with nocjef having started to work on his own, i thought i'd rejoin the fun and build one too. this is actually the 5th time i've built this thing, done with 1/32" balsa for the outer walls, and 1/16th for the center spars and motor mount stick. standard red tissue covering for the top, shiney silver covering for the bottom. the first AA powered cube i did came in at over 16 grams, but i built this one much lighter (and more simple), so its at 14.6 grams - it could be lighter, but that silver covering weights a bit more than the tissue, but it does look cool!

it flys well, handles a headwind by just hovering in the air. there were a couple times that it would gain some speed against the wind, then hover, stall, and roll over backwards, doing a back flip in mid air. when there was enough altitude after it rolled over, it would catch itself and keep on flying. i've got to try to get that on video tonight, but for now, here's the video: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...56#post5795819

nocjef, please do post your progress here as well, and anyone else that gets the urge to build one, please do the same they dont take long to build and are pretty easy to make. trimming can get tricky, but its certainly not impossible. i attatched some pictures as well.

nick

thats awesome

bah..

The cube has been modified, but I did something to the electronics :/
Battery won't charge for more than 30 seconds so making any sort of flight is somewhat difficult. I had a tough crash during trimming that flung the RX out of the cube and snapped the antenna wire off, but I'm pretty sure that isn't why the battery isn't charging properly.

I'll have to research the 'net a bit and see if I can find any reasons why this bad-boy is misbehaving. All else fails, I can splurge for another AA and gut it

-Jef

sorry to hear about the RX troubles. if the charge light does come on, even if just for a few seconds, that at least means that part of the RX is ok. one easy thing to check is the TX batteries, people have had all sorts of weird charging issues once the TX batteries start to drop. i did also find on one of my RXs, one of the metal prongs for the charging jack had broken its solder joint, which would give me bad connections sometimes. give the little prongs a wiggle and see if they feel loose. if one of them moves freely, you'll probably have to give it a touch of solder to reattatch it.

nick

I'm pretty sure the lipo is on it's way out. It looks a bit fatter than it used to. When I charge it up now, I get about 4sec of full power followed by some of the slowest moving props I've ever seen

I'm gonna pick up a new one and see if that helps. If it doesn't, hey I got another 145lipo, right?

if the cell is swelling, its gone south. i would suggest submerging it in some salt water over night. this will kill the cell and you can dispose of it without having to worry about it venting or rupturing. as you said though, a new AA means all new parts, and you cant beat that!

nick