Cyclicscooby

Serial data is Arduino's bread n butter.. just output to a csv file, or even to a Web server for online access to your lipo records..! The hardest thing about Arduino is deciding what to do. There's about 10 million ways to use it..

Buy an Arduino UNO from maplin (or similar) for £25. Plug into PC or even a tablet ( all works on my android tablet too ) Get the book mentioned above (£10) and cracked on.... If you get a handful of leds and resistors while you're there, bobs a good un Get more components, as and when. Individually they're not too expensive.. Re code... Check out examples online to see if you reckon you could understand Won't know till you try.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

That's cool... keep the kids quiet, or s screaming. .. I've been playing with an rgb strip since finishing the Landy. One of the addressable jobs with one data line for all 60 leds.. ! Amazing stuff compared to plain old leds of old... Luv Chrisie.. xx

I've got a couple of the A-Star micro's (mini UNO clone with more I/Os than UNO) for £10 each from Cool components. Both work fine, and appear to me to be made well enuf. Also got a Teensy 3.1 from the same place.. Only got them cuz the small Arduino's are expensive and have fewer I/O's. If I need a full size UNO / Mega, I'll buy Arduino.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

Off Topic, but here's a video of my completed RC Car Lighting System. ... Enjoy.. Luv Chrisie. . xx

I was suprised at the readings I got from the Rx.. Not quite the 1000 to 2000 ms range i was expecting It could be, probably is, due to small timing errors within the Arduino/code, but the PWM values were not as accurate as I thougt they would be on a modern 2.4G radio, altho they were consistant, time after time.. I got the following values on a Dx6i with Ar600. Fresh new model memory n bind. Default settings - trims centre, 100% travel, no D/R or expo Channel Low Centre High Throttle 1065 1410 1910 Rudder 1135 1470 1905 Elevator 1087 1505 1910 Aileron 1085 1485 1885 Not too far off expected, but any code using it, needs to be 'fine tuned'. Those are the Raw input values, but i'm remapping them to 255 and averaging the last 3 reads within the code.. Are these similar to your timings..? Luv Chrisie.. xx

PicAxe is a PIC programmer isnt it..? Or is it the language too..? I have to be honest and give PICs their due, as an ex programmer, I dismissed the 4gl languages and decided asm was the best way. Showing off i suppose, but in reality it just made it more difficult .. By using a 4gl you can bypass all the fiddly timing issues and let the background code sort it out.. I appreciate the Arduino is just a PIC on a pre-made board, but it does make a huge difference in RnD time. The Libraries make stuff too easy. No checking stack overflows, moving data thru W all the time, carry flags, etc, just ' do that ' and it does.. Maybe i'm getting lazy in my old age, but i'm loving it... Next question is, what to use it for next.. I'm not interested in ethernet, and all that comms stuff, but the touchscreen LCDs are tempting.. Maybe a 3axis gyro in the Landy (or plane) that displays the angle of the vehicle on a screen attached to the Tx. Like the inclinometer fitted to Shoguns, with warnings when tip angle close..?! Its like theres so much stuff you can do with it, you cant see the wood for the trees.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

Never.. Only severe crashes and Muppets on YouTube.. If you use the correct charger, set to the `correct` battery type, balance ( I balance charge EVERY charge ) , and don`t over discharge, you won`t have any problems. As an old Electronic`s engineer, who`s melted many a Jnr hacksaw blade with a Yuasa / car batt, lost count of the mains and car HT shocks recieved, and even took a belt off a 415v 3ph lathe and lived to tell, I respect electricity, and hence Lipo`s, large n small Luv Chrisie.. xx

