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Romeo Whisky

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  1. Romeo Whisky

    Romeo Whisky posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  2. Romeo Whisky

    Romeo Whisky posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  3. Romeo Whisky
    Full HD Micro Camera
  4. Romeo Whisky
    Try the Charity Shops (British Heart Foundation Charity Shops carry electrical stuff). So many people have sets with built-in Freeview now that the set-top boxes are redundant in many homes (I've given three away!). That said, they're cheap to buy new as well - Tescos or even Aldi have them.
  5. Romeo Whisky
    Installed the new RX/Stabiliser in my Seagull Decathlon EP and after 8 flights on blustery days which I wouldn't normally fly in, my verdict is that it's a great peice of kit. Took off on one flight with it switched off and the wind was making it really twitchy as it climbed away. Switched it on and it transformed into its usual pussy cat mode flying straight and true hands off without the merest wobble. Love it when my DX9 calmly announces "Stabiliser Mode" when I flick it on and "Normal Mode" when I switch it off!
  6. Romeo Whisky
    Much the easiest upgrade is to fit a 2200Kv 400 size inrunner which is a straight swap apart from the extra motor wire, so dead easy to fit. I use an APC 6x4 prop with mine and 2S 2200 LiPo. Inrunners are a tad more expensive but not much at that size. Flies great for ages.
  7. Romeo Whisky
    I've been flying electric belly-landers with fixed props for many years and hardly ever bust a prop. The most important thing is make sure that the ESC is programmed with the brake OFF so the prop can freewheel. If the prop stops dead when you close the throttle you'll be breaking props all the time. The other important thing is to cut the motor before touchdown so the prop can freewheel to horizontal at the first contact with terra firma. Almost all my final approaches are power-off glides. Of course in a strongish headwind you might have to blip the power until over the strip threshhold. Personally I don't like to see folding props except on gliders, but if you do fit a folding prop make sure is can cope with the RPM and program the ESC brake to ON so that it folds back when the motor is cut.
  8. Romeo Whisky
    I charge mine on a workbench topped with ceramic floor tiles and with the lipos dropped into the holes of a couple of house bricks. I store them in LiPo bags in a steel box with the lock mechanism removed. It is vital that if there is a fire, the gases have a means of escape from your container or else there will be an explosion.
  9. Romeo Whisky
    Searched the Glossary looking for UBEC, SBEC and Voltage Regulator, and they're not there. I also noticed the term "Sub-Trim" is not there either. Could they be added please? Edited By Romeo Whisky on 09/08/2014 10:07:31
  10. Romeo Whisky
    Thanks PatMC (and for all the other replies too). All my other models are now brushless but this is an old Hangar9 Aspire balsa/ply thermal glider with a 580 can motor firmly glued with epoxy into the fuselage nose in a very tight space. The only brushless upgrade possibility without a serious major front-end rebuild would be for a large brushless inrunner and they are expensive. (I've got a couple of these in other models so if ever they bite the dust that's what I'll do). It's also a model I don't fly very often but it's a nice relaxing fly now and then. I guess I could also buy an up-to-date new brushed ESC which would no doubt be LiPo compatible, but it seems a pity to chuck the existing ESC which still works perfectly. (OK maybe I'm a tight-wad!). A lot of the early brushed ESCs based the LVC on a percentage of the start voltage (usually about 60% which would take a 2S LiPo down to around 5V) but there is no mention of the LVC at all in the instructions for this ESC. I've emailed the manufacturer but to be fair it's 14 years old! I've bench-tested it on 2S 2200 LiPo with a wattmeter and at constant full throttle the voltage dips to 6V at around 5 minutes, with a noticeable drop in power, at which point I stopped the test and the LiPo recovered to 6.5V but the battery tester showed only 4% capacity remaining. As suggested above, maybe just carefully timing the flights is how I'll have to proceed. Thanks guys.
  11. Romeo Whisky
    Thanks MaxG - I appreciate your response but I've been flying electric for many years and I already do all that for all my models as I agree it's good practice not to let LiPos get too far discharged. But it doesn't answer my questions. The LVC is still an important safety feature, both for the model and the battery pack. The reason for the first of my questions is that if I cannot determine whether the LVC can avoid killing the LiPo I will install a separate receiver pack so I can at least get the model down safely if the LiPo is killed by too low voltage. Needless-to-say I would rather avoid adding the extra weight of an RX pack (and maybe a voltage reguator) if they're not needed.
  12. Romeo Whisky
    Allowed (and sometimes almost unavoidable) but discouraged for very sound safety reasons. (Nothing "nanny" about it - it's plain common sense).
  13. Romeo Whisky
    SBEC - UBEC - Voltage Regulator - what's the difference and are these interchangeable? On a related issue, I've got an old brushed motor powered glider with an equally old brushed ESC (Mtroniks Flysonic70 - 25A) which was designed for NiMh/NiCd battery packs. I want to fly it now on 2S LiPos and although the voltage is comparable to 7 cell NiMh (and offset by the weight saving) I'm not sure if the LVC cut-off voltage will be too low for LiPo and kill the battery (and therefby the model). Help from any knowledgeable leccies would be appreciated.
  14. Romeo Whisky
    Oh yes! Got an ancient EasyStar still flying after 12 years, and a battered old MiniMag. And a couple of GWS Formosas (one of the greatest classics originally designed to fly on AAA cells with a geared brushed motor but now zipping around the sky with 3S LiPo and B/L motors). And a GWS Zero flown only last Friday (now brushless on 2S LiPo). And a Kyosho M36 Spree upgraded from brushed 500. All great flyers and still firm favourites.
  15. Romeo Whisky
