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Post by thevon on May 19, 2008 21:42:43 GMT 10
With the LED's, one practical point is that there's only about a 25% chance the plane lands in an orientation with the light pointing anywhere in your direction! It's even a hassle with the LMA's, that if it's on the top of the wing and the plane lands upside down, it can be hard to hear the LMA! And if it's in the grass - I suspect that the light might be hard to see? ... sorry to be negative, I don't mean to be, but I wonder if it might be a lot of work for not much practical benefit??
Re: radios and crow mixing, I have to (again) recommend the Multiplex Co-ckpit SX. Amazing mixing features for the lowest price. The receiver that comes with it has been totally glitch-free for me, flying the Fazer at Bald Knob ... carbon plane too ... I thought of buying another RX like it and they're really expensive! So you not only get a top radio but an excellent Rx too.
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Post by felix on May 19, 2008 22:01:45 GMT 10
what about an led strip at each tip? providing the bulbs are slightly proud there's not really an angle they can't be seen.
definately have to get one of those TX soon andrew when i get something quick and more complex.from all accounts they sound like the way to go.
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Post by lucky on May 19, 2008 23:24:43 GMT 10
With the LED's, one practical point is that there's only about a 25% chance the plane lands in an orientation with the light pointing anywhere in your direction! It's even a hassle with the LMA's, that if it's on the top of the wing and the plane lands upside down, it can be hard to hear the LMA! And if it's in the grass - I suspect that the light might be hard to see? ... sorry to be negative, I don't mean to be, but I wonder if it might be a lot of work for not much practical benefit?? Andrew, its no work at all really mate for those here with some practical engineering skills who can spare 15 minutes of time on the iron. A visual recognition rate of 50% would be much more realistic, have you had any experience with flashing LED's during the night time? By all means we should all try to buy the best radio gear we can afford, but not at the expense of our ability to use it before we move on and spend more, in some cases, a lot more than is due. Butterfly and basic programable mixes with a $140 Tx? certainly, a bit limited maybe, but only by the pilots flying skill. These cheaper Tx's fly performance full house gliders just fine for sport.
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Post by Pij on May 20, 2008 6:24:21 GMT 10
My kids, at night-time school functions, have spent $1 or so on little multi-LED flashing novelty balls etc. Inevitably they open them up to see how they tick. Inside, about the size of a wristwatch circuit board, is the board including 4 button-cells and the LED's.
This entire unit could fit inside the wiring box of my Duck, and be covered in clear tape instead of the black I usually put on that part.
I've seen how bright and noticeable these things are. Even if the Duck landed inverted, the fins would keep the wing well clear of the ground. As darkness descends, the light, even indirect, would become pretty noticeable.
I open a taped hatch to switch my Duck on before a flying session. It would not be much effort to switch on the flasher, too. But I'd prefer it to be all on one switch, if possible.
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Post by lucky on May 23, 2008 15:49:30 GMT 10
That sounds like a good concept pij, I'm definately going to give the idea a go on the next sailplane, its a thermaller that can travel a bit! A few days a go I bought for $3 a slim five LED slip on cap brim light you wear on your head, the circuit and flat watch style batteries inside the small plastic case are compact and weigh almost nix, and it really puts out some light! Another simple idea for CW's is a more effective vertical stabiliser setup on the wingtips. The velcro tack-on ones that come with some kits aren't really up to the job, the velcro always get messy, the fins flop about in flight and are neither vertical or stable in anything but light ideal conditions. They tend to fall of in a prang too. Talking to some of the guys here we agreed they may as well not be on the wing. So we discussed the idea of screwing the fins in. I contact glued some 3mm ply to the wingtips after shaping it so it wouldnt snag in tumbles and spills then screwed the fins in. After 4 months of road testing they work well and offer more effect in the air perhaps.
