Aframomum

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John, Glenn, and Nick...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Looks like I'm not going to dodge the snowstorm after all....it took a turn to the west, and now they are saying 5 to 10 inches, I'm just on the line between 3-5 and 6-10 inches...[X(]

I didn't get to to any shopping today, and the stores are probably going to be PACKED tomorrow with people in panic mode...anything over about 3 inches here will do it...

Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas.

Glenn

JPEE

Glenn,

We are getting hit again. It is 7:50 p.m. and raining very hard. Done with Christmas and just want to veg now tonight and tomorrow.

John

evdreamer

Guys,

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas.

Sorry Glenn and JPEE that your weather isn't the best.

I am having a lot of fun with my new power supply and multimeter. I decided to test my balancing board with my power supply since it can supply the needed current. I found my board has a problem dissipating the heat. That heat seems to be affecting the accuracy when balancing. Now I have to redesign that board too.[&o] This has been a good learning experience.

Nick

Aframomum

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Hi guys,

Hope everyone's Christmas was relaxing and spent eating lots of good food!

Glenn,

Sorry to hear of your impending snowstorm...I saw the weather report last night and the entire Eastern side of the country was a mix between green, pink, and white...with white being mostly above VA...what a mess you guys are having. [] Hope you have enough supplies already stored to get you through...at least bread, and PB & J should do.

We also are getting hit by the storm...crazy winds started early in the morning (40-50mph gusts)...and made my drive to work this morning real interesting. Temps are supposed to drop quickly later today as the cold front moves in, although nothing like what Glenn is experiencing. Looks like no one is being spared from Mother Nature this winter. []

At least Nick seems to be enjoying himself with his early Christmas gift!

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

Seems like Mother Nature can't make up her mind, nor can the weather forecasters...lol, now it looks like we are only going to get an inch or two, it's going east again, so the MD eastern shore is going to get the brunt of it, and further north, looks like Philly and NYC are going to get a blizzard. They can have it!

NIck,

Sounds like you are having a great time with your new toys...and projects...

I built one of those soldering kits last night that I bought a couple of weeks ago, it was very simple, a "Magic Message" kit, basically a wand that displays little messages as you swing it, kinda dumb, but it was fun to build.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Nick,

Sounds like you have a gremlen or two in your board. HAVE FUN, stick with it and bug that puppy out until she runs/works like a Swiss watch!


Rained like the devil last night but was clear as a bell this mornig. However by noon the gray skies came back and it was butt cold all day. We are to have a sunny 62 degree day tomorrow and then on Wed RAIN again.

Got the tree down today, cut up, and in the trash for pickup tomorrow morning. We are done!


John

Aframomum

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Wow JPEE, taking a tree down...that's some major work. Bet your glad you got it done with. Was it an old tree or just in a bad spot? I've had my share of taking down pine trees, mostly back in high school days, and that was a job moving branches and trunk sections. So take it easy...you've earned it!

Nick,

Can you incorporate a computer fan of sorts to help remove the excess heat, instead of redesigning the board? Either way, have fun.

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

Did the kit have surface or through hole parts? Did it use a LCD.

JPEE,

That is my goal to make my boards have reliable hardware and firmware. I understand the firmware a lot better than the hardware. Hopefully once I graduate from engineering school the hardware will be a lot easier to design.

Mark,

There are multiple problems with this board besides the heat. I will eventually redesign the board, once I figure out how to fix all the little problems. I figured out what was going on and it wasn't the heat causing it. I removed that problem, but it caused another problem. I mainly designed this board to quickly prototype my circuit, since it is a lot easier than having a lot of wires on my breadboard.

Nick

JPEE

The Christmas Tree Mark ........... he he he he. I am sorry for leading you a stray when I said "Got the tree down". I should have been clearer on WHAT tree. If I had waited it would be another 7 days before the trash man would come by again.......fire hazard!

John

Aframomum

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As Homer Simpson says...Duh!

Ahhh, didn't think of the Christmas tree...

Yeah, feeling a bit silly now.

Mark

JPEE

No way guy, you are still the man!

John

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

The "Magic Message" is a very simple kit......no fancy LCD, or SMD's...

