jroo

oops my bad. i actually meant 65 but wrote 56. That was a pre-coffee post.

evdreamer

Mark,

Nice paint job. Beware of the water because it likes aircraft. Just ask the people at my field.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,
Yeah I don't normally fly in my backyard because of the drainage pond - they do seem to have an attraction for flying things. Glad I was finally able to finish painting my canopy, only took 2 weeks.

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Not a whole lot new here, just drizzle, cloudy, dreary....but the weekend weather looks nice...

Nice bright paint there Mark, looks good...I'll bet it helps with visibility!

Congrats on finishing it up...some of my projects run a bit long as well...lol..

Never had a close encounter with water yet....just a few trees, and one building...lol..almost lost my B400 on a rooftop once in the early days...

Glenn

JPEE

Hello Guys,

Mark,
Thanks for the kudos on heli flying, she does sound awesome when she comes in close for sure. You have some wonderful country there, yes the pond is a magnet but that can be avoided. It looks like its getting cold and clear there now.
I mean this in the nicest sense, great paint job on the heli canopy and tail. They kind look like a rainbow ice cream Popsicle we had as kids. It’s bright and with the multi colors you should have no problem with seeing the heli against any back ground. Well done!
Mark you “absolutely� need some pontoons for one of your helis for the pond.

Jreue,
We are all here to help one another. I am a short timer here; I’ve only been here for coming up on two years come March 14th. As I looked at my start date I noticed my good friend Rotarydoc “Glenn� joined four days after me! Live that down Glenn…gotcha LOL. And of course Nick goes way back, he is the long timer here and the “best pilot too�. I would have not made it in this hobby without having a great group of guys for support. We have seen “many� guys come and go like a shooting star, bright, active then fall away. I hope you stay with us for the long haul.

My safety concern now acted upon. I have been kind sweating charging batteries and storing so many here in the house. Even though I am sitting right here with a fire extinguisher the damage from a puffed and blown pack would be tremendous. We all know what a Lipo fire is. Well Jay over on Wheeeeee showed me how he stores his packs in the basement. He stores them in cinder blocks like for a block wall, and then he puts a cinder block wall “cap� on top for a lid.
Two days ago I took the old bull by the horns and acted. I bought four cinder blocks and did the following in my garage. You will see the photos attached. Rather than use a cap block for the lids of the storage I used another block on its side! That gave me kind of a handle to pick them up. Now all batteries are in the vault when not in use.
I also made a charging cart. I put several power supplies on there and all of my chargers on slide out shelves. This is wire rack affair so there is not wood or products that can burn. Now I wheel the cart out of the garage and park it on the rear driveway or put it by the living room slider window so I can hear the beeps while I stay toasty in the house, no more danger ZERO.

Hey Glenn, sorry the weather is not good for you to fly. How ya feeling, coming back now pretty good?

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi all,

Hope everyone is gearing up for a good weekend of flying, looking for clear skies and nice fall temps. BTW, thanks for the compliments on my paint job - JPEE, now everytime I look at my heli I'm going to think of popsicles.

JPEE,
I'm glad to hear that you have a very supportive wife, I had to chuckle when I read that she even came up with the counter ideas. Just make sure that no flower vases suddenly start to appear just to "liven up" the place. Nice idea on the cinder block method of storing your lipo's - never can be too safe with them.

I also wanted to share with you guys my hobby room. Yeah, I do have more planes then heli's but slowly working on that balance. My little guy likes to be in there whenever I'm working on something, just to lend a helping hand (so I had to make it as baby proof as I could)!


Glenn,
Looks like JPEE got one over you with the join dates, gonna be hard to live with that one now that its out of the bag. Hope you get out to that heli field this weekend, and if I were you, I'd bring every single heli I had. With the drive, I'd plan on being out there 'till it got dark! (might need to bring a cooler with some soda's)

Mark

jroo

Nice room Mark. Looks like the shelf below the Blade CP needs to be moved up a notch on the right. hehe

helicorpse

Hello friends and strangers too...


