JPEE

Nick,

As I thought on the key pad. Thanks for the 600 information. As i said it was the Scorpion site that made the big deal about their bearings as well as their main shafts. They sell lube kits and new main-shaft kits with bearings. So that what made me wonder, if they mention it....there must a be a problem. Then on RR and HF most of the people mention that as well as CC ESC being now nicknamed to Castle Creamations. If you look go to you tube and look up CC ESC's on fire there are tons of videos from unhappy people. In my quest for knowledge I have heard good things about Hacker Motors being strong and fairly bullet proof to boot. Just studying everything and keeping and open mind.
Thanks for your reply....JPEE

evdreamer

JPEE,

I don't need to check out the fires on Youtube because I have experienced it first hand on my airplane. I had a Phoenix-60 go up in smoke while flying. It didn't start on fire, but the ESC was melted and left a nice black mark on the fuselage. It was still under warranty and they sent me a new one free. I haven't had any problems with my Phoenix HV-85.

I can now enter values in my settings menu. I just need to write some code to save it.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Nick,

I have been talking to a guy who buddies are using this new brand ESC which is a "like" not clone and youll understand as you read below from their blog. This an ESC made by former employees of Kontronix.

I do remember that fire you had in your plane. In fact I remember the pictures of the scortched balsawood in your fuse.

Good news on your panel. I hope the rest of your program wiring come out well and works first time out.
JPEE



YGE is an ESC from Germany. Many of the YGE functions are very similar to Kontronik ESCs. Not sure if they are related in any way...

I am planning on running this on 10S in a Logo 600 w/ 600mm blades. This ESC does not have an onboard BEC. I am running a CC Pro BEC off one of the 5S packs.

The price is right in between CC and Kontronik at $260 (and $25 for the optional programming card)

Location: Round Rock, Texas

My Posts This: Topic Forum Like to know how the Governor works in it. I heard it is just as good as the Kontronik.

-

The founders of YGE are former Kontroniks employees/engineers.



Ahhh OK. That explains why they are so similar. Thanks.

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Yeah, the SSD's should be very reliable and long lasting...since they are basically just flash memory.

I was reading a bit about them, and flash in general, and surprisingly, the memory actually "wears out" after many cycles (well over 1,000), so those SSD's have a controller that moves data to different parts of the drive, to keep from over using a specific area of the flash memory. So I guess you can't assume it would last forever, but it most likely would outlast a normal spinning hard drive.


JPEE,

Be the first on the block with one of these!

Sounds like just the ticket for that new camera!

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G-210001

I read that there are vids of in action on Youtube, but I can't view them here at work...[&o]

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

It was cool watching them fly the Gaui straight into a wall. It moves pretty fast outside.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guys,

I never said anything before but Glenn when I go into this making flying videos I looked at extensively at the Gaui and other brands. But after exhaustive reading and watching of You Tube Videos I found that they not! stable in the sense of keeping the horizon level. Yes they zip right around and can stay in one plane and hover if you will but they are "constantly" like a dinner plate on a stick and rocking thus making the viewers of the video sea sick.[:'(]
I saw the video sometime ago of the tec running it into the wall and making field repairs, but for my use... there is no use for this aircraft.

I will submit however, that in my opinion this would make a great trainer for someone getting into heli's. The fundamentals are there.

Thanks for the heads up.


I got out to the field today and finally got some stick time. I flew 1-450, 4-500 and 1-600 flights. LMAO I put my Hyperion Charger on the big Ford Diesel and charged two 3000 mah packs at once at 2Cso ina sense I was pulling 12 amps out of the truck batteries. Then later went to start the truck and my batteries were dead! ! ! "Truck no likie" my Hyperion LOL. My buddy had to jump me. Come this weekend I'll have to look at Sears for some "MONSTER DIE HARD" batteries and get two of them. Will it ever end..................

JPEE

evdreamer

JPEE,

Sorry about your battery. There is a guy at my field who did the same thing with his car.

I finally finished the code for my display. There are some features I want to add later, but it is doing everything I wanted it to do when I first thought about it. I am thinking about getting a new chip for this project that would make it easier to multitask. Then I can start thinking about designing a circuit board for it.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Sorry to hear about the dead car battery but it is a bit funny that charging up some lipo's would do that. Glad you had jumper cables on hand.

