AJ1202

Well I finnaly got to go back and watch all the new vids [sm=thumbup.gif]
Stingray, glad to see the Cub doing so well

Brent you mean that was you flippin and floppin that plane around on take off, looks like something I would do

Sky, excellent vid, perfect choice of music

Stingray69

Hello back at you Ray, Thanks for the welcome.

I'll post some pics of the camera below. It's a stripped down drugstore recyclable camcorder sold by a chain of stores called CVS/Walgreens. Lots of info here http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=14 . They have several versions but the one to seek is the one with vesion 3.4 firmware. A free program has been written for PC to download the video yourself. They were meant to be only downloadable by the store for processing. Ebay's a good way to get your hands on one. It's weighs about 2oz when removed from the case. It has a LCD display on it for field viewing but if you remove that (which is easily done) the unit will weigh only on ounce or so. It's powered by 3-5 volts so using a spare rx channel for power will save battery weight too. The other lead from the board is for data transmision via USB to the pc. Since USb also supplies 5volts. I decided to make a USB adapter that would pull data and power the cam at my desk. The data pigtail on the cam is only used for downloading the vid. Not in flight. The dental mirror is for flat mounting otherwise the drag would be to great for a forward view. The cam can be strapped to the side of the fuse without the mirror for side views. I have since wrapped the cam with a light layer of foam shipping wrap for protection of the unthinkable crash. I don't fly with the rubber band. It's there to demostrate for the photo. I use shipping tape to secure the pack during flight.






Stingray

carlf

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Ray! Welcome to Badius Land!!! Something tells me you're going to fit in very well here!

Be sure to pay your 20 bucks to Hazy before taking your seat! We don't want him coming to town! I'm afraid with both of us here he may want to retire here!

BTW I have out of town guests coming in next week od we will have to plan a flying day after that!

Also, I'm off the entire first week of July.... we will have to make that count!

afineman

GF2

Your NOT SOL with that charger. I asked because a Li-Ion charger will NOT charge a Li-Po battery ALL the way but it will charge it. 80-90% of full charge. So your safe and you can use it, it will be fine.

Stingray69

Welcome to our little slice of heaven NICE videos, you prop appears to be a bit out of balance, if you balance the prop, the quality will increase, and OOHH I had a 75 Stingray, current wife sat to low in it, talked me into getting rid of it. BUT the next year talked me in to getting s Z3, it was a good trade

Kent

YES that was me making it jump up and down like that, Howard bought it on the recommendations for a club guy he was training with, he was told it was durable trainer, trainer my BUTT.

All

In spending as much time as I have on the AMA thread, I'll tell you my eyes have opened up.
We all take pot shots at the AMA, when we should really be taking those shots at the members.

Ny & Gf2

You would be amazed how many stories sound like Terry's, and everyone here in one way or another went through the same experience, it is that cruel rejection that has made the parkfliers movement so strong.

Ny/GF2 that is also another reason this thread is what it is, regardless of who/where you are someone here has the answer you are looking for and will edgerley share it, we've have all experienced some sort of rejection from the established RC community, HERE is where the rejects meet

OOHH and StingRay, you don't get a NEW on, you just get one, I believe Carl has the community AB Hee Hee Hee

Brent

ktaylor

Guns, no litium -ion and lithium polymer ( which is funny becuase I found out that li-po -s shortened from lithium polymer, which is shoretened from lithium-ion-polymer,) have the same charge characteristics ( except for the newer cells which an charge at a higher rate). Lithium polymer cells are lithium Ion cells with an electrolyte polymer added to increase discharge rates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium...olymer_battery short history of it,, I read a much more in depth one not long ago,, if I can find it again I'll post it.

Chris, when you feel that you're ready for longer & a little faster flights with your badius,, you can go to these batteries,
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...ROD&ProdID=850 Same voltage, but what will happen is that with the larger amount of amps available in the pack, the voltage drop from the initial discharge won't be so low. Fully charged this pack will read 10.5 volts , but after your first 20 seconds or so, the voltage will drop to 8.4 & stabilize at that for a while,, then drop when the ampacity of the battery is gone. So, with a smaller mah ( miliamp hour) pack, the voltage might drop to 8.1 before it stabilizes. The lower voltage means lower rpm at the motor. OR<<< you could go with this pack & be gauranteed more speed, http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1237 12volts fully charged, and 9.6 volts after initial drop. There will be more power for your take offs. Not sure if they will ship to New Zealand or not,,, If not I'm sure there's someone out there who will. This is a common RC pack. Have fun.