Hi Guys.. This Arduino is almost annoyingly good.. Annoyingly, because i`ve achieved more in a week, than 5 years faffing with PICs.. I did get the PIC working enuf to get navs on my heli, with beacon, double and triple strobes. No inputs, just run sequence.. Well I replicated thats on breadboard in 4 hours. That included wiring it up and coding from scratch (to test my new skills). And I only got 2 compo errors, one missing semi-colon and a wiggly bracket pointing the wrong way. Excellent.. 2 hours after that I had a fully working button that cycles thru a flash sequence for the two strobes, Single & Off, Single & Single, Single & Double, etc, upto Triple & Triple.. 30 mins after that, I was storing the selected sequence to EEprom, so it will continue after reboot.. All dreams on a PIC.. This week i`m doing `Landy Lites` for my RC Landy, with it`s recently converted Dx6. Reads the 4 primary channels Flicking the Elevator down n back to centre, cycles Sidelights, Dipped, Side, Off Flicking Elev Up, If on Dipped beam, toggles mainbeam and spotlights On/Off OR, if dipped beam not on, it flashes Mainbeam n spots twice Oh, and the headlights have a `HID` startup, with that flicker n fade in thing they do Rudder is Indicator stalk and triggers appropriate indicators, which self cancel once the steering has moved in the indicator direction then returned to centre. If Elevator held high when left indicator triggered, hazard lights activate until toggled off. All that is working now, with a spare AR600 and breadboard. Tomorrow i`ll add the Brake and reverse light code. The serial monitor has been very useful to fine tune the code around the actual Rx PWM values. The planes and the Landy already have the LEDs mounted, but I dont intend sending the `big` UNO to the sky / muddy 4x4 bog, so I ordered 2 `A star` micro boards, and a `Teensy 3.1` today. I just have to build a transistor`ed vero board (all high power LEDs ) to mount the Micro`s, a few header pins, and i`m sorted If anyone wants a copy of my code, just ask. I`m an old programmer, but very new to this..   Luv Chrisie.. xx Edited By Cyclicscooby on 02/07/2014 04:03:05

Sorry to hear that Avtur.. I push my luck with my UMX Carbon Cub, sending it to great height, so it can float back down, but I guess the 2S makes that difference.. Regards Loc8tor, I use them on my cats.. Not an ace range, but if you know rough direction.... Gonna replace it, or get a UMX CC, to match your Sport Cub... It has flaps, so will appear to glide, a little bit like a radion.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

LOL... pfft.. I got one this afty.. I want a mini/micro for the planes, at £10 each, only twice a PIC, but for ease of trial messing about, I got an UNO for £25 from Maplin.. Compared to the PICs, where you have to source and research project parts ( i.e. Gps, accelerometers, etc ) the Arduino is all done for you... 10 years ago I would appreciate the challenge, but for its simplicity, and potential time from idea to complete project, its unbeatable... I just got it all setup on my old laptop, rebooted laptop, picked up tablet, and found an app thats a complete IDE on my tab.. BONUS... So I messed about with that instead, now its 2am, and i still haven't got round to actually plugging it in, on either pc or tab, to see 'Blink' in action... Luv Chrisie.. xx

Judging by the velcro, on the still pic of the quad, at the beginning of the vid, i'd say no head tracking, which makes it more impressive.. Dare I ask, for fear of backlash, but with your experience, what power output are you using / would suggest for clear, glitch free video, at say 1km.. I only ask, cuz I once had a cheapy ebay wireless cam, which I mounted on my heli (purely for a feed, not fpv) but 20ft, facing away, it was dead, ditto on an rc car.. barely 2 rooms.. On the otherhand, there are uk legal mW Tx's and megaW US versions, clearly not legal here.. !? Bit boggling. Dont want a glitchy waste of money, but wanna stay safe n legal.. Luv Chrisie.. xx Edited By Cyclicscooby on 20/06/2014 01:44:44

Cheers Phil.. Sounds like it's worth a bash then.. I used to be a programmer, Cobol on a MF, then on Unix.. Learnt asm on an EMMA at college, and hated it at the time, but when I re-started, for pleasure, I thought BASIC was cheating, and the 'proper' way was asm.. Love the PIC, and its ease of use, but as mentioned, my Velleman board is doing my head in... I might invest in a new USB board, but, as you said, Arduino n Pi are the new big thing.. Maplin have reduced their PICs to just 2..! Fortunately one is the 628 I use, but it's only a matter of time... I've never really got my Rx PWM reading quite right on the PIC, but having looked at some 'sketches' online, it appears to be a couple of lines now..! I like the tiny nano boards, but think I'll start with a normal one, to make fiddling easier.. Just found out I'm not working today, so will see if Maplin have stock... Thanks alot Phil, much appreciated, especially from someone with your background.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