A friend of mine had an older truck and forgot the dome light was on. After several hours of flying his battery was dead. Unfortunately we didn't have any jumper cables so had to drive to the nearest gas station to get some. Still...it was a good day of flying.

Nick,

Congrats on finishing up your display.

Glenn,

Bet your enjoying your new computer. I've seen a few of their commercials and they look really nice.

An update on my 500...I did a test hover in a parking lot after work a few nights ago...and forgot to change back the pitch settings from the initial setup. Short story...I got to do my first botched auto at night! [X(]

Broke the landing skids and scraped the blades. Lucky my LHS had some 600 landing skids and was able to redo the test hover last night and it was a success. And yes, my blood was pumping with that sucker hanging just motionless. Did 2 packs and everything looks ready to go!

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

Sorry about your maiden, but that is good you had some nice flights after that.

I have been trying a new thing with my code that allows me to break it up into smaller pieces. I found a couple of problems and found a few ways to have less code. It is a lot easier to find problems when there isn't so much code to look at.

Nick

JPEE

Mark,

Sorry to hear about the sad part of the maiden with your 500. But in the nd it sound slike everyting came around. FYI, I dont recall what radio you are using but on the DX7 you must match the "normal flight" exterior sub trims in idel-up 1 & two. The DX6i is not like that and the only thing you have to change was the throttle curve for idel-up. I found this out with my 500 he first time I threw the switch on the DX7 to idel-up! man that heli jumped in the air and pulled off to onbe side I dont recall. Being new I kept thinking something was wrong with the heli and thats why it was pulling. I later found I needed to match those sub trims and she was nice and stable when throwing the switch.
That 500 makes some balde noise doesn't it! POWER with a capital P.

Nick, that's cool if you can eliminate some of the code. I would imagin that might make it faster too?

Glenn,
They are now running ad's over here on TV for your new laptop! You bought in early and as always.............the trend setter here.

I worked on Bobs heli a HK 500 today. He had this issue that when you raise the throttle it is not smooth but was jumpy. So we changed out his ESC and that did not help. So after working on other ideas we re-bound the heli from his DX7 to his DX6i. Well that did it, she spooled up and lifted with no jumps in the increments. So it appears his potencomter on the throttle side is going out. He had this issue with another heli on that same radio in a different slot

Later Guys, JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

CONGRATS!!!

Sorry you got off to a rough start...but it sounds like you got some nice initial hovers in with it when all was said and done...

That's a beautiful sight, a 500 hovering rock steady, isn't it??!!

Glad you got it up in the air, I know you can't wait to get it out to the field...

The new computer is amazing, and quite an undertaking...this sure isn't Windows!!

JPEE,

I have not seen any ads here on the new Macbooks, but I don't watch a lot of TV lately either....I am loving this thing, no regrets whatsoever...

Glad you got your friend's heli straight, and sorry about his radio...first I've heard of on a DX7...

Nick,

Glad you found some ideas to help break the code into smaller pieces...seems like a good idea.

Do you ever use any Boolean code or logic in your controllers? I was reading in my OX X manual about how you can do Boolean searches, and I think I remember something about that when I was reading about micr controllers.

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Well guys...finally got out this morning and had my first 'flight'!

Have to say this wasn't like my 450 maiden...kinda knew what to expect going from a 450 SE to a 450 Pro...still a 450. But this isn't a 450 by any means. Going to take a few more flights before I get comfortable with her.

Hope you enjoy the maiden video...and hey, first video since moving to Florida!

http://www.vimeo.com/16764495

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

Congratulations on completing your maiden. You took her out and even did some stunts, I was impressed! And the kicker for me...what a great place you have to fly. Man your own unbuilt housing track area with a street for a runway.......how cool is that!

You have to had a power rush over the 450's right?



JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Power rush...definitely JPEE!

I was a bit surprised when I did that punch out and she just shot up like that, wasn't expecting it to take off like that. And it is so much easier to see than the 450. I was very tense while flying so I am going to need some more flights before I can relax a bit. A street for a runway...absolutely! I am happy that I got to share it with you guys. [8D]

Mark

choppersrule

Mark,

Great maiden on the 500. Looks like everything is pretty well tuned in, I may add. That punch out in the begining looked great and the gyro held perfectly.

