Allan Bennett

LHF, I've already tried preheat PLA with 220 and 60 degree settings, and often as not it still fails when the print file requires the nozzle temperature to go higher than 220. I'd rather not change the default settings and, as I said, manually setting nozzle at 245 before setting bed at 55 before starting the print seems to work reliably and is almost as quick as using the preheat PLA function -- especially when the print is going to take several hours 😄 SC, my printer has the silicone sock. Since I can manually set the nozzle to 245, and it stays at that temperature throughout a multi-hour print, it doesn't seem to me that the heater element is working beyond its capability. I'm thinking that maybe it's slower to get up to temperature than the algorithm in the controller expects, and that's what's causing the shutdowns. Or maybe something in the G-code files which is expecting the nozzle to get up to temperature within a certain number of seconds?

Following a few initial teething problems with my Ender 3 I've had a good run since New Year printing several items in regular PLA at 220 degrees, and a couple of Eclipson models in PLA at 220 degrees and LW-PLA at 235 degrees. Running a g-code file with bed temperature 60 and nozzle temperature 220 my Ender first heats up the bed, then the nozzle, then starts printing. At 235 degrees though the nozzle temperature increases to about 7 degrees short of the target, then drop back about 3 degrees then, if I'm lucky climbs on to 235 degrees and start printing. Most times though, after dropping back, it would then hover around 225 degrees for a minute or so before giving an error message "Heating failed : E1" or "Thermal overload : E1", and powering off was the only option. Usually it got to temperature after 2 or 3 cycles of error message followed by power off and on. Today while trying to print a LW-PLA g-code file requiring 245 degrees nozzle temperature the Ender was unable to get beyond 235 degrees before stopping with the same error messages. By trial and error I found that if I first manually set the nozzle temperature to 245 degrees, then the bed temperature to the 55 degrees specified by that file (it failed if I tried the other way round) the print went ahead successfully. At first I suspected the fan in the motherboard casing, but after a few minutes printing it comes on and stays on. All other fans are working correctly too. I now have a procedure that allows me to print these files, but does anyone know if my Ender has a real issue that can be corrected, or is it something I'll just live with?

My arthritic thumbs can't undo XT60s any easier than genuine Deans (which have springs which don't seem to weaken). I still like Deans because of their small size, but am switching to XT60 for my models which use packs in parallel, to avoid the situation where a live connector is exposed while only one battery is connected.

Since building a valve amplifier over 50 years ago, my introduction to modern electronics was via the Picaxe series of logic chips. They're aimed at schools, and give examples of how to interface other components with them. I use them to build lighting circuits for my planes and points controllers for my model railway, among other things.

I got a roll of red Colorfabb from Niceshops GMBH in Austria. Been using it for a couple of weeks now without any issues other than it dribbles more than regular PLA does. I guess that's true of all LW-PLA.

George may well be right about problems having been designed out 'years ago', and that may be true for the brands that he sells. But for all other brands I would check with the manufacturer if in doubt (Castle Creations, for instance, supply extra capacitor packs for use with long battery-to-ESC connections), or simply follow the general recommendations to keep battery leads as short as possible and not connect switching BEC +ve leads together.

Unfortunately I didn't put the female parts of the connectors under a microscope after I replaced them but if, as I suspect, they had loosened rather than corroded then contact cleaners are not going to be much help.

Some time last Autumn my Multiplex Twinstar crashed shortly after taking off, due to the ailerons going berserk. Having glued the front end back on and, I thought, tested everything, I took it up again some time after New Year with exactly the same result 😒 A week ago I took my Flair Magnatilla to the field for its first outing in many months, but found the ailerons going berserk during ground testing. It didn't take long to find that wiggling the wing servo connection caused it, so I took Maggie back home unflown. A common factor in these two models is that I use gold-plated pin-headers mounted on a PCB and glued to the fuselage side. The reason for this is (a) so I can plug the wing in single-handed while holding the wing in the other hand and (b) so I can have as many channels as necessary all on one plug. The first thought of mine and my flying buddies was that the header pins were perhaps worn or corroded, but when I took them out to replace them they looked to be in perfect condition. I can only assume therefore that the female connectors inside the plug were either corroded or, more likely, loosened by regular plugging and unplugging. I replaced them, of course, and flew without incident last weekend. I've been using this system for my wing connections for some years now on many models, but my TwinStar and Maggie are flown most so get the most plug/unplug cycles. Seems to me now that replacing wing connectors, of whatever kind, on a regular basis should be considered. I've now ordered a few of 4-Max's Max-lock connectors to see if they might be better than my pin headers.

Thanks for all those replies guys. Looks like Colorfabb is the one for me too 🙂

I've done quite a bit of printing with my Ender 3 since getting it at Christmas, using Creality's own standard PLA filament. I'm now interested in getting some lightweight stuff, but Creality don't advertise it on their UK site. What brands have a good reputation among forumites, please? I'm particularly looking for red or yellow, and there doesn't seem to be much around according to my internet search. I suppose I could go for white, and paint it . . . . . . .