Yeah, it's been a good while since I chatted here in the forum and its good to catch up with all of you that am familiar with. Greetings!, and I hope you are all in good health. I haven't given this up and don't intend to anytime soon, but I do get pulled in different directions now and then and the past six weeks are an example of that. Can't say that I would give up spending a week in the wilderness Ozarks in AR, or give up that 30 day trip out to Moab, UT and back. The highlite of the trip was a canoe float down the Green River thru Labyrinth Canyon.... no words are adequate to discribe the beauty of such a thing.

I decided to show you the heli that I am flying right now even though it is far far inferior to most birds that you guys show off, it's my junker, and on occasion it flys too... don't laugh at it, it's just a hillbilly heli. I've morphed it and learned alot doing so as I go. It started out as a Esky Belt CP EO13 I believe. Eventually the ESC burnt up and I've replaced it with a turnigy bulletproof model... programmable, so I figured out some of those configs. I've replaced all the servos with cheap and durable Towerpro MG90's and they survive my beginner crashes pretty well. I've got an esky servo on the tail right now like on my Blade CPP. I up graded the head and tail to the 450SE V2 knockoffs for cheap and learned how to set up that head while doing so. I've put a new reciever in it so i can fly it with my DX7 and I am getting pretty familiar with what that TX will do. Still flying without a HH gyro as it still has the original ESKY model on it. The cheap fibreglass 450 style canopy completes el cheapo makeover, most of it after the original parts were demolished serveral times over. This is my learn to fly straight forward flight without alot of crashing heli, never intend to do aero or 3D with it, plan is to practice with the sym over the winter and start working on those skills.

evdreamer

Peter,

Good to see you back here. I was thinking you were probably out seeing different places in the US. Good to hear you had a fun time. My parents want me to get me out to the Ozarks sometime next year. Then I have some relatives that want to take me white water rafting in Utah.

Good to hear you are still flying. I don't know if you already know that I went Nitro or not, but it is fun and an interesting experience to just flying electrics only.

Nick

helicorpse

Hi Nick...


yEAH... I've kept up with iinterest. All your plane work was amazing as you blazed thru that for the first time... and then the nitro. Good work, must be nice have talents... I always check out your work, pics and videos. I seem to smash my helicopter up once ever fifteen minutes of flight time. I'm really good at fixing it back up though. Alot better at fixing things than flying things right now actually... yukyuk.

helicorpse
Peter

evdreamer

I just got all my electronics and power panel fuel pump and glow starter. I also got an AMA magazine and they actually have a lot of helicopter articles for a change.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Well, it's windy here....not sure if I'm going to make that trip to the new field or not, 50 miles is a long round trip to be flying in wind, and not having much fun...I'll see if it dies down a bit in the next hour or so...

Peter,

Glad to see you are back, and had a good time on your trip....

Nice pics of the heli, thanks for posting!

Hope you can get some practice and flying in before winter actually sets in.

Mark,

I may head out to the field, but I don't know, the wind is 10-12 MPH, a bit higher gusts....flyable...but not much FUN...[>:]

That's OK that JPEE has a few days on me.....my post count speaks for itself....lol!

JPEE is a great guy, and an asset to the thread, as are all of it's members...it would not be much without you guys!

It's funny looking back at when we all started...and how/when we got here...I was LOST!! I actually joined a Yahoo group back in the day...and someone, not sure who, gave me the link to RCU...and the rest is history!

I think Nick first gave me a helping hand back when I was struggling mightly with the CP Pro...and we have been carrying on ever since....

Nick,

Cool that you got all the stuff you need for the panel now...have to keep us posted on the progress...I can relate to it quite a bit, having had my old setup from back in the day...

Interesting...I'll have to check the new AMA magazine out....sure seems like you get the AMA and RC Heli mag alot sooner than I do for some reason...


JPEE,

Got any big Sunday fly plans this weekend?

