huge for your future.

Good luck!

I am sitting here charging my new HK Nano 2200 that I want to test in my quad. Considering my old 2200 are in excess of two years old and are bloated. Oh they fly the quad but I know from experience they are done so to speak. So the. Ew packs should make that puppy POP! I have moved over to XT60 battery ends and am leaving EC3s behind just like I did with Deans. I also got 4 rolls of LED lights in green, blue, white, and yellow to light up m Apprentice plane. I'll tell ya flying at night is a blast! We fly till
Midnight each time.
Take care Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

I feel like a newbe again trying to setup my FBL...couldn't get anything to work past the initial setup steps and couldn't figure it out until I read a few pages on HF - Aux2 and Gear/Gyro settings mixed up. Duh! Now things are moving forward again but of course...Isaac will be postponing any maidens this week.

You guys sound like you've been busy...

Nick, congrats on school starting. Hope the math quiz wasn't too bad with no calculator. At least you had a good flying day to end your vacation!

JPEE,

Night flying is a blast...I used to do some experimenting with my old nitro birds but nothing like you at midnight, just a little after dusk where the plane kinda gets lost when you get below the tree line. I bet those LED rolls make it super bright and easy to see. What fun!

Like you I left deans and EC's for something better...for me the powerpoles were my salvation as no soldering is needed. I hope the XT60's work out for you.

How did the Nano work in your quad? You are definitely treading uncharted waters with that quad of yours...and doing very well from the fun your having.

Take care guys,

Mark

JPEE

Mark, sorry you had a hiccup in the FBL. But it appears you have it nailed now! You stay safe with that MONDO storm heading your way too. Time to stock up and hunker down baby.

I'll get some shots of the heli all lite up and post soon!

Last night was the NANO test and it was a success. With two packs in the Quad I got 14.40 minutes flight time. Now I can go further but when I punch the throttle and the red light flickers, it is time to comes down. But they are spectacular. With my old two year old Rhinos I was getting 9 min max. Also today I flew the quad naked! No stabilization, no gyros, no gps and wow that sucker is a hand full. It is like flying a CP PRO, wild crazy fast. We are gonna flying them high up so we can really see what its like. But first, we have to pull off the GPS head "just" in case we come down hard. That comes off with 4 screws and is worth $160-80 dollars so the no taking chances with that puppy. In the next day or two I will have my lights on my plane, I cant wait!

OBTW, the cops showed up the field at 11:30 last night. We thought OH CRAP someone complained. OH CONTRAIR, they said they saw them from 1.5 miles away in the sky and the one cop new where the field was so they dove over to say hello and see whatz up. Wheeeeeeeeeeeu

JPEE

Hello Nick,

Hey my friend I had a thought. In the near future I will be building an 800 size quad or hex copter. Of course they still fly a 12 volt system and most guys here use 5,500 mAh 11.1 packs. My thought is, what can't I use my lager 24 vt 6S packs from my big helis and cut their voltage in half. I see where you use a Zener Diode and a limiting capasitor I think, reducing the voltage is a no brainer. What looks to be an issue is to drop that 24 to 12 vts but not loose the amperage needed from the battery. Simply said, I would need a adapter to plug into the batteries out put and then on to my speed controller, ie: NAZA.

What is you opinion. Is this something that could be made up but not be of to much added weight? I just HATE having to buy more batteries. Right now we fly a 2200 3S pack and get 5-6 minutes. But now we are doubling the system with two (2) 3S 2,200 packs and when we night fly we are getting 14.40 minutes! So I suppose I could perhaps easier just put (4) 3S packs in parallel which would give me 11.1 8,800 mAh jumbo pack. Again while I know that works, I would "really" like to use my 6S packs to make life a bit easier. What say you my friend?


I hope school is going well for and that you are enjoying at least some of your classes.

I sure hope Mark and his family can come through this impending storm safely!

John

evdreamer

John,

There is a major problem using a Zener diode to do what you want. I don't know how much current an 800 size quad would draw. Lets say 50A min for an example. The power dissipated through the Zener would be 12Vx50A=600W. First off that is a lot of power. I think your Hyperion charger is around 1000W, so imagine cutting the heatsink in that by half and putting that on your quad. Second I am not aware of a Zener diode capable of that power. I think they are normally around 500mW to 1W. So you would have to put 600 diodes in parallel at a minimum. Third would be cost. I think a 1W Zener would be around $.5 a piece. So 600*$.5=$300.

Your best bet if you want to run a 6S pack is to find a low KV motor to use. I am not familiar with the electronics on the quads, but you would need ESC's capable of 6S then you would probably need some sort of BEC or a receiver batter/regulator setup. Since the 800's are designed to run of 12V I think it would probably be easier/cheaper to stick with a 3S battery.

In my programming class we are using a different brand microcontroller than I am used to and some software that can program it at a high level language. I could program in the same language with my current microcontrollers, but the manufacturer is charging $300+ for it while the one for school is free. I like the high level language, but I miss knowing what exactly is happening within the code and it is harder to access some of the hardware. I am going to try and redesign my balancer for this microcontroller. I have come up with a smaller hardware design for my balancer that can do the same thing. So maybe this summer I can build a new one.

Nick

JPEE

Hello Nick,

I hope you got my email in reply to your last post. I was really having trouble with this website to get a post up.

Again thanks for your input!