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Post by Pij on May 23, 2008 18:34:19 GMT 10
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Post by Pij on May 24, 2008 12:53:36 GMT 10
I got my charging jacks today. Same as Dîck Smith's P1231 (direct links don't seem to work any more - go to search.dse.com.au/search and type in P1231) but I got mine from Jaycar. I also got some LED's, but I haven't used those yet. I sprained my brain working out what to connect where on the charging jack (Yes, I know that USA website had a wiring diagram, but I thought it couldn't be TOO hard, so I didn't bother looking - Wish I had). Eventually ended up with this. It seems to work according to tests with a spare receiver and battery etc. Also wired it up with an LMA as well, all OK. The servo/receiver/battery type connectors were donated by the charging switch I killed with CA and sand on my first weekend with my slope glider. For 60c I think the jack is a good deal. I made my charging lead from a double-ended 3.5mm mono extension, so the other end of the extension is ready to make a second charging lead from. The 1st charging lead connects to the receiver battery connector on my JR charger. The 2nd one will have banana connectors to fit Swallow charger.
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Post by sean on May 24, 2008 13:05:12 GMT 10
Nice work! I've been using this exact same jack on my Reaper and Skua. The one in the Reaper is quite old and won't turn on anymore, it seems like the metal on/off contact doesn't have enough spring in it now to make a reliable contact. But... it's been through a couple of rebuilds and lots of prangs so it did pretty well really. The one in my Skua still works a treat.
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Post by Pij on May 25, 2008 14:08:03 GMT 10
I've made the second version of the charging jack. This one includes the LED which changes colour every 10s or so. With this setup, the LED is on whenever the receiver is powered up. I put the LED snugly up against the jack, but another option would be to have the LED on a servo lead and simply plugged into a spare channel on your receiver. I like it against the jack,because I can cover them both with clear tape before flight to keep out the sand and streamline somewhat, while still letting the LED light out. Testing this LED at dusk, it is quite noticeable even when you are not really in its field of illumination. With a single-fin glider, I think an LED inside the coreflute fin would be great! The top half of the pic shows the blind plug, with no electrical wiring, just a shoelace. That is used to turn the glider off. The long white cord might stop you launching it without turning it on. Especially if it's tied around your neck.
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Post by Pij on May 30, 2008 17:29:18 GMT 10
Here's my high-tech CG balancing device. When I want to find out the balance point, I balance on this cardboard box which has 2 somewhat sharpened bamboo skewers sticking out the top. It can be hard to get your eyes down low enough to mark the point on the wing with a pen, but it works OK. But when I know the position I WANT my balance point to be at, I use this other fancy device: I call it a "Pencil-taped-to -the-wing." Creative name, huh? You can see that I have it lined up with the 200mm mark under my wing. I simply turn the wing over and see if it balances. It is balanced when the nose stays down if I put the nose down but the tail stays down if I put the tail down, in other words there is no tendency to tip nose-wards or tail-wards. It would probably be more precise using one of those triangular-section pencils designed to teach correct pencil grip.
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Post by lucky on May 30, 2008 18:39:28 GMT 10
I do like the LED beacon, still working on mine. I've seen other guys wear their blind plug around their neck, thats a good idea.
Your balancing tools... if it works for you, it works.
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Post by Pij on Jun 2, 2008 18:16:49 GMT 10
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Post by Pij on Jun 3, 2008 22:23:48 GMT 10
I was reading in RC Groups about an EPP-like foam, when I found this description of stiffening a wing with a top-and-bottom matched spar, joined between by glue through a series of drilled holes. This sounds like a method worth investigating. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3551138&postcount=84
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Post by callun on Jun 7, 2008 14:19:06 GMT 10
That looks very clever A mate of mine had an idea for EPP, and the best way I can describe it would be similar to ribs on a built up wing. Take your wing core, and cut it from LE to TE, and glue it back together, thus making a strong rib-like structure at various points along the wing. I don't know if it'd be useful or not, and I'd suspect cutting from wingtip to wingtip would be more effective, but a thought someone could try if they felt so inclined
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Post by Pij on Jun 7, 2008 18:05:24 GMT 10
I like the sound of that. Not the rib-direction bit, as I don't really think there's any need for quasi-ribs in a shaped foam wing. But your idea of doing it span-wise, that could be useful. Maybe for a lightweight version of a CW for low lift conditions, where only a little spar-like stiffening was required.
Building my Duck, I wondered about how much the act of gluing in the spar slot strengthened the EPP, while the carbon ribbon was added. The EPP did soak up quite a bit of thin CA, as I later found while cutting out the bays. Also, I had cut the 2nd spar slot according to the instructions before I discovered that the included ribbon was far shorter than specifications stated, so the last 5" or so at each end was only filled with CA! I think it was still pretty stiffened!
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