Bob Cotsford

Yes, I guessed the timing on my WotsWot to save taking the bottom wing off (again !) and it seems to have worked out ok.

I've got one in the depths of the shed somewhere that I bought second hand on impulse bought I've not tried flying it yet Taj. I thought I'd seen some discussion on balancing it on RCG, a different thread perhaps? I expect Richard Harris has had contact with the AC10 one way or another, perhaps he will chip in?

I've not noticed as I use ch12 after the receiver is installed. I think I tried the button once or twice when I got my first S6R but not since updating to ACCST v2.10. Is the ch12 timing different to ACCST v1?

I take it that you've seen this on RCGroups? There's quite a bit of info and advice on the beast.

Everything works on my X10S Mike, volume on RS, gain on right pot. Everything moved in calibration too. Flashing was surprisingly easy, bootloader using Companion and firmware using enter+power. I found it a simple task to put an update on, I put the new firmware.bin on an old 2GB card, popped the card into the transmitter, enter+power, put the SD card with sounds and models back in and job's a good'un. One BIG difference for SxR users is that when I ran the built in SXR tools the settings populated immediately even with the tx within a foot of the model, no waiting for yellow lights, moving the tx to the next room etc. that you needed to go through with OpenTX. That was with an Access SR6, I'll try the same with an ACCST S6R if I get time later. edit - it will be interesting to see if flashing OTX back on using the Ethos bootloader works cleanly. In theory I should just need to put the otx file in the OTX SD card root and rename it to 'firmware', but we all know how well theory can go in practise!

Neuron telemetry fixed, at least in a test version Bertrand sent me, so it should be included in the next release. Calculated values may take a little longer to appear as he is being kept on his toes.

Welcome Dave. As you have discovered, aeromodelling is a one-way street. Heroin and cocaine may be considered mildly addictive but stick a trannie in a man's hand and he is REALLY hooked. As for diesels, they do have a certain attraction but the lingering reek of paraffin is a problem.

Ah well Tim, I had used a global setting for starting logs on Otx for so long that I'd forgotten to set up a trigger in Ethos where it appears to need a trigger switch for each model. I've not tried it again - yet - but Bertrand has replicated the error and is working on a fix.

Chris, I can't see that the sensors are handled any differently on Access receivers, I've got a couple of SR6 and 8s running Access with Neuron escs and lipo sensors. It's a while since I set them up but I'm pretty sure that they hooked straight up with no issues. I'll see if I can find the log files and take a shufty to be sure. edit - I don't appear to have any logs to hand, sorry! I'm pretty sure that I checked they were working, otherwise I'd have had low voltage warnings screaming away when I set them up!

One drawback revealed - Neuron esc telemetry isn't indexed correctly so you see stuff like SBECV as 50v and the inclusion of an RB field or two even though I'm not using a redundancy board. Other than that it registers and binds ok, throttle cut cuts the throttle, it's easy to set rates and end points and the audio is nice and clear. I'll try it with FAS40 and Unisens current sensors on a vanilla HK esc later today with a bit of luck.

I don't remember any seals Graham, to tell the truth I don't remember much but the thrill of leaving the ground in this rather loud and rattly magic carpet. The outline of the Auster was burned in and replicated with an Airfix kit when I got home. I seem to remember it being the holiday when I got a birthday present of a Cox Mustang c/l model so it was probably Skegness. Very brittle plastic that was hard to repair those Cox models!

Litho or 1/64" ply door outlines? Sliding window should be easy enough to rig up. I've a soft spot for the Auster, it was the first plane that I flew in at age around 7. I can't remember whether it was a Skegness or Yarmouth holiday, but I do remember it as being red and silver paintwork. That short pleasure flight certainly stayed with me?

Matty, I can understand your lack of confidence after the ACCST v2 debacle. On the other hand, prior to this with the exception of the EU/LBT changes which were outside FrSky's control, my D16 system has just chugged along quite happily since 2014 and D8 since 2012ish? OpenTX on the other hand has seen a continuous stream of releases, some enhancements but a great many bug fixes too. Too many cooks trying to satisfy too many diverse requirements? Ethos development is being led by Bertrand Songis, previously at the core of the OpenTX team so I have every hope that a fully functional and resilient system will be released before too long as long as The Management don't interfere too much?. I read that Gvars are in the pipeline and should be in the 'production' release version. For a beta test release I'm already impressed with the usability of Ethos. It may not yet have ALL the more esoteric features of OpenTX and I doubt that it ever will but it should still be a step above other proprietary systems.

Hard to say as I've been using nothing but OpenTX since 2014 but I suspect newcomers to FrSky would find Ethos far easier to work through than OpenTX, which sometimes has too many ways of working leaving you wondering which is the 'right' way to do something. Lots of neat touches that I've come across so far, for instance selecting a switch, stick or trim as a control by toggling it (like OTX so far) but then select NOT(eg not switch n^) by long pressing Enter and ticking the negative box, no scrolling through long lists of switches, trims, channels to find eg !SA^. Throttle cut and throttle hold are built in in the throttle parameters where they belong, no need for replace mixes or overrides there. edit - sounds are much clearer on my X10S than they ever were using OTX, and I'm talking about the same sound files, eg 'Armed' and 'Disarmed' so it must be a better device driver used in Ethos. If only there was support for 4 in 1 MPM modules! Still, I have my Taranis for that use as it will have to stay on OpenTX.