I may fly at my local field if it's too windy to make the trip to the new field....at least at the local field, if it's too windy, and I throw the towel in, it's only 5 minutes to home...

Glenn

It's been a huge part of the hobby for me, I enjoy the forums almost as much as flying or working on the helis, it's fun to watch everyone progress, and follow their heli careers...

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry to hear it is windy there.

First off I tested my fuel pump and it draws 4x more current than I counted on. I was thinking it would be around 200mA, but it draws 750-800mA. Then I ordered the wrong case size, but I can use that for a future project. Then my 5V regulators aren't working right. It is regulating at 10V for some reason. However, it looks like my glow starter circuit is working like I designed. Now I just have to hook it up to my glow plug and see how it goes. Then I will probably start on the display.

Nick

rotarydoc

Nick,

I did end up going out to the field today...and the wind did die down as I had hoped near dusk...I didn't leave alot of time to fly, but I mainly wanted to see how the field was to fly on, and it was a good opportunity, since no one was there....

Kinda erie though...out in the country, by myself, on someone else's property...[X(] But, I got over it and had fun with a couple of packs...and made a few discoveries...

First of all, even though they mowed the field last week, and it's not exactly grass growing season, the grass was deep....it swallows a 450 sized heli...lol...I need to bring a mat or heli pad next time out, for sure...there are no bare spots really, and I just kinda had to take off from the deep grass the best I could...

Then, I realized that in a field this size, a 450 size heli gets small very fast...lol...it's WAY more room than I'm used to, and the B400 and the 450 Pro felt kinda lost out there with all that space...

I also noted something else....there is no sani-john or spot a pot...lol...so I guess when nature calls, you go out into nature and take care of business...fortunately, it was in a liquid form...not sure what happens when you REALLY need a place to go...[X(][X(]

All in all, it was fun, I had a little bit if an issue with flying against the treeline, but no more than any other field, I'm kinda used to that...Rob said he didn't like that field for that reason...but I had no big issues, the main reason was because the sun had gone down, and it was basically dusk...

So, I'm definitely in! It would be cool to go there under better condtions, but I had some stuff to do today...the ride there and back was not bad, a little over half hour each way...I can deal with that...I just have to make sure I have everything, and not leave anything behind at home...maybe make a checklist...it would really suck to get there and realize I forgot my radio!!!

Anyways, it was fun....glad that you can at least start on the power panel, sorry you got the wrong size case, and were off on your estimate of power consuption for the pump....hey, it's all part of the learning curve!!

Talk to you guys later....

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Good to hear you enjoyed flying at your new field.

I measured only 200mA coming out of my glow starter and into the glow plug, so I designed my circuit around that. So after I built it and a resistor fried I knew more current was being drawn. It got up to 2.5A. This power panel glow starter has a stronger spring in it compared to my one with the NiCd, so it is a lot harder to get on. Now that I know what the current demand is like, I have to redesign everything. Then I went to go program my microcontroller, but there is a bug in the firmware that won't communicate with the software. So I have a lot of obstacles to overcome. I really want to get this working, so I will eventually get everything working. Once I get something working I will start taking pictures of it.

Nick

evdreamer

I just finished my revision of my glow starter. It is more complicated than my original design, but it can supply almost as much current as my NiCd starter. It is also adjustable with the black/white pot. on the bottom right corner. I finished all the connections on my display, but will save the headache of programming it till last. It is too late to start my engine, so I will test it tomorrow. I probably can start on the electronics for the fuel pump. I really like this electric fuel pump. It is a lot quicker and easier to fill my tank now.

rotarydoc

Nick,

Congrats on the progress of the power panel....wow, that is alot of current that the glow starter draws...I figured it was pretty high, it's kinda like a small cigarette lighter element in a car, and those are protected by a 15 amp fuse...[X(]

I was also surprised how fast my Ni Starter went dead on the Raptor when I accidentally left it on the glow plug for a few minutes one time...

