Cuban8
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Posts posted by Cuban8
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I really wouldn't worry. Lipos are going to deteriorate with use anyway and do have a finite life, but that doesn't mean that I advocate being careless with charging.
Set to the standard figures i.e 4.2V/cell - charge at no more than 1.5C - be conservative with the current drawn from them and don't push your luck by running them too low.
Loads of variation as to how people cope with lipos and in my opinion a lot of folks go way over the top...........charts, ledgers, spread sheets of use etc etc - life's too short TBH
Follow the basic advice and don't get too hung up on the fine detail.
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Speaking generally, most businesses these days have raised their game and offer either good or excellent service. A rotten apple in the barrel is soon exposed and with today's social media and websites such as RCM&E, bad or indifferent service is soon called out. Traders simply can't afford to upset customers as they might have in the past (we all have our horror stories, I'm sure) and those that still don't engage will rapidly vanish, as many have.
Goes across all retail sectors - we've just replaced quite a few of our large domestic appliances that had seen better days, and the on-line ordering and delivery from several retailers (shopping around) has been first class.
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32 minutes ago, toto said:
However, better news ...... it looks like I will be losing one of my dysfunctional, one man crime wave neighbours. Not confirmed as such but a very strong rumour from a good source. .... this means that I can make use of the good weather and do some of my model set ups outside the shed as there will be no prying eyes.
Cheers for now.
Toto
If people have never had bad neighbours then they should consider themselves very, very fortunate. Years ago the house nextdoor that had lovely people in it was sold by them and then rented out. Three years of pure hell ensued caused by various short term tenants who didn't give a stuff about the property or anyone else.
Had to move away in the end.
BTW, before anyone takes me to task, I'm not saying all tenants are feral scum - I guess we were just very unlucky.
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11 minutes ago, David Davis said:
Just for clarification Frans chose Mode 1 because if I was not available one of the other instructors could fly with him. I think we have four club trainers three of which have Futaba transmitters and buddy boxes but they are all Mode 1. The fourth trainer is the Boomerang which I look after. It is usually flown by me on the master transmitter with the pupil on the buddy box. Apart from my DX9 there is not another Mode 2 transmitter in the club, indeed I am the only Mode 2 pilot in the club.
Understood. The mode that we fly is usually dictated by the mode that the person teaching us uses. I fly mode 1 because the first radio that I bought in the 1970s was a Futaba 2 channel outfit that had its twin sticks fixed in mode 1 configuration. If I'd had more money available at the time and could have afforded a four channel system, chances are it would have came as a mode 2 and I'd have been none the wiser.
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On 10/05/2024 at 06:38, David Davis said:
While I have no problem holding down the button on the DX9, I used to use a Futaba transmitter and prefer their sprung levers.
Absolutely. The buttons are very uncomfortable compared to spring loaded lever switches. I found that I could change fingers on a lever switch without any interuption but a button is much more difficult.
Whilst in no way wishing to start a forum feud concerning Mode 1 V Mode 2 - I don't believe changing modes for a beginner is a great idea. If someone is so badly co-ordinated in the first place, then adding to the confusion by a mode change needs to be very carefully considered.
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I'd love to play a musical instrument - my family are quite musical and I have older cousins who formed a band in the early 60s and toured Germany as support with some well known names in the pop world of the time. My daughter seems to have the gift and plays the flute. My dad and my uncle also played.
I'm not tone deaf and have a sense of rythmn, but playing an instrument is simply beyond me. I badly wanted to play electric guitar in my 20s but simply 'played' it badly despite many, many hours of making a noise practising over and over again and even with help - knocking out a tune by sheer muscle memory or following a chord book, but with no real understanding or feel for the instrument. I'm so envious of those who can pick up a guitar and go right into a tune on request.
I just can't do it.
So I sympathise with those who struggle with flying despite not being able to manage even the simplest things in flying that most of us take for granted.
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It's very rare, but sometimes learning to fly an R/C aeroplane is simply beyond a particular individuals ability no matter what one does to help them. I know of one older chap in my club who's been 'learning' for over ten years and simply doesn't get it - he's always at least two or three seconds behind the model on a good day, and on an off day.....well the model might as well be free flight. Not just a matter of age in this case, he's been into models and crashing them for decades.
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After a cold, wet and windy Winter and Spring, I finally got back over the field again for the first time since last October. Took three models - my trusty 28 years old Goldberg Chippy, a little Hyperion Yak 52 leccy and a nice electric Extra that I acquired from my late good mate's estate. Far too much chatting and tea drinking over the five hours, so only six flights in total but enough to blow away the cobwebs. Field was immaculate thanks to our very busy groundsman. Quite nice at eleven O'clock with light and variable winds making it pleasantly warm, but increasing cloud cover and a strenghtening but manageable breeze saw most of us donning coats and jumpers - quite chilly by mid afternoon.