I'm sure you are already realizing that the power to weight ratio of a 500 is pretty awesome.

Kudos to ya,

Dave

evdreamer

JPEE,

The type of code I got rid of was duplicate code, so in my case it doesn't run any faster since I still have to use that code. However, now I can use that extra space for something else. I did double the speed it sends and receives data and quadrupled the speed it operates at. I didn't notice a big difference in performance after that. I started to work on my balancer again. I found a major error and now I can start to make some progress. I also wrote some code to do 32bit math with an 8 bit controller. Now I can have higher accuracies.

Glenn,

My projects don't need Boolean logic. I used a lot of that when I designed circuits at school though.

Mark,

Your 500 is flying good. They are a lot of fun to do 3D with.

Guess who has snow on the ground.[&o]

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Oh no Nick...snow already??! [] Hope it melts quickly for you.

Any flight plans this weekend?

Dave,

Yep, finally got my 500 in the air. Wanted to say thanks for your suggestions and help with battery selection and letting me know how yours balanced out in the end.

Have a little bit of adjustment to do with the tail, but am enjoying flying my new heli right now.

Had the chance to take her out this morning and just kinda cut loose and have fun. My nerveous meter was pretty low so things went much more smoothly...heck, even flipped her over and held a bit of inverted hover. Much more stable then the 450 was.

One downside...the canopy is not all that great for orientation. Very easy for it to blend into the surrounding...had that happen several times. Going to be looking at the Fusano canopy's and swallow that $39 pill. Figure pay a bit now and avoid a nasty crash later.

Hope you all have a great weekend and have fun flying.

Glenn, did you ever find out if Phoenix will work with your Mac? Maybe Horizon has an update for that by now? Either way, that Mac notebook is slim, thin, and one mean machine!

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Sorry to hear of the early snowfall...it's great here...supposed to be in the lower 60s all weekend, so I'm going to try to get out, I'm stuck at work right now..[&o]

Mark,

The maiden on the 500 looks great! Looks like you are already getting comfortable with it...and sounds like your latest flight was a lot less stressful...I know you are loving it!

The power-to-weight is pretty amazing on the 500's for sure...

I can't stand the stock ESP canopy either mine is sitting in the box since like week 2...I also had visibility/orientation issues with it...looks neat, but that's not worth a crash!

Hope you get a nice visible canopy for it soon....you don't need any early crashes!

I havn't checked on Phoenix on the Mac...I wouldn't run it on the laptop anyways...but if I like OS X Snow Leopard as much as I think...I may be looking into it for my next desktop...[X(][X(]

Hope you can get some more flights in with the 500, and enjoy it...congrats on the short inverted hover...a bit easier than on the 450, eh??

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Mark,

Like Glenn I cannot see the colors on the stock canopy either along with the point I just don't care for those colors to boot. I am color blind in some dark colors. I cannot see black from blue or dark brown. My wife has to hang my slacks at each end of the closet and my socks in three drawers. I was standing with a gal in the casino in LV one time and she looked down and laughed. I said; what is so funny, she said you have one black and one brown shoe on. Talk about being embarrased hey. Nothing I could so I struggled through the next day and we came home. Back to the point, my colors are metallic red and orange and yellow. So I buy these canopies or others but they "must" have the red windshield.

Smiles JPEE

evdreamer

Mark,

It is a lot warmer today than yesterday, so most of the snow is melted.

I probably won't fly this weekend. I am having a lot of fun with my electronics right now. I was trying to use a simple balancer code on my prototype circuit board and it was doing weird things. I kept thinking it was my code, but I couldn't find anything wrong with it. Then I decided to try one of my newer circuit boards and it started working. I had to put together some JST connectors and it was pretty easy without a crimping tool. Now I can program my chip in circuit with my new boards. I think I have a bad electronic part in my prototype board. Now I am going to try a more advanced balancer code. It seems like this project is never ending.

That is great you are feeling more comfortable flying your 500.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

Seems your snow day was MotherNature's preview of things to come. [X(]

Your neverending project seems to be a good thing...and it seems your having lots of fun with it. It's funny how sometimes we switch between our favorite hobbies, kinda keeps them interesting.