Cool that you are getting it close, and are happy with the fuel pump too...I remember that was a nice thing with the Cobra fieldbox/power panel setup, just hook the fuel line up, and press a button, and watch it fill up!

Glenn

JPEE

Nick,
Sorry to hear about the small problems with the power panel. However for the most part it sounds like you know what you need to do to get it back online.........good luck.

Glenn, cluck cluck cluck..........pretty chicken pointing out you have more postings than me by a 1000 plus LMAO you got me..good job

I think I know why the 400-1 went down with tail control loss. At least I am pretty sure it was not a Fatuba 401 failure as I tore her down last night and look what I found..............could this be it? LOL

JPEE

evdreamer

JPEE,

That isn't a serious problem.

Nick

rotarydoc

JPEE,

That thing looks like it MELTED...LOL..[X(]

Might be a minor issue...lol...

Did you check everything else, wonder if something else seized up to cause that?

Good work....

Always good when you can figure the cause of a crash when it's not pilot error...

Glenn

JPEE

Nick, I agree.... No big deal. I just about have it remounted back in the heli. I don't see the need to spend $3.00 on a new gear do you? I estimate if I pill the belt real real tight she will grab!

Yea it is nice to find a culprit when possible. Considering all bearings roll free and were greased with the GREASER Lol.
JPEE

evdreamer

I think my glow starter finally works. I can get over 2A at 1.5V, but when I went to test it nothing happened. So I checked the glow plug with an Ohm meter and it is in the MegaOhms. So I think it works a little too good and caused the glow plug to become an open circuit. So I need to pick up some more glow plugs and test it again.

rotarydoc

Nick,

Whoops! [&o]

I just cheked my glow plug in the OS for ya, with a super cheap Harbor Freight multimeter, but it's in the ballpark...and I came up with a very, very low resitance, maybe 1 ohm...so it sounds like you have an open circuit in yours...

The elements in those things are pretty fragile, kinda like a light bulb filament, it's amazing they last as long as they do.

Hope you can get some new ones soon, and continue on the project some more...

Have fun!

I didn't end up flying today, the wind never really did die down much here, and I wasn't going to go all the way out to the new field for a couple of flights...

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi all,

We had some storms blow in from the west yesterday morning so flying has been nil. Glenn, I think your getting the same thing as they move north, had to share you know.

JPEE,
That's amazing what happened to your tail gear - does Eflight make a metal gear or are you stuck with a plastic replacement?

Nick,
Some of the projects you show us on here just amaze me - so all that jumble of wires and stuff on that board is what is compacted into my glow starter for my plane engines? Kinda cool seeing it all laid out flat like that.

Jreue,
Oh, so your a joker are you??? Yeah, I think the shelf does need to come up a bit but I'm too lazy to redrill the dang bracket.

So is everyone getting geared up for Thanksgiving?? I am fortunate in that I get to work Thanksgiving day (one disadvantage of working in a hospital ) so we are doing the turkey thing on Saturday.

Right now with the weather being a big yuk foo I'm replacing some of my rather questionable deans connectors - yeah, I'm neurotic about preventative maintenance.

BTW, I hate soldering. I'm terrible at it. I go over Finless's tutorial each time I have to solder something but I dread having to do it. At one point I actually considered trying those crimp type bullet connectors you find in the electronics section of Autozone, but after second thought decided against it. I'm sure the more you do the better you'll get, at least that's what I'm hoping. [] (Nick, can I just mail you my batteries and connectors and just pay you?? )

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry you couldn't fly yesterday.

Mark,

I don't know how companies design their glow starters, so it might be like mine. I still have a couple more ideas I want to try out. Right now it is really inefficient, so it is easier to design and I need bigger heat sinks than the ones in my pic.

I am also working on Thanksgiving.

Sure you can send me the connectors. I charge $10/connector. You might want to try the Anderson Power Poles, since those use crimps instead of soldered joints.

Nick