Here's a schematic;

http://www.vellemanusa.com/downloads...mk155_rev3.pdf

And a pretty lame description;

http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/pr...iew/?id=351282

It works like one of these, but it's a wand you swing by hand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJIzs0NbII

Not too exciting...but it was a fun and easy thing to build when I was bored.

Sounds like you are still having fun with the projects...

JPEE,

Glad you are rid of your Christmas tree. I'm surprised in SoCal there is not some sort of an extra charge or tax for the pick up...

Mark,

I see where it's going to be a crisp 26 degrees down your way tomorrow morning...[X(]

I am not complaining ONE BIT about my weather, I really dodged a bullet, have you seen what happened in NYC and parts of NJ? I'll pass on 29 inches of snow!

Glenn

JPEE

Glenn,

Mayor, Antonio Villagrosa of Los Angeles would do so if there was a way he could swing it believe me. As far as ridding ourselves of our Christmas trees, if we can cut it small enought to fit in our curb "green" bin there is no extra charge!
Or............ we can put in the truck and drive it to a recycle center where they grind them up and make mulch out of them.

I hope your dressing in layers back there, dang you have some COLD weather and blizzards going on now.

John

Aframomum

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Yes Glenn,

I did see some of the reports of stranded NYC subway cars due to the snow and such...very crazy and cold...and its only December.

Glad that you didn't get too much. We are getting freezing temps tonight again, but by the end of the week its supposed to be in the lower 70's so not complaining at all.

I've seen those wands before but the ones I saw were part of a device that did the spinning or which to get the message to show...kinda cool that you were able to get one to build yourself.

Sorry I missed your suggestion to try an online session with Phoenix...may have to try that later on...would be interesting.

JPEE,

I haven't taken down our tree yet...will probably do it on New Years weekend. Our goofy cat is now starting to try and climb to the top of it so for the time being we are having some entertainment with it.

I have been keeping busy by restoring an old Zero parkflier I've had dormant for several years. Had to redo the front motor mount and glue some broken foam pieces to get her airworthy again. Maybe I can get some video later in the week of the flight.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

When we were flying with the G4 Simulator Glenn, myself and some of the regulars here then would fly together. One guy would have to host the session and then invite the rest of us. It was fun and on the sim you'd see a heli and a little name tag under it so you new who was flying it.

I cant wait to fly my T-28 with the lights, that is on my list. All of my fleet is in flight ready mode. My batteries are discharged (flown down) and waiting for good weather so we can fly again.

Good luck on pulling maintenance on your Zero and DO get some video time, we'd love to see it!

JPEE

jroo

Hey there guys,

You may already know this, but HeliDirect is having some real nice closeout deals. I plan on getting a canopy for my 250 at 1/2 off

http://www.helidirect.com/clearance.php

I'm also looking at a new gyro for my 250. I was going to go ahead with an Align GP780 because I have it in my 450, but I've heard the Spartan Quark wins hands down, and its the same price.

What do you guys think?

Also, Merry Christmas to all of you!

JPEE

Jreue,

Thanks for the tip. I just bought a motor that was $160.00 for $132.14, nice savings do to you THANKS!


BTW a short funny story, the wife and I wanted t make ice cream for the first time as a friend gave an ice cream maker that had been sitting in his closet for so many years he couldn't remember exactly how many?
So we pulled it out, bought all of the makings anf filled the machine. Turned on the swtich and nothing! I mean nothing! So I pull took it all aprt and did a complete overhaul and nothing so I improvised.

Sorry I cant help you on the gyro.



JPEE
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTPGclTKGHY[/youtube]

Scotts CP

That is just about the most funny and at the same time remarkable thing I have seen this week!

I had to guide an OSHA inspection here at work yesterday so I am a little sensitve, but, your engineering would have to go through the saftey engineering department with a few small changes...

Scott

JPEE

Scott,
I am glad I could bring you a smile. I am a retired Plant Operations Director for a California State Univ. I worked with OSHA like we were joined at the hip together. I know exactly what your speaking of.

Have a Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by our Forum.

John

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is a pretty cool electronic project. They use the same brand of microcontrollers that I like to use.

I figured out what was causing all the problems on my board. It was the type of power resistor I was using. I also redesigned my board last night and added a couple of things to improve the accuracy and consistency. I ordered the parts to start prototyping the changes to that and the other board I have been working on.