Glenn,

I hope you find time this weekend to enjoy your warm weather and get some flights in. Any left-over fuel for the SDX maybe before winter hits?

JPEE,

Isn't that stuff supposed to stay in Vegas? Too funny!

Probably will place an order for a new canopy sometime this week, still trying to decide on which one I want. In the meantime I'll be careful with what I have now.

Mark

JPEE

Good Sunday morning boys,

Well we have bountiful Sun, clear skies! and 20 mph wind......again. This is day 4 I am unable to fly, I am starting to Jones for my heli's and plane, this is getting serious now LOL


Nick,
Glad your snow was a one day melt or close to the that. But as Mark said this is the begining of whats to come. I hope you get what you think is the bad part replaced on your board and continue to have fun. To me there is "nothing" more fun that fixing or making something that works. Yesterday a part broke on my Black and Decker benchmate portable work bench. The sucker is ooold and there are no parts made for it anymore. So I had to take a broken piece of plastic and drill two small holes through it and then use tie wire which I ran through the holes I had drilled around the perimiter and twisted tightly. Wala, fixed! Is it as strong as it was? no. Will it still provide me years of service? heck yes, so my reward was great just like yours bugging out your board.

Glenn must reading his 880 page manual, he sure is quite

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Yikes JPEE,

Day 4 of high winds...when will it end?! [] Is it that way in the early morning as well?

Nice repair job on the ole' workbench. I love BlackNDecker...I have a cordless drill by them and that was my best investment, I actually use it more then my dremel...even to work on my heli's. Guess the convience is losing the cord.

Remember my using a 600 landing gear for the 500? I thought it was going to be a temp thing until I got a new set of 500 gear...but after flying with it and seeing how much tail clearence I now have I'm sticking with it. Currently giving it a bright neon orange coat of paint to 'hopefully' match the KBDD paddles and tail blades...kinda like the theme I've seen on other heli's plus may help in keeping orientation now that my heli seems to enjoy flying with the skids down and up.

Glenn, are you lost in your computer manual? lol

Mark

JPEE

Hi Mark,

A quick note. If you want orange land gear a guy at our field who has been flying for sometime dyes his plastic parts. Well it turns out all of the bright colors on his three helis are done like this, no paint! He buys only white landing hear, main gears, flybar paddles and boils them with Rite Clothes Dye! Yes you heard me, clothes dye. He has orange, yellows, and other rainbow colors that look great and give great contrast. Further, he said that after he boilts all of these parts especially his main gears they come out machine grade FLAT and true. Now some time ago I read where after you boil this plastic it becomes (forgive my spelling) maluable= flexable! The article I read said guys were boiling their landing gears. Well I tried it and the only negitive was the white plastic dulled in brightness. Now the duller white is a non issue because this guy uses the bright colored dyes. But you could bend the legs on the lading gear and they had much more flex than stockers thus helping you on hard landings.

Smiles JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

I'm on page 175...lol..

I did get out and fly earlier though...I went to MHA for possibly the last time this year, and only took the SDX. I wanted to run all the fuel out of it for winter storage...and I still do have a half gallon left...maybe for one of those odd 60 degree January days...

The SDX flew well...making lots of power in the cool air. It was a gorgeous day, about 63 degrees. It gets cold quick when the sun goes down though...got chilly towards day's end.

Nick,

Glad your snow melted quickly...and that you are having lots of fun with the electronics projects...as I am with the new PC... Did I say "PC"?? ....lol....old habits die hard...

Mark,

I would imagine the 600 gear would save a few umbrella gears in the TT....good idea, especially at first...

Yup, I'm still buried in the manual, and will be for a while to come...there is very little here that is familiar...[X(]

JPEE,

Glad you were able to repair the good old B&D...they don't make them like they used to, you are probably better off with the old one, even if it is repaired...

I have also heard about dyeing stuff...but I think it does something to the plastic, the boiling, I can't remember if it makes it stiff and brittle, or soft and weak?

It was good to get the SDX out and fly it, and end up the nitro season on a good note (aka NO CRASHES this year...)

I feel like I accomplished a lot with it, I didn't even own a nitro heli at the beginning of the year, and now I'm hovering it inverted..

Hope you get some better weather for flying soon...

Glenn