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Learning the basics of flying an R/C model aeroplane is hard enough in ideal conditions, but having to cope with variable windy conditions at the start of your training is really putting pressure on you and I'm not surprised that you are feeling a bit demoralised. If you are still at the stage of getting on top of good, safe model control in nice weather, then flying in very gusty conditions at this time will actually teach you next to nothing at this stage and might even put you off altogether - the model will be flying you rather than vice versa and a damaged model can be the result even on a buddy lead.
Every beginner is different and instructors should IMHO, tailor the lessons to suit the individual - that includes only giving instruction in next to ideal conditions if the pupil is clearly very nervous and not enjoying the experience of the model getting blown about gusty conditions.
Have a word with your instructor and try to sort something out.
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20 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said:
I think one reason is that the pilot may not have been trained to stand still with straight ahead ponting at the middle of the field or runway in use. If you turn to face the aircraft all the time then you lose your frame of reference and any sense of where you are. If your neck has reached its comfortable turning point that tells you that you need to turn back into the right flying space.
Good point.
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23 hours ago, toto said:
I dare say all will become clear.
Given that all the necessary manoeuvres are being introduced bit by bit into my training sessions, I'm guessing there is a plan / logic behind that. Once they are all in, repeat each until compotent then put them into an overall schedule in the order an examiner would want them ..... once you can perform the schedule satisfactorily, book your test and swat up some more on the questions element.
Sounds like a reasonable plan of attack.
Toto
In my experience of teaching newcomers and keeping an eye on their progress when they become competent enough to fly 'unplugged' is a common pitfall of still allowing the model to drift away and out of a controlled circuit or close flying area. Some flyers are more prone to it than others and I'm not sure why that is.
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This illustrates how things have changed with regard to electrical/electronic equipment and repairs. Firstly, the vast majority of modern products are incredibly reliable and manufactured to standards that could only be dreamed of a few decades ago (I'd hazard a guess that your modern TV hasn't missed a beat since you bought it). Volume manufacture means machine assembly, cutting out the human error factor and that coupled with surface mount tech means tiny devices that can be manufactured at speed with repeatable high quality.
A double edged sword..........cheap and reliable consumer products but with little scope for economical repair. Far fewer costly technicians needed with the knowledge to make repairs to component level - so we get the board changers who might return stuff to a central hub for the more complex repairs, but only on very high end stuff where the cost might be worthwhile. Cheap mass produced TVs, radios and similar items are usually simply not worth the cost of professional repair except where a fix can be made quickly and without the need for very specialist knowledge.
I used to work for a firm that provided monitoring equipment to the power industry and I repaired very expensive and specialist kit to component level. I might take a day or two to track down a fault after a lengthy time dismantling the kit and putting it back together, quite apart from repairing the fault in the first place. That's fine on a bit of equipment worth tens of thousands of pounds and I believe repairs were usually billed at around £500 to as much as several grand depending on what was done - mid 1990's prices. Goodness knows what the cost would be now.
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I think that most clubs get their pupils off a buddy box when the risk of calamity is very much reduced and then the pupil will fly 'unplugged' although with an instructor closely at his side to coach and give guidance. In case of emergency, the tranny can be grabbed and the model recovered before going too far (providing the pupil relinquishes his grip on said tranny!........don't ask🤪)
"I'll take it"
"No I'm OK"
"I'LL TAKE IT"
"I've still got it"
"NO YOU HAVEN'T"............
Ten feet from the ground...........
"You're right, take it"
Crunch.😁
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Hopefully, you'll be able to get in regular sessions now the weather is due to start being more co-operative. Little worse than having a good days flying with plenty of progress only then to have two or three weeks away.
I guess that you'll be aiming to get to a point where flying becomes second nature, doesn't sap your concentration anywhere as near as much as for your first flights and incidents that cause you a bit of a fright become few and far between. Don't get me wrong.......we all have 'moments' now and again, it's just that they become the exception rather than the rule.
Doing well....build up slowly and don't push things too far.
Well done.
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A weird one that I had quite a few years ago concerned some mini servos that I bought from the Nationals. Can't recall the make now but they were of a make distributed by one of the big suppliers. When connected up to my Futaba gear and about every fifth time the system was switched on they'd all burst into oscillation about their centres until quickly switched off and on again where they'd perform quite normally.
Just about subsitituted and swapped everything to pin down the problem but they just didn't like my Futaba gear. In the end I put them to one side and substituted them for another brand and just put them in my parts drawer for another day.
FF a few years and I got my first 2.4 Ghz Spektrum and tried the old servos on that.......no problem at all no matter how I tried. Fitted them in a little foamy type thing and flew it for ages before selling it on to a mate.
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On 28/04/2024 at 20:02, Chris Walby said:
Rather late to the party and no idea if this helps, but my son had an aerobatic model that had flown many times and passed all of its pre flight checks on the day in question. Just after take off it became almost uncontrollable, however he did manage to get it down in one piece.
Back at the bench all worked as it should, but with the canopy off I kept prodding around with my finger until just applying a little pressure to an aileron extension lead produced full deflection of the aileron from one extreme to the other. This was quite random and the TX stick input would cause normal operation although overridden if the servo extension plug/socket was flexed.