Just for giggles I've loaded Ethos on my upgraded X10S. Loading was a simple affair, after first making backups of my X10S SDcard, firmware, models and settings. First step, download the X10S version of Ethos complete with SD card contents from GitHub and copying the SD card contents to a freshly formatted FAT32 card. I also copied my Amber user sounds and my custom images to SOUNDS/EN and IMAGES respectively. Next copy the downloaded x10 'Firmware.bin' to the root of the SD card. '.jpg' images seem to work ok, as do the Amber sound pack. Next fire up Companion and hook up the transmitter (switched off). Select Write Firmware and select the Ethos 'Bootloader.bin' extracted from the download. It will throw up an 'incompatible hardware' message but that can be ignored. Once it finishes writing eject the STM Bootloader and disconnect the transmitter. Now switch on while holding down Enter and the bootloader writes the firmware from the SD card then deletes the file. When the display returns to Bootloader then it's just a matter of restarting the tx. Ignore the 'cannot read SD card' as it's looking for the Models folder which hasn't been created yet. Now you will see the model wizard so it's easy to build a first basic model. I've got to say that Ethos is generally pleasant to use, though editing names using the scroll wheel gets tedious as upper and lower case are selected by scrolling until you get to the case you want, unlike OpenTX where you can change case by long pressing enter. Forget 'Inputs', it's all in 'Mixers'. Moving from OpenTX to Ethos and creating two models took me a couple of hours, but that includes time spent looking for things with my OpenTX head on. For instance, I use the rotary switch for motor disarm so I spent some time setting this up with a mix using replace (after looking for Override Channel in special functions and not finding it) when all along Throttle Cut is a setting on the Throttle mix line. Similarly instead of Volume being set as a global function it can be set as a control on the System/Sounds page. Once a PC application similar to Companion appears I think Ethos will be a real contender but it's early days at present.

I really hate translucent films and undercambers, you've done a nice job there Ron, even with the odd bit of litter! No-one but you will notice it. And us of course, now that you've highlighted it?

As Ron said, the programmer displays the current channel (1-16) for the selected decoder output pins (1-4) as indicated by the LED on the decoder (see Ron's pic) on the top line. When you change a channel on the programmer it shows what you will change it to on the bottom line, pressing SET then sends that to the decoder and also displays it on the top 'current channel' line. Pressing the little button Ron pointed to on the decoder steps through the output pin sets 1 to 4.

I don't know a lot about the subject apart from what I've gleaned setting up a couple of receivers. 'REG ID' can be set up in the radio settings iirc, you can set it to whatever you like as it only seems to be part of the registration process. It will default to whatever is set in settings but can be overwritten on a model by model basis at the registration step. I have set it the same on both my X10S and X12S so that I can use either tx by simply selecting 'bind' and powering up the model. I'm not sure about UID and faced with searching several hundreds of pages on RCG to find out my brain simply shut down. Like a horse refusing a jump, it said 'no thanks' and wandered off in search of grass to graze on. To be accurate, in my case it was hot tea and ginger biscuits rather than grass!

What you are doing sounds correct Allan, I've set them to anything up to ch13 using your exact method. To step between servo outputs press the button on the decoder, then set the channel to be output as you describe. What servos are you using it with? Many analogue servos don't like the higher frame rate that these decoders use (9ms) and will work - after a fashion, but only until they cook themselves. The oscillation certainly sounds like the behaviour of non digital units.

If they haven't landed on the strip my models tend to need no tools whatsoever to examine any and every internal component regardless of how the wings were attached ?

With it inverted, just rock the prop back before starting to open the exhaust valve and allow excess fuel to run out. There's much less chance of hydraulic lock with a 4 stroke compared to a 2 stroke if you do this. 4 turns does sound excessive, certainly all the OS, ASP/SC and Lasers that I had ran with the main needle open 1 1/2-2 turns open once they had run off a tank. There's certainly no need to run it slobbering rich, just don't overload it.

I used to find that a 3S LiPo or LiFe would start anything up to a .90. I used the ones that had lost their edge for electric models. One that gave 3 or 4 minutes flying instead of the the usual 6-8 still worked fine on a starter for months.

Don't forget carb noise while you're at it. Depending on the engine layout and cowling that can be a significant contribution to the overall noise. Ever ridden a big twin motorbike? Inlet airbox noise can be louder than the exhaust! As for prop noise, even electric setups suffer if the tip speed starts to get high or there's significant interference from disturbed airflow eg where a pusher prop is close to the wing trailing edge.

Be wary with analogue servos. I've had some that seemed ok for half an hour but went into a frenzy, burning out in the process, the second or third time they were powered up. Now I stick to using digital servos on Sbus. I've not had any problems with electric retracts, Lado, Eflite, JP and HK have all worked ok off an Sbus decoder.

Yes, it's one of the annoying things in OTX, you can't even manipulate widgets in Companion as they are as good as invisible. I'm moving towards using a complex template model which forms the basis of new models, but even that only works if everything has the same telemetry available. I'm waiting on EthOS v17 before I try it on my X10S as there are bug fixes waiting to be applied to v16. Something to do with reversed trims on certain TX models iirc.