JPEE,

That is a very creative idea for the ice cream maker.

James,

I have the bigger Spartan gyro and that works pretty good.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

That's what I call improvising...looks like it did the trick, and that's all that counts!

Nick,

I like that company's kits, they are pretty high quality, and almost always work out well, and are inexpensive. I wish they would come out with some new kits, I have built most of them already...

When I was growing up, there was a company called "Heathkit" and they made some really cool kits, from small projects like that, all the way up to full TV sets...and they even made kits for test equipment, like oscilloscopes... They went out of business years ago. It usually cost as much or more to build a kit than to buy it already built from a manufacturer. I guess not that many people were into it.

Scott,

Hey there! Glad to see ya stop by and say hi....I'm not sure if most of the rest of the guys know ya, but I'm glad to see ya here...and come on by more often!

James,

I have no input on the Quark, other than reading mostly good things about it. I like my GP 780 on the 450 Pro...it's a tad bit finicky, but works pretty well once it's dialed in. Seems very picky about mounting, servo tape, etc.

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE,

That was awesome using your cordless drill to improvise the icecream maker...btw, how was the ice cream?!

Hope things are drying out for you.

James,

Long time...how's the flying down in Texas? Hope you also had a good Christmas and did you get any heli loot?

Well, finally finished the repairs to my old (and nearly retired ) Zero...here's some pics and will try to get some video of tomorrow's repair maiden.

Mark

JPEE

Mark,

Dog-gon it, that's one heck of fine job you did repairing that Zero! You really did some nice clean work bringing her back on the engine mount. Is that a Corsair cowl? I can't wait to see a video of your plane doing it's thing! ! !

The wind is blowing like a hurrican here, they up to 60 mph and trees are down! Right now I stuck a thermal sensor out the door of the garage and it is 46 which is ZERO for Californians lol.
BTW, the ice crean was waaaaaaay too sweet per the book so we are cutting the sugar ration in half on the next batch.

Glenn,

Thanks for the complement. Your not gonna believe it but just before I decided to trash the whole thing I thought I'd giver one more go, the ice cream maker that is LOL. So I cut the wires and pulled the motor out so I could really get hands on so to speak. I am sure you know whats inside so I pounded out the rivits that held the top and bottom bearings to the electric coil for the armature. I sprayed more brake cleaner and WD with no luck. So I popped the shaft where the one bearing was still frozen and used a hammer and BANG the bearing freed up! Yippee success at last. As I tried to lower the motor back into the housing I pulled a little to much and the back of the on-off switch came off and a spring and button popped off somehwere in the housing ....oh oh So I had to pull the motor again and found the pieces. Then I noticed that the slider switch was rivited into the case...CRAP. So I was able to stick the Dremel way in there and grid off the rivit's end and popped it through and out of the case. I put switch back together and bent over the clips to hold the back to the face and reinstalled and re-rivited back in the case. I turned on the power and the motor ran like a top! Oh, I did go back in all of this and re-oiled the bearings after using brake cleaner on them. I put it all together and ran it for a half hour on the shop floor with no problem. We have already downed the vanilla ice cream so today it's chocolate )))) I am glad I have my "never die" drive, even for something this simple the personal reward of fighting Satin and winning feels good LOL.

When you use the name Heath Kits, man your taking me back Glenn. Funny, you and I are probably the only ones that know what those kit were. For the rest of you, it was the Erector Set for electonic home projects. Here is a great link to see what they are all about for you youngsters. [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit]Heath Kit Wiki[/link]

JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

Looks like a nice repair job there on the Zero....good luck on the maiden repair flight!

JPEE,

Wow, you really did do an overhaul there on the old Ice Cream machine! Hope this batch of chocolate turns out better with less sugar...

I saw where you guys had some really high winds, didn't know about the temps though...glad you didn't lose power...

Too bad Heathkit is gone, I really miss those kits, I built a few, and they were a lot of fun...very cool.

I'll bet Nick would like to see some of those old kits...

I have seen a few on eBay from time to time, even unbuilt ones...

My very first one was a metal detector. I could barely solder, it was an ugly outcome..never did work..lol...I built a couple of other kits, an LED clock, an indoor/ outdoor LED thermometer, and an AM/FM radio, which all turned out well...

Glenn