Unplugged and reinserted the servo plug and it never did it again. I can only put it down to a poor signal connection in the servo plug/extension lead.
I've come across problems caused by poor connections in servo extension leads quite a few times in the past where I've plugged a couple of shorter leads together to make a longer one - not ideal, I grant you and I avoid doing that now. However, my theory is that where an extension connector is plugged together and then not regularly taken apart, the contact can degrade over time, for whatever reason and give odd servo problems. Exacerbated by by poor plating on the crimps when buying cheapo leads?
I've found issues manifest themselves as slow movement, oscillating around centre before settling and much reduced torque felt when a finger is used to resist output arm movement. Waggling the stick and exercising things for a while tends to clear the problem for a while, but it'll be back. Cleaning the dodgy connector solves the problem although I've usually changed out the connector to be on the safe side. Encountered the issue in models stored indoors as well as those kept in my unheated garage.
Not unusual to get this type of problem in other kit where unseating and reseating PCBs can solve a lot of 'funnies'.
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I discovered this chap's glassing technique years ago and found that it suited me and gave me far better results than anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDNZ-j8r1Tc
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3 hours ago, Keith Evans 3 said:
If my wife and I go out for a drive why is it that if I drive I can never find a parking space but if she drives she will find one immediately and if I approach traffic lights they will change to red and they will always be on green for her .
If I put something down in the workshop ,read that as playroom for the wife ,I can,t find it after much searching and angst ,but if I go back into the house say for a coffee when I return to the playroom it is exactly where I left it in the first place !
I had a work colleague like that.........if we had to visit a customer together for a job, he'd always be there first, always find the place without difficulty, never get caught in a traffic jam, always get parked right close to the door etc. Some people are just that way.
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Cold and wet here in N.Essex - not much better for tomorrow or next week TBH.
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1 hour ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:
The odd thing here is the description of “banging from end to end” - when I’ve encountered similar scenarios it’s been more of an oscillation around the neutral point - and on a control surface subject to gravity e.g. an elevator.
If the servo is a direct, rather than indirect type then perhaps it’s simply the weight of the rod putting a load on a dodgy potentiometer and causing a false position reading?
I’d second the advice to try a different servo if that hasn’t been tried.
This sounds like the most likely reason. If it's just one servo acting up in this way then I'd advise you to cut your losses and chuck it in the bin. BTW, as they sound to be unbranded 'bargains' can you really trust the others? Not worth getting your blood pressure up about TBH and certainly not worth risking a model.
Annoying, but there have been cases of rubbish servos finding their way on to the market - thankfully, not quite so much of a problem as of late.
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I'm in two minds about how Airfix and others' box art has been sanitised - from what I've been reading, some of RC's work has been airbrushed to remove bombing, flames and machine gun fire. I don't know how true that is, but it's a fact that modern Airfix artwork lacks most of all that - which in my opinion is a pity and I'm not sure what it's supposed to achieve.
As a side subject....does anyone remember the American Civil War battle picture card sets that we could buy as kids during the 60's? Used to come with repro Confederate dollar notes. Very detailed artwork and very, very bloodthirsty. Great!😉
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My only concern with leaving Lipos fully charged is all that energy has to go somewhere in the case of a fault during storage (rare, but not unheard of by all accounts). It's a pain to have a charging marathon prior to a days flying and of course batteries can catch fire whilst charging, but I feel more comfortable knowing that my batteries are depleted whilst being stored. I'll either keep them at storage level, or simply leave them as they are after a full flight. As far as I've found over the years, storing at a safe voltage below the 'storage point' has no detrimental affect on them. Comments would be welcome on that.
Risk during transport to the field? well yes, so fire resistant container(s) for the batteries and the means to get them ejected easily and PDQ from the vehicle if the worst should happen. I always load my battery tin last and at the rear right behind the tailgate.
One of our club members had his workshop severly damaged by a lipo fire a while back - he's not one to take safety with a pinch of salt, yet he was still caught out.
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I was so pleased to hear that the marvelous artist, Roy Cross, so famous for his work with Airfix turns 100 today.
Such an influential man, and in many ways the driving force behind the excitement of buying a favourite Airfix model - our imagination bought to life before our eyes with his stirring box pictures.
I often leaf through a couple of books I have of his Airfix artwork, and am immediately transported back to the mid sixties as a youngster taking in all the detail of a B17 being harried by the Luftwaffe and dropping its bombs amid bursting flak - or a Spitfire streaking away from a vanquished 109 smoke pouring from its engine.
Great days, great art......Happy birthday Roy and thanks.
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Experienced instructor requires your help.
in Beginners
Posted · Edited by Cuban8
That's excellent advice - if for whatever reason a new flyer turns out to have ten thumbs and has no idea of his left or right and up or down, then if the model can be programmed to more or less fly itself with just the occasional nudge from the pilot, then why not?
Trouble might be convincing the 'patient' to accept the techy help.