ORIGINAL: DaveL322
The Castle brake is not really as simple as on/off. The Castle brake is basically setup (using ATV/endpoints) to engage on the bottom click of throttle, and then the amount of the braking force is variable depending on the RPM of the motor and the airspeed of the plane. At higher speeds the brake will engage more aggressively, and then taper off as the RPM and airspeed decay. In practice, I have found this to be very useful, as the same brake setting that works for downlines also works for 45 downlines and the backside of looping maneuvers.
The Castle software has several parameters that can be tailored to adjust how the brake reacts, and the overall strength can be adjusted to essentially set the airspeed when the brake is engaged. In practice, the brake strength is pretty equal to downline airspeed, and you don't need to vary the throttle stick in different (descending) flight attitudes to maintain the same airspeed.
The Schulze allows variable brake from the TX, but it seems you also need to use a different settings (on the throttle stick) to achieve the same airspeed on downlines, 45 downlines, and backsides of looping maneuvers.
Regards,
Dave Lockhart
Team JR
Team Castle Creations
From my micrologger graphs it can be clearly viewed that the brake power of the controller increases with downline length, ie: less increase in speed on downline (like a 45) less power used by the brake, and vice-versa. I suspect that if someone ever actually logs a Castle controller the brake is identical to what the Schulze is....I dont think there is anything ingenious about how these things are built.
I dont find that I ever change brake settings much at all during flight, but the option is there if you want. Plus I dont need a laptop at the field to set my controller