ktaylor

Oh,, crap,,

VETTE,, Velkomen! ( like i really have a friggin clue if that's german for welcome or not, I'm faking) Your videos are great. Mine are not, but I try. Always good to have new guys. I'm not that long into the addiction either. I started last September. I've only been at it for short over 7 months. I've gone from brushed, to brushless motor, from nimh packs to lithium polymer packs, from flying/gliding at 20-30 mph to flying the same plane in the dark with lights on it at roughly 40-50 mph. To a plane that will do 75 mph level flight ( Yak-1) to a homemade plane of my own design that will do around 60. And I'm currently working on a design that I'm hoping will go over 130. ( short tail flying wing with 80 amp motor mounted mid way., two 2 cell li-po packs in parrallel capable of 72 amps continous and 96 amp burst) SO, depending upon how much time you want to invest ( oh and $, which is insane, cause I'm poor) it doesn't take very long to go really far with this group helping & explaining. Brent's taught me a lot of this stuff. Some I've pieced together. Sticks answered many questions when brent or carl weren't available either. It all deends upon where youw want to go. Fly slow & all day( brent has had a 1 1/2 hour flight one one bettery), fast & on the edge of insanity? ( talk to Brad) , chase illegal immigrant farm workers? ( talk to Lou) Get lots of blisters? ( I'm the man!) Try gas planes? ( Gunfighter & NY are your guys) There's some of everything in this group, except for snobbery. Not much of that. ( Well, there are those foriegn guys around,,,,, Sorry guys I could help but poke fun at the Brits,,) Enjoy. Oh, & by the way, if you make a breakthrough of anykind & share it, be prepared to answer questions,,,, ( Like the dental mirror focusing lens,,,)

nyflyer56

Terry,
I don't know what the AMA can do, but I have been to many clubs and the diversity of model types and power choices is amazing. I have never seen the attitudes you guys are running into. It is guys like that who wouldn't be welcome in our club. Our attitude is Fly what you brung, do it saflely and have fun.
The District 2 VP, (who also is a good bet for next AMA Pres.) is not only a member of our club, (and part owner in the full scale airfield , that gives us the space for our field), but a lifelong modeler. He is also a friend and good guy. I will pass this along and he, in turn can pass it along to the AMA, and other district VP's.
The bad treatment you recieve runs counter to what the AMA is trying to do. Making them further aware, could help put pressure on clubs and get guys like that out of positions of power or of being the voice of the club. This may be wishful thinking, but if they don't know they can't help.


Planes like that electrified Nextstar are no differrent than a glo powered version. Glo, 4-stroke, Electric, it doesen't matter it is still a 60" 5 pound trainer. has as much potential for harm as a Glow version, It should not be an issue. The electrics that the AMA is looking at as 'Differrent" are the light weight, RTF, Parkflyers, these are a stepping stone to bigger faster stuff, gas or electric. It's not the fact that they are electric as much as it is that they are accessible and cheap, and may interest some people into modelling beyond the 'Toy' they may have bought on a whim.

My experience is counter to all the bad stuff I hear about. Guess that is why I am so appalled by it.
all we can do is try to open minds and see what develops.

Phil

Loubud

Phil,
RTF includes some pretty big planes. Check out Tower Hobbies. They also have glow RTF's that are huge. The AMA, in my humble opinion, doesn't understand electrics unless it's a contest somewhere. Other than that it is my opinion that a bunch of it's members don't know much about electrics either. And I'll add I don't know a great deal on these things either. One thing about gassers I do like is a multi cylinder 4 stroke at 3/4 throttle. And I had the opportunity to hear a 5 cylinder rotary. Now that's a sound.
This AMA E flight thing is no doubt a gonner. Problem is they might say something like oh well. We tried. I propose an AMA takeover. All. heck, 10% of electric fliers join and take the gas (tee hee ) outa their collective sail. It would take an exceptional amount of promotion and time. Plus finding the right guys to lead the charge. I like the idea but odds are, won't happen anytime soon. More members and lower costs. Get the turbine jets into it too. They've also had a ruff go with it.