    I have a DX9 and I am assuming the DX9 was the master. If so then my understanding is that it is imperative that your club trainer with the DX9 master must inhibit the Trainer on the DX9 Model Memory used for the training flight when the training session is finished. If not, and he leaves his DX9 set to your model then if he turns his DX9 on while you are flying, his DX9 will potentially have control of your model (and you won't) unless he presses the trainer switch on his DX9 to give you control (just as in the training session). If he hasn't inhibited the wireless trainer facility and switches on the DX9 in the pits when you are flying solo, I believe this could cause your apparent loss of control and he might be completely unaware that his TX has taken control of your model. It is a good idea also for the DX9 owner to set up a specific model memory for the specific wireless-buddied model and then after the training session to both inhibit the Trainer feature and also change to a different model memory before switching off. This is because in wireless buddying the Master is bound to the model and the slave is bound to the Master. For the same reason, for wireless buddying the slave TX should use an unused spare model memory and not the same memory slot he normally flies solo on. To quote the warning panel on Page 20 of the DX9 manual:- CAUTION! Select Inhibit when you aren't using the wireless trainer function. Failure to select Inhibit may result in loss of control of the aircraft. Hope this helps.
  16. Romeo Whisky
    I don't have any problem creating jpeg panoramas - my camera does a beautiful job of them, but I can't find anywhere in Phoenix Builder that enables you to import them and use them. It isn't even clear in the so-called "Help" to say if that's what you're supposed to do to build scenery. As stated above, the only Import Command simply allows you to Import previously created sites!!
  17. Romeo Whisky
    I've recently bought Phoenix Flight Sim (which I love) and upgraded to V.5 which adds in Phoenix Builder to allow you to create your own new models and flying sites. I thought it would be nice to create our own local club site, and expected this to be relatively straightforward. But as someone who earned his living for years writing and selling software to large companies, I am totally mystified by Phoenix Builder which must be the most unintelligible program I've ever come across. I suppose I expected to able to import panoramic jpeg photos of the flying site as the background and then build in the skyline, collision data etc. But I cannot find any options to import anything other than a previously created flying site - Catch22! But the Help system is as unpenetrable as the program itself, telling you what to do but not a word about how to do it. Has anyone out there managed to fathom how to get started with this program so I can at least make a start. If the program is unuseable, I may as well uninstall it.
  18. Romeo Whisky
    Updated the Airware on mine to 1.06 an hour ago and it worked fine. Suggest you ring Horizon tomorrow - they're usually very helpful.
  19. Romeo Whisky
    OK thanks guys. I've downloaded V5 and it seems to work fine. TBH I can't see much difference, but then I've only had a few minutes playing with V4 before upgrading.
  20. Romeo Whisky
    I know there are existing threads re the Phoenix Sim but old threads with lots of postings tend to get ingnored as time goes by, and I really need a quick answer. I've just bought Phoenix Flight Sim V.4 which comes with free upgrade to V.5. However there's so much negative feedback on earlier threads about V.5 in this thread that it's putting me off installing the upgrade. However some time has elapsed since V.5 was first launched and maybe its teething troubles have now been ironed out??? I know Phoenix is popular which is why I bought it, so I'm sure many will have experienced both versions. What do you reckon guys - should I download V.5 or just stick with V.4??
  21. Romeo Whisky
    I've just bought Phoenix Flight Sim V.4 which comes with free upgrade to V.5. However there's so much negative feedback about V.5 in this thread that it's putting me off installing the upgrade. However some time has elapsed since V.5 was first launched and maybe its teething troubles have now been ironed out??? What do you reckon guys - should I download V.5 or just stick with V.4??
  22. Romeo Whisky
    Yes I fitted APC 6x4 to mine and it does improve performance without overtaxing the brushed motors. I used Graupner "grub-screw" aluminium prop adaptors to fit them.
  23. Romeo Whisky
    People tend to go one way or the other (although there are now numerous 2.4Ghz alternatives too - all with their fans, I'm sure), and mainly because of the cost of receivers it is relatively rare for people to jump ship once they've decided on the system they want. So I can only share my own experience, which for the reason stated above only covers Spektrum. I've never owned a Futaba system because I previously used Sanwa transmitters when flying on 35Mhz, so I cannot comment on Futaba although of course they have many loyal aherents.. Personally I went for Spektrum because they were the first with 2.4Ghz (when I bought my DX7, no-one else did 2.4Ghz), and they quickly built up a very large international user-base and with it a huge pool of user experience. Horizon hobbies who distribute Spektrum are also renowned for their superb customer and technical service. So I started with a DX7 and recently upgraded to a DX9. I've used most of the Spektrum receivers too and have never had the slightest hint of a glitch with any Spektrum kit in several years of flying with it. Their receivers are significantly cheaper than Futaba and there are reliable cheaper 3rd party receivers available too. They're often ahead of the game with new features too and the wireless buddy-lead system and spoken warnings of the the DX9 are highly desirable! I've never regretted going for Spektrum and cannot see myself ever wanting to change.
  24. Romeo Whisky
    I've done a forum search but cannot find any explanation of the differences and pros & cons of switch-mode and linear speed controllers. I note that switch-mode are usually more expensive, but does that mean they're better, or just newer? Educate me please someone!
  25. Romeo Whisky
    Just bought two Hobbyking 18A YEP ESCs (also wanted the programming card but they're out of stock!). Product blurb says they are programmable via the TX sticks (as most are) but needless-to-say they arrived with no documentation whatsoever, there is no downloadable data file on their website and their support team has so far failed to deliver the information I need to program them. Does anyone have any experience with these to enable me to reprogram them as the default settings are clearly not right for my needs? Alternatively does anyone know if they are compatible with any other brands? (I've got lots of ESCs so if they are a generic design it might be that the programming is similar to one of my others). Any help would be appreciated.
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