Job done! The fourth line is now := MAX Weight (+100%) Switch L04, where L04 is Sticky SHv SHv.

Thanks guys, I've now got what I want. This is what I've programmed so far, and it does what I expect. I've noted that the SH REPLACE line must be the bottom one, otherwise it doesn't always go to 100%. It's a simple switch at the moment, just for learning/testing. I'll be replacing it with a logic switch for the final version.

Thank you for all those replies. Following GrumpyGnome's reply (and before I saw the last two replies) I realised that curves will do the job for me. I just programmed some 2-point curves at the values I want the 4 outputs to be. Max Z and MattyB, you're right about my lack of knowledge of the use of the MAX function, though I now remember I have used it somewhre before! I'll play with that this afternoon. Thank you all.

I wish to be able to have one of my channels (let's say ch6) switchable to 4 pre-defined positions, roughly 0, 33%, 66%, and 100%. The idea is that the first three values would be selected by a 3-way switch -- e.g. up = 0, mid = 33%, and down = 66%. The final 100% output would be selected/deselected by a flick of monentary switch SH. I'm familiar with how to program SH as an on/off toggle, but I can't see how to define ch6's outputs anything other than 0-50-100. My Tx is Tarans 9D+2019 and my receivers are FrSky X-series.

I think Peter Christy's post at 16:30 yesterday covers it: A nice S-shape pitch curve will dampen down the pitch change at the normal hover stick position, and then you just have to practice so as to avoid too much up/down stick movement when you're doing left/right movement. You're right about the governor usually maintaining the head rpm quite accurately irrespective of power needed for the tail -- at least, with electrics. Maybe it was a bigger problem with IC engined helis, for throttle response could be slower than with electric motors.

I can relate to the suggestion that black is the most visible, having used that colour for my Flair Pulsar many many years ago, with silver sunburst on the top of the upper wing. But it doesn't really help with orientation and, in my view, once the model is far enough away that orientation is an issue, contrasting colour patches or stripes don't help much either because they can't be seen in most weather conditons. So keeping it close enough to see is the first thing then, if orientation is lost, watching its reaction to control inputs should indicate which way round or up it is.

A Benedini sound system in my Flair Magnatilla, with amplifier and two speakers, added exactly 1lb to its weight. Sound quality and volume are impressive. I've also got the same system (different sound file 🙂) in my Flair SE5a but using two transducers instead of speakers. Weight gain for that setup is 11oz, but sound volume is not quite so great.

Thanks. I'll go with a Y-lead, and report back if there's any problem.

I know that's the textbook way to do it, but the FC and the RPM sensors are in opposite directions from the receiver, so both connected to the SPort in parallel would be more sensible from the cable-management point of view. Trouble is I don't know if there's some electronics in the FrSky sensors' daisy-chain circuit without which things might blow up if I simply connect in parallel.

I already have a FrSky RPM sensor connected to my RX6R SPort, and now want to connect the SPort output to a flight controller as well. Can I simply Y-lead the two devices to the SPort?

I've used the MT60's once and, if I remember correctly, it's possible to remove the male or female brass parts from their plastic housing for testing rotation, and then assemble them for permanence. If I'm wrong about that, soldering and then re-soldering two leads if necessary to correct rotation is surely not a big deal. The plugs are very handy for a twin with ESCs in the fuselage and motors in the removable wings.

Are you aiming for a specific flight duration? If not, my approach is to find the largest batteries (from weight and size point of view) that will comfortably fit in the model. In that quest I also bear in mind that to achieve a certain amps capability (i.e. Ah x C) you can increase the mAh capacity or the C rating, or both, and the weights and dimensions will be almost the same for any specific amps capability. I prefer to stick with 20-30C packs so I can get more mAh. Then it's just a matter of starting with a short flight and gradually increasing duration until your packs come down with about 25% remaining after the flight.

Thanks for the info. I've had a couple of replies to my query in the Ardupilot forum, and they both say I should upgrade to EdgeTx because OpenTx is static development-wise and EdgeTx is ongoing. I don't really want any development at the moment, so I'll stick with OpenTx.

So Ethos, to me, is a retrograde step if what you mean by a 'traditional' system is that it has pre-defined model setups. The reason I moved from Futaba was the inflexibility of their predefined setups. Is the 'advantage' of EdgeTx that is supports touch screens whereas OpenTx doesn't? My instinct from the outset was to stick with what's working for me, and this brief discussion hasn't given me any reason to think otherwise. I'll have to find out why the Ardupilot guys think that I need EdgeTx. Thank you for the input.

In response to a query I posted in the Ardupilot forum it's been suggested that I should 'update' from OpenTx to EdgeTx. I'm getting confused now, for in this forum I read a lot about Ethos as a replacement for OpenTx. My trannies are Taranis 9D+ and 9D+2019, and my receivers are all X-series ACCST, all on v2 firmware. My setup does more than I think I should ever want, so what would be the advantage, if any, of 'upgrading' to Edge or Ethos, other than the fact that OpenTx is apparently no longer being developed any further?