That was amazing.. Probabley the best FPV i've seen... ! You must really REALLY know the size of your machine, the way you weave it thru the branches.. WOW.. !! Im not a fan of quads, purely cuz I like scale, but as a camera ship, nothing beats them.. So smooth too.. What fpv gear are you using.? Is that the footage you see, or onboard sd..? Cuz it was also very good. Not a glitch.. Got a right lick on too. As fast as my copter.. Worth a bump, cuz obviously everyone else missed it... Luv Chrisie.. xx

​​I saw this recently, in Maplin, but had already 'treated' myself to a new Tx n plane, so will have to wait before I indulge my urge to get one.. **LINK** Its essentially a handheld 3D printer head. You feed ABS or PLA rods in one end, and draw with the other.. I asked about it in store and was shown one in the box. Its very light and not as big as the pictures make out. I don't know what difference the two types of plastic make, but theres a switch on the device to swap between them ( changes the temperature ) You can also speed up / slow down the delivery via the up/down arrow buttons.. I was thinking, you could create an anti-rib in wood ( route a rib shape into a sheet ) and use it as a template to make plastic ribs.. If the plastic is strong unuf, you could create very light thin ribs with just a zig-zag inner (thats the technical name) like big n real ones.. Thats all i've come up with so far, what uses can you think of.? Luv Chrisie.. xx

Hi Guys.. Has / does anyone use the Arduino..? For anything, not just RC.. I've been dabbling with PIC processors for a few years now, with limited success. The only programmer board I found was the Maplin one, but its a serial interface. So, it's running thru a PCMCIA serial adapter, on my ancient laptop (P4 1.8g), which I believe is the issue.. It only burns properly about 1 in 10 times and doesn't correctly identify the chip.. I'm fed up messing about with IRQs, baud rates, etc, so wandered if the Arduino would suit my needs..? My needs are simple.. Flash LED's, PWM'ed, multiplexed if required, and servo read n write.. I appreciate the Arduino is capable of far more, but i'm fed up with the PIC programmer.. Any experience.. ? Luv Chrisie.. xx

Cool.. That's a big puppy for what's essentially a foamie.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

How about brakes, like the real one, but with a gryo to reduce the brakes, when it tips too far farward...? I know why model STOLs dont have / use brakes, cuz it'd just end in broken nosed over prop after another, but if a gyro could be introduced to assist..?! I just thought of that...! Luv Chrisie.. xx

Thanks guys.. Totally agree avtur.. For a fixed ground based camera, it's a must.. I edited out 4mins of rain n sky.. Oh and a full flap approach, which made her drop toward the bank at an alarming rate, miles from the strip, so i removed that to make me lok better than I am.. As for the last landing, it was either a sharp two wheel turn, or CZC would have met HTC.. But lets say I meant to stop 2 feet from my phone...  Luv Chrisie.. xx Edited By Cyclicscooby on 10/06/2014 04:55:27

Hi guys... I've managed to edit the vid of my 3rd CarbonZ Cub flight to just landing n takeoff.. The First landing is Sweeet.. If I do say so myself.. The tail couldn't touch softer.. The third slightly misses the runway, cuz i'd walked to the end and lost reference.. The last is showing off, and ACE.. All landings are done on stg1 flaps.. Stg2 is scary and needs more experience before I broadcast it.. Wind is 12mph crosswind from bottom left of frame towards centre... Luv Chrisie.. xx

Posted by David Ashby - RCME on 01/06/2014 06:29:07: then back for tea and medals LOL...

Hi Ben... Welcome to the forum.. If you have any questions, no matter how daft you think they might sound, do ask.. We're here to help..and mostly be helped.. Luv Chrisie.. xx

Bump... Any news Avtur..? Love to hear how you get / got on... Luv Chrisie.. xx