Loubud

Hi All,
Flying update.
Nothing went up today. Weather was ok but I wasn't up to it. Tomorrow I will force myself to fly an SS. I need some stick time so I can toss the Aerofly up. I'm hoping this weekend for the Aero. Well, unless I crash 2 Slow Sticks back to back like the otyher day. I have the Mad Dog ready and bench testing proved a bad servo. Yikes! and Gadzooks!!. A Cirrus servo. I just replaced it with another one and will test it too. Might be a problem with the control rods. I'll know tomorrow. I need this plane for practice with ailerons. So far it has caught fire and during a poor flight by me, found the only rock in a 100 foot radius in the farm. It's been on the shelf for a year now and I never thought I would fly it again. The pack rat in me wouldn't allow me to throw it out. So tomorrow will be interesting. If the first SS flies ok then the second with onboard camera goes up. Never made a movie but there's always a first time.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hey Lou, the wild cat flies really nicely, so the mad dog should do the same. i'm always careful with it tho as i don't want to crash it. fun plane. and my pz fw190 turned up today so the pz mustang's days are numbered as the electrics are going into the fw190. one more spin by the mustang and it's off to CA. flew the ultralight today and i was suprised i enjoyed myself. i'm beginning to understand how to fly it, but the wind was quite strong at 200 feet plus so we didn't fly for long. it's a holiday here this week so there were a few guys at the club. now i'm looking forwards to flying in the summer. also the kamikaze pilot is 80 now and the guys were talking about buying his plane, which is a renegade, a canadian biplane. i really want to fly one. they are talking of me going in with them and it should be really cheap, maybe about $10,000 or less, which between 4 people is great and what i can afford.

afineman

Doug

go for the investment, BUT check out the peers.


For Ny and GF2 here is a good example of an E conversion http://www.gregcovey.com/reviews/Telemaster.wmv

I have been looking at this plane for 2 years, if I haven't spent SSOO much money in the last 2 months, it would be on my build table NOW, BUT of course my conversion would be 50% less ( I tend to be rater thrifty[8D] )

Night ALL

Brent

Loubud

Airborne,
A Mustang for lil ole me? Yabba dabba dooo.
I have been searching for a necked ladie in a decent pose to make decals for warbirds. Something like the Playboy poses in the mag. Having terrible luck.
If anyone cruises the xxx files and finds something, send it to me. Must be necked and great legs. Need the whole glorious body.
Thanks

Oh. Good luck on a new plane Doug.

SkylarkNZ

Ken
Thanks for the links and info on battery packs. The twin pack offer looks like a very good deal at $19.99. Shipping cost to NZ is $22! Overall, that still sounds very cheap. That equates to about 10 gallons(US) of gasoline over here! Very tempting - I wonder if I can prise open my wallet?

gunfighterII

Brent, ktaylor,
Once again your battery expertise exceedes my ability to take it all in, I did notice that I could charge my lipo's on the quick charger, but they did not tell me the 80-90 percent thing. As I won't accept 90% I'll need a charger, suggestions? My electric adventure begins today! And by the way, my U-Can-Do is on the balance stand and ready for it's test flight this weekend. O.S. 91 FS-P, APC 15-6, 7lb-13oz. Let the insanity begin.[sm=lol.gif]

BaldEagel

Hi Guys

On this AMA thingy, at my own club I was the only one flying electric when I joined, since showing them the finer points of electric i.e. clean and as fast if not faster than most of the IC's at the site more and more people are going to electric flight it got to the point that the club chairman has asked me to give a talk on the latest developments, brushless and LiPo's with the Medusa Analyser and computer interface it should be an iteresting disscusion.

Perseverance can win out in the end.

Mike

ktaylor

Guns, http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/701353.asp This one can charge 4 packs at one time. You'd still need to get a cell balancer though.
I have this one coming, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll..._BIN_Stores_IT it can charge two 2cell packs at the same time, or one 3 cell, or one 4 cell. Not sure what kind of balancing taps it needs though. I'm pretty sure it will work with my polymax batteries. I'll have to change the taps on my other ones and add taps to the other 3 packs that dont have taps.

afineman

GF2

There are some really GOOD chargers out there for a GOOD chunk of change.

Under most normal conditions I would recommend one of the better models, BUT!

Battery technology is changing as I type, last month I spoke with an applications guy for one of these startup companies (and posted about it).

It is for this reason, I will suggest a middle of the road 12 volt (works in the car), 3cell max, 4 pack charger. http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LC2284&P=1

This is a charger we are currently using, it will charge 4 packs at the same time and does a good job too, it just doesn't have all the bells and whistles.

The new Lithium Ion batteries that will obsolete (in time) what we are using today, use different charge/max volts parameters, so that means we would need different chargers for this new batteries technology. Can you imagine, a battery pack the size of 4 normal C size alkaline batteries being able to start your car??

But then again, if you need the best, tell me who's battery you bought and I can recommend a really GOOD charger that will work, utilizing the balancing taps.

Hope it makes sense

Brent

EDIT: WOW Ken beat me to the post

TerryE

My Feedback: (12)

GG / Guns2;

You guys HAVE to go look at this: It is the latest H-L crash sale:

Graupner Extra 300S ARF: 63" wingspan, 46" overall length, 639 sq. in. wing area, 90 oz. flying weight.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/ezonegene...rce=bar&kw=gen

and if you but it (BB ) Don't blame me...its not my fault

Terry

gunfighterII

Oh My!
[sm=sunsmiley.gif] You really should not have shown me that! I was getting ready to show Brent the $300 charger I would like to get

nyflyer56

Lou,
I know that RTF includes some big planes, but I am thinking more of what a non flyer and son might find at Wal-Mart etc.. or what most LHS will stock. slow sticks , PZ cub etc.. These are what the newbies are buying, they don't yet know about the bigger stuff. It is that impulse buy, "hey Dad this looks like fun only $150 RTF, can we get one?" I have seen that at the LHS.
By the way, my last post talked about clubs,and I forgot to mention, My LHS, Walt's Hobby is staffed with friendly enthusiastic folk, who can and do help, and will direct people to severa clubs where they will be welcomed.

Phil

afineman

Hey All

Go over to the AMA thread and read the options and put in your vote.

Brent

Loubud

Phill,
I was razzing ya a bit. The point was only to better define the planes we're talking about.
I voted. I'll consider a comment later. My vote is in the high percentage bracket. The poll numbers are shown after you vote.

TerryE

My Feedback: (12)

Phil;

Check this out: B25, 101" wingspan, 35 pounds AUW...and electric


http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=573

I need to go buy a lotto ticket.

ktaylor

Guns, By the way, do you know what we mean when we talk about "balancing " a battery pack? Use a scale & make sure that it weighs the same as a similar battery. That's all. [sm=lol.gif] ok, just kidding. A balanced pack is a pack where each cell has the same voltage. All of the charging & discharging over & over will over time cause one or two cells that have a higher voltage & some a lower. Then what happens is that when the charger see's the full 12.6 volts ( for a 3 cell pack) it shuts off. But if you test the individual cells one might have 4.5 volts, 4.1 volts , & one 4 volts. But since they're in sereis, the charger still see's a fully charged pack. Now lets say your speed controller is set to turn off when the pack voltage gets to 9 volts ( for li-po that's a rule of thumb, if you take individual cells below 3 volts they no longer want to take a charge). so the cell that read 4.5 volts now has 3.4 volts , the second has 3 volts, and the third one has 2.6 volts. That cell that went to 2.6 volts stands a very good chance of no longer being able to hold a charge. Then there goes the $30- $100 that you spent on that pack ( depending upon the size and brand of battery). I have two packs that I'm really wondering if I've damaged them by not balancing them. Hopefully my new charger that's coming will take care of them. Speaking of, I got a notification in my box today saying that I have a package at the post office. I'll hafta stop there on the way home tomorrow. Brent, does that sound like a good summary of balancing? Oh, and quite a few of the ESC's ( speed controller/ vfd) have programmable battery drain. My Align ones allow me to discharge to 65%, 70%, or 80%. I did the 65%, it cost me a battery, pulled too many amps down to too low of a voltage & puffed the battery up to where it looked like a small water ballon. My larger high discharge rate batteries can handle that, but the little 1250 I had hooked up couldn't. Oh, and if you decide to go to higher voltages, instead of buying 4 or 5 or 6 cell packs, I'd get 2 & 3 cell packs them make some wire harnesses to be able to hook them in series or parralell. Depending upon what you need. Oh, you said your soldering isn't the greatest. Mine's slowly be getting better. I used to do pager repair ( mostly changing frequency crystals & tuning with a oscilliscope) for a short period, I was barely passable at soldering. And my first attempts at soldering my RC stuff was horrible, ( hence the nickname "blisters" ) but it got better. Escpecially once I realized that instead of using 50/50 lead tin solder, I grabbed silver solder. Do not use silver solder. More brittle, needs higher heat to flow, and A LOT of flux to stick. Plus the fact that its meant for plumbing instead of electrical,,,,,, [&:][:@] Once I got the lead/tin solder my soldering improved 100% I don't have the look of a mig welder anymore with the wire speed too high & voltage too low.

ktaylor

ok, guys, just for future reference, DO NOT buy one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RC-Smart-60A-Bru...QQcmdZViewItem

It's rated for 60 amps continous, and I was pulling 25 amps doing a static test when it burned up. One whole side caught fire. Gonna have to see if they have any kind of replacement plan. If not I'll buy something cheap from them just to be able to leave a nasty feedback. I bought it because it supposedly had 80 max capability, and 60 amps continous. So, I'll have to look and see what is out there for 80 amps. Then wait until later this summer when finances allow, hopefully, for a replacement. Otherwise my plans for the 130 (+)mph plane will have to wait. ( unless Brad happens to have an esc that can feed 80 amps that he doesn